Alt-American

Cheap shot

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Trump steals a page from Florida D卐M☭CRATs to take another wild, pointless, ill-advised swing at Ron DeSantis.

Watch: DeSantis Responds Directly to Trump Sharing Photo Accusing Florida Governor of Being a ‘Groomer’

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis likely is aware of the notable quote by Mark Twain: “Never wrestle with a pig. You’ll both get dirty, and the pig likes it.” Though Trump has already started the mud-slinging, DeSantis has chosen to stay above the fray.

Previously, DeSantis referred to Trump’s attacks as “noise in the background.” Trump’s most recent attacks, which included unsubstantiated claims that DeSantis was guilty of grooming underage females with alcohol, did not seem to rattle the governor.

On Wednesday, DeSantis said: “I face defamatory stuff every single day I’ve been governor, that’s just the nature of it. I’d also just say this. I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden.”

The governor, inferring there is a better way for Trump to spend his time, added: “That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.” The audience erupted in cheers.

As well they should have.

This week, Trump posted a low-resolution photo of a man he alleged was DeSantis, standing next to several young women at a party. Trump captioned the photo:

“Here is Ron DeSanctimonious grooming high school girls with alcohol as a teacher.”

Trump added provocatively: “That’s not Ron, is it? He would never do such a thing!”

The New York Times reported the photo was originally part of an attack ad published by a Democrat super PAC. The article noted the two females were former students who attended a party where DeSantis happened to be, and that the party “took place after” they had graduated.

Bold mine. With this apparently compulsive harrassment of DeSantis, Trump is allowing his ego and natural combativeness to walk him right into a trap set for him by D卐M☭CRATs, whether he sees it or not. Stooping to recycling old D卐M☭CRAT smear campaigns against somebody who of right ought to be an ally? Puh-leeze.

Love him or hate him, Gov DeSantis is not by any rational calculation the main enemy here; the D卐M☭CRATs are. Trump of all people ought to know that at least as well as anybody by now. It’s a damnable shame, and I for one really wish he’d just knock it the fuck off already with this self-defeating crap and move the fuck on. This sort of blue-on-blue flailing about does nobody any good, up to and including Trump himself.

Vintage iron

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Good ol’ American ingenuity, creativity, and know-how.

Arizona Mechanic Builds Own Fleet of Dwarf Cars Out of Old Fridges, Junkyard Scraps—Opens Own Museum

Master tinkerer Ernie Adams had always wanted a race car. But who has money for a race car?

Moreover, living in a little trailer park in Harvard, Nebraska, at the time he had no room to park one.

So, Adams, who has worked in a garage since age 16, satisfied his longing by building his very own antique dwarf car.

Over the years, his hobby would snowball massively. Now 82 and retired, Adams has an entire fleet comprised of some 15 antique dwarf cars—including several race cars—all made by his hand.

No stranger to tinkering in the shop, growing up, Adams lived just a quarter mile from the city dump, which fed his hobby. “That city dump was like a free department store for me,” he told The Epoch Times.

“At that time, they were taking gas washing machine motors off and putting electric on, and they’d throw the old motors in the dump.”

There were old bicycle and wagon parts, too, and he started deconstructing and reconstructing them and then selling his fully-functioning contraptions.

“I didn’t realize I was learning my trade back then,” he said, adding that his learning to build his own vehicles in those days came easy, because “time meant nothing, and there was no money involved.”

Lots of great pictures of this true American artist’s amazing work at the link, including this one.

DwarfRod

You do NOT want to miss any of this one, folks, trust me on that. The interior pic of the 49 Merc—which features an old-school shrunken head dangling from the mirror stanchion, and a CD player in the dash—is worth the click all by itself. And then there’s this:

The mechanic’s dwarf cars can easily handle the highway, zooming at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, while traveling as far as 200 or 300 miles on a tank of gas. They run on Honda motors installed by Adams.

Sure, it’s cozy but not uncomfortable, as Adams drops the floors down low to provide legroom aplenty.

Plus, they’re street legal; Adams, now living in Maricopa, contacted Arizona authorities and had them registered as “homemade” vehicles—as one would register a homemade trailer.

Having participated in dozens upon dozens of antique car competitions across the state and beyond, Adams boasts a wall full of trophies.

What an incredible, all-American story. I hope Adams gets rich as Croesus off of this hobby of his, I really do.

Sarah “Shut ‘Em Down” Sanders

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Mike

Sarah Huckabee Sanders—for whom, it seems, I’m gonna have to start appending “The Great” as a prefix to her first name, like I’ve been doing with Ron DeSantis; Lord knows she’s earned it—tore China Joe a new one in her HOTU response.

‘Crazy’ and ‘Wrong’: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Destroys Biden Narrative in SOTU Response

Despite being in office for just a few weeks, Arkansas GOP Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is no stranger to the limelight and her rising star shined bright on Tuesday night during her Republican rebuttal to President Biden’s second State of the Union address.

The youngest governor in America, Sanders began her speech talking about her experiences as a mother that left her “not believing much of anything I heard tonight from President Biden.”

Reiterating that America is the “greatest country the world has known” because it is the “freest” ever known, Sanders affirmed the belief that “government exists not to rule the people, but to serve the people.”

Contrasting herself with Biden, Sanders said “At 40, I’m the youngest governor in the country. At 80, he’s the oldest president in American history. I’m the first woman to lead my state, he’s the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is,” the governor said, rightly turning up the heat on Democrats.

Blasting Biden and the “radical left” for its vision for Americans that “taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire” while “you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race, but not to love one another or our great country,” Sanders didn’t let those across the aisle off the hook for anything.

Saying “the Biden administration seems more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day,” Sanders explained that “most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight.”

“That’s not normal,” Sanders said speaking for Republicans and countless Americans. “It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.”

Incredible as it may seem, there’s more yet, every bit of it meeting the same high standard for quality as the above. As I mentioned the other day, Sanders was the best Presidential press secretary ever under Trump, and she’s on track to be the best governor Arkansas ever had now. You go, girl.

Schisming

Posted on February 7, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Remember the other night when I mentioned my upbringing in the First United Methodist Church in Mt Holly? Well, my cousin (BPs drummer Mark) called me up Sunday with some welcome news: FUMC-Mt Holly had voted overwhelmingly that day to disaffiliate with the FUMC convocation, either to join the Global Methodist Church or go fully independent. This coming Sunday, Mt Holly Methodists will be holding a vote to decide on which way to jump.

Given events over the last several years, I had been waiting to see whether they’d make the leap or not, and hoping that they would. The FUMC has always been a fairly liberal-oriented denomination—even as far back as about 1978 or so, my dad went to our pastor to demand that his tithing money stay strictly with our local church, that he didn’t want one thin dime of it going to the national organization because of its ever-farther and faster Leftward drift—but things have gotten bad enough over the last ten years or so that a breakaway movement has begun to find its feet.

United Methodists Lose 1,800 Churches in Split Over LGBT Stance

The initial departures, mostly concentrated in the South, represent around 6 percent of the denomination—not as dramatic as the “schism” some feared.

Nearly four years ago, the United Methodist Church approved an exit plan for churches wishing to break away from the global denomination over differing beliefs about sexuality, setting in motion what many believed would be a modern-day schism.

Since then, a new analysis has found, it’s fallen well short of that.

That analysis of data collected by the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration shows 6.1 percent of United Methodist churches in the US—1,831 congregations out of 30,000 nationwide—have been granted permission to disaffiliate since 2019. There are no good figures for international departures among the estimated 12,000 United Methodist churches abroad.

The denomination’s disaffiliation plan gives churches until December 31 to cut ties, and many have already made known their desire to leave. Those churches can take their properties with them after paying apportionments and pension liabilities. Others are forcing the issue through civil courts.

The 1,831 church departures come as United Methodist bishops say they’re battling misinformation from conservative groups that encourage churches to leave the denomination for the newly formed Global Methodist Church, which has declared it will never ordain or marry LGBTQ people—the crux of the conflict.

In turn, the Global Methodist Church and groups like the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a network of theologically conservative churches, argue that the denomination’s regional conferences are making it prohibitively hard for churches to leave.

The FUMC’ers in Mt Holly, being of a more conservative bent, had long been dismayed over the parent organization’s dismal shift towards godless-Left libertinism, which has resulted in this sort of abomination:

Drag queen pastor delivers a sermon at a Methodist church. What in the world? pic.twitter.com/NXJJl9cq3T

— Catch Up (@CatchUpNetwork)

February 6, 2023

Yeah, small-town Christian folk in the South are really gonna go for that. Heartfelt kudos for the Methodists who have shown the gumption to finally tell TPTB, “Enough, no more, we’re out.” It’s about damned time, and I hope to see a lot more of it.

Long may she wave

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Mike

A win for sanity, freedom, and property rights.

Victory in Prince Edward County! Just getting out of court. More details to follow, but the judge ruled in our favor, DENYING Prince Edward County’s appeal of the decision of their own Board of Zoning Appeals, and stating that we did everything in good faith and are not responsible for the County issuing us a building permit “in error”.

This is a huge win for us, for the citizens of Prince Edward County, for our Confederate veterans, and for ALL landowners in the Commonwealth and beyond. All glory to God. All honor to our Confederate ancestors.

Baron Bodissey celebrates.

It’s a moment worth celebrating, but the fight is probably not over yet. The Virginia Flaggers took in money from donations (I was one of the donors) to fight their case, but Prince Edward County is using taxpayers’ money to wage their battles, which means their lawyers can continue with their appeals at higher levels, presumably all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court. The Virginia Flaggers will then have to ask the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy to dig deeper into their pockets to pay the additional legal expenses.

I don’t understand how the supervisors can justify all this to their constituents. Outside of Farmville itself — where the Longwood University community is a reliable source of wokeness — there can’t be a whole lot of support for fighting to remove the Battle Flag. Even black people are largely indifferent to the issue.

If blacks are indeed “largely indifferent to the issue,” which statistics seem to indicate they are, well, good on them for that. At this late date, the battle is NOT over the flag per se, nor blacks neither. What it’s about now is rewriting history, to suit the Left’s present-day agenda. No more, no less.

Which means that the fight will NEVER be over, as long as one shitlib still draws breath. And on the historical-accuracy note, nice to see Bodissey refer to it, correctly, as the Confederate Battle Flag, which it is, instead of just the “Confederate Flag,” which it never was. A feel-good story all the way around.

Peace through strength

Posted on February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 by Mike

Or chaos through senility.

It is worth remembering that during Donald Trump’s first term as president (note that I say “first term”), America and indeed the world was a more pacific place. Russia did not invade Ukraine. Iran was bottled up. The Abraham Accords brought peace to the Middle East. Amazing.

How did he do it? By taking a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook. Next to “Make America Great Again” (and perhaps laments about “fake news”) the phrase that one heard most often from the Trump campaign and, then, the Trump Administration was “peace through strength.” It was born of Trump’s understanding that weakness is provocative and destabilizing while recognized strength encourages peace and social order.

Biden has depleted our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, shuttered the Keystone Pipeline, and put the kibosh on fracking. He has gone a long way towards transforming the United States military into a gender fluid sensitivity camp while also undermining the U.S. economy by incontinent spending and by pursuing other inflationary policies. Biden and his puppet masters tried to stymie Trump by turning his catchphrase “MAGA” into a negative epithet (and if “MAGA” is bad, how much worse is “Ultra MAGA”?). As Julie Kelly remarked, “if the balloon was an unarmed female veteran, the government would have shot it by now.”

But it didn’t work. So-called MAGA policies really did “make America great again”—richer, more secure, more confident and patriotic.

Which is precisely why they so desperately, fanatically hated it. And him, and us.

Old Media launches pre-emptive strike

Posted on February 4, 2023February 4, 2023 by Mike

In typical dishonest fashion, against their latest hate-object.

DeSantis Derangement Syndrome: The media get even more unhinged

For those of us with already-low expectations for the leftist media, they’ve been working to lower that bar even further in their coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

You’d think these press organizations would have learned from their Trump Derangement Syndrome, when they burned trust in so many institutions, including and specifically their own, trying to fight President Donald Trump. Instead, they’ve simply substituted DeSantis in their activist, bile-filled, often-totally-wrong rants.

CNN reporter John Blake sent this note to DeSantis’ press secretary, Bryan Griffin, asking for comment after the gov blocked a woke high-school class: “I’ve talked to one of the nation’s leading scholars on fascism who, along with another scholar who is an authority on fascism, say that DeSantis’ decision echoes similar decisions made by fascist dictators to force what one historian calls ‘collective amnesia’ about the past.”

I’m writing a piece calling the governor a fascist, care to comment? And how long have you been beating your wife?

Griffin posted Blake’s request to Twitter, pulling back the curtain on how hit pieces calling America’s most popular governor a “fascist” get made.

The Daily Beast ran an entirely fictitious account, likely written in crayon, of the DeSantis team paying influencers and “bot farms” on Twitter.

DeSantis for his part talks directly to Floridians and calmly explains his policies, which Floridians continue to support despite the media hoopla. He comes to his press conferences armed with facts and never lets the media get the better of him. He and his team have been teaching a master class in how to handle the dishonest press.

But they shouldn’t have to. Even those who don’t share his politics should speak up and say the coverage is absurd and lack of trust in news organizations has hurt us all. But they won’t because there are elections to win.

Well, that, plus they just enjoy the near-sexual frisson deceitfully slandering their adversaries and bringing them down provides them so much they really can’t help themselves. It’s too great a temptation for the snarling, yappy little ankle-biters to resist.

As for Ron The Great, he’s been an excellent governor, accomplishing several real and worthwhile things aimed at undoing many of the Great Leaps Forward made by Florida Leftards. Which is exactly why they hate him so desperately: love him or hate him, see him as a genuine reformer or just another grubby politician on the make, there’s no denying that DeSantis has been damned effective as governor of Florida.

And that’s what counts most at this point. The Sovereign States are where all the action is; for the most part, all the national political maneuvering and Titanic-deck-chair reshuffling hardly even registers with me anymore, it’s close to irrelevant. We know for sure and certain that the President is nothing more than a figurehead—a malleable, pliant ventriloquist’s dummy trotted out to make speeches at fundraisers. Trump’s Oval Orifice ordeal raised the curtain on that harsh reality, and the Biden meat-puppet’s disastrous tenure has confirmed it beyond all doubt.

I mean, seriously now: even diehard Dim-O-Creeps are coming around, in steadily increasing numbers, to the manifestly-obvious fact that the Biden meat-puppet isn’t in charge of his own daily bowel movement, much less of Amerika v2.0’s bloated central government, whether they’re willing to openly admit to it yet or not. Not that they’ll balk at campaigning, fundraising, and voting for the addle-pated old crook in 2024, mind. After all, they ARE still D卐M☭CRATs, you know.

Despite all the will he-won’t he 2024 Presidential speculation, despite oleaginous operators from both sides of the political fence presuming to put words in DeSantis’ mouth for their own purposes, I have yet to see the man himself utter Syllable One about the chances of him deciding to take a run at the tarnished brass ring. That makes me very happy indeed; as I’ve said over and over, Real Americans need Ron DeSantis right where he currently is. He’ll do way more good for us as Florida’s governor than he’ll ever be permitted to as POTUS, if only as a morale- and resolve-booster showing that the Left juggernaut isn’t invincible—that with a little effort and determination, they can in fact be defeated.

Should he decide to run anyhow, it will reveal much about who and what Ron DeSantis really is down deep—his character, his intelligence, his ego, his ambitions, his grasp of current reality, even—none of it the slightest bit encouraging. That will be a truly sad day, both for us and for the nation its own self.

It’s the only way to be sure

Posted on February 3, 2023February 3, 2023 by Mike

I’ve said this before here myself, but it bears repeating.

Dear Russian MOD,

If there is going to be a nuclear war, please nuke Washington DC first. I know there are a dozen or so real patriots there, but I would call it acceptable collateral damage. The rest of them brought it on themselves. Just to know the scum in DC had been vaporized just before I see my own local mushroom cloud would give me great satisfaction just before I died.

I have my vodka and The Great Patriotic War music cued up for the event. I would say “Cheers”, but I don’t think you are in a mood for British colloquialisms.

Regards to Vlad! General Milley and his running lap dog “yes men” send their regards. The general would add a personal note, but he is on the phone with President Xi talking nuclear stuff.

Thank you for your consideration.

(Tongue in cheek, but not really, Reese’s Cups)

Scipio

Same thing goes for all the big-city Wokester hives: SF, Chicago, LA, NYC, et al. But Mordor On The Potomac has absolutely earned the right to be at the very tippy-top of the to-go list. As the Joker once so memorably said: this town needs an enema; a 50-kiloton one would surely be a good first step towards setting things right again. In fact, it might well be the only way of getting it done effectively.

Ripley knows.

Halp us, Jon Karry Vlad Putin! You’re the only who can save us now.

(Via WRSA)

Good show!

Posted on February 2, 2023February 2, 2023 by Mike

I know I said yesterday that the animal-rights whackjobs chaining themselves by their chicken-necks to an active conveyor belt was the feel-good story of the week, and I meant that too. But suddenly, a new contender has emerged.

Vegan activists try to stop a truck 🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/ejm0WnsDsv

— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_)

January 30, 2023

In the vid, after his near-thing brush with becoming sticky red goo, one of the candidates for a Darwin Golden Achievement Award whimpers, “what’s wrong with that guy?” To which I respond: nothing whatsoever, roadkill. The only wrong thing here is you and your insufferably smug compadres, not the poor working stiff just trying to earn an honest, honorable, and entirely legal living for himself and his family, a thing I strongly suspect your ilk knows little if anything about.

Then comes the anguished bleat “HE’S A LUNATIC!!” Well, somebody certainly is, yeah. But it ain’t the truck driver; he’s had just about a bellyfull of your juvenile-delinquent bullshit, and decided he just wasn’t gonna put up with another second of it. Like the rest of us saner sorts are similarly fed up, and will have to show a little “activist” initiative of our own if we ever hope to be rid of you.

Indeed. Lately, it seems as if there’s another new Lord Of The Idiots title-seeker popping up every five minutes or so.

Moar Substackery

Posted on February 1, 2023February 1, 2023 by Mike

Humble thanks to the handful of folks who have signed up as subscribers to my Substack thang over the last few days. I still don’t have the place looking the way I’d like for it to; near as I can tell, customization options are, shall we say, limited, so it simply ain’t possible to tweak things too very much. As an inveterate tinkerer my whole danged life, with everything from cars to motorcycles to guitars to amps to recipes to websites, you can readily imagine just how severely that chaps my baggy white ass.

It does, however, bring to mind a query: what are y’all’s thoughts on the white text against blue background I’m using there currently? I was hoping to get this Eyrie endeavor of mine to as closely resemble this h’yar websty as I could, but it seems to me that the white text might be kinda hard on older eyes. Do let me know in the comments, please; that at least is simplicity itself to adjust, and I’ll be happy to do so if needed.

There’s also the email-notification-for-subscribers feature to consider, which I haven’t bothered customizing at all yet. Then there’s the multitude of other features, most of which I don’t even know what they are yet, nor what they do.

My original idea for this Substack whoopjamboreehoo was to offer original-content posts there once things get rolling steady, to go up on Mondays and Fridays å la James Kunstler’s joint. I’m less confident about being able to pull that twice-weekly commitment off now than I was, seeing as how I am unwaveringly determined that the dire need to generate some income due to my new status as World’s Greatest One-Legged Blogger (see right sidebar) shall NOT be allowed to infringe on Ye Olde Colde Furye Blogge in any way, shape, or form. I’ve been running this hogwallow for over twenty years now, no way I’ll just let it wither on the vine now. Not on my watch, bub.

On the other hand, though, since the whole idea is to make some dough, I want to provide decent bang for the buck at the Eyrie too, y’know? The benefit would be twofold, I’m thinking, with not only the income potential but the prospect of driving more traffic from there to here and vice the versa figuring into this messy mix.

In the final analysis, the blogging thing entire is about eyeballs and interaction, not money. The free exchange of ideas is the prime motivator, which is as it should be. We on the Dissident Right are sorely beset on all sides by a monstrous, malignant politico-cultural Leviathan; not since the Revolution itself has it been more vital that, as Franklin famously said back then, we all hang together, lest we all hang separately. As the gathering riptide of chaos, dissolution, and collapse threatens to overwhelm and wash away all that we once held dear, those words of wisdom must not be forgotten.

In praise of Pat Buchanan

Posted on January 28, 2023January 28, 2023 by Mike

As Barry Goldwater’s ill-fated 1964 campaign’s slogan had it: In your heart, you know he’s right.

America First: A Tribute to Pat Buchanan

Last Friday, Buchanan announced he is retiring the political column he has written since the days of Barry Goldwater. It is the final end of a public political career that has spanned a half century of decline in the country Buchanan loved so much and fought so hard to save. And if Buchanan can’t boast that he actually did save the country, he at least has the satisfaction of seeing ideas that once made him an outcast from his own party rise to become the dominant worldview within it. Without Buchanan, there would be no Trump. For that matter, without Buchanan, there would be no Revolver.

Of all the people who might be deemed a forerunner of Donald Trump and his political revolution, Pat Buchanan has by far the most worthy claim.

Consider this article from 2015, published just as Trump’s presidential campaign was taking off:

Mr. Trump revels in controversy. But as he assails illegal immigration as an “invasion” and refers to Mexicans en masse as “Jose,” his critics are accusing him of taking controversy a step too far. They say Mr. Trump is speaking in code, using xenophobic images like those or anti-Semitic references to excite bigots without alienating mainstream voters.

[Trump frequently offers] direct and sometimes harsh mockery of foreigners, using his derision to cultivate support for his immigration and trade policies. “I’ll build that security fence, and we’ll close it, and we’ll say, ‘Listen Jose, you’re not coming in this time!’ ” he shouted to applause from an almost entirely white audience at a rally in Waterloo, Iowa three weeks ago.

Okay, you probably already guessed the twist: That’s not Trump at all, but a write-up of Buchanan’s presidential campaign twenty-six years ago. All that’s missing is the promise to make Mexico pay for the fence. Buchanan didn’t just share Trump’s views, but his talent for colorful language that drove the regime berserk; a quarter-century before “Crooked Hillary,” China’s Deng Xiaoping was a “chain-smoking Communist dwarf.”

Donald Trump won the presidency by appealing to the Silent Majority, but Buchanan is the one who literally coined the term working as a speechwriter for Richard Nixon. And throughout his career, Buchanan tried his best to speak for that quiet mass of beleaguered American humanity.

Put up a fence, send illegals home, America-first trade policy, an end to foreign interventionism, no more wokeness: It was all there, 20 years ahead of Trump. But tragically, the message went unheeded. Buchanan was the intellectual son of accountant, not a billionaire real estate tycoon with three decades’ experience as a TV star. Buchanan had the ideas, but Trump had the money, the star power, the meme magic. Buchanan’s 1992 campaign was the last credible primary challenge to an incumbent president, but nothing more. His 1996 campaign might have worked against a more divided field, but against an establishment firmly united around Bob Dole, Buchanan won just four states and 20% of the primary vote.

But Buchanan never deviated or retooled his message just for the sake of popularity. Instead, he willingly endured more than a decade as the Republican Party’s Cassandra.

In the end, all of Buchanan’s warnings came true: Middle America became a hollowed-out, deindustrialized area wracked with blight and drug overdoses. America’s foreign adventures wasted trillions and achieved nothing. The tidal wave of foreign immigration resulted not in rainbow-like harmony but endless struggles between different identity groups. And all of this culminated in crushing defeat for the Bush-era Republican party that embraced all of these trends. It would only return to the White House in 2016 behind a candidate who finally did what Buchanan had begged the party to do a quarter-century before: Actually reach out to middle America and seek the support of America’s Silent Majority.

“My friends, these people are our people,” Buchanan said in 1992. “They don’t read Adam Smith or Edmund Burke, but they come from the same schoolyards and the same playgrounds and towns as we come from. They share our beliefs and convictions, our hopes and our dreams. They are the conservatives of the heart. They are our people. And we need to reconnect with them. We need to let them know we know how bad they’re hurting. They don’t expect miracles of us, but they need to know we care.”

Sadly, it took twenty-four years for the GOP to field a candidate who did.

Yep—dragged kicking and screaming every step of the way, and to this day they struggle desperately to smite him, and make damned sure he stays smote for the duration. Just as any debased, corrupted system or organization always will do, to any nonconformist, visionary outlaw who dares stand athwart them and their nefarious ambitions.

Unworthy world order

Posted on January 28, 2023January 28, 2023 by Mike

If the over-optimistically misnomered “free world” is no longer anything like free, what about it could possibly be worth striving to save?

Why Preserve a ‘World Order’ Without Freedom?

It has become fashionable now for lawmakers to demand accountability for the social media site TikTok because it is finally being correctly acknowledged as both an intelligence-gathering net and propaganda fire hose for the Chinese Communist Party. The irony, though, is that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google Search provide the U.S. government with identical tools. The D.C. Deep State does not mind if Americans are spied on and psychologically manipulated by government actors; on the contrary, it seeks a total monopoly on such influence operations.

To enjoy personal liberty free from the arbitrary intrusions of government nosy-bodies, you have to get pretty far away from the shadow of State authority. Even then, because the national security surveillance structure is pervasive, an isolated campfire in a remote wood is still most likely being caught by somebody’s overhead satellite for some unknown reason. If you are unable to escape from the watchful eyes of the government’s complex monitoring system, then the inner mind becomes the last refuge for any freethinker — so long as those personal thoughts are not communicated out loud.

So freedom is chased farther and farther away from hubs of government tracking, farther and farther into the recesses of one’s mind, until it can be exercised only in the silence of one’s imagination. Make no mistake: the imposition of “silence” is intentional. Governments understand that the best way to prevent the spread of ideas that might threaten their grip on power is to prevent those ideas from ever being spoken out loud. To silence dissent is to squash opposition. To criminalize thought is to enslave the mind. That’s the “freedom” enjoyed by a prisoner, not a living, breathing citizen of any “free world.” If you have been corralled into a mental prison against your will, though, then the best question to ask is this: what would you be willing to do to escape?

Cameras, computers, artificial intelligence — there’s just no way out! Do you know that every generation of humans confronted with new technological weapons has said the same thing?Their cannon are too powerful! Their ships are too many! It is futile to resist! Yet people do resist, and over time, they realize that it is ultimately not the technology that threatens their freedom, but rather the governments that would choose to use that technology without respect for human rights or natural liberties.

Precisely, indubitably so. Over the course of my life, I’ve heard the exact same bitching and moaning over the advent of color TV, then cable TV, then VCRs, then the Innarnuts, then cell phones, then smart phones and tablets, etc etc ad infinitum ad nauseam. No, no, and oh hell no. No grumpy comment-section Neo-Luddite screaming “we must get rid of (insert name of new tech here), we must get rid of (insert other new tech here)!” is at any real hazard of being enslaved by said new-tech devices. Not as long as they retain the intestinal fortitude to simply put the blasted thing down, they ain’t.

Bottom-line summation: it’s the government, stupid.

To create and sustain a “free world,” citizens actually have to be willing to stand up to their governments and say, “No, you cannot do that; you do not have that power; now go away.” Usually, governments (which exist purely because they assert a monopoly over the legitimate use of force) then load their cannon and surround rebellious ports with an overwhelming number of ships as a demonstration of how their “legitimate” force somehow justifies the theft of others’ freedoms. For the citizenry on the receiving end of such violence, this translates to nothing more than “might makes right.”

What they learn in the process is that government power untethered from principle is neither righteous nor worth preserving. The harsher and more unjust governments become toward their citizens, the more likely movements for freedom take hold. When scrappy underdogs prevail over unbeatable foes and “turn the world upside-down,” they do so with tremendous help from their tormentors’ hubris.

Lindsey Graham is right about this much: the world order is at stake. Freedom around the world is under attack from those governments sworn to protect it, and their betrayal imperils peace. I saw a headline recently that blared, “Rogue Hog Turns Tables, Kills Butcher.” Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the news had nothing to do with politics. Although, given that the homicidal hog had been repeatedly shocked with a stun gun and kept in a tiny enclosure on his way to becoming BBQ, his story could be a prudent allegory after all.

Freedom ain’t free; never has been, never will be. It is not a gift from some benevolent and wise government; no government in history has been willing to even pay lip service for very long, as ours no longer bothers about doing, to “preserving” and/or “defending” it as it grows ever larger and more intrusive. The priceless jewel of freedom can only be seized and then scrupulously maintained, nearly always by force of arms wielded by strong, determined lovers of individual liberty resolutely unwilling to ever take “no” for an answer.

“Violence is not the answer”? The hell you say. It’s the ONLY answer, once a certain line in the sand has been stepped over. Unfortunately for us all, in Amerika v2.0 that grim threshold was crossed long ago.

This essay is depressing as all hell, but it’s also one of the estimable JB Shurk’s very best yet, of which you’ll surely want to read the all.

The last American hero

Posted on January 21, 2023January 21, 2023 by Mike

Verily, a man among men.

Over the moon! Buzz Aldrin marries on his 93rd birthday: Astronaut legend ties the knot for a fourth time as he shares sweet photos with new bride Anca Faur, 63

The second man on the moon has married for a fourth time, with astronaut legend Buzz Aldrin announcing he’d wed his longtime girlfriend on his birthday.

Mr Aldrin, who turned 93 on Friday and was part of the historic first-ever moon landing mission, made the sweet announcement to his new bride, who is 30 years his junior, on his Twitter account.

‘On my 93rd birthday & the day I will also be honored by Living Legends of Aviation I am pleased to announce that my longtime love Dr. Anca Faur & I have tied the knot. We were joined in holy matrimony in a small private ceremony in Los Angeles & are as excited as eloping teenagers.’

Dr Faur, 63, currently works as the Executive Vice President of Buzz Aldrin Ventures LLC, with her LinkedIn page listing her as having worked for the company since 2019.

What a badass. There are photos, and Buzz still looks great. No word at post time on whether he gave any pesky, moonshot-denier punk-ass bitches in the vicinity that patented Aldrin right cross straight in the fucking mush. But no matter; we’ll always have the memories.

Schweeeet. WeirdDave also hips us to this gem:

I’ve heard stories that Buzz and Neil Armstrong used to tell each other really unfunny jokes about being on the moon at parties, and when they were greeted with an awkward silence they’d say “Well, I guess you had to be there”.

Heh. Yep, like I said: badass. Happy birthday to you, Buzz. May you and your lovely bride enjoy many happy years together.

Street justice

Posted on January 17, 2023 by Mike

Andrea Widburg on a phenomenon that, as Feral lawlessness continues to go unpunished, we’ll be seeing more and more of: vigilantism.

VIDEOS: Americans step up because the police aren’t there

Last week, a video made the rounds showing what happened to a man who entered a restaurant, waved a gun around (later shown to be fake), and demanded people’s valuables. That’s a common enough occurrence nowadays, but this one went viral when one of the customers, recognizing that a criminal pointing a gun at others poses an imminent threat to life, shot the man…again and again and again.

Most people agree that the initial shots were righteous, but there’s debate about the last shot when it appeared that the threat the robber presented had been neutralized. However, we really don’t know whether the robber was still a threat. After all, we’ve all seen videos of bad guys absorbing round after round and still killing or wounding people. (E.g., here.) The law allows citizens to keep defending themselves as long as necessary.

Two more videos of citizens taking action have emerged. One is wonderfully amusing because it shows Guitar Center employees in Phoenix unceremoniously throwing out a would-be thief…

The second video shows people corralling a would-be purse snatcher. When he makes a break for freedom, a woman who had a gun trained on him shoots him in the back as he flees. Under the classic American standard, unless she can colorably claim that he still posed an imminent threat as he fled, she’s in trouble.

The vid:

Don’t steal purses in Texas pic.twitter.com/avf1j6RlZM

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec)

January 15, 2023

Another example of what I call a Righteous Shoot™, to my way of thinking. But hey, maybe that’s just me. In practical terms, though, it really isn’t going to matter.

Regardless of the shot’s righteousness, this is another example of what happens when citizens feel they’re on their own. In Houston and El Paso, crime in Texas has run rampant, and the authorities are doing nothing to protect law-abiding citizens. So, again, citizens will protect themselves.

As they should, and in fact must. There is no innate moral obligation that requires decent, law-abiding people to docilely put up with being preyed upon indefinitely. That obligation is instead part of an unwritten, informal charter we used to call the social contract. And when the authorities once entrusted with its enforcement tacitly renege, it can be revoked. And it will be. Gonna be pretty tough on the Dindus, I’m afraid, but here as always the FAFO rules apply. When Normals realize that legal justice is no longer available to them, then street justice will be all they have left.

Threatens the tyrant

Posted on January 17, 2023January 17, 2023 by Mike

The usual blather from a gun-grabbing blowhard.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has blasted the more than six dozen sheriff’s offices across the state for vowing to defy a new gun control law.

“This is political grandstanding at its worst. The assault weapons ban is the law of Illinois,” the governor’s office told Fox News on Monday. “The General Assembly passed the bill and the Governor signed it into law to protect children in schools, worshippers at church, and families at parades from the fear of sudden mass murder.”

The state Senate passed the Protect Illinois Communities Act last week, which bans assault weapons 2A-protected semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity standard-capacity magazines from being sold or manufactured in the state.

Edited by me, for purposes of veracity.

At least 74 sheriff’s offices have publicly stated their opposition to the law, calling it unconstitutional.

80 at last count, out of a possible hundred and two counties in Illinois. Which adds up to an overwhelming majority in anybody’s book. Gee, Gov Prickzter, think maybe the problem here might not lie with these stalwart sheriffs, who are standing up straight and tall in resistance to mendacious authority, but with this soggy sop you’re tossing to the fear-stricken and factually-challenged in your sorry state?

“Part of my duties that I accepted upon being sworn into office was to protect the rights provided to all of us, in the Constitution,” Edwards County Sheriff Darby Boewe said on Facebook. “One of those rights enumerated is the right of the people to KEEP and BEAR ARMS provided under the 2nd Amendment. The right to keep and bear arms for defense of life, liberty and property is regarded as an inalienable right by the people.”

The Illinois Sheriff’s Association stated last week that they have opposed the bill since its inception.

“We, as a representative of chief law enforcement officials throughout Illinois, are very concerned and disturbed by the ongoing and escalating violence throughout our State and Country,” they said. “We are always supportive of new tools, techniques and laws that assist us in preventing and holding accountable those that wage efforts of harm and violence on others. However, this new law does not do that.”

As statistics and studies have confirmed, over and again.

Pritzker’s office continues to maintain that law enforcement in the state doesn’t have the right to “pick and choose which laws they support.”

Perhaps so, and then again perhaps not. What they DO have is a clear and specific duty to refuse to enforce patently unlawful and contra-Constitutional edicts such as this one, you multi-chinned fascist slob. These good men and true are upholding their oaths of office; you’re violating yours. If this nation is to survive qua nation for very much longer, it will require a whole lot fewer of YOU and a whole lot more of THEM to see to it that it does.

Next time grubby, greasy Gov Prickzter is consoling himself with a few dozen fully-loaded triple-decker fatburgers in the privacy of the Governor’s Mansion, I hope he chokes to death on ’em.

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