Flotsam and/or Jetsam

Coming-out party

Posted on January 6, 2023January 6, 2023 by Mike

Flaming RINO Adam Kinziger has finally burst forth from the Vichy GOPe closet, and is now fully a-swish right where he always belonged.

Adam Kinzinger Finally Got His Dream Job As A CNN Talking Head

CNN is working so hard to pivot from being the Never Trump network that its new corporate bosses just hired one of the movement’s most prominent cheerleaders.

On Tuesday, CNN announced the hiring of ex-Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who stepped down from the lower chamber this week after he declined to seek re-election in November.

“Happy to join team @CNN!” Kinzinger wrote on Twitter, where his moniker now includes the hashtag “fella.”

Kinzinger, a six-term retired lawmaker who now joins the network as a senior political commentator, spent years auditioning for the new gig as one of former President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics in the House. When Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney launched a futile effort to coral Republican support for the Democrats’ snap impeachment of the outgoing president in January 2021, Kinzinger was quick to jump on the bandwagon. The Illinois lawmaker was one of nine Republicans to join Cheney in her vote to impeach, and later became the second GOP representative hand-selected by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be on the select committee ostensibly probing the Jan. 6 riot. First was Cheney, who led the Democrats’ panel as vice chair.

Kinzinger’s appointment led to more regular appearances on CNN, with the network obsessed with giving the committee round-the-clock coverage. His theatrics, complete with performative tears for the television during the panel’s first public hearing in the summer of 2021, now appears to have paid off. By October of the same year, Kinzinger, hampered by redistricting while his path was already paved for a CNN contributorship anyway, opted to forgo re-election altogether. This week, the ex-lawmaker finally completed his quest for paid TV appearances, and with it, his career on Capitol Hill.

Making him pretty much the same as the rest of the Capitol Hill swine, with both hands frantically grabbing all the gelt they possibly can after a too-long career in “public service.”

Congrats to you, Adam, for landing on a network now available exclusively at airports. You will no doubt enjoy an audience a cpl-three thousand strong every day, consisting entirely of the backs and shoulders of angry passengers stranded at the airport but relieved nonetheless that nobody can force them to watch CNN. I’m sure your profile, name-recognition, and popularity will soar higher than they ever before have been.

Schmuck.

Publick Notice

Posted on January 2, 2023January 2, 2023 by Mike

Another step along the long, tortuous road to dumping PayPal: you can now arrange a recurring monthly donation, at the low, low bargain-basement (do they still have those?) price of only a paltry 7 simoleons per month, through Stripe.

I began rasslin’ with Stripe a while back, eventually giving up when I couldn’t find the verification-code text messages they had allegedly sent to my phone. Turns out, the third-party texting app I use had automagically dumped ’em into the “blacklist” bin, unbeknownst to me. I changed the blacklist settings and tried again just now, and lo, what to my wondering eyes did appear but the eleventy-hundredth verification message from Stripe. So that little problem is now behind me.

For those who might be feeling particularly generous, I set things up so’s a body can do up to 5 (five) iterations of that $7 payment should one so desire, seeing as how several of you told me back when I set up the PayPal “Subscribe” link that I had set that particular bar WAY lower than I should have. Everything should be working as of now, I think. I THINK. As always, do let me know if/when you run into any issues.

Update! Okay, I have now removed all the PayPal links from the sidebar, although if you’re already a subscriber your subscription will still be active. I haven’t dumped my own PP account as of yet, and ain’t gonna until I get a few Stripe subs in the pipeline to replace the old PP ones. When that happens, I’ll definitely let y’all know out here on the main page.

I also installed a new “Recent Posts” widget in the left sidebar, and tweaked the “Recent Comments” one to show excerpts as well, and just make things more interesting generally. Sure wish they’d update that great old blogroll plugin that included excerpts there, but far as I can discern it just ain’t happening, which is a damned shame.

RuiNation

Posted on January 2, 2023January 2, 2023 by Mike

Anybody who has ever worked for a medium-to-large-sized corporation in America has experienced this same sort of thing. Even working for a small, strictly-local B-drayage hauler in the air-freight business for many years, I most certainly have.

What happened to Southwest Airlines?

I’ve been a pilot for Southwest Airlines for over 35 years. I’ve given my heart and soul to Southwest Airlines during those years. And quite honestly Southwest Airlines has given its heart and soul to me and my family.

Many of you have asked what caused this epic meltdown. Unfortunately, the frontline employees have been watching this meltdown coming like a slow-motion train wreck for sometime. And we’ve been begging our leadership to make much needed changes in order to avoid it. What happened yesterday started two decades ago.

Herb Kelleher was the brilliant CEO of SWA until 2004. He was a very operationally oriented leader. Herb spent lots of time on the front line. He always had his pulse on the day-to-day operation and the people who ran it. That philosophy flowed down through the ranks of leadership to the front-line managers. We were a tight operation from top to bottom. We had tools, leadership and employee buy-in. Everything that was needed to run a first-class operation. When Herb retired in 2004 Gary Kelly became the new CEO.

Gary was an accountant by education and his style leading Southwest Airlines became more focused on finances and less on operations. He did not spend much time on the front lines. He didn’t engage front line employees much. When the CEO doesn’t get out in the trenches then neither do the lower levels of leadership.

Gary named another accountant to be Chief Operating Officer (the person responsible for day-to-day operations). The new COO had little or no operational background. This trickled down through the lower levels of leadership, as well.

They all disengaged the operation, disengaged the employees and focused more on Return on Investment, stock buybacks and Wall Street. This approach worked for Gary’s first 8 years because we were still riding the strong wave that Herb had built.

But as time went on the operation began to deteriorate. There was little investment in upgrading technology (after all, how do you measure the return on investing in infrastructure?) or the tools we needed to operate efficiently and consistently. As the frontline employees began to see the deterioration in our operation we began to warn our leadership. We educated them, we informed them and we made suggestions to them. But to no avail. The focus was on finances not operations. As we saw more and more deterioration in our operation our asks turned to pleas. Our pleas turned to dire warnings. But they went unheeded. After all, the stock price was up so what could be wrong?

We were a motivated, willing and proud employee group wanting to serve our customers and uphold the tradition of our beloved airline, the airline we built and the airline that the traveling public grew to cheer for and luv. But we were watching in frustration and disbelief as our once amazing airline was becoming a house of cards.

A half dozen small scale meltdowns occurred during the mid to late 2010’s. With each mini meltdown Leadership continued to ignore the pleas and warnings of the employees in the trenches. We were still operating with 1990’s technology. We didn’t have the tools we needed on the line to operate the sophisticated and large airline we had become. We could see that the wheels were about ready to fall off the bus. But no one in leadership would heed our pleas.
When COVID happened SWA scaled back considerably (as did all of the airlines) for about two years. This helped conceal the serious problems in technology, infrastructure and staffing that were occurring and being ignored. But as we ramped back up the lack of attention to the operation was waiting to show its ugly head.

Gary Kelly retired as CEO in early 2022. Bob Jordan was named CEO. He was a more operationally oriented leader. He replaced our Chief Operating Officer with a very smart man and they announced their priority would be to upgrade our airline’s technology and provide the frontline employees the operational tools we needed to care for our customers and employees. Finally, someone acknowledged the elephant in the room.

But two decades of neglect takes several years to overcome. And, unfortunately to our horror, our house of cards came tumbling down this week as a routine winter storm broke our 1990’s operating system.

The frontline employees were ready and on station. We were properly staffed. We were at the airports. Hell, we were ON the airplanes. But our antiquated software systems failed coupled with a decades old system of having to manage 20,000 frontline employees by phone calls. No automation had been developed to run this sophisticated machine.

We had a routine winter storm across the Midwest last Thursday. A larger than normal number flights were cancelled as a result. But what should have been one minor inconvenient day of travel turned into this nightmare. After all, American, United, Delta and the other airlines operated with only minor flight disruptions.

The two decades of neglect by SWA leadership caused the airline to lose track of all its crews. ALL of us. We were there. With our customers. At the jet. Ready to go. But there was no way to assign us. To confirm us. To release us to fly the flight. And we watched as our customers got stranded without their luggage missing their Christmas holiday.

I believe that our new CEO Bob Jordan inherited a MESS. This meltdown was not his failure but the failure of those before him. I believe he has the right priorities. But it will take time to right this ship. A few years at a minimum. Old leaders need to be replaced. Operationally oriented managers need to be brought in. I hope and pray Bob can execute on his promises to fix our once proud airline. Time will tell.

It’s been a punch in the gut for us frontline employees. We care for the traveling public. We have spent our entire careers serving you. Safely. Efficiently. With luv and pride. We are horrified. We are sorry. We are sorry for the chaos, inconvenience and frustration our airline caused you. We are angry. We are embarrassed. We are sad. Like you, the traveling public, we have been let down by our own leaders.

Herb once said the biggest threat to Southwest Airlines will come from within. Not from other airlines. What a visionary he was. I miss Herb now more than ever.

Whether they know of him specifically or not, many people do. Or almost certainly will, as time grinds on.

The American economic juggernaut was built on the idea that people would start at the bottom of any given enterprise and work their way up based on experience, talent, and knowledge of the business from soup to nuts. Alas for us all, the advent of the MBA replaced that excellent system with nebbish dweebs coming in from outside to “manage” the business without ever having set Foot One on a loading dock, factory floor, or assembly line in their entire lives, which has all but done away with any concept of making it on merit. Those overcredentialed-but-undereducated, shiny-loafered, smug college-boy types have been nothing but sand in the gears of what was once the mightiest wealth-producing engine in all of history.

Look back in anger sorrow

Posted on January 2, 2023 by Mike

Diplomad takes a look in the ol’ rearview, not just at the disastrous annum just past, but a lot further back than that.

This is where I go full old man.

This no-good, horrid year of 2022 draws to a close–none too soon for my taste–and I can only hope that 2023 will prove better. Will it? While I have no great powers of observation and foretelling, what little I do have tell me that things will not get any better. Sorry to be so cheerful.

The impending death of the current year has me reflecting on my own life, and what I have done and not done with it. First, my own life. What have I done? Not much really. I spent some 34 years in the State Department; my tenure there will pass, as they say in Spanish, “sin pena ni gloria,” i.e., unnoticed one way or another. I devoted my adult life to what I thought was my country, its values, and interests. I am now wracked with doubts that that was the case. As we see from the “Twitter Files,” the doubts I had about what was really going on have proven out. I am deeply saddened and depressed by that. Those institutions with which I worked closely for so many years, e.g., FBI, CIA, DOJ, have turned out to be the real enemies. The Taliban, AQ, PRC, or the USSR, could not undermine our nation to any degree comparable to what has been done by our high-tech mafia, allied with the pro-regime media, and the key institutions of the Deep State. The enemy is here; they are in our house, and as we so graphically see every day on our border are openly working to tear it apart. Not just here. I see the same happening in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and all over Western Europe.

The assault on the values, even the most basic ones, of our civilization is relentless. The world we leave our grandchildren is a horrid one: Twerking drag queens in our libraries and schools; feral youth owning the streets; malicious cretins dominating our legal, educational, and public health institutions; an entertainment industry promoting violence and perversion. Not cheerful.

Given the way things currently stand, only a fool, a hermit, or a still-slumbering Rip Van Winkle could be.

Raise a glass!

Posted on December 31, 2022 by Mike

I’ll drink to that.

Most of today’s regulatory framework for alcohol traces back to the immediate post-Prohibition years. The basic assumption was that alcohol consumption is bad but unavoidable. The goal, then, was to regulate in ways that led people to drink less, via high taxes and inconveniences, without returning to the bootleggers and speakeasies of the disastrous Prohibition era.

Though things have lightened up a bit since then, that’s still the basic philosophy today. Alcohol discussions tend to turn on things like liver damage, impaired driving, violence and so on.

These negative consequences are real. But as Slingerland makes clear, they aren’t the whole story. There are a lot of less-heralded positives.

Given the downsides, alcohol consumption must also offer some advantages, Slingerland reasons, else it would have died out. But it hasn’t. In fact it’s hard to find successful civilizations that don’t use alcohol — and those few that qualify tend to replace it with other intoxicants that have similar effects.

Drinking doesn’t just make us feel good,

Until the hangover sets in.

it also makes us get along better,

Until the brawl breaks out.

cooperate more effectively

Until the obstreperousness spills forth.

and think more expansively.

Until the blackout occurs.

Of course, drinking isn’t all upside, but that isn’t the point. The point is that it’s not all downside, either — yet we regulate it, essentially, as if it were. We need a more balanced approach.

Said a mouthful there, Glenn.

And it isn’t just alcohol. As our culture has veered in an increasingly bossy and punitive direction, the tolerance for any sort of downside is vanishing. The “playground movement” at the beginning of the last century argued “better a broken arm than a broken spirit.” Today’s society takes a different approach.

Indubitably so…and there’s a reason for that, too. In present-day Amerika v2.0, broken spirits are the goal, the real point of the whole exercise. Why? The better to oppress you with, my dear. Docile slaves are much easier to lord over than resentful, belligerent ones, you see. The bottom-line problem propping all this foolishness up? The deep-seated Progressivist aversion to any and all risk.

During the pandemic, we saw a degree of safety-ism that discounted the value of humans getting together in the face of tiny or even notional risks, leading to absurdities like ocean paddle-boarders being arrested for paddling maskless. There’s much more value in the activity than risk in being unmasked at sea.

The list of cases where killjoys focus excessively on the negative is huge, and anyone reading this can think of many examples. But what do we do about it?

Ain’t but the one thing: start killing the killjoys. It really is the only way to be rid of them for any meaningful length of time, although even that isn’t permanent.

White man’s burden

Posted on December 24, 2022December 24, 2022 by Mike

The Dark Continent was anything but a peaceful, idyllic paradise well before the first European Whypeepuh ever set foot on the blighted shitpit.

I confess I was quite skeptical about Gilley’s book, given the needlessly incendiary title. Defending German colonialism, given that any story of late 19th and early-20th century German history will inevitably be wrapped up in that country’s condemnable behavior in two world wars, seems a curious intellectual enterprise for a professional academic (and for readers with more liberal sensitivities, it’s likely to be downright offensive). Not only that, but in a time when America’s post-Cold War foreign policy has been defined by constant overreach that has exacerbated various crises (e.g. regional political instability, anti-American Islamic extremism, migration), it seems a bit tone-deaf to be arguing that Western intervention around the world — especially when the West’s power is diminishing — is something to be encouraged.

Nevertheless, regardless of the strength of Gilley’s defense of German colonialism, the story he tells, substantiated by extensive historical documentation, does quite a bit to undermine popular narratives in America about pre-colonial Africa and the African colonial experience. For starters, the peoples inhabiting what would become Germany’s African colonies were far from innocent peoples living in harmony with each other and nature. Human sacrifice was common among at least one of the tribes of Cameroon. Slavery was common across both Namibia (southwest Africa) and what would become the colony of German East Africa (present-day Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and part of Mozambique).

The Nama and Herero peoples, both of whom had migrated to Namibia only a generation before the Germans (and displaced other indigenous African tribes such as the Damara people in the process), were engaged in bloody, genocidal warfare. In 1850, the Nama massacred a fifth of the Herero population in a single day. The Herero raided native Damara and Saan villages, killing all but the young and strong, whom they exploited as slaves. Many escaped to the Germans. Writes Gilley: “Even if left to their own devices, the Herero and Nama would not have lived in idyllic bliss tending healthy herds of cattle and hosting multiethnic community barbecues.”

Our anti-Western conceptions of colonial Africa are equally misinformed. In 1904, a policy in German East Africa decreed that all children born to slaves beginning in 1906 were free. Moreover, between 1891 and 1912, more than 50,000 slaves in the colony were freed by legal, social, and financial means. By 1920, slavery had virtually been eradicated from the region.

German East Africa was also environmentally conscious, codifying laws prohibiting unlicensed elephant hunting and creating the first game reserves. It promoted education by natives: By 1910, there were more than 4,000 students in state schools. “The Germans have accomplished marvels,” noted a 1924 British report on local education initiatives. The education system in German colonies provided instruction in local histories, cultures, and geographies, as well as technical subjects common in German curricula. Because of this, local language media prospered. “German transformed Swahili from a coastal language of Muslim elites to the lingua franca for the future country of Tanzania,” writes Gilley.

The Germans provided free and accessible medical care for many Africans. They engaged in extensive agricultural and infrastructure projects in Namibia, including roads, railways, water holes, and port facilities. A German scientist developed a vaccine that saved native cattle from a catastrophic illness. The Germans built a 1,250-kilometer railway linking Lake Tanganyika to Dar es Salaam, which to this day “remains the lifeblood of Tanzania’s economy and of Zambia’s trans-shipment traffic.” Economies previously based on slavery transitioned to coffee.

Africa’s most insuperable problem remains the same as it always has been: the horrid place is full of Africans.

But what, you ask, does Africa have to do with the recently-manufactured-from-whole-(kente) cloth “holiday” Kwanzaa? Why, not one single, solitary thing, natch.

Spanning from Dec. 26 to the first of January is Kwanzaa, the invented African American holiday celebrated solely by white liberals and clueless public school teachers. Overblown by leftist claiming the holiday has immense cultural significance, a survey by the National Retail Foundation discovered only 1.6 percent of Americans celebrate Kwanzaa.

The “holiday” was created in 1966 by Ron Karenga, who renamed himself Maulana. Karenga, the founder of the United Slaves, a violent rival organization to the Black Panthers, created the holiday for black Americans and derived the name “Kwanzaa” from the Swahili phrase “matunda y kwanza,” meaning “first fruits of the harvest.” That’s about the extent of the deep African roots the official Kwanzaa website claims.

Guess the extra “a” in Karenga’s dimwitted misspelling lends it extra authenticity. Or, y’know, something. Oh, and do be sure to thank the Germans, Ronnie, for bringing you the Swahili tongue you’re misspeaking, fool.

The history of the holiday and Karenga has been seamlessly suppressed by leftists who find the facts inconvenient. Since few know its origins, the current definitions of the celebration are usually nonsensical and made up, much like the holiday itself.

FrontPage Magazine’s Paul Mulshine writes that “the history of the founder of Kwanzaa has disappeared into an Orwellian time warp.” Indeed, CNN informs readers that Kwanzaa’s violent, racist founder was “a black nationalist and professor of Pan-African studies at California State University at Long Beach,” omitting his criminal and misogynistic past.

Karenga is currently a black studies professor at California State University, Long Beach where the administration is apparently untroubled by the fact that this radical racist is also a convicted torturer of women. Despite the troubling past of Kwanzaa’s founder, leftists continue to shove this fake holiday down America’s throat every Christmas.

Yeah, well, fuck them all to Hell and gone, as always. That said, what Kwanzaa celebration would be complete without a stinking-blotto Granny Boxwine slurring and slobbering her way around the stupid fucking word?

Pelosi ends her final speech as Speaker of the House by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and a "Happy Shwanza" pic.twitter.com/LtcMeA8KIT

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 23, 2022

Heh. Well said, ya haggard old soak.

YES!

Posted on December 22, 2022December 23, 2022 by Mike

So my bleg the other day has borne fruit over at BCE’s joint, as fate would have it. Intrepid commenter Some rando puts us some knowledge:

Hey biggun: BP Mike was asking about Beethoven Christmas muzik.
Skunk works sez it’s Pamela Howland – Christmas With Beethoven.

And sure enough, BLAMMO, just like that: what once was lost now is found. Well, okay, I mean, it wasn’t really lost, exactly, it just sorta…I mean, y’know, I couldn’t seem to find…oh, to heck with it. Many thanks to you, Rando, and a very merry Christmas to ye.

Update! While we’re on the subject, let me revert to one of the Carolyne Taylor arrangements I found whilst poking around for hours the other night, and felt was fascinating: a happy marriage of one of my DeBussy all-timers, Clair de Lune, with the hauntingly beautiful “Silent Night.”

So much wonderful stuff out there just waiting to be listened to and enjoyed, one could never hope to get around to it all. Speaking of, please indulge me for a couple more from my annual Christmas Best-Of list.

You gotta love it, no?

Updated update! And since I’m dealing out the humble thank-you’s here, indulge me a wee bit further as I offer a most heartfelt one to CF Lifer Barry, who graciously assisted me in sorting out an issue with the Gab Pay thingamawheezy I wasn’t even aware I had. It gratifies me no end to be able to report that the GP tech-support folks were most Johnny-On-The-Spot-ish with their much-needed help; I’ve been rooting hard for Torba’s pet project since its inception, so it gives me the warm fuzzies deep down inside to see ’em take care of business in such an expeditious and capable fashion.

Much as I do like Elon Musk, enjoyable as it’s been to watch him pull Twitter’s head all the way up its own ass to the shoulders and wring it right the hell out to the accompaniment of a chorus of weeping and whining from overentitled, too-twee shitlibs everywhere, I really have no intention of jumping the Gab ship and heading there-wards instead.

Exceptional

Posted on December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 by Mike

Comic Rob Schneider waxes serious.

I believe we in western civilization have departed from “The Age of Reason,” and are now falling into “The Age of Emotion.” We are in the process of trading critical thinking and logic for the excesses of ‘how one feels.’ Rational people are the new heretics who dare question it.

This “Age of Emotions” has it’s belief systems and superstitions that act as a religion. You are not allowed to question any part of it or you are excommunicated. At the same time the world is experiencing democracy fatigue. Which opens the door to totalitarianism.

And now with the help of big tech, government has at its disposal new enormous powers to control narratives & crush any dissent & to destroy people who resist or fight back.

Crisis after crisis will continue to be used to eliminate individual liberties

Andrea Widberg follows up.

Many Americans remember Rob Schneider from his time on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s through the early 1990s, when he created several amusing characters. After leaving SNL, he’s had a decent Hollywood career, although he hasn’t had the fame his pal Adam Sandler has enjoyed. I hope, though, that Schneider will be remembered for something else. In a Twitter thread, he expressed his love for America and her constitutional values, especially when arrayed against the mindless emotionalism and techno-fascism that now threatens those values.

Schneider’s political trajectory was not foreordained. As a half-Jewish San Francisco Bay Area native and San Francisco State graduate (usually a sure sign of leftism) who then made his career in Hollywood, leftism would seem inevitable. Instead, Schneider is not just a conservative but also a proud American who understands and values America’s unique virtues and recognizes the forces arrayed against her.

Too many Republican politicians are afraid to say what Schneider said or, if they say those things, they don’t exercise their politics in line with those ideals or as a response to those threats. Many kudos to Schneider for his courage and wisdom.

Amen to that.

A non-competitive “competition”

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Mike

Glenn calls it “the new space race,” but China is the only nation running in it at the moment: China completes seventh space launch inside 10 days.

The paramount importance of proper product placement

Posted on December 17, 2022December 17, 2022 by Mike

Methinks a little judicious shelf-rearrangement might be in order here.

.@Walmart many of your customers in my district are reaching out to me about sex toys being sold in your Dalton store.

They’re extremely upset and absolutely horrified that sex toys are being sold openly right next to children’s toothbrushes!

This is grooming. pic.twitter.com/W0Zuk5NAue

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 17, 2022

I can’t help but suspect that, somewhere out there, there’s a nonbinary, gender-befuddled Minor Attracted Pedophile™ Wal Mart store manager having him/her/itself a good snicker over this.

A good and decent man

Posted on December 17, 2022December 17, 2022 by Mike

That would be the greatest Supreme Court justice we ever have had, the completely admirable and honorable Clarence Thomas.

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” — Matthew 6:2

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas embodies this verse well, as it has recently come to light that he has been quietly placing Christmas wreaths on the graves of American veterans for years.

D.C. journalist and author Emily Miller spotted Thomas volunteering for Wreaths Across America at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday, as seen in a photo she posted to Twitter.

Wreaths Across America is a charitable organization that mobilizes thousands of volunteers every year to put wreaths on the graves of veterans and fallen soldiers.

This isn’t the first year Thomas has volunteered at Arlington Cemetery, either.

The justice can be seen in a candid photo from 2013 helping to clean up the cemetery after the Christmas season on a rainy January day.

The un-self-conscious nature of the photo stands in stark contrast to the contrived photo-ops that Democratic politicians conjure up for their own selfish ambitions and narratives.

Which, there have been plenty of those, to the surprise of no sane and aware person. Exhibit A:

Democratic New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim shamelessly attempted to gain clout from the Capitol incursion by cleaning up the “carnage,” as described by one Facebook user — the carnage being a few water bottles.

A photo captured Kim “experiencing the horror firsthand,” while everything around him looked hilariously pristine.

The photo-op photo in question:

The horror, the horror — *Nope, doesn’t look staged at all to me*

The thing to remember here is, as the author reiterates in his closing ‘graphs, Justice Thomas has been going about his good works on the QT rather than making sure plenty of Enemedia cameras were on hand to publicize him for it. It’s exactly as the last line says:

We could use more people in Washington demonstrating a spirit of humility and gratitude rather than selfish ambition.

Couldn’t we, though. Couldn’t we just.

Church militant

Posted on December 16, 2022December 16, 2022 by Mike

We need more hardass clergymen like Dagger John Hughes, and fewer of the namby-pamby, weak-as-water shitlib sobsisters mainstream Christianity is currently burdened with.

We are not the first generation of New Yorkers puzzled by what to do about the underclass. A hundred years ago and more, Manhattan’s tens of thousands of Irish seemed a lost community, mired in poverty and ignorance, destroying themselves through drink, idleness, violence, criminality, and illegitimacy. What made the Irish such miscreants? Their neighbors weren’t sure: perhaps because they were an inferior race, many suggested; you could see it in the shape of their heads, writers and cartoonists often emphasized. In any event, they were surely incorrigible.

But within a generation, New York’s Irish flooded into the American mainstream. The sons of criminals were now the policemen; the daughters of illiterates had become the city’s schoolteachers; those who’d been the outcasts of society now ran its political machinery. No job training program or welfare system brought about so sweeping a change. What accomplished it, instead, was a moral transformation, a revolution in values. And just as John Wesley, the founder of Methodism in the late eighteenth century, had sparked a change in the culture of the English working class that made it unusually industrious and virtuous, so too a clergyman was the catalyst for the cultural change that liberated New York’s Irish from their underclass behavior. He was John Joseph Hughes, an Irish immigrant gardener who became the first Catholic archbishop of New York. How he accomplished his task can teach us volumes about the solution to our own end-of-the-millennium social problems.

John Hughes’s personal history embodied all the virtues he tried so successfully to inculcate in his flock. They were very much the energetic rather than the contemplative virtues: as a newspaper reporter of the time remarked of him, he was “more a Roman gladiator than a devout follower of the meek founder of Christianity.” He was born on June 24, 1797, in Annaloghan, County Tyrone, the son of a poor farmer. As a Catholic in English-ruled Ireland, he was, he said, truly a second-class citizen from the day he was baptized, barred from ever owning a house worth more than five pounds or holding a commission in the army or navy. Catholics could neither run schools nor give their children a Catholic education. Priests had to be licensed by the government, which allowed only a few in the country. Any Catholic son could seize his father’s property by becoming a Protestant.

When Hughes was 15, an event he was never to forget crystallized for him the injustice of English domination. His younger sister, Mary, died. English law barred the local Catholic priest from entering the cemetery gates to preside at her burial; the best he could do was to scoop up a handful of dirt, bless it, and hand it to Hughes to sprinkle on the grave. From early on, Hughes said, he had dreamed of “a country in which no stigma of inferiority would be impressed on my brow, simply because I professed one creed or another.”

Fleeing poverty and persecution, Hughes’s father brought the family to America in 1817. The 20-year-old Hughes went to work as a gardener and stonemason at Mount St. Mary’s college and seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Working there rekindled in him a childhood dream of becoming a priest, and he asked the head of the seminary, John Dubois, if he could enroll as a student. Dubois, a French priest who had fled Paris during the French Revolution armed with a letter of recommendation from Lafayette, turned him down, unable to see past his lack of education to the qualities of mind and character that lay within. This was no ordinary gardener, Dubois should have recognized; indeed, as he went back to his gardening chores, Hughes wrote a bitter poem on the shamefulness of slavery and its betrayal of America’s promise of freedom. Not one to forget a slight, Hughes harshly froze Dubois out of his life when he became prominent and powerful. Indeed, in later years, Hughes won the nickname of “Dagger John,” a reference not only to the shape of the cross that accompanied his printed signature but also to his being a man not to be trifled with or double-crossed.

And that he most certainly was, with big ol’ bells on. As I recall, Mike Walsh has written an essay or two about Dagger John, extolling his uncompromising, stout refusal to bend the knee to any earthly prince or potentate and meekly accept his fate as a second-class citizen because of his professed faith.

It’s easy to forget these days, perhaps, but even as recently as 1960 there were a great many Americans who questioned JFK’s fitness for the office of President purely because he was Catholic. They were strongly suspicious of the risk of what they called “popery” and “dual loyalty”—that, as a Roman Catholic, Kennedy’s primary fidelity would necessarily lie not with the US but with the Vatican. If that sounds eerily reminiscent of the accusations hurled at a certain ethnic group today, well, that ain’t no coincidence.

Read on for lots more about the life and times of a truly fascinating man; it’s good stuff, for sure.

The creepiest thing you’ll ever see

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Mike

Okay, “creepy” doesn’t even BEGIN to cover this.

The Real-Life Matrix: ‘EctoLife’ Artificial Womb Facility to Engineer, Grow Babies in ‘Factory’

If you thought the millions of plastic pods artificially “growing” human babies in The Matrix were creepy, wait until you see the animation of “EctoLife,” set to be the world’s first artificial womb facility. A recent video posted online by its inventor, Hashem Al-Ghaili, enthusiastically described a facility where tens of thousands of babies could be engineered and gestated in artificial “wombs” with constant monitoring to check for biological defects and growth. EctoLife claims it will engineer the most “viable and genetically superior embryo” as it is “reinventing evolution,” producing up to “30,000 lab-grown babies per year.”

As EctoLife asserted, “Our goal is to provide you with an intelligent offspring that truly reflects your smart choices.” Because eugenics led to such wonderful results in the 20th century!

Remember how leftists have been telling us for years, and continue to tell us, that we’re overpopulating the earth? EctoLife’s ad explicitly said it is “designed to help countries that are suffering from severe population decline”—something that most of the world is suffering from, including America, by the way. Turns out that forgoing reproducing to pursue high-powered careers, luxury vacations, and an end to “climate change” was not such a bright idea. The solution is not being to have babies the way God intended, of course, but to engineer and grow them in fake wombs. That way, “artificial intelligence” (AI) can monitor your baby for “genetic abnormalities” (it’s unclear what would happen to babies who turn out to be supposedly imperfect).

The one really positive aspect is that the ad uses the word “baby” to refer to unborn children throughout the entire ad, a tacit admission that pro-lifers are correct that the unborn truly are humans and not mere clumps of cells.

There are many disturbing aspects to the ad, however. There’s the fact that parents can supposedly “engineer” everything about their baby in the “elite package.” CRISPR gene editing can “customize” and “fix” the baby, from his skin color to his IQ to his genetic disease susceptibilities, for a “genetically superior” baby. There’s the narrator excitedly explaining how birth will no longer involve a woman’s body (just another way to sideline women while pretending to free them, I guess). Instead, it will involve a mere “push of a button.”

The ad expressed a seeming leftist bent by boasting that EctoLife will be powered by “sustainable” wind and solar energy, so you don’t have to worry about your “carbon footprint.” I guess if climate alarmists can’t convince humans to stop having children altogether to save the planet, they’ll artificially grow babies in highly controllable artificial wombs instead.

I found it particularly interesting that the ad claimed, “With EctoLife, miscarriage and low sperm count are a thing of the past.” Some contraceptives have long-term effects on fertility, and studies indicate that COVID-19 vaccines could reduce sperm count too. Did transhumanist leftists create the problem and then provide EctoLife as a “solution”?

Knowing what we know about how thoroughly Left dogma has infiltrated and subsumed what used to be respectfully regarded as “science,” as is confirmed by Ectolife’s inclusion of the above bit casually tossing out “sustainable” and “carbon footprint” and such-like Progtard buzzwords, we dare not put anything whatsoever past them.

Funny, innit, how naturally playing God seems to come to Leftwits who strain themselves absolutely purple-faced denying His existence with every other breath they draw. But not “ha-ha” funny, of course.

Baby, it’s politically-incorrect up in here

Posted on December 15, 2022December 16, 2022 by Mike

VP calls for a fresh look at a great old song.

It’s Time to Rehabilitate ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’

It’s been nearly two decades since “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” earned the ire of our finger-wagging, no-fun, culture scolds.

This week I saw the first sign that might finally be happening.

The heat was probably never more intense than it was four years ago when GenZ got into the act and demanded that radio stations stop playing it. The Wall Street Journal had the details in a piece headlined, “‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ Heats Up Culture Wars.”

The actual history of the tune is that Frank Loesser wrote it for himself and his wife to perform as a duet. And not just sung, but to be performed, perfectly staged, live at parties. The Journal spoke with their daughter, Susan, who said that “the reference to what is in the woman’s drink was common at the time, signifying only that having an alcoholic beverage was cool.” When I was a young boy in the ’70s, I can remember on many occasions my grandmother asking the very same thing when my grandfather had poured her a stiff one, and him replying, “Nothing I didn’t make for you last night,” or words to that effect. The same generation as the Loessers, middle age didn’t make them any less playful with one another.

Dean Martin recorded the song in 1959, and his daughter Deana told Fox News on Tuesday that she’s “flabbergasted” by the controversy. “It’s just insane. When I heard it, I said, ‘This can’t possibly be.’ You know, it’s a sweet, flirty, fun holiday song that’s been around for 40 years.”

No real conundrum or cause for bafflement here, I’d say. Sweet, flirty, fun—can it really come as any big surprise to saner sorts that pinched-faced, juiceless, joyless liberal bluenoses have so worked hard to do away with it?

Susan Loesser backs up that interpretation, telling the Journal, “The female singer’s repeated insistence that she needed to go was halfhearted, as she too wanted to stay.” Which is exactly how every female performer in every version of this song has sung it. She isn’t threatened or out-of-control drunk; she showed up at his place knowing exactly what she wanted. Or as Loesser explained: “She’s flirting like crazy. She’s wanting to stay, but she’s worried about what people will think.”

In other words: a nice girl with a naughty side. Just what I wanted for Christmas!

Better watch your step there, Stephen; they’ll be coming for you next, if you keep it up.

“FLY, you fools!”

Posted on December 12, 2022December 12, 2022 by Mike

Looks like a lot of San Franciscans have been heeding Gandalf the Grey’s urgent admonition to the other Nine Walkers from the Bridge of Khazad-dum, right before he smote the Balrog and descended into the deepest pits of Moria along with his foe.

Why no one is buying downtown San Francisco’s luxury condos

Underneath the headline is a photo taken from one of those luxury high-rise apartments, overlooking what was once one of the most physically-glorious cities in all the world, now tragically reduced to a shit-encrusted, unlivable pit of despair, blight, and iniquity by decades of ultra-liberal misrule.

These days, a luxury high-rise in downtown San Francisco with units that appear to be mostly empty isn’t an uncommon sight. As a cooling real estate market continues to impact the city, downtown condos might be some of the hardest-hit properties around.

Patrick Carlisle, Compass’ chief market analyst, said that while economic headwinds are affecting real estate markets everywhere, downtown San Francisco’s condo market has been hit especially hard.

“That market has been hit hardest in the city,” Carlisle told SFGATE. This is due to a few different factors, he said, one being the mass abandonment of downtown office spaces since the start of the pandemic.

IE: all part of The Plan, then.

Speaking of tech workers, Carlisle said the uncertainty brought on by mass tech layoffs has also affected property sales downtown. He added that an increase in homelessness and crime in downtown areas has affected the “quality-of-life ambiance” for people in those areas, presumably buyers who are reluctant to live among the city’s unhoused populations.

This condo market, Carlisle said, is separate from the luxury condos located in areas like Russian Hill, Nob Hill, Pacific Heights and the Marina District. Condos in these areas tend to be built in older, smaller buildings located in less urban neighborhoods and have taken much less of a hit than their glossier counterparts downtown.

“The downtown market has been hit much, much harder than the luxury condo market in these older neighborhoods,” Carlisle said. “I’m not saying there haven’t been effects in places like Russian Hill and Nob Hill and Pacific Heights because there have been. The market has softened there also, quite significantly, but not to the degree that the downtown market has.”

According to a recent report from Compass, the median sales price of a two-bedroom condo in downtown areas has dropped by 16% since 2021, compared to a 7% drop in the price of two-bedroom condos outside of that area. The report also states that condo inventory in this area is more than twice as high as the rest of the city — which explains the seemingly empty high-rises looming everywhere downtown.

In October, one 45-story luxury high-rise made news after it was revealed that only 13 of its 146 units had been purchased in the two years they’d been up for sale. Rumors that Steph and Ayesha Curry had purchased a unit at the property, named the Four Seasons Private Residences, turned out to be false. The development features units that range from studios to $49 million two-story penthouses.

Ah well, “what goes up must come down” still applies, I guess.

Despite these trends, Carlisle said that for some, this downturn may act as a chance to purchase a condo at a lower price.

“Of course, there are people who see this as an opportunity to get a good deal,” Carlisle said. “There are condos selling in the newer luxury developments in the South Beach and Yerba Buena areas at large discounts from what people paid for them three, four years back. You know, we’re talking gorgeous units with spectacular views in ultra-luxury buildings.”

Views that also feature feces-strewn, used-needle-clogged streets and sidewalks; reeking stewbums, junkies, thieves, and miscellaneous thugs; and the ever-dwindling handful of affluent, smarmy shitlibs stubbornly determined to ride the SF disaster out to the bitter end somehow.

Yeah, thanks but no thanks, bub. Having been to SF many times on tour with the BPs over the years, I loved the place for its beauty and once-myriad charm, but no longer. I wouldn’t go back there now if I was being paid by the hour, and obviously I am by no means alone in that sentiment. It’s truly sad, a latter-day American disgrace, that’s what—a pluperfect example of what inevitably results each and every time shitlibs are allowed to run things.

(Via Stephen)

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