Distinction Without A Difference

Smoke, mirrors, and the fog of (pseudo) war

Posted on June 3, 2023June 3, 2023 by Mike 5 Comments

I wish I could argue with TL on this, any of it. Alas, I cannot.

We find ourselves under more tyrannical oppression than at the time of the Revolutionary War. I’d say that we’re under more oppression than the Soviet population during Stalin. American citizens don’t readily recognize it, because a lot of it’s going on in the background. Whereas Stalin had to send troops to a person’s door, the federal government comes right in, taps into SMART phones, refrigerators, electric meters, Wi-Fi connections and home speakers, which are actually microphones. This is equivalent to having British troops quartering with every family in America and the British didn’t even do that. Instead they recognized people for their opinions toward independence or resistance and quartered troops in their homes. Now, the Feds invade every home, every phone, everything posted or even written on Wi-Fi connected computers, like this one.

Free speech is dead, though many continue to verbalize their opinions, they’re forced to recognize the possible consequences. The wrong words can lead to unemployment and increasingly, with ESG and DEI, outcast, literally exiled from public interactions. It worked during the pandemic and that set up the model for the future of government interactions with the serfs, aided wholeheartedly by compromised corporations, who eagerly sign on to these discriminatory measures in order to receive government grants and positive representations in their increasingly hostile regulatory environment.

Like many readers, I knew somehow McCarthy would cave. I thought that fear of losing the Speaker of the House role through a motion to vacate the chair would deter him from making it too bad, but my understanding is that not only did he give Biden everything he could have wanted from the debt deal, he also agreed to align openly as the uniparty by requesting Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat Leader, to join him in passing the deal in the House where more Democrats voted for it than Republicans. For those 73 Republicans who voted no, well I’d say good job, but that’s the only thing they were sent there to do and they did it. I hate telling someone “good job” for doing what is expected. I usually save that for someone who outperforms.

People like Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene surprisingly voted for the bill. Intellectually, I know they did so for assurances that they would be able to expose the January 6th videos or to be able to bring impeachment charges to the floor for several members of the Biden Administration, but Steve Bannon made a good point when he acknowledged that if they voted for the debt limit increase bill, they don’t have the stomach to fully prosecute anything else; they won’t be able to hold the DOJ or FBI accountable, because they gave away the purse strings to Biden and Jeffries.

When it comes to vacating the chair, McCarthy doesn’t have to worry. Sure, some Republican will call that to a vote, but now we know that a significant part of the Democrats in Congress will vote to retain him. What would be interesting is if they betrayed him on that promise and got enough RINOs to go along and they elected Hakeem Jeffries Speaker of the House in a Republican congress. While that would destroy the purpose of having a majority in the House, who cares at this point when the people have been so thoroughly betrayed?

Not me, for one. God, how I would LOVE to see ’em do precisely that. At that point, even the pretense of a sham of a Kabuki of a fraud would be well and truly finished, beyond any possibility of further debate—even on the part of the most adamant “but muh DEMUHCRACY!!” reality-denialist.

Not just Republicans, either. The House bill that McCarthy went into negotiations with was supported by 75% of the people, including Democrats and Independents. If this were a vaunted “democracy” as they claim, they just proved that it’s not even that.

Most of what is going on in our country is illegal, unethical, or in violation of some operating principle. You just have to find your niche and dig into it. If enough of us who feel betrayed and daily insulted by the woke/DEI/green agenda would do that we would find some means of pushing back that would be effective and could be repeated.

There’s always a workaround, and humans will always find it eventually. It’s bringing enough of them around to wanting to, to finally admitting to themselves that they really need to, that’s tough.

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Another GOPe “win”

Posted on May 29, 2023May 29, 2023 by Mike 3 Comments

Doesn’t even rise to the customary level of a Pyrrhic victory, so they’ve really outdone themselves this time.

McCarthy’s debt-ceiling deal with Biden comes up short on his vow to rein in IRS
Kevin McCarthy trumpeted a debt-ceiling deal Sunday, but increasing debt another $4 trillion with minimal concessions is nothing to boast about.

To be fair, the House speaker has a razor slim majority and Republicans don’t control the Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his sidekick Lindsey Graham have announced that the only thing they care about is Ukraine.

But McCarthy’s one dealbreaker should have been his promise to defund President Biden’s massive $80 billion to turbocharge an already weaponized IRS.

This was the totemic centerpiece of his pitch to become speaker.

It was the most memorable promise of the Republicans’ midterm campaign to win back the House.

It struck a chord with voters, wary of funding a new “army” of armed IRS agents to harass middle-class families and small business owners and abuse their powers to target political dissidents, Soviet-style.

“Our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 new IRS agents,” McCarthy vowed.

“You see, we believe government should be to help you, not go after you.”

Actually, Kev, it’s my own belief that the government should just stick to its Constitutionally-prescribed remit, which consists entirely of:

Securing the national borders
Providing for the common defense
Regulating interstate commerce
And otherwise just leaving me the fuck alone, forget about all that “helping” bushwa

But that’s probably just me, I do admit. Anyhoo, guess what happened next. Go on, guess. I DARES ya.

“Promises made,” the newly minted speaker said Jan. 9, banging the gavel on the first bill of the Republican-controlled House.

What about promises kept?

In the debt-ceiling deal outlined Sunday and due to be inked later this week, McCarthy has allowed the lion’s share of that extra IRS funding to remain unmolested: preserving $78.1 billion of the $80 billion.

As rebel GOP Rep Dan Bishop put it: “So there will be 85,260 more IRS agents rather than 87,000 to eat you alive. Big win.”

A-yup, that’s about the size of it. Perfectly typical of the in-cahoots Vichy GOPe swine, though.

Overpromising and underdelivering is what turns voters off the GOP.

True enough, I suppose. What it also does, though, is expose beyond possibility of further debate just who exactly they really are, and what exactly it is they’re really doing.

You don’t mount a powerful six-month fear campaign about 87,000 new, armed IRS agents ready to break down people’s doors, and then meekly capitulate at the first sign of resistance.

Even if those fears were exaggerated, your credibility rests on delivering a lot more than 2% of what you promised.

Ahh, but that statement assumes some things that are decidedly NOT in evidence with the Vichy GOPe swine: one, that they have at least some integrity, and two, that they give a tinker’s damn about any perception of “credibillity” among an electorate that they assume won’t be paying attention to what they’re doing in the first place. Just, y’know, to name two of ‘em.

Much more yet to this fine if somewhat bitter-tasting article, of which you should read the all.

(Via Sefton)

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DeSantis’ popularity cratering among FLA Repugnicunts

Posted on April 16, 2023April 16, 2023 by Mike

Says “several”anonymous GOPe legislators, one anonymous lobbyist, and…a FLA Senate D卐M☭CRAT.

Florida Republican Lawmakers ‘Frustrated’ With DeSantis
Everything in the 2023 legislative session is going as Gov. Ron DeSantis has planned, as the Republican-led legislature is solely pushing through the Governor’s agenda prior to his announcement that he will run for President in 2024.

As we stated before, this is DeSantis’s world and lobbyists, lawmakers, media reporters, and state employees are just living in it.

But just as supporters of Gov.DeSantis’s soon-to-be-announced presidential campaign

Which, despite having been touted as “soon-to-be-announced” for many months now, still hasn’t been, I can’t help but notice.

continue to promote his accomplishments of the past four years, more and more DeSantis-friendly supporters, who have to work with the Florida Legislature, and lawmakers themselves, are starting to expose what could be a chink in the Governor’s armor—his alleged lack of loyalty and selfish legislative agenda.

According to several Republican lawmakers, DeSantis’s push to get his entire agenda passed through the legislature has left the caucus “exhausted” and “frustrated,” echoing the growing sentiment of lobbyists that DeSantis’s specific agenda has allegedly left many issues on the table, not to be heard because they did not conform with his overall agenda.

How unfair, having to buckle down and, y’know, do your fucking jobs. That sound you may be hearing is me playing “Hearts and Flowers” on the world’s tiniest violin, to express my sympathy for your suffering such an awful injustice under this thuggish DeSantis despot.

All of the Republican lawmakers spoke to The Floridian on the basis of anonymity for fear of retribution by the Governor and/or his executive office, but State Senator Jason Pizzo (D!!!) gave a very candid take on the growing concerns within Republican circles.

“It’s all about DeSantis. This place is run by his iron fist,” said Lobbyist X. ” And Didn’t we just elect him to govern for four more years?”

A very “colorful” Pizzo then pivoted his frustration for DeSantis to the state budget, where he claims he “successfully sued DeSantis on the budget, saying that the DeSantis Administration in the “midnight hour” created new policy on immigration.

“Where the f-ck are they? But where are they? You couldn’t find 49 people somewhere in Florida. And while yours and my property insurance is f0-cking exploding, we have $12 million to go blow for private jets,” questioned Pizzo. We don’t fly military vets in private jets from the state of Florida coming back from deployment, but it continues.”

Pizzo is referring to the $12 million dollars allocated in the Florida budget to transport illegal immigrants, and the aforementioned 49 illegals who were flown from the Texas border to Martha’s Vineyard. When he filed the complaint, which was dismissed on technicalities, Florida had already spent $1.56 million on the flights.

Cry me a river, little open-borders D卐M☭CRAT bitch. Then go take yourself a flying fuck at a plate glass window, you and all the rest of your fellow whining, over-entitled ProPol remoras. Shipping a planeload of border-jumping wetbacks to the very heart of Rich Shitlib Playground so as to acquaint the snobbish robber-barons who disport themselves thereabouts with the harsh realities of the policies they so stridently pimp was a genius move, the very epitome of poetic justice.

Admittedly, Ron DeSantis may yet turn out to not be the All-That-And-A-Hot-Fudge-Sundae his more rabid supporters purport him to be; we’re a long way from any final verdict being reached on that one. But crying in your craft beer about his upsetting of the Uniparty applecart to pursue his own agenda probably isn’t a very effective means of rallying Real Americans to your cause, I’m thinking. The people of Florida recently re-elected him—overwhelmingly—to do exactly that, after all.

What’s to like, really?

Posted on April 4, 2023 by Mike

Life in the nascent Woke dystopia they’re building for us.

Will you like what’s coming?
At the rate things are going, we’d better start preparing for life under perpetual Democrat or Uniparty governance. Hare are just a few points to ponder about what that life might be like. Feel free to share with Woke family and friends.

Do you like the dark, i.e. living in the dark and carrying flashlights and candles after the sun goes down? You’d better because there will be lots of opportunity once Uniparty-induced brownouts and blackouts take hold because of our power grid’s inability to supply dependable power as the war on fossil fuels takes hold. Exaggerated? Read about California in the last 20 years.

Do you like extreme heat in your house in the summer? See above. Beware of living in the Southeast. This is how the Uniparty will play nasty against its most geographically identifiable opposition. Get screens for your windows. NOW.

Do you like extreme cold in your house in the winter? See above. By the way, don’t depend on firewood. They’ll ban it. CO2, you know.

Do you like to save money for your future and your family’s? Do you realize how very selfish that is? Do you have a preferred bank or stock market in mind that may not be subject to the Winds of Wokism, and its ensuant incompetence? Will your rate of savings ever exceed the future rate of inflation/money printing?

Do you think you’d rather just buy a hard tangible asset like gold? Do you realize that your government once outlawed gold ownership 100 years ago, forcing even average citizens to hand it over?

Do you like to eat? Do you like your kids to eat, and not have malnutrition? Guess what our country has depended on for over a century to bring its crops to market? (Hint: CO2.)

Do you like to see your kids maimed or killed in endless wars? It’s no use saying that won’t happen when the whole world is united by the current blend of fascism/socialism. Read the novel 1984. It’s the best expose ever of endless, revolving war.

Do you like living in a house with a backyard for your kids to play in? Did you ever read about the Obama administration’s plans for future American housing? It’s already being put in place in California.

Plenty more at the link, all of it depressing as hell, all of it fully supported by the historical record. And then, as so often happens, it fizzles out at the very end.

Depending on how you answered these questions, you’ll know whether you’re ready to live in the Democrats’ brave new world or if you’re willing to go to the polls in the first half of 2024 to vote for the best Republican candidate in the primaries, and then to show up at the polls again in November, even if your candidate didn’t win, to slow the seemingly inevitable Democrat tide.

Uh huh. You just go right on telling yourself that Voting Harderer!™ at them will suffice to head off what’s coming at us. As if the Demican/Republicrat Uniparty goons give a moist fart what you think about their plans for you, or how you might “vote” in the next rigged fortified “election.” This, mind, after previously including this telling item:

Do you feel voting is good, and that your vote is meaningful? Have you read about the election of 2020? Do you know who Katie Hobbs or John Fetterman are?

And is there any evidence whatsoever to suggest that anything has changed since then? Or since the 2022 “election,” for that matter?

Thou fool. Pathetic, truly pathetic.

Wish in one hand

Posted on March 16, 2023 by Mike

Shit in the other. You know the rest of it.

Majority of Voters Want Buttigieg to Resign

A Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday found that most American voters want Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to resign after the East Palestine, Ohio disaster. Buttigieg received criticism after telling a reporter he was on ‘personal time’ when asked when he would visit East Palestine. The Biden official eventually visited East Palestine, Ohio, albeit one day after former President Donald Trump.

51 percent of registered voters answered yes when asked, “Should Buttigieg resign as a result of how the Transportation Department handled the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio?”

The Rasmussen Reports poll data showed 68 percent of Republicans, 51 percent of Independents, and 35 percent of Democrats believe that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg should resign due to his handling of the East Palestine Ohio Train derailment.

In response to the poll, Congresswomen Lauren Boebert (R-CO) endorsed the sentiment in a tweet. “51% of Americans want Pete Buttigieg to resign from his position as Transportation Secretary. Proud to be cosponsoring a resolution calling for exactly that. Pete’s incompetence & disregard for the American people has no place in our government,” Boebert wrote.

“No place”? In OUR government? With all due respect, you must be joking, ma’am. Incompetence and disregard for We Duh Peepul is the very bones and sinew of FederalGovCo—it’s what the goobermint is, what it does. Nowadays, those things amount to a de facto job requirement, really.

Maybe Ms Boebert has her heart in the right place with this toothless, ineffectual resolution, I couldn’t say. Maybe not. But if she sincerely expects it to amount to anything more than the usual DC smoke-and-mirrors dumbshow, much ado about nothing whatsoever, then she’s delusional, and is about to be extremely disappointed with the results she gets: zip, zero, nada, a big fat stinking zero.

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Hot gas eructation

Posted on March 16, 2023March 16, 2023 by Mike

Tucker sets war-happy chickenhawk Miss Lindsey Graham straight on some things.

Tucker Carlson Rips Lindsey Graham’s Suggestion To ‘Attack’ Russian Jets That Threaten US Assets

Fox News host Tucker Carlson called out Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s response to the downing of a U.S. drone over the Black Sea.

“What would Ronald Reagan do? Oh, good question, Senator Graham,” Carlson, a co-founder of the Daily Caller News Foundation said after playing a clip of the senator demanding that Russian jets be shot down. “Ronald Reagan’s two-term presidency was notable for the fact that he did not declare war on the Russian air force and therefore the United States did not go to war with Russia and millions of lives were saved as a result. That’s not a small thing.”

A Russian jet collided with an Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone Tuesday following a series of maneuvers, including dumping jet fuel on the drone. The drone crashed into the Black Sea, where Biden administration officials said measures were taken to “minimize” Russia’s ability to exploit the drone if it were to be recovered.

Graham said Tuesday that the U.S. should shoot down any Russian warplane that threatens American assets, Newsweek reported. “If you ever get near another U.S. asset flying in international waters, your airplane will be shot down,” he said.

“Lindsey Graham is telling us we have to attack the Russian air force. Why now? Well, let’s see. On Monday there was a major development in the 2024 presidential race. We sent questions to likely Republican candidates and asked them where they stood on the war in Ukraine,” Carlson said, referencing questions he sent to a number of candidates and potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.

“We fully expected that most of them would agree with Lindsey Graham and virtually every office holder in Washington, D.C.,” Carlson continued. “But, no, that’s not what happened. In fact, the opposite happened. Virtually, without exception, every Republican potential hopeful from Donald Trump, long on the record, to Ron DeSantis, to Greg Abbott, Kristi Noem, Vivek Ramaswamy and others have turned against the idea of a hot war with Russia.”

Carlson noted that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who has not officially declared his candidacy, described the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” between that country and Russia. Carlson also noted that liberal media outlets criticized the Republican candidates and potential candidates for their position.

“How can you defend democracy and push a war that the population doesn’t want? You can’t. So they’re panicking,” Carlson said. “Their response is really interesting. Instead of responding with arguments or reason, convincing Americans that war with Russia will benefit them in some way, they’re just pushing ahead for that war with Russia.”

Graham did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

No, I just bet he didn’t. Then again, I seriously doubt Putin suffers from very many sleepless nights worrying about what the faux-conservative Vichy-GOPe blowhard might have to say about much of anything, really. Graham has always been all hat, no cattle, expelling enough hot air to fog every window in the Pentagon on a regular basis ever since he took up his lifetime sinecure in Mordor On The Potomac. And then there’s this:

Seven Republican Senators voted on Wednesday to confirm Eric Garcetti, President Joe Biden’s nominee for ambassador to India and former Los Angeles mayor, despite his ties to individuals belonging to alleged Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence front groups.

Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Steve Daines of Montana, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Roger Marshall of Kansas and Todd Young of Indiana voted to confirm Garcetti following a delay of over 20 months arising from allegations that, while in office, he helped cover up sexual assaults committed by his former aide, Rick Jacobs. The confirmation vote, 52-42, also comes just days after the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed that a mayoral fund set up by Garcetti accepted over $1 million in donations from individuals who belong to alleged CCP influence and intelligence fronts.

“We need an ambassador to India,” Graham told the DCNF.

Oh, very badly we do—so very badly that hey, why not a goddamned CCP spy-adjacent plant then, eh, Miss Graham?

What a useless fucking jackwagon.

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Clarifying counterbattery

Posted on March 9, 2023March 10, 2023 by Mike

Tucker fires back at his maleficent Deep State detractors.

TUCKER CARLSON: We knew there was a reason leaders hid the January 6 tapes

One of the hallmarks of people who are telling the truth, in case you were wondering how to tell the difference, is that people who are telling the truth are calm. (They) don’t wave their hands around and make wild accusations. They don’t need to do that. It’s enough to say what they know and if honest people turn out to be wrong about something they have claimed, they’ll admit it. They don’t double down on false. They made a mistake and that’s okay. It’s not like they’re claiming to be God.

Liars behave differently. Liars are touchy, sometimes to the point of hysteria. They’re hiding something. That’s the whole point of lying and they’re worried you’re going to find out what it is. Liars are fragile because over time, lying makes you weak and afraid and has the same effect on countries by the way.

We’re living through one of those clarifying moments. Actually, we’re thankful for it, where we’re learning exactly who the liars are. On Monday, we showed you unreleased videotape from January 6. It proved, that tape proved, that three of the most important claims our leaders have made about that day were untrue. Their claims were lies. We were not shocked to discover that. We knew there was a reason that congressional leaders had been hiding the tape and that reporters in Washington weren’t demanding to see it. They were lying to us, obviously. That’s why you hide things.

But what was actually surprising, what we can’t quite get over even now, is how they responded when they were caught lying. They didn’t seem embarrassed. They didn’t apologize. They weren’t even curious to learn more about what actually happened on January 6. Let’s see the tape. No, they don’t want to see it. They exploded in rage. And then as liars tend to do, they doubled down.

They told the same lies they’d been caught telling, but with even greater aggression this time. Shut up. It’s midnight, they said, as the sun rose behind them. Who acts like that? Well, sociopaths do and in this case, the sociopaths turned out to be both Democrats and Republicans. The commitment to lying in Washington is far deeper and more bipartisan even than we realize, and we follow this stuff for a living.

Well, sure. Of COURSE they did. I mean, what else would they do? This is who they are, this is what they do.

Now, you sometimes hear people say that the whole partisan system is an illusion and that underneath the manufactured debates, the leaders on both sides are, in fact, secretly united in a common love of money and power and the deception required to get them. And honestly, we can never really bring ourselves to believe that. It’s just too dark. But now we do believe it because we have seen it.

And now—thanks to you, Tucker, and a dogged determination in pursuit of the truth that does credit to the values falsely proclaimed by pretty much everyone else in your fallen, badly-degraded profession—many, many more of us all across the nation have been forced to confront that raw, bruising truth themselves. No small thing, that.

And yet, here’s the thing: Leaders in both parties, the party that (“QAnon shaman” Jake) Chansley voted against and the party he voted for, have said nothing, not one word about the implications of this videotape, the implications not just for Chansley, but for our Constitution and our country going forward.

Instead, oh, how dare you show this? What is clearly exculpatory evidence! Again, it’s not just Chuck Schumer, it’s Republican senators Kevin Cramer, Mike Rounds, Chuck Grassley, John Thune, Lindsey Graham, of course, Congressman Dan Crenshaw, needless to say, Kelly Armstrong, all went after us. We’re not whining about that. We don’t care, actually, but it just tells you everything about the way things actually work. They’re not loyal to their voters. They are loyal to each other, and they’re willing to lie, really lie and crush people. Mitch McConnell, Thom Tillis and BLM superfan Mitt Romney, all weak men – and like all weak men, vicious men – were especially angry.

We invited Schumer on, McConnell, anybody is always welcome to come on our show. If we got something wrong, tell us how. If you think we altered the tape in some way, tell us how.

But they won’t, nor will they answer the most basic question, which is: why should a non, demonstrably nonviolent man, who literally said a prayer of Thanksgiving for police officers on the Senate floor, how was that man ISIS? How was he a domestic terrorist? How is he a threat to the republic? Why is he in jail for four years? Shut up. Pull that show off the air.

They won’t answer any questions, but we have a question, which is: How, in a free country guided by the Constitution, were these people allowed to withhold evidence from Jacob Chansley’s lawyer? How could that happen?

The answer is simplicity itself: first, “fundamentally transform” said country into one no longer anything remotely resembling “free,” via, among all too many other things, rendering said Constitution entirely impotent and irrelevant—incrementally, over not just years but decades. Once that’s done, the rest will surely follow, as night follows day.

Which is precisely what happened. After what I’ll henceforth be referring to as The Carlson Revelations, none but a co-conspirator, a willful ignoramus, or a straight-up, insensate goddamned fool can plausibly deny it any longer. Not without discrediting themselves—fully and for all time, beyond any hope of reform or redemption—as one or the other of those three things.

Bottom line: the facts are in, the evidence before us clear, comprehensible, and abundant. Unpleasant though they are, further debate about those facts is worse than a waste of time—neither necessary, nor desirable, nor even excusable. Such bootless distractions are now the exclusive province of either the ill-intentioned or the just plain stupid, and nobody whatsoever else.

It’s clobberin’ time.

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A big fuckin’ deal

Posted on March 8, 2023March 8, 2023 by Mike

Tucker must be directly over the target, what with all the flack Establishment fucksticks like Shcrewmer and Mitch the Bitch are sending up trying to take him down.

(House Speaker Kevin) McCarthy seems to have a quaint notion that he should follow an agenda other than the one set by leftist media and other activists. He recently provided journalist Tucker Carlson access to Jan. 6 footage. When it was announced, CNN and other leftist groups got upset. But nothing compares to the angry reaction when Carlson showed some of the footage on his top-ranked Fox News program on Monday night. The program showed footage indicating that the Jan. 6 Committee had falsely conveyed the circumstances of Sen. Josh Hawley’s evacuation from the Capitol, had falsely added audio to clips, had not pursued evidence that mysterious protester Ray Epps had lied about his whereabouts, and had concealed evidence that Jan. 6 protesters who had entered the Capitol were not treated as threats.

The media and other partisans shrieked in horror that this footage was being shown to the American people. It burst through the media-enforced narratives about the day.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took to the Senate floor to call for the censorship of Fox News, where this author is a contributor, and prevention of more footage being made available to Americans. He said Carlson exercising his freedom of the press was a threat to democracy.

As one former White House reporter put it, “It’s frightening to see Senate leaders demand a media company ‘stop’ reporting on the government, police, issues of law and justice.

Frightening indeed. Funny, innit, how this Shcrewmer boll weevil isn’t in the least embarrassed about standing barefaced in the well of the Upper Chamber, pounding the lectern in righteous fury, and demanding that, in order to preserve “democracy”—which, in this country, we AREN’T supposed to have—then SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!!!™ about denying Tucker Carlson’s God-given right to freedom of speech—which we ARE?

As no lesser a light than Thomas Jefferson reputedly forewarned, when the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. Doesn’t take a professionally-trained meteorologist to figure out which way the wind is blowing here, now does it?

Surely this would be an opportunity for the otherwise weak and feckless Senate Republicans to show some backbone, right? Wrong.

Romney said that showing Americans footage from Jan. 6 meant Carlson had gone “off the rails,” and compared him to Alex Jones. He also went after McCarthy for being transparent with the American people. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., took a break from working on an amnesty bill to tell Raju that Carlson showing new footage of the protest that countered the left’s narrative was “bullsh-t.” South Dakota Sens. Mike Rounds and John Thune, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, and North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer also fell for the media campaign against Carlson.

Leading the group was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Raju invited him to bash McCarthy. It’s not saying much, but McConnell was at least smart enough to decline that opportunity. But he did take the opportunity to attack a media outlet for daring to say something different than what a police leader said. Really. He said, “It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that is completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks.”

Republicans, you have a serious problem.

In the middle of the midterm elections, McConnell went out of his way to sabotage candidates and their voters, once again pushing Democrat narratives about “candidate quality.” McConnell, the country’s least popular politician, did nothing to stop Romney from running a shadow campaign against a sitting GOP senator, fellow Utah Sen. Mike Lee. After he led the Republicans in the Senate to a loss, he responded by helping Democrats pass their $1.7 trillion omnibus bill, cheerleading for Biden’s Ukraine war, and campaigning with Joe Biden.

Instead of punishing Romney for his act of sabotage against fellow Republicans, he punished the victim by removing him from a powerful committee. Other Republican senators have also been punished by the famously vindictive and petty McConnell for not supporting his re-election as Republican leader.

Elon Musk, of all people, said it best when he tweeted of McConnell, “I keep forgetting which party he belongs to.”

Easy-peasy, Elon: the Deep State Uniparty, that’s which one. As for the purblind Pollyannas who still cling to the preposterous belief that anything at all is actually as it’s purported to be by TPTB anymore, they’re unlikely to ever figure it out. They’d like you to know, though, that they’re very interested in that beachfront property in Arizona that’s up for sale. The pig in the poke, too. Also, These Magic Beans.

As for the rest of the Shadow State malefactors, they’re quaking in manufactured outrage to mask the fear. Because, thanks to Tucker, everyone knows…ahem.

Caveat update! My post title above asserts that Tucker’s huge scoop is, to quote the finest senile corruptocrat we’ve ever had as “pResident,” a “big fuckin’ deal.” And that, it most certainly is. It has unleashed a political earthquake; Swamp rats can feel the very ground shifting under their feet from it, and they ain’t liking the sensation even a little bit.

While I do see it as a bona-fide game changer in the long run, though, nobody should be expecting these revelations to be the long-awaited Final Straw, the offense that will at last spark outright revolt and resistance against FederalGovCo. It gets us a big step farther along that road, yes, and it will serve to erase any lingering misplaced faith in the good intentions of their central Leviathan-state among Normals—particularly after they’ve been so blatantly, continously lied to over the last several years.

But it isn’t going to move anyone to start putting heads on pikes, taking up the trusty ol’ blunderbuss for a march on Mordor On The Potomac, or lighting up the torches, I don’t think. Yes, it’s a big fuckin’ deal for sure, but let’s not anyone get their hopes up too high quite yet. It’s a long, dark road we’re walking here, too dark and uncertain to be able see the end of it as of right now.

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The Uniparty’s Ukraine obsession

Posted on February 25, 2023February 25, 2023 by Mike

Andrea Widburg has it all figured out. Which only means that, from this day forward, she’d better constantly keep a close check on her six.

The Ukraine War had its first anniversary yesterday. From the get-go, the same leftists who were fanatically anti-war when it came to Iraq and Afghanistan, have been waving the flag for the Ukraine War.

The difference in attitude is understandable if you’re a leftist. Supporting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars required waving the American flag because, even if misguided, they were being fought to benefit America. That’s untenable for the Democrat party. The Ukraine War, however, has at best a dubious benefit for America (more on that in a minute), which means that Democrats get to wave the yellow and blue, instead of the red, white, and blue.

The Democrats’ ideological support for the war is obvious, especially if you throw in the fact that, while completely tolerant of the communist Soviet Union, the Russia hoax has trained them to view Putin’s Russia (a geographically and demographically smaller country than the USSR) as evil incarnate. Forty years after Reagan’s famous anti-communist speech, leftists have finally decided that there’s an “Evil Empire” out there.

But why are the Republicans also on board?

My theory is that, for everyone in D.C., Republicans included, it’s easier and more fun to sing hosannas to Ukraine and write open-ended checks than it is to govern their own struggling country. And cynically, I suspect (admittedly, without proof) that some of them are profiting from those efforts.

The American people, however, are much less happy with what’s taking place in Ukraine. Many have figured out that (a) Ukraine is a deeply corrupt country; (b) Russia is a deeply corrupt country; (c) the NATO countries we’re supposed to be protecting aren’t pulling their weight; (d) China and Russia are now making common cause which is disastrous for America; (e) the war is a bottomless money pit for our money; and (f) the war is inching us towards a nuclear conflict. No wonder, then, that Americans are increasingly unhappy with D.C.’s Ukraine obsessions.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky knows what’s happening, so he used a press conference yesterday to thank his American supporters and scold the rest of us. Regarding those thanks, Zelensky knows exactly who in America is propping him up:

I would like to thank the American people. I would like to thank all of the American people who are supporting Ukraine. The Congress, the president, the TV channels, the journalists, and everyone that has been supporting us. (Emphasis mine.)

As for the rest of us, those who fail to appreciate Ukraine’s central importance, Zelensky threatened us:

And that percentage of Americans as you’ve mentioned is increasing, I can tell them only one thing: If they do not change their opinion, if they do not understand us, if they do not support Ukraine, they will lose NATO, they will lose the clout of the United States, they will lose the leadership position that they enjoy in the world, that they enjoy in the world. That they enjoy for a very fair reason.

The arrogance of it all! We don’t need Ukraine to “lose the clout of the United States” and “lose the leadership position that [we’ve] enjoy in the world.” Thanks to Biden’s control over the White House, we’re achieving those unhappy goals just fine without Ukraine. Indeed, it’s likely that the Ukraine war, by empowering China and impoverishing America, is merely more icing on that dismal cake.

Which, one begins to suspect, could well have been the point of this whole farcical exercise all along.

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RINOs not RINOs

Posted on February 25, 2023February 25, 2023 by Mike

“Our sacred democracy” is…neither.

Keep in mind who essentially founded the Republican Party and was its first president. That would be Abraham Lincoln. He loved war, especially when waged to put an end to “democracy.”

Unless, of course, you are a typical Republican – who believes the South had no right to depart from the “union.” No right to form a government of its people, by its people and for its people.

Spare us, please, the cant about “slavery.” Lincoln and his Republicans enslaved us all. What do you own, exactly? Is it your home? The one you must pay the government forever in order to be allowed to continue living in it? Your car? Which you must also pay the government in order to be allowed to use? On roads you must also obtain the government’s permission to use? Can you open a business – or do business – without the permission of your massa?

Lincoln waged war upon democracy without mercy, against civilians explicitly, sending the mid-19th century equivalents of SS-Obergruppenfuhrers marching into the South to literally scorch the earth, so as to teach the recalcitrant Southerners all about “democracy.” The same kind of “democracy” that the same blue-suited Obergruppenfuhrers – Sherman and Sheridan and Custer – brought to the Indians of the American plains, after they were done with the South. The same “democracy” that Biden – and Graham – seek to further in eastern Europe.

In everywhere.

For there is nowhere on this Earth that is to be left free to decide its own course. The only course is that of modern American “democracy,” which is a philosophy both the Left and the Republican “right” agree upon. It is a philosophy that says Our Way is the only way and if you do not like it, tough. And if you resist, we will destroy you.

Even if it means destroying the world, for their world is one of unassailable power that, if lost, costs them everything. And that is why they are willing to make sure no cost is spared to preserve it – and that all of us pay it.

The take-home point here is that Republicans such as Lindsey Graham are not Republicans in Name Only (RINOs). They are the most authentic and faithful Republicans. The truest expositors of the philosophy imposed at bayonet-point upon the United States (North as well as South) that “democracy shall not perish from this Earth.”

That’s why some of us refer to it as the Uniparty—and why we really could use a true second party alternative to it.

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Public opinion matters

Posted on February 22, 2023 by Mike

Except, y’know, when it doesn’t. Which, nowadays, is most if not all of the time.

Even the most cynical among us still thinks that the people in charge worry about public opinion. They may have ways to fortify democracy against the voters, but they still worry about the voters. After all, no democracy can be completely fortified.

The reality is, they probably do not care at all. The people controlling the politicians certainly do not care. The unanimity of opinion among this group is why the two parties are barely distinguishable from one another. What is the main different between Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer? The people who animate the politicians have their aqendas and they do not care about public opinion. Most people get that, but they still think the pols care and they need to care.

The trouble is, there is no evidence of this. For example, it was rather obvious that the Republican Party threw the 2018 midterm to spite Trump and his voters. They could do this knowing that they would not suffer in any meaningful way. Sure, some back benchers in the party would have to transition into lobbying jobs or (gasp!) the dreaded private sector, but 90% of the caucus would do just fine. In fact, the bosses could expect to be rewarded for throwing the fight.

The last midterm was a similar display of indifference. If the parties really cared about the result, they would have pulled out all the stops. On the Democrat side, it was a chance to prove those election deniers were wrong. Joe Biden really was the most popular man in history. On the other side, the Republicans could have got their red wave of rebuke. Instead, both sides worked to make sure none of the populists got the support they needed to beat a system candidate.

The fact is, the political system in America reached a point where elections make no difference to the system. Over 95% of incumbents win reelection and those who lose land in cushy jobs. John Boehner now makes seven figures selling weed, after a disastrous run as Speaker. Paul Ryan makes seven figures sitting around one of the banks, making calls to Washington on behalf of the bankers. When the losers get rich the winners do not fear losing.

In the bigger picture, even a wave election does little to change the makeup of the political parties in Washington. If forty House seats change hands in a wave election, it means close to 400 remain safe. Look at the last twenty years and you see that maybe 60 Congressional districts can be competitive. Most years only about twenty seats are genuinely up for grabs. American Congressional elections are ceremonial. It is a big expensive show that means nothing.

What appears to have happened over the last thirty years is the political class has internalized this reality and they no longer care about elections. The contempt we see is not so much about public opinion, but about the lingering need to keep up appearances with regards to elections and public opinion. The leaders of both parties are increasingly irritated that they have to pretend to care about your opinion. They have better things to do than take questions from the slobs.

This reality is hard for Americans to accept. Central to the American identity is the invincibility of the marketplace. The “go woke, go broke” business reflects the enduring belief that public opinion matters. The fact that none of the woke are going broke does nothing to alter this belief. Something similar is in play with elections. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, people still cling to the idea that public opinion not only matters, but it matters to the politicians.

Even people on this side of the divide cling to this belief. The concept of the psy-op rests on the idea that the people in charge care about public opinion. In reality, the secret police just like their work. The same can be said for the busy bodies that police the internet for bad think. They are not shaping public opinion. They simply enjoy playing hall monitor. Contempt for the public and public opinion is now the coin of the realm in the ruling class.

He’s right, and deep down, in the places we don’t talk about at parties, we all know he is. One of ZMan’s very best yet, if you ask me.

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Dear Vichy GOPe swine

Posted on January 10, 2023January 10, 2023 by Mike

It’s not us. It’s YOU.

In what may be the most misleading narrative not originating with a leftist source about House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s recent trials National Review Editor-in-Chief Rich Lowry argues the Republicans’ “Fight Reveals the Party of Self-Loathing.” Although this diatribe may please some of Lowry’s sponsors, it bears no connection to what went on in the House last week.

The fact that the GOP revealed disunity does not in any way prove that “it is a party that to some significant extent loathes itself.” There is no reason to assume this even if “the GOP lacks any coherent center of authority” and even if the “Democrats look like a well-oiled machine.” There is no basis for saying “self-loathing” led to the “Revolt of the 20.” Nor was this noisy disunity something that the obsessive NeverTrumper editor could plausibly pin on Donald Trump, who unequivocally supported McCarthy in his bid for the speakership. Lowry wishes us to believe that Trump’s “counter-establishment” and the “midterm debacle” that he supposedly caused, segued into this further sign of self-loathing disunity.

Despite the defiance of those conservatives who bolted from the party regulars, Lowry finds a bright spot in the GOP. There is after all the stalwart, principled figure of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), “who is the closest thing there is to the ballast of an establishment.” Unfortunately, this wise moderate can’t prevail. He is “hated by the MAGA base,” which may be Trump’s continued revenge on the GOP elders who reject his demagoguery. If I read Lowry properly, a saner Republican Party would turn thankfully to McConnell, not The Donald, and this fount of mature wisdom would warn them against their “act of defiance unburdened by a substantive agenda or a different candidate.”

What may have been driving the holdouts, beside their perception that McCarthy is not particularly conservative, are recent unsettling events. Let’s start with the omnibus bill, passed in December, which provides very little for border protection and lots of inflated money for green energy and woke indoctrination. This bill contained 4,155 densely typed pages, and Congress was required to vote on the text, before any human being could possibly have read it through. Why did McConnell cosponsor this highly partisan Democratic bill? Why did he and nine congressional Republicans tie the hands of the incoming Republican majority in budgetary matters until next fall? And why was McConnell recently on a tour with Joe Biden talking up a bloated infrastructure bill that was passed with the votes of other Republican defectors? McConnell couldn’t stop telling Biden about his intention of “working together” throughout that one-sided lovefest.

If we wish to talk about “self-loathing,” it would be more appropriate to address the obvious contempt in which McConnell, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and other “moderate” Republican politicians hold their conservative base. Unlike our political elites, this base has no interest in being invited to fashionable cocktail parties and doesn’t give a rip about what the Washington Post says about their insensitivity. These populist voters think very differently from Rich and Mitch.

Indeed they do. In the immortal words of the almighty Rudyard Kipling, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet. Which is exactly how it should be.

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You funny

Posted on January 7, 2023January 7, 2023 by Mike

Hope springs eternal, no matter how vain it be.

As Conservatives Shift From Opposing McCarthy to Holding His Feet to the Fire, Here are Five Promises He Needs to Keep
For America First patriots who opposed Kevin McCarthy’s ascension to Speaker of the House, Friday night was a loss. But to get there on the 15th vote, McCarthy had to make a lot of promises and concessions to the Freedom Caucus. Will he honor those commitments?

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. For the love of God, man, stop it, you’re killing me here.

Our role as patriots is to make certain he does and to call him out when he doesn’t. Unfortunately, the GOP failed miserably to stop the midterm steal in the Senate, so getting any legislation to Joe Biden’s desk will be very hard. Then, there’s the veto that the GOP cannot overcome. But they can still hold hearings. They can still use the power of the purse. McCarthy has moves that he and the GOP caucus can make.

To that end, here are five of the promises he made that need to be fulfilled.

Meh, didn’t read ’em. Not even slightly interested, plus I have many other more productive uses for my time, such as clipping my toenails or something.

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Can you smell the excitement?

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Mike

The next Eggan McMuffin throws his big pointy clown hat into the ring.

John Bolton talks 2024 White House run, says Trump support in ‘terminal decline’

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton reiterated Friday that he may run for president in 2024 — adding that he can beat his old boss, former President Donald Trump, to the Republican nomination because of the “terminal decline” in the 45th president’s support.

“I wouldn’t run as a vanity candidate. If I didn’t think I could run seriously then I wouldn’t get in the race,” the 74-year-old Bolton told ITV’s “Good Morning Britain.”

“I would get in to win the nomination and I would do it primarily on the basis that we need a much stronger foreign policy,” added Bolton, who has served in the previous four Republican presidential administrations.

Says the “invite the world, invade the world,” Forever War acolyte.

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Keep your eyes on the ball

Posted on January 6, 2023January 6, 2023 by Mike

Don’t be fooled, distracted, or deceived by all the smoke and mirrors.

Speakership Battle Is Just More Bread and Circuses

This entire hullabaloo is about who will be the manager of a whole lot of static nothingness. Whoever is chosen will have the tiniest of margins with which to govern and a caucus far more divided and less obedient than the one Nancy Pelosi controlled. And whoever that manager is will be dealing with a Democrat-controlled Senate and a self-serving statist lapdog Republican Minority Leader and whatever we have in the White House. So, nothing of substance will happen beyond possible hearings and investigations—but even those will be of limited value.

Republicans can run investigations into Hunter Biden, maybe try to bring the corruptocrat-in-chief into the crosshairs, but that means very little because it was the FBI pulling all the strings and covertly engineering an election outcome for the third straight cycle. We have a deeply corrupted FBI manipulating our elections in myriad ways. Consider that sentence. It should knock Americans over. It has been shown to be undeniably true now with the release of the Twitter Files. But who is pushing to do what actually needs to be done: a ruthless offense?

The real problem begins to feel unplumbable. The permanent state remains unscathed and more powerful than ever. The original creator of the permanent state is Congress—yes, the folks who could begin to tackle the problem are the same ones who created the problem. Through legislation over decades that has ceded irresponsibly high levels of discretion to federal agencies in the executive branch, Congress has skated on making tough decisions itself—beneficial for their individual re-elections—and delegated those decisions (and therefore all that power) to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.

The entire system of unaccountable bureaucratic mini-tyrants is working about as one might expect. For pity’s sake, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012 with a lousy memo. It took 10 years for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to determine it was unconstitutional while allowing all those who had taken advantage of it to remain legal. Congress created Homeland Security and ceded incredible powers to it. This dynamic is repeated thousands of times in the federal government at all levels.

So all of the endless drivel about a “dysfunctional” House is nonsense. It was well-functioning Houses that put us under the thumb of powerful, untouchable, invisible federal authoritarians. Oh, that we might have had dysfunctional Houses back then!

Yeah, well, as CA always says, Real Americans didn’t lose their freedom; it was stolen from them, by people who have names, faces, and addresses. May the slippery, slimery sneak-thieves all be reminded of that ineluctable fact, and that right soon.

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Category: Distinction Without A Difference

Smoke, mirrors, and the fog of (pseudo) war

Another GOPe “win”

DeSantis’ popularity cratering among FLA Repugnicunts

What’s to like, really?

Wish in one hand

Hot gas eructation

Clarifying counterbattery

A big fuckin’ deal

The Uniparty’s Ukraine obsession

RINOs not RINOs

Public opinion matters

Dear Vichy GOPe swine

You funny

Can you smell the excitement?

Keep your eyes on the ball

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