Brilliant! – Page 85

Would that it were so

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Mike

Okay, I gotta admit, this one tickled the heck outta me.

Just before I went on air with Tucker last night, word came that the directors of the FBI and National Intelligence needed to rush onto our screens right now with an emergency news conference on “election security”. In a country where judges extend mail-in deadlines at random and postal workers dump completed ballots in the trash and multiple vote forms are sent unsolicited to addresses of foreign nationals, “election security” is a joke of which all US citizens should be ashamed. As I’ve said on Rush and elsewhere, the looming chaos of November 3rd is a conscious choice.

Nevertheless, this brace of national-security hotshots, John Ratcliffe and Christopher Wray, somehow felt obliged to seize the nation’s telly screens and inform Americans that Iran and Russia were spreading “disinformation”, a hitherto foreign-intelligence concept now domesticated, mainstreamed, and turned on the American people every two years:

The U.S. government has concluded that Iran is behind a series of threatening emails arriving this week in the inboxes of Democratic voters, according to two U.S. officials…

The messages appeared to target Democrats using data from digital databases known as “voter files,” some of which are commercially available. They told recipients the Proud Boys were “in possession of all your information” and instructed voters to change their party registration and cast their ballots for Trump.

After the last half-decade, my instinct is not to believe a single word the FBI says about anything, and to support any candidate who vows to dissolve the bureau and start from scratch. Setting aside the Strzok-Page-Comey-McCabe stuff, this is a national police agency that devotes more resources to investigating a Nascar garage-door pull-rope than to a Hunter Biden laptop bursting with oligarch money-laundering and alleged kiddie porn: I would be surprised if such bizarre priorities could get them elected as village constable in the average New Hampshire township. Yet we are now assured, at a time when Big Social are more powerful than any government on the planet and are openly suppressing one of the two presidential campaigns, that the big problem is mullahs posing as “Proud Boys”.

Heh. The Proud Boys: is there ANYTHING they can’t do? One does have to just love the thought of dweebish Democrats all across the land soiling their Underoos in fright at the scarifying prospect of having a group of pissed-off Proud Boys invade their quiet neighborhood to come a-knocking at the door, seeking to wreak retribution on them in the dark of night.

Y’know, exactly like their PantiFa/BLM goon squads have been doing to us all summer.

A brand new day, a brand new way

Posted on October 22, 2020October 22, 2020 by Mike

Y’know, you wonder sometimes why Trump continues to give any of these asswipes the time of day. And then he shows you.

Trump Releases Raw Video of ’60 Minutes’ Interview and It’s Everything You Thought It Would Be

Oh, it’s that, and much, much more.

Trump’s reasoning for the move has been that the media doesn’t represent him honestly, and he wanted to make sure the people could see the full footage and make their own judgments.

Watching back the video, it is obvious they made the right choice. Stahl came in loaded for bear and set up the interview by asking the President if he was “ready for some tough questions.” Trump responded with a shrug.

Trump:Just be fair
LS: But last time I remember you saying ‘bring it on. Bring it on’
Trump: No I’m not looking for that. I’m looking for fairness. That’s all.
LS:You’re going to get fairness. But you’re ok with tough questions?
Trump: You don’t ask Biden tough questions.

It didn’t get much better from there.

The hell you say; I think it gets LOTS better from there. A couple-three more good ‘uns over at RS, all of which you should read. Ace also has plenty of delicious examples of our no quarter, no holds barred POTUS giving shitlib propagandaist Stahl the full brass-knuckles-to-the-mouth treatment, including:

STAHL: Can you characterize your supporters?

TRUMP: Yeah, I think I can: people who love our country.

And:

This exchange between Trump and Lesley Stahl is insane. She repeatedly insists the Biden laptops can’t be verified, so reporters shouldn’t talk about it.

Trump asks her why it can’t be verified.

Her answer: Because it can’t be verified.

Oh, izzat so, bitch?

My name is Tony Bobulinski.

The facts set forth below are true and accurate; they are not any form of domestic or foreign disinformation. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and offensive.

I am the recipient of the email published seven days ago by the New York Post which showed a copy to Hunter Biden and Rob Walker. That email is genuine.

This afternoon I received a request from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance requesting all documents relating to my business affairs with the Biden family as well as various foreign entities and individuals. I have extensive relevant records and communications and I intend to produce those items to both Committees in the immediate future.

That’s verification aplenty, without even tossing the FBI, the DoJ, and the DNI into the “verified” pot as well. Clearly, when the liar Stahl says “it can’t be verified,” what she really means is it WON’T be verified—not by her, not by CBS News, by any and every other Praetorian Media outlet. And that’s because the “news business” Gorgon isn’t actually in the business of reporting the news at all, and hasn’t been for a very long time.

The historic popularity and profitability of Tucker’s show raises a simple, yet important question: why have none of the major networks, including Fox, attempted to copy his success?

Wouldn’t the fabled “marketplace of ideas” dictate a certain convergence toward the topics and styles that draw the biggest audiences?

Perhaps the ad boycotts aimed at Tucker have scared off would-be copycats. But this simply raises the question of why companies would leave money on the table by refusing to advertise on television’s most popular cable news show. Something is off here, and it suggests that the media industry does not work according to a simple profit motive.

What if the true goal of a media conglomerate is not to produce a reliable and entertaining news service tailored to its audience, but rather to influence that audience on behalf of third parties? What if the purpose of a media company is not to be profitable for its own sake, but influential for the sake of others?

Business models aren’t always what they present themselves to be. Movie theaters make money not from ticket sales, but from concession stands. Airlines likewise need to sell tickets, but they make more profit from frequent flier rewards programs. Supermarkets are increasingly big data collectors for insurance companies.

This does not mean that profit is irrelevant to a media company. In Tucker’s case, his stratospheric ratings are a great tool of leverage, and without profit, a company must continually court new investors. But the point remains that for a serious media enterprise, profit is always secondary to influence.

Just as a social media company’s true product is its user data, the true product of a major media company is the flow of narratives that shape the perception of reality. Wielding influence over the public mind will always be more valuable than any profit that could be generated by optimizing the news to suit public tastes.

Major media companies are not about profits, but influence — there is no “marketplace of ideas” that functions in the way people might imagine. And this applies to any industry that has a profound effect on the narratives and beliefs that shape the public’s perception of reality, including movies and video games.

In our increasingly corrupt society, every institution is a scam, and there is often a vast disconnect between the generally understood purpose of an institution and its actual purpose.

Indeed. If that sorta reminds of you of the NeverTrumpTard GOPe too, well, it damned well ought to. But as I’ve said so many times already: the greatest service Trump has done, will do, or could EVER do for this country has been to rip the mask off these underhanded s’faccim and expose them for what they really are, in a way that none but the willfully obtuse, the witless, or the nefarious can deny any longer.

The very last word on Eddie Van Halen

Posted on October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 by Mike

It begins thusly:

This was a tough one.

It’s not an obit but a memoir. It’s by Tal Bachman. It’s full of unexpected twists and turns. It closes with a stunning gift. It’s absolutely terrific. And yes, you must read it all.

Rebranding: sieze the initiative

Posted on October 10, 2020October 10, 2020 by Mike

A vintage but truly evergreen Van der Leun post I missed when it first appeared back in 2010, found now via WRSA.

I don’t know about you, but I do not consider myself either a “Conservative” or a “Republican” or a member of the “Alt-Right.” Never have. Never will. I consider myself to be one thing and one thing only:

I AM AN AMERICAN.

Always have been.

Always will be.

Nothing less.

Couldn’t be anything more.

Born and bred from ancestors that go back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636.

To call me a Conservative is to miss the point.

To call me a Republican is to mistake me by a mile.

To call me an AMERICAN is to know me down to the bone. I suspect this blunt fact is true of all those who term themselves “Independents,” all those who call themselves “Conservative,” all those who joined the Tea Party, and the Trumpening; they and all the others who,

Came from the hills and mountains,
The valleys and the plains,
Some were kind and gentle,
And some too wild to tame.

That’s who we are and that’s who we shall always remain — Americans.

A single, obvious, and overarching word to cover a wide, wide tent:

Americans.

Americans all regardless of race, color, creed, or national origin.

Let’s rebrand ourselves from this point forward. Let us go back to the original brand:

When you are called a Conservative, you reply, “No, I am an AMERICAN.”

If someone tries to tar you with the label “Republican,” you must correct them by saying, “No, I am an AMERICAN.”

If accused of being some sort of stealth fascist by being labeled “Alt-Right,” you need to sort those mental midgets out by reminding them, “No, I am an AMERICAN.”

If they say you are arguing from Republican or Conservative views, point out to them that you are arguing from AMERICAN views only.

Do that consistently and we can all look forward to future disputes and elections that pit the “Progressives” against the AMERICANS. I know which way I’d bet.

Powerful, powerful stuff, and I love it. It’s precisely what I was groping towards when I came up with that “Real American” formulation of mine not too long ago. But Gerard’s version is way better: simple, precise, to the point, and unassailable by anybody who isn’t—as our contemporary Enemies, Domestic™ blockheads are—actively ANTI-American.

Let the Progtards go on trying to conceal what they really are with their habitual redefining and rebranding. Meanwhile, we can reclaim something that was always our own anyway; tweak the living hell out of some perpetually out-of-joint noses; and restore a sense of righteous pride in the word and all it’s supposed to represent—all in one swift and hard rhetorical punch right in their pinched, sallow faces.

Glad to see ya go

Posted on October 9, 2020October 9, 2020 by Mike

It’s a measure of how far we’ve gone astray, and of how bugfuck nuts the Progtards are, that this should even be considered controversial at all.

More than 60 Coinbase employees have taken an exit package after CEO Brian Armstrong said in a controversial blog post last month that the company would not participate in social activism.

The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange offered all employees an exit package if they didn’t agree with the company’s pledge to not take a stand on issues outside its business goals.

60 employees or 5% of Coinbase’s workforce, have taken the deal, Armstrong said Thursday, and a number of conversations are still ongoing, meaning the final number could be higher.

The discussion around Coinbase’s politics started internally this summer when the company didn’t release a statement supporting Black Lives Matter, causing a virtual walkout among employees, Wired reported.

As Glenn says, good riddance to every last one of the flea-bitten varmints. They’re bound to be precisely the type of whiny, neurotic troublemakers that any company would be far better off ridding itself of. The Ramones got a liitle something for ya on your way out the door, SJW shitbags.

Gawd alMIGHTY, how I love those guys.

FINALLY

Posted on October 9, 2020October 9, 2020 by Mike

Trump says: lolgf

The CPD announced early Thursday that “the second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which the candidates would participate from separate remote locations.” Steve Scully of C-SPAN is still set to moderate the second presidential debate from Miami.

But, in a Fox Business interview Thursday, the president said he would not take part in a virtual debate.

“The commission changed the debate style and that’s not acceptable to us,” Trump said on “Mornings with Maria.” “I beat him in the first debate, I beat him easily.”

“I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” Trump went on. “I’m not going to waste my time at a virtual debate.”

During his interview on Thursday, the president said he wasn’t going to “sit at a computer” to debate, calling it “ridiculous.”

“They’re trying to protect Biden,” Trump said. “Everybody is.”

Of COURSE they are. For one thing, the so-called “moderator” for the next scheduled shitshow, as has been standard practice for decades now, is just another Mark-1 Mod-0 shitlib:

C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, who is scheduled to moderate the next presidential debate, formerly interned for 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Scully, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation, described his internships for both Biden and former Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy in a 2011 interview with The Cable Center.

He also worked as a high-school student for Jimmeh Peanut. Seen enough? Oh wait, there’s more:

Scully in March 2016 tweeted an anti-Trump column titled “No, Not Trump, Not Ever.”

“Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president,” reads the New York Times opinion piece that Scully tweeted. “He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn.”

“His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he’s uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa,” the piece continues.

Scully also posted a photo of himself with Biden in June 2016.

So the question appears to be not “is this guy capable of performing the function of an impartial, neutral moderator in an honest debate?” but “is he even INTERESTED in doing so?”

Enough already—enough, and then some. Shit-can these shitshows, Mr Preznit—all of them, for all time. There is no reason whatsoever to subject yourself, to subject the American people, to another of these worse-than-worthless events. Don’t waste your time, and ours, on them. There are plenty of more worthwhile uses for it, plenty of much better venues from which you can speak directly to Real Americans. Such as:

Rush Limbaugh is undergoing treatment for cancer and has been unable to be behind the golden EIB microphone regularly. While he’s out every couple of weeks, guest hosts have been filling in, such as the incomparable Mark Steyn, Todd Herman, and others. But on Friday, October 9, the guest host filling in will be the most famous guest host of all time: President Donald J. Trump.

Listeners will be able to send their questions to the president through a special inbox on the Rush Limbaugh website. Rush recorded a message announcing the news to his fans.

I love it. The Jurassic Media can only act as gatekeepers, filtering and manipulating the message in any way they desire, only for as long as they’re allowed to. Deny them access, and you deny them the power of that cherished “gatekeeper” role. Do an end-run around them, on those occasions when you can’t just ignore them entirely, and let them howl about it till they’re blue in the face and gasping for air. There’s no longer any good reason to even pretend to care what they think, and one hell of a lot of good reasons not to.

Good reads

Posted on October 9, 2020October 9, 2020 by Mike

Since I first read Bill’s fantastic Lightning Falls, I’ve gotten into PAW (Post-Apocalypse World, for the uninitiated) fiction in a big way, thanks to the indispensable Kindle Unlimited virtual lending library. There’s some great, entertaining stuff to be found in the genre, although some books on the topic read like little more than overlong shopping and honey-do lists for survivalists and preppers. Useful for some in a purely practical sense, maybe, but not exactly what I’m looking for in a work of fiction.

NC Reed’s Fire From The Sky series—now up to volume nine or ten, I believe, every one of which I’ve read—is particularly gripping stuff, as is everything else he’s written…all of which I’ve also read and loved.

Reed is an extremely skillful writer, especially so when it comes to creating believable, very human characters and exploring the relationships between them. He’s a Tennessee boy, as are the characters in the Sanders saga, and his dialogue is as real as hot cornbread in a cast-iron skillet. Southern dialect is actually a surprisingly difficult thing to pull off convincingly; many otherwise fine authors have tried and failed embarrassingly at it. Reed’s only real problem is by no means an unusual one these days, one that isn’t really his fault either: the editing is a little, ummm, off here and there. It’s by no means horrible or frequent enough to set your molars a-grinding in fury over it, mind, but it can be a mite distracting occasionally. That minor quibble aside, though, I can’t recommend Reed’s stuff highly enough.

Matt Bracken’s Enemies Foreign And Domestic trilogy, which I’ve mentioned enthusiastically here before, certainly deserves another mention. If you aren’t familiar with his excellent work, well, you need to fix that. Fran Porretto’s brilliant Spooner Federation Saga books are worthy of mention too, although they don’t fit so neatly into the PAW pirgeonhole as the others.

The past few days I’ve found myself totally engrossed in what’s looking like a real masterpiece of the PAW genre: Dogsoldiers, by a fella yclept James Tarr. Tarr, it turns out, also co-authored Carnivore, a good Gulf War memoir by Bradley IFV commander Dillard Johnson. I was sent a copy of Carnivore for review purposes when it first came out, although I can’t recall now if I ever did get around to posting a review here or not.

Dogsoldiers is some damned tasty stuff, a truly outstanding book. The tale is set in near-future Detroit, centering on a pivotal battle in the decade-long civil war waged by a slowly-weakening US federal tyranny against the ragtag, mostly disorganized, and chronically underequipped resistance of freedom fighters referred to in the title. Tarr’s writing is top-notch; the story isn’t marred by any of the uneven or downright sloppy editing that frequently blunts the impact of ebooks for some reason.

In fact, the reason I brought all this up in the first damned place is because the book struck me as plenty good enough to post some excerpts from it here. Our first passage has one of the Good Guy characters—Early, a grizzled, hardcore veteran originally from JawJa—enlightening a shavetail Dogsoldier volunteer, Jason, on some of the harsher realities of life during CW 2.0:

“Early?”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t we take prisoners? Why were Weasel and George killing their wounded?”

Early looked and saw the teenager was seriously bothered. “Well, there’s two answers to that. First one is…where would we take them? It’s not like we’ve got a base. Or vehicles to transport them. We wander around, causing trouble, living in empty houses and borrowed basements, and then when the cold rolls in either do more of the same or we hol’ up with friends or relatives or in our own houses, far away from the trouble.”

“We could let them live, let the Army treat their injuries.”

Early nodded. “And that’s the other part of it. At the start of the war we let them be, tried to do the civilized thing. Let the Tabs recover their wounded. Not now. Not after ten years. Because they just keep coming back, like the tide. At this point we’ve all realized we’re in a war of attrition—that means neither side is going to surrender, the war only ends when one side has been ground down so much they’ve got no one left who can fight. They’ve had their chance. Any Tabs still fighting are either too mean or too stupid to know they’re on the side of evil.”

“And after the war? In any other war, you capture POWs, at the end of the war you send ‘em home. Which is somewhere else, a whole ‘nother country. Over there somewhere.” He waved his hand vaguely. “After World War II the Germans were sent back to Germany, where they could be Germans, and be nowhere near us. That’s not what this war is. The Tabs live here; win or lose, they’re not going anywhere. Even if they’re not fightin’, and we’re all peaceable and neighborly, they’ll still believe the same things that caused the war in the first place—socialism, communism, vegan grocery bags, twenty-seven genders, guns are evil, America has never been great, never hit back, government should be in charge of everything, all of it. That’s not peace or victory, that’s just a temporary ceasefire. Their beliefs aren’t just evil, they’re a poison, a cancer, a rot. Winning doesn’t just mean the war stops, we want to have a healthy country after all this.”

“It ain’t pretty, son. It ain’t even nice. Maybe it’s our own brand of evil. You don’ like it? Good. That means you’ve got a soul. But it’s the only way we not just win the war, but win the peace afterward.”

Naaah, THAT doesn’t sound like it has any contemporary relevance at all, does it? Pure escapist fiction, no practical reality to be found there, nossir. But this next excerpt cuts even closer to the bone that that, if you can believe it. It’s gonna be a long ‘un, so I’ll tuck it down below the fold and out of the way.

Continue reading “Good reads” →

Hotting up

Posted on October 8, 2020October 9, 2020 by Mike

It’s about fucking time.

Federal agents said Thursday they thwarted a plot to violently overthrow the government as well as kidnap and harm Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — a conspiracy that included visits to her home in northern Michigan and training with firearms and explosive devices.

The alleged plot mainly involved six conspirators unhappy in part about Whitmer’s coronavirus restrictions, calling her a “tyrant.” They wanted to create a “self-sufficient” society free from they called unconstitutional state governments and discussed plans to storm the Capitol and take hostages, according to FBI documents filed in court.

Organizers allegedly met starting in June, including at a Second Amendment rally in Lansing and in a Grand Rapids shop basement accessed through a secret door hidden under a rug.

The plot also included at least seven members of a Michigan militia known as the Wolverine Watchmen accused by state officials on Thursday of targeting police, making threats to “instigate civil war” and helping to plan Whitmer’s kidnapping, according to state and federal officials.

The militiamen are, of course, correct: Whitler IS a tyrant, plain and simple. If there’d been any doubt about that before she brazenly declared her intention to defy a Michigan Supreme ruling officially confirming her tyrant-straight-up status, there damned sure can’t be any now.

The federal court filing alleges the conspirators twice conducted surveillance at Whitmer’s personal vacation home in northern Michigan and discussed kidnapping her to a “secure location” in Wisconsin to stand “trial” for treason prior to the Nov. 3 election.

“Several members talked about murdering ‘tyrants’ or ‘taking’ a sitting governor,” an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. “The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message.”

If they’re tyrants, it ain’t murder. It’s no more than justice—a concept to which “a long train of abuses and usurpations,” to borrow a pertinent phrase, has rendered all too many Americans insensible.

After the charges were revealed, Whitmer slammed President Donald Trump for failing to condemn in strong enough terms hate groups, such as the far-right Proud Boys, whom he told to “stand back and stand by” during the debate last week.

“Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, a call to action,” the Democratic governor said.

Yeah, fuck you too. Here’s hoping we’ll eventually learn whether you can sing that same skrawky tune of yours with a nice, stout length of hemp around your neck, bitch.

She also warned those who threatened violence: “We will find you, we will hold you accountable and we will bring you to justice.”

Not if the Wolverine Watchmen, God bless ’em each and every one, catch up with your malignant ass first you won’t. On that most frabjous of days, you’ll get a long-overdue schooling on what “accountability” and “justice” REALLY mean, or did before you and a whole sorry pantload of other evil bureau-rats warped and perverted those fine words beyond any real meaning. And just in case anyone out there has any concerns about the propriety or morality of such seemingly radical steps as these, may I remind one and all:

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

Seems clear enough to me.

Incongruous update! Well, that got weird awful quick.

Several media outlets, including the New York Times and the UK Daily Mail have attempted to cast the individuals as “right-wing” and “Trump supporters,” but at least one suspect, Brandon Caserta, held views more nuanced than that.

Breitbart News reviewed Caserta’s Facebook profile shortly before it was deleted.

In several YouTube videos, Caserta opined about rights and the illegitimacy of government.

“The Constitution is illegitimate,” he said in one posted on May 16, 2020, which was removed after Caserta’s account was terminated.

“Authority doesn’t exist, dude,” Caserta said, seated in front of an anarchist flag, “and, like, the law doesn’t exist.”

Other videos, including some Breitbart News reviewed on Caserta’s Facebook page prior to deletion, the suspect criticized the police, calling them “obedient order-followers.”

Hmmmm. FBI false-flag op, perhaps?

Something rotten update! Stinky, hinky, not on the up and up.

At least two of the six people indicted on Thursday were not right-wing militia members, Trump supporters, or Proud Boys, as Whitmer irresponsibly represented. According to information coming out on Thursday evening, one of the ring leaders of the plot is a leftist insurrectionist anarchist who hates President Trump. Another, Pete Musico, shares the same philosophy.

It makes you wonder what else do we not know about these Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Case Daniel Harris, Brandon Caserta, and others up on state charges in Michigan.

Producer Robby Starbuck, Reddit, and probably 4Chan went to work to trace back the social media breadcrumbs left behind by the feds, who likely “disappeared” most of the social media footprints of the men who’d been charged.

Either the Michigan militia boys need to tighten up their recruitment and security sharp-ish, or that’s the cold, ghostly hand of a false-flag op I feel on my shoulder all of a sudden.

The tyranny of fear

Posted on October 7, 2020October 7, 2020 by Mike

The esteemed and estimable Heather MacDonald bats around my new least-favorite phrase—Stay saaaafe!—safetyism generally, and asshat Frank Bruni specifically, like so many cat toys.

We set highway speeding limits to maximize convenience at what we consider an acceptable risk to human life. It is statistically certain that every year, there will be tens of thousands of driving deaths. A considerable portion of those deaths could be averted by “following the science” of force and velocity and enforcing a speed limit of, say, 15 miles an hour. But we tolerate motor-vehicle deaths because we value driving 75 miles an hour on the highway, and up to 55 miles an hour in cities, more than we do saving those thousands of lives. When those deaths come—nearly 100 a day in 2019—we do not cancel the policy. Nor would it be logical to cancel a liberal highway speed because a legislator who voted for it died in a car accident.

We could reduce coronavirus transmission to zero by locking everyone in a separate cell until a vaccine was developed. There are some public-health experts who from the start appeared ready to implement such radical social distancing. The extent to which we veer from that maximal coronavirus protection policy depends on how we value its costs and the competing goods: forgone life-saving medical care and deaths of despair from unemployment and social isolation, on the one hand, and the ability to support one’s family through work and to build prosperity through entrepreneurship, on the other. The advocates of maximal lockdowns have rarely conceded such trade-offs, but they are ever-present.

Under today’s safetyism mentality, sacrifice and risk-taking become unthinkable. The martial virtues of courage and stoicism have been sidelined and pathologized. When Trump briefly left Walter Reed on Sunday in a motorcade to greet supporters, a doctor at the hospital complained that the Secret Service agents in Trump’s limousine “might get sick. They may die.” These are the same Secret Service agents who are expected to take a bullet for a president. They were behind a plexiglass barrier in the car; all occupants were masked. Under our feminized ethos, showing resoluteness during a crisis, reassuring the public about one’s well-being, are no longer positive traits in a leader; they are violations of maximal risk aversion. (Of course, medical information about a president’s condition should be transparent.)

Reopening is still the right policy. Mandatory outdoor mask-wearing is merely a way for government to turn citizens into walking billboards of fear, sending the false message that danger is everywhere. Infection rarely leads to death. Most of the infected recover. Given his governmental duties, the surprise is that Trump—as president, another kind of front-line worker—has not gotten sick before now.

Last week, Trump gave a debate performance embodying what the Left likes to call toxic masculinity. Today, anticipating his departure from the hospital, Trump tweeted: “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” The mainstream media blew its top, calling the tweet “dangerous,” “gross,” and “almost impossible to believe.” Let them fume. Trump is now modelling masculine leadership at its best: upbeat, rational, and unbowed.

Precisely so. And that’s also exactly why Proggy hates the man so viciously, with every fibre of his cowardly, emasculated being—the poor, sad little twerp-ass.

Simple human decency

Posted on October 2, 2020October 2, 2020 by Mike

While the vile, soulless Left in its entirety celebrates today’s horrible news in the usual fashion—ghoulish gloating over the suffering of their political opponents, fervent wishes for a long, painful death, etc—the Last Sane Democrat demonstrates yet again why I’ve always referred to her that way.

My husband Abraham and I offer our best wishes and aloha to President @realDonaldTrump and the First Lady @FLOTUS and praying for their speedy recovery. We also send our best wishes to Ivanka, Tiffany, Donald Trump Jr., Eric, and Barron during this difficult time. #TrumpHasCovid

— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 2, 2020

Bless you, Ms Gabbard; would that we had many more like you. Alas, it’s our poor, bleeding nation’s tragedy that we don’t—emblematic of why we are where we are, and are headed where we’re headed.

Update! Heh.

Trump Preemptively Pens Dying Wish Canceling Out RBG’s Dying Wish
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Lying ill in the White House, Trump weakly asked for a pen and paper. Once these had been retrieved for him, he wrote out his dying wish — just in case the worst should happen — canceling out Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish.

“I, Donald Trump, your favorite president, hereby state that my dying wish is for Amy Coney Barrett to be confirmed to the Supreme Court,” Trump wrote as friends and family looked on somberly. “She’s a great nominee. The best, maybe ever. That Kavanaugh guy was alright, he was pretty good. But Barrett is the real deal.”

Legal scholars frantically tried to find a loophole so the nation could honor Ginsburg’s dying wish but not the president’s, but unfortunately for them, the plan was foolproof. “We are forced to honor this as legitimate,” they said. “There’s no way around it. Since we accepted Ginsburg’s dying wishes as constitutional law, now Trump’s are also legitimate. Should have thought that one through.”

Probably so, yeah.

Motley Krewe

Posted on October 2, 2020October 2, 2020 by Mike

To quote Dennis Hopper: gonna go down to the Mardi Gras, gonna get me a Mardi Gras queen, yeah!

Before Danielle Wheeler founded the Krewe of Karens in 2019, she had never gone topical. She’d always been in the “cinched corset and glitter” camp of Carnival costumers. Though Wheeler admired clever people who dreamed up outfits that meshed with current events or social fads, such ideas didn’t pop into her head.

Until she had an epiphany.

“Karen” is a pop culture code name for a certain type of self-assured, SUV-driving, sunglass-wearing, suburban White woman who is often aggrieved about life’s inconveniences and imperfections.

“A woman is deemed a Karen for her repeated attempts to demand to see the manager of an establishment,” Wheeler said, “more often than not issuing a complaint that we might refer to as a ‘first-world problem.’”

A Karen, Wheeler realized, was the perfect antithesis to the anything goes, laissez-faire attitude of Carnival. The question was, would anyone understand the character?

“The concept of the Karen was still a relatively new term,” Wheeler said. “I hoped that enough friends knew exactly what I was talking about when I presented them with the idea of dressing as a Karen to help make the Krewe of Karens become a reality.”

Wheeler’s friends understood perfectly, and the costume was simple to produce. A reverse-bob wig, sweater, sunglasses, a Starbucks coffee cup and a Karen name tag was about all that was necessary to produce the look. There was a touch of performance as well. Instead of smiling, the Karens posed imperiously for photographs, and they developed a call and response chant: “What do we want? Managers! When do we want them? Now!”

No one appreciated the gag better than the bartenders and other service industry employees that the Karens encountered on their first march through the Marigny and French Quarter on Lundi Gras 2019. A few onlookers were confused by the Karen persona. A woman whose name was actually Karen felt she’d found her flock (though Wheeler said it was uncertain if she fully grasped the satire).

Ms Wheeler seems to have a good grasp on the Karen phenomena in all its irritating wretchedness, but I believe the author of the article may not be quite as, umm, astute:

A few months after Mardi Gras 2020, a White woman walking her dog in New York’s Central Park quarreled with a Black man who was birdwatching. She subsequently called the police, claiming she was in danger. The woman was widely described as a Karen.

At about the same time, women who refused to wear coronavirus-suppressing masks were often referred to as Karens.

Well, actually, no. Karens were the ones who were mask-shaming, berating, and even physically asssaulting Mask Of Submission resisters, in truth. But no matter. Hats off to Ms Wheeler and her compatriots for coming up with a brilliant new wrinkle for the Mardi Gras festivities.

Although I must admit that cinched corsets and glitter are still just fine with me, too.

Stand by, and stand ready

Posted on October 1, 2020October 1, 2020 by Mike

As I always say: we could use a lot more like ’em.

The crucial moment in Tuesday night’s debate was near the end when Joe Biden invited President Trump to throw the Proud Boys under the bus, and the president refused to do it. The president was asked by moderator Chris Wallace “to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland.” Trump replied, “Sure, I’m willing to do that,” but then added that “almost everything I see” in terms of violence “is from the left-wing, not from the right-wing. I’m willing to do anything.… I want to see peace.”

After further back-and-forth, Trump said, “Give me a name,” and Biden said, “Proud Boys.” To this, Trump replied: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what, somebody’s gotta do something about Antifa and the Left, because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing problem.”

Because I personally know both Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and the group’s current chairman Enrique Tarrio, I was pleased by that response. The idea that the Proud Boys are a dangerous “white supremacist” organization is a myth created by the left-wing media, and it took courage for the president of the United States to stand tough in that moment.

The liberal media, of course, was scandalized, but who is rioting in Portland? Who attacked police and set up an “autonomous zone” in Seattle? Who has engaged in looting and arson in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and other major cities in the past several weeks? Hint: not the Proud Boys.

The Proud Boys, of course, were ecstatic over the president’s shout-out. They took the president’s words — “Stand back and stand by” — and incorporated it into their group’s logo. Oregon’s Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who has allowed Antifa mobs to riot in Portland for months, took her cue to again denounce the Proud Boys as “white supremacists.” What Democrats don’t seem to understand is that there are millions of Americans who are sick and tired of being called racists, and these American voters know which party hates them. It’s Joe Biden’s party.

Dig that logo:

Say, that there would look most righteous on a black tee, would it not? Of course, the idea that the Proud Boys are anything resembling a “white supremacist” group is nothing but a bald-faced lie promulgated by manipulative propagandists.

It turns out not everybody believes the Proud Boys are white supremacists, including a prominent Black professor at a historically Black university.

Wilfred Reilly, associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University, said Wednesday that “the Proud Boys aren’t white supremacists,” describing the right-wing group’s beliefs as “Western chauvinist” and noting that their international chairman, Enrique Tarrio, is Black.

Mr. Reilly said that about 10% to 20% of Proud Boys activists are people of color, a diverse racial composition that is “extremely well-known in law enforcement,” based on his research.

“Enrique Tarrio, their overall leader, is a Black Cuban dude. The Proud Boys explicitly say they’re not racist,” Mr. Reilly told The Washington Times. “They are an openly right-leaning group and they’ll openly fight you — they don’t deny any of this — but saying they’re White supremacist: If you’re talking about a group of people more than 10% people of color and headed by an Afro-Latino guy, that doesn’t make sense.”

Facts, truth, and basic decency being of little use and no concern to Leftist scum the lies will continue, as the follow-up quotes included in the above article—shat forth from the cakeholes of putrescent pustules like Chuck Schemer and Cadaver Joe, among others—serve to confirm. But as quotes go, I like this one best:

“We’re a drinking club with a patriot problem,” Mr. Tarrio told CNN at a Sept. 26 rally in Portland. “As Proud Boys, I think our main objective is to defend the West.”

Preach it, brother. And bash on, until the last PantiFa pantywaist is just a pile of bloody goo lying unconscious in the gutter.

They’re BACK, baby!

Posted on September 30, 2020September 30, 2020 by Mike

Via Ed Driscoll, I bring you glad tidings of great joy.

After several days of online hints and teasers, Australian high-volume rockers AC/DC have confirmed their return to active duty by announcing that veteran singer Brian Johnson, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams have rejoined the band after several years’ absence.

A new photo of the band finds them looking older but energized, with lead guitarist Angus Young, now 65, still rocking the schoolboy outfit.

The term “Pwr Up” featured in several of the teasers is apparently the title of a new album, although the official announcement does not say when it might be coming. Twisted Sister Singer Dee Snider, a longtime friend of the band, said over the summer that the group has completed a new album.

I still say they’re the greatest pure rock band there ever was or ever will be, and I wish them nothing but the best. Calls for a little something in the way of celebratory revelry, I do believe.

Just keep talkin’, Gropey

Posted on September 30, 2020September 30, 2020 by Mike

Biden steps in it again. Only this time, stalwart legal eagle and all-around Great American Lin Wood is on the case.

Formal demand for public retraction is being prepared for Biden/Harris Campaign on behalf of Kyle Rittenhouse.

I also hereby demand that @JoeBiden immediately retract his false accusation that Kyle is a white supremacist & militia member responsible for violence in Kenosha. pic.twitter.com/GrZyE8nI7Z

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) September 30, 2020

Apparently, Cadaver Joe was “unresponsive,” shall we say, to Wood’s retraction demand. So Wood says he’ll see his baggy ass in court.

Marina Medvin @MarinaMedvin is a great criminal defense lawyer. I was thrilled when she agreed to join the criminal defense team led by John Pierce @CaliKidJMP.

I may have to talk Marina into being a defamation lawyer too. After 43 years, I know legal talent when I see it. https://t.co/TGdUq9WttY

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) September 30, 2020

Kyle Rittenhouse is going to be a very, very wealthy man before he reaches legal drinking age, and it delights me no end to think that part of his pile will be gleaned from Gropey’s ill-gotten gelt. Meanwhile, Ace makes a funny:

Please remind Lin Wood that a retraction is needed from Chris Wallace’s Lemon Party Pal Joe Biden, too.

Heh. For any of you who are unfamiliar with the “Lemon Party” reference…well, far be it from me to be the one to hip ya. But I fully intend to make use of it myself from here on in.

Get woke, go…well, maybe not exactly broke

Posted on September 28, 2020September 28, 2020 by Mike

That trick never works.

A lackluster Thursday Night Football matchup led to the smallest audience for the midweek game in four years. ABC’s Celebrity Family Feud and TNT’s NBA playoff game were close on the NFL Network’s heels.

The Miami Dolphins’ 31-13 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars averaged 5.43 million viewers on the NFL Network. That’s the lowest tally for a Thursday game since an October 2016 contest (also involving the Jaguars) drew 5.1 million viewers.

While the NFL game still topped the primetime in both total viewers and adults 18-49, it was a close call. Celebrity Family Feud began its fall run on ABC with 5.26 million viewers, on par with its summer average (as was its 0.7 rating among adults 18-49). TNT’s telecast of the NBA Western Conference finals scored a 1.87 in the 18-49 demographic, just a few hundredths of a point behind Thursday Night Football’s 1.9.

On cable, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight (4.71 million viewers) and Hannity (4.51 million), along with TNT’s NBA game (4.6 million), all finished within shouting distance of the NFL.

Bold mine, indicating what I think is the real takeaway here: the NFL—despite a trivial dip in actual viewership; despite having insulted their fans grievously and gratuitously, over and over again; despite everything—still won the time slot, and still drew millions of viewers.

I dunno, but all that doesn’t exactly add up to cause for a whole lot in the way of gloating over the NFL’s imminent “demise,” seems to me. Via Ace, whose mileage definitely varies on this.

But whatevs. After having been an avid Cowboys fan my whole life previously, I haven’t watched an NFL game since the mid-80s and no longer give a damn about the game at all. They can do whatever they like; I haven’t missed them, and I won’t be coming back.

What I DO miss sometimes, though, is baseball. Last night, I had a coincidental conversation with my cousin that helps to explain why. The video below also goes back to the 80s—1988, to be exact—and it’s a perfect recounting of one of those absolutely magical baseball moments, one that I’ll never, ever forget.

Now, having been a blood-and-guts Braves fan first, last, and forever, I gave not a single shit about either the Dodgers or the Fuckin’ A’s. But I did still watch the playoff series faithfully every year, National League of course (because the designated-hitter is the bunk), and then the World Series after. If I didn’t happen to be near a TV, I would listen on radio—usually in the truck, while I was working. So of course I was watching this one.

Game 1 was a late-nighter for us East Coasters, being played out West and all. So even though I had to be bright eyed and bushy tailed next morning at 5 to go to work, I stayed up into the wee hours to watch this one. And boy, was my dedication ever rewarded.

I mean, come ON, man. So many great baseball names here, names that will light up the major-league firmanent until the skies are rent asunder and Earth’s atmosphere boils off and away: LaSorda. LaRussa. Gibson. Eckersley. Canseco, McGwire. Sax, Scioscia, Hershiser. Pena. And of course, the immortal Vin Scully up in the booth, calling the play-by-play as only he could. I ask you, what’s not to love here?

The Fuckin’ A’s were baseball’s unquestioned powerhouse during the 80s. They seemed to make the Fall Classic every danged year, and usually won, too. In marked contrast, Tom LaSorda’s Dodgers were baseball’s lovable losers, a rag-tag bunch that nobody expected to so much as take the NL pennant, much less the Series. Hell, no way those poor victims would even be on the same field as the almighty A’s. The general assumption was an A’s sweep, a lopsided one too, with the Dodgers being taught an important lesson about daring to challenge one’s obvious superiors.

But then the near-crippled Gibson hobbled up from the on-deck circle—on not one but TWO injured legs—to take his stance at the plate. The absolute last man available on the Dodger bench to pinch-hit, he doggedly battled Eckersley to a full count, staying alive by contemptuously swatting fouls off, waiting for his pitch.

And then, with one incredible, unlooked-for swing of the bat, Kirk Gibson wrote himself into baseball legend forever.

It was said that the A’s were so badly demoralized by the shock that they just couldn’t get over it; certainly, the dazed expressions in the video tell their own story. In any event, rather than easily dominating the sad-sack Dodgers as expected by one and all, the A’s instead wound up folding like a cheap accordion. The lowly Dodgers vanquished them in only five games.

It was the come-from-behind, underdog-makes-good story of all time. And it was one of those things that happen nowhere else but baseball. As Scully so perfectly summed up: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened…the only question was, could he make it around the basepath unassisted.”

When I saw Gibson’s storybook shot happen, I came up out of my easy chair with a yell so sharp and loud that my girlfriend came running out of the bedroom where she’d been fast asleep, sheer panic all over her face, thinking the house was on fire or something. Even today, I get a little choked up watching Gibson make his painful trip around the bases, joyously pumping his arms with the wonder of what he’d just done.

It’s exactly what every towheaded kid out in the backyard by himself, tossing a ball high into the air and catching it in his glove, is dreaming of. You just can’t GET more all-American than that, folks.

Yep, I DO miss baseball sometimes. Yet another thing political correctness has stolen from me, and from us all.

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