Big tsimmis – Page 36

What we’ve lost

Posted on December 3, 2022December 3, 2022 by Mike

Or, more precisely, was taken from us without our consent.

During the hurricane that was the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, it wasn’t just my high school friends and I who were on trial—it was an entire decade. That decade was the 1980s.

To understand the ’80s, and how our generation, Generation X, was formed, it helps to start with the 1970s. Specifically, with the movie “The Bad News Bears.” “The Bad News Bears” is one of the most hilarious and politically incorrect films ever made. It came out in 1976—when America was a more freewheeling place, for better and worse—and was a huge hit. It portrayed kids realistically. The Little League “Bears” cussed, used stereotypes, thought their alcoholic manager Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) was useless, and got into fights. They were real kids. That includes the girl pitcher Amanda Whurlitzer, brilliantly played by Tatum O’Neal. Amanda fired right back when the boys razzed her, and mowed them down with her fastball. She was tough, smart, and independent.

Those real 1970s kids became the teenagers of the 1980s. They—we—often continued to be rowdy, independent, and rambunctious. I was born in 1964, which means I was 12 when “Bears” came out and then a teenager in the early 1980s when I was a student at Georgetown Prep. Things were a lot looser back then. You learned to fend for yourself (not everyone got a trophy), even as you tried to navigate the total wave of drugs and alcohol that were available. The hippie culture ruined a lot of lives.

Before political correctness and the #MeToo movement, before iPhones and the internet and Twitter and outrage culture, there was an understanding that beneath the veneer of civilization was something wild, dangerous, and joyful—a soul electric with sex and slapstick.

Compared to previous generations, kids today are less likely to have sex, drive, work, drink alcohol, date, or go out without their parents. A lot of this has to do with the advent of smartphones and social media. Kids these days are terrified that if they do something bold—or stupid—it will wind up on Facebook, YouTube, or Snapchat. In 2015, pop singer Ariana Grande, then 22, licked a doughnut—and it wound up on “The Today Show.”

In the 1980s, we didn’t live in fear of our every action being caught on a cell phone or security camera and then posted on social media. You could go out on a Saturday night, drink beer, see a band, take a long walk by yourself, hit on a girl, toilet-paper a neighbor’s house, and speed on the way home. You could do all these things while remaining almost completely anonymous. By 2002 that became more difficult, and, by 2012, it was damn near impossible.

Today’s porn- and outrage-saturated media, and our inability as a culture to deal with the ambiguities of male sexuality, lay at the heart of the Kavanaugh imbroglio. My videos and writings were interpreted to indicate hostility toward women when they, in fact, express love, healthy masculine desire, and a deep appreciation for their mystery, power, and beauty. You’re not really allowed to be in awe of women anymore. It’s all interpreted as hate.

But it wasn’t just Brett and me who were on trial. It was the entire era in which we grew up. An era of robust cultural confidence when men and women were equally celebrated, the 1980s have now, in the rearview mirror, become fodder for our modern media scolds.

For instance, several journalists noted during the hearings that I had written in praise of Hugh Hefner, who is now considered a symbol of toxic masculinity. This was taken as evidence of my retrograde sexual attitudes and projected onto Brett as proof of his being unfit for a seat on the nation’s highest court. What a crock of bullshit. The farther away I get from it, the angrier I feel.

As well you should—as well we ALL should, actually. The roots of America’s decline into a sickly, emasculated, terrorized, and psychically-impoverished culture aren’t at all difficult to discern; one doesn’t have to look very hard or very far to find them, they’re all around every one of us, every minute of every day.

Broken

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Mike

Methinks Tablet editor in chief Alana Newhouse and her correspondent Ryan are definitely onto something with this idea.

At one point last year, Ryan said something that struck a nerve. “I don’t know what I identify as these days, because everything has gotten so scrambled,” he noted. “I’m not a Democrat or a Republican, I don’t even think I could define myself narrowly as either a liberal or a conservative anymore. The one thing I know that I fundamentally do believe is the premise of your piece, that the dominant institutions of American life—in education, in the arts, in politics—are either totally broken or so weak or corrupt that they’re becoming irrelevant. In a way, the only thing I know that I believe in is…brokenness.”

Ryan went on to explain that, when he gets into political debates with friends and acquaintances these days, those on the “other side” aren’t all liberals or all conservatives or in fact all from any other previously recognizable camp. Instead, they are the people in his life who, regardless of how they vote or otherwise affiliate, remain invested in the institutions and political ideologies that now leave Ryan cold. Many of them acknowledge that there are problems, even serious ones, with universities, newspapers, nonprofits, both political parties, what have you, but they see these as normal, fixable challenges, not signs of fundamental brokenness. To them, the impulse to consign weighty institutions to the dustbin of history feels impulsive and irresponsible—like arson. To Ryan, staying committed to decrepit structures, and insisting to others that they are fundamentally safe when they’re clearly not, is what feels reckless.

Most Americans don’t fall squarely into one of these two camps. Around 40% don’t even vote. But among the people who do engage in debates about this country’s future, the ones doing it most compellingly are not those still stuck in the battle between “Democrats” and “Republicans,” or “liberalism” and “conservatism.” The most vital debate in America today is between those who believe there is something fundamentally broken in America, and that it’s an emergency, and those who do not.

…Many people understandably see our current moment as a wave of change that can be ridden successfully—without overblown diagnoses or radical solutions. These are status-quoists, people who are invested in the established institutions of American life, even as they acknowledge that this or that problem around the margins should of course be tackled. Status-quoists believe that any decline in quality one might observe at Yale or The Washington Post or the Food and Drug Administration or the American Federation of Teachers are simply problems of personnel, circumstance, incompetence, or lack of information. Times change, people come and go, status-quoists believe—this outfit screwed up COVID policy, yes, and that place has an antisemitism problem, agreed. But they will learn, reform, and recover, and they need our help to do so. What isn’t needed, and is in fact anathema, is any effort to inject more perceived radicalism into an already toxic and polarized American society. The people, ideas, and institutions that led America after the end of the Cold War must continue to guide us through the turbulence ahead. What can broadly be called the “establishment” is not only familiar, status-quoists believe; it is safe, stable, and ultimately enduring.

On the other side are brokenists, people who believe that our current institutions, elites, intellectual and cultural life, and the quality of services that many of us depend on have been hollowed out. To them, the American establishment, rather than being a force of stability, is an obese and corrupted tangle of federal and corporate power threatening to suffocate the entire country. Proof of this decay, they argue, can be seen in the unconventional moves that many people, regardless of how they would describe themselves politically, are making: home-schooling their children to avoid the failures and politicization of many public and private schools; consuming more information from YouTube, Twitter, Substack, and podcasts than from legacy media outlets; and abandoning the restrictions, high costs, and pathologies of the coasts for freer and more affordable pastures in the Southeast and Southwest.

Brokenists come from all points on the political spectrum. They disagree with each other about what kinds of programs, institutions, and culture they want to see prevail in America. What they agree on—what is in fact a more important point of agreement than anything else—is that what used to work is not working for enough people anymore.

Worse, the people for whom it IS still working are the selfsame nefarious wreckers who broke the whole damned system in the first place, intentionally and with malice aforethought.

(Via WeirdDave)

Facts: FACED

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Mike

On Gab, Fran just comes right out and says it.

We must accept…
That the Constitution is a dead letter.
That the last two elections were fraudulent.
That the edifice in Washington is hostile to us.
That we cannot trust anyone who holds public office.
That “movements,” so called, are mostly a trap for enthusiasts.
That no explicitly political undertaking will restore our rights or our nation.

These are not happy pronouncements. I’m distressed by the need to make them. But reality is not a matter of opinion. Today we have a government of Usurpers who mean to rule by force, and with no particular regard for our rights. They will not yield to anything but massively superior force.

So what then?

I don’t know. I don’t have the answers. I’m an old man who’s seen too much and has no stomach for yet another fight. But what is must be frankly faced. America is now a nation ruled by an unelected oligarchy that selects its own successors, much as the Kremlin did. And as bad as its oppressions and exactions are today, present trends continuing, they’ll get worse.

How do we prevent “present trends” from “continuing?” And please, nobody say “Vote harder!”

I could never possibly say “ditto!” enough times to do the above justice, not in a million bazillion years.

SHOCKER!!!

Posted on November 27, 2022November 27, 2022 by Mike

Imagine my surprise.

There’s a remarkable concession appearing in The Washington Post today:

“a majority of Americans dying from the coronavirus received at least the primary series of the vaccine.”

The latest data shows that 58% of COVID-19 deaths in August 2022 were from people who were vaccinated or boosted. Based on past figures and the current trends, we can reasonably estimate that the number of vaccinated/boosted COVID-19 deaths will only rise. (In September 2021, the vaccinated accounted for 23% of COVID-19 deaths; in January/February 2022, the vaccinated were 42%.)

This is what happens when you rush ineffective and dangerous vaccines.

It’s also what happens when you blindly put your trust in institutions wholly, demonstrably undeserving of it.

The lesson of Thanksgiving

Posted on November 24, 2022November 24, 2022 by Mike

Very simple, very easy: eschew socialism.

Turns out, you can’t just ignore economics and human nature.

Socialism really does sound good on paper though, right? We’re all going to own everything together and take care of each other. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.“

It sounds so nice. And we all want to be nice, right? People are emotionally drawn to socialism because it sounds so good. It sounds fair. It sounds — nice.

But do you know what’s not nice?

Corpses.

That’s exactly what happened the Pilgrims got when they took a stab at socialism.

Most Americans don’t know that the Plymouth colony was originally an experiment in socialist utopianism and were it not for a complete 180 a couple of years in, we probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the bountiful feasts most of us will indulge in today. There would have been no Thanksgiving because there would have been nobody left to give thanks.

It just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without including Rush Limbaugh’s classic recounting and analysis of the true meaning of the day.

“On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims,” now known as Pilgrims, “led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established” how they would live once they got there. The contract set forth “just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs,” or political beliefs. “Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible.

The Pilgrims were a “devoutly religious people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work.” They believed in God. They believed they were in the hands of God. As you know, “this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey” to the New World on the tiny, by today’s standards, sailing ship. It was long, it was arduous.

There was sickness, there was seasickness, it was wet. It was the opposite of anything you think of today as a cruise today on the open ocean. When they “landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford’s detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves.” There was nothing.

“[T]he sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims — including Bradford’s own wife — died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.” They endured that first winter. “When spring finally came,” they had, by that time, met the indigenous people, the Indians, and indeed the “Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers” and other animals “for coats.” But there wasn’t any prosperity. “[T]hey did not yet prosper!” They were still dependent. They were still confused. They were still in a new place, essentially alone among likeminded people.

“This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than what it really was. That happened, don’t misunderstand. That all happened, but that’s not — according to William Bradford’s journal — what they ultimately gave thanks for. “Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract” that they made on the Mayflower as they were traveling to the New World…

They actually had to enter into that contract “with their merchant-sponsors in London,” because they had no money on their own. The needed sponsor. They found merchants in London to sponsor them. The merchants in London were making an investment, and as such, the Pilgrims agreed that “everything they produced to go into a common store,” or bank, common account, “and each member of the community was entitled to one common share” in this bank. Out of this, the merchants would be repaid until they were paid off.

“All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well.” Everything belonged to everybody and everybody had one share in it. They were going to distribute it equally.” That was considered to be the epitome of fairness, sharing the hardship burdens and everything like that. “Nobody owned anything. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the ’60s and ’70s out in California,” and other parts of the country, “and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.

“Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that” it wasn’t working. It “was as costly and destructive…” His own journals chronicle the reasons it didn’t work. “Bradford assigned a plot of land” to fix this “to each family to work and manage,” as their own. He got rid of the whole commune structure and “assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage,” and whatever they made, however much they made, was theirs. They could sell it, they could share it, they could keep it, whatever they wanted to do.

“For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense,’” without any payment, “‘that was thought injustice.’ Why should you work for other people when you can’t work for yourself? What’s the point?…The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive.

“So what did Bradford’s community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? ‘This had very good success,’ wrote Bradford, ‘for it made all hands [everybody] industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.’…

“Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s. … In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves. Now, this is where it gets really good, folks, if you’re laboring under the misconception that I was, as I was taught in school. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.

“And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the ‘Great Puritan Migration.’” The word of the success of the free enterprise Plymouth Colony spread like wildfire and that began the great migration. Everybody wanted a part of it. There was no mass slaughtering of the Indians. There was no wiping out of the indigenous people, and eventually — in William Bradford’s own journal — unleashing the industriousness of all hands ended up producing more than they could ever need themselves.

So trading post began selling and exchanging things with the Indians — and the Indians, by the way, were very helpful. Puritan kids had relationships with the children of the Native Americans that they found. This killing the indigenous people stuff, they’re talking about much, much, much, much later. It has nothing to do with the first thanksgiving.

The first Thanksgiving was William Bradford and Plymouth Colony thanking God for their blessings. That’s the first Thanksgiving. Nothing wrong with being grateful to the Indians; don’t misunderstand. But the true meaning of Thanksgiving — and this is what George Washington recognized in his first Thanksgiving proclamation.

No wonder shitlibs loathe and despise this quintessentially American holiday so intensely. The Thanksgiving story revolves around gratitude; humility; pluck; human fallibility. It is a glorious confirmation of human resilience and adaptability. Above all else, it stands as a resounding condemnation, in the most practical and readily comprehensible of terms, of their preferred ideology: socialism. For your typical, garden-variety shitlib, what’s to like?

The New (Ab)Normal

Posted on November 20, 2022November 20, 2022 by Mike

It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

When They Are Trying to Kill Us, Do Their Motives Matter?

Not as far as I’m concerned they don’t, no.

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

From new potentially deadly synthetic pathogens to blocking the sun, our aspiring masters are attacking life from multiple angles

A recent preprint reports on a new engineered variant that showed an 80% disease mortality rate in humanized mice

While that particular result was based on humanized mice, so was the approval of the new bivalent boosters

In practical terms, debates about the crazies’ motives matter less than protecting ourselves from their assaults, whether they think of themselves as saviors or just like killing people

The paradox of this moment is that under pressure, we have a chance to remember why we are here and to celebrate and honor our life’s purpose

This story is about living in a world run by crazy people with access to powerful technology. This is the world we are in. We are in a world run by genocidal maniacs. It is our life. It is our challenge. So what do we do?

Captain Mal knew the answer to that as well as you and I do.

Now, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of the thing, shall we?

One of the main objections from respectable people is that there could be corruption — even bad corruption — but surely, no evil motives, and the reason for that is that we live in a “normal” world in which large scale conspiracies don’t happen. When I get to that part of the conversation, I usually say, very sincerely, that I don’t care if the people bringing destruction to our species think of themselves as saviors or just like killing.

In my recent article called, “What is a Conspiracy?” I argued that “it is possible that Klaus Schwab believes his own b*****t and thinks that the Great Reset is good for our species. But does it matter? Most likely, even classic serial killers follow their own internal logic that makes them “not villains” — but none the less they are killing, and conspiring to do so! And, on a side note, there is nothing new about the practice of combining one’s “missionary obsession” with personal profit!”

The history of our species is proof that genocides are not a figment of imagination and not an abstraction — and while it is usually hard to scholastically “prove” a genocide in real time due to the proximity and the narrow view of the observer, people in the West seem to be dying at a higher rate than usual and giving birth at a slower rate than usual. And it’s only been two years of the “new normal!”

Is it a genocide in the making? It is a case of careless poisoning of human beings? Honestly, talking about this in a scholarly manner feels like a request to please be a good girl, take a spade, and dig out a hole in the ground that may or may not be used as our own grave. Sorry this is not normal. Not normal!

Well, for certain values of the word “normal,” perhaps. All the above is well and good, but the author closes with one of the most piss-poor, flaccid suggestions for a palliative I believe I ever did see.

It’s never easy. I promised to give my personal answer to coping with an onslaught of “crazy.” My personal answer is faith in the power of the universe and praying for courage, clarity, and protection. It sounds simple but it takes a lot of work to leave behind the intellectual habits of “smart, educated people” and go back the primal feeling of how people felt about the world for maybe millions of years.

Uh HUH. So you’ve decided you’re just gonna roll over and die, then.

Jeez Louise. She responds to credible threats of actual, literal genocide—to wit, and I quote: “not a figment of imagination, not an abstraction”—with “faith in the power of the universe”? Ummm, yeah, no. I definitely prefer the Malcolm Reynolds approach, myself.

Prophecy, and the one path forward

Posted on November 18, 2022November 18, 2022 by Mike

Frighteningly prescient words from the CSA’s Maj Gen Pat Cleburne.

Everyone must understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late.

It means our history will be written by our enemies.

It means our children will be taught by our enemies.

It means our enemies will craft an alternate view of reality which cannot be questioned.

It means we will be deprived of our Rights and Liberties.

It means the true issues will be obscured and our enemies will employ the vilest accusations to shield their true intent and motivation.

It means those to whom we owe honor and gratitude will be viewed as traitors and worse.

Eerie, no? Wes Renegade uses it as a springboard to dive into a speech he wrote to be delivered at a town council meeting that ended up being cancelled, albeit for the very best of reasons.

Today this prophecy spoken more than a century ago is being fulfilled in this very room.

There are some who will say it is too harsh to call those who seek to banish the Sons of the Confederates from the Faith parade our “enemies.” You can not compromise with evil. That we need to find some sort of compromise in an effort to achieve reconciliation and avoid conflict. But those agitators who are actually driving this movement are not acting in good faith. They do not want peace and resolution. Just as we saw with the recent battle over a local historical landmark Fame, if we give on this issue, it will only open more wounds and fuel further unrest. And we will soon find this was only the new starting point for the next conflict they already have in mind as they march toward their ultimate goal of complete subjugation. For our enemies behind this push not only seek to strip us of our Rights, they demand we fundamentally transform history, that we denounce our heritage, and that we even disavow our noble ancestors who gave their all for us. These ARE the enemies of which Major General Cleburne forewarned.

Many in our community do not understand what is ultimately at stake here. But our enemies DO. That is why they will not have an honest dialogue with those of us who stand in opposition to them. This is why they ascribe to us the vilest motives and epithets they can hurl – because they know the true motives of their own hearts. They don’t care about our history which they denigrate. They don’t care about our heritage which they slander. They just know we are obstacles in the way of achieving their true goal.

So who are these enemies? They are relatively new on the scene – which is why we did not have these conflicts just a few years ago.

They are Marxist Community Organizers who follow the instructions of their evil godfather Alinsky by coming into our communities, finding the sore spots and then rubbing them raw in order to foment discord and gain more power for themselves. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing who masquerade behind titles such as “Reverend” because, as their high priestess of baby sacrifice Margaret Sanger explained, this is how to deceptively garner good favor in the Christian South.

They are the ones who use the façade of a small local bookstore to nurture and spread contention as they divide our community and put pressure on other businesses to bow to their personal will.

So this, then, is ultimately an existential conflict between the offspring of two very different fathers. We are PROUD to be Sons of the Confederates and we will never bend the knee to these Marxist agitators and instigators. Because we understand what motivates their actions, we are not deceived by their words. Because we know and love our heritage, we honor our fathers who passed it down to us. Because, as Christ said, our enemies are of a different father who has come to lie, to cheat, and to ultimately destroy, they are going about doing his work.

Amen to all that, my friend. With big, fat, clanging bells on.

Who shall speak for the voiceless multitudes?

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Mike

Francis delves into exactly how it was that we ended up in this dark, dismal place.

I could go many directions from here. I could detail how the two major parties have joined forces against the rights of the American people. I could list the many ways in which elected officials, oath-sworn to defend the Constitution, have betrayed that oath and that document. I could explore the unholy alliances politicians have formed with media moguls and industrial barons to shape public sentiment and behavior to their preferences. It’s all of a piece. But there’s a bigger story to tell, and it falls to me to tell it.

The “checks and balances” of which Sam spoke weren’t of the sort the Founding Fathers contemplated. Their concept was that the three-branch federal government would possess internal checks: each branch would be jealous of its own authority and therefore willing to halt the other branches when they transgress. The federal government as a whole would be checked by the authority reserved to the state governments. Those remained able to assert themselves against Washington through their representatives in the Senate. Finally, and not to be discounted, the limitations imposed on the imposition of direct federal taxes – “all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States” – meant that federal revenues would depend largely on the economic decisions of the populace. Should the citizenry decide to change those decisions in a way that would reduce Washington’s revenues, Washington would just have to suck it up.

The Framers did not imagine political parties as a part of the scheme. They regarded political parties as things to discourage. That’s why the original design installed the second-place finisher in the electoral college balloting as vice-president.

Isabel Paterson, in her landmark tome The God of the Machine, called the original Constitutional design “amazingly correct,” a masterpiece of political engineering. I cannot disagree. Nor can I disagree with her condemnation of the Amendments that undermined the design. But read her analysis for an education in how this nation, pulled together from disparate parts each of which was suspicious of the ultimate aims of the others, was originally supposed to work.

By 1976, the original system had been destroyed. The major parties had managed to take over the elections system, and had ensured that the president and vice-president would be of the same party. The Sixteenth Amendment had enabled Washington to impose direct taxes – taxes laid directly on individuals – “without regard to any census or enumeration,” and differentially according to “income.” Washington had reduced the states to mere administrative units of the federal will through “revenue sharing,” subsidies, and a host of arrogations of powers never delegated. The state governments had lost their representation in Washington with the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment stripped the states of most of their authority over the franchise. The federal judiciary had been politicized.

Sam and I had been reduced to looking to the “two party system” for “checks and balances.” The original design had been destroyed. But the parties themselves had entered into a collusive arrangement through the appropriations process, the subsidies scheme, and the practice of “earmarks.” The acquiescence of Congress’s minority caucuses to the agenda of the majority caucuses could be counted on in the majority of cases.

The American people had already lost their voices in the affairs of their nation. What remained was a façade: the franchise, which has come to mean ever less as the years pass.

Once again, I haven’t left a whole heck of a lot for you to read the rest of, but you need to anyway. His closing paragraphs are worth the trip over there all by themselves.

Preview of coming attractions

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Mike

Not that they’re at all attractive, natch.

Now that the Left has secured its power, expect the Left to exercise it.

This will manifest in numerous ways but perhaps the most directly felt will be at the pump, shortly – where we can expect the cost of gas and diesel to increase, suddenly – to the point of unaffordability for many. Especially people who do not live in or near cities.

The point of this being to nudge them out of the country, long a percolating desire of the Left.

Superficially, it will be done as a way to nudge people into EeeeeeeeVeeeeees – which are said by the Left to be “zero emissions” vehicles that rely on “renewable” and “clean” energy. Claims that are as false as they are disingenuous (it not being a question of ignorance about those those claims being false). But never mind that, for the moment.

At this moment, it is necessary to at least triple the current cost of gas and diesel – in order to make driving gas and diesel-powered vehicles – including hybrids – financially impossible for most people. In order to make an EeeeeeeeVeeeee seem – per Pete Buttigieg – the “affordable” alternative to them.

Never mind the cost of the EeeeeeeeeVeeeeee itself, as opposed to the cost of gas or diesel fuel.

The point being to make the EeeeeeeeeeeVeeeeee look – just plausibly enough – to the not-too-numerate – as being a way to “save money” vs. spending it on gas and diesel made very costly, indeed. That will be the sell. The hook will be that – even if you can afford to spend what it takes to buy an EeeeeeeVeeeee – you will have difficulty using it.

Unless you live in or near a city.

Do you think it’s possible the people nudging us into EeeeeeeVeeeeees might just do that? In order to nudge people who don’t live in or near a city to move out of the country? If you don’t suppose it, you probably haven’t read about it. Urban planners – as they style themselves – who are all of the Left – have for the past 50 years-plus been planning to use their power to curtail what they sneer at as “sprawl.” By which these Leftists mean you not living in or near the city – and so under their control – but rather as far away from it as it is economically and practically feasible for you to get away from it.

The car – not the EeeeeeeVeeee – made that possible.

People who didn’t want to live anywhere near the crowds, the costs and the general diminishment of life that attends city life for all who are not rich enough to afford a handsome townhouse (or swanky condo) in the best part of the city but who had jobs in or near the city were able – via the car – to live very far away from all of that because it was feasible as a practical matter and affordable as a financial matter. They could avoid city life. Could live a much larger life than was economically possible in or near the city, where they could not afford the handsome townhouse or the swanky condo – nor the expensive private schools for their kids, either (so as to keep their kids away from the pathologies that afflict in-city government schools).

The upshot is, they want the country, the nice houses, the wide-open spaces, for themselves and their kind. Not…not…not YOU PEOPLE, ick!

The Long March triumphant

Posted on November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 by Mike

Humble apologies to the esteemed and estimable Robert Spencer, whose typically excellent “election” post-mort I found nearly impossible to hew to proper fair-use strictures with.

John Della Volpe, a hard-Left pollster and author of a deathless tome entitled FIGHT: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear & Passion to Save America, is claiming that his favorite age group saved the midterm elections for those who love skyrocketing inflation, open borders, rising crime, international ridicule and brinksmanship, and accelerating authoritarianism. Della Volpe tweeted,

“One thing I know already. If not for voters under 30 … tonight WOULD have been a Red Wave. CNN National House Exit Poll R+ 13 65+ R+ 11 45-64 D +2 30-44 D +28 18-29 #GenZ did their job.” He added, “& young #millennials :)”

If Della Volpe’s numbers are correct, and 64% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 really voted for Democrats, then one thing is clear: the corruption and politicization of our educational system has worked.

What he is crowing about is the apparent fact that the voting group with the least life experience and the most recent subjection to the Leftist indoctrination that dominates America’s educational system ended up voting as it was brainwashed to do. Gee, that’s terrific, if you like evidence of the success of the relentless propagandizing of a vulnerable and impressionable captive audience, but neither John Della Volpe nor anyone else should be proud of it. What it shows is not that the Leftist case is compelling or persuasive; it shows that patriotic Americans have been far too complacent in allowing public schools to become centers of Leftist indoctrination and hatred of our own nation and heritage.

People have awakened to this in large numbers in recent years as the Left has, as always, overplayed its hand. Angry parents began showing up at school board meetings in large numbers to protest the imposition of race-hate propaganda, aka Critical Race Theory, in public schools, as well as the presence of outright and unmistakable pornography in the guise of “gender-affirming” literature. This got so embarrassing for the Left that Gestapo chief Merrick Garland, that indefatigable foe of “white supremacists” (as soon as he can find any), actually sicced the FBI on those parents as if they were a terrorist threat.

But this endeavor has been going on since long before Garland first put on his jackboots and resolved to destroy the republic. In the 1960s, Leftists began what Communist activist Rudi Dutschke indelibly dubbed “the Long March Through the Institutions.” In China, Communist leader Mao Zedong began the Long March in 1934 to evade nationalist forces; the term, however, came to be associated with his slow, steady, patient rise to power, culminating in the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949. The Long March Through the Institutions was the same kind of slow, steady takeover, as Communists, leftists, and their allies gradually gained control of America’s colleges and universities, its primary and secondary educational systems, its popular culture, and above all its ever-growing federal bureaucracy.

This has created a situation in which those who oppose this multifarious and all-encompassing establishment are universally derided virtually everywhere one turns: in what are supposed to be objective and impartial news broadcasts; in lessons at every level of the educational system about the nation’s history, present condition, and future prospects; in movies, popular music, and more. All of the late-night comedians who host talk shows are part of this camp, and they hobnob with the political elites, and yet they still posture as if they were plucky outsiders going up against a stultified and stultifying entrenched orthodoxy.

I myself, along with many of you folks as well, know all too well that the origins of fascist Amerika v2.0 are to be found in our warped and corrupted “education” establishment, from K-12 right up through the universities and colleges, all of which was long since coopted successfully in accordance with Gramsci’s brilliantly sinister thesis. Unless and until this has been addressed and rectified, there can be no real hope for America That Was, nor for those of us who cherish her still.

I did somehow contrive to leave the closing ‘graphs out of my excessive excerpting, so as to provide y’all at least SOME “rest” you could click on over and read. But hey, it wasn’t easy.

Know thine enemy

Posted on November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 by Mike

Kenny left a response to Skeptic’s comment, here:

No way PA chose Climate Change, Abortion and Trans/Pedo Grooming over Inflation, Energy Jobs, Crime, The Economy, Education and other bread and butter issues and even the gaslit polls admit that. THOSE were the hot button issues and Frankenstein Two Headed Man was on the WRONG side of every one.

Now, Kenny is a great guy, a well-read, smart, and knowledgeable guy. I feel myself privileged indeed to be able to count him as a friend, and to have him amongst us here at CF as an active participant. But he’s missing something in this one instance, something YUGE. To wit: he’s making the mistake of imagining the shitlib Left, in Pennsy or anyplace else, think more or less the way Normal Americans do. By the numbers:

Climate change? You mean “saving Mother Gaia” from the wanton, destructive depradations of greedy, venal, outside-Nature Hoomon Beenz
Abortion? You mean “a woman’s right to choose,” a sacramental right to “health care” which MUST be protected at all and any cost
Trans/Pedo Grooming? You mean the fundamental right to enjoy total, unrestricted sexual liberty, not that this “Grooming” nonsense ever happens anyway, you H8ful liars
Inflation? Ain’t none, since our most excellent President did such a marvelous job reviving a US economy Trump, in his supreme arrogance and incompetence, had so idiotically wrecked
Energy? If it ain’t green, it’s mean, you H8RRZZ
Crime? What are you, scared or something, you big coward?

And so on from there. Not only is there no shared opinions between Us and Them on the issues of the day, we don’t even agree on which issues are legitimate matters of concern and import among sensible, well-meaning people in the first place.

Shitlibs in PA, along with their likewise cognitively-challenged brethren, sistren, and whatevren scuttling fearfully about in their decaying urban hellscapes across the blighted plain, will always and forever vote against Real Americans, America That Was, and absolutely everything Our Side holds dear, worthwhile, and righteous. Because reasons, that’s why. Previous Presidents have been pleased to begin their every public address with a reference to “My fellow Americans,” which for a long, long time held at least some water. Not anymore; not since the mid-1960s at least, possibly longer. The TWANLOC acronymic is a Thing, and it’s all too apt a descriptor nowadays.

Update! The way they think. If you want to be generous and call what they do “thinking.”

If you’re reading this, chances are that when you cast your vote, your focus is on real-life issues. Gas prices. Inflation. You care about law and order, and hence didn’t like it when Democratic mayors and governors allowed Antifa and Black Lives Matter to run riot. You care about individual liberty, and hence resented the restrictions imposed during the pandemic by many of those same Democratic mayors and governors.

Millions of Democratic voters, however, don’t think like that. Many of them can afford not to. They’re part of the social, cultural, and political establishment—or at least think they’re part of it, or want to be seen as being part of it. They’re well off enough, for example, not to have to worry too much about rising prices at the gas pump or supermarket.

But even those Democrats who aren’t so well off, and whose lives are affected by grocery bills and lawlessness in the streets, won’t let such phenomena change their vote. Because their politics, take them for all in all, aren’t very firmly grounded in reality.

On the contrary, millions of them are driven, to at least some extent, by ideology. They buy the idea that American capitalism—and the American consumer—should take a serious hit to stop climate change, an ideologically rooted concept for which they’ve seen no evidence whatsoever. They defend the depredations of Antifa and BLM as noble assaults on a corrupt system, even if their own windows end up being broken.

Their own individual liberty, if on their radar at all, is far lower down on their list of values than gestures in the direction of collective well-being, so that during the lockdown they welcomed state-ordained limitations on their movements—even though those limitations had no basis in science. They believe that certain groups are by definition oppressed, and so will automatically oppose any action, however reasonable or just, that might conceivably harm illegal immigrants, offend Muslims, or make trans people uncomfortable—and by the same token will support almost anything that will presumably make members of these groups happy.

Moreover, the media that they trust have taught them to view with contempt voters who are preoccupied with such issues as crime and the cost of living. They’ve been persuaded that when some voters speak of crime, it’s a coded way of expressing racism, and that when some voters complain about high gasoline prices, they’re simply being selfish: for isn’t it far more socially responsible to worry about climate change—to which fossil fuels contribute massively—than to gripe about whatever one has to pay to fill one’s gas tank?

They see themselves as taking the long view. The unselfish view. Yes, you can describe their politics as “virtue signaling”—and you’d be right. But there’s something else they want to signal: the boundary between themselves and the rest of us. They’re desperate to make it clear to the world that they’re not MAGA folks—not grubby little “deplorables,” always preoccupied with their own narrow interests and their own so-called freedom.

After Biden took office, his handlers defined him largely in opposition to Trump. Trump wanted to build a wall, so Biden opposed it. Trump made the U.S. energy-independent, so Biden had to undo that, prontissimo. Millions of establishment Democratic voters operate the same way, perhaps often unconsciously: they define themselves in opposition to the likes of us.

By George, I think he’s got it!

Cope-out

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Mike

JD Rucker sneaks a peek at life in post-truth America.

Many are saying this is Donald Trump’s fault. Those who are saying that and jumping on the DeSantis bandwagon are falling into a trap. That’s NOT to say I’m against DeSantis or for Trump for 2024. I like them both and have challenges with both of them as well. But the rising anti-Trump sentiment is being manufactured by the powers-that-be, and it has very little to do with Trump himself.

The powers-that-be didn’t just see this election as a way to salvage Democrat power. The bigger fish that they wanted to fry was us. MAGA Republicans, America First patriots, Trump supporters…whatever you want to label those who supported people like Mastriano, Lake, Don Bolduc, Tiffany Smiley, and other America First candidates were the real targets. They want us splintered. They want the GOP Establishment to continue to manage our side of the political fence for the Uniparty Swamp.

This election was mostly about shutting us up and making us fall in line with Mitch McConnell, Karl Rove, Paul Ryan, and the rest of the GOPe power brokers. This isn’t about Republican versus Democrat. This was about protecting the powers-that-be, the globalist elite cabal that manages the Biden-Harris regime and the Uniparty Swamp.

The problem I didn’t anticipate, this problem that is manifesting very clearly now, is that I thought they’d have to stick their necks out too far to steal these elections. They did stick their necks out even further than they did in 2020, but my fatal mistake was not realizing there would be so few willing to call them out for it. I didn’t realize until now that the false narratives were already pre-planned. They are busy herding the vast majority of Republicans into an anti-Trump, pro-DeSantis election post-mortem debate and far too many are willingly being led to that ideological slaughter.

For the past five years, I’ve been doing whatever I can to stay just below the radar. Call me a coward, but I’ve always tried to stay in my own little corner of digital conservative media, content to not get too far into the spotlight for fear of my family being targeted. I refuse to speak lies or to go along with the mainstream narrative, so I figured I’d speak the truth to a relatively small audience, big enough to feed my family but not big enough to draw the ire of cancel culture, the Deep State, or the Principalities and Powers. I figured if I wasn’t really a threat that I wouldn’t get raided at 4am by the FBI.

If you suspect the red tsunami didn’t happen because the powers-that-be wouldn’t allow it to happen, then please know that you’re not alone. There will be those on the left but especially on the right who will tell you that you’re mistaken. They’ll say you’re just coping. They’ll point to a dozen different reasons why the red tsunami failed to materialize, but stolen elections aren’t among those. They’re wrong, and many of them will know they’re wrong which means they’re lying to you. Stay firm with your beliefs. Express them if you have the courage. But one thing is certain. The gloves need to come off. Our nation is in jeopardy and far too few are willing to do what it takes to save it.

The gloves do most certainly need to come off, for good. Which doesn’t necessarily have to involve shooting, even yet, but most likely will at some point. Be all that as it may, there can be no doubt that our “elections” are indeed rigged, either through direct ballot tampering and fraud or via the modalities I mentioned earlier: decades-long Leftist indoctrination of our kids in the government schools and universities; propaganda relentlessly blasting forth from every pop-culture/entertainment media outlet; and the myriad fabrications and falsehoods promulgated by Fake News “journalists.”

Ultra über mega MAGA Express derailed?

Posted on November 9, 2022November 9, 2022 by Mike

Our old friend Stephen says Trump is toast.

Gut-check time: Donald Trump is now 0-4 in elections held since his big win in 2016, and he could go 0-5 if his man Herschel Walker loses the Georgia runoff in December.

There’s enough blame to go around, this isn’t all on The Donald. All the Washington leadership failed us. A few state legislatures probably moved too far, too quickly after the Dobbs decision, scaring largely pro-choice GenZ young adults to vote in defiance of the polls.

But as the de facto party head, Trump can’t escape his share of the blame. So it’s my unpleasant duty to examine the rot at the top.

Trump’s man in Pennsylvania, a TV celebrity doctor of questionable ethics, lost to a stroke victim who can barely speak. Yes, there was cheating in Philly — there’s always cheating in Philly. That didn’t stop Trump from winning Pennsylvania in 2016, and it wouldn’t have stopped any other GOP candidate against John Fetterman, except for Trump’s hand-picked candidate, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Despite rising wages, energy independence, and no new wars, Trump lost the House in 2018. He lost the White House two years later the Senate in Georgia’s double-runoff the next January, and his slate of Senate candidates underperformed on Tuesday night.

There’s been so much losing, I’m tired of all the losing.

If you still want Trumpism, MAGA, and all that, fine. So do I.

But we won’t get it from Trump.

I’ll always be grateful to Trump for showing the GOP how to fight, and particularly for the slate of justices and judges he and McConnell pushed in such numbers through the Senate.

But those wins are forever ago in political time, and there have just been too many unaccountable losses in between.

Once again, if GOP primary voters select Trump as the nominee, he’ll have my full support. But for all the reasons I’ve just given you, I don’t expect him to make the comeback I once hoped he would.

I’ve slowly come around to that same conclusion myself, albeit reluctantly. At this point, Trump appears to me to be a kinda-sorta inverse Gen Sherman: if nominated, he won’t be allowed to win. If elected, he won’t be allowed to serve. I’m seeing much chatter out there from disappointed, frustrated, and/or disgruntled 2016 Trump voters flatly renouncing their previous support for him, swearing they won’t bother voting for him again. I don’t necessarily share the sentiment, mind, but I do understand it.

Yes, Trump will almost certainly run for Prez in 2024, right enough. Much as I do hate to say it, however, I see the odds of him overcoming the margin of fraud to win (a non-negotiable prerequisite in all US “elections” going forward, after having two (2) consecutive elections stolen without repercussion), taking office, and accomplishing much of anything that won’t be totally undone before lunchtime on Jan 21, 2028 by his incoming DemonRat successor—exactly as took place in Jan 2021—as being mighty slim indeed.

Like I said, I do hate to say it, I truly do. But, well, there it is.

On the other hand update! If disagreeing with reliably-execrable, ten-pounds-of-dogshit-in-a-five-pound-sack “Crunchy Con” nitwit Rod Dreher is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

I woke up this morning in London hoping — not just hoping, but expecting — to see news of a Red Wave having crashed upon the shores of an America sick of the woke Democrats. I was disappointed. The Red Wave talk turned out to be bullshit. As I write, we still don’t know the outcome of control of the Senate. We do know, though, that the Trump-endorsed candidate in Pennsylvania was beaten by a brain-damaged Democrat. That tells you something. That tells you a lot, actually.

What a contrast between DeSantis, a conservative who actually gets things done, and wins (even a majority of Latinos!), and Donald Trump, a has-been whose candidates — with the exception of Sen.-elect Vance — fared poorly on Tuesday. The underwhelming election results on Tuesday, in a country suffering from high crime and high inflation, ought to send a big sign to the conservative electorate: the more the Right stands by the fatmouthing loser Trump, the further behind we will fall. I concede that Trump’s endorsement likely carried JDV over the line in the Ohio GOP primary, and for that I’m grateful. But the future of American conservatism is not with Donald Trump.

It has fallen to Matt Walsh, Chris Rufo, Libs of Tiktok, and others to take on the scourge of gender ideology. With the exception of DeSantis, no other major elected Republican politician has wanted to touch wokeness. I cannot understand why. The country is falling apart, the libs are becoming totalitarians who are coming after children, and most of the GOP just sits there with its thumb up its backside, running on the thrilling platform of “hey, at least we’re not the other guys.” No, forget it. That’s over.

To the MAGA diehards, I say: is this really what you want? A Republican Party that can’t decisively whip the Democrats even in an extremely favorable year? Because this is what you are going to get if you keep sticking with Trump. Like it or not, a lot of independents just hate the guy, and that’s never going to change. Conservatives like me would vote for him in 2024 just to keep the Democrats out of office, but in that case I would vote knowing I was checking the box for a big mouth who won’t get much done, because whereas Ron DeSantis would actually govern, Trump would do nothing but preen and talk about himself.

Oof. So much to dislike there it’s difficult to know where to start picking it apart. So I ain’t gonna bother.

(Via Ed Driscoll)

SSDD

Posted on November 9, 2022November 9, 2022 by Mike

FLA aside, as of now it appears that the over-ballyhooed “Red Wave” has pretty much fizzled. No matter, really; after all, it’s not as if anything would’ve changed all that much anyway. In American “elections,” real, meaningful change is never on the ballot.

I fear that, having won a majority, congressional Republicans will comfortably settle into doing what they do best: keeping the chairs warm for the Democrats. Republicans have held majorities in both chambers simultaneously with the presidency from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2017 to 2019. This is a cumulative total of six years they’ve had free rein to enact their agenda. What do they have to show for it? Other than a couple tax cuts and trade deals, nothing.

Did they reform education or break the teachers’ unions? Nope. Bush gave us No Child Left Behind. Did they reduce the bureaucracy? Nope. They expanded and empowered it, with the grotesque Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, and star chamber FISA courts (now weaponized by the FBI to target American citizens on behalf of the Democrats). Did they secure the border and begin seriously deporting illegals? Nope. When they do discuss immigration, they push “comprehensive” reform (i.e., amnesty) alongside their Democrat counterparts. The last Gang of Eight four Republican representatives were Marco Rubio, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Jeff Flake. Need I say more?

When Donald Trump unexpectedly won in November 2016, along with a majority in both houses, Republican leadership had over two months to draft legislation (or, better yet, dust off legislation they should have already drafted) that they could have had on Trump’s desk on January 21^st. By February, they could have had the wheels in motion to secure the border, repeal ObamaCare, drain the bureaucracy, reform education, and forward a myriad of solutions that they’d been campaigning on for the entire Obama presidency. Instead, they had absolutely nothing ready to go.

Trump’s many accomplishments were achieved despite the Republican Congress. The wall construction, Middle East peace deals, deregulation, energy independence, destruction of ISIS, Operation Warp Speed, strangulation of surrender to Iran, and Paris nuttery were largely done via his constitutional authority as President. He also singlehandedly converted more minority voters than any other Republican in living memory.

But nothing enrages narcissists like exposing their utter uselessness. McConnell opposed Trump not because of policy or ideological differences, but because Trump publicly humiliated him by displaying his expendability on live TV for the nation to see. McConnell never forgave him for this slight. Trump has been out of office for nearly two years, but McConnell continues to nurse his grudge by pulling money from any Republican candidate deemed too “pro-Trump.”

Assuming they win, newly-minted senators Masters, Holduc, and Tshibaka will be in no mood to take marching orders from McConnell, nor likely will Herschel Walker, Mehmet Oz, or J.D. Vance. Facing original Tea Partiers Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee, and other true conservatives like Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, and Josh Hawley, the RINO clingers must realize that a steadily growing permanent class of younger senators are edging them out the door.

Bizarrely enough, it looks like Uncle Fester and/or his terrifying Quato-lump has in fact prevailed, 49.4 to 48.1 with 90% reporting, over Doc Oz in Pennsy. Take a moment to just let THAT sink in. Here, let’s have the Hodge Twins help us all out with choking it down.

Not looking good for the Senate. Oz getting beat by a dude that can’t even say a full sentence.

— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) November 9, 2022

Bad, bad juju for sure. This is without doubt a defeat which is going to be impossible for Oz to ever live down, a full-bore scream-dream from which the poor guy will be jolting awake awash in flop-sweat for the rest of his haunted life. The bill for laundering his sheets is going to go through the roof.

But we have to be on them like white on rice. The Left is willing to lose a Joe Manchin or Krysten Sinema in one election if it means possibly electing a True Believer the next time around. They play the long game well. We are gradually learning to do the same, but we need to keep up the pressure.

In the meantime, Joe Biden’s veto pen shouldn’t be an excuse for our new majority to do nothing. For the next two years, the Democrats should be up to their eyeballs in congressional subpoenas. Investigations should be launched against Alejandro Mayorkas, Anthony Fauci, Mark Zuckerberg, Merrick Garland, the Dobbs leaker, and everyone who had any operational-level decision-making with Russiagate, the Hunter laptop coverup, the COVID lockdowns, and the Mar-a-Lago raid. They should subpoena the release of all security video from January 6^th, so the American people can see for themselves what happened.

Republicans should withhold funding for the FBI, IRS, and DoJ until after they’ve removed political weaponization from their procedures and provided transparency to prove it. They should withhold Pentagon funding until it reprioritizes battlefield readiness over political witch hunts and pronoun lunacy.

And Joe Biden should be impeached. Twice.

Uh huh. I say again, don’t let’s any of us be holding our breath etc etc. This next bit, however, is spot-on.

Our representatives need to be periodically reminded that their authority is temporary, conditional, and exists not by birthright, but as the privilege of a private citizen. We have the power to ensure that they earn, and continue to earn, what we’ve given them.

Indubitably so. Would that we might trouble ourselves to make use of it now and then.

“Austin Has Been Invaded by Texas”

Posted on November 8, 2022November 8, 2022 by Mike

LOVE the headline. It just says so much, y’know?

On a late summer evening, friends of John Stettin gathered at a bar called Kitty Cohen’s in East Austin to say good-bye. A carrot cake with “Good Luck” written in orange icing softened in the heat, but as far as they were concerned, the occasion was his birthday. “You can’t say, ‘Happy going away!’” said Jeff, his best friend, greeting him with a hug. “We’re just not happy. We’re all very sad about it.” Good-bye parties are inherently not that fun. They’re even less fun when they’re driven by a far-right takeover of the state government.

“Tell him he can’t leave,” whispered a woman seated under an umbrella. “There are too many Republicans.”

To hear Stettin tell it, that is precisely why he is moving out of what Rick Perry once described as the “blueberry in the tomato soup,” a predominantly Democratic city full of liberal expats like himself seeking progressive politics and an urban lifestyle at a red-state cost-of-living discount. “It was easy to just be in Never Neverland, floating with a bunch of other transplants having a good time,” said Stettin, who relocated from Dallas to Austin five years ago.

But then 2020 happened. As the pandemic raged, Governor Greg Abbott banned municipalities including Austin from implementing COVID measures such as mask mandates. The following year, amid a brutal winter storm, the state’s electric grid failed, killing hundreds and leaving millions freezing in the dark, and it has yet to be fixed. That summer, Abbott codified permitless carry and further restricted voting access. This past February, he ordered investigations into the parents of trans children for child abuse. By June, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Texas was ten months ahead, having already effectively banned abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest and topped it with a $10,000 reward for informants.

“It’s like how a frog boils one degree at a time,” Stettin said. “They trigger-banned all abortion and they’re offering a bounty! What more do you need if you are a remotely liberal person to get the fuck out of here?” His destination was Massachusetts. “At least if I’m going to get into an argument with a guy in Boston,” he said, “he’s probably not carrying an AR-15 in his trunk.”

An EXCELLENT choice, Poindexter Hoplophobe. The People’s Republic of Taxachussetts is precisely the right place for you and your simpering shitlib compatriots. Get thee gone, toot fucking sweet.

This summer, that anxiety pervaded a stratum of liberal Austin, namely women, LGBTQ+ folks, parents, and people of color who fear a future in Texas and have the means to escape. The overturning of Roe seemed to remove the last obstacle in the state’s march to the far right, which is likely to be cemented in the upcoming election where Beto O’Rourke is way behind Abbott. While the Democratic mayor and the liberal city council institute token measures such as decriminalizing abortion, it’s cold comfort. One 25-year-old woman said she had her tubes tied, fearing the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy.

Progtards getting abortions? Their tubes tied? Sounds like one of those vanishingly rare self-solving problems to me, if on a too-slow-to-suit-me timescale.

One couple may relocate to the Northeast to carry out their pregnancy. Some job candidates are refusing to relocate. At Stettin’s party, his friend Jeff swiped open his phone to a note entitled “New Austin Cities” — a list of places that are what Austin used to be to him before he moved here from New York. It read, “Pittsburgh, Durham, Boise, Columbus, Jackson Hole, Chattanooga. Factors: Climate change, demographics, economy, location, taxes, nature, weather.” He plans to stick it out at least for now. “Global warming in the next ten years,” he said. “That’s gonna be fucking real.”

Oh, you betcher. As “real” as it ever was, at any rate. Although I must say, I always liked Pittsburgh quite a lot, and hate to imagine liberal locusts ruining it the way they do everywhere else they invade.

However many people leave, it will be small in comparison with how many keep coming. Austin is the fastest-growing metro in the U.S., and its population has increased by one-third over the past decade, with people from across Texas and the nation lured to the hippie-cowboy capital by tech jobs. In some cases, this explosive growth has bred at least as much discontent as the shifting political landscape. What was once seen as an affordable, creative haven is now a runaway boomtown, pricing out most of whatever was left of Austin’s proclaimed weirdness and drawing frequent comparisons to San Francisco.

A-HENH.

Parents of trans children started to flee months ago. In March, Karen had just picked up her 10-year-old daughter from acting camp when she began telling her about an upcoming protest at the governor’s mansion against Abbott’s order instructing Child Protective Services to investigate families providing gender-affirming medical care to their trans children for child abuse.

Translation from the Libspeak: medical care=wanton mutilation. The “child abuse” stands as is, no correction required. To wit:

Karen (whose name is being withheld to protect her family) asked if her daughter might want to do a voice recording to share her story with the crowd. “Am I going to die?” she asked. Stunned, Karen asked why she would think such a thing. “Because everybody here hates me.” Karen pulled over, jumped out, and threw her arms around her daughter as they sobbed. “It was that moment when I knew we had to leave,” she recalled through tears.

See what I mean? This woman has severely damaged her poor child by convincing her that everyone in Austin, or anyplace else for that matter, “hates” her—solely to puff up her own overinflated self-regard and political vanity, no other reason. Child, let me assure you: nobody “hates” you, nobody. They aren’t even thinking about you at all, I promise, whatever your sick, narcissistic mother tells you to the contrary. She has some serious mental-health issues of her own, much as I hate to have to inform you of it.

A second-generation Texan, she stayed as long as she could. “I’ve always said, ‘I’m gonna stay and fight until they try to take my kids away,’” she said. While she said her daughter is not undergoing any sort of medical treatment targeted by the directive, she did not want to risk being separated from her children. In early June, they fled from Austin to Portland, Oregon. When she told her Republican father about her decision, he burst into tears. He said, “I’m glad you’re getting out of here to get someplace safe.”

Karen said she has PTSD from the experience, and she feels survivor’s guilt for not staying behind to fight with other families with trans children. But in the end, leaving is what she, and at least five other families she knows, had to do. Speaking from Portland, she said, “I am genuinely frightened for my home state.”

Don’t be, Countess Queefula. Portland sounds like just the place for you, and your home state will be better off without you constantly weeping and moaning all over the damned place from sheer irrational terror. Free advice: seek professional help after you’ve gotten settled into your new digs, without a moment’s delay. I’m confident some Portland headshrinker is going to just LOVE getting his/her hands on your extravagantly fucked-up ass.

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