Flotsam and/or Jetsam

Smackdown: DEALT

Posted on August 15, 2023August 15, 2023 by Mike

The effete True Conservatives™ currently dragging Bill Buckley’s once-indispensable magazine through the shitlib sewer-pipe had the unmitigated gall to sniff, in the manner of Thurston Howell III, at Oliver Anthony’s smash song, and John Nolte is all over ‘em like white on rice.

This establishment elite is so above it all he dissects “Rich Men North of Richmond” lyric by lyric. Honestly, the best way to read these excerpts is in the voice of Thurston Howell III:

“Yes — it is a damn shame what the world’s gotten to. But we can fix it. We don’t have to just dream about it. Indeed, if we want to, we can fix it on our own even if Washington is standing in our way or looking down its nose at us,” lovey.

He also suggests Anthony remind everybody in a song of “what makes America a great land — a land of opportunity, not of guaranteed success,” lovey.

It gets worse:

My brother in Christ, you live in the United States of America in 2023 — if you’re a fit, able-bodied man, and you’re working “overtime hours for bullshit pay,” you need to find a new job.

There’s plenty of them out there — jobs that don’t require a college degree, that offer good pay (especially in this tight labor market) and great benefits, especially if you’re willing to get your hands dirty by doing things like joining the Navy, turning wrenches, fixing pumps, laying pipe, or a hundred other jobs through which American men can still make a great living. If you’re the type of guy who’s willing to show up on time, every time, work hard while you’re on the clock, and learn hard skills — there’s a good-paying job out there for you. Go find it.

What did the pedantic do before the Internet?

How out of touch do you have to be to rip apart a song that speaks to a disaffected group of people and says I get you, I hear you, I’m with you, you’re not alone, we’re in this together…? That’s what art does. The best art grabs hold of something inside of us and helps us to make sense of it. Art is firing on all cylinders when it examines and explains the human condition. All Oliver Anthony is doing is commiserating and reaching out to a group of people who feel they are under assault by America’s dominant culture because they are under assault by America’s dominant culture. He’s commiserating with us in the same way Sinatra commiserates with the lonely, Patsy Cline embraces the brokenhearted, Woody Guthrie speaks for the scorned, and the blues offer everyone a shoulder to cry on.

Hey, National Review. Why are you whining about a song? This is America, you crybabies, a land where you can write your own songs. You don’t need to sit around and wait for Oliver Anthony to write a song about how great America is–not in America. Why aren’t you pulling those bootstraps, showing some initiative, and writing the song yourself, my brother in Christ?

Finally, what’s interesting is how National Review failed to comment on this specific lyric in Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond”:

I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere

But that might be because National Review was publishing gushing articles about Jeffrey Epstein years and years after his conviction for procuring underage prostitutes.

What whores won’t do for a dollar.

But DAYUMMM, that one stung from all the way over here. Let ‘im up, John, I think he’s stopped breathing.

Flailing, floundering, desperate beer company self-beclowns AGAIN

Posted on August 12, 2023August 12, 2023 by Mike

My grandma, bless her soul, had a wonderful phrase to describe this: They shit and fell back in it.

Budweiser Humiliated at Sturgis After Woke Company’s Stunt to Win Back Fans Epically Backfires
The punishing conservative boycott of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light brand continues unabated, as the beer giant was unceremoniously blackballed at a major motorcycle event it sponsored in South Dakota.

The grim situation was captured in a TikTok video by user CycleDrag, who posted shocking footage Tuesday showing tent after tent with row after row of empty Budweiser booths that had been set up to promote the beer.

The TikTok video was shared on Twitter by a user who noted that there were “ZERO attendees at the Budweiser tent in Sturgis. This may be the BIGGEST marketing blunder of all time!”

The no-show was especially jarring because Budweiser was an official sponsor of this year’s City of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. So even when it lavishes money to woo customers to a free event, beer drinkers stayed away in droves.

Aww, what a shame.

Budweiser has actually been a Sturgis sponsor for about fifty years or so, if I remember right, and one of the most popular ones too. I’ve never attended the Black Hills Classic myself, although I always wanted to. I HAVE seen tons of pics, however, thanks to Easyriders magazine’s annual coverage of what is easily the biggest rally in all of bikerdom (estimated attendance: half a mill or thereabouts) back when it was still a biker rag, and in nearly every wide-angle event photo there’ll be a Bud tent, sign, or pennant flying in the breeze—literally hundreds of them, maybe even thousands.

Those days appear to be done now, and one of the Busch heirs is definitely not amused.

Earlier this week, Billy Busch, an heir to the Anheuser-Busch beer empire, said that his ancestors would have “rolled in their graves” over Bud Light’s recent decision.

“I think my family—my ancestors would have rolled over in their graves,” Busch told TMZ. “They believed that transgender, gays, that sort of thing was all a very personal issue. They loved this country because it is a free country and people are allowed to do what they want, but it was never meant to be on a beer can and never meant to be pushed in people’s faces.”

Busch said that the type of customers who would drink a Bud Light are “common folk” who work hard every day and do not want political messaging shoved in their faces.

“You know, I think people who drink beer, I think they’re your common folk. I think they are the blue-collar worker who goes and works hard every single day,” Busch said.

“The last thing they want pushed down their throat or to be drinking is a beer can with that kind of message on it. I just don’t think that’s what they’re looking for. They want their beer to be truly American, truly patriotic, as it always has been. Truly, America’s beer, which Bud Light was and probably isn’t any longer,” he added.

When you can’t sell beer to bikers at Sturgis, you have well and truly screwed the pooch. At this point, though, I have to doubt whether Buttweisel would have even been able to give their tranny-pimping pisswater away.

Hitching a ride

Posted on August 10, 2023August 10, 2023 by Mike

Family learns the hard way that they’d be better off to spit on their asses and slide than relying on a coal-powered EV for their transportation needs.

Family ditches electric truck on drive from Winnipeg to Chicago after charging troubles
Road trip completed with rented gas-powered vehicle, while Ford says charging infrastructure is improving

The owner of a 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning Lariat with an extended-range battery regrets buying the electric truck after attempting a road trip, only to abandon it and finish the drive with a gas-powered rental vehicle.

Dalbir Bala of La Salle, Man., left the truck in Minnesota last month after he said he tried unsuccessfully to charge the battery at two different charging stations.

“It was really a nightmare frustration for us,” Bala said.

He bought the truck — which is advertised as having a range of 515 kilometres — for $115,000 in January. He spent an additional $16,000 installing chargers at his home and his trucking business, and upgrading his residential electrical panel.

Bala, his wife and three kids left on a trip to visit Wisconsin Dells, Wis., and Chicago for business, on July 27. The truck was fully charged when they left their home just south of Winnipeg, and Bala had plans to stop at level 3 charging stations, which provide faster charges, located along the planned route.

Bala’s first stop was about 350 kilometres south of Winnipeg in Fargo, N.D. He paid $56 to charge his vehicle’s battery from 10 per cent up to 90 per cent.

The trouble started at his next stop in Albertville, Minn., where Bala said the only fast charger brought up a faulty connection message in his truck when he plugged in. He called the number on the charger for help but never got a response.

He headed to another charging station in nearby Elk River, Minn., but a charger there wouldn’t work either, he said.

With only 15 kilometres remaining on his battery and no fast charger within that range, he decided to ditch his Lightning. Bala got it towed to a Ford dealership and the family rented a gas-powered Toyota 4Runner to finish their trip to Chicago.

A nightmare indeed. The ultimate lesson here was expressed in a great movie from many years ago:

There’s another great old movie clip that is quite apropos to this sad story.

Heh. Indeed.

Memage dumpage

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Mike

From Aesop, just in time for Nagasaki Day:

JapanLearnsDay

Next, from Irish, nuttin’ but the plain truth.

PredatorClass

It ain’t funny, ‘cause it’s true.

What a way to go

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Mike

As a lifelong sci-fi geek, I used to think I’d love to hitch a ride on a ship to space, just for the sheer hell of it. After reading this, ehh, not so much.

Here’s Exactly How You’d Die in the Vacuum of Space
In the depths of interplanetary space, it’s not the unimaginable cold that kills. It’s everything else.

You did it. You annoyed your crewmates enough that they did the unthinkable: they shoved you into the airlock and kicked you out of the space station. No suit. No air. Nothing. Just you and the vacuum of space. If you want to survive this grisly scenario, you’re going to have to act quickly.

First, It’s Going To Be Colder Than You Can Imagine…
But you’re not going to have to worry about freezing to death. Yes, space is generally cold, around 3 Kelvin, due to a bath of radiation soaking the universe known as the cosmic microwave background. However, the human body is rather inefficient at getting rid of heat, especially in the vacuum of space. There are three ways to transfer heat from a warm body to its surroundings: convection, conduction, and radiation. Convection is the movement of a fluid, like warm air rising to higher altitudes. Conduction is the transfer of heat through physical contact, like when you accidentally touch a hot stove. Radiation is just that: emitting electromagnetic radiation.

Without any air or water to surround your body, there’s no way for convection or conduction to transport heat and cool you off. Instead there’s just radiation. A typical human body emits around 100 watts of infrared radiation (about the same amount of energy as an old-school incandescent light bulb). That’s not all that impressive, and it will take several hours to bring your internal body temperature below freezing.

But the coldness and the vacuum of space is going to affect you in other, faster ways. For starters, any oils or moisture on your skin will immediately evaporate in the vacuum, leaving a nasty frostbite behind in their departure. Even though you’ll be surrounded by vacuum, you won’t explode. Your skin is pretty good at keeping your insides on the inside of you, so your blood won’t boil and your eyes won’t bulge out. Instead, you’ll suffer a rare vacuum-induced malady known as ebullism (not to be confused with an embolism, which is a type of blood clot).

Ebullism occurs when the surface of your skin is exposed to vacuum (which it now unfortunately is). The lower pressure on the outside of your body causes the liquids just inside your skin to expand, causing you to swell up. Fortunately we don’t have a lot of experimental evidence that has explored the full effects of ebullism, but in some cases of accidental exposure to vacuum, people have experienced swelling of up to twice their normal size.

That’s not going to be pretty, but it is generally survivable as long as you return to a pressurized environment within a few minutes.

But you’re not going to get a few minutes.

Don’t Hold Your Breath
The moment the atmosphere escapes the airlock, you might be tempted to hold your breath to buy you more time, the same way you would when going underwater. That is an extremely bad idea. The problem is that your squishy bits (particularly your lips, throat, and upper respiratory system) are not designed to hold in a lungful of air against a vacuum. All that air in your lungs will come out, despite your best efforts, and if you try to hold it back it will escape in an especially violent and sudden way, causing irreversible damage on its way out.

Just let the air out; it’s gone.

And so, unfortunately, are YOU. Yeah, not interested, no thanks.

Texas Tough

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Mike

This poor woman had a VERY bad day.

SILSBEE, Texas – A snake fell out of the sky and landed on a woman mowing her yard.

The bizarre incident didn’t stop there. Peggy Jones was then attacked by a hawk.

“The snake was squeezing so hard, and I was waving my arms in the air. And then, this hawk was swooping down clawing at my arm over and over,” explains Peggy Jones. “I just kept saying, ‘Help me, Jesus, Help me, Jesus.’’

The hawk eventually ripped the snake off of her arm and flew away with it. Jones thinks the hawk came down on her at least four times trying to get the snake. She says blood was everywhere. Her husband heard the commotion and came running.

“I was yelling and screaming. He didn’t know what I was saying. I thought I was bit by a snake.”

Jones says people have told her she must be the unluckiest person alive to have a hawk and snake attack at the same time. She says it’s the opposite, “I feel like the luckiest person alive to have survived this!”

This wasn’t even her first encounter with a snake. Jones survived being bitten by a venomous snake a few years back.

In case you are wondering, in true Texas-tough style, Jones has already been back on the tractor. Jones had her husband walk beside her on the first ride back just to keep an eye out overhead. But she thinks she will be fine next time.

May be, may NOT be. Personally, I don’t know that I’d be willing to so much as open the door into the backyard without a full suit of armor on. No, I don’t mean modern body armor, I mean the kind that knights in days of auld used to wear at a joust.

Movin’ on

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Mike

Only just ran across this, but Joe Hoft—younger brother of Jim, founder of the renowned Gateway Pundit blog—appears to have flown the coop for his own self-titled digs. Not having seen him over at GP very much if at all of late, I kinda wondered what might’ve happened with him. Good to see the blogging addiction is still pulsing strongly in your veins, Joe. Duly bookmarked and blogrolled, natch.

Johnny Shiloh

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Mike

What an amazing story.

In May of 1861, 9 year old John Lincoln “Johnny” Clem ran away from his home in Newark, Ohio, to join the Union Army, but found the Army was not interested in signing on a 9 year old boy when the commander of the 3rd Ohio Regiment told him he “wasn’t enlisting infants,” and turned him down.

Clem tried the 22nd Michigan Regiment next, and its commander told him the same. Determined, Clem tagged after the regiment, acted out the role of a drummer boy, and was allowed to remain. Though still not regularly enrolled, he performed camp duties and received a soldier’s pay of $13 a month, a sum collected and donated by the regiment’s officers.

The next April, at Shiloh, Clem’s drum was smashed by an artillery round and he became a minor news item as “Johnny Shiloh, The Smallest Drummer”.

A year later, at the Battle Of Chickamauga, he rode an artillery caisson to the front and wielded a musket trimmed to his size. In one of the Union retreats a Confederate officer ran after the cannon Clem rode with, and yelled, “Surrender you damned little Yankee!” Johnny shot him dead. This pluck won for Clem national attention and the name “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.”

Clem stayed with the Army through the war, served as a courier, and was wounded twice. Between Shiloh and Chickamauga he was regularly enrolled in the service, began receiving his own pay, and was soon-after promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

He was only 12 years old. After the Civil War he tried to enter West Point but was turned down because of his slim education.

A personal appeal to President Ulysses S. Grant, his commanding general at Shiloh, won him a 2nd Lieutenant’s appointment in the Regular Army on 18 December 1871, and in 1903 he attained the rank of Colonel and served as Assistant Quartermaster General.

He retired from the Army as a Major General in 1916, having served an astounding 55 years. General Clem died in San Antonio, Texas on 13 May 1937, exactly 3 months shy of his 86th birthday, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Back in the long-ago days when Disney was still in the family-entertainment business—well before they’d lost their way and veered wildly off into Blasting The Squares with child-grooming and the lionization of mentally-disturbed freaks—they did a made-for-TV movie about John Clem. I believe there’s a DVD available out there, don’t know whether Amazon has it it not. The bare biographical facts:

John Lincoln Clem (nicknamed Johnny Shiloh; August 13, 1851 – May 13, 1937) was an American general officer who served as a drummer boy in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He gained fame for his bravery on the battlefield, becoming the youngest noncommissioned officer in the history of the United States Army.

He retired from the Army in 1915, having attained the rank of brigadier general in the Quartermaster Corps; he was at that time the last veteran of the American Civil War still on duty in the United States Armed Forces, although others similarly aged and experienced such as Peter Conover Hains and Albert A. Michelson rejoined the military after World War I started.

By special act of Congress on August 29, 1916, he was promoted to major general one year after his retirement.

A most remarkable saga of perseverance, gumption, and sheer force of will, I must say.

Dark daze

Posted on August 3, 2023August 3, 2023 by Mike

No, nobody is coming for your guns wood stoves charcoal grills air conditioning gas stoves ICE-engine cars incandescent light bulbs. That’s just another silly-assed right-wing Conspiracy Theory, that’s all.

If you like your light bulb, you can’t keep your light bulb. The Biden administration is seeing to that. Well, to be fair you can keep whatever incandescent light bulbs you may currently own, but you won’t be able to replace them. That is because today is the day when the ban on the sale and manufacture of most incandescent light bulbs officially goes into effect. From here on out, your options will likely be limited to LEDs and fluorescents.

The funny thing is that this is not exactly news. People have known about it for years, and although it occasionally popped up in news stories or your local radio host’s “stack of stuff,” no one enforced it. I remember years ago when the word first came out that incandescents were on the hit list; my wife and I went to the local home improvement store and bought a small stockpile. Since there are only two of us and we don’t use that much power, we still have most of them. I have yet to hit the area stores to see if the shelves have been cleaned out by light bulb hoarders.

National Review notes that the Democrats passed the bill to ban the bulbs by phasing them out in 2007, and then-president George W. Bush even signed it into law. Obama tightened up the standards on incandescents to speed the process up. Trump rolled the whole affair back, and Biden resurrected the effort last year.

I recall reading years ago someplace that the ban came about due to GE pressing FederalGovCo hard for one during the Dubya reign of error, saying that incandescents had become so cheap they couldn’t make any real money off ‘em anymore. No, I ain’t gonna go hunt up a supporting link, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

So light ’em if you got ’em. Ads appearing on the back channels of the web advertising incandescent light bulbs should be arriving any day now. DOE enforcement officers may be kicking down the doors of the last mom-and-pop hardware stores to confiscate stockpiles of outlaw bulbs. You could be walking down the sidewalk and hear a whisper from the shadows, “Psst! Hey, buddy. Wanna buy a light bulb?”

Is there some sort of kickback or business deal tied to the ban on incandescent light bulbs? Possibly. I certainly wouldn’t put it past our elected and appointed officials to game the system. MRCTV has reported on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s connections with the EV industry, and we know that the Biden administration is in bed with the solar industry. But overall, I suspect that this is being done because it can be done. This is one more rule, one more law, one way to remind you that there is nothing that the Uniparty can’t control, even if it means something as small as your light bulbs.

Can, and most assuredly will—for exactly as long as we sit still for it and let it happen, and not one micromillisecond longer. Until such time, they’re only just getting started, really.

Laying the hate

Posted on July 31, 2023July 31, 2023 by Mike

Okay, from this diatribe I’m gonna guess that Ace is pretty much off the Trump train.

Wow, you would never guess that Donald Trump paid off a stripper to keep quite the adulterous affair he had with her, or that he’s been found culpable of sexual assault against a woman.

Before you object — stuff it. I’m always being told “Gee I don’t know why DeSantis people are so angry about Trump’s constant scumbag lies, this kind of thing always happens in a primary, just deal with it.”

Well Trump was found liable in a rape lawsuit. Deal with that.

We have ONE RULE here, people. Not one rule for the Trump scumbag and another rule for his opponents.

I guess Trump will be running on morality now.

Trump, who has spent most of his campaign money and time attacking Ron DeSantis rather than Joe Biden, now calls upon his opponents to drop out of the race because, you see, just by contesting the nomination, they’re attacking other Republicans instead of Joe Biden.

Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?

Even by Trump’s slimy standards, that is outrageous. He has done nothing but attack an actual conservative Republican who, unlike him, is able to achieve win after win on conservative policy, instead of ranting on Twitter all fucking day.

The former president and GOP front-runner said it was time for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others he dismissed as “clowns” to clear the field, accusing them of “wasting hundreds of millions of dollars that Republicans should be using to build a massive vote-gathering operation” to take on Biden in November.

How much of the money you’ve grifted from supporters have you spent on that, Mr. So-Tired-of-Winning-That-You-Just-Stopped-Winning?

Trump’s brand lately is losing. Losing his own races, and making horrible picks based just on whether someone is 1, a celebrity (or, really, a “celebrity;” Trump is desperate for anyone that he can pretend is in “show business”) and 2, willing to kiss his ass.

And these picks also lose.

He has to prove he is capable of winning — and of answering the many, many criticisms that the media/left has of him, but also the criticisms that (the) actual conservative right has of him.

But…but…but WAIT. You mean there’s still an “actual conservative right” out there? Man alive, that’s good to hear. I thought it had gone extinct years ago.

Was it Kenyacide?

Posted on July 30, 2023July 30, 2023 by Mike

Only Bathhouse Barry really knows for sure.

Last week, Barack Obama’s private chef, Tafari Campbell, fell off his paddle board and sank below the surface of Edgartown Great Pond. His drowned body was recovered on Monday morning in the water off the former president’s Martha’s Vineyard estate. Currently, there’s no foul play suspected, and it’s worth noting that Campbell was not wearing a lifejacket.

However, certain peculiarities have presented themselves, causing some people to raise questions. For example, the reason for the 911 call that prompted the search was left blank in official logs. The person Campbell was with at the time of the accident remains unidentified, and the police have refused to disclose the person’s name.

Adding to the intrigue is that Barack Obama appeared with what looks like a black eye and a bandaged hand, playing golf at the exclusive Vineyards Club on Friday while Michelle Obama played tennis elsewhere on the grounds. Photos of Obama reveal a bruise or ‘black eye’ beneath his left eye, along with bandages wrapping fingers on his left hand.

Some dispute the significance of the bandages, insisting that they are sports bandages meant to prevent blisters from playing golf. Perhaps that explains it. But other details are being noticed as well. For example, some have called out the media for reporting that Campbell could not swim as an explanation for the drowning — when his own social media posts prove he most certainly could.

Initial reports claimed that the Obamas were not at their estate at the time of the incident, though later reports indicated that Barack and Michelle Obama “were out of the house” but on Martha’s Vineyard when it happened. It is unclear if their daughters, Sasha and Malia, were at home at the time, though they were seen leaving Martha’s Vineyard the following day.

The individual who was with Campbell at the time of the accident and the woman who reportedly called 9-11 both remain unidentified.

Oh, I just bet they do at that. You can be certain they will remain “unidentified,” as the sordid, rank-smelling mess gets hurriedly tossed down the deepest, darkest memory hole Praetorian Media can possibly contrive, beginning in 5…4…3…2…

Actually, the thing that leaves me most skeptical about the whole deal is the idea that Barry might have offed the chef, rather than Mighty Moochelle—after all, she’s always been the REAL muscle in the (notional) family. Moreover, they could quite easily have spoken to HILLARY!™ about having “her people” take care of business for them, without all the fuss, muss, and anxiety of getting their own hands dirty. As it happens, Aesop was way out in front of everybody on this one:

ObozoCoincidence

Decrepitocracy

Posted on July 30, 2023July 30, 2023 by Mike

Bayou Peter on Yertle McTurtle’s Bidenesque mental lockdown the other day, whereupon he was whisked away from the podium in the arms of a couple of nearby handlers.

One gets very tired of politicians (irrespective of their party) when they’re performing business as usual, jabbering on inanely about subjects of which they know little or nothing, and expecting us to support them while they actively undermine our interests. When their general incompetence is augmented by diminished capacity due to age and its effects, it gets even worse. Based on what we saw this week, I daresay a case could be made that both Senators McConnell and Feinstein should be mandatorily retired as incompetent to exercise their office. The signs are very clear that they’re both “past it” – and they’re not alone in that.

I might have a suggestion or three regarding that “mandatorily retired” option myself, which I shall refrain from going into details of for the nonce, because Glowniggers reasons. Anyways. Onwards.

Perhaps a general age limit for elected political office (and, for that matter, appointed office, too) isn’t a bad idea. The Catholic Church requires bishops to tender their resignation to the Pope when they reach the age of 75 years. He doesn’t necessarily have to accept it, but in most cases he does, giving him an opportunity to bring in “fresh blood” to the episcopacy, and (hopefully) “cleaning house” of those who’ve become ossified in their thinking and reactions. Perhaps that’s a reasonable age limit for our politicians as well. If 75 isn’t right, what is?

That’s one of the reasons I’m very dubious about voting for former President Trump. Regardless of his policies, he’ll be 78 years old if he’s re-elected in 2024. Joe Biden was that age when he assumed office – and we’ve all seen the very visible signs of age-related problems in him even before that.

There’s simply a human and medical reality that as we get older, our capabilities and performance deteriorate to a greater and greater extent. Can we ignore that in our national and political leaders? I don’t think so. There’s nothing stopping an older person from offering really useful advice and insights, but to have such a person’s finger on the “nuclear button”? To have such a person making and/or approving national policy that directly and immediately affects not only our future, but the future of the world? To me, that’s a very dangerous situation.

I’m generally good with the idea, were it not for the part I put in bold, which is another instance of an assumption not in evidence: that the marionettes paraded around for We Duh Peepul as “our national leaders” in fact are the “people” in charge of FederalGovCo. In reality, they are no such thing. The people who actually DO run the whole dumbshow don’t ever stand for “election,” don’t ever make speeches on TeeWee, and are basically unknown to us, unless something goes horribly awry.

Going down for the last time

Posted on July 29, 2023July 29, 2023 by Mike

Bathhouse Barry’s former chef buys it under mysterious circumstances with the strong aroma of fish wafting off them, about which Kunstler has a few pertinent questions.

The former president suddenly has another new problem: the family’s onetime personal chef, Tafari Campbell, 43, was found dead around 10:00 o’clock Monday morning in the Edgartown Great Pond off the Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard estate after a paddle-board accident. Mr. Tafari allegedly fell off the board and…thrashed a bit…then just disappeared…a hundred feet off-shore in eight feet of water, according to another paddle-boarder as yet unidentified who was either with Mr. Tafari or who happened to witness the accident around 7:45 Sunday evening July 23. Somebody, also unnamed, then made a 911 from the Obama house. Who was that? Early reports said that the Obamas were not home at the time.

A later report said that Mr. Obama might have been present at the estate that evening without Michelle. Was he Mr. Tafari’s paddle-board companion? Did he make the 911 call? Mr. Tafari was reportedly no longer in the Obama’s employ and was writing a book about his experiences as the first family’s cook. One reported morsel attributed to the book is that Barack and Michele Obama almost never had meals together. What else was in it? Possibly Mr. Tafari had a book deal. Has anyone located the editor and asked to see the manuscript or interviewed him/her/they about what’s in it? Mr. Tafari, who had videotaped his lap-swimming abilities previously, and was considered an able swimmer, was supposedly just visiting Martha’s Vineyard for the weekend. How did he get through the Obama’s Secret Service security to go paddle-boarding if the Obamas were out for the evening? Did he lug his own paddle-board to the scene, or borrow one from the Obama’s equipment shed? Who let him in there? My goodness, what a busy gal Lisa Monaco (Deputy AG as well as, in Kunstler’s phrasing, “Barack Obama’s ‘fixer,’ the clean-up gal who makes problems magically go away”) must be these days. So much that needs a good fixing!

Indeed so, but the fact remains that really, there’s still just the one way of “fixing” it—one which does NOT involve lawyers, judges, “blue ribbon” Congressional “investigatory” panels, or the utterly hopeless chimera of impeachment. However, it DOES involve the Constitution, one amendment from the Bill Of Rights in particular.

Oh, and more astute CF Lifers will probably have already guessed where I was headed with my post title…ahem.

Curiouser and curiouser update! Saw a commenter on the NY Post’s story flatly stating that Campbell had very little skill or experience as a swimmer, which this seems to refute unequivocally.

Trending Politics co-owner and investor Collin Rugg revealed on Twitter that Tafari Campbell was an experienced swimmer, so it’s strange that he drowned. The user revealed that Campbell shared on Instagram that he was an avid swimmer and fitness enthusiast.

“Campbell’s ‘Fitness’ Instagram highlight shows him swimming backstroke, freestyle, recording a 40-minute swim workout with his Apple Watch and even doing a 315 on the bench. Campbell obviously took very good care of himself in the kitchen and gym,” Rugg noted NEW: Video from Tafari Campbell’s Instagram page shows he was an expert swimmer and took fitness very seriously.

Hoft has a post over at GP with further details, none of which contradict the above. So far I’ve been unable to find confirmation (or denial, mind, except at Media Mutters, who are hardly a trustworthy source) of Kunstler’s claim that Campbell was working on a tell-all book about his time with the Obamas, but I’ll keep poking around.

Remembering Rowdy Roddy

Posted on July 28, 2023July 29, 2023 by Mike

Yep, I’ve fallen waaay down into another of those darned Innarnuts rabbit-holes, this trip sparked by a conversation with my brother about John Carpenter’s unforgettable allegorical film They Live and its superstar protagonist, the late great Rowdy Roddy Piper. From the Piper website’s “official” bio:

As best as we can tell, Roderick George Toombs was born. Rumor has it that it happened in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada-allegedly in a war time house on Victoria Avenue. For those not acquainted with Saskatoon, it’s one of the coldest places on earth, reaching 100 below with windchill. That may explain why Roddy hit the ground running-he just wanted to keep warm! At 6 years old, he began studying the bagpipes, moving to different places but always playing with a pipe band. By the time he was 14, Roddy was considered an impresario of the bagpipes, and was invited to play at prestigious events such as the Rose Bowl, and at Lorne Greene’s house. Being a big fan of “Bonanza”, Roddy was crushed to find out that Greene had no cattle but had a poodle. By the time he was 15, Rod won the 167 lb Amateur wrestling championship, and was a star boxer at the Landsdown Boxing Club in Toronto; near the Landsdown subway station where at the time you would have found Roddy looking to stay warm at night.

At 15, Roddy had his first professional wrestling match. He had never seen a pro match, but his amateur coach was a pro referee when it came in to town. Another wrestler missed a plane and Roddy’s coach told him that “I can get you 25 dollars,” Roddy immediately took it. Roddy’s pipe band was so happy for him that they played Roddy into the arena. As Roddy was being piped into the arena, the announcer only knew his first name as “Roddy” and having to continue the announcement he announced “Ladies and Gentlemen, here comes Roddy the Piper!”

Roddy jumped in the ring and in front of him stood 320 pounds of Nordic Viking: Larry “The Axe” Hennig, who beat Roddy in 10 seconds by busting his nose and eye open, setting one of many records of Roddy’s: shortest match in the history of the arena. With this match, Roddy Piper was born and began a full-time wrestling career at the age of 15- A permanent record, as it is illegal now.

Roddy’s mentors– or fathers as he called them, were some great fighters, such as the toughest man in the world– Judo Gene Labell, Mad Dog Vachon, Muhammad Ali, and even the great Lou Thez, just to name a few. Roddy was smuggled in the back of a truck with a ring in it into the United States of America and never stopped fighting.

When Roddy Piper was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005, by 16 time World Champion Ric Flair, Flair said “Roddy is the greatest entertainer in Wrestling History, bar none”. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper is the last of the real deal gunslingers of Pro Wrestling. Recently, the WWE named Rowdy Roddy Piper the greatest Villain in the history of Professional Wrestling.

According to Vince McMahon, you never know what the Hot Rod has under his kilt, nor what he is going to do next! Maybe Vince had a point, as in the height and prime of his wrestling career, Roddy Piper quit the WWE and did a movie with John Carpenter called THEY LIVE! which 26 years later is hotter than when it first premiered as the #1 film at the box office.

Like Vince McMahon said, you never know what the Hot Rod’s going to do next. In addition to appearing on “it’s always sunny in Philadelphia”, Rod hosts a podcast, a youtube channel, appears in feature films, one man shows, commercials, and now appears in his very own graphic novel! It takes a loyal Pit Crew to keep the Hot Rod running! Try to keep up!

Piper, unfortunately, passed away a few years back, leaving us at way too young an age.

On July 24, 2015, Piper appeared as a guest on The Rich Eisen Show. He had trouble collecting his thoughts and staying focused, often rambling and not answering Eisen’s questions.

Six days later on July 30, 2015, Piper died in his sleep at the age of 61 at his summer residence in Hollywood, California. His death certificate cites a cardiopulmonary arrest caused by hypertension, listing a pulmonary embolism as a contributing factor; TMZ reported this as a heart attack caused by the embolism. Piper’s long-time friend Bruce Prichard revealed on his podcast that he received a voicemail from Piper the night of his death. In the message, Piper indicated that he had not been feeling well and that he would be going to sleep it off. Hulk Hogan later revealed that Piper had left him a voice mail that he discovered following his death in which Piper said that he was “walking with Jesus”.

News of his death broke minutes before the Hall of Heroes dinner to cap off the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Legends FanFest in Charlotte, North Carolina, where about 600 current and former wrestling personalities and fans had gathered. He received a ten-bell salute after the planned salute to fellow former professional wrestler Dusty Rhodes, who had died the previous month. Another ten-bell salute was given at the beginning of the August 3, 2015, episode of Raw.

WWE CEO Vince McMahon said, “Roddy Piper was one of the most entertaining, controversial and bombastic performers ever in WWE, beloved by millions of fans around the world. I extend my deepest condolences to his family.” Film director John Carpenter said, “Devastated to hear the news of my friend Roddy Piper’s passing today. He was a great wrestler, a masterful entertainer and a good friend.”

In an HBO Real Sports interview conducted by Piper in 2003, he had predicted that he was “not going to make 65” because of his poor health, and that he made his 2003 return to WWE because he could not access his pension fund until reaching the age of 65.

Piper was cremated and his ashes laid to rest at Crescent Grove Cemetery in Tigard, Oregon.

A little over a year ago, I did a CF post on They Live featuring movie trivia and Piper quotes both from and about the film. I have to admit, I never had much use for either Vince McMahon or his WWF/WWE/whatever the fuck it might be called now, but for many years was a HUGE fan of Eric Bischoff’s WCW, even attending one of their early Slamboree! events at the old CLT Coliseum after the BPs’ manager Mike Evans pulled strings with some of his old Coliseum contacts to get us in and even backstage after the show*. That being so, most of my exposure to Piper was via the WCW professional rasslin’ organization during his brief stint there.

Piper joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the fall of 1996. He made his surprise WCW debut as a fan favorite at the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view in October to insult the nWo leader and the World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan. On the November 18 episode of Nitro, Piper revealed that Eric Bischoff was a member of the nWo, which ended with the nWo members attacking him. on the December 9 episode of Nitro, Piper told Flair that he didn’t need the Four Horsemen’s help in beating Hogan and he was going to do it on his own. Piper defeated Hogan with his signature sleeper hold in the non-title main event of the company’s flagship pay-per-view Starrcade, which earned him a title shot against Hogan for the World Heavyweight Championship at SuperBrawl VII, where Piper was defeated. On the March 10, 1997, episode of Nitro, Piper and his family joined forces with Ric Flair and The Four Horsemen in their battle with the nWo. At Uncensored, Piper competed in a triangle elimination match where he captained a team of Horsemen Chris Benoit, Steve McMichael and Jeff Jarrett against the nWo and WCW’s team of Lex Luger, Steiner Brothers and The Giant. His team lost the match. On the March 31 episode of Nitro, Piper and Flair agreed to team up and stand side by side to fight. Piper moved on to feud with other members of nWo. At Slamboree, Piper, Flair and Kevin Greene defeated nWo members Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Syxx in a six-man tag team match. The following month, at The Great American Bash pay-per-view, Piper and Flair unsuccessfully challenged The Outsiders for the World Tag Team Championship. On the June 23 episode of Nitro, Flair and the Four Horsemen turned on Piper and attacked him. This led to a match between Piper and Flair at Bash at the Beach, which Piper won.

Piper took a hiatus from television before making his return to WCW on the September 8 episode of Nitro, where he was appointed the new on-air Commissioner of WCW, which reduced his in-ring work. He briefly resumed his feud with Hulk Hogan, beating him in a steel cage match at Halloween Havoc. on the March 23, 1998, episode of Nitro, Piper and Randy Savage battled to a no contest. On the March 30 episode of Nitro, Piper defeated Hogan by disqualification. At the 1998 Spring Stampede pay-per-view, Piper teamed with The Giant in a loss to Hogan and Nash in a Baseball Bat on a Pole match. At Slamboree, Piper served as the special guest referee in a match between Randy Savage and Bret Hart, which Hart won but the following night on Nitro, Piper changed his decision and declared Savage as the winner by disqualification. At The Great American Bash, Piper and Savage lost to Hogan and Hart in a tag team match by submission. After the match, Piper wrestled Savage in the next match, which Piper defeated Savage by submission. On the September 7 episode of Nitro, Piper and Diamond Dallas Page defeated Sting and Lex Luger by disqualification. Piper teamed with Diamond Dallas Page and The Warrior as Team WCW in a WarGames match at Fall Brawl for an opportunity at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at the following month’s Halloween Havoc. Page won the match for his team. On the September 14 episode of Nitro, Piper confronted Bret Hart.

Ahh, those were the days. As big a fan of Roddy’s as I always was—and I assure you, I was—reading further into the Piper Wiki page I stumbled across something I hadn’t known before (in bold):

In his autobiography, Toombs (Rowdy Roddy’s nom de real life was Roderick George Toombs—M) claimed to be a cousin of Bret Hart, which would make him a relative of the Hart wrestling family. This fact was once used as a trivia question on Raw. Hart also revealed that Toombs was the only wrestler to visit him in the hospital after his stroke. Bruce Hart has stated that they were second cousins.

Boy, talk about your Rasslin’ Royal Families, eh? Rest ye well, Rowdy Roddy Piper; you are sorely missed, and will never be forgotten.

*Yes, Roddy appeared that night, teaming up with Ric Flair and Kevin Greene to crush three NWO stalwarts: Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Syxx

Why, as a matter of fact NO, Jason Aldean didn’t “sell out” or “cave”

Posted on July 28, 2023July 28, 2023 by Mike

Faux News did.

Aldean has stood behind his song and its message, and the attempts to cancel it have only made it more popular.

But now some people are reporting that Aldean caved to the woke mob by removing footage of a Black Lives Matter riot from the music video of “Try That in a Small Town.”

“Jason Aldean caved under pressure and removed all the Black Lives Matter footage from his music video despite receiving an outpouring of support from conservatives. So much for that. There are no more heroes,” lamented journalist Ian Miles Cheong. “Gotta have it both ways by pretending to be based for that cash, while folding to the woke in this business if you wanna keep getting invited to the Grammy’s [sic].”

“Jason Aldean quietly edited out the BLM rioters from his ‘controversial’ music video,” Brigitte Gabriel of ACT for America observed. “Very disappointing to see him cave to the woke mob.”

But that’s not what happened at all. According to a report from TMZ, the BLM riot footage used in the Aldean video came from Fox 5 in Atlanta, and the production company behind the video didn’t get the proper legal clearance to use the footage.

From the story Margolis links:

Sources connected to the music video production tell TMZ…back when they were producing the video, the company that produced it reached out to FOX on May 8 and asked for permission to use the 6 seconds of video shot by FOX 5 Atlanta…showing violence at a BLM rally.

We’re told the folks at FOX asked for more information … specifically the lyrics of the song. We’re told the production company sent FOX a link to the song — which was released May 19 — but the protocol was to send the lyrics in writing, which they never did.

Our sources say a week ago, FOX reached out to the production company and asked them to remove the video to avoid any legal action — which was described to us as a “polite ultimatum” — and the production company complied.

And there you have it; as always, the truth will out, though it may take a minute doing so. But also as per usual, the Left will use any lie they must so as to paper over the truth and claim another “victory” for themselves—even as flimsy, easily-disproven a one as this. Back over to Matt for the finisher, and the lesson to be learned, remembered, and always borne closely in mind.

So, this wasn’t about caving to the woke mob. This was Aldean’s production company being sloppy and not getting permission to use the footage included in the video. While there have been plenty of times conservatives have been rightfully disappointed by someone caving to the woke mob, this wasn’t one of those moments, and conservatives shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.

Exactly, precisely so. They win enough as it is, without us pre-emptively surrendering when there’s no need for it, reflexively throwing one of our own under the bus at their behest. FUCK all that noise.

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