Leftward ho! – Page 6

WHO’S not helping again, now?

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

STRONG HINT: It is NOT Jason Aldean.

The latest headshaker is Kathryn Jean Lopez tut-tutting that “Jason Aldean Isn’t Helping,” presumably by not being the kind of cerebral invertebrate that some at NR confuse with being a proper conservative. WFB went to Ft. Benning to become an Army officer and fight Nazis; the current NR leadership seems committed to fighting against anyone else on the Right man enough to fight back. A song hailing communities that come together to defeat crime and chaos? Apparently, that is not who we are. Oh, well, I never. That sound you hear is my pearls being clutched.

The current incarnation of National Review generally offers readers a conservatism that demands we use our inside voice, placing form – “Jason Aldean is so mean!” – over substance. The substance includes defeating evil when it comes for us, sometimes using violence. But apparently, this is too real. Well, it’s real life for millions of us. Theory is fun, but sometimes you gotta throw a punch. WFB got that. These guys and gals don’t.

It’s sad for me. Like most cons of my generation, notably Rush, I subscribed to National Review back in the day, and it was vital to shaping my thinking. You whippersnappers do not understand what the 80s were like for real conservatives. Sure, the music was awesome, as were the clothes and movies and all that, but if you were a committed conservative, particularly in the hinterlands, you were often alone. NR coming in the mail was my lifeline to an ideology that America embraced but barely understood. You could not go online and get a thousand different conservative views, or turn on your AM radio and get any at all. Buckley’s publication was it, and that is why its fall to effete establishment mewling is so painful.

There are still some people on NR worth reading and who I will not embarrass by listing. I read and like their work even when I disagree, and disagreement is good. But this pervasive vibe of prim submission is something else. I could fisk through Lopez’s sorry take on “Try That In A Small Town” to explain why no, it is not bad to protect your home from rampaging criminal scumbags even if you have to use violence. But I should not have to. That is a self-evident truth. Lieutenant Buckley knew that – he famously once threatened commie-symp Gore Vidal that “I’ll sock you in the…face” if the leftist weasel called Buckley a Nazi again.

I am at a loss as to why Kathryn Jean Lopez fails to understand this. Being a conservative does not mean being a pacifist, though that pacifism does not appear to extend to Ukraine, only to Americans defending themselves. It is of a kind with NR’s tendency to embrace a neutered, weak conservativism that offends no one, defends nothing, and always goes down in defeat. But it is not the only kind of conservatism now. We have an alternative. There is the muscular conservatism of the Reagans and Trumps and DeSantises, and then there’s whatever dog’s breakfast the new NR seems intent on serving up.

Kinder, gentler, a thousand points of light. To again evoke the 80s, gag me with a spoon.

The problem is not that Ms. Lopez does not appreciate Mr. Aldean’s tune but that she does not appreciate Mr. Aldean’s people. One of the great problems with conservatism, or rather with the intellectual conservative elite, is that so very many of them have never been in a fight punched in the mouth.

Fixed it for ya, Kurt ol’ buddy. Onwards.

In the real world, most of us have. But NR conservatism grows within the DC/NY hothouse; the idea of it outside in the real world where today’s conservatives live would make one of those hilarious fish-out-of-water movies where the guy in a bow tie from the Big City has to milk a cow. I’m not saying you must tromp through the woods stalking deer to be a con – post-Army, my idea of outside recreation is sitting on a lounge having someone bring me G&Ts – but it helps to get out a little and visit America and meet some Americans.

Yeah, like NRO’s effete limo-libs and faux conservatives have the slightest interest in rubbing elbows with THOSE people. “Not our sort, dearie!”

Elsewhere, Demo Don Surber lays into K-Lo even more unsparingly, leaving nothing but a quivering, gooey mess in his wake.

She objects to the video showing violence.

Conservatives object to the violence shown in the video.

K-Lo wrote, “Part of the reason some conservatives are defending the song is that there is plenty of other music that is violent that doesn’t get pulled by anyone. The healthy answer isn’t to add more anger and violence. Some of us are old enough to remember former second lady Tipper Gore, a Democrat, and former secretary of education William J. Bennett, a Republican, warning us about sex and violence in music and video games. They were right. And it’s only gotten worse since then. No small part of the reason that young people find themselves getting abortions is that the music they listen to insists that aggressive sexuality is the only way to have a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. Then if they are not having sex, TikTok videos tell them the solution to their normal middle-school awkwardness is puberty blockers and surgery. Our culture adds cruelty to life that is already challenging.”

I am not really sure how a song that condemns urban violence connects to TikTok, abortion, and transgendering but she is agreeing with Tipper Gore, which is always a sign that a writer works for National Review.

K-Lo’s call for singing about virtue and not violence is dime-store National Review virtue signaling. The liberals-have-a-point mentality of its writers do the opposite of enhancing their argument because I always wonder when they will admit conservatives have a point too.

And we do. The point of Aldean’s song is that no one is standing up to the rioters and the looters. Someone should.

It is easy to take potshots at someone liberals have attacked. It takes true courage to defend not only Aldean’s right to free speech but what he is saying. Aldean wants to end urban violence. K-Lo just wants to please her oppressors on the left.

This is not just about winning. This is about survival. Once again, the choice is simple and once again, National Review made the wrong choice.

Bang, zoom, to the moon with ye, K-Lo and your fellow NRinOs! More still from Evita Duffy-Alonso:

Perhaps Lopez doesn’t know what it’s like to witness Marxist looters and arsonists descend on a small community. I, however, saw this firsthand while reporting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the 2020 riots. There was no time to instill “hope” and “love” into the hearts of leftist criminals. Everyday citizens were forced to fight tooth and nail for their lives and livelihoods.

After the shooting of Jacob Blake, Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters from blue cities like Chicago and Portland swarmed the city. Outnumbered local and state law enforcement only had enough manpower to protect public buildings in the town’s center, leaving citizens’ homes and businesses at the mercy of the mob.

Meet Chuck, the owner of a tire shop who spent every night on his roof, gun in hand, guarding his business. To the rioters, he said: “Come to my shop and I’ll blow your heads off.” On the second night of rioting, I witnessed dozens of men like Chuck standing in front of their homes and businesses with guns and baseball bats, ready to defend themselves.

Perhaps Lopez would argue 2020 was an exception, but the physical threat of leftism is felt every day, making Aldean’s song all the more pertinent. Take, for example, the horrific 2021 Christmas parade attack in Waukesha, Wisconsin. In a city not far from Kenosha, convicted felon Darrell Brooks Jr. plowed through parade-goers in his vehicle, with the criminal complaint saying he drove in a zig-zag to hit as many people as possible.

Even though Waukesha is a small city with a community-oriented atmosphere, its people were not immune to the disastrous crime policies of Milwaukee. Aldean’s song is a powerful anthem for these casualties of Democrat disorder and violence. It’s a statement of agency and strength in the face of real-life threats to countless American lives.

Democrats have essentially declared war on the homeland, and in the face of this imminent danger, people have a right to defend themselves. The reality is love and free hugs won’t protect anyone from Molotov cocktails, free-roaming violent criminals, mob looting, and professional Marxist rioters and arsonists.

Nailed it clean and tight, I’d say. The point about those who live in smaller towns and rural areas not being immune to the lawless disorder in a given state’s more populous urban war-zones, as well as their unalienable right to defend themselves, their families, and their hard-earned homes and property is especially well-taken.

Okay then, let’s just do a final tot-up of the things 2A people are NOT permitted to do with those icky, dangerous firearms:

Cannot use them for hunting, because PETA might object
Cannot use them for self-defense against rioters, looters, and arsonists, because NRinOs might object
Cannot use them as the Founders did—to throw off a tyrannical government and reclaim their natural rights—because that would just be WRONG, don’t you dare even THINK about it!

Far as I know, that leaves us with one (1) acceptable use for firearms: storing them in perpetuity inside a locked, heavy-steel gun safe, with trigger locks in place, ammo (if any) for them to be kept in a separate secure space. IF, and only IF, there are no (NO) children up to age thirty-five (35) within fifty (50) yards of it, that is. To further ensure safety for one and all, all keys to aforementioned gun safe must be kept in a vault provided for the purpose, at a reasonable monthly rate, at your local police department headquarters.

I was about to ask why the NRinO assclowns and their ilk even bother to speak out in defense of the 2A anymore, but then it hit me that, not having looked in on their websty in quite a long while now, I have no idea whether or not they actually DO defend it anymore.

No fate

Posted on July 24, 2023 by Mike

But what we make. So far, we seem to be making a piss-poor job of it.

Recently, I was asked to make the “pessimistic case for the future.” I present instead more of a “pessimistic take on the present.” The future, while imminent, is obscure. The present, by contrast, is knowable. This is also not so much a “case” replete with exhaustive evidence—there isn’t space for that, nor is there a need—as a quick tour through our present hell. No one who thinks “everything is fine” will be persuaded otherwise. Those who see the seriousness of our problems hardly need proof. Nor have I made any attempt to be evenhanded, much less philosophically detached. My account is perforce one-sided. I hope it is wrong.

Alas, all evidence to date indicates that it isn’t. In fact, seeing as how this is Michael Anton we’re talking about here, one might reasonably assume that it’s all dead accurate; with him, that’s practically always the case. In this essay, Anton breaks his arguments down into sub-categories, which for purposes of this excerpt I’ll present as is, formatting intact (ie, italics). No better place to begin than the beginning, right?

The Constitution Is All but Dead

We Americans are supposed to govern ourselves via a constitution that rests on a specific understanding of natural right (right and wrong, good and evil, better and worse exist by nature) and natural rights (government’s job is to secure people’s God-given rights to life, liberty, property, etc.). The Constitution specifically declares and delimits the purposes of government and its powers, and it specifies how we the people choose the officers of the state, who are supposed to exercise those powers.

We still choose, sort of, but that hardly matters, because the people we nominally elect do not hold real power. And when they do, they often use it for unconstitutional ends. America’s real rulers are not the constitutional officers we nominally elect, and certainly not the American people, whom our understanding of political legitimacy asserts to be sovereign. They are, rather, a network of unelected bureaucrats, revolving-door Cabinet and subcabinet officials, corporate-tech-finance senior management, “experts” who set the boundaries of acceptable opinion, and media figures who police them.

Add to this the routine, repeated violations of our explicitly guaranteed rights—Big Tech censoring free speech, big cities denying the right of self-defense, the government itself violating the right to be secure in one’s person, home, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures—and it becomes more than a stretch to describe the United States as any longer a “constitutional republic.”

We Have Two-Track “Justice”

How the same offense is treated by our “justice” system depends on who’s committed it and, often, for what purpose. At the upper strata, compare the treatment of Hillary Clinton, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe with that of Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Carter Page, and Michael Flynn. Clinton illegally hid, and then deleted, her proprietary—and classified—communications from government records. Comey and McCabe orchestrated the Russia Hoax and lied about it. None of these three was even charged.

The latter five have all been hounded by the state—some convicted and imprisoned, all at least bankrupted and defamed. Their crimes, to the extent that any were even committed, were all much less serious than those of the regime darlings.

Compare the treatment of the Jan. 6 protesters with the total impunity granted to the summer 2020 rioters. One example: Two lawyers, literally caught throwing Molotov cocktails, were given slaps on the wrist. Meanwhile, Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree murder (one of six charges) for shooting two deranged thugs who were in the process of trying to kill him. All over the country, and especially in blue-ruled precincts, acts of self-defense will get you arrested, jailed, and possibly imprisoned. Meanwhile, in the Black Lives Matter era, so long as the perp is the correct race or acting in a sanctified cause, violence and arson are excused.

Skipping a couple categories down, we come to what I consider to be the most condemnatory, troubling, and just downright infuriating of the entire lot.

We’re So Blinkered by Ideology that We Can’t—or Won’t—Apply Obvious Solutions to Simple Problems

The same way we don’t lock up criminals because “racism,” there is almost no end to the sensible things we refuse to do, and the stupid things we eagerly do, because of ideology.

The United States is presently in the midst of our worst energy crunch since the 1970s. Instead of expanding supply, we are constricting it. Why? “Climate change.” But nuclear would generate energy without carbon emissions. The same people who say no drilling also say no nuclear. Why? Supposedly, because the plants themselves and the waste they generate are “unsafe,” though nuclear power has a near-perfect record in this and nearly all countries. (The real reason is to force everyone to don the hairshirt.)

Our drug problem is fueled by Mexican cartels that cross our border with impunity. But we don’t secure the border because “no human is illegal.” Monkeypox is transmitted at homosexual orgies. We won’t close bath houses because “love is love.” But we will close churches, gyms, and restaurants over Covid. That’s an emergency!

“WE’RE so blinkered”? As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, whatchoo mean WE, white man? The shitlibs own that one lock, stock, and barrel. Which of course Anton knows, as the above-cited examples demonstrate without explicitly spelling out.

By the end, each of Anton’s sub-cats tie in together to present a scarifying portrait of where we now are, with seriously ominous indications of where we might be heading. Essentially, he uses interlocking bricks to construct an unassailable wall of logic and observation as deftly as a Master Brickmason. For instance, the connection betwixt “We Prioritize “Diversity” Over Mission and Performance” and “Our Military Doesn’t Win” is readily apparent, with the first being a primary reason for the second. It’s a blunt-force yet subtle strategy of argumentation that even TeeWee lawyer Perry Mason could only shake his head in awe and admiration at, being fond of the same sort of thing himself.

Most condemnatory, depressing line of all has to be the one which caps off the mercifully-concise “Nothing Works Anymore” sub-cat: “The whole country is becoming the DMV.” To which the response can only be: ouch. Also: YIKES!

Much, much more yet to this typically top-notch article, of which you should definitely read the all. Adapted from Anton’s contribution to Encounter Books’s Up from Conservatism compilation, it’s as comprehensive, unflinching, and clear-eyed an examination of the roots of our woes as can be imagined. From the EB website’s book-blurb:

The Conservative Establishment’s consensus of the past two generations has almost totally broken down. Conservatism was unable to stop or even slow the Left’s rolling revolutions in nearly every sector of American society—from classrooms to boardrooms, from the military to the culture at large. The Left has successfully transformed the nation over the past few generations, racking up victory after victory, with no clear end in sight. This is not sustainable for the country or the constituency represented by the Republican Party. For the Right to have a serious future, it needs to rethink its positions and think more deeply about the essential policy questions which will define the future of the country: race, men and women, sexuality, religion, the economy, foreign policy, and other major issues. This collection of essays, written by some of the Right’s most interesting thinkers and practitioners, seeks to reframe the ideological and policy direction of the American Right.

Can’t find a whole lot to argue with there, other than to say I’m extremely doubtful that “think(ing) more deeply about…policy questions” will ever avail us much. When you get right down to the nut-cutting, it amounts to putting the policy cart before the ideological horse.

The conflict presently before us doesn’t primarily revolve around “policy,” but fundamental beliefs. Unfortunately, we find ourselves smack in the middle of a struggle involving ideologies which are entirely incompatible, one insistent on totalitarianism and absolute, unchallenged State power over the individual, the other on ordered liberty and the right to be left alone to live as one chooses, within certain constraints to which both parties are in agreement.

There can be no reconciliation of the two, no satisfactory compromise, no middle ground. As pretty much all of 20th-century history more than adequately demonstrates, whenever and wherever the Leftist glioblastoma is permitted to metastasize and flourish within a liberty-oriented body politic this conflict is made inevitable. One side must win, the other must lose. Once the victor has been determined, “policy” will necessarily flow from there.

Free speech ain’t free

Posted on July 19, 2023July 20, 2023 by Mike

A whole hatful of quotage, forsooth.

Commenting on the recent decision of Judge Doughty in Missouri et al vs. Biden, columnist Patrick Lawrence wrote recently,

“A lot more people now stand to see that a bitter war in defense of their constitutional rights has to be fought. And it will be evident to a lot of these newly aware people that this nation’s most powerful newspapers and broadcasters are complicit in a liberal authoritarian attack on the rights that reside in American law.”

But there’s nothing to suggest that people are waking up or actually see that. Judge Doughty’s opinion granting the preliminary injunction said: “the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” The 155 page opinion details what various Executive Branch agencies and high level government officials from the White House on down were doing not only to suppress Free Speech, but to punish anyone who had the temerity to speak out against Gummint policy and official narratives.

The sad truth is that most people are not really very interested in the subject, the relative few who are interested are too lazy to make much of an effort to inform themselves, and even fewer still (if any) are willing to “pledge their lives, their fortunes or their sacred honor” to do anything about it.

That’s why what is happening is happening! “The most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history”? Who cares? The general reaction to it – or to the Fifth Circuit’s decision Friday is pretty much a big yawn.

Oh, I’m afraid it’s a good bit worse than that, seeing as how with every passing day it becomes more apparent that most people, far from not caring, are actually, literally opposed to freedom of speech, as well as to freedom more broadly. Thus is the near-total success of the Left’s laborious implementation of Gramscian Long March theory confirmed. Now, brace yourselves for that potpourri of quotes I mentioned.

So there’s the answer to Patrick Lawrence. As with Ukraine, most people are blissfully unaware of what is really going on and/or just do not care.

Much as it pains me to quote Harry Truman, Judge Doughty quoted from Truman’s Special Message to Congress in 1950 in the conclusion of his July 4th opinion. It’s worth repeating:

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one place to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

Later, in the same message, Truman concluded:

“We must, therefore, be on our guard against extremists who urge us to adopt police state measures. Such persons advocate breaking down the guarantees of the Bill of Rights in order to get at the communists. They forget that if the Bill of Rights were to be broken down, all groups, even the most conservative, would be in danger from the arbitrary power of government.”

And what would Oliver Wendell Holmes say? Maybe he’d say it is time to bring home our troops from Europe and start fighting right here at home for the Constitution of 1787 and the Bill of Rights. We won in 1783, maybe we could do it again.

Maybe. Then again, though, I wouldn’t be holding my breath waiting for it if I were you. As with most precious and worthwhile things, freedom doesn’t just fall into our laps like manna from heaven. Those who want it must go out and take it for themselves, then guard it, jealously and ferociously, forever afterwards.

(Via WRSA)

The biggest question

Posted on July 18, 2023July 18, 2023 by Mike

To ask is to answer.

There is one fundamental question that any candidate vying for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2024 must answer — but that as of yet has gone largely unaddressed, at least publicly, as the field spars over significant but ultimately subordinate issues.

The question is this: How will you win the general election under the present voting system?

A: Unless he’s a Deep State-approved Vichy GOPe collaborator/co-conspirator, he won’t.

As Americans well know, we are lightyears removed from the election days of old — singular days when people voted in person, on paper ballots, after presenting identification. Now, we have mass mail-in elections, conducted over weeks, where those voting in person often do so on electronic machines, and with lax identification standards.

Democrats largely developed and long fought for this system, willing it into existence under the cover of Covid-19. Naturally, they have successfully manipulated and exploited the voting regime they made.

Ballot harvesting is becoming an accepted norm. Candidates not only have to earn votes but figure out how to collect as many votes as they possibly can. Are Republicans overnight going to out-harvest their opponents, or figure out some new means to identify and turn out voters otherwise sitting on the sidelines in sufficient numbers to overcome Democrats’ ballot-harvesting superiority?

The Biden administration is working to leverage federal agencies to mobilize presumed Democrat voters as well — also potentially in conjunction with the same NGOs — under a March 2021 executive order, “Promoting Access to Voting,” that has remained shrouded in mystery as the bureaucracy stonewalls over inquiries about its implementation. Republicans have started to engage in election administration, but largely in the context of monitoring over execution. What is the plan to combat Democrat control over election machinery?

Lawfare is also now an integral part of our election system. Republicans have started to devote significantly greater attention and resources to the litigation game, but to catch up to Democrats will require a long-term, sustained effort, backed with real money. And filing suit over election policies and practices after votes have already been cast of course has proven a losing proposition, as demonstrated by courts’ unwillingness to grapple with fundamental issues around the 2020 election largely on technical grounds.

Meanwhile, Democrats have engaged in efforts to ruin the lives of Republican election lawyers — in their own words to “make them toxic in their communities and in their firms” — seeking to kneecap their competition before it ever reaches the courtroom.

Are Republican candidates devising comprehensive election lawfare strategies right now to both aggressively target existing election chicanery and stave off that which is to come — with the courage and intellectual heft behind it needed to win in the face of an unrelenting and calculating opposition?

These in-built challenges exist before even discussing election fraud, and the imperative for a Republican candidate to exhaust every available means to prevent it, and in the absolute worst case to detect and mitigate it — this at a time when voting happens at further remove from the election booth than ever before, making finding and proving fraud all the more difficult.

Layer on top of these issues the broader forces any such candidate will be up against, and the prospect of winning becomes even more daunting.

Aw, even with all that, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait til they’ve finally achieved their longstanding dream of eliminating the Electoral College once and for all, that’s when the REAL fun starts.

The truth, at last

Posted on July 16, 2023July 16, 2023 by Mike

You knew this all along, right?

Climate Expert: Gas Car Cancellation Is Intended to End Private Transport
Soon after a World Economic Forum partner was caught calling for an “end” to private car ownership, a climate expert is warning that the push to cancel gas-powered cars is just a ploy to end private transport. The climate crisis is a hoax, but it’s such a darn useful hoax for authoritarian globalists.

Ain’t it though. Ain’t it just—placing it fully and firmly into the selfsame category as the Scamdemic trial run, according to both type and hype.

Climate Depot’s Marc Morano went on Fox Business Thursday and discussed how the Democrat and globalist push to replace gas cars with electric vehicles (EVs) isn’t about helping the environment but restricting Americans’ freedom of movement. “This really isn’t about them driving an electric car,” Morano said, highlighting how this is a top-down decision not based on popular demand. “This literally is — the banning of gas-powered cars — is being done just like a COVID lockdown without a vote,” he added. From California to the Biden Environmental Protection Agency to Australia, leftists are trying to force ordinary citizens into a corner with their gas car restrictions.

Indeed, Pew Research Center published the results of its new survey on June 28, which found that “Less than half of the [U.S.] public (40%) favors phasing out the production of gas-powered cars and trucks.” It’s also significant that EV batteries actually generate lots of toxic waste, so they’re not better for the environment.

“The intent is not to necessarily force people into an electric vehicle,” Morano went on. “The intent is to collapse our plentiful freedom of movement and force us to use mass transit. They want us on the subway.” It’s a global collusion. “They want us on buses. That is what this is about,” Morano insisted. “[Former UK PM] Boris Johnson’s transportation secretary said owning a car was outdated ’20th-century thinking’. They are rationing vehicle use. It’s very simple. You can look at Cuba to see how that turned out; you are going to have a lot of used cars.”

Which, for those of you keeping score at home, is in pluperfect compliance with Mike’s Iron Law #187, if you care to look it up. Those beat-up, jig-rigged old vintage rides being said workaround, natch. Just as in Cuba, see, which newly-minted sister-state status with the FUSA for Them amounts to a feature, not a bug.

Oh, but the coinkydinkal (HA!) confluence with various of my Iron Laws only multiplies from there, alas. Since we already know, thanks to MIL #149, that it’s never actually about what they’re telling us it is, and also from MIL #4296-54e, addendum 67 that they lie reflexively, compulsively, and continually, the only mystery at this late date is why ANYBODY would trouble themselves with taking their words at face value anymore. That’s the real stumper here, a bona fide brain-buster I for one simply cannot figure out.

Update! Moar Climate Change (formerly Global Warming, formerly Global Cooling, formerly The Weather)™ follies. Spoiler: it ain’t just your ICE car the illegitimate Bribem junta intends to take from you. Not by a long yard, it ain’t.

Biden Regime Making Americans Sweat, Moves to Make Air Conditioning a Thing of the Past
This one’ll really make your blood boil: with either remarkable tone-deafness or a haughty contempt for the people it’s supposed to be serving, the Biden regime chose some of the hottest days of this summer (and if the climate propaganda is to be believed, some of the hottest days in human history) to announce plans to restrict the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are used in refrigerators and air conditioners. If the regime’s high-handedness and authoritarianism don’t already have you in a sweat, just wait.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Tuesday that it was “issuing a final rule to implement a 40% reduction below historic levels from 2024 through 2028.” So if you’re keeping cool these days with your air conditioner set at a certain temperature, be prepared for our moral superiors to force you, on pain of who knows what, to turn it up significantly. And you won’t be sweating out just this summer alone: “The rule aligns with the bipartisan American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act’s goals to reduce the production and consumption of these climate-damaging chemicals by 85% by 2036 and help avoid up to 0.5 °C of global warming by 2100.”

Bipartisan? Well, that’s another indication of how the establishment Republican hacks in Washington have failed betrayed the American people.

Fixed it for ya there, Robert. No need to thank me, I’m only too happy to help out. A giver, that’s moi.

Cars; gas ranges; guns; charcoal BBQ grills; wood-burning stoves for home heating; your Constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of speech; the Constitution entire—yep, there really is nothing they’re willing to leave alone. Calls for another addition to the Mike’s Iron Laws collection, methinks.

Showroom statuary

Posted on July 13, 2023July 13, 2023 by Mike

if you build it but nobody wants it, it won’t sell.

The number of unsold electric vehicles at dealers in the second quarter tripled compared to the past year, signaling a weakened demand for the segment, said a recent report by leading auto-dealer data company Cox Automotive.

In second quarter 2023, the average inventory for electric vehicles (EVs) topped more than 92,000 units on the ground at dealer lots, according to the 2023 Cox Automotive Mid-Year Review presentation. This is up 342 percent compared to second quarter 2022. During this period, the new “EV days’ supply,” which refers to the average number of days a warehouse holds inventory before selling it, rose 166 percent, to 92 days from 38.5 days. While the pace of EV sales is up, it is “not rising as fast as inventory builds,” said Jonathan Gregory, senior manager, Economic and Industry Insights.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are facing a “field of dreams moment,” he stated. “They have built inventory, and now they wait for buyers to come. This is one of the hottest topics we’ve had this year.”

“Lack of public charging infrastructure and price have been the top two concerns for the past 10 months, along with related issues involving range anxiety, time required to charge, and power outage and grid concerns,” the report said.

Not to mention that little blowing-up-and-burning-to-cinders problem. A trifling concern, I know. But still.

While inventory is building up at dealer lots, a study by Cox Automotive found a wide gap between dealers and customers regarding future expectations of EV use.

According to Cox Automotive’s 2023 Path to “EV Adoption: Consumer and Dealer Perspectives” study, even though 53 percent of consumers see EVs as a future and that such vehicles will replace gas engines over time, only 31 percent of dealers held such a view.

“Nearly half (45 percent) of dealers surveyed feel that EVs still need to prove themselves in the marketplace,” said a press release on June 27.

No need for such an outlandish thing, not in Amerika v2.0 there ain’t. That’s why the Überstadt had to make the blasted yuppie-puppy toys mandatory, see. Which is telling in and of itself; as Jefferson told us, “It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

Saw it coming from fourteen years away

Posted on July 13, 2023July 13, 2023 by Mike

Derb looks back in bitter schadenfreude.

Back in 2009, I published a book, We Are Doomed.

The subtitle was Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism. And I was pointing out to American Conservatives that they weren’t succeeding in anything because they had been too optimistic; and that the proper stance for a philosophical conservative is a careful pessimism.

So now, 14 years on, I want to discuss the question: in what direction have we gone since I published that book?

As we all know only too well, the answer to that question is grim indeed: straight down the crapper.

Follows, John takes what he calls “a quick canter through the last 14 years of our Cultural Revolution” which demonstrates that the man isn’t just a visionary, he’s a full-on fucking prophet. The issues are addressed according to the book’s chapter titles: Culture, Sex, Education, War, Immigration, and so on, well-aimed salvos on not a single one of which he missed his mark.

From the Diversity section, which holds that the real problem isn’t necessarily with “diversity” itself, rather with the preposterous surfeit of it the maniacal Left has studiously rammed down Real American throats in recent years.

I’m personally, a “salt in the stew” diversitiphile. I like a little diversity.

I grew up in mid-20th century England. The guy who sold us ice cream was an Italian!

And one of the girls in our class was Scottish, which we thought was very exotic. She had a Scottish accent.

And then, when I was in my teens, we got our first Chinese restaurant! And that was good too.

But it was salt in the stew. A little bit of salt spices up the stew. But you really don’t want to dump a whole bag of salt into your stew.

Which is what we seem to want to do.

Well, actually, it’s what some of us want to force the rest of us to do, more like.

(Via WRSA)

Foresight…and the lack thereof

Posted on July 7, 2023July 7, 2023 by Mike

Teh Experts™ had one job. ONE fucking job.

Nebraska solar farm crippled by hail, underscoring power source’s fragility
A recent major hail storm in western Nebraska took an entire solar farm out of commission, forcing the local community to turn back to traditional power sources, local officials said.

The so-called Community Solar Project – a 4.4 megawatt solar field comprised of 14,000 solar panels and located in Scottsbluff, Nebraska – is not currently operating and will remain offline until repairs are completed, the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) confirmed to Fox News Digital. NPPD, the state-owned public utility, and energy firm GenPro Energy Solutions developed the project in 2020.

“The solar complex was destroyed by hail,” Scottsbluff City Manager Kevin Spencer said in an interview. “They’re assessing the damage, but it certainly looks destroyed to me.”

“I don’t think we’re ready to give up on solar power,” Spencer added. “It was our understanding that these solar panels were at least hail resistant. This hail was extreme, you know, the size and probably the speed of it. So, I don’t know that we would give up on it just yet.”

Because OF COURSE the stupid prick doesn’t, and won’t. A never-say-die, damn-the facts obstinacy goes hand-in-glove with being a shitlib, don’tchaknow. Like beans and cornbread, one might say.

The problem is, of course, that “extreme” and/or “unusual” are NOT synonyms for “never.” So when one lays thousands of square feet of thin, flimsy glass panels on their backs on a flat, open field with no trees or other vegetation to shield all that expensive fragility from the vagaries of outraged nature, any intelligent soul would have to expect certain dire consequences. To wit:

Building a solar array in an area prone to hail is like building a house in the flood pool of a lake. It’s going to be damaged by weather eventually.

Ace has a favorite line about there being no knowledge gained in the second kick from a mule. As Scottsbluff prepares to rebuild its demolished solar array, it would be helpful if anyone there understood that they’ve already received the first kick from the mule.

Oh, they don’t, and they never will. It’s Agenda Über Alles with these Sooperdoopergenii™, and it’s always gonna be. If a few million flyover rubes have to suffer without power and a/c in the dead of summer to help out with the full realization of The Plan, well, hey, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Eggs and omelets, right?

How to wage a Culture War

Posted on June 18, 2023June 18, 2023 by Mike

Enforced over-familiarity breeds contempt.

Rage Against the Pride Machine: We Don’t Hate You, We Are Just Tired of Having Rainbows Thrust Down Our Heretofore Tolerant Gullets
For those of you patriots who aren’t familiar with me, I am a former New York City liberal. I say this for two reasons: 1) it gives me an insight many don’t have, which I will soon discuss; and, 2) I deserve to be mocked incessantly for my folly. Please fire away in the comments, it keeps me humble.

Though I now lean right, I still DO NOT CARE how others live their lives. If a man wants to wear a dress, have at it. Gay marriage? I don’t care.

My point is, I am as LGBT-friendly a person as you will find.

That said, can we stop gavaging “gay” down everyone’s throat?

We do not care what you LGBT types do when the lights are off, and that was the goal, right?

Umm, no, not precisely. Despite their usual disingenuous disclaimers in the beginning, what it was was a first step. Which is how the now-typical progression/escalation gets them from Point A to Point XXX. Thus:

The gay movement went from “Stay out of our bedrooms,” which I found a reasonable request, to “If you straight guys won’t boink a trans dudette, you’re a bigot” to “Let us chop off your 15-year-old son’s penis or you’ll be arrested, you domestic terrorist.” Then you screech at us for “hating” you if we don’t deliver our kids to the “Zygote-friendly Drag Night” where they can watch attention-starved yet talent-free men in dresses shake their waxed asses and then beg for dollar bills.

And there you have it. But fret not, Kev knows the score here.

As a former teen-aged, punk-rockish, blue-haired, cranky, eyeliner-wearing crosspatch myself, I know how you operate. I also know how you recruit. You do it the same way the skinheads do it, as well as cults and midwestern-Detroit punk-rock types in the 1980s. You look for sad loners, weak people, damaged souls, and bitter failures to pull into your cult. You also target kids from bad or broken homes. In short, you’re a bunch of predators.

It all comes down to victimhood. You can’t attack people unless you convince yourself they have victimized you, and that you are “literally” fighting for your existence. That is why you pretend we — the monsters on the right — are trying to “genocide” you, even though we walk past you in the thrift store without a second glance.

The truth is you abhor us even more when we ignore you. In a sad, pathetic way you need us, but we don’t need you. That really steams your clams.

The truth is that most of us don’t care how the Pride community lives — as requested — but that was never the plan. The radical, emotionally-crippled harpies from the Gaystapo never intended to live peacefully amongst us. They will always push their narrative against us then cry victim when we get sick of being force-fed a huge breakfast bowl of Raisin Tran and eventually push back.

But tell me, what is your next move?

Whatever it ends up being, just assume it will be the most disgusting, offensive, reprehensible affront to common decency and common sense they think they can get away with at the time and you won’t go far wrong. Then just sit back and wait for the next step down that ol’ slippery slope—which won’t be long in coming, and will be even worse.

How to make a shithole

Posted on June 13, 2023June 14, 2023 by Mike

Our brother-from-another-mother Big Country posts a heartwarming tale.

SO I was up at the U-Haul and this young-ish couple were in there all happy and talking about how they moved here just today…the guy behind the counter was all being nice and whatever…me being the bastard curmudgeon I’ve become, I asked where thy moved from…

“Rhode Island!” said the chirpy tatted-up girl…(maybe she was 22, 23 at most…) not bad looking but a lot of ‘warning tattoos’, i.e. dreamcatcher on her neck, the word ‘breathe’ on the inside of one wrist…her significant other, Mister “I could smell the soy from six feet away?” Yeah, his tats? Flowers. Lil daisies on the back of his elbows…bad hair, shitty handlestache…

Uh… yeeeah

I looked at ’em both, and growled “Welcome to Florida! Don’t you fucking dare vote like you did back home.” The guy behind the counter looked at me, and looked at them and nodded and said “Yep…don’t screw up our state like you did yours!”

On that I turned and walked out…let them chew on that bit of advice.

But folks like that are like an infectious virus.

Moving in from a fucked up state, to OUR state, and then voting in the same types of assholes who made their state of origin all fucked up, which, while NOT intentionally planning on fucking it all up again, but doing so, and then wondering “How did this happen?” Self awareness purely doesn’t exist in the hive-mind of a liberal I swear.

Their look of shock was great.

Heh. I just bet it was at that, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer brace of assholes. Wish I’d been there to see it; I call ‘em locusts, myself, which I think is a very apt and fitting name for ‘em.

I’ve read in several different places over the past cpl-three years or so that, according to the stats, that’s actually not so much the case, though—that the vast majority of those fleeing the blighted, pestilential urban hellholes are NOT the idiot libs who did so much to help make them what they are, but are in actual fact mostly RightwingNaziDeathBeasts who have, after many years of suffering through the gradual, pre-planned decline, finally gotten a bellyful of it and decided to uproot and make good their escape. Never an easy decision to make, especially for someone who has lived in such an area his whole life, with deep family roots in what we unreconstructed Southrons used to call the old home-place.

Having lived for many years in one such example—CLT, which admittedly has always leaned pretty sharply Left, as has the entire state; over my entire lifetime, I can remember but one nominally “Republican” mayor, the execrable stealth-liberal Pat McRory—I dunno whether I buy the aforementioned statistics or not; I gotta say, I’m skeptical. But who knows, it could be so; with the widening Right-Left divide becoming more and more hardened and virulent over the past several years, it may very well be. It’d be nice if it was, that’s for definite sure.

The dead giveaway that you’re looking at a locust infestation as you drive around any given neighborhood? One of those obnoxiously self-righteous “In this house, we believe…” signs posted in the front yard. Know that, and adjust your behavior towards the occupants accordingly.

Big-city living is not ever going to be everyone’s cup of tea; for years, it was certainly mine, although nowadays I wouldn’t live in the city, any city, if you paid me by the hour. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that it has to be a horrible, unbearable nightmare, either. For many, many years, American cities were envied around the world as desirable, worthwhile places to live and work—to ENJOY living, rather than merely existing. As with so many other things, the question must be: Who did this to us, and why on Earth did we ever allow it to happen?

NEW JERSEY NABS TWELVE YEAR OLD WHITE SUPREMACIST DOMESTIC TERRORIST!

Posted on May 26, 2023May 26, 2023 by Mike

First, the story behind the headline.

BREAKING: New Jersey Has Enacted the Largest Gun Ban in US History
Our friends at Ammoland, who are based in the gun rights hell that is New Jersey, have uncovered what appears to be a little-known aspect of a gun control law that passed and was signed into law last June. They’ve just published an article by attorney Evan Nappen who has read the law closely and discovered that — intentionally or not — it’s actually the biggest gun ban ever enacted in these here United States.

The bill was ostensibly intended to outlaw firearms without serial numbers. It banned homemade guns, 3D printed guns, even possession of the files for running a 3D printer or CNC machine for making firearms. It even outlawed slingshots, fer Chrissakes.

Like so many laws that are enacted at all levels of government, this one was poorly written. And as a result, it’s incredibly broad.

I talked to Mr. Nappen this afternoon and he tells me the law is quite clear that for a firearm to be legal in New Jersey, it has to have a serial number and the serial number must have been imprinted by a federally licensed firearm manufacturer.

That means your Daisy BB gun — which under the state’s expansive and idiotic gun control laws is actually considered a firearm — may have a serial number on it, but Daisy isn’t a federally licensed gun maker. As a result that Red Ryder in your kid’s closet now makes you a felon.

By declaring non-firearms to be “firearms” under Joisey law, well, you don’t have to be a superdupergenius to see what comes next.

New Jersey State Police arrest young felon

12 year old Ralphie Parker has been remanded into custody to await trial on seventeen felony charges relating to firearms and domestic terrorism, NJ authorities have announced.

Photos of the young gunslinger both before and after his arrest were released to the press:

The terrorist brandishing his deadly fully-semi-automatic assault-weapon gun before being apprehended

The next picture shows the dangerous terrorist just before he was handcuffed by NJSPD officers:

Ain’t so fat and sasssy now, are ya kid?

Due to the extremely serious nature of his multiple crimes, Parker is being held without bond in solitary confinement within the Security Threat Group Management Unit at Newark’s Northern State Prison.

Poor Ralphie, he never knew what hit him. Turns out, shooting his eye out was the very least of his worries.

First thing we do, let’s ban All The Things

Posted on May 11, 2023May 11, 2023 by Mike

Why we can’t have nice things anymore.

‘The Wrong Side Of History’ Is The One With Air Conditioning, Dishwashers, And Gas Stoves
These campaigns unfurl the same way every time. Leftists float some outrageous invasion into personal freedom in the name of stopping climate change or enhancing safety. When conservatives react with indignation, the media gaslights the country, casting critics as a reactionary cabal itching to start a “culture war.”

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but you know, I still maintain that a Biden appointee to the Consumer Product Safety Commissioner, Richard Trumka Jr., probably told Bloomberg News that gas stoves were a “hidden hazard” and “any option is on the table,” and then argued that the state could ban anything that “can’t be made safe” — which includes ladders, bikes, candy bars, cars, forks, desks, bathtubs, and televisions, and so on.

Oh, stop being such a hysteric; no one is going to take away your straws or light bulbs or combustible engines.

“No, Biden Is Not Trying to Ban Gas Stoves,” the New York Times assured its readers. The GOP “freak out” over the government “coming for your gas stoves” was “outright nonsense,” explained MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. Though, they all argue, gas stoves are basically mini Chernobyls that are killing your children as we speak — especially minority children. All the pseudoscience says so. And if you disagree, you might be one of those “Gas Stove Denialists.”

“Gas stoves became part of the culture war in less than a week,” added NPR. “How Gas Stoves Became the Latest Right-Wing Cause in the Culture Wars,” explained Time Magazine. The Washington Post claimed that the “GOP thrusts gas stoves, Biden’s green agenda into the culture wars.” The “culture war” can never be instigated by leftists suddenly shifting societal norms but only by social conservatives who pick needless fights over piddling, long-decided issues.

As Axios noted, gas stoves had become the “Right’s new fight,” which was somewhat confusing considering “the Right” didn’t bring up gas stoves in the first place. But the natural state of the world — the inevitable evolutionary finale of any policy debate — resides on the left. The speed of progress merely hinges on compelling the knuckle-draggers to see the light.

Ahh, but you didn’t really think they’d stop with just gas stoves, did you?

As Christian Britschgi in Reason points out, the Biden administration “has proposed tightening energy efficiency standards for 16 product categories, including many home appliances. The DOE has opened or finalized rules on microwave ovens, normal ovens, refrigerators, and laundry machines in just the last few months.” The Biden administration’s counterintuitive policy initiatives ensure that you’ll be compelled to buy crappier appliances at higher prices.

A-yup. All things, please note, that Whypeepuh dreamed up, engineered, and made a reality. Meanwhile, the Leftard Red Wreckers can do nothing, invent nothing, create nothing except chaos, destruction, and general human misery. And they’ll never, ever forgive us for that.

Course syllabus for How to have a civilization 101

Posted on May 8, 2023 by Mike

Lesson 1: make sure you have plenty of Whypeepuh around, just to maintain it and keep it running smoothly.

Southern Pacific passenger train, 1940’s pic.twitter.com/BmGhqPmeSd

— Americana Aesthetics (@AmericanaAesth)

May 7, 2023

Man, how could you not just HATE everything about that picture, and everyone in it? Dunno myself, asking for a “liberal” friend.

BREAKING NEWS!

Posted on April 24, 2023 by Mike

Fox announces replacement for Tucker Carlson.

JohnsonTucker

Can’t say I’m surprised, really. Swiped from WRSA.

Fox News commits hara-kiri!

Posted on April 24, 2023April 24, 2023 by Mike

The end of an era, and a network. From America’s most reliable news source:

Fox News Fires The Only Reason People Watch Fox News
NEW YORK, NY — After months of controversy, Fox News has decided to part ways with the only reason anyone watches Fox News.

“Yes, we realize he delivered the most successful cable news program of all time, but we felt embarrassed by him at our Manhatten cocktail parties,” said Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott. “When we tried to get invited to fancy, sophisticated gatherings, people said: ‘Ewwww, aren’t you the Tucker Carlson people?’ and that made us feel sad. Curse you, Tucker, for making us feel sad!”

When reached for a reaction, Tucker simply stared dumbfoundedly at our reporter for several minutes.

Industry experts believe there are other factors that contributed to the alleged firing, including the fact that the company is too broke to pay him after settling a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems.

Progressives are reportedly overjoyed by the move, although many are saying Fox didn’t go far enough by not killing Carlson in addition to firing him. “You mean he’s still alive?” said Congresswoman AOC. “Tucker being alive is fascism!”

At publishing time, producers were seen looking through files for another hot blonde to replace him with.

The Bee, of course, establishing a new record for how close their satire can come to actual reality: Tucker is indeed gone, although no one really seems to know why, or is admitting to it at least. Glenn sums up the rampant speculation out there:

Rumors have swirled that he was looking to leave since they stopped him airing more January 6 video after just a couple of nights, but I don’t know if that’s why he’s leaving or not.

The stock’s falling, leading an acquaintance to comment “$800m settlement for the vote fraud stuff with Dominion, and FOX just zapped $1bil from its market cap in the last 10 min.”

I wonder if Tucker will go to Newsmax or somewhere, or whether he’ll start his own Rumble program.

UPDATE: Lots of speculation that it involved the Dominion settlement, too. Maybe so. And Jim Bennett writes: “I wonder if Fox was getting significant pushback from the part of its viewership that were appalled by his stand on Ukraine. Most Americans of Eastern European descent are conservative, many of those I know are strongly pro-Ukrainian. And many were Fox viewers.” I dunno. I doubt that would be enough to end such a profitable association, but it may have been a factor.

Could be, who knows. Most likely, it will all come out eventually, as tends to happens with these things. But one thing we can be sure about: whatever the reason(s) behind it may have been, Fox News will be going the way of the dodo. Or does anyone out there think the moronic Sean Hannity can carry them on his strong, broad shoulders…?

Update! Apparently, t’was Rupert Murdoch himself who slew the Fox beast.

Tucker Carlson departs Fox News, pushed out by Rupert Murdoch
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the network said in a statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

A Fox News representative had no other details on Carlson’s exit. People familiar with the situation who were not authorized to comment publicly said the decision to fire Carlson came straight from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch.

Carlson’s exit is related to the discrimination lawsuit filed by Abby Grossberg, the producer fired by the network last month, the people said. Carlson’s senior executive producer Justin Wells has also been terminated, according to people familiar with the matter. A Fox News representative would not comment.

Murdoch is also said to be concerned over Carlson’s coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, in which the host has promoted the conspiracy theory simple, obvious fact, confirmed in several different ways, that it was provoked by government agents.

ADMISSION: I may have adjusted that last line slightly, in the interests of truth and accuracy. Be all that as it may, Ace administers the last rites.

Goodbye, Fox. You will die alone and unloved and unremembered.

Indeed so. In a conversation with my brother just now, we were speculating on a possibility I’d consider the most awesome denouement imaginable: Elon Musk and Tucker are even now on the phone hammering out the details of their new entry into the TeeWee news game, which will be called the Foxecutioner network.

Updated update! Ace’s post also includes the verified, 100% for-real video of Tucker’s final farewell to FNC:

Video of Tucker’s exit interview just leaked too! pic.twitter.com/Dc1iEco0Hi

— Vandelay ₿TC Industries ⚡ (@VandelayBTC)

April 24, 2023

What can one say but: heh. Indeed.

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