FTGOP – Page 4

GIVE TIL IT HURTS!

The unalienable right of revolution

Posted on September 30, 2022 by Mike

Just when you begin to think that the great Michael Anton can’t possibly top his latest brilliant essay, he goes and raises the bar still higher on ya.

It’s ridiculous for the modern conservative to profess to admire George Washington. The real George Washington did things—many things—that the modern “conservative” cannot countenance in theory, much less in practice.

In the speech I referenced earlier, Joe Biden said, “There is no place for political violence in America. Period. None. Ever.” Leave aside the fact that his team commits such violence almost daily and with impunity. As a historical and theoretical matter, this statement is ridiculous.

It’s just a historical fact that violence birthed America. Granted, that violence was justified, organized, careful, and the furthest thing from indiscriminate. But the American Revolution was still a war waged against a government that considered itself legitimate.

Rather than play along with the conservative desire to get me to, as the kids call it, “fedpost” so that I can be served up to the security state’s wolves, I’d rather turn it around. I have a question for the conservatives—actually several. Which I know they won’t answer. So, really, the questions are for you, the reader, to ponder.

Is the right of revolution ever justified? Was it justified only that one time, in 1776, but never again? If so, why was it justified then and what makes it unjustifiable ever again? Because of historicism? Because the American Revolution was somehow an irreversible leap forward?

Is it that you think things can’t ever get bad enough to justify recourse to this right, or merely that they won’t? Is there some deep structural reason for America’s privileged position, or is our miraculous continued good fortune merely your expectation? If the latter, then you are implicitly admitting, at least in theory, that the right of revolution might, at some point, be justified—and that it has not been obviated by “history.”

Now, we should all hope that this remains merely a theoretical discussion. And, in the terms of that theoretical discussion, I maintain it as axiomatic that you can’t have natural rights without a right of revolution, just as you can’t have the founding without an actual revolution, and since you can’t have the regime of the founders without natural rights, you can’t have the founding principles or the founders’ regime without a right of revolution. Each piece is integral to the machine. Remove one, and the whole thing collapses in self-contradiction.

Finally, what does the denial of this right entail? What would it force us to do or accept? Anything and everything? Where are the limits?

The Declaration of Independence says “while evils are sufferable,” clearly implying that at some point evils cease to be sufferable. But are we to understand that insight to be wrong? Are we to accept all evils as sufferable—forever? Are we required to suffer them? God commands us to accept a certain amount of suffering as the price of living in His creation. Does He also command us to accept eternal torment from the hands of wicked men?

The implicit—and sometimes explicit—conservative answer appears to be “yes.” Turn the other cheek. Bend the knee. Endure your beatings. Forever. For if there is no recourse to a higher principle or law, then there is no other choice. To borrow from Machiavelli, the “effectual truth” of conservative pusillanimity about the right of revolution is perpetual self-subjugation to tyranny. “Weasels, compromisers, mediocrities, and losers” indeed.

The conservatives justify this counsel of perpetual passivity with the observation that things can always get worse. But things can also be made better, by the actions of men. It is the office of prudent men to discern when things are bad enough that action is justified, or even obligatory, and to devise a plan propitious of success. It is the office of the conservatives to ensure that such thoughts are never thought, and punished when they are.

One of Anton’s very best, no two ways about it. Makes me look forward to his next one, which, if the pattern holds, will be even better. Yes, you definitely want to read the whole thing.

Talkin’ ain’t actin’

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Mike

Less of the one, more of the other, an it please you.

There is one clear difference between Leftists (they style themselves “Democrats”) and Republicans – who often style themselves “conservatives,” though of what, exactly, it is hard to divine.

And this difference is related to that.

The difference being that Leftists act – while “conservatives” (i.e., Republicans) talk about acting. It is hardly necessary to trot out examples but that of the past going-on-three-years will more than suffice. Leftists fostered a “pandemic” – and never hesitated to act on it. They “locked down” the country – well, “locked down” the average American, including the American small businessman, so as to consolidate economic power in the hands of the big corporations, now Woke, that finance the Left in a mutually beneficial reach-around. They “mandated” the wearing of “masks,” so as to create the necessary visual of abject submission, to Leftism. They even went so far as to all-but-gunpoint the entire population into submitting to medical experimentation.

And the whole time this was going on, what did “conservatives” conserve?

What have they ever “conserved”?

Now comes another – possibly, the final – opportunity for “conservatives” to do more than talk.

By now, everyone is aware of the Hut! Hut! Hutting! of the Orange Fail’s residence-in-exile at Mara Lago, in Florida. Everyone should be aware that this Hut! Hut! Hutting! is a kind of Sicilian Message – sent to us rather than the Orange Fail. We are to understand that disobedience will not be tolerated.

This ought not to be tolerated.

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, is a Republican. He has it in his power to act in such a way as to challenge the Leftists who seek all power, including that serially ceded to them by Republicans. He could use the power he has as the governor of the state in which the Orange Fail resides to protect the Orange Fail from the Leftist who engineered his fail. Who will also engineer the failure of DeSantis, if he fails to act rather than talk.

Perhaps DeSantis will listen to the admonitions of men who did act, such as Jefferson and Madison. Declare that Florida will not enforce or abide unconstitutional acts by the federal government. Such action might just spread.

And that would beat Hell out of all this talking.

Damned skippy. DeSantis, Abbott, and any other non-Vichy GOPe governors with stones enough to do so could render all Real Americans a great service, as well as etch their names with honor and glory in the annals of American liberty forevermore, by announcing their firm intention to end all cooperation and/or contact with FBI goon squads currently skulking about in their sovereign States—effective oh, say, five minutes ago or thereabouts.

Sweating the small stuff

Posted on May 28, 2022May 28, 2022 by Mike

Schlichter is wasting time and energy worrying about a matter of no real import.

If Republicans Collaborate with Dems to Betray Us on the 2A, They Will Lose the Midterms

If Republicans finally do decide to go ahead and commit figurative (and quite possibly literal) seppukku by pulling the trigger on the Ultimate 2A Sellout, who really gives a shit how they come out in the 2022 fucking midterms? Or, y’know, any other election, ever again? Myself, I hardly care whether they win or lose as it is, without reference to slip-sliming away on the Second. I adopted “Screw me once, shame on you; screw me twice, shame on ME; screw me 852 thousand million times over several decades, somebody please just shoot me in my fucking head until I fall over dead, mmm’kay?” as my personal motto right around the time the “Repeal Obamacare” campaign pledge suddenly softened into “Repeal AND REPLACE Obamacare” before going completely limpdick and slipping out altogether with “Hey, let’s just shut up and leave Obamacare the hell alone, eh guys?”

I mean, really now. The GOPe has been betraying conservatives/Real Americans/whatever you wanna call ’em so audaciously for so long now it’s become almost impossible to get too terribly riled up over the prospect of them doing it again. Now admittedly, I could see going to some little trouble so as to deal out some righteous retribution on ’em for their crap, sure. I dunno, though; opting to stay in close physical proximity to the beer fridge in the garage on eruction day so Repuke asses get dumped come November is nothing like as harsh as what I had in mind for ’em. Plus, it adds up to another big win for the gott-damned Demonrats, a thought which I never have been able to abide without making my ulcers bleed and my hair hurt.

It’s a real dilemma, that’s what. Breathes there a man with soul so dead that, great gouts of blood still pulsing from the wound in his back carved by a Vichy GOPe blade, he’d nonetheless still give a rotten, flyblown fig about how the treacherous sumbitches might fare on any future election day? FORBID IT, ALMIGHTY GOD!!! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give the Republicans death!

The Democrats are giddy. They were hoping that SCOTUS putting the kibosh on kid killing was going to save them from annihilation in November. That did not work – Americans were less interested in preserving a non-existent right to snuff out a life two minutes from crowning than in $6 gas. But this scumbag’s murder rampage in Texas has given them new hope, they think. All the GOP has to do is be spineless and stupid.

So, they’re feeling pretty confident.

We could discuss the facts, like how the real issue is mentally ill kids (lib COVID lockdowns were no help) and lax security at schools where some cretin can wander in with a rifle and hang out unchallenged. We can also point out the obvious – that disarming law-abiding citizens only empower the criminals Democrats excuse and the tyrants they want to be. But facts and evidence will not stiffen the spines of the noodle caucus that thinks that the regime media will let up if they only “DO SOMETHING” even though the doings the Democrats demand are acts of political onanism.

Kurt doesn’t bother going into what the •REAL• issue •REALLY• is here, having other fish he prefers to fry instead. Which is fine, because Chris Adams helpfully laid the whole issue out for us, explicitly, accurately, and quite capably—all the way back in 2018. Pretty sure I approvingly excerpted it back then, too; kinda sad how little has really changed since then, ain’t it?

Anyhoo, as Adams points out, to •REALLY• understand what’s •REALLY• going on with this modern curse of ours wherein some deranged fiend with a grievance, coughed up from the very bowels of Hell, invades some school or other (go figure; all those laws forbidding firearms on school property don’t seem to have made much of an impression on said fiends, but surely ONE MORE will do the trick!) and starts in slaughtering innocent children until some Good Guy shows up toting another gun to put a stop to the festivities, there’s •REALLY• a question we must ponder.

The millennial generation might be surprised to learn that theirs is the first without guns in school. Just 30 years ago, high school kids rode the bus with rifles and shot their guns at high school rifle ranges.

After another school shooting, it’s time to ask: what changed?

Cross guns off the list of things that changed in thirty years. In 1985, semi-automatic rifles existed, and a semi-automatic rifle was used in Florida. Guns didn’t suddenly decide to visit mayhem on schools. Guns can’t decide.

We can also cross the Second Amendment off the list. It existed for over 200 years before this wickedness unfolded. Nothing changed in the Constitution.

What changed? The mainstreaming of nihilism. Cultural decay. Chemicals. The deliberate destruction of moral backstops in the culture. A lost commonality of shared societal pressures to enforce right and wrong. And above all, simple, pure, evil.

Before you retort that we can’t account for the mentally ill, they existed forever.

Paranoid schizophrenics existed in 1888 and 2018. Mentally ill students weren’t showing up in schools with guns even three decades ago.

So it must be something else.

Indeed it must, and it’s neither complicated, confounding, counterintuitive, or at all confusticating for any person of reasonable intelligence to figure out what that “something else” that’s different from the entire previous history of the United States of America might possibly consist of. Although fixing the problem will almost certainly be nothing like as simple or easy as identifying it was, alas. All we need to nail down just where things went wrong is sufficient honesty and courage to admit to ourselves a few uncomfortable realities we all already know deep down to be true, that’s all— no special tools, advanced training, or professional licenses necessary to tackle this job.

Those who have been so busy destroying the moral backstops in our culture won’t want to have this conversation. They’ll do what they do — mock the truth.

There was a time in America, before the Snowflakes, when any adult on the block could reprimand a neighborhood kid who was out of line without fear.

Even thirty years ago, the culture still had invisible restraints developed over centuries. Those restraints, those leveling commonalities, were the target of a half-century of attack by the freewheeling counterculture that has now become the dominant replacement culture.

Hollywood made fun of these restraints in films too numerous to list.

The sixties mantra “don’t trust anyone over thirty” has become a billion-dollar industry devoted to the child always being right — a sometimes deeply medicated brat who disrupts the classroom or escapes what used to be resolved with a paddling.

Instead of telling the kid to quit kicking the back of the seat on a plane, we buy seat guards to protect the seat.

If you think it’s bad now, just wait until the generation whose babysitter is an iPhone is in high school. You can hardly walk around Walmart these days without tripping over a toddler in a trance, staring at a screen.

The high school kids who shot rifles in school in 1985 were taught right and wrong. They were taught what to do with their rifle in school, and what not to do. If they got out of line, all the other students and the coach would have come down on them hard. There were no safe spaces, and that was a good thing.

Culture is a powerful force for good. When good behavior is normalized and deviant destructive behavior is ostracized, shamed, and marginalized, you get more good behavior.

Thirty years ago, kids who brought their rifles to the high school shooting range didn’t wonder about evil and cultural decay. They simply lived in a time in America when right and wrong were more starkly defined, where expectations about behavior were clear, and wickedness hadn’t been normalized.

Annnnnd bingo. See what I mean when I say easy? There’s no big mystery to this thing, nothing obscure or puzzling or beyond the ken of your average Joe Lunchbucket. Only a shitlib “intellectual” could ever find zxhirmxxxelf flummoxed by so elementary an equation as this one: if you glorify immorality, impulsiveness, and untrammeled self-regard, you will end up with more of those things. Denigrate proper morals and ethics, devalue empathy, self-abnegation, Christian piety, and equanimity, and you will create monsters, not men.

If we stipulate the longtime Leftist premise that Man is just another animal—no more exalted, sanctified, or worthy of regard than any random, insensate beast of the field—then can we claim a right to be surprised at seeing regular outbursts of rabid, murderous bestiality among our fellow creatures here and there? Being the lowly beasts we are, are these periodic bestial rampages the most radical departure from the established norm one might expect? Or is the excessive solicitude and anxiety for the cubs evinced by the adult members of the pack on such eruptions the greater aberration?

Which brings us to something every bit as important as uncovering the changes in our society and/or ourselves that brought this horror down on us: pinning the blame for the “normalization of wickedness,” the “deliberate destruction of moral backstops in the culture,” and all the other coordinated acts of wanton societal destruction onto the correct lapels, and seeing to it that those malefactors will rue their misdeeds profoundly, sincerely, and for the rest of their miserable lives.

Update! Remember, you will never, ever convince this Soopergenius she isn’t much, much smarter and more evolved than you are.

SRSLY?!? — *Okay, who wants to tell this idiot?*

With nitwits like Steinem and her execrable compadres in charge, the wonder isn’t that this poor, broken nation is in the sorry shape that it’s in, but that it isn’t much, much worse.

The Trap

Posted on May 24, 2022May 24, 2022 by Mike

Change is not on the menu here.

Long before Trump, Republican politicians and their apologists in the establishment conservative media labored indefatigably to convince their constituents that, come what may, the GOP would “save the country” from the ravages of the excessive Left. The “Reagan Revolution,” the “Contract with America,” the “Moral Majority,” “Compassionate Conservatism,” the “Tea Party,” and, now, MAGA—these are the media concoctions, the theatrical props, the bright and shiny things that traditional Republican voters have been manipulated into believing for decades. It’s ultimately the same concept repackaged for a new generation under a different label.

The idea that there is a rock-ribbed, true-blue conservative or patriotic contingent, separate from and opposed to “the establishment,” promising to pull America back from the precipice of destruction on which she stands has been the GOP’s bread and butter for decades. Every election is “the most important election of our lifetime.”

Republican voters should pause and ask themselves a question that never seem to get thoroughly explored: To paraphrase Reagan’s query from 1980:

Is the Left more or less powerful in 2022 than they’ve been in the past?

The Left-Right paradigm within which American politics plays out is itself a function of the collective delusion from which Republican and Democratic voters alike suffer. Still, for present purposes, we’ll speak the conventional language and say that it’s difficult to conceive of a single front on which “the Left” hasn’t made considerable advances.

In some cases, particularly over the last couple of years, during the COVID era, the Left made shockingly, historically unprecedented advances.

So, why exactly is it that those who have always voted Republican should continue doing so?

How, exactly, does voting Republican amount to “fighting the Left?”

Trump tried his best, but had too many powerful forces with which to contend and that ultimately thwarted his plans.

Republicans gain the House, but then tell their supporters that they can’t do the things that they say they were going to do because they don’t have the Senate and the presidency. They gain the Senate, but then tell their supporters that they can’t do what they promised, because they don’t yet have the presidency. They gain the presidency, but then tell their supporters that they can’t really do what they promised because of the recalcitrance of traitorous Republicans, the cynicism and opportunism of Democrats, the partisanship of the media, and/or the subversionary machinations of a massive bureaucracy (the “deep state”).

Republicans—whether Trump or anyone else—will never, can never, “defeat the Left” and “save the country” as they promise. And all GOP politicians must, at some level, know this. At the very least, they must know that they can never affect the kinds of substantive, enduring changes that voters expect from them as long as all of the obstacles to which they invariably appeal in accounting for their failures persist!

In other words, if “RINOs,” Democrats, a hostile media, and deep state apparatchiks have always prevented Republicans in the past from enacting the platform and the agenda on which they campaign, why should voters expect that Republicans will be able to surmount those obstacles now?!

What do Republicans, elected today, plan on doing to ensure that all of the hostile forces that have undermined them since forever will finally be neutralized?

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result, then voting Republican is insane.

Sometimes our biggest, most insuperable dilemmas are expressed quite handily in bumper-sticker slogans:

No matter who you vote for, a politician always gets in
There is no political solution to the problems caused by politics
There is no voting our way out of this
If voting could actually change anything, it would be illegal
If the Founders were around today, they’d already be shooting

And the most telling one of all, more apposite to our present circumstances than any other:

You may vote your way into socialism, but you must shoot your way out.

And so we have. And so we must, or else relinquish our sacred birthright of freedom forever.

In 1964, Ronald Reagan delivered the greatest of his many great speeches at the Republican National Convention, a truly deathless oration whose words will stir the souls and fire the blood of the liberty-minded until the end of days. The speech has come to be known variously as either the “A Time For Choosing” speech, which if I remember right was its official title, or more simply as the “Freedom Speech.” Its best-known and most beloved passage couldn’t be a more perfect closer for this post, I believe.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Alas, as grim as that final prognostication certainly is, the way things have worked out is far, far worse: we’re spending our sunset years telling ourselves that we are in fact still free, having exchanged our proud heritage for the chains we willingly accepted because it was so much easier, prodding our children and children’s children to likewise take them up themselves. What life was once like in a still-free America has long since been shorn from memory, both collective and personal.

A damned good thing it has been, too; such a proud and noble past piles a burden of shame onto us lesser men who proved to be inadequate to rise to its challenge, to redeem its promise for ourselves and our posterity. Shame so profound can but be a source of genuine anguish deep down inside, amounting as it does to a blistering rebuke which no apology can ever set aright.

When you lose on principle, you’re still a LOSER

Posted on April 24, 2022April 24, 2022 by Mike

John Ringo calls down the FI-YAH! onto some eminently deserving heads, and he couldn’t be righter in what he says.

I’m sick to death of the principles crowd. David French, leader of the Conservative Surrender Chorus, once tweeted “If I supported Trump, I’d never be invited to another dinner party.”

If your politics is based on whether you get invites to dinner parties, you don’t have ‘Principles’. You have the opposite.

We’re in the bunkers being bombarded. We’re Dien Bin Phu. We’re Mariupol. We’re overrun and bleeding to death.

But the worst part. The absolute worst. Is the TrueConservatives that every time we start to take a position quite frankly stab us in the back shouting PRINCIPLES! PRINCIPLES! PRINCIPLES!

If you’re more worried about PRINCIPLES! PRINCIPLES! PRINCIPLES! than @libsoftiktok being doxed, if you’re more worried about PRINCIPLES! PRINCIPLES! PRINCIPLES! than a multi-billion dollar supposedly ‘family friendly’ corporation with loads of largesse given to it by the taxpayers coming out, very publicly, in favor of chemical castration of children…

Then you can take those principles and shove them where the sun don’t shine.

And when the Left learns to fear the Right, when the woke corporation boards gulp and go ‘Okay, we’ll stay out of it’, when the bureaucracy comes to heel…

Then you can be nice. Then you can take the high road.

Until then…

DRIVE YOUR ENEMIES BEFORE YOU! TAKE THE TALLY OF THEIR SLAIN AND THE LAMENTATION OF THEIR WOMEN!

And, yes, salt the earth.

When that is done, we can have a discussion about ‘principles.’

Fucking. A. Right, bub, with great big bells and a nice comfy sweater on it. When all your principles have ever done for you is bring on defeat after shellacking after ass-whuppin’ after humiliation, you must adjust, abandon, or temporarily set principle aside altogether. Fail to do so, whatever the excuse, and eventually those precious principles you so mulishly cling to will be ground into the dust and forgotten forever, even as you yourself will be.

If losing is the only thing your principles are good for, then you got the wrong principles, Jack. There is no honor in allowing all things good, decent, and worthwhile to be brought down in wrack and ruin because your dipshit principles proscribe you from mounting any effective defense against ill-intentioned encroachment on those fine things. Any time capital-P Principle leaves you and your embattled country at the mercy of the victorious Left, perhaps even jeopardizing your personal survival into the bargain, you have a solemn obligation to leave off treading water and struggling to keep Principle’s head safely above the waves and go to work on your enemies toot sweet. In such a situation, either you let useless Principle sink, or you sink and drown right along with it your own self, you obstinate jackass. Hey, maybe in your next life you’ll be a lot smarter. We can only hope so.

Earlier in the piece, Ringo offers a telling compare/contrast that there’s just no way to argue with.

When the Left burned cities, 99% got a slap on the wrist and rarely jail time. Cons go wandering around the capital and they get a vast panoply of human rights violations against them. Obama was the most corrupt administration in recent history except Biden. But they don’t get investigated. Cons get dragged out of their house in the middle of the night by SWAT teams and shown off to the media over obscure regulations. Trump was investigated repeatedly and illegally for things that were never even CONSIDERED worthy of investigation in previous administrations.

Hillary’s pay to play scams are fine. A conservative gets a parking ticket and they’re destroyed.

Why? Why does the Left get away with all of this? Why does nobody stop them?

James Carville said it recently in the reverse: ‘Nobody is afraid of the Democrats!’

Nobody has been afraid of the Republicans in my LIFETIME. Lois Lerner can laugh at a congressional committee the Republicans are running and gets away with it. Strosz can smirk and preen. Bureaucrats and businessmen flat out lie to Republican leadership and nothing happens.

But they don’t do that to Democrats. Why?

Because if you do, the Left will kill you. They will f’ing DESTROY YOU.

Yeppers. Think of it as a lesson for us all, a vital one which closely parallels yet another little thing I’ve been howling into the void for years: WE MUST ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY MAKE THE GOVERNMENT FEAR US AGAIN. If we intend to live as free men, there is simply no way around this. Always, always remember: When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty (more on this quote later). This well-known truism is applicable not only to government but to the Left entire, seeing as how nowadays the Left pretty much IS the government, having infiltrated and then co-opted that along with practically every other institution, organization, university, union, and ladies’ sewing-circle in the country at this point.

It’s the key to absolutely everything; when they felt they no longer had cause to fear us, they confidently began to beaver away at their slow, steady Long March to revoke our freedom and deny us our putatively unalienable rights. The more we let them get away with without ever biting back at them, the more they robbed us of, until we wound up stalled out at a dead end with only one acceptable avenue left to take: HURT THE BASTARDS. Inflict so much agony on them they cannot WAIT to take the boot off our necks and just leave us alone, as we’ve asked them to all along. If we do it right, whatever it takes to make the Bad People (that’s us, folks) stop hurting them and go away, that’s what they’ll happily do.

From then on, once the balance of power has been reestablished to OUR satisfaction, we mustn’t forget to lay a few fresh bruises, lumps, and stripes on ’em now and then—at totally random intervals, out of the blue and with no notice whatsoever, which will scare them even worse—so’s they don’t get to feeling their authoritarian oats, making certain unwholesome assumptions, and picking up old bad habits again. Ain’t no room for recidivism on their part; no half-measures, no dithering, no skiving off or loss of focus on ours will be tolerated. We all must stand our posts, eyes open, alert, and ever vigilant. Any ass that appears to need kicking should be kicked so hard the person hauling it behind will be wearing it as a hat. Commit ourselves to this program, stick with it diligently, and the Proggy will never get above his station to trouble decent folks again.

On patience, process, and breaking the cycle of losing

Posted on April 21, 2022April 21, 2022 by Mike

Mike’s Iron Law Numero Uno: Revolution is a process, not an event.

Loser Mentality and Winner Mentality. Those are real things. You win long enough, you figure out what it takes to win and you come to expect it. And you’re comfortable with it.

Oddly, same thing applies to Loser Mentality. Eventually, you prefer losing.

That’s the Right.

The Right is on the verge of a couple big things. I think. I hope.

1. Massive election losses for Democrats. Everyone is focused on Congress but this beating is going to go all the way down to the school board level.

2. A slowly emerging aggressive mentality from the New Right.

That’s a good thing. But there is going to be a frustrating thing for many on the Right. I know it will be frustrating for me. And that’s the Loser Mentality.

And to be clear, I’m for once not calling them losers. I mean, many are. But some are just a product of the Old Right.

If you’re on the Right, limited government and all that, you’ve never seen real wins in your lifetime. Not real wins. Sure, there’s been an election win you’ve celebrated. But if you’re alive to read this, government has never shrunk in your lifetime. Ever.

Which means you’ve grown up a loser. Always losing. Always told to wait for the next election. Always told giving the communists just a little more ground is the right thing to do.

And there’s something else:

Principles. You’ve heard this word endlessly. We can’t do this and we can’t do that and what’s the reason? Principles. It’s always principles.

And this is what I mean when I say I’m not calling them all losers.

Many on the Right believe that.

They’ve simply been raised in a political system where their job is to whine about Democrats and scream about things like “Hypocrisy!” and “Double standards!”. But that’s where it ends for them cause that’s what the Right has always been.

Even suggesting doing more than that is met with the indignant cries of “That’s not who we are!”.

THAT is loser mentality. It’s in our culture on the Right. It’s ingrained by now. Being “conservative” to the Right means whining while we lose. Nothing more.

And as we get BIG election wins, we better find a way to overcome that mentality. We are going to have opportunities we’ve never had before.

The communist won’t be our main enemy. Loser Mentality will.

Maybe so, maybe so. But we damned well better not repeat our habitual mistake of taking our eyes off the Red-menace beanball for even a moment, either. Wanna know what the vector usually is for the Commies to penetrate the defenses of their intended victims and gut them from inside their own walls? The one single thing The Enemy watches and waits for, his biggest opportunity to begin the incremental process that concludes with our utter destruction? The indispensable component in creating, nurturing, and disseminating of the Loser Mentality itself? Relaxation of the foeman’s vigilance against him, that’s what.

Yes, the Loser Mentality must be eradicated, and that right soon, if any tatterdemalion shreds of America That Was are to survive for much longer, their former glory perhaps eventually restored, if only partly. But let’s not forget that the samething holds true for the Commies as well; the question of which existential threat should be serviced first strikes me as akin to the old “the chicken or the egg” paradox, a debate I’ll cheerfully abstain from for the nonce. The main thing, the crucial thing right now is that Team Liberty gets out of bed and starts to move at last. If the freshly awakened Sleeping Giant merely yawns, scratches his ass, and flops back down to resume his slumber, the Loser Mentality will be part of our national character forever, the Red Menace will have defeated us decisively, sending all our forlorn hopes swirling right down the fucking drain.

Sean says one hell of a lot in relatively few words here, and kudos to him for making such a fine job. I particularly like that he eschews any mention of “The Republicans” in favor of “the Right” or “conservatives.” He appears to have reached the same conclusion about the Vichy GOPers as I have: they’re useless, and placing any faith whatsoever in those fake phony frauds is a mug’s game at this late date. To hell with them, sez I. They can all burn to a crispity crunch there for all me, which they definitely will do long before I ever reconsider the idea of taking up with them again.

Ask a stupid question

Posted on April 12, 2022April 12, 2022 by Mike

Oh come now, Professor Hanson, you’re smarter than this. If nothing else, you’ve been around long enough to know better.

The left-wing professional and political classes bequeathed a number of new protocols during the Trump derangement years. And it will be interesting to watch whether the Republicans abide by them in November should they take back the House and perhaps the Senate—and the presidency in 2024 as well.

Will they follow the New Testament’s turn-the-other-cheek forbearance, or go for Old Testament style eye-for-an-eye retribution?

Well gee, I dunno—have they ever? Even one blasted time? Have we any evidence at all to support believing in them now? A long list of similarly foolish questions follows, all of them equally easy to answer: No, they most certainly will not. They’re no more likely to upset any apple carts than the Washington Generals are, and for similar reasons: they don’t mind losing, having grown entirely comfortable with getting their asses kicked up between their shoulder blades in front of God and everybody by now. For the Vichy GOPe, the agony of defeat has definitely lost its sting. Long as they’re getting paid, well hey, it’s all good. Hell, losing is their job, when you get right down to it. It’s how they put bread on the family table, and what the hell is so wrong about that?

Vichy GOPers know their role well by now, and intend to stick to it. Having waved many a dire, scolding finger at the Demonrats myself in this space back when I was but an uncut stripling, cautioning them that this time—this time for SURE!—Repugnican phonies might very well decide to turn their own rules back on ’em at long last, only to look on in disgust as the Right Uniparty wing slinked docilely back en masse to their accustomed nosebleed-section seats with no action taken beyond the usual Big Fat Nothing, I almost have to believe that VDH is being sarcastic here, laughing slyly up his sleeve at how he’s taken the piss out of everybody. It’s either that, or he’s the world’s oldest naif, a 75-years-young Polly Pureheart still unstained by her many years of worldly experience and observation.

I mean, what the hell else could it be? We all already know the man ain’t no dummy, so that’s right out. Could be he was stymied by writer’s block (any of us writely sorts who claims he’s never had to ‘rassle that particular demon is just a damned liar, that’s all), was bumping up against a hard deadline, and simply punched this one out in his sleep. Whatever the case may be, bitterly clinging to questions as patently inane as these is can only make one look gullible, deceitful, careless, or just downright ign’ernt at the end of the day. Once again, I feel compelled to run this:

The Great Dilemma

Posted on April 12, 2022April 12, 2022 by Mike

ZMan outlines it for us.

This is a debate that has haunted conservative politics and it was something that haunted radical politics until the 20th century. Conservatives never solved the problem and it eventually ruined them. The reason is they committed to participating in a political system that leaves no room for conservative ideas. Once you sign onto the long list of left-wing taboos and mob rule, there is nothing worth defending. Conservatives became the tax collectors of liberal democracy.

For dissidents this is a bigger challenge. There is no solution to the problems of liberal democracy at the ballot box. Most Americans have no representation in politics as both parties are committed to destroying normal life. This fall the Republicans will win the election and everything will get worse. Whatever promises they have made will be broken on day one. They will set about giving the oligarchs whatever they want while pretending they are doing their voters a favor.

Even knowing this, people want to do something. This is even more true for dissidents who are more political than normal people. The reason you end up on this side of the great divide is you have engaged with politics and learned from it. Walking away entirely seems like quitting to most people. On the other hand, participating just empowers the people who want you dead. This is the dilemma that ruined the conservative movement and haunts the dissident right.

This leaves only one option and that is building a counter culture. Channeling activism into building a parallel society bridges the gap between ideas and activism. In a way, this is what we see globally with the alliance of non-Western powers. China, Russia and India want to create a parallel system that can challenging America. The same thing has to happen domestically. It is a bigger challenge for obvious reasons, but parallelism is the only way forward short of revolution.

Which would seem to indicate that there is in fact NOT “only one option,” would it not? My pickery of nits notwithstanding, in Z’s next post we’re reminded of another crucial truth.

Probably the most interesting race thus far is in Ohio, where you have three flavors of populists running for the open Senate seat. There is an old boomer running as if it is 1985 but he is rich and has party support. There is Josh Mandel, who will quickly morph into Lindsey Graham if elected. Then there is J.D. Vance, who is trying to run as a post-Trump populist. It is a three-way race at the moment and it reflects the currents within the Republican Party.

Gibbons will probably win the primary mostly because old white people will never come to terms with current realty. Instead, they will cling to the civic nationalist fantasy of voting our way out of the problems of democracy. The fact that just as many are easily fooled by Mandel hammers home this point. Both are creatures of the legacy talk radio culture. Only the actuarial tables will fix this problem within the Republican electorate.

None of this is to suggest that the Republican Party is about to become representative of the people who vote for it. That will never be allowed. The point of the party is to make sure the majority population has no representation in government. If that arrangement is threatened, then it is mail-in voting for every state. It is just increasingly difficult to keep the old grift going. The old Red Team versus Blue Team dynamic is collapsing.

We are at the start of a volatile period in politics. The great tide of discontent that will sweep the primaries this autumn will bring in all sorts of people. The war between the ruling class and the people will shift to Washington, where there will be more than a few Marjorie Taylor Greene types roaming the halls of Congress. The main result will be the final purge of the neocons from the Republican side. The process that began in the 1960’s is about to come full circle.

It’s high time the war between the Ruling Class and the people DID shift to Mordor on the Potomac, if you ask me. It should have been there all along, actually, and ought never to be allowed to get loose amongst the general population again. Think of it as what Jefferson (or John Philpot Curran, or whothehellever) was getting at with his insightful estimation of the price of freedom.

Meet the new boss

Posted on October 13, 2021October 13, 2021 by Mike

Be still my beating heart.

Democrats Melting Down: GOP Flips Long-Held Blue Seat in Iowa Special Election
Happy Wednesday. How are things going for Democrats today? Let’s review a handful of headlines. (1) Out of Iowa, a legislative seat that has been in Democratic hands for decades is no longer blue. Over the summer, Republicans won back a state senate seat in affluent, suburban, Trump-hostile Connecticut. Last night, they picked off a different sort of district. Trump carried it, but it had remained blue at the state legislative level, even in recent cycles with Trump on the ballot. Change.

Thank merciful Heaven, we’re all saved!! Yep, things are gonna be a lot different in Mordor on the Potomac from now on, just you wait and see.

Another thing they need to get through their heads

Posted on June 26, 2021June 26, 2021 by Mike

They weren’t “tricked.” They were cooperative. Not “played”—playing along. As active, willing participants, not hapless victims, whether of their own naive stupidity, the wily Democrats, or anything else.

Republicans Got Played By Joe Biden and There Needs to Be a Reckoning

Sorry, but as long as you refuse to open your eyes to the actual state of play there will NEVER be a reckoning of any real consequence, and you’ll go right on being the one who’s getting played.

It’s difficult to get played by a senile old man whose brain has the consistency of pudding, but somehow, Republicans managed that feat today. Failure theater is back, and it’s reaching new heights.

As RedState reported earlier, Biden announced an agreement on a bipartisan infrastructure deal, complete with a grinning Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski standing beside him. Following that dog and pony show, the president then proceeded to demonstrate the finer points of existing with cognitive decline. Regardless, according to the Republicans on the negotiating team, this was supposed to be a great victory and show of unity.

Of course, then reality smacked them in the face. Biden, within an hour, let it be known that he would not sign the bipartisan agreement unless he was given everything else he wants in a reconciliation package that would naturally be passed along party lines.

Oh, and speaking of Fraudster Mitt.

Six months. The Afghan government is estimated to collapse six months after a withdrawal of U.S. troops. Politics should never come before our national security interests. The President must reconsider his plan to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by September. https://t.co/AWVSUdggwA

— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) June 23, 2021

Tell ya what, pal, why don’t you hold your breath waiting for the “****President****” you helped put in office to do anything of the sort. Although in this case, he/his puppeteers happen to be doing the right thing, if only by sheer dumb luck.

But back to our original topic. As you would no doubt be entirely unsurprised to learn, Ms Lindsey Graham is enraged by this UNEXPECTED!™ show-betrayal.

Key GOP senators balk at terms of Biden infrastructure bill
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal was thrown in doubt Friday as Republican senators felt “blindsided” by his insistence that it must move in tandem with his bigger package, while the White House doubled down on the strategy and said it should have come as no surprise.

The rare accord over some $1 trillion in investments faced new uncertainty barely 24 hours after Biden strode to the White House driveway, flanked by 10 senators from a bipartisan group, with all sides beaming over the compromise.

Senators were described as “stunned,” “floored” and “frustrated” after Biden publicly put the conditions on accepting their deal, according to two people familiar with the private conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the reactions.

“No deal by extortion!” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday.

Next: Ms Graham vows the appointment of a “blue-ribbon panel” to thoroughly “investigate” this outrageous and dishonorable bait ‘n’ switch, which he vows on the grave of his mama he will “get to the bottom” of. Y’know, for Duh Peepul. Ace, being a more sensible sort, ain’t having any.

The fake anger now is a crucial part of the Failure Theater script– pretend to oppose the socialist agenda, somehow get “tricked” and “beaten,” and then run ads telling your gullible voters that now you’re spittin’ mad and if Republicans just send one hundred more dollars, now you’ll start fighting those treacherous Dems!
 Special award to Lindsey Graham for cooperating with the Democrats, again, and now again being “blindsided” and “livid” about the obvious, inevitable betrayal.

Fuck you, you degenerate liars.

IT

IS

THE

EXACT

SAME

SCRIPT

EVERY

G******

TIME.

Yes, it certainly is. Not to worry, though; after we take back Congress in 2022, you’re gonna see some changes around here, you betcher.

*spit*

The Con con

Posted on May 18, 2021May 18, 2021 by Mike

Conservatism as commodity, bought and sold in the marketplace.

Every once in a while, a post or series of posts comes along that captures why conservatism never amounted to much. This post in the ironically named American Conservative is a good example of the genre. The topic is how to deal with the privatization of authoritarian power, primarily in Silicon Valley. The argument put forward is that using the state to tame these rogue companies is morally wrong, so we have to find some new way to contend with these out-of-control tech firms.

The first thing you should notice is the style is exactly what we get whenever the topic of immigration in on the table. The obvious answer is dismissed. In the case of immigration, that means shutting down the border and cracking down on employers who use helot labor. The open borders crowd always says that is impossible or harmful in some way. Instead, they offer a collection of overly complex solutions that have no chance of succeeding but will keep the punditry busy.

In the case of Big Tech, we have laws on the books to put an end to this reign of terror, but enforcing those is socialism, according to the usual suspects. We cannot have that, even if it would work. Instead, let us have a twenty-year series of international commissions to study technical standards and pass a bunch of laws that no one reads, but have cool names like “Data Portability Act”. In other words, the people who cannot build a wall along the border are going to fix the internet.

Interestingly, the rodents from Conservative Inc. always use the same trick the Left is so fond of using, which is the false dichotomy. “We can shut ourselves off from the world or embrace globalism” is how they frame trade. “We can become a hermit nation or remain a nation of immigrants” is how they frame immigration. Now it is “We can choose central planning or preserve an open internet” with Big Tech. It is the same partisan game the Left plays, just tailored for a middle-class white audience.

The fact is, enforcing Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act as intended puts a halt to the most egregious violations of our rights. Twitter can choose to be a publisher or an open platform. If it is the former, they can censure their platform however they like, but they are accountable for the content. If they choose to be an open platform like Gab, then they get the protection of Section 230. There is no need to reinvent the internet to solve the biggest problem with Big Tech.

Similarly, the obvious collusion that goes on with these big firms could be crushed with the use of existing law. There are plenty of examples of the tech companies colluding with one another to ban people from their platforms. If we can give a cop 20-years on civil rights violations for shooting a fleeing suspect, we can give the harpies of Silicon Valley a few years for violating the civil rights of Alex Jones. One lawsuit is all that would be required to end that practice and restore some sanity.

Of course, the author of the AC piece is clearly trying to strike the libertarian position, which is a blend of hiding under the bed and shilling for global capital. This is what is wrong with the libertarian-conservative commentariat. They are not interested in advocating conservative interests. Instead, they are focused on making sure their corporate donors are free of government interference. If that means the rights of conservatives are trampled, well “whoopsie!”

As with any swindle, if you can’t figure out who the mark is, it’s you. Z’s title brought to mind an old Mad cover:

“The Big Con” is as on-point a description of modern “conservatism,” the NeverTrumpTard punditry, and the Vichy GOPe as you’ll ever find.

FG=Z

Posted on April 25, 2021April 25, 2021 by Mike

The past week’s Kafka-esque occurences show that the US Destructo Express Loco-motive has reached the end of the line. Time to blow the whole works to smithereens—train, track, station, railyard, roundhouse, everything.

There Comes A Point Where Self Preservation Kicks In
I think I’m there.

I noticed it a few days ago.

Open up the phone to check the news the other day while I was savoring my first cup of coffee and cigarette and start checking Emails, the news etc.

I seem to have collected several news feeds on my Email I noticed.

Almost all of them had headlines concerning the antics of the Democrats or else the antics of the Republicans in response to the antics of the Democrats.

The same thing this morning just a few minutes ago.

I glanced at several as I was scrolling through and it just hit me.

I Don’t Give A Fuck.

It’s all bullshit designed to keep me preoccupied.

Every fucking bit of it.

The Republicans are gonna do this, the Republicans are gonna do that.

Horse shit, the Republicans aren’t going to do anything other than roll over on their backs and piss all over their bellies just like they have been doing for 50 fucking years.

The Democrats are going to continue their march towards full blown Communism and Totalarianism, just like they have been doing for the last 50 fucking years.

And ya know what?

I just don’t fucking care anymore.

Enough.

It’s too far gone to save at this point and an especially acrimonious national divorce is going to be the final play in my personal lifetime.

Acrimonious as in bloody and violent.

That’s what they want and that’s what they are gonna get.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes aye?

The ennui is strong with this one. Enough, indeed.

GOP must GO

Posted on April 18, 2021April 18, 2021 by Mike

Burn. It. DOWN. First, this happened.

According to a document that has surfaced, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene is forming an “America First Caucus”.

From the document:

The America First Caucus (AFC) exists to promote Congressional policies that are to the long-term benefit of the American nation. The North Star of any policy proposal will be that which serves the American people, and any consequential analysis of policy platforms must be based on this first principle.

Here are the main political issues the caucus will focus on:

Election Fraud, Sovereignty, Big Tech, Immigration, Infrastructure, Foreign Aid, National Security, Trade, Environment, Energy, Protecting the Value of American Savings, America First Education, The Chinese Communist Party

A spokesperson for Marjorie Taylor Greene confirmed to CNN that the group is real and is being formed. The spokesperson also pointed out that someone leaked the draft for the caucus to the press.

Trump Ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took to Twitter to announce he was “proud” to join the America First Caucus.

As well he ought to be. It certainly sounds perfectly reasonable to me, although my belief that we’re well past the point where elections can be of any use remains unchanged. Still, I wish only the best to Greene and her fellow patriots; at least they’re trying, and I could always be wrong about the chances of any political effort amounting to anything much. But if you know your Republicans, then you know that just name of this nascent caucus was enough to raise some hackles.

It only took a few hours for RINO favorite Adam Kinzinger to weigh in on the idea.

Kinzinger wants anyone who supports this idea to be removed from their committee assignments.

The Hill reported:

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) blasted fellow GOP lawmakers who plan to join the “America First Caucus,” saying anyone who becomes a member should lose their committee assignments.

Kinzinger, a vocal critic of former President Trump, tore into the caucus after it was reported that GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) would lead formation of the group.

The caucus calls for promoting “Anglo-Saxon political traditions,” and several House Republicans came out Friday to criticize the group and its policy platform.

Because of COURSE they did. I can’t help but wonder once more what it might be about the idea of making America great again or putting America first these Deep State carbuncles, Democan and Republicrat alike, find so offensive.

“I believe anyone that joins this caucus should have their committees stripped, and the Republican conference should expel them from conference participation,” Kinzinger tweeted.

“While we can’t prevent someone from calling themselves Republican, we can loudly say they don’t belong to us,” he added.

I certainly hope you do, Quizlinger—speaking for myself, I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to think I was associated in any way, shape, or form with you and your collaborationist Party. Once again, Vichy GOPers can be counted on to fight back against Real Americans a lot harder than they ever will Obama, Pelosi, or any of their other Deep State partners in crime. As it is written, so it shall be done.

(CNN)Conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is scrapping the planned launch of her “America First” caucus after receiving blowback from leaders in her own party, despite confirming through a spokesperson on Friday that the caucus would launch.

Nick Dyer, Greene’s spokesperson, told CNN in an email on Saturday afternoon the Georgia Republican is not “launching anything.”

“The Congresswoman wants to make clear that she is not launching anything. This was an early planning proposal and nothing was agreed to or approved,” he said in an email to CNN, referring to a flier promoting the caucus, obtained by Punchbowl News, that used inflammatory rhetoric.

Wow, THAT didn’t take long. Evidently, Republicans can damned sure get things done when it’s something that really matters to them, eh? The “inflammatory rhetoric” was the line citing “Anglo-Saxon political traditions,” which I agree is just horribly horribly awful, a racist hate-crime for which the guy who suggested it should be put to death. And with that, here we all are.

Some Republicans wanted to start an “America First” caucus. Then the Republican leadership shut them down. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted this in response:

The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln & the party of more opportunity for all Americans—not nativist dog whistles.

SO. Anybody still believe the Ballot Box can save us? Because one thing is becoming painfully obvious:

With that tweet, Americans are on official notice: Our elected officials are no longer interested in representing the people of this nation. There is no longer a political or diplomatic solution to be found to avoid what is coming.

Nope. Myself, I’m beginning to wonder if there ever really was.

RINOs gotta RINO

Posted on April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 by Mike

Another example of the system functioning exactly as intended. Which is another reason why the system has gotta go.

Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson defended his decision to veto legislation that would have made his state the first to ban gender-confirming treatments or surgery for transgender youth in a fiery exchange with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Tuesday.

“The Tucker Carlson Tonight” host explained to viewers that the bill nearly passed with Hutchinson’s support until the governor rejected the legislation that would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment.

Hutchinson accused Carlson of misrepresenting the bill, explaining: “If this had been a bill that simply prohibited chemical castration, I would have signed the bill.”

Instead, he said, the bill presented to him was “was overbroad, it was extreme. It went far beyond what you just said.

“This is the first law in the nation that invokes the state between medical decisions, parents who consent to that and the decision of the patient. And so, this goes way too far. And in fact, it doesn’t even have a grandfather clause that those young people that are under hormonal treatment,” he argued.

When Carlson questioned whether Hutchinson was in contact with corporate interests in the state of Arkansas about the bill, the governor replied forcefully, “I answered that question and I said, no, I have not. Do you have another question?”

Ace takes a Viking broadaxe to that outrageous lie.

Shaw notes that Hutchinson is “term-limited” and therefore politics are not a reason for this.

No, but the fact that he’ll be needing a new high-paying job next year very much holds a clue to his behavior.

For anyone who’s a governor, the only possible future career paths are the presidency, the academy, or, of course, serving on the boards of corporations.

Sure, mere Congressmen can become sleazy lobbyists, but that’s too low-rent for a former governor.

Hutchinson has never been discussed as a potential president and has no entree into academia. Particularly now that the academy has purged all non-Marxists. Certainly you can’t be a Republican serving in a university’s administration.

That leaves the Corporate Parachute for Asa.

Now, you’re not going to believe this wild coincidence, but one of the largest retailers in human history, Walmart, just happens to have its headquarters in Arkansas, and, you’re definitely not going to believe this next coincindence, Tom Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, has very strong — oddly strong! — opinions on the gender of children.

Could there possibly be some connection here? Certainly Tucker Carlson seems exceptionally skeptical — he says as much — when Hutchinson claims he was not contacted by any corporate interests, not a single one, on this issue. Including, specifically, Walmart.

And yet Hutchinson knows Tom Walmart and Tom Walmart is extremely interested in children’s putative right to participate in genital cosplay.

The Ruling Class, like the Ruling Class all throughout history, is extraordinarily focused on the sexual liberation of children.

And as was almost surely the case with Kristi Noem — the word was passed to Hutchinson that his future corporate career could be derailed in a hurry if he didn’t play ball with the trans lobby.

Whether the word is being passed by a corporate donor himself — doubtful — or, more likely, one of his lobbyists or lawyers, the word is being passed. Big money if you veto this bill, no job prospects if you don’t.

This is a system of direct bribery of high public officials by megacorporations and it must be stopped.

It most certainly is, and every Normal American must shoulder a share of the blame for ever allowing such a system to develop, take root, and flower in the first place; its very existence amounts to a stark admonishment, and a disgrace. Backup for the shitlib spawn of Sam Walton’s open endorsement of child mutilation in the name of the Left’s bizarre obsession with the “transgender” subterfuge, for anybody who might need it:

Statement on Recent Arkansas Policy
“We are alarmed by the string of policy targeting LGBTQ people in Arkansas. This trend is harmful and sends the wrong message to those willing to invest in or visit our state. We support Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s recent veto of discriminatory policy and implore government, business and community leaders to consider the impact of existing and future policy that limits basic freedoms and does not promote inclusiveness in our communities and economy.

Our nation was built on inalienable rights and strengthened by individual differences. Arkansas has been called the land of opportunity because it is a place where anyone can think big and achieve the extraordinary. Any policy that limits individual opportunity also limits our state’s potential.”

– Tom Walton, Home Region Program Committee Chair – Walton Family Foundation

I started to fisk my way through that patent horseshit line by line but then decided, why bother? It would be a waste of wear and tear on my crippled old typing fingers: the statement’s blibbering absurdity is as transparent as the agenda driving it, for all who have eyes to see. And the people who will approve of it aren’t susceptible to persuasion by appeals to logic or simple human decency anyway.

Tom Walton’s extreme wealth places him beyond all reach, as he well knows, providing a highly effective shield against consequences for his advocacy of pure, unleavened evil. Not so much with Hutchinson, who should be hounded and harrassed without mercy or surcease from this day onward. On his very first walk through the doors to his opulent Wal Mart sinecure right on up to his last, he should find himself forced to run a gauntlet of angry protestors shouting epithets and calumny at his retreating backside. That still isn’t punishment enough to suit me, but the despicable scoundrel will certainly receive the eternal reward for all such self-serving treachery in good time.

UNEXPECTED update! Boy, the wheels sure came off THAT cart mighty fast.

During an appearance with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night, Arkansas Republican governor Asa Hutchinson vociferously denied that he had been in contact with corporate interests in his state about the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act” which bans transition surgery, as well as hormones and puberty blockers, for Arkansas minors.

“I answered that question and I said, ‘no, I have not.’ Do you have another question?” Hutchinson told Carlson, who admitted he was “skeptical” of the denial. The interview came one day after Hutchinson vetoed the bill…

But in the fallout from those bills, and in the buildup to the SAFE Act, Hutchinson admitted in a March 31 appearance on Fox News that “some major global corporations here in Arkansas” are “certainly worried about the image of our state.”

While it remains unclear whether the Walton family personally lobbied Hutchinson on the bill — neither Hutchinson’s office nor the WFF returned requests for comment — the two have ties. Per FEC records, the Waltons are longtime financial supporters of Hutchinson’s political career, as is Walmart. Sam Walton’s brother, Steuart Walton, is a current board member at Walmart and was tapped by Hutchinson last April to chair the state’s “Economic Recovery Task Force.”

Ace sinks the putt:

How did Hutchinson know there was corporate worry about the image of Arkansas about these bills if no one from any corporate interests contacted him about them?

The idea that Tom Walton has such passionate feelings about the sexual autonomy of children, and yet wouldn’t call up his family’s pet governor to make these Frenchian passions known, is too absurd to credit as possible.

He’s lying. He told corporate interests that he would triangulate on these bills by signing two of them but vetoing the third.

They’re all fucking liars and it’s time to turn them out into the streets.

A half-decent start, maybe, but far too lenient by itself. There are several other corrective actions available for consideration. Y’know, while we’re all out in the street and all.

Yeah, naaaaah

Posted on March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 by Mike

I’ve said before that I respect her as one of a miniscule number of relatively sane Democrats, maybe even admire her courageous and honest willingness to push back against the more wild-eyed and bizarre Demonrat proposals. She’s a liberal all right, but she’s also one of a nearly extinct breed that, despite mulishly clinging to many ridiculous and unworkable collectivist ideals, nonetheless remains intellectually supple enough to be at least marginally responsive to archaic and forsaken concepts such as common sense, real-world practicality, and respectful tolerance for dissenting opinion. Practically alone among her Party peers, Gabbard’s integrity and love of country has never been in question, or not that I know of anyway. All in all, I stand behind my assessment of her. For a liberal and a Demonrat, Tulsi is more or less all right with me.

But still.

The political realignment spurred by President Donald Trump’s rise as the undeniable leader of the Republican Party is only just beginning, and it may result in the emergence of a surprising superstar: former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

Gabbard first gained national attention as a supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.) who refused to participate in a corrupt DNC process that disenfranchised the far-left presidential candidate. Her stand made her a reviled figure among establishment Democrats, who hated her even more when she refused to buy into anti-Russia hysteria and opposed U.S. bombing campaigns in Syria. Her refreshing candor has resulted in an unexpected cult following on the pro-Trump Right.

While Gabbard’s economic policies vary considerably from the Republican orthodoxy, she brings a much-needed breath of fresh air on civil liberties and American foreign intervention. These are issues that appeal to young people, who are the prime demographic for the meat grinder of war and who often find themselves punished by the state for nonviolently enjoying their lives. Gabbard is an asset whose point of view should not be rejected out of hand in Trump’s GOP. Making the Republican Party into a true MAGA coalition will require the building of bridges and the rejection of failed approaches tried in the past.

Gabbard is a politician that the Republican Party needs to rebuild its shattered credibility among the masses. She has built a brand as a maverick who will say what she believes is right on the issues, no matter the political consequences.

Gabbard would also alienate all of the worst actors still festering within the Republican Party. The annoying free marketeers, who gave the cold shoulder to Trump for his economic nationalism, would naturally be up in arms over Gabbard’s lack of reverence for the sacred deity of gross domestic product. The remnants of the neoconservative war party, including former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, would be the most triggered, and their anguish alone would be worth letting the Gabbardites into the fold.

Could be, could be. The idea of wooing Tulsi in an attempt at persuading her to cross the partisan Rubicon is certainly audacious, bold, and unconventional—attributes I usually respond to positively, whatever the context. To me, they’re features, not bugs.

But no rebellious Maverick needs to wax all ebullient over this prospect. Sadly, the author slams head-on into a familiar obstacle discussed here numerous times: he’s made the killing mistake of accepting the false premise that tinkering, fine-tuning, or fiddling around under the Uniparty hood is still a useful, worthwhile project. Sorry, son, but it ain’t. The American system is dead as a dodo, with the up-front-fraudulent 2020 election as its death certificate, and there is no hope of reanimating the carcass. She was murdered a-purpose; mourn her loss, fine, but don’t kid yourself: she ain’t coming back. Intellectual pud-pulling to insipid fantasies of “retaking Congress in 2024” and all the other feverish wet-dreams whose climax revolves entirely around attaining a fair victory in an honestly-conducted election is worse than a waste of time.

Speculatively blibbering on about just how the treacherous GOPe could be reformed is a mug’s game, nothing more. At this point it’s tiresome, pathetic—a pointless distraction that will hurt far more than it will ever help. The facts are in; it’s time we all grew up and faced them squarely in an adult fashion.

A few dabs of touch-up paint will never suffice to restore the gloss to the rotted, corruption-stained husk of “American democracy.” To properly bring a lasting shine back up on this tattered, battered old bucket o’ bolts will mean more than some el-cheapo patch-job. She’s gonna need a complete body-off-frame restoration. If properly and meticulously done, by someone who knows how and is passionate about his craft, the results are a thing of beauty, damned close to miraculous. But it’s a long, time-eating process. And you just better believe it ain’t cheap.

Category: FTGOP

The unalienable right of revolution

Talkin’ ain’t actin’

Sweating the small stuff

The Trap

When you lose on principle, you’re still a LOSER

On patience, process, and breaking the cycle of losing

Ask a stupid question

The Great Dilemma

Meet the new boss

Another thing they need to get through their heads

The Con con

FG=Z

GOP must GO

RINOs gotta RINO

Yeah, naaaaah

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