Brilliant! – Page 86

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.

Coooool

Posted on September 26, 2020September 26, 2020 by Mike

For the first time ever, I kinda wish I could be in Mordor on the Potomac.

WASHINGTON – Bad weather has postponed the flyover of dozens of vintage planes over the skies of the D.C. area Friday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The flyover has been rescheduled for Saturday. More details are expected.

The flyover will incorporate and estimated 60 American, British, and Allied jets in honor of veterans, and to inspire young people.

Some of the historic aircraft expected to participate include the P-40 Warhawk, P-39 Airacobra, P-51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, F4U Corsair, B-25 Mitchell, B-17 Flying Fortress, B-29 Superfortress, and others.

Leftist “protesters” are also expected to gather on the Mall for a mass die-in, along with some light burning and looting, in protest of the murderous warmongering Amerikkkan fascist colonialist imperialism symbolized by the racist flyover.

The Notorious ACB

Posted on September 26, 2020September 26, 2020 by Mike

Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett to replace the Cadaverous RBG, as expected. The ‘Splodey-Head Left, in their usual display of class, civility, and decency, between flinging poo right away, surprising no one. Stupidly, even some who claim to be on the Right are playing along too, “asking questions” about her adoption of two Haitian kids—something the vile Left is also poking their own shit-smeared snouts into, albeit from a slightly different direction.

According to Rightie concern trolls, most especially those on the DR, Barrett’s adoption of those two children can only mean she’s a race-traitor and a fraud, a virtue-signalling squish who knuckled under to the Left’s vituperation via the cowardly expedient of glomming onto a couple of ferrin’ pickaninnies purely as a talisman against the Left’s RACIST!!!™ voodoo. That there might be no more to it than an act of generosity and compassion by a decent woman, who was deeply touched by the kids’ plight and wanted to help, is not even remotely possible and therefore not worthy of consideration.

The Insane Left, of course and as usual, know in their bones that it’s Ol’ Blue-Eyed Beezerbub up to his/her old tricks again, just a-colonizin’ and enslavin’ as is his eternal wont. The well-worn Catholic canard, out of favor since JFK, is even being dusted off and polished for use against her.

Meh, let ’em all scream away, as loud and as long as they feel they must. I like her, myself. Sure, she could easily turn out to be another letdown like the Dread Turncoat Roberts has. But we can only hope she won’t, and personally I don’t really expect her to. Among other encouraging things she’s said, this seems pretty typical:

Last year at an event with Hillsdale College, Barrett’s student Stephanie Maloney asked the judge “What role, if any, should faith of a nominee have in the confirmation process?”

Barrett said, “None.”

“I mean, we have a long tradition of religious tolerance in this country. And in fact, the religious test clause in the Constitution makes it unconstitutional to impose a religious test on anyone who holds public office,” the judge explained.

“So whether someone is Catholic or Jewish or Evangelical or Muslim or has no faith at all is irrelevant to the job,” Barrett added.

“I do have one thing that I want to add to that, though. I think when you step back and you think about the debate about whether someone’s religion has any bearing on their fitness for office, it seems to me that the premise of the question is that people of faith would have a uniquely difficult time separating out their moral commitments from their obligation to apply the law. And I think people of faith should reject that premise,” she added.

“All people, of course– well, we hope, most people– have deeply held moral convictions, whether or not they come from faith. People who have no faith, people who are not religious, have deeply held moral convictions,” Barrett noted. “And it’s just as important for those people to be sure– I just spent time talking about the job of a judge being to set aside moral convictions, personal moral convictions, and personal preferences, and follow the law. That’s a challenge for those of faith and for those who have no faith.”

“So I think the public should be absolutely concerned about whether a nominee for judicial office will be willing and able to set aside personal preferences, be they moral, be they political, whatever convictions they are,” Barrett explained. “The public should be concerned about whether a nominee can set those aside in favor of following the law.”

“But that’s not a challenge just for religious people. I mean, that’s a challenge for everyone. And so I think it’s a dangerous road to go down to say that only religious people would not be able to separate out moral convictions from their duty,” she said.

Barrett won’t be perfect, certainly. No matter how good she might be, she’s still bound to come down on the wrong side of the argument once in a while. But as long as the Left continues to hate her with the intensity of a thousand suns, hey, that’ll be plenty good enough for me.

Update! Almost left out an imporant aspect: if confirmed and seated, ACB will break the traditional stranglehold on the Court held by the Yale-Harvard cartel. That can’t be anything but a good thing.

Updated update! Buck Sexton nails it just as clean and tight as I’ve ever seen it done.

So the Democrat attacks on ACB for adopting children from Haiti have already begun-

Take note, America. Watch closely.
The Left is going to show you that it’s a morally bankrupt, vicious creed

The vengeful will of an angry mob, with the selfish mind of a spoiled child

— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) September 26, 2020

Nothing whatsoever to add to that. It says it all.

American Renaissance

Posted on September 26, 2020September 26, 2020 by Mike

AOSHQ COB KT mentions the Gipper’s farewell address in 1989, and his excerpt rang sharply enough in my head that I went looking for a transcript of the whole thing. Which, irony of ironies, I found tucked away in the online archives of…the NYT?!?

It’s stunning how familiar so much of this speech sounds today. Better go download the PDF now, before some NYT trog realizes their blunder and deep-sixes all reference to it.

Well, back in 1980, when I was running for President, it was all so different. Some pundits said our programs would result in catastrophe. Our views on foreign affairs would cause war, our plans for the economy would cause inflation to soar and bring about economic collapse. I even remember one highly respected economist saying, back in 1982, that “The engines of economic growth have shut down here and they’re likely to stay that way for years to come.”

Well, he – and the other “opinion leaders” – were wrong. The fact is, what they called “radical” was really “right”; what they called “dangerous” was just “desperately needed.”

And in all that time I won a nickname – “The Great Communicator.” But I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference – it was the content. I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation – from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.

They called it the Reagan Revolution, and I’ll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the Great Rediscovery: a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.

I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.

Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American, and we absorbed almost in the air a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn’t get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed, you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-Sixties.

Our spirit is back, but we haven’t reinstitutionalized it. We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise – and freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection.

We’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important: Why the pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, four years ago, on the 40th anniversary of D-Day. I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who’d fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did. Well, let’s help her keep her word.

If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I am warning of an eradication of that – of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.

Familiar? All too, I’d say. Every word of it was true then, and is equally true today. And the Left still reacts to those eternal truths as a vampire does to a splash of Holy Water in the face—the only difference between then and now being how much more vicious, violent, and just plain bold they’ve become while Real Americans fitfully slumbered.

This is quite heady and essential stuff: music to the American ear, of a tone and timbre we heard no more of in the long, dark years after. Until Trump entered the arena, that is. Is it really any wonder why they hate him so fanatically?

Let freedom ring!

Posted on September 26, 2020September 26, 2020 by Mike

Two big attaboys for Gov DeSantis.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has moved the entire state into phase three of the COVID-19 recovery plan. All restrictions against restaurants and businesses are removed by executive order and all local mask ordinances are nullified by the same order.

In addition to lifting the boot of tyranny from the necks of Floridians, DeSantis’ order also unequivocally forbids the levying of all fines and penalties on Mask Of Submission resistors. But following the science on the fake plague ain’t all he’s doing.

Brandishing a law-and-order approach to civil unrest, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s incoming Republican House and Senate leaders rolled out a legislative package Monday aimed at cracking down on protesters by creating a host of new crimes, as the GOP tries to keep the battleground state in President Donald Trump’s column in November.

The proposal announced by DeSantis, a staunch supporter of Trump, would create new felony crimes when property is damaged or when people are injured as a result of protests involving seven or more individuals.

The measure would also make it a crime to obstruct traffic during unpermitted protests or demonstrations and do away with bail or bond for people involved in violent protests.

And the plan would establish that drivers are not liable for injuries or deaths “caused if fleeing for safety from a mob,” according to a news release issued by the governor’s office.

Bold mine, because that part’s my favorite. Any violent Marxist idiot playing in the street in Florida will now get what’s coming to ’em, good and hard. What you might call “self-defense by motor vehicle” has been legalized in Florida, leveling the playing field for innocent motorists just trying to get home from work against the domestic terrorists who prey on them with impunity in other, less enlightened states. Good on ya, Guv.

All you snowbirds fleeing a certain dying Northeastern megalopolis for the Sunshine State need to note well: you ain’t in ~~Kansas~~ NYC no more, Dorothy. We do things a little bit different down here in Dixie. Respect it, or go the fuck back home.

Following through

Posted on September 23, 2020September 23, 2020 by Mike

And doubling down.

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday afternoon that he has banned the U.S. government from doing business with people and companies who promote far-left critical race theory, noting that the ideology is “divisive and harmful.”

“A few weeks ago, I BANNED efforts to indoctrinate government employees with divisive and harmful sex and race-based ideologies,” Trump tweeted. “Today, I’ve expanded that ban to people and companies that do business with our Country, the United States Military, Government Contractors, and Grantees. Americans should be taught to take PRIDE in our Great Country, and if you don’t, there’s nothing in it for you!”

Indeed. So go live somewhere the fuck else, shitlibs, and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

“Small masters of not so small betrayals”

Posted on September 22, 2020September 22, 2020 by Mike

Codevilla calls ’em all out.

Understandably, senators such as Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who have made careers of talking conservative while doing their utmost not to displease the ruling class that despises us, don’t want further to energize opposition to their reelection. Hence, they kind of promise to vote “no” now while kind of promising to vote “yes” after the election.

The question before President Trump and McConnell is whether to identify with these small masters of not so small betrayals. If they do, they would discredit themselves and their party. Why should voters believe that, all together, they will do after the election what they have the power to do now but refuse? What is the difference between before the election and after the election?

There is only one difference, namely: to act before an election is to submit one’s actions to immediate judgment by the sovereign people. As you act, you must explain to the voters why it is right to act as you do. The voters then decide on you.

And why would a worthy nominee agree to undergo the certainty of vilification by the Left knowing that, after the election, the newly reelected weak Republicans would be stronger than ever in pressing the concerns of their ruling class donors against Trump, newly a lame-duck, regardless of voters whom they would not have to face for another six years?

Angelo recommends one day of hearings, a total ban on Democrat-Socialist carnival acts and freakshows, and limited floor debate, none of which ought to be considered in any way radical or outrageous. The Repubs hold a majority in the Senate; if they refuse to start acting like it, they won’t for much longer. This is an opportunity for the RINOs to redeem themselves, at least somewhat. If they let it pass them by, it will cost them dearly. And it certainly should.

Happily, though, it looks as if Lindsey v2.0 might be making a most welcome comeback.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Monday night said his party has enough votes to confirm a new Supreme Court justice before the November election.

“We’ve got the votes to confirm Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg’s replacement before the election,” Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

“We’re going to move forward in the committee, we’re going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election.”

Bold mine, and quite encouraging words they are too. Even better:

Yesterday, Graham sent a letter to his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee politely informing them that he’s here to kick a** and chew gum, and he just ran out of gum. Here is a quote from the end of the letter:

“Lastly, after the treatment of Justice Kavanaugh I now have a different view of the judicial-nomination process. Compare the treatment of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh to that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, and it’s clear that there is already one set of rules for a Republican president and one set of rules for a Democrat president. I therefore think it is important that we proceed expeditiously to process any nomination made by President Trump to fill this vacancy. I am certain that if the shoe were on the other foot, you would do the same.”

OK then. It’s on.

Good stuff all, to be sure, but now we come to something truly astounding.

The Constitution gives the President the power to nominate and the Senate the authority to provide advice and consent on Supreme Court nominees. Accordingly, I intend to follow the Constitution and precedent in considering the President’s nominee. If the nominee reaches the Senate floor, I intend to vote based upon their qualifications.

Simple, direct, rational, and perfectly reasonable. So who said it?

Better sit down for it, folks. Trust me.

Punch back twice a thousand times as hard

Posted on September 21, 2020September 21, 2020 by Mike

Started to attach this as an update to that first SCOTUS post down below, but it’s just too damned good not to have a post of its very own.

You threaten to riot? You threaten to shut it all down? You show up at McConnell’s house to protest the very night RBG dies? Fine. Do that and I’ll advocate for hardball to be played right back with the ball to be hit directly into your face. You want it, you got it.

It isn’t just last night. This is the accumulation of decades of ever increasing nastiness re: Republican SCOTUS nominations. This is the threats of court packing, this is hearing vileness, this is *gestures* all of it. I didn’t want this game. But I’ll play it to win.

Since we’re going to play this stupidest possible game, then play it as hard as possible. I want the nomination Monday, the vote Tuesday, and the swearing in on Wednesday. Hearings are an insulting joke. Everyone knows how everyone will vote. Just do this thing.

BUT BUT YOUR PRINCIPLES! PRINCIPLES, I SAY! You know what my main principle is? I don’t give in to threats. I’m done with this pretending that this is about anything other than pure power plays. In the era of the Golden Scalp Weasel came the Great Unmasking.

Since the masks are off, let me take off mine. I am, underneath it all, an utterly cold blooded pragmatist. I loathe to my DNA that SCOTUS is now most powerful. But it is. That’s not changing. And thus I want that power to be on my side as much as possible.

If that means ramming a vote through as hard and fast as possible, so be it. So be it. I screamed my throat raw and typed my fingers bloody for decades telling everyone not to get to this point. I lost that argument. I lost that argument entirely. Will to power it is then.

I am, by the by, fully aware of what will happen when the roles are reversed. How can I not be? It’s been laid bare for years. I am doing my enemies, and it is clear now they are not opponents, the favor of taking them seriously. I’m just using the power they want first.

Since this is the game that will be played, play it we shall. And play it to win.

A hearty a-friggin’-MEN to every single word. I have but one caveat: Team Liberty should not consider for one moment leaving ANY tactic, weapon, or dirty trick off the table or out of bounds in this war—a principle which applies both to the SCOTUS skirmish specifically and to the wider war. For war it most certainly is; like it or not, there is no longer any shying from it. Frankly, I doubt there ever really was. There is but one way forward for us now: straight the fuck through their asses.

No, we didn’t want war; we didn’t want any of this. But it has been pressed upon us nonetheless, by a dead-serious, committed, and truly dangerous enemy that has only been emboldened by our reluctance to engage them—that being a product not of cowardice or weakness as our enemies delude themselves, but of nothing more than basic human decency and sanity.

And if there’s one lesson we all ought to have gleaned from so many decades of futile, bootless “police actions,” “liberations,” and “nation building,” then it’s a simple one, and here t’is: if it’s war we must wage, then we must fight to win. MUST. Our guiding ethic in this can only be war to the knife, knife to the hilt. No holds barred, no quarter asked or given, no stopping or easing off until our enemies are well and truly vanquished.

When the dust has settled, they must know that they’ve been kissed, as the old saying goes. Should there be the slightest question about that after all is said and done, then we didn’t do it correctly…and will only have to repeat the whole dismal process all over again, until we finally get it right. Which is something we really, REALLY don’t want.

No time to go wobbly

Posted on September 21, 2020September 21, 2020 by Mike

HOT dog! A both-barrels Michael Anton blast at some unusually fat, juicy targets.

The instant Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing was announced, the battle lines were drawn. Or, more accurately, one side girded for battle, while Republicans clucked with confusion about what to do next.

Which should be no surprise. If Republicans are good at anything, it’s finding “principled” reasons to betray their constituents and contradict their much vaunted philosophy. President Trump, naturally, has sounded strong, as, to his credit, has Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). But the majority leader has to manage a fractious caucus and a thin margin. Many of his members either will be looking for excuses not to vote, or for a reason to vote no, or (worse) will be persuadable by sophistical arguments as to why stabbing their president, their voters, and their country in the back is “the right thing to do.”

The two most recent, and therefore currently binding, expressions of the will of the people were the elections of 2016 and 2018. The former produced a Republican president and reaffirmed Republican control of the Senate, in place since the election of 2010. The latter reaffirmed Republican control of the Senate yet again. The will of the people, therefore, as expressed through elections—the only legitimate basis for the exercise of political power in our constitutional system—is that conservative justices be elevated to the Supreme Court.

It wasn’t Republicans who nuked the filibuster for judicial nominees. Can you recall a single instance of Republicans treating a nominee as disgracefully as the Democrats treated Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, or Brett Kavanaugh? I can’t. Yet they constantly and sanctimoniously insist that the process is sacrosanct while scolding Republicans to obey every past procedural and conventional nicety that the Democrats have already torched.

Republicans mostly go along obediently. The Democrats nearly always vote in lockstep against any Republican judicial nominee; Republicans routinely break ranks and vote for Democratic nominees. A phrase I’ve heard to describe this faux-magnanimity is “beautiful losers,” though there’s nothing beautiful about it.

Does anyone for a second think, were the shoe on the other foot, the Democrats would hesitate to confirm their pick? To ask is to laugh.

The call to respect “norms” rings hollow after four years of the Left, the leftist media, the courts, and the administrative state all breaking norms, to the point of threatening if they don’t get their way on this vacancy, even more systemic change: D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood (four more Democratic senators, forever), abolishing the Electoral College (New York, California, Chicago, and Philadelphia electing the president, forever), and packing the Supreme Court.

The Democrats know what political power is for: to enact your side’s agenda. They and their media allies successfully gaslight Republicans into fearing that exercising political power is “partisan” and therefore illegitimate—but only when Republicans do it. Democrats themselves have no hesitation.

Nor should they. The whole point of our democratic-republican system is for voters to elect people they perceive to be on their side, who favor their own approach to common problems, and who when given the opportunity then enact that agenda. That, in essence, is democracy. That is what Republican senators are there to do. Let them do it.

“Let,” hell. Hold their feet to the fire and MAKE them do it, by God. Vacillating, nervous-Nellie GOPe squishes have just been presented with one final opportunity to make good here, before a veritable horde of people walk away from their party forever in total disgust. Their Job-like patience exhausted by an unending train of slippery-slimery DC dissembling, ducking-and-diving and shucking-and-jiving betrayals, and forked-tongue tough talk, succeeded by absolutely nothing at all, those long-suffering GOPe constituencies have been gradually stripped of all faith that any hope remains for American politics ever being reformed or redeemed.

Lied to, cheated on, courted then spurned by a rogue’s gallery of surpassingly treacherous, untrustworthy swine with less personal integrity than a deer tick, those put-upon and fed-up folks are a powder keg of righteous, boiling anger, one which all ProPols ignore at their great peril. And trust me, the fuse is lit.

So you’d best square them shoulders, stand up on them hind legs like men and not curs, nut on up, and do the right thing here at long last. Because if you don’t turn the right way at this truly critical crossroads, in these truly dangerous times—well, there are other ways to be rid of you than voting. All of them much less pleasant ones. For you.

I don’t even have to say the words at this point, do I?

Proud Boys just out and out fucking with their heads now

Posted on September 20, 2020September 20, 2020 by Mike

Living rent-free in empty Pantifa skulls.

The Proud Boys advertised a fake rally in West Philadelphia’s Clark Park on Saturday, causing Antifa to flood the streets.

When the Proud Boys did not show up, they attacked conservative independent media instead.

As the Gateway Pundit reported earlier in the day, the militant leftists attacked two conservatives who were filming the protest. They also attacked a vehicle they believed to belong to the conservatives, but actually belonged to someone who was there in support of their cause. There was a frightened dog inside while they smashed the windows out with hammers.

Speaking to the Gateway Pundit about the fake rally, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio said that “SOMETIMES…all it takes for evil to fail is for good men to do nothing.”

“The Philly ProudBoys decided this was the best approach today. They wanted to show the world exactly what unchecked domestic terrorism does to a city. It’s incredibly sad that in 2020 America all someone has to do to be threatened with violence is say they’re going to a park to practice their first amendment rights. Besides attacking journalist that were on the scene they attacked themselves. They beat and broke windows on what seemed to be a vehicle owned by an Antifa militant. So I’m extremely Proud of my boys today. Some of these boys had a hangover and watched Antifa on Antifa violence from the comfort of their living rooms,” Tarrio said.

I say again: I just love these guys so much. I really, really do.

The Proud Boys have also launched a new website opposing Antifa, where you can keep track of their upcoming rallies.

“The threat from Domestic terror groups like Antifa and BLM are on the rise. That is why we started EndAntifa.com. The ProudBoys will return to Portland on the 26th of this month despite the death threats and calls for violence,” Tarrio said. “We intend to have a peaceful event and shine even more light on these acts of terror. The reason why Philly is so violent is because they have taken a page from the Portland playbook. It’s time for the mayhem to end…The American people have had enough.”

Duly bookmarked and blogrolled, Mr Tarrio sir. Bless every one of y’all’s valiant hearts, most sincerely, from me to you. Long may the Proud Boy standard wave.

Dedication

Posted on September 19, 2020September 19, 2020 by Mike

This one’s for Haz.

That’s my personal favorite section from my hands-down favorite Beethoven symphony, the 7th’s stirring second movement. I like the 5th a lot too, naturally. But if I never hear the damned 9th ever again, it’ll be too soon to suit me.

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