Hubris and Nemesis

“Your Last Wake-Up Call, America”

Posted on August 27, 2020August 27, 2020 by Mike

Francis weighs in on Kenosha, American Hero Kyle Rittenhouse, and the general state of affairs using an all-too-lawerly Tweet lamenting “the weaponization of the prosecutorial process” as a dire threat to “the rule of law”—which, it ain’t that the guy is wrong about that, necessarily; it’s just that he’s way, WAY late to the party—as his jumping-off point.

“Threatens” the rule of law? THREATENS?

The rule of law died when prosecutors, mayors, and governors started siding with the rioters and against peaceable citizens going about their lawful business.

If you don’t get it even now – if you think, for whatever reason, that it could never encroach upon you and yours – you’re living in a dream.

The hell with the useless facial diapers, Gentle Reader. They’re about as relevant to your “protection” as a screen door in a submarine.

Meaningless aside: “useless as teats on a boar-hog” was the way my Grandma always put it—more colorful, certainly, and I always liked it. But Fran’s pharse works just as well. Onwards.

Go armed at all times. And – need I say it? – be ready to use your weapons, whatever they may be.

There is no law any longer in Kenosha, Seattle, Portland, and several other places; there is only power. Unless it’s opposed – not merely in word, but in forethought, preparation, and deed – from this moment forward, it will reach every smallest corner of these United States. If we want the law back, We the People must assert it and stand ready to defend it. In all candor, that responsibility has never belonged to anyone else.

Posilutely, absotively correct. Well, except that, at this late stage of the game, it isn’t so much the law we must defend—it’s our lives, our loved ones, our homes, our neighborhoods, our businesses, and our personal property. Once more: none of this has happened accidentally, or by coincidence. It all comes down to one simple thing, and it ain’t pretty. To wit:

Anyone could have seen this coming. The question that should be asked after an armed man shot two rioters on the streets of Kenosha is, what did you expect? Here’s the scenario: mobs of criminals are torching and looting the private businesses of Americans all over the country and local law enforcement won’t stop them. Not only will they not stop them but anyone who is arrested is released immediately to do it all over again the next night (see Portland). Did you expect that this could go on without more violence? How did you think it would end? Where was this going—social change to utopia? Cities are burning. New York City is now a place no retailer will go. How much more of this did you think people would take?

Here’s the bad news. Kyle Rittenhouse, whom we know nothing about, is only the beginning of what is to come. It’s going to get much worse, and people like me who are anti-war and want nothing but peace with my countrymen are about to become severely disappointed.

Any speculation on Rittenhouse’s motives is total stupidity in the fog of war when facts are indecipherable from lies. Don’t attempt it. Let us just look at the general climate in which this tragedy occurred. And I use the word “tragedy” somewhat reluctantly because all involved in this, especially the government officials who let it happen, deserve exactly what they got.

If you go out to protest in an environment where you know there is looting and mayhem, I don’t care what happens to you. Not even a little. Photographic evidence appears to point to self-defense. It’s too soon to tell but it appears from these photographs that at least one of the people who was shot was holding a gun.

A video shows the alleged shooter saying he was there to protect private property. There is no evidence that any press outlet can find to prove that he is a “white supremacist,” as is being alleged all over social media. He could just be a person concerned about escalating violence and no law enforcement stopping it who got fed up waiting for the adults in the room to do their jobs. He was arrested on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide.

Maybe he will be acquitted in court. Who knows? That’s not important. What is important is that this is only the beginning of a scary and dark time in American history and I’m not the only one who sees it. Mobs are accosting diners and demanding they display the Communist fist. Do you think this is going to end the way the mobs want it to? How many of you would rather be dead than Red? Make a choice now because this is where we are in the timeline of human events. Your time to make a choice is running out. The mob is perfectly willing to do it for you.

This is one hell of a post by Megan Fox, powerful and unflinching, all of which you must read. As to the patently spurious charges against the heroic Rittenhouse, I’m with Ace:

Recidivist Criminal Who Chased Kyle Rittenhouse While Carrying (Illegally) A Pistol: My Only Regret Is Not Having Drawn My (Illegal) Gun Sooner So I Could Have Emptied the Mag Into Him
—Ace

The criminal armed with a gun announces that his intention was in fact to kill Kyle Rittenhouse.

Therefore: Kyle Rittenhouse’s shooting of him was justifiable self-defense, and it’s beyond any disputation.

Are we really going through with this farce of a political show trial?

Do citizens have to surround the courthouse and start lighting it up until they release him?

Is that the only thing our cowardly, terrorist-supporting Democrat politicians understand, now? The force and menace of a “mostly peaceful” mob?

Actually, I don’t think they really do understand at all. These fools have chosen to overinvest in blind faith that they and their semi-sub rosa minions—a pet army of halfwit primordial goons, pampered suburban brats, and sundry Commie useful idiots—possess an unchallengeable monopoly on force and menace. It is now imperative that they be taught otherwise, forcefully and without delay.

Surrounding the courthouse and lighting it up ought to be the very least of their concerns before Real Americans are done with them. They need to be made to fear for their own lives for a change, and to never forget the taste of it. Anything less, and…we lose.

DNC con-Con, night one

Posted on August 18, 2020August 18, 2020 by Mike

Kruiser hilariously takes the piss out of a hot mess.

Well, the 2020 Democratic National Convention (DNC) kinda/sorta got underway on Monday night and we’re still waiting to hear from the twelve people who aren’t in political media who watched it.

Those who did were in for a real treat if they’ve never had a concussion or done hallucinogenic drugs before and wondered what either is like without having to actually experience them.

A series of individually recorded remote speeches gave it a “Gee, we’re sorry we can’t be there for your 90th birthday, Uncle Joe” vibe. That’s perfectly fine when it’s Uncle Joe’s 90th birthday but it’s not as fun if it’s Uncle Joe’s 90th attempt at becoming president of the United States. And Uncle Joe isn’t even at his own party to watch because he’s in the basement.

One of the more perplexing things was the DNC giving a speaking slot to former Ohio governor and noted mailman’s son John Kasich. Kasich brings slightly less excitement than dryer lint to any gathering he graces but what was most amusing was that during the somnambulant lead-up to the DNC, the Democrats were acting like Kasich was a real big get for them.

The DNC had a few other faux Republicans speaking on Monday. The only thing they had in common is that no Republican under 50 remembers any of them and they’re trying to feel relevant by doing useful idiot turns for the Democrats. They will be winning no hearts, minds, or voters. Other than the “LOOK! Republicans badmouthing Trump!” narrative it’s difficult to figure out what the DNC’s calculus for trotting out these losers was.

The only big surprise is that mewling liberal turncoat Mittens Romneycare (D—Whicheverstatehecangetelectedin) didn’t show up to give a fellatory go-Joe speech too. Could be that’s coming later on in the week, maybe.

Interest-piqueing update! The Demonrat convention is pure shitshow, naturally, but it’s looking like the RNC one will be…interesting.

The St. Louis couple who wielded firearms while Black Lives Matter protesters gathered outside their mansion will make an appearance at the Republican National Convention next week, a report said Monday.

Personal injury attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey are expected to express their support for President Trump during the virtual weeklong event, party officials told the Washington Post.

And it gets even better yet.

Covington Catholic high school student Nick Sandmann, who was viciously smeared by the establishment media and has won settlements from the Washington Post and CNN, will speak at the Republican National Convention (RNC), Trump campaign and RNC officials confirmed to Breitbart News exclusively.

In addition to Sandmann, campaign and Convention officials confirmed to Breitbart News what the Washington Post reported previously, that the St. Louis couple Mark and Patricia McCloskey will speak at the RNC next week. In addition, Andrew Pollack—whose daughter Meadow was killed in the Parkland shooting at Stoneham Douglas High School in February 2018—will speak at the Convention, a Trump campaign official confirmed to Breitbart News. Abby Johnson, a former clinic director at Planned Parenthood who is now a leading pro-life activist, will also speak at the Convention, as will South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and GOP candidate for U.S. House and veteran Sean Parnell.

Sources familiar with the plans told Breitbart News that each of these cases—in particular, those of Sandmann, the McCloskeys, Pollack, and Johnson—illustrate the potentially disastrous consequences of Democrat governance.

As if getting to enjoy Trump slow-roasting Uncle Gropey over a roaring rhetorical fire wasn’t going to be entertaining enough.

The fate of The City

Posted on August 16, 2020August 16, 2020 by Mike

She’s DEAD, Jim. This time for real.

I love NYC. When I first moved to NYC, it was a dream come true. Every corner was like a theater production happening right in front of me. So much personality, so many stories.

Every subculture I loved was in NYC. I could play chess all day and night. I could go to comedy clubs. I could start any type of business. I could meet people. I had family, friends, opportunities. No matter what happened to me, NYC was a net I could fall back on and bounce back up.

Now it’s completely dead.

“But NYC always always bounces back.” No. Not this time.

“But NYC is the center of the financial universe. Opportunities will flourish here again.” Not this time.

People say, “NYC has been through worse,” or “NYC has always come back.”
No and no.

First, when has NYC been through worse?

Even in the 1970s, and through the ’80s, when NYC was going bankrupt, even when it was the crime capital of the U.S. or close to it, it was still the capital of the business world (meaning, it was the primary place young people would go to build wealth and find opportunity). It was culturally on top of its game — home to artists, theater, media, advertising, publishing. And it was probably the food capital of the U.S.

Altucher breaks things down into categories to explain in detail why he deems NYC well and truly doomed, but this next but for me is the important:

NYC has never been locked down for five months. Not in any pandemic, war, financial crisis, never. In the middle of the polio epidemic, when little kids (including my mother) were becoming paralyzed or dying (my mother ended up with a bad leg), NYC didn’t go through this.

This is not to say what should have been done or should not have been done. That part is over. Now we have to deal with what IS.

Perzackly. As I said early on, the “unprecedented” thing about the COVIDIOT panic was never the virus itself; it’s turned out to be fairly ordinary as these things go—just a bad flu, not the planet-depopulating scourge it’s been sold as. The only thing truly unprecedented was the hysterical reaction to it; the speedy exploitation of a cringing, fearful populace by a whole damnable horde of wanna-be tyrants both high and low; and the pathetically submissive obedience in response to that exploitation by subjects of a country once proud to misnomer itself as “land of the free, home of the brave.”

Altucher goes on from there to present an intriguing take on why this time might be different:

I lived three blocks from Ground Zero on 9/11. Downtown, where I lived, was destroyed, but it came roaring back within two years. Such sadness and hardship and then quickly that area became the most attractive area in New York.

And in 2008/2009, there was much suffering during the Great Recession, again much hardship, but things came roaring back.

But… this time is different. You’re never supposed to say that but this time it’s true. If you believe this time is no different, that NYC is resilient, I hope you’re right.

I don’t benefit from saying any of this. I love NYC. I was born there. I’ve lived there forever. I STILL live there. I love everything about NYC. I want 2019 back.

But this time is different.

One reason: Bandwidth.

In 2008, average bandwidth speeds were 3 megabits per second. That’s not enough for a Zoom meeting with reliable video quality. Now, it’s over 20 megabits per second. That’s more than enough for high-quality video.

There’s a before and after. BEFORE: No remote work. AFTER: Everyone can work remotely.

The difference: bandwidth got faster. And that’s basically it. People have left New York City and have moved completely into virtual worlds. The Time-Life Building doesn’t need to fill up again. Wall Street can now stretch across every street instead of just being one building in Manhattan.

We are officially AB: After Bandwidth. And for the entire history of NYC (the world) until now, we were BB: Before Bandwidth.

Remote learning, remote meetings, remote offices, remote performance, remote everything.

That’s what is different.

Very interesting indeed. This James Altucher fella seems to be a pretty smart and perceptive guy, and you should definitely read it all. Even for those of you who give not one damp fart about the fate of what was once indisputably the world’s greatest metropolis (and I myself don’t care nearly as much as I once would have, I admit), it seems obvious to me that most if not all of this grim prognostication could probably be applied to any other American city as well—most certainly the Democrat-Socialist misgoverned ones, at least. As enjoyable as the schadenfraude no doubt is for a great many of us out here in the hinterlands now, that is NOT gonna be a good thing long-term…for anybody.

(Via Insty)

Of clown acts and puppet shows

Posted on August 16, 2020August 16, 2020 by Mike

ZMan introduces his latest podcast thusly:

Fishing around for material this week, I stumbled upon some stories that brought a smile, because they featured the unhappiness of bad people. Naturally, I thought a whole show on the suffering of the wicked was a good idea. It is easy to succumb to self-pity and despair, so it is important to look at the bright side of life on occasion in order to avoid those temptations. Given what faces us this fall, there will be plenty of time for weeping and gnashing of teeth.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the people in charge are terribly unhappy with the state of things, which is why they are revolting. These punitive measures they are inflicting upon us are not coming from a supreme sense of self confidence, but from a deep fear that revolution is brewing in the shadows. The reason they are running around looking for bad-thinkers is they lie awake at night imagining one us creeping from the darkness with a My Pillow as they sleep.

There’s also the fact that these people are not gods. They slithered in through the gaps in the doors then flung open the gates to allow their co-conspirators in to take over the institutions, but they are not worthy of their positions. They are riding high only because we let them. Looking at their failings and weaknesses is a good way to remind ourselves that this lunacy stops when we make it stop. Numbers still matter. The night of the million pillows is probably closer than we think.

That’s something to keep in mind as the fall election kicks off in the coming weeks and the usual suspects are trying to peddle a bitter bindy and a dementia patient as the solution to what ails them. This really is the best they got. What comes next for them is the buck-toothed barmaid and the incestuous goatherd. As Tucker pointed out the other day, we really do need to enjoy the show. This is lunacy at a scale and intensity not seen since Caligula was the ruler of the civilized world.

“Bitter bindy, “dementia patient,” “buck-toothed barmaid,” and “incestuous goatherd” (ie, Ilan Omar, just in case that one went by any of y’all) are all pretty heady stuff, right enough. But then Tal Bachman gets downright jiggy with it.

Now, some folks think Kamala isn’t really a “sister”, but all that matters is how Democratic Party decision-makers think about race—and that hasn’t changed since the party’s founding 200 plus years ago. They still go by their old “one-drop” rule. And Kamala, despite having an Indian mother, has a black father (albeit from Jamaica). That’s not only good enough for the DNC Puppeteers, but will be good enough for every Democrat voter, no matter how much they might mutter otherwise for the next week or so. In the end, no Democrat voter is going to stay home on election night just because Kamala’s only half-black (which, of course, makes her just as black as Barack Obama), or a quarter, or an eighth, or because her ancestors weren’t slaves, or even because some of her ancestors were, themselves, slave owners. She’s brown, the end.

And most exciting of all for The Puppeteers was that now, she was, as she had always been, entirely for sale. Sure, she could scheme with the best of them, but like any lady of the night, she’d also do anything her political johns wanted. She would change policies, attack anyone, pretend to be sorry, believe and then instantly unbelieve the very same thing, falsely accuse someone, shake her booty, pretend to choke up, anything.

Hell, she was so soulless, she might even do something like announce her conclusion that Joe Biden committed first degree sexual assault (a crime meriting up to life imprisonment), but then, when it was to her political advantage, retroactively assent to the crime she believes occurred by endorsing him and agreeing to be his vice-president—all of which she’s now done. And she would do all this, and more—she would do anything on God’s green earth—without evincing even the slightest sign of shame. She was a DNC dream.

In short, once The Puppeteers chose Biden, Kamala Harris was a lock. America now has an All-Puppet Ticket right out of a Jim Henson workshop trying to win the White House. One is a short-circuiting near-cadaver—far feebler than Statler and Waldorf ever were—kept alive (in my imagination, anyway) by forced Red Bull consumption and adrenaline injections. The other is a diversity-cult showgirl for hire. Both are utterly hollow, both represent loathsome policy ideas, and—make no mistake—both are utterly loathsome human beings.

After all, it takes a loathsome human being to keep repeating a libel even after it has been repeatedly, publicly, and definitively debunked. Yet this is just what Biden did during his Wednesday press conference with Harris, once again falsely accusing Trump—the most philo-Semitic president in American history, with an unparalleled record of job creation for blacks and Hispanics—of publicly praising the Charlottesville Nazis and Klansmen as “fine people”. This is demonstrably not what Trump said. Biden doesn’t care. Why not? Because he’s a loathsome human being.

Of course, there’s much more.

Believe it or not, as fulsome a bounty of in your face, bare-knuckles, hardcore truth in all its ugliness as all that is, there IS more. There really, really is. And that’s a damned shame.

Reynolds has been saying for a long time now that Americans are cursed with the worst political class in history, and he certainly ain’t wrong about that. But I have to say that at this late date I much prefer Bachman’s no-holds-barred, personally insulting approach to presenting this grim reality. Name ’em and shame ’em, sez I. Assuming that there’s even one political parasite left alive who’s capable of shame.

THAT’s how you do it

Posted on August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 by Mike

Shut ’em the fuck DOWN. Whatever it takes.

Armed residents offer no-nonsense response to ‘peaceful’ invaders marching to Seattle police chief’s home
The home of Seattle police Chief Carmen Best was targeted by “peaceful” protesters who were deterred by armed neighbors protecting their property.

Residents in Best’s Snohomish County neighborhood confronted the leftists as they attempted to make their way to her home, making a clear case for the importance of the 2nd Amendment and the protections it offers.

A road into the neighborhood was blocked by residents who also apparently posted on social media about the group of about “200 persons, mostly white men and women in their twenties” who were “dressed in black with masks and black hoods and carried signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” according to the Lynnwood Times.

“Black Lives Matter protestors shouted profanity and insults at neighbors, took license plate information on vehicles, took pictures of homes, and asked little kids who lived in the neighborhood what schools they attended,” the outlet reported, adding that some of the protesters carried “large duffle bags” and attempted to get to Best’s home in the neighborhood.

One video showed the rude awakening some of the group received by locals who clearly were not going to put up with their antics.

“This is a private drive, get out of the road,” a man can be heard telling the approaching protesters.

“We are peaceful! You pointed a gun at my face!” one protester yelled back to the armed residents.

“That’s why you are peaceful,” the resident quipped.

Bold mine, and delectable. Ace says:

Antifa and BLM “protesters” have two modes: Savage, feral violence when they think they can get away with it and puerile whining when they think they can’t get away with violence.

As they were confronted here by people with guns, violence was off the table, and they resorted to whiiiiining.

I keep saying this: If police won’t do their jobs, citizens will do it instead.

But citizens are not trained law enforcement officers.

Expect high casualties.

Expect it? Hell, at this point I’m actually hoping for it. Because this nonsense won’t stop until at least a few of these Leftard terrorists are fucking massacred. At least one of the valiant Snohomish Minutemen knows the score:

“They were very organized. They had radios, talking to each other. They had numbers they used to decal all their cars for who knows what. So, they were identifying all their vehicles individually by number,” one neighbor told the outlet. “They came with a mission…They were out here intimidating us.”

“I feel incredibly unsafe,” another said. “We think it will happen again…Their objective was not completed; they never made it to her house, we stopped them…so we think they will be back.”

Count on it. Best be ready for them. ALL of us better be, like it or not.

T’was ever thus

Posted on July 17, 2020July 17, 2020 by Mike

Tweaking the Ol’ Grey Whore.

Four years after it abandoned its traditional standards of fairness to try to defeat Donald Trump, the paper is now fixated on rewriting the story of America. The drive-by attack on the Rushmore presidents was part of its cancel-culture agenda.

Yet the Times has never applied to its own history the standards it uses to demonize others. If it did, reporters there would learn that the Ochs-Sulzberger family that has owned and run the paper for 125 years has a “complicated legacy” of its own.

That legacy includes Confederates in the closet — men and at least one woman who supported the South and slavery during the Civil War. In fact, Times patriarch Adolph S. Ochs contributed money to the very Stone Mountain project and other Confederate memorials the Times now finds so objectionable.

To be clear, I detest the Times’ determination to judge and revise history using criteria conceived 20 minutes ago. The paper’s Marxist-inspired activism and race-based fetish have taken it so far off course that it no longer functions as an actual newspaper.

Having spent my formative journalistic years at the Gray Lady, I came away with immense respect for the editors’ commitment to fair and impartial news coverage. That commitment started with Ochs, who, from the day he took control of the Times in 1896, insisted on a strict separation of news and opinion, a tradition that lasted more than a century. It was those traditions — fairness and safeguards against reporters’ bias — that gave the paper its credibility and made it the flagship of American journalism.

But those days are gone, with the standards eroded slowly at first and then abolished under current Executive Editor Dean Baquet. Every story these days is an editorial as the paper demands that every institution and individual conform to the Times’ views, or be denounced as racist, homophobic, Islamophobic and misogynistic. Because of the Times’ exceptional influence, its demagoguery is playing a major role in shredding the fabric of our country.

At the very least, the paper ought to be honorable enough to apply its freshly minted standards to its own past. If it did, I believe the owners, editors, reporters and stockholders would be shocked by what they discover.

Doubt it. In fact, it’s unlikely that they’d care at all. Like all other liberal media outlets, the NYT has an agenda to advance, a program to push. As long as they go on working diligently for the side of the “righteous,” all prior sins can be overlooked… and will be.

Frankly, anybody, be they liberal or American, who is the least bit shocked to see the Whore so overtly and shamelessly hiking its skirt and flashing some Lefty leg at this late stage of the game is nothing but a blind damned fool anyway. That said, this is a fine piece just the same, as well as being unusually lengthy and in-depth for the Post—a solid thumb in the eyeball for an insufferable passel of pompous, supercilious assholes who richly deserve it.

Another “fundamental transformation” success story

Posted on July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by Mike

Even as the COVIDIOT panic continues to fades away into the nothingburgerness from whence it came, there are still plenty of fascists intent on flexing their Almighty State muscle. To wit:

The President of the Royal Society says that people who refuse to wear masks should be publicly shamed like drunk drivers, highlighting again how the entire issue has become another part of the ‘cancel culture war’.

“The message has not been clear enough, so perhaps people do not really understand the benefits or are not convinced of them,” writes Venki Ramakrishnan. “Whatever the reasons, we need to overcome our reservations and wear face coverings whenever we are around others in public.”

“It used to be quite normal to have quite a few drinks and drive home, and it also used to be normal to drive without seatbelts. Today, both of those would be considered antisocial, and not wearing face coverings in public should be regarded in the same way.”

Ramakrishnan’s demand follows two Royal Society reports that claim wearing masks significantly reduces the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

However, as Toby Young notes, the evidence cited by the reports is flimsy at best.

“I’ve had a look at the Royal Society paper that supposedly confirms the effectiveness of masks. It’s unimpressive. Note the threadbare evidence on which it bases its sweeping conclusion,” writes Young before quoting the report itself.

“We have found only two randomised control trials in the primary literature on the use of face masks to reduce onward transmission; one was underpowered, and the other showed significant reduction when adjusted for actual mask usage in a posthoc analysis.”

This all emphasizes once again how the issue of mask wearing has been amplified way beyond the entire coronavirus debate and has become a symbol of mass obedience.

Ummm, about those “benefits” and all:

The primary “benefit” of mask mandates is to the fascists exclusively: they get reassurance that We The Sheeple are all still firmly locked in their iron-fisted grip and under their control. But even if the Mask Of Submission DID provide anything like the protection people like Herr Ramakrishnan spuriously claim, one must ask oneself: is it really worth the price of relinquishing one’s precious liberty, one’s dignity, and one’s fundamental right to self-determination merely to reduce the risk of illness or death somewhat?

Punch like a girl

Posted on July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by Mike

Must drive ’em even more nuts than they already are, I bet. After all, he’s a white guywho beat up two black guys and a Russian.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—First, the rioters came for Andrew Jackson. Then, they came for Ulysses S. Grant. Then, they came for the Fonz for some reason. But finally, they came for the ultimate racist statue: the famous monument to Rocky Balboa in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It’s not clear why they thought it was racist, but the guy in the statue seemed to be happy, so he was probably a conservative of some kind whenever he existed, they reasoned.

But the statue survives to fight another day, as it went a full 15 rounds against rioters and was still standing after the bout.

The weak, sissy rioters charged the statue and started punching it, hurting their little man-baby hands and running away to cry to their parents, whom they probably still live with. A second wave came in, but Rocky stood strong. Things got a little dicey in the seventh round, when one rioter threw a rope around the statue and suggested everyone start rocking it back and forth, but then their soft, buttery smooth hands got chafed by the rope and they had to call it quits to nurse their wounds with coconut oil.

“Balboa was a real champion out there,” said one witness. “It was incredible.”

Finally, after 15 waves of angry rioters charged the statue, the dust settled, and Balboa won again, having gone for a full 15 rounds without breaking a sweat. Balboa was declared the winner in a unanimous decision as the judges were appalled at the rioters’ lack of form, indicating they had never punched anything before, except maybe customers’ buy-six-get-one-free cards at Jamba Juice.

Then they all went back home to Mom’s basement for a good, long cry.

The knee, the noose, and NASCAR

Posted on June 24, 2020June 24, 2020 by Mike

Am I the only one out there seeing it? Because it seems as if I am.

In all his years in auto racing, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace said Tuesday night, he has never seen anything like what he described as a “straight-up noose” that was being used as a door pull in the garage he was assigned last week at Talladega Speedway in Alabama.

“I’ve been racing all of my life,” Wallace told CNN’s Don Lemon. “We’ve raced out of hundreds of garages that never had garage pulls like that. So people that want to call it a garage pull and put out all the videos and photos of knots being as their evidence, go ahead, but from the evidence that we have – and I have – it’s a straight-up noose.”

No reason it couldn’t be both, of course: a little in-joke arranged by crews working in one of the most hazardous of sports-entertainment endeavors. Gallows humor, shall we say. But when a hopelessly infantalized ethnic minority has had its already-too-sensitive prejudice-radar dialed up way past eleven—stuck there for decades by a political party intent on manipulating them for its own malignant purposes—any and every noose, any and everywhere, can be perceived as but one thing: a direct, personal threat.

Sorry, “Bubba,” but I’m afraid you just don’t really matter that much. To anybody.

This video at Talladega Superspeedway uploaded in October ***2017*** has a so-called noose in it too.

Here is the link to see for yourselves:https://t.co/iURGItyPbt pic.twitter.com/Uo9UYQEh5K

— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) June 24, 2020

But it’s my belief that there’s even less to all this than meets the eye, and it’s even more cheap, tawdry, and ho-hum than it already was. The giveaways are in bold:

He said he hadn’t seen the noose himself but had seen photos of it.

Prior to the FBI’s findings, fellow NASCAR drivers participated Monday in a show of support for Wallace, a 26-year-old native of Alabama who is the only African-American full-time driver on the NASCAR circuit.

Wallace told Lemon he found out about the noose’s presence in his garage Sunday, when NASCAR President Steve Phelps told him about it.

“The look that he had on his face alerted me in a way that I’ll never forget,” he said.

So here’s what nobody else seems to be getting: the whole thing—entire, end to end, lock stock and barrel, to emphatically include the less-than-stellar career of a decidedly mediocre competitor cleverly christened “Bubba Wallace,” is nothing more than a calculated PR stunt intended to glom some badly needed attention for a grossly mismanaged sports establishment that’s been circling the drain for years.

Think about it: the Wallace name has been legend in NASCAR circles for many years. And really, now: “Bubba”? Too cute by way more than half, particularly for a “black” guy who isn’t actually black at all but mulatto, with a white father and wife both. Makes me wonder what this “Bubba” person’s actual name might be, before he was remanufactured as some kind of savior for a declining business that’s been seeking to distance itself from its traditional base of support for quite a while now.

NOOSCAR has struggled badly in recent years; their attempt to shift stock-car racing’s focus northward to appeal to a new, more upscale demographic fell flat on its face, as did the lavishly-expensive but almost entirely ignored NASCAR museum in downtown Charlotte. Then this half-assed “controversy” crops up and suddenly all anybody can talk about is NASCAR, for days on end. It stinks as bad as the coronavirus shamdemic, and for all the same reasons. They’re both fake, and have both been used for ends that aren’t immediately obvious.

In the case of NOOSCAR-gate, coming right on the heels of nationwide angst over black this, black that, blackity-black-black-black, it’s hard to see how the timing could’ve been more perfect. Yeah, “Bubba”—a second- or third-rate driver whose career trajectory closely resembles that of another mouthy also-ran, Colin Kopperdink—might suffer some from the fallout of this embarrassing episode, sure. Certainly his name will forever be mud with true NASCAR diehards, assuming any are left after being given the back of the racing establishment’s hand for so long.

But so what? For the bigwigs at NOOSCAR, it’s extremely difficult to see a downside: they get to piously denounce all those icky, beer-swilling rednecks and their disgusting Rebel flags, suck up to their anticipated new audience of Nee-grows and the white SJWs who take a knee for them, and establish their PC bona-fides without breaking a real sweat. For that, they’ll gladly throw a nonentity like “Bubba” onto the pyre, strike a match, and send his ass floating off downriver.

Nice try and all, but it’s not going to work. And that serves ’em right, far as I’m concerned.

Misdirection update! There IS a fairly serious scandal here, right enough. As is nearly always the case, though, it ain’t the one TPTB wish to direct your attention towards.

Fifteen FBI special agents? The government sent fifteen people to investigate a rope “fashioned like a noose” in a garage. What were they all doing? I imagine it takes one guy to look at the rope and observe that it is attached to the door. Perhaps one other guy to go check the security tapes. What task are the other thirteen performing? Did they need a separate person to Google “what is a noose”? Did they have someone dusting for finger prints or taking DNA samples? I simply can’t imagine how fifteen federal agents managed to occupy themselves with a garage door for two days.

This would be almost funny if not for the fact that there is something else of a rather more pressing nature they could be doing. As we speak, violent insurrections are wreaking havoc across the country. Buildings are being burned, police are attacked, statues toppled, innocent bystanders assaulted, whole city blocks occupied. And behind this chaos lies well funded organizations like Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Could those fifteen agents not have been sent to investigate this coordinated attempt to undermine law and order? Apparently not. As it stands right now, not much is being done about this anarchy. The anarchists are largely being allowed to commit crimes, even federal crimes, and those backing and funding and encouraging them are permitted to continue in those efforts unmolested. Instead, our government is committing significant resources to fighting the scourge of racist garage doors.

As a nation, we have descended into full on parody. Things seem like they can’t possibly get any dumber or more outrageous. But then again, tomorrow is a new day.

That’s the REALLY scary part.

“We were never asked”

Posted on May 20, 2020May 20, 2020 by Mike

Masters don’t ask. They know they don’t have to.

Last year, through an excellent HBO miniseries, the Soviet Union’s 1986 Chernobyl disaster came to life. Lies about risk were widespread. People were told for years that science proved the reactors were safe, only to be dragged from their radiation-contaminated homes with only the clothes on their back. Certain observers, particularly on the Right, saw the series as a lesson in the evils of communism. While it was indeed that, things also looked rather familiar.

Like our country today, the Soviet Union was full of hard-working and patriotic little people, whose lives and fates were controlled by authorities more concerned with saving face than doing the right thing. As the series dramatized, individualized justice and truth were often suppressed in the name of ideology and scientific progress. Rank and title counted for a lot, while common sense was often neglected. The Soviet Union was a Communist regime, but it was chiefly a bureaucratic regime, where the bureaucracy’s managerial class had privileged lives and a hostile relationship to the common people.

The United States has long been a more individualistic, entrepreneurial, and freedom-loving people than those in Europe, whether East or West. Our national life is much more than an abstract creed. Our culture can be found as much in the Federalist Papers as in the advent of the road trip, music festivals, and, in the days of Prohibition, the speak-easy. We are a restless, energetic, and unbridled people. We are wont to question authority and bend rules that seem stupid and meddlesome.

Public health has always had an uneasy relationship with that culture. At its worst, public health expresses a censorious, cautious, and schoolmarm instinct. It is the force behind book-length warnings on the side of lawnmowers, the demise of dodgeball, and Prohibition itself. If it is an American impulse, it’s the dark side of America; the perversion of our “can do” spirit into relentless crusades against fun in the name of safety and science.

We all have our own priorities, weigh risks and benefits differently, and, until recently, were allowed to decide these things for ourselves. The public health ideologue does not agree that risks of various kinds—including the voluntary risks of smoking, drinking alcohol, or driving motorcycles—are things that a free people should be allowed to do.

The lockdown crowd will invoke a countervailing principle: even people who believe in freedom will concede that you do not have the right to endanger others.

In the abstract, this is true. But is anyone endangering others if they fail to abide by these lockdowns? Setting aside the modest coronavirus risk for the vast majority of people, we have been told that social distancing is the means of safety. If you avoid others, wash your hands, and wear a mask, you will be safe.

If avoiding others, wearing masks, and social distancing are so effective, then—like refraining from smoking or skydiving—the people who feel strongly about risk have the means of protecting themselves. Perhaps vulnerable populations are well-served to follow these precautions. Just as people can choose not to get on a motorcycle, the vulnerable and cautious can engage in voluntary masking and social distancing.

The risks and benefits of living normally can be borne by those who want to live.

Read every word of this one, folks.

Class act

Posted on May 19, 2020May 19, 2020 by Mike

What a petty little punk-ass bitch.

The unveiling of presidents’ official White House portraits by their successor has been a long-held tradition—until now. Barack Obama is refusing to participate in the ceremony for the unveiling of his portrait, NBC News has learned.

“Republican presidents have done it for Democratic presidents, and vice versa,” noted NBC News. “Even when one of them ascended to the White House by defeating or sharply criticizing the other.”

True enough—Barack Obama hosted the ceremony of the unveiling of George W. Bush’s official White House portrait, despite Obama ascending to the office by being a harsh critic of the 43rd president. George W. Bush similarly hosted the ceremony of Clinton’s portrait unveiling. Bush had been a critic of Clinton’s during the 2000 campaign, promising to restore honor and dignity to the office, sullied by Clinton’s sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky. Bill Clinton hosted the ceremony for George H.W. Bush, whom he’d defeated in the 1992 election.

Obama has also broken the custom of refusing to criticize his successor publicly. His pride, however, is too big for him to participate in the ceremony during Trump’s tenure in the White House—a continuation of the rank partisanship espoused by Obama during his presidency.

Barack Obama has “no interest in participating in the post-presidency rite of passage” as Trump is in office, according to people familiar with the matter.

Fine by me; myself, I have no interest in ever seeing the slope-shouldered shitweasel’s smug mug anywhere near the White House he so sullied.

Stay home and sulk in one of your ill-gotten mansions for all me, ManBoy. We’ll ship your damned painting wherever the hell you specify, and you can just stand the thing in a corner of an unused broom closet or something. It would probably look GREAT under some boxes in the garage, I’m thinking.

Still blows my mind no end that this country elected such a witless stumblebum to the presidency in the first place, I swear it does.

Twice. We did it twice, ferchrissake.

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh

Posted on May 17, 2020May 17, 2020 by Mike

Okay Karen, time for you to Learn. To. Code.

Nah nah nah
Nah nah nah
Hey hey hey
Learn to code

— FiddlerFromTheAshes (@FiddlerPhoenix) May 15, 2020

Bethany Mandel, after having been lambasted for her “heartlessness” in arguing that the destruction of an entire national economy just might not have been the best approach here, is having herself a high old time as well over the best news to come out of the COVIDIOT panic-ninny lockdowns yet.

Bored at home? Watch the same blue check assholes who canceled me suddenly realize “oh wait lockdowns have consequences?” And then ask them why they want to kill grandma for a skinny latte.

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 14, 2020

But it’s different because THEIR cat needs to eat. They don’t give a fuck about your kids tho.

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 14, 2020

Enjoy the breadlines, “journalist” scum. And the frabjous good news doesn’t end there, either.

New York state’s tax revenue plummeted 68.4% in April, as the coronavirus lockdowns and the extension of tax return filings to July 15 took a toll on state coffers.

The Empire State collected $3.7 billion, or $7.9 billion less than the previous April. Personal income-tax revenue fell more than $7 billion from last April, a drop that was primarily due to the delayed tax filing deadline.

“New York is facing economic devastation not seen since the Great Depression,” New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a news release. “New York and other hard-hit states need the federal government to step up and provide assistance, or the state will have to take draconian actions to balance its budget.”

Yeah, umm, no. But really now: after slamming down all business and condemning every working individual in the state to an indefinite stay in the poorhouse, who could POSSIBLY have foreseen a sudden drying up of tax revenue? Sorry, no bailouts for you.

LOLGF, you stupid fucking dipshits.

(Via Ace and Insty)

Railroaded

Posted on April 30, 2020April 30, 2020 by Mike

Steyn on the Flynn travesty of justice.

So one conversation, with disgraced corrupt rogue agent Strzok, without counsel present and without the defendant being aware that this was an interrogation of him as opposed to just a friendly intragovernmental chit-chat, has consumed three years of Flynn’s life and all his savings.

I heard Kellyanne Conway being asked this morning about whether Trump should now pardon Flynn. No. It is for the court, as an act of judicial hygiene, to accept Flynn’s withdrawal of his enforced guilty plea (made under threats by the feds to destroy the lives of various family members, too), quash the conviction as a miscarriage of justice, and invite the defense to lay before His Honor a wrongful prosecution suit.

If it requires a presidential pardon to bring garbage like this to an end, then we are all in trouble. Because if the Deep Staters can do it to Flynn, they can do it to anyone.

Sheeeit. Can there be anyone out there so naive, so gullible, so out of touch with the cold realities of life in Amerika v2.0, that they don’t know full well that it’s already happening, and has been for years?

Misremembering to the FBI should not be a crime – especially not on the basis of a politically motivated policeman’s supposedly contemporaneous “notes”, rather than an audio or video recording. Instead of a presidential pardon, why not repeal this vile pseudo-crime that mocks due process? I take it that, the GOP having lost the House, Congress will not enact a new Strzok Act, restoring the citizen’s right to misremember to a corrupt police agency’s goons, but why cannot Bill Barr suspend this “crime” pending an investigation into its misuse by prosecutors over recent years?

While we’re at it, how about another modest reform? Me again, three years ago:

During the stupid and anachronistic two-and-a-half-month electoral ‘transition’, the outgoing Administration worked round the clock to de-legitimize and cripple their successors.

No other government in the free world requires this long to respect the results of an election. Even before the Obama-Biden Administration decided to weaponize the “transition”, it served as the most obvious example of the general sclerosis of Swampland: why be surprised that in an emergency the government takes months to get out your relief check of twelve hundred bucks when even in normal times it requires three months to clear out its desks? How about a constitutional amendment to the Twentieth Amendment shortening the transition to three weeks?

I think it’s sooooo cute that Mark still thinks the Constitution means a goddamned thing, even after all this.

The FBI has been entirely corrupt, malevolent, and a deadly threat to supposed American rights and freedom since its Constitutionally-dubious inception. It was originally birthed under the direction of J Edgar Hoover, conceptualized and structured in accord with his own warped vision. As twisted, treacherous, and power-mad as he was personally, how could his brainchild be anything other than the nefarious affront to the most fundamental concepts of true justice America claims to cherish that it has been from the beginning?

The FBI doesn’t need to be “reformed” or “restructured” or “rethought.” It is rotten root, branch, and bough; meaningful reform is an impossibility for so cancerous a blight on the former Republic. The danger it represents, the grievous harm it has done, the extraordinary malfeasance that is its stock in trade, is engraved all across its appalling history. It should be removed—dismantled, disassembled, decontructed

That so treacherous, dishonorable, and altogether toxic little worm as Comey could rise through the FBI hierarchy to eventually occupy its highest seat of power is indictment aplenty. That any organization would countenance such a one in even its lowest ranks, much less at its head, ought to be all that’s required to pass judgment on whether that organization lives on or dies. Its continued existence, on the other hand, is no less grave an indictment of us.

Update! Swiped from Francis.

He follows on with this:

As Friedrich Hayek observed in The Road to Serfdom, the desire for power and the willingness to do anything to get and keep it are strongest in those who would abuse it. So with the passage of enough time, the corridors of power will be filled by criminals. Worse, let a little more time go by, and the lesser criminals will be replaced by the greater ones: strong-armers, rapists, and murderers.

Think Ruby Ridge and Waco.

A bit later Fran contends that “…we haven’t yet descended to the level of a banana republic,” to which I can only say: after what we’ve witnessed over the last six weeks, how sure can we be of that, really? Seems to me about the only thing that has kept us from fully meriting that designation up ’til now is our general affluence, which is being wantonly destroyed before our very eyes. After we’ve been impoverished, humiliated, and enslaved to the satisfaction of our masters…well, then what shall we call ourselves?

“The biggest shock since the Great Depression”

Posted on April 30, 2020April 30, 2020 by Mike

Hey, no worries. Professional politicians and Deep State bureau-rats universally assure us it can all be turned back on again as easily as flipping a light switch. And when have those supergeniuses ever been wrong about anything?

GDP falls by 4.8 percent, bringing longest economic expansion on record to abrupt halt
Gross domestic product, which measures the output of goods and services, sank by 4.8 percent in the first quarter on an annualized basis, according to an initial estimate from the Department of Commerce released Wednesday morning.

It’s the steepest decline since the Great Recession, which ended in 2009. Economic growth was tracking at or above 2 percent until mid-March.

With most of the nation stuck at home, large swaths of the economy have shuttered, throwing 26 million people out of work. Consumer spending, which drives around two-thirds of economic growth, has plummeted.

While Wall Street had been steeling itself for the data, the worst is yet to come. First quarter data captured economic activity up to the end of March, but the second quarter will likely include three straight months of decline.

“You’re looking at something like minus 20 percent to minus 30 percent in the second quarter,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNBC on Monday, noting that the coronavirus is “the biggest shock since the Great Depression. It’s a very grave shock and it’s something we need to take seriously.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated second-quarter GDP would be down by as much as 40 percent, for the worst quarter since 1947.

Economists say the U.S. likely entered recession — generally defined as two consecutive quarters of decline in GDP — in the second half of March, when lockdowns began.

“You’re going to see the economy really bounce back in July, August, September,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News earlier this week. “You’re seeing trillions of dollars that’s making its way into the economy and I think this is going to have a significant impact,” he said of the government’s $2 trillion dollar emergency stimulus package meant to buttress the economy.

Damage: done.

A farmer named Shad Sullivan warned in a viral video that “[America’s] food supply is in trouble.”

Farmers are outraged that subpar imported meat continues to flow into America despite warnings to American farmers to put down their own livestock.

“Yesterday, the first shipment of imported beef from the country of Namibia hit the shores of the United States of America,” said Sullivan. “And yet this morning they are telling us to prepare to euthanize harvest-ready cattle.”

Sullivan questioned, “Am I the only one who sees a problem in this?”

Racist.

Over 30 Million Americans Have Lost Their Jobs In The Last Six Weeks
In the last week 3.839 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the first time.

That brings the six-week total to 30.31 million, which is over 12 times the prior worst five-week period in the last 50-plus years.

Worse still, the final numbers will likely be worsened due to the bailout itself: as a reminder, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed on March 27, could contribute to new records being reached in coming weeks as it increases eligibility for jobless claims to self-employed and gig workers, extends the maximum number of weeks that one can receive benefits, and provides an additional $600 per week until July 31. A recent WSJ article noted that this has created incentives for some businesses to temporarily furlough their employees, knowing that they will be covered financially as the economy is shutdown. Meanwhile, those making below $50k will generally be made whole and possibly be better off on unemployment benefits.

As Mises’ Robert Aro noted earlier in the week, the stimulus packages being handed out across this world provide us with an opportunity to document the anticapitalist process as it unfolds in real time, keeping in mind that when these inflation schemes fail, it will likely be blamed on capitalism.

And Trump, of course. After all, that was one of the main points of this whole disastrous exercise.

But no matter. The damage is done now; assuredly, there will be no going back to where we were from this, our New Normal. Wherever you sit, whatever you choose to believe, it all comes down to one thing.

I do believe I need to set up that song title as a new category here.

Hitting the reset button

Posted on April 29, 2020April 29, 2020 by Mike

Lee Smith opines at length on what must be done.

The novel coronavirus that swept out of the Chinese city of Wuhan in midwinter to infect millions around the globe has now forced world leaders to reassess their relationship with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The superpower conflict between the United States and Soviet Union helped push China onto center stage nearly 50 years ago. Over the past three decades, Beijing has come to dominate the international system, thanks not only to the world’s largest pool of cheap, unregulated labor and a burgeoning consumer marketplace, but also the craven delusions and greed of Western political and business elites, especially in the United States. COVID-19 has now compelled the most significant geostrategic rethink since the end of the Cold War.

Whatever the origins of the virus, there is no question that the Chinese have leveraged it as a weapon of social and economic warfare. Could the ruins of a shooting war be much worse than those of a virus that, as of this week, has left more than 50,000 Americans dead and nearly one-tenth of the population unemployed, turning the businesses, life savings, and dreams of our neighbors to ashes?

But no one in Washington wants to call it war—and for good reason. The massive amount of wealth that America’s political and business elites have transferred to the CCP over the past 30 years has put the United States under China’s thumb. Our manufacturing base, as well as our debt, is controlled by the CCP. The United States, senior U.S. officials say, would likely lose in any major confrontation, financial or military, with China. Even the medicines we would need to treat our wounded are in Beijing’s hands.

As implied above, this is a long ‘un. But you’ll want to read all of it nonetheless.

Update! Father Raymond De Souza says this could be China’s “Chernobyl moment.” It damned well ought to be, and in fact it MUST be, by hook or by crook. Failing to inflict a heavy price on the ChiComs for this atrocity will only guarantee future repeats.

The Soviet Chernobyl moment came three years after U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s “evil empire” speech, which was, at the time, ridiculed by the international diplomatic establishment. Yet when the liberation of Europe from the Soviet empire followed six years later, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist two years after that, the courageous dissidents behind the Iron Curtain revealed that the forthright condemnation of the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” was a critical turning point.

A few months ago, the likelihood of the Chinese experiencing an evil empire moment was less than nil. Recall how things stood in late 2019.

After more than a year of ramped-up religious persecution, including a prohibition on children attending religious services, the replacement of crosses in Christian houses of worship with state symbols, the demolition of churches and the imprisonment of clergy, not a single word of protest was issued by the Vatican.

After months of protests to protect democratic freedoms in Hong Kong, support for the protesters on the world stage was minimal. And not just governments were afraid to upset the CCP. For example, when the CCP propaganda machine voiced outrage after the Houston Rockets’ general manager’s tweeted support for the protesters during a basketball tour of China, the National Basketball Association went into full craven apology mode.

All of the above examples are nothing short of disgraceful, and wholly despicable. Bottom line?

The power of the evil empire speech was not that it informed people that Soviet communism was evil in itself and an evil force in global affairs. Everyone knew that, even those whose interests lay in denying it. What was novel was that the American president was willing to say it. Truth has its own power.

The novel coronavirus has brought novelties of all kinds. Might a moral clarity about the Chinese Communist party be one of them?

I repeat: the one big thing to know is this: Commies gonna Commie. There is no good rationale—none—for any even putatively free nation to truck with Communist regimes in any way, shape, or form. For Americans to have allowed their political and business “leadership” to sell We The People down the river for a fistful of yuan is likewise inexcusable, and led directly to the current dismal pass. We must now demand that this situation be rectified—and I don’t mean slow, either.

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