Hmmm… – Page 15

TRIGGERED!

Posted on October 15, 2024 by Mike

To hell with Presidents, of any and every partisan stripe: Elon Musk for God-Emperor of Earth, I say.

Elon Musk works another miracle as Lilliputian progs snipe
Elon Musk is working miracles with rockets, but a bunch of California apparatchiks want to stop his launches because of…his tweets.

The immigrant genius stunned the world Sunday as his SpaceX landed a reusable Starship booster back on the launchpad.

This is a huge tech advance, bringing launch costs down by a factor of ten and advancing space exploration and exploitation by decades.

Meanwhile, the California Coastal Commission just rejected the Space Force’s request for more frequent SpaceX launches on the Golden State’s Central Coast by a vote of six to four, with some of the “nays” specifically citing Musk’s political speech.

Ayn Rand must be spinning in her grave…or laughing at how so-called “progressives” spurn actual progress when driven by a truly independent mind.

Meanwhile, bet on Musk to beat the Lilliputians: Expect him to launch the first manned mission to Mars from Texas, which has the good sense to welcome him and all his businesses.

“Lilliputian” would definitely be the mot juste here.

Virginia Tech academic: Stop sending humans into space — it’s ‘imperialist’
The ‘inclusion of more social scientists’ needed at NASA, etc.

Yet another university academic is warning about continued human space exploration due to its “imperialist mindset.”

Savannah Mandel, a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech and an “outer space anthropologist,” adds to what seems to be a trendy argument about investigations into outer space.

According to Virginia Tech News, Mandel’s book “Ground Control: An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration” argues that “rushing to send more humans to space […] mirrors an imperialist mindset that harms Earth’s humanity and environment.”

Maybe if you threatened to hold your breath until you turn blue, sweet-cheeks. That usually works for ya, right?

Whither the Renaissance Man?

Posted on October 12, 2024October 12, 2024 by Mike

CF friend KT—she of Saturday Pet Thread renown, among other notable things—hips us to an intriguing VDH column. Sefton linked it earlier this week, but I let it get by me somehow.

We Are in Need of Renaissance People
The songwriter, actor, country/western singer, musician, U.S. Army veteran, helicopter pilot, accomplished rugby player and boxer, Rhodes scholar, Pomona College and University of Oxford degreed, and summa cum laude literature graduate, Kris Kristofferson, recently died at 88.

Americans may have known him best for writing smash hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “For the Good Times,” his wide-ranging, star-acting roles in A Star is Born and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, his numerous solo albums, especially with then-spouse and singer Rita Coolidge, and the country group super-quartet he formed with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.

In other words, Kristofferson was a rare Renaissance man who could do it all in an age of increasingly narrow specialization and expertise.

At certain times throughout history at particular locales, we have seen such singular people from all walks of life.

Classical Athens produced polymaths like Aristotle—tutor to Alexander the Great, logician, student of music, art, and literature, educator, think-tank founder, biologist, philosopher, and scientist. Later Greeks like Archimedes and Ptolemy, as men of action, mastered six or seven disciplines and applied their abstract knowledge in ways that made life easier for those around them.

But we associate the idea of a “Renaissance man” mostly with Florence, Italy, between the 15th and 16th centuries. In that brief 100 years, the Florentine Republic hosted multi-talented geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci—master painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, engineer, and inventor—best known for the Mona Lisa and Last Supper.

The American Revolution was a similar embryo of Renaissance men. Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most famous example of unchecked abstract and pragmatic genius displayed in almost every facet of late 18th– and early 19th-century life—main author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. President, founder of the University of Virginia, inventor, agronomist, architect, and diplomat.

But Benjamin Franklin may best approximate the model of the Florentine Renaissance holistic brilliance—journalist, publisher, printer, author, politician, diplomat, inventor, scientist, and philosopher.

And here’s where it gets really interesting.

The best American example of the current age is the controversial Elon Musk, a truly Renaissance figure who has revolutionized at least half a dozen entire fields.

Huh. Much as I’ve come to like and admire him, I hadn’t thought about Elon as a modern-day Renaissance Man before, but now that VDH brought it up it seems obvious. Onwards.

No one prior had broken the Big Three auto monopoly of GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

Musk did just that. He exploded all three companies’ dominance with his successful creation of the first viable electric vehicle, Tesla, whose comfort, drivability, reliability, safety, and power rivaled or exceeded the models of all his competitors.

His spin-off battery storage and solar panel companies allowed thousands of families to go off the grid and stay self-sufficient in power usage.

Musk’s revolutionary Starlink internet system—a mere five years old—provides global online service to over 100 countries. Through its some 7,000 satellites, Starlink brings internet service to remote residents far more effectively and cheaply than do their own governments. When natural disasters overwhelm utilities or war disrupts the normality of peace, all look to Musk to restore online reconnections to the outside world.

Musk, almost singlehandedly, transformed the U.S. space program from a NASA 60-year-old government monopoly to an arena of fervent private-public competition. His Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) created a rocket and spacecraft program that has kept the U.S. preeminent in space exploration and reliable satellite launches. When NASA and old aerospace companies falter, the government looks to Musk to bail them out.

Musk, at great personal cost, radically transformed the old Twitter—poorly managed, censorious of ideas and expressions not deemed progressive, and mired in scandal for partnering with the FBI to silence news deemed possibly injurious to Democratic candidates and left-wing campaigns.

His new X replacement is an unfettered platform for free expression. And the more the left abhors their loss of the monopolistic old Twitter’s ideological clearing house, and vows to flee X and start their own new left-wing, censorious Twitters, the more they stay on X.

There’s more yet, and it’s…well, like I said, it’s intriguing.

SIDE NOTE: I haven’t looked in on Hanson for a goodish while—nor American Greatness itself, for whom he used to write a regular column, and perhaps still does—but for many years practically every piece he published was linked and excerpted approvingly here at CF; in particular, his post-9/11 output looking into the Moslem supremacist threat and how the West might most successfully deal with it was reliably excellent—very insightful, well-written, and steeped in the historical perspective. I see now he has his own website, The Blade Of Perseus, which I didn’t know about before. Duly bookmarked and blogrolled.

Update! Just checked and yep, looks like Hanson is still posting over at AmGreat. A little taste of another good piece, this one with an overly optimistic title.

Try a Little Honesty About Israel
Rather than admitting their own role in igniting the Middle East, Biden and Harris now blame the victims of their own incendiary foreign policy.

Honesty? From these congenital liars?!? *snort* Yeah, as if. That’ll be the day.

It was the terrorists of Hamas who surprise attacked and murdered 1,200 Israeli civilians during peace and a Jewish holiday.

Their slaughtering torturing, raping, and hostage-taking revealed a level of precivilization barbarism rarely seen in the modern era.

Israel was simultaneously targeted by rockets from Hamas and Hezbollah that would eventually number over 20,000.

It did not respond to the bloodbath with a full-scale invasion of Gaza until October 27, some three weeks after the slaughtering.

During that interim, for most of the Muslim world and both U.S. Muslim communities and on American campuses, there was rejoicing at the news of slaughtered Jews.

After it all, Biden-Harris lifted sanctions on a hostile Iran, giving it $100 billion in oil windfalls. It begged Iran to reenter the disastrous Iran deal. It abandoned the Abraham Accords. It lifted the terrorist designation from the terrorist Houthis. It restored fungible aid to the Hamas tunnel builders. It gave new aid to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon.

Israel’s enemies got the Biden message: attack the Jewish state and perhaps Americans for the first time in a half-century may not really mind that much.

And so they did in unison.

And will go right on doing so, unless and until we finally pay heed to LeMay’s sagacious advice.

Curtislemay1 2x.

Read all of that Hanson piece at AG, folks, and expect to see more of the man ‘round these h’yar parts henceforth. I have been remiss, now I intend to make it up to y’all. What the hey, it’s the least I can do.

Terrorists to Israel: “Let’s stop fighting, we’re losing”

Posted on October 10, 2024October 10, 2024 by Mike

Finish ‘em off, Bibi.

Hezbollah Wants a Ceasefire Now. Here’s Why Israel Shouldn’t Give Them One.
Ceasefire now? As much as Kamala Harris wants one and would capitalize upon one if it did materialize, the answer must be a firm no.

After exploding pagers and a series of carefully targeted Israeli airstrikes have completely decimated Hezbollah’s senior leadership, the jihad terror organization now wants a ceasefire with Israel. This will come as music to the ears of the Biden-Harris regime, which would like nothing better than an October peace agreement between Israel and one of the major players that are arrayed against it.

The Harris campaign could wave this agreement in the air every time someone pointed out that the world during the Trump years was a much more peaceful place than it is now, and use it going into the election as evidence of Kamala Harris’ superior negotiating skills. But for a number of important reasons, Israel should resist all pressure from Washington.

So far, the pressure for the moment is coming not from Washington, but from Hezbollah itself. CNN reported Tuesday that Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem, who is the highest-ranking official in the organization at the moment (after Israel took out longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his designated or potential successors) said, “We support the political efforts led by (Parliament Speaker Nabih) Berri under the banner of achieving a ceasefire. Once the ceasefire is firmly established and diplomacy can reach it, all other details will be discussed and decisions will be made collaboratively.”

Ceasefire! Diplomacy! Qassem knows how to push all the right buttons to get the U.S. State Department, the European Union, and the United Nations on his side, and even to shower billions upon his straitened organization. Kamala Harris has already sent $157 million to Lebanon, which means to Hezbollah.

Nevertheless, Antony Blinken and his henchmen in Foggy Bottom are likely to take Qassem’s endorsement of Berri’s ceasefire proposal with the utmost seriousness, and start badgering the Israelis to accept it. If they prevail upon them to do so, they’ll only be enabling Hezbollah to survive and get back on its feet after the heavy losses it has recently suffered. This is certain from what Islamic law teaches about when treaties, including temporary truces, should be concluded with a non-Muslim foe.

Yep, those “temporary truces” being known by a specific name in Muzzrat circles: hudna, that would be, a strictly temporary cease-fire intended to allow an exhausted, nearly defeated Mooselimb antagonist to re-equip, refit, and reinvigorate for the next round of jihadi conquest. Thus:

The concept of hudna deserves a close look: It is not a Qur’anic term, nor is it the only Arabic word for a cease-fire or truce; others include: muhadana, muwada’a, muhla, musalaha, musalama, mutaraka, and sulh. But hudna is the most prominent. It is the first word used in Muslim history to mean cease-fire, specifically in the context of the seventh century Truce or Treaty of al-Hudaybiyya, often termed the Sulh al-Hudaybiyya (peace of al-Hudaybiyya).

Named after a village outside Mecca, the truce came six years after Muhammad and his followers abandoned Mecca for Yathrib, today’s Medina. This move, known as the hijra (emigration) is of enormous significance for the classical understanding of jihad, inasmuch as it sets a pattern of retreat followed by regrouping and rearming, which permits an attack on the territory previously left behind.

Spencer, for his part, understands what’s actually going on here perfectly well.

Blinken and his colleagues are dogmatically committed to the proposition that Islam has nothing whatsoever to do with the conflict between Israel and its jihadi enemies and can illuminate nothing about that conflict, but the facts are otherwise.

Islamic law does not envision a state of permanent peace between Muslims and non-Muslims. Instead, the Qur’an instructs Muslims to “fight them until persecution is no more and religion is all for Allah” (8:39). If Muslims must continue fighting non-Muslims until “religion is all for Allah,” that means that there is no place in Islam for the “coexistence” that the left professes to value so highly. There can be no coexistence, but only perpetual warfare, although there can be sporadic periods in which a temporary peace prevails.

Islamic law is very clear about when these pauses in the war can go into effect. It only allows for a truce if the Muslims expect their foes to convert to Islam, or if the Muslims are weak and need to gather strength to fight later more effectively: “If Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud… Interests that justify making a truce are such things as Muslim weakness because of lack of numbers or materiel, or the hope of an enemy becoming Muslim…” (Reliance of the Traveller, o9.16).

This idea is founded on the Qur’an: “So do not falter and cry out for peace when you have the upper hand…” (47:35).

Hezbollah is crying out for peace because it does not have the upper hand. It is calling for a ceasefire because it is weak, and needs time to gather its strength. This would, therefore, be the worst time to conclude a ceasefire. Heedless of all this, however, and hating Israel as they do, Biden, Harris, and Blinken will keep pressuring Israel to accept a ceasefire. Netanyahu should stand strong in rejecting this pressure.

And there you have it. Once again, I must repeat: Kill. Them. ALL. Contra the constant teary squeals of “genocide” from idiotic Western shitlibs and, embarrassingly enough, Crackpot Rightists in this context (neither Hezbollah, nor Hamas, nor Paleosimian, nor even Muslim itself constitutes a race, therefore definitionally rendering the claim of “genocide” entirely null and void), there really is no other long-term solution for Western Civ than just this.

Update! Francis asks the pertinent question.

I strive to use words according to their exact meanings. The word existential has such a meaning: “of, relating to, or affirming existence.” Thus, an existential enemy is one whose aim is to end your existence. There can be no greater threat than such an enemy; he poses an existential threat.

Is there a point – a defensible rationale – to negotiating with such an enemy?

A: No. No, there most certainly is not. In such a circumstance, you have but three (3) options: Kill him, surrender, or die your own self, the last two of which amount to the same thing when all’s said and done. Period fucking dot, all there is to it, end of story.

Catastrophic near-miss

Posted on October 10, 2024October 10, 2024 by Mike

Oh frabjous day, calloo callay! Well, almost.

Anderson Cooper drilled in face by flying debris during live on-air Hurricane Milton report: ‘That wasn’t good’
Cooper, known for his on-site coverage of hurricanes, took the incident in stride and continued his report of the water from the Manatee River rising above the river bank and onto the walkway above.

Aw dammit, I was rooting for casualties when I saw the headline. According to the article the “flying debris” in question was only a small piece of styrofoam (sigh) and not a brick, iron bar, V8 engine block, live alligator, or something else a bit more, umm, lethal, shall we say. Oh well—next time, perhaps.

Can’t stop the steal

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Mike

Still think Trump/Vance will defeat Kumhaula and Tampon Timmeh the Pillsbury Doughpyrsynz©, do ya? If so, may I ask why, exactly?

North Carolina gives counties affected by Hurricane Helene voting flexibility
Voters in the western part of the battleground state, which was hit hard by the storm, will be able to drop off completed absentee ballots to any county election board.

North Carolina’s election board voted Monday to give residents in the western part of the state, which was hit hardest by Hurricane Helene, greater flexibility to vote by mail and run their elections.

Voters in 13 counties heavily affected by the storm will have more ways to obtain and deliver absentee ballots, while county boards will have more ability to modify their election administration plans. The changes, approved by unanimous vote of the bipartisan board, come 10 days before early voting begins in the battleground state and as mail voting is already underway.

Voters in those counties who want to cast ballots by mail will be able to request and receive them in person until Nov. 4, the day before Election Day, rather than the Tuesday before, under the usual rules. They will also be able to drop off their ballots at any county board of elections in the state or any polling sites in their counties. Previously, voters were limited to dropping absentee ballots off at the board of elections or early voting sites in their counties.

The ballots will be counted if they are received by 7:30 p.m. ET on Election Day.

The emergency provisions will allow county boards, with bipartisan majority votes, to change their early voting hours and schedules if necessary. They will be able to move polling sites as necessary and even move them into other counties if necessary.

Greenfield says it, no fuss, no muss.

Come on, you knew this was coming. Never let a crisis go to waste. Instead of providing immediate aid, the Biden-Harris administration worsened the crisis in North Carolina. Because a crisis justifies setting aside election rules.

While some flexbility makes sense after a natural disaster, this is a formula for flooding the election with unaccountable mail ballots aimed at counties under the firm control of partisan political machines.

Who benefits? That’s a tough one.

Ain’t it, though. Ain’t it just.

Unless and until we get back to One Man, One Paper Ballot, One Day, concluding with purple-inked thumbs before being permitted to exit the polling place—ie, no EZ-Hack electronic voting machines; no Election “Season” nonsense; no mail-ins or early voting except for military personnel stationed overseas; hand-counted in a scrupulously monitored tabulation facility before observers representing all participating political parties; no interruptions, pauses, or breaks until the count is done, however long that may take—it’s all just stuff and nonsense.

Let election-riggers, -tamperers, and -fraudsters caught red-handed at their nefarious jiggery-pokery be indicted, prosecuted, and promptly executed for High Treason, pour encourages les autres. If Real Americans don’t take their national elections seriously enough to nut-up and adopt the aforementioned measures—extreme though they may look to daintier, more squeamish eyes—there can be no real possibility of ever unfucking America’s national “elections,” and the disgraceful traveshamockery will carry on as it presently does.

Lost America

Posted on October 8, 2024October 8, 2024 by Mike

GREAT piece on the opening-credits sequences of those classic old 70s sitcoms.

Opening credit sequences are a lost art these days. “Lost” because the ritual of collective TV watching is a thing of the past with no real place here in the streaming era. And yes, once upon a time, Network TV watching was a ritual. Like a formal State dinner with seventeen different kinds of spoons and a new glass for each course, Network TV viewing came with a set of rules and an irresistable order. All over America families gathered around the TV set at the appointed time, tuned our sets to the proper channel and waited for the opening notes of the songs we all knew by heart, excited to spend half another hour with characters we’d come to think of as friends.

There was something gratifying too about the idea that all across the country millions of our fellow Americans were doing the same exact thing at the same exact moment. If you are of a certain age, you probably have a memory of getting up during a commercial break on a warm night, maybe to let the dog out, and hearing the sound of the same commercial you were just watching coming from your neighbor’s open window. There was something special about that sense of shared culture, all of us participating at the same time, no matter where or who we were…city mouse and country mouse…doctors, lawyers, electricians and plumbers. There was an irresistable allure to being a part of something magical that would only happen once and then never again.

Streaming TV viewing, by contrast, is a solitary act with no real sense of time or place and where nobody knows your name. By the time a popular 70’s show entered syndication, a committed fan would have watched the series opener one hundred times or more. But memorable credit sequences are more rare now, a function of their incompatibility with the churn-and-burn binge-viewing nature of the streaming model. Easier to just click the “skip” button, or “next episode”, and get on with it.

Instant gratification saves time, certainly, but in the process something is lost that perhaps should not have been. There is value in waiting. Part of what makes Christmas so special is the month long run-up that precedes it. There is also something captivating and mysterious about the idea of being treated to a show. To the knowledge that we can’t speed things up at a whim. That we can’t just skip to the good stuff. It is satisfying in a way that the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am rhythm of streaming will never be able to deliver. And it’s hard not to wonder if the old ways of network TV might not have been good for us in some critical way we can no longer recall.

Sit down, relax…be still. Someone else is in charge for the next 26 minutes and you can’t skip ahead. You are not in control. If the episode ends in a cliffhanger, you’re going to have to wait a week to find out what happens. And that’s OK.

Everything moves faster now. And while it may be an article of faith at Wharton Business School that the customer is always right, there is no immutable law that says the customer will always be happier, or even better off, once they get it.

“Sometimes you wanna go…where everybody knows your name…and they’re always glad you came…”

The above closing line, of course, comes from perhaps my personal favorite of all the shows featured in the post’s embedded videos:

Cheers, Taxi, KRP, Kotter, M*A*S*H—they’re all here, folks, and it’s one hell of a great ride. No true child of the American 70s will want to miss this one, and definitely shouldn’t.

(Via Stephen Green)

Update! The comments-section discussion betwixt myself and Barry compels me to append a typical, wonderfully silly cab-depot exchange featuring Andy Kauffman as Latka Gravas and the incomparable Christopher Lloyd as the Reverend Jim Ignatowski in Taxi.

Heh. LOVE that show. What kinda disturbs me is that, what with all the things that have slipped from my increasingly unreliable memory over recent years, I can still recall both Kaufman’s and Llloyd’s characters full names without batting an eye.

They’re from the government, and they’re NOT here to help

Posted on October 4, 2024October 4, 2024 by Mike

Tonight’s Eyrie post is on the thuggish FederalGovCo rakehells’ ham-handed interference with well-organized and effective private rescue efforts in and around Lake Lure and Asheville, specifically centering on Elon Musk’s (!) repeated run-ins with the infamous FEMA. It’s blindingly obvious to all but the most wllfully purblind fief-guarding tyranno-Fed that those poor people need every last bit of help they can possibly get, and aren’t overly concerned about whence it originated. Not that the Fedgoons give a tinker’s damn, of course.

That said, our friend of many years standing and fellow Carolinian Herschel Smith (maybe I’ve mentioned it here before, but his lovely daughter [or maybe niece? dunno, I was zonked out on pain meds at the time] kindly paid me a seriously morale-boosting visit at the thoughtful behest of her pop when I was laid up in rehab center durance vile not long after I’d become the World’s Greatest One-Legged Blogger™) has plenty to say on that score his own self. Read of it, for It. Is. Good.

The Hurricane Helene Hall of Shame
Following up on my post How Helene Affected The People Of Appalachia, there are a number of shameful things that we’re learning about the official response.

Let’s begin with this terrible report of a man who used his own helicopter to rescue stranded people above Asheville, N.C., and who was told if he continued, he would be placed under arrest.

The responsible officials are Dustin Waycaster – Fire Chief, and Chris Melton – Asst. Fire Chief. Congratulations men, you’ve made the hall of shame. It would take an entire article to examine the moral implications of preventing the rescue of men and women in danger, but we’ll leave it at that and cover it later. Suffice it to say that it sounds like you were discomfited by someone showing you up and “interfering with your operation.” Although it’s likely a manifest lie to say that anyone was really interfering with anything.

An eminently safe bet, I should think. Lots, lots more where that came from, of which you absolutely must read the all. Those taking nitro-glycerin pills for heart issues will definitely want to have their ‘scrip close to hand, and peruse Herschel’s piece in a cool, calm, and collected state of mind, preferably while seated. You won’t be any of those things for long, trust me on that one.

The HHHoS is populating itself all too quickly to suit me.

Update! Is it all about the lithium, perchance?

Lake Lure is in the same land as where the Lithium mining is taking place.

just saying.. https://t.co/BxlbQtxqMI

— Adam Crigler (@AdamCrigler)

October 3, 2024

Several Lake Lure denizens calling in to the Rise Guys program yesterday and today said that great swathes of land on which private homes and/or neighborhoods formerly stood have been preemptively declared FedGovCo property. Lord knows the batteries in all those useless, dangerous EVs Harris/Biden & Pals are determined to cram down our throats are gonna require lithium aplenty. SO, then: fact, or merely the sort of paranoiac rumor that tends to fly around in extreme circumstances such as this? Is it really a case of Federal ad lib opportunism run amok, in essence a spur of the moment land-and-lithium grab?

Given what we’ve learned over the past several years regarding the far-less-than-benevolent nature of Amerika v2.0’s central Leviathan, it doesn’t take a cynic to think the whole thing a mite suspicious, at the very least.

Updated update! Re: those aforementioned chopper jocks, it bears mentioning that it’s not as if they were all just flying around willy-nilly, hither and yon, endangering themselves, their rescuees, other SAR personnel, and unwary shell-shocked survivors with their ill-considered blundering about. Oh HELL no!

These are fucking experienced helicopter pilots we’re talking about here, people—trained, capable, safety-conscious, procedure-oriented, highly intelligent. They are assuredly NOT the kind of vacuous ninnyhammers constantly tripping over their own dicks and guffawing a la Disney’s Goofy at their own gormless stupidity; quite the contrary, these are qualified civil aviators who’d never even DREAM of doing anything at all without a plan.

From what the pilot I heard on the radio yesterday morning said (and what I saw later in photos), the ‘copters were all arrayed in a neat line on the tarmac of a nearby airfield; every pilot was in close, constant communication with the others as well as with ground control; all had properly detailed flight plans filed with ATC before a single engine spooled up.

FEMA has attempted to portray these men as chuckleheads, amateurs, and gloryhounds—which, being arrogant, officious Überstadt pricks, is how THEY see them, certainly. But as anyone who has ever personally known either a fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft operator will attest, it just ain’t so. Turns out the bureau-rats are every bit as full of shit as they always are, have been, and forever will be. Imagine my surprise.

Update to the updated update! My brother-from-another-mother BCE reports on what I consider a most felicitous development. To wit:

Breaking: Reports that a FEMA director who was acting arrogant and denying aid to #NorthCarolina flood victims was BEATEN by local residents

The incident occurred 20 miles south of #Asheville

— Retro Coast (@RetroCoast)

October 4, 2024

Well. Well, well, well, well, well, well, WELL. Fancy that. Billy follows up:

And the reason for it?

No hard evidence but the general story is Mr. Director from Virginia got shitty with a woman and her three lil kids and wouldn’t let them get any water/food or supplies. She melted down and this asshole was all smug about it…

The local men didn’t like that much.

“That’s an asswhuppin’!!!”

Personally, I’d go for hanging, but I’ll get into that more in a few…

Me and you both, my friend, me and you both. Additionally, and perhaps mo’ betta still, we have this.

Breaking 🚨 🚨 🚨
NC State police issue statement that they will start arresting any federal employees trying to stop or hinder rescue operations 💪🇺🇲🇺🇲

— Cpt O, Joseph O’Shaughnessy, CCG 🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@CPTOshaughnessy)

October 4, 2024

Damned skippy. Nice to know that, even in times as parlous as these, enough is still enough, by God. Back over to Big Country for a ding-dong doozy of a denouement.

And then, the very fact that low level midwit fucktards have been interfering in the “real work” that ‘non-sanctioned’ groups have been doing, and doing fucking well infuriates me at a core level that I forgot I had.

My rage as of late is so bad that I have recently thought that the best way -someone- could contribute is to go down there with a good scoped hunting rifle in the ubiquitous 30-06 caliber, and start ‘working their way through’ the assholes in the FEMA vests to start with.

Case in Point:

That soon-to-be-X Fire Chief, Dustin Waycaster of Lake Lure who demanded that the free-flying Rescue-Ranger Chopper Jockey cease and desist DESPITE his overwhelming success rate in his previous rescues and threatened to arrest and impound his bird?

My question:
Why is he (the ‘chief’) still alive?
Why is his dwelling still standing?
Why is his family still alive?

Hard times call for DRASTIC Measures. I’m not, per se, calling for any violence against this miserable toolbag fucktard nor his domicile or fam…. HOWEVER, I AM all about questioning his current apparent good fortune in these trying circumstances… That he, who, in truth as the “Lead Asshole in “Incompetence on Parade”? is still drawing O2???…. and that HIS domicile is untouched as is his job???

Took the words right out of my mouth, B.

As is entirely apparent, the swaggering Überstadt douchenozzles have become all too accustomed to being kowtowed to, groveled before, and unquestioningly obeyed by the lowly Serf Class oafs they lord it over so contemptuously. Might it be that, in such extraordinarily grim circumstances, a righteous if long overdue reckoning is now at hand? Might it be that, against all odds and expectations, our would-be Masters could now find themselves set upon by cruelly savaged Carolinians who no longer have anything left to lose? Might this be the first faint rays of sunlight which herald the dawning of a glorious new American day? Might the appropriate relationship between Public Servant and Citizen at long last be restored? Might horrific catastrophe, destruction, and human suffering yet turn out to be our salvation?

We shall see.

History lesson

Posted on October 2, 2024October 2, 2024 by Mike

Our boozum chum, frequent commenter, and esteemed CF Lifer hhluce provides us with a real gem of an educational post centering on a Fredrick Douglass speech which includes some enduring words of wisdom which, IIRC, currently live on in our Notable Quotes section at right. hh’s post was good enough that, rather than excerpt and link it here, I decided to just repost in its entirety at my Substack hang as a bonus Eyrie edition. Do check it out, you won’t regret it.

Take ’em out, take ’em out, take ’em ALLLLL out!

Posted on September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Mike

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Footage showing one of the Israeli Airstrikes earlier on the Dahieh Suburb of Southern Beirut, less than a Mile from Rafic Hariri International Airport. With the Size of the Explosion suggesting that a Major Weapons Storage Site was likely Targeted. pic.twitter.com/rA4XiGWDzA

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender)

September 30, 2024

Note the secondaries, which would tend to support the weapons-depot hypothesis. No reasonable non-((((JooJooJooJOOOOO!!!))))-obsessed person can say they didn’t have it coming. Meanwhile Netanyahu, for his part, makes an encouraging prediction.

Netanyahu: Iran’s Islamic Republic will fall sooner than people think
Netanyahu claims Iran’s regime will fall soon and envisions future peace between Israel and a free Iran amid reported IDF strikes on Hezbollah targets.

T’is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

“When Iran is finally free – and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think – everything will be different,” he said.

“When that day comes, the terror network that the regime built in five continents will be bankrupt, dismantled,” Netanyahu explained, adding that Iran will “thrive as never before.”

“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu said on Monday. “There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country.”

On Monday, he released a statement in English aimed at the Iranian people, explaining that “at this pivotal moment, I want to address you – the people of Iran. I want to do so directly, without filters, without middlemen.

“With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you – the noble Persian people – closer to the abyss,” he stated.

“The vast majority of Iranians know their regime doesn’t care a whit about them,” Netanyahu said.

I’m afraid I can’t honestly say as I’m as optimistic about that “vast majority” business as Bibi appears to be. Be that as it may, Godspeed to you, your country, and its valiant armed forces, Mr Netanyahu, sir. If this be “genocide”—which is of course arrant, stark-raving shitspew from the “our natural allies” doofi of the Crackpot Right—then make the most of it, sayeth I.

“I’d rather have a sister in a whorehouse than a brother on a Honda”

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Mike

Glenn resurrects the classic old-school biker line, with a slight revision which makes it even more apt than ever.

“What Pro Wrestling Can Teach Us About Politics”?

Posted on September 26, 2024September 26, 2024 by Mike

Plenty. In fact, pretty much everything.

Before there was a Kamala Harris the Frisco district attorney, there was a Kamala the Ugandan Giant who was really just a large black guy (billed as 6 ft. 7, 380 pounds) from Senatobia, Miss. (Weirdly, the last name of the original Kamala was also Harris: James Arthur Harris.)

If you hate pro wrestling, this is the part that drives you batty: It’s a bunch of lies — mixed with a heavy helping of utter nonsense — marketed to the masses. It’s clearly a bait-and-switch: You’re pretending this “sport” is one thing, when it’s actually something else. And YES TIMES A MILLION: IT IS FAKE!

But if you love pro wrestling, this is exactly what makes it so magical: How the hell did this fictional “sport” — featuring made-up characters doing the silliest, wackiest shenanigans imaginable — ever generate such passionate fandom?

Even Jerry Seinfeld was flummoxed. “If professional wrestling did not exist, could you come up with this idea?” he wondered. “Could you envision the popularity of huge men in tiny bathing suits, pretending to fight?”

But make no mistake, this fake sport makes real money. The WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) has 90 million fans in the United States alone.

They also have a market capitalization of $8.37 billion. The WWE just signed a blockbuster deal with Netflix for $5 billion. It’s one of the most highly-valued entertainment properties in the entire world. Its stars include the top draws in Hollywood: “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson, John Cena, and David Batista. Retired stars like Steve Austin, Ric Flair, and the Undertaker are still commanding the spotlight; Hulk Hogan just addressed the Republican National Convention in primetime.

This is Big Boy economics.

Why does it work so well? And will its “tricks of the trade” for evoking emotional responses translate to politics?

It’s probably worth noting that a very large percentage of pro wrestlers are hardcore Republicans. Kane, who played the brother of the Undertaker, is now the (Republican) Knoxville Mayor Glenn Jacobs. JBL (John Layfield) portrayed an ornery cowboy on WWE television, but he is a savvy financial planner who’s made hundreds of appearances on FOX News and FOX Business. The Undertaker (Mark Calaway), Road Dogg (Brian James), and Chris Jericho all donated money to Trump. Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan have openly campaigned for MAGA. Linda McMahon, the former president, CEO and co-owner of the WWE, served in President Trump’s cabinet.

And President Trump, of course, is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.

Lots, lots more to this one yet, all of it bang on. For my money, sports entertainment just doesn’t come much more entertaining than this.

I consider it gratuitously insulting to compare the halcyon days of Eric Bischoff’s wild, rollicking WCW with the sewer sludge of politics theater in Amerika v2.0, but could be that’s just me.

The Opposite Rule

Posted on September 26, 2024 by Mike

In full effect, as always.

‘Trump Will Start World War III,’ Says Party Autographing Bombs To Be Launched At Russia https://t.co/yIfvEMFmG0 pic.twitter.com/I0SnDifiwJ

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee)

September 25, 2024

For more on the Opposite Rule, please see Mike’s Iron Law #462.

Endless this war

Posted on September 24, 2024September 24, 2024 by Mike

Remember, it’s not “election interference” when THEY do it—in YOUR faces, using YOUR tax dollars, with THEIR bought and paid for D卐M☭CRAT-ATM dwarf.

Ukraine’s Zelensky Used U.S. Military Assets To Campaign For Harris in Pennsylvania
Zelensky’s visit with Harris surrogates in Pennsylvania comes one day after The New Yorker published an interview in which he criticized Trump and Vance.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to use U.S. military assets to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris on a visit to battleground state Pennsylvania on Monday.

On another trip to ask the U.S. government for money and munitions, Zelensky toured a Pennsylvania ammunition plant with Gov. Josh Shapiro, a prominent Kamala Harris surrogate, and other Democrats, including Sen. Bob Casey. Zelensky arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania (President Joe Biden’s oft-referenced birthplace), aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17, images of which he used to advertise his visit. In a message recorded from the inside the aircraft, Zelensky noted, “This fall will determine what’s next in this war.”

“Zelensky is in Pennsylvania today, signing bombs with Gov. Shapiro. Zelensky is also attacking J.D. Vance in the biggest, most important battleground state in the country during an election year,” Sean Parnell, former Pennsylvania Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said at a Trump rally Monday. “Folks, if that ain’t foreign election interference, I don’t know what is.”

“Trump makes political statements in his election campaign,” Zelensky said. “My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how,” Zelensky added [emphasis original]. “With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I’ve seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it’s not that simple.”

Oh, I dunno, Smurfette, I betcha he does know at least one simple, sure-fire way to end it. To wit: shutting off the US money, munitions, and materiel spigot oughta do the trick quite nicely, I believe.

Update! The Bee knows, same as I do, you do, Trump does, and everybody else.

Democrats Invite Foreign Leader To Meddle In U.S. Elections
SCRANTON, PA — Democrats celebrated as foreign leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited an ammunition factory in the hotly contested swing state of Pennsylvania to meddle in U.S. elections.

The Ukrainian President was quick to publicly throw his support behind Kamala Harris while placing his signature on artillery rounds.

“If Donald Trump wins in November, he will end the war, and also my generous allowance of billions from the United States,” said Zelenskyy. “Ukraine represents democracy and stuff. And Russia stands for not democracy or whatever. So a vote for Trump means you hate democracy. I am proud to endorse Kamala Harris, and I will prove my support by laundering millions of dollars I received from the U.S. government through various third parties until they end up in Democrat super PACs. It’s the least I can do for democracy.”

Democrats were enthusiastic about the endorsement. “We’re very glad this foreign leader has chosen to meddle in our democracy,” said Governor Josh Shapiro while placing his signature on various deadly weapons. “We invite other countries to meddle with our democracy on behalf of Democrats in order to save democracy.”

At publishing time, Zelenskyy had been spotted in Philadelphia filling out mail-in ballots.

Is that last bit real, or is it satire? Who the hell can even tell anymore.

BWAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Mike

The self-beclownment just doesn’t come much more spectacular than this.

Tim Walz Drops a Truth Bomb That Could Sink Kamala Harris’s Campaign
In a surprising turn of events, Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, may have just delivered the most damaging blow to her presidential campaign—and it came from an accidental moment of honesty.

It’s no secret that Kamala is trying to figure out how to simultaneously present herself as a “new way forward” without distancing herself too much from Joe Biden. The way Kamala speaks, you would think that Donald Trump is the incumbent president.

Of course Trump is not the incumbent president, but Kamala Haris is the incumbent vice president—a fact that seemed lost on her running mate during a campaign rally in Bethlehem, Pa., on Saturday, when he declared, “We can’t afford four more years of this.”

Typically, candidates running for reelection turn “four more years” into a rallying cry for their base. But when the party in power says “We can’t afford four more years of this,” it feels like an indictment of their own leadership. After all, who’s been in the White House while Americans are struggling? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

So when Kamala’s own running mate utters that line, it sounds like a free campaign ad for Donald Trump. Trump should capitalize on this, running ads on a loop showing how inflation is soaring, grocery prices are skyrocketing, crime is surging, illegal immigration is out of control, and wars are breaking out—paired perfectly with Walz’s line, “We can’t afford four more years of this.”

Of course, for Tampon Timmeh and his fellow D卐M☭CRAT scum, the incontrovertible fact that we can’t afford “four more years” of Bribem-Harris misrule is a feature, not a bug; actually, it’s the whole damned point of the exercise. It means that their work—destroying what little remains of America That Was once and for all and replacing it with yet another floundering, flailing authoritarian kakistocracy—is all too close to being done.

One for JJ Sefton

Posted on September 23, 2024September 23, 2024 by Mike

A not exactly personal note—y’know, seeing as how it’s actually, erm, public—regarding today’s Morning Report post, wherein our ol’ blog-bud JJ says:

While the Democrats expose exactly who and what they are, Donald Trump had a rather interesting meeting with someone I would have thought would want absolutely nothing to do with him, given all of the above as well as the looming national election.

The Democrat mayor of a community with many Arab-Americans in Wayne County, Michigan, who helped lead the uncommitted movement in the Democrat primary, told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday that his meeting with former President Donald Trump last week “was very productive” and well received by the community, which traditionally votes Democrat. Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib (D) spoke with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle in a nearly 20-minute segment on the program on the heels of his meeting with Trump in Flint, Michigan. . . Ghalib said his meeting with Trump materialized in part because many in Hamtramck and these neighboring communities are supportive of him and “the shifting dynamics” he is leading. . . “The meeting was very good,” Ghalib, who hails from Yemen, added. “I talked to President Trump about, you know, some statistics here in Wayne County and how it used to be a stronghold for the Democrats, and we always used to vote Democrat. This is not the case anymore here.” Ghalib recounted later in the interview that Trump said “he is going to end the chaos in the Middle East,” adding Trump “doesn’t want wars.”

Hamastramck or Haramtramck? Is this just another Taqqiya Sunrise, or is there something else going on? If this character is trying to appease the blue collar base, which is increasingly disenchanted with the Biden/Harris junta over its insane disaster over pushing EVs that is laying waste to their jobs among many other issues destroying the economy, on top of the Teamster rank and file seemingly leaning heavily towards Trump. Heck of a job trying to right the sinking Democrat ship. Mayor Ghalib.

Now as fate would have it, I myself had a cordial email exchange with Mayor Ghalib in June of last year wherein I congratulated him and the Hamtramck City Council on the passage of a town ordinance forbidding the flying of any other than official city, state, or US national flags from government buildings in Hamtramck…yes, DURING PRIDE MONTH!!! In my original missive I wrote:

I honor and congratulate you, Mayor Ghalib, for your work with the Hamtramck city council to restore a modicum of sanity and decorum to your city with the recent determination that flags celebrating Pride Month have no place on city property. I am not a Muslim myself, and live quite a distance from your city, although I have visited Hamtramck and the Detroit area several times in years past, when I was on the road playing with a rockabilly/blues/surf band. That was back when I was lot younger than I am now; I’ve gotten much too old for that sort of thing now, alas.

That said, I am very glad to see you and your fellow elected officials standing up for what’s right on this issue, and applaud you all for your courage and plain good sense. The new ordinance isn’t in any way unreasonable or unjust; in fact, all the statements I’ve seen so far from not only Hamtramck officials but ordinary Muslim-American citizens in your area have been nothing but commonsensical, broad-minded, and eminently fair. Stick to your guns, you’re fighting the good fight here, and whether you know it or not there are millions of us out here who realize that, and are firmly on your side in this battle.

All in all, you good people seem to me to be way more American than all too many native-born folks I could name.

Heartfelt kudos to you all, and please keep up the good work. I was born in North Carolina myself, and currently live just over the state line in SC. I’m happy to have you and your colleagues here with us in the USA, and that you understand so well what our country is supposed to be all about. I support what you’re doing one hundred percent, and wish you good fortune, success, and happiness. Thanks again.

Naturally, the LGBTQEIEIO+++ Mafia was throwing kicking, screaming hissy fits over this unconscionable “betrayal” at the time. Ghalib was good enough to write back straightaway thanking me warmly for my support; I posted here on said cordial exchange, as you would expect. While I daresay there’s plenty of other topics we probably don’t see eye to eye on, far as I’m concerned Mayor Ghalib is a-okay, one of the good guys.

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