Hmmm… – Page 10

Oversight on purpose

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Mike

Somehow, for some unfathomable reason, the people responsible for the “Official portraits of Presidents and First Ladies since 1965” (no link, because fuck them) made one glaring omission, which (presumably deliberate) omission AoSHQ’s Scampydog helpfully addressed. Ladies and germs, I give you the indisputably loveliest, most stunningly beautiful First Lady not just since 65, but in US history entire.

Melania 2025.

MAN, what a dish! Class, style, looks, brains, breezy self-confidence—whatever Melania doesn’t have we don’t need, and will assuredly never miss. She’s a First Lady all Americans can be proud of, and damned well ought to be. A real headscratcher, innit, how the White House Historical Ass’n couldn’t lay their hands on the above Official Portrait no matter how hard they “tried,” but a lowly blogger-dude somehow managed it.

MAN BITES DOG!

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Mike

Well, this is a refreshing change of pace. Kinda-sorta, in a manner of speaking.

DC judge blocks bid to stop DOGE mass firings, federal data access
A federal judge rejected an emergency request from Democrat-led states Tuesday to hamper cost-cutting efforts by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Washington, DC, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied the petition by 14 Democratic states to issue a temporary restraining order against Musk and DOGE.

“Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight,” Chutkan wrote.

“In these circumstances, it must be indisputable that this court acts within the bounds of its authority. Accordingly, it cannot issue a TRO, especially one as wide-ranging as Plaintiffs request, without clear evidence of imminent, irreparable harm to these Plaintiffs.”

Chutkan said that the plaintiffs, led by New Mexico, had not met the “high standard for irreparable injury.”

Oh, I dunno about all that, now. Seems to me that “imminent, irreparable harm” to these scum-slurping shitlib swine is basically the entire point of the exercise. Unless and until the baglappers have been harmed irreparably, their exsanguinated carcasses cast into Outer Darkness for all time, to the last man Jack of ’em, the job won’t be well and truly done. Otherwise, it just amounts to the same tired three-card-monte scam the DC Swamp critters have been running against America That Was all along, so why even bother? Then again, could be I’m all wet about the whole sordid mess.

However it all shakes out when all’s said and done, seeing a judge—ANY judge, a DC judge, no less—step up to prevent the shitlibs from getting their way rather than providing overt assistance as usual really IS a refreshing change of pace, no two ways about it.

About face

Posted on February 16, 2025February 16, 2025 by Mike

Strom sees the Trumpian light. Kinda, sorta, a little bit. What the hey: baby steps, man, baby steps.

I Was Wrong About Trump
No, I am not in love with Trump. He still makes me cringe sometimes, and I still don’t understand the Canada/51st state thing at all, and want nothing to do with Gaza if he is serious about that.

He should make ALL of us cringe sometimes, and anybody who agrees with Trump’s every policy, position, and statement every single time needs to see a shrink and have his head checked. Can’t remember who first coined the phrase (Milton Friedman, maybe? Eh, dunno), but it’s right as rain: if you find yourself agreeing with anyone in the political arena 99 percent of the time, then one at least of you is almost certainly insane…and it’s probably you. True then, true now, true forever.

But there are two vital things about him which I got completely, totally, and without question wrong.

Walter Kirn slapped me in the face (not literally) with a single tweet…

Boom. At least it was a “boom” for me, because I was one of those people who was absolutely certain that Trump was too immature, too narcissistic, and too lacking in self-awareness to put his ego in check and hire the best people and support them. More than that, Trump has withstood weeks of attacks on his “ceding power” to “President Musk.”

And he has shrugged it all off and pushed his collaborators to the front, empowered them, and backed them every step along the way despite the Democrats and the Pravda Media baiting him hourly on how weak he appears.

As the Democrats and the Pravda Media scream about “President Musk,” Donald Trump invites him to give a press conference in the Oval Office with Little X running around. Trump seems so comfortable in his own skin that the richest man in the world waxing about his role in the government isn’t threatening at all; he invited it, and handed the mic over to him.

Same with Kennedy. Same with Gabbard.

I was also wrong about another issue that is perhaps even more important: his competence to take on the Deep State and win.

During his first term, I came to the conclusion that Trump didn’t understand government well enough and that by the end of his term, he hadn’t destroyed the Deep State, but rather they destroyed him. I stand by my assessment of the success of the Deep State. It hobbled him in his first term, which ended with the annus horribilis of 2020. The Deep State ran the United States in 2020, leading to Trump’s narrow defeat in the 2020 election.

As Trump himself has said several times of late, he squandered most of his first term listening to bad advice from people he believed to be his friends but were in actuality no such thing. He has learned from those mistakes, and it shows.

Believe it or not, even some normal people are scared enough about change and still trust the Democrats enough to buy the “woe is me” propaganda, but enough people are waking up that the Democrats are in a losing battle. Trump won’t win every fight, but he is wracking up a lot of wins.

I supported Ron DeSantis in the primaries because I thought Trump would have the will to fight, but not a winning strategy.

I was wrong. Trump might still be stopped, but it won’t be due to his inherent weaknesses. He is performing masterfully.

He is at that, and deserves full credit for it.

Update! Even shitlib ABC journalismist Jon Karl is forced to own up to the painful truth:

ABC’s Jon Karl: Trump’s favorability is now HIGHER than it ever was in his first term.

– 63% want the government to recognize only two sexes
– 60% support deporting illegal aliens
– 60% favor expanding oil & gas productionpic.twitter.com/9fUNRCY0Yp

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok)

February 16, 2025

YEEEEOWTCH! You know saying that had to hurt him like a hydrochloric acid-dipped shiv to the heart.

The “Health” Racket

Posted on February 16, 2025February 16, 2025 by Mike

I must say I was kinda surprised to read Steyn’s take on all this. It wasn’t quite what I would’ve expected from him, although perhaps I should’ve.

I rejoice in the confirmation of RFK Jr as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services (no thanks to longtime Chinese asset Mitch McConnell). “Make America Healthy Again” is the indispensable component of “Make America Great Again” – because the most obvious sign of what’s gone wrong in the country is to take a walk down any main street. No one would bet the future on a country that has debauched its human capital the way the United States has.

As Bobby Kennedy pointed out on The Mark Steyn Show, Americans are the most medicated people on the planet and are the unhealthiest in the developed world; in particular, as RFK also noted on our show, our children are the world’s most medicated children, and have accelerating rates of childhood obesity, childhood diabetes, childhood heart disease. A grade-school diagnosis of diabetes can take up to two decades off your lifespan.

So what’s the answer? Further enriching Blue Cross-Blue Shield? Americans pay more for health care than anybody else, and have lousier outcomes, starting with the most basic indicator of all – life expectancy: According to the UN, from the Swiss to the Australians, the list of peoples that enjoy an extra half-decade of life over Americans lengthens year on year. In the 2023 UN rankings, the United States comes in at Number Fifty-Five on the life-expectancy Hit Parade; for purposes of comparison, Albania – where the men smoke seventy a day and accessing the health-care system requires swimming to Italy – is at Fifty-Three. By 2022 America’s annual spending on health care was twelve-and-a-half grand per capita; Albania’s was under five hundred bucks – which is less than your co-pay on a Covid anal swab; the word “co-pay” does not exist in Albanian.

Four years ago, we first had RFK Jr on the show mainly because no one else wants to talk about this. If you’re wondering why, it’s because his late friend Roger Ailes, of Fox News, told him that in non-election years three-quarters of Fox’s ad revenue comes from Big Pharma.

Five years ago, the state and the pharmaceutical companies joined forces for an unprecedented experiment on you – to damage almost every aspect of daily life, including even more damage to a generation of children. There has yet to be an accounting for that.

And THAT’s what really stings about this, at least for me. Although admittedly, the only way We The Peepul will ever get an accounting is to r’are up on our hind legs at long, long last and demand one. Not “request” one; not ask politely for one; not hold a referendum and vote on whether or not we’d like to have one at some later, unspecified date; but straight-up remind our “public servants” of their proper place in the grand scheme of things, get ‘em skeered and keep the skeer on ‘em, and inform them in no uncertain terms that there is by God going to be one, or we’re gonna damned well know the reason why not. T’was ever thus, ain’t nothing whatsoever new.

More, and even worserer:

I was also glad to see, in the above clip, RFK trash USAid, which was after all founded by his uncle. As noted earlier this week, it’s now a near parodic example of the racket that the federal government has made of everything it touches. According to the above-mentioned Daily Telegraph, Trump has only been in office for three weeks but he’s already killing grannies:

US aid freeze claims first victims as oxygen supplies cut off

Seventy-one-year-old woman dies after being sent home from USAID funded hospital.

This story is by Sarah Newey, the Telegraph’s “Global Health Security Correspondent” in Bangkok. In my day, the Telegraph didn’t have a “Global Health Security Correspondent” in Bangkok or anywhere else. It’s not funded by USAid, is it?

Oxygen isn’t really that expensive. A member of the Steyn team required it at an event in Colorado a couple of years back. It certainly isn’t that expensive if you’re the “International Rescue Committee” and have revenues of over a billion dollars per annum. Of course, like everyone else on the take from USAid, the International Rescue Committee pisses away a lot of its dough. It pays its president, David Milliband, over a million bucks a year. No, not Ed Milliband, the talentless prat who serves as His Majesty’s Secretary of State for Net Zero. This is his brother, David, the talentless prat who was British Foreign Secretary back in the Gordon Brown era and parlayed that into a seven-figure salary with this IRC racket. As I always say, the “non-profits” are where the big bucks are.

The racket goes on. Uniparty warmonger Victoria Nuland was last heard of on The Mark Steyn Show warning that the zillions of US-funded biolabs in Ukraine could easily fall into Russian hands. Why are American taxpayers outsourcing gain-of-function to Kharkiv and Odessa? Well, they’re world-renowned experts in developing a new strain of monkeypox with fewer homophobic overtones…

The good news is that the all-war-all-the-time queen, who’s even more bloodsoaked than David Milliband, has just been appointed to the board of the “National Endowment for Democracy”. Ms Nuland is an expert in democracy, having ended it in Ukraine. “NED” was founded back in the Eighties, at taxpayer expense, to “export the American way of governance” – so that every nation may enjoy the blessings of paying former foreign parliamentarians a seven-figure salary to kill l’il ol’ ladies.

That’s the point. Whether you’re a Thai gran’ma, a Ukrainian infantryman or a New Hampshire grade-schooler, Nuland-Milliband-Big Pharma government is killing you. I wish RFK and the other Trump 47-iconoclasts all the best.

As should we all, whether we find Trump’s personal swashbuckling, over the top style grating or not.

Q: Do these people know ANYTHING AT ALL about history?

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Mike

Or do they prefer to just make it all up as they go along, in whatever willy-nilly fashion that suits them?

Never mind, probably best not to answer that one.

Marco Rubio Leaves CBS News’ Margaret Brennan Speechless After She Claimed Nazis ‘Weaponized’ Free Speech
CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan had nothing to say after Secretary of State Marco Rubio brutally countered her weak argument that the Nazis somehow “weaponized” free speech to conduct a genocide.

The “Face the Nation” exchange came Sunday morning during a discussion about Vice President JD Vance’s incredible speech in Munich, Germany on Friday, in which he roasted European leaders to their faces for their horrible positions on unchecked immigration and free speech.

The speech predictably drew howls of protest from Europeans who for the past four years were doubtless unused to being criticized by an American administration. German president Olaf Scholz called Vance’s words “not appropriate,” and German defense minister Boris Pistorius called them “unacceptable.”

Well, bless their hearts.

Bless their hearts, hell. Y’know, for people who in fact are themselves fascists, you’d think shitlib “journalismists” like Brennan would know one when they saw one without too much trouble. And yet.

Brennan interrupted Rubio with the claim that Vance was “standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide.” She then went on to criticize the vice president for meeting with Germany’s “far right” Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, despite the fact that he also met with leaders of other major German political parties. There is also the fact that Europeans consider any party that doesn’t want to invite the entire world “far right.” Even more disturbing, Brennan defended the censorship by claiming it was “specifically about the right.”

Rubio not only vehemently disagreed with the CBS anchor, but countered with facts:

“I have to disagree with you,” he responded. “Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews and they hated minorities … There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was none. There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany. They were the sole and only party that governed that country, and so that’s not an accurate reflection of history.”

Rubio defended Vance’s point about the “erosion in free speech and intolerance for opposing points of view” in Europe.

When the secretary of state was finished, Brennan had nothing to say except that they were out of time. How convenient.

Funny how it always seems to work out sooooo conveniently for these morons, innit?

Fair winds, following seas

Posted on February 13, 2025February 13, 2025 by Mike

Probably the smartest, bestest, most encouraging thing Trump v2.0 has done so far is to at last make good on his flamboyantly unfulfilled first-term pledge to hire “only the best people” for his administration. This, in turn, has yielded some unanticipated but nonetheless salutary results.

Trump shares the spotlight in his second term
President Donald Trump did a remarkable thing earlier this week: He let Elon Musk take reporters’ questions about the Department of Government Efficiency live from the Oval Office.

While Musk’s son ultimately stole the show, Trump sat at the Resolute Desk while his tech billionaire ally defended DOGE, a government-cutting project currently dominating the headlines, from media criticism. Though White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently said she would be happy to have Musk in the briefing room, he didn’t sound like he was ready to compete for her job anytime soon.

It’s long been conventional wisdom that there is only one star of the Donald Trump Show and the only rule in his freewheeling political world is “don’t upstage the boss.” Yet the constant complaints that Musk is the shadow president or the unelected power behind the throne have not created a rift with Trump.

In the sequel to his first term, Trump has been perfectly willing to share the spotlight. Musk is a unique case. The richest man in the world and recent convert to conservatism — Musk is fond of posting videos of Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate economist who was many a young conservative and libertarian’s entry point to the free-market gospel — was especially helpful to Trump in last year’s presidential election. Musk and conservative activist Charlie Kirk were up against an experienced Democratic field operation and, based on the results in all seven battleground states, at least held their own.

But it isn’t just Musk. Vice President JD Vance has kept up a brisk pace of interviews since taking office. At one point during the campaign, he made more than seven times as many such appearances as both members of the Democratic ticket combined. On the night they were elected, Trump singled out Vance to praise for his performance on cable networks Republicans generally deem hostile.

Trump’s Cabinet is stocked with proven television communicators, from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Attorney General Pam Bondi to newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. When Gabbard was sworn in, Trump asked the group of reporters if they had any questions. As they shouted them out, Trump said, “You know what, I’d like to have Tulsi say a few words first, and then we could answer a couple of questions.”

With a capable staff and Executive Branch appointees backing him up, all of whom he not only trusts but actually seems to like and respect personally, Trump v2.0 obviously learned all the right lessons from his first term in office—and boy, does it ever show. Small wonder, then, that the man should be more unflappable, less temperamental, and more at ease with sharing the limelight, responsibility, and credit with them, in fairly sharp contrast with his first time in the Presidential pressure-cooker. I repeat: MOST encouraging.

Steady as she goes, Mr President sir, steady as she goes. In addition to the aforementioned crew members (sober men and true/and attentive to their duty, to paraphrase WS Gilbert), maintain the heading you’re currently on and you’ll soon have nearly all Real Americans—be they lowly swabbies on their Middie cruise or salty old seadogs with more Bluewater-spray coursing through their veins than blood—solidly aboard the USS MAGA to boot.

Democracy delayed is democracy denied

Posted on February 10, 2025February 10, 2025 by Mike

For all the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth they constantly do about “saving Muh Precious Demuhcrasee,” D卐M☭CRATs sure seem awfully blase about the actual, literal practice of it.

New York State Democrats Want to Delay Special Election to Replace Stefanik Until November
The party that claims to want to “defend democracy” has decided to abandon the struggle in New York.

“Abandon” it? Close, but no donut. They’re assaulting it, waging war against it, for reasons which are about to become apparent.

New York state Democrats are going to pass a bill that allows Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul to delay scheduling special elections until November. Current law requires Hochul to schedule a special election 90 days after a vacancy is declared.

The nomination of former Rep. Elise Stefanik to be UN ambassador will create a vacancy in her deep red district once the Senate confirms her nomination. Once the bill passes (Democrats have large majorities in both Houses), Hochul could deny citizens of New York’s 21st Congressional District any representation for an extra six months.

Bold mine and, as always, dispositive. So it would appear that the D卐M☭CRATs’ deep, abiding reverence for “democracy” is conditional, depending entirely on who the participants happen to be. And if you think that Hochul’s shifty move is just to give her and her minions extra time to ensure that the “elections” will be free, fair, and above-board, I have some ocean-front property in central Arizona for sale you really ought to consider buying.

Dems double down on depravity

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Mike

“Standing up for the rights of families,” for the first time in recorded history.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes took his book tour to HBO and Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, where he urged Democrats to double down on telling Republicans to “just stay the fuck out of their business” when it comes to parents wanting to give their children gender-altering “health care.”

Maher had just finished lamenting that the recent forum for the DNC chair election, complete with a land acknowledgment and other progressive cringe-inducing antics, showed the party hasn’t learned anything when Hayes replied, “I think that, I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t had a moment across the political spectrum of some form of progressive communication that’s either left them bewildered or a little like ‘Eh, I don’t know about that,’ but at the same time, there is a message of what I would call common sense patriotic pluralism. That is a majority message.”

No, what you ACTUALLY have there, Chris, is an incomprehensible word salad, exactly the sort of bafflegab you dirty swine throw in Normal faces when you don’t want them to catch on to what you really mean underneath the gobbledegook.

The first example he reached for was, “If some father and mother have health care for their kid lined up, who is trans, just stay the fuck out of their business. Like, and let them make that decision. That’s their decision to make. You don’t have to make that for your family. I’m not going to tell you what to do with your family.”

Maher pushed back, “I mean, but the argument is whether the child should make the decision.”

Hayes strained credibility to add, “But the child is never making the decision. The parents are always making the decision. Parents consent to medical care.”

Eventually, Maher would add, “They would say it’s disfiguring a child.”

Hayes was unmoved, “I think they should mind their business; I really do. I think they should mind their business, and I think that’s true about a lot of things.”

Ironically enough, that’s precisely what the rest of us have been trying to tell your criminal organization masquerading as a political party for decades now, only to have you ignore us and go right on as before. As Ed helpfully points out, this would seem to be a policy volte face for PMSDNC, although I do NOT recommend anybody rush out to bet money on it.

In 2013 the network ran ads that their parent company Comcast-signed off in which the message was explicitly stated that “your kids are not your own.” Last year, Kamala chose a veep, who, as the Daily Caller noted, “Greenlit Law Allowing State To Take Child Custody From Parents Who Oppose Sex-Change Surgeries.” Now that there’s a Republican in the White House who doesn’t want to see them mutilated before they can consent as an adult to procedures that could permanently alter them, Hayes responds, “just stay the f**k out of [the parents’] business!” Past performance, etc.

Why, one might almost think that the shitlib stance on the rights of families, if any, hinges on whether or not the “transgender” religion is involved.

Yeah, let’s don’t and say we did

Posted on February 6, 2025February 6, 2025 by Mike

I have to say, on this one I hope he IS just bluffing.

Trump is ‘not bluffing’ on Gaza takeover, will do ‘what it takes,’ sources close to prez say
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s threat to take over the Gaza Strip is not a “bluff,” sources close to the White House told The Post Thursday.

“The president is absolutely serious,” one White House official stressed.

The conversations have been in the works for months, meaning Trump was negotiating a solution for the Hamas-controlled land strip at war with Israel before his term began.

Steve Witkoff — Trump’s Middle East envoy — has played an influential part in the planning, a second source familiar with the internal discussions on the matter said, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed.

Witkoff developed his longtime friendship with Trump making billions in real estate investing and development in New York City. He traveled to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the final days of the Biden administration, which the Trump administration says played a key part in securing a hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

“Absolutely” Trump would be willing to take US control of Gaza, the source said.

“If that’s what it takes. He’s also creating a sense of urgency to end the status quo. And if Gulf States don’t like his plan then they should come up with their own and take more ownership of the situation. But the fact is that the status quo is a disaster,” the source added.

It IS a disaster, has always BEEN a disaster, and, unless and until some Western leader somehow scrapes up the stones to say “enough already” and start in killing Paleosimian Mooselimbs in job lots, will always BE a disaster. In the wise words of Gen Curtis LeMay, albeit in a different context: “if you kill enough of them, they stop fighting.” Truer words were never spoken.

That said, no way can I see OMB’s proposal turning out to be anything but a YUUUUGE mistake and an enormous catastrophe for the US all around. All Trump really needs to do at this point is to just step back, keep his mouth shut, and let Netanyahu get on with the business at hand. The only thing Trump can conceivably accomplish by interjecting himself and his nation into “Palestine” will be to set the stage for an encoure of 1983’s Beirut Marine Barracks bombing, if not something even worse. I’m sure he means well, but this next bit underlines how hopelessly misguided Trump’s thinking is on this whole rotten deal.

Some Republicans have raised eyebrows at the possibility of getting entangled in a foreign conflict and putting American troops in harm’s way in the Middle East. Trump first said he would not rule out putting US boots on the ground, but then said, “no soldiers by the US would be needed.”

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting. The Palestinians, people like Chuck Schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“No soldiers by the US would be needed?” It is to laugh, sorry. By “in the region,” natch, Trump means Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia—all of whom have for decades now been steadfastly, flatly rejecting any notion of permitting those poor, put-upon Paleosimians to be “resettled” anywhere within their borders, in no uncertain terms. Which, y’know, they still are. Clearly, they and their fellow Arab Moslem nations want no part of them, haven’t the least intention of taking them in, and have never pussyfooted around about saying so, either.

Unless his plan involves a wing of A10 Thunderbolt IIs saturation-bombing the hellhole until not one brick is left standing on another, the best thing Trump can possibly offer is a shrug, a rueful smile, a palms-up hand gesture wordlessly expressing to one and all, “Hey, I tried, whatcha gonna do,” then a blanket endorsement for Netanyahu to finish the bloody job at long last. A final pertinent quote which spells out exactly what it is we’re dealing with here:

Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say, oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me — come and kill him.

That, of course, is one of the more unpleasantly blood-curdling Hadiths culled from the Muzzrats’ hateful little murder-book, the subject of innumerable sermons in mosques scattered across the West, an uncompromisingly vicious mindset ubiquitous throughout not only “Palestine” but the Middle East entire. Which ought to tell any sentient being all he needs to know about this eternal conflict, and whence it really springs.

Just a bluff? A mere opening gambit to clear the decks for purposes of implementing a broader agenda, mayhap, to be cast aside with alacrity the instant its usefulness as a bargaining chip has expired? I pray that it is, but fear that it is not. If it isn’t, hopefully some trusted personage in Trump’s inner circle who has the Boss’s ear will step up and persuade the President that he needs to just quietly let this profoundly bad idea go by the wayside without further ado.

Update! A “pact with the devil,” John Hale calls the misbegotten ceasefire agreement with Hamas, and I couldn’t agree more.

THE world waited to see who would be the first three hostages Hamas released to Israel. Would they be alive, or already dead? Would they include the baby Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday was on Saturday, the day before the start of phase one of the ceasefire agreement and hostage/prisoner exchange?

Hamas are playing despicable and cruel mind games with the population of Israel in general, and the families of the hostages in particular – in how they release those poor abused souls who are still living, and the cold bodies of those they have murdered. And as the next six weeks of prolonged, drawn-out releases continue, the greater that psychological torture will be for the families still awaiting the release of their loved ones. It is expected that the living will be released first. My guess is that the Bibas family will be among the last, if not the last, hostages to be handed over.

The first hostages released were Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher and Romi Gonen, three young women who have spent a year and three months suffering in the dank, dark, suffocating terror tunnels beneath Gaza. Abused and assaulted, not knowing what their fate would be, clinging to life. Emily is British, yet the British government were barely interested in her plight as they were too concerned about appeasing the Muslim vote in the UK rather than being seen to support a Jew above the cause of the ‘Palestinian resistance’.

Hamas made a spectacle of the release. Heavily armed terrorists in full Hamas uniform kept the handover under control for the cameras while Palestinian civilians crowded in, shouting abuse and spitting at the young hostages.

After the six long weeks of phase one have elapsed, will there still be a ceasefire and further hostage releases possible, or will Hamas have violated the agreement forced on both Israel and Hamas by Donald Trump, eager to make a big impact on day one of his second presidency? Can a second phase be negotiated at all? There is much more work to be done before all hostages are released, and a permanent ceasefire attained.

The next phase of negotiations will take place during this phase one hostage release, where in exchange for 33 hostages of unknown status (dead or alive), Israel is to release nearly 2,000 terrorists and detainees, including more than 700 prisoners who between them are responsible for the murders of around 2,500 Israeli men, women and children.

In the meantime, rest assured that Hamas will keep pushing the boundaries of the current phase one agreement, flexing their propaganda muscles to keep their worldwide fan base enthused by their ‘resistance’. Just 12 hours before the ceasefire was supposed to begin, Hamas broke the terms of the agreement by not naming the first three hostages to be released. They did eventually give the names, well after the cut-off time, and after Benjamin Netanyahu halted the start of the agreement in response.

There are celebrations in Gaza and elsewhere, proclaiming this agreement as a victory for Hamas, and as a signal that murder and hostage-taking works and will be repeated. This deal is a pact with the Devil; any deal with Islamic terrorists is such. It encourages further terror, putting innocent people at risk worldwide – because this Islamic ‘struggle’ is for world domination, for a global Caliphate and the imposition of Islam and Sharia on every living soul.

Indeed so, right down the line. Again: I couldn’t agree more with Hale’s astute, clear-eyed evaluation of this patently raw deal.

Die, DEI

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Mike

Righting yet another decades-old shitlib wrong.

As Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said nearly two decades ago, “The way to stop discriminating based on race is to stop discriminating based on race.” President Donald Trump’s sweeping order shuttering every federal office related to DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — and signaling a decision to lay off staffers who worked there is an overdue step toward that goal.

Oh, it could have been done with more finesse. The effort needed to include language telling minority workers in and out of the federal government that they remain valued. But Donald doesn’t do nuance.

Nor should he. When a given situation has deteriorated so badly that properly addressing it requires wielding a BFH (ie, Big Fucking Hammer), as is the case here and now, nuance is much more harmful than helpful. That being so, it not only should but indeed MUST be discarded. When circumstances call for a bull-in-the-china-shop approach, soft voices, politesse, restraint, and yes, nuance are of no use whatsoever. Goldwater expressed it best with his straight-to-the-point “moderation is no virtue, extremism is no vice” formulation.

Trump’s decision has been met with the usual howls from the civil rights community. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote in a statement:

“It is outrageous that the President is rolling back critical Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. DEI programs help ensure that everyone can prosper. It’s clear that President Trump does not value equal opportunity.

“His appalling executive order will only worsen America’s racial hierarchy and benefit the oligarch class. This executive order threatens public services that benefit all Americans; it’s an attempt to consolidate power and money to a few wealthy individuals. And poor and working-class people will pay the price.”

Johnson has the insidious and divisive nature of DEI exactly backward. DEI has no impact on the oligarch class. Elon Musk doesn’t have to worry about whether he is being fairly considered for a job or a contract because of his race. Poor and working-class white people bear the costs of DEI — and it is that cost of quotas, set-asides and minority-only programs and spaces that divide the working class into racial blocs.

And Johnson’s complaints would have been just as apoplectic if Trump’s order were more measured and included all the nuance reasonable people would want. Because the civil rights-industrial complex doesn’t do nuance either, no amount of moderation and good intentions protects a Republican from accusations of the -isms and -obias.

The LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign released a statement saying: “Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect in all areas of their lives. No one should be subjected to ongoing discrimination, harassment and humiliation where they work, go to school, or access healthcare.”

Tell that to the men and women at the worker bee level who have had their fill of the DEI industry’s product in mandatory trainings on microaggressions, the idea that the most minor of insensitivity is part of a larger systemic oppression that must equally systemically be curtailed. The hyper-sensitivity that DEI engenders fuels division on racial and other lines while making common American ideals such as the immigration “melting pot” into sources of animus.

Being forced into training that contradicts closely held ideals and targets members of the majority based on their race and sexual orientation is “discrimination, harassment and humiliation” where we work and go to school.

Ahhh, but that’s perfectly okay, see. White people, having been summarily declared guilty of racism, bigotry, misogyny, and homo/transphobia by TPTB, deserve to be systemically discriminated against, harassed, and humiliated.

The concealed core of the Deep State itself

Posted on February 5, 2025February 5, 2025 by Mike

Looks as if Trump, Musk, and Co have tripped ass-backwards over the Überstadt motherlode.

DOGE and the budget audit of doom
the commanding heights of the unravelling to come

meet the new boss, nothing whatsoever like the old boss.

not this time. maybe never again.

welcome to “dismantle leviathan” the fun new game that all the cool kids are playing.

i warned you about how these people were not going to act like the gormless opposition party of old. they will understand the system better than you do. and they’re going to tear it down.

DC is finally starting to see how much trouble it is in and people are freaking out. the moves are coming too fast for the news cycle to even keep up with. and DC has mostly already lost. all the high ground has been taken and now it’s just going to be about squeezing.

DOGE grabbed the OMB and the treasury payments system.

that’s it. lights out, game over.

from ukraine to climate science to NIH to 100 different agencies like USAID, money is being funneled everywhere and stolen in wholesale quantities.

USAID and who knows who else were all out meddling for decades in foreign elections. they have probably been meddling in ours.

suddenly, these agencies are losing their minds about “declassification efforts.”

it certainly does make on wonder: why were they classifying anything at all? wasn’t this supposed to be aid?

and DC is finally realizing how much trouble they are in and leviathan is shrilling in terror and rage, but it’s already way too late.

threads are exposed, they will be pulled, and this is going to, for the first time in generations, tear the covers off these boxes and let us see what’s inside. and it’s not gonna be pretty friends. i’m telling you point blank: however bad you fear this was – it’s worse.

the middle of the american overton is about to see that government is 80% money laundering and unaccountable tyranny and theft by weight.

More, much more at the link, every word of it seriously edifying reading. The predicament now being screeched about by scabrous vermin like Schumer, Pelosi, AOC, et al reminds me strongly of a fine old Dead Boys tune.

If, as has been said so very many times, the D卐M☭CRAT Party is in actual fact a criminal organization masquerading as a political party (PRO TIP: it is), then FederalGovCo itself is the officially-sanctioned analog of La Cosa Nostra, only one step higher up on the Big Government ladder, with more fingers in bigger pies grubbing for ever-greater power, wealth, and authority.

What fun it’s been since Jan 20, watching Trump and his wrecking crew turn over the Deep State rocks one after another and seeing the cockroaches underneath crawl for their very lives in abject terror of the simple, cleansing light of day.

Epic moments in total lack of self-awareness

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Mike

They can retire the prize with this one, I believe.

You people doxxed a minor for awkwardly smiling. You told the entire world where he went to school. A Disney producer said he wanted to shove him and his friends into a wood chipper.

Trump isn’t going to make the left “start to be cruel”

He’s going to make you stop. https://t.co/kKfC9WfQwt pic.twitter.com/ul1QgAswJv

— Seamus (FreedomToons) (@seamus_coughlin)

February 3, 2025

Via Insty.

Civics 101

Posted on January 29, 2025January 29, 2025 by Mike

As I always say, there’s a reason this sort of thing isn’t taught in the government schools anymore.

There cannot be a “hostile takeover of the civil service.” The civil service is not a check on the Executive Branch- it IS the Executive Branch. If a Department, Office, Bureau, program, or individual is doing something counter to the will of the Executive, it’s well within the… https://t.co/9UsT93H9Q6

— Where are we? Nowhere (@nowhere_nh)

January 29, 2025

Your obligatory “Show more” workaround:

There cannot be a “hostile takeover of the civil service.” The civil service is not a check on the Executive Branch- it IS the Executive Branch. If a Department, Office, Bureau, program, or individual is doing something counter to the will of the Executive, it’s well within the Executive’s right to nip such behavior in the bud. Because the Executive was elected by the will of the people. The bureaucracy was not.

“Prevent the civil service from becoming the President’s henchmen.” What absolute drivel.

Left-wing ideals have been left to fester and seep into every aspect of the so-called civil service, to the point it feels emboldened to act as an unelected, unvetted check on the President. Nonsense. There are three branches of gov’t that are intended to check and balance each other: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. There is no fourth branch called “The Bureuacracy” that has the right to check or balance the other three.

The bureaucracy in DC is as entrenched as a tumor grown in the bone, sucking the life force out of this country. It will take a lot of surgery – some of it messy – to fix all that damage.

Messy indeed—with the majority of said “mess” consisting of spilled blood, buckets and buckets of it.

(Via Stephen Green)

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Mike

Glenn helpfully explains where the wrecking ball comes into the picture.

Trump is following through with unprecedented and swift action to begin his presidency – which has reset the national mood
Soon after November’s election, I suggested that if Donald Trump were smart, he’d come in like a wrecking ball: Move fast, break things and precipitate change across many fronts all at once, subjecting the Democrats, the media and the left (but I repeat myself) to shock and awe.

Boy, has he ever done that, unleashing unprecedented change in just his first 100 hours.

He banned DEI throughout the federal government, closed the borders to illegal immigrants (according to Customs and Border Protection, illegal crossings dropped 97% by Trump’s second day in office), halted government censorship efforts, refocused the Defense Department from social issues to warfighting, and started a massive cleanup at the corrupt Department of Justice.

Follows, a most edifying litany of Trump moves, directives, and initiatives, culminating with:

A week or two ago, all these things seemed too hard to accomplish.

Now they’re simply being done.

Oh, there’s resistance: The Air Force announced that as part of Trump’s DEI ban it would stop teaching cadets about the Tuskeegee Airmen scandal, an act of obvious bad faith designed to grab headlines.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who knows whereof he speaks, rightly called this “political theatrics” and “passive-aggressive performative nonsense . . . It’s all an act.”

It is an act, and the actors should be sacked.

Indeed they should, in fact, MUST—every man Jack of them, lest this nascent movement in all the right directions be kilt a-borning.

But that they’re trying this sort of idiocy is proof that they’re flailing and desperate. Trump has the momentum.

One reason for this, of course, is that things like the DEI ban and immigration enforcement are wildly popular.

The American public has never supported affirmative action or open borders.

Those are policy preferences of the elites, who bullied opponents by calling them racist.

That doesn’t work anymore.

Nor should it. May it ever be thus.

The guilty flee where no man pursueth

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Mike

Pardons? We don’ need no steenkin’ pardons.

There are those who have argued that the offenses of January 6th are “unreasonable” to pardon and that Trump’s pardon and commutations for persons prosecuted due to January 6th 2020’s actions are outrageous.

That assertion is false.

The issuance of a pardon imputes guilt and acceptance of one, which is voluntary, confesses guilt (Burdick .v. United States, 1915.) The reason you must voluntarily accept a pardon is that once pardoned you cannot assert 5th Amendment protections as the risk of criminal sanction has been removed. Thus you must accept it voluntarily in that you are giving up Constitutional Rights, but in doing so you also confess to the truth of the offense(s) in question.

There is no means to expunge a federal offense. Once convicted the only way to remove it from your record is to prevail on appeal in which case the offense itself is voided. Many states have a process for expungement, which is a formal and legal removal of a conviction; no such thing exists for federal crimes.

A pardon does not erase an offense — that is, the offense of “parading” or whatever have you that a person was convicted of from Jan 6 is not “gone”, however, it is undisputed, because Biden pardoned all of the Jan 6 committee members, that the government and members of Congress obstructed justice which was used to deny said persons a fair trial. That issuance of the pardon by Joe Biden imputed said guilt and the acceptance thereof confessed to same by the committee members.

That doesn’t make the actions of those who paraded (or stole and destroyed, for that matter) into “not occurred.” They did take those actions, and they were charged or convicted as the case may be. But the trials were not fair as justice was obstructed so whether the original sentences were reasonable (or whether, for example, probation or a modest fine under misdemeanor penalties was a more-appropriate penalty in the case of someone who’s crime was mere presence in the Capitol building) was never lawfully and fairly adjudicated.

Trump’s pardons and commutations thus might objectively be considered “wrong” except for Biden’s action on the way out of office, in which he pardoned obstruction of justice, witness tampering and willful destruction of evidence by persons who led to those prosecutions, all of which were part and parcel of the original charges and trials and due to the acceptance of Biden’s pardons by those committee members is in fact a confession of guilt to those federal offenses.

As a direct result Biden’s preemptive pardons make the Jan 6 pardons by Trump not only objectively reasonable they became, at the moment Biden issued them, mandatory.

It’s the esteemed Karl Denninger, so of course there’s a hefty surplusage of italics, boldfaces, and underscores scattered throughout which I’m just too damned lazy to bother transcribing. Also, having been “pardoned” by ***”President”*** Bribem, if some enterprising soul in Congress doesn’t have Herr Fauci’s (at the very least) miserable, lying ass in the hot seat toot fucking sweet, then that notable omission will in turn serve to highlight the shambolic theater production the whole sordid FederalGovCo mess is, has been for years, and likely always will remain.

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