The Liberal Way of War

What if they don’t?

Posted on September 17, 2024September 17, 2024 by Mike

Steyn comes right out and says it, point blank.

They Want Him Dead
The alleged perp is said to have been “known” to the FBI, and, even more bizarrely, was favourably profiled in The New York Times last year for his efforts to organise a grand convergence of the Pentagon’s wars without end by recruiting Afghans to fight in Ukraine. Curious.

On the other hand, if you’re searching for patterns among the chaos, this seems as good as any:

The grim new reality of our “democracy” is we can tell whether trump won a debate by whether an assassination attempt follows shortly thereafter

— Darren J. Beattie 🌐 (@DarrenJBeattie) September 15, 2024

My own line on failed assassinations is that of the IRA taunting Mrs Thatcher after the Brighton bombing: You have to be lucky every time; we only have to be lucky once.

In the last two months, Trump has been lucky twice. There are another two months to go: can he be lucky thrice? Four times?

If I were Trump I wouldn’t want these guys anywhere near me – the official government protection, that is. The law-&-order types on the right have been ballyhooing the quick thinking of one individual agent on the ground – which is fine and dandy, but conveniently absolves the “bureaucracy” of its failure to provide sufficient protection, even after he’s already been shot and an American citizen has died. Trump is one of the comparatively few presidents who has taken a bullet for his country, which is more than even Tim Walz can claim, but nobody who matters is interested. The court eunuchs at ABC News couldn’t be bothered with a question on this summer’s near-assassination, but they did make room for a question about the rental practices of Donald Trump’s father over half-a-century ago.

As for this latest incident, the wife of the Hero of Impeachment One and sister-in-law of a Virginia congressional candidate sums up the general attitude of the Dems:

No ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday afternoon.

— Rachel Vindman 🇺🇸🦅🌻 (@natsechobbyist) September 15, 2024

As Hugh Hewitt responded, “The family of Corey Comperatore would like a word with Rachel Vindman.”

So would I, actually. So, I imagine, would a great many other Real Americans—a very private word, up close and personal, one she would in no wise enjoy hearing.

Does sorta make me wonder though, if only in a devil’s advocate sort of way: given the kind of brain-dead dysfunctionals they’ve sent forth so far—useless feebs who’ve made a career of being unable to find their own asses with both hands and a compass—can we say they really DO want him dead? I mean, is what we’ve seen so far really the best they have in the FederalGovCo ranch? Because if so, they just might be as pathetic and incompetent as some of us have said all along. Might explain a lot, if you look at it that way.

Comeuppance for not-great Brit

Posted on September 17, 2024September 17, 2024 by Mike

Another impeccable smackdown, this one an oldie but goldie from 2018.

WATCH: British State Media Hack Does Migrant Propaganda, Polish MEP Immediately Slaps Her Down
Having gone down a rabbit hole of Eastern Europe’s policies vis-à-vis Third World immigration, I came across a wild 2018 clip featuring Cathy Newman and Dominik Tarczyński, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) on the topic of Poland’s blanket refusal of “refugees.”

Cathy didn’t know what she was getting into. She must have thought she was dealing with a limp-wristed Tory or whatever passes for nationalism in Great Britain these days.

Eastern Europeans are built differently.

Cathy insists on calling them “refugees”; Tarczyński insists in turn on calling them illegal Muslim immigrants. Cathy is consternated that Tarczyński seems “proud” that his country rejects Muslim immigrants; Tarczyński is unfazed. Cathy asks how many “refugees” Poland has taken, and he gives her the exact answer, to which she responds by accusing him of — and you’ll be shocked — racism:

Zero…If you’re asking me about Muslim illegal immigration, none, not even one, will come to Poland, not even one if it’s illegal. We took over two million Ukrainians who are working, who are peaceful in Poland, we will not receive even one Muslim because this is what we promised…

This is why our government was elected. This is why Poland is so safe. This is the reason why we have not even one terrorist attack…We can be called populists, nationalists, racists, I don’t care. I care about my family and my country.

As well he might, and damn’ sure oughta. Onwards.

You might recall Cathy Newman from her self-immolating “interview” with Jordan Peterson that was actually just her shadow-boxing a caricature that she made up about him, which subsequently went viral for all the reasons she wished it hadn’t — a painful exhibition of the kind of straw manning the corporate state media is notorious for.

Yet here are the Polish handling their “refugee” crisis in the most appropriate manner possible, except that perhaps they are using non-lethal weapons like pepper spray instead of more determinative tools.

For the nonce, anyhow. Even so, I think it entirely safe to say that such-like dreadful escalation is almost certainly coming, and that right soon—in scattered at-risk subsectors, if not across whacking great swathes of Western Civ entire.

In any event, how refreshing it is that the leaders of Poland, Hungary, and other former Soviet-bloc nation-states remain sensible enough, indomitable enough, defiantly patriotic enough, to unapologetically put the interests of their own people first and foremost (the esteemed and estimable Hungarian PM Viktor Orban gets a mention in the cited article)—as opposed to the dickless so-called “leadership” of Great Britainistan and the EUnuch dogpile who are only too eager to tuck their tails fearfully, roll over onto their backs and present their yellow bellies in a piteous show of abject submission, and sell out their own subject populations for a mess of PC pottage.

For whatever bizarre reason, “leaders” of MZZXXX Newman’s despicable stripe always seem to be far more keen to attack, insult, and brutalize their own hapless countrymen than the designated “victim”-class colonizers du jour. Far be it from those lordly beings to commingle with the deplorable Other Ranks; simply unthinkable, to demean their exalted personages via deigning to root, snort, and swill at the slop-troughs of the mud-caked domestic Lower Orders right alongside the appalling Rayciss!!™ swine. Heaven forfend!

Not Our Kind, wot-wot! Now do be a dear, lovey: run along and fetch me another of your exquisite Melonball Martinis, woon’tchew? The SuperJumboPlus-sized flagon, if you please, with mounds and mounds of orange slices, lime and lemon wedges, Maraschino cherries, festive swizzle sticks, and those delightful miniature cocktail brollies, thenksveddymuch. Mind you don’t forget a wad of the small beverage nappies, me lass, printed in the most frightfully lurid colors to hand. Pip-pip and jolly good show, eh wot? I sye, THERE’S a good serving-wench! Give no attention to the overfed, bespectacled bugger bearing an uncanny resemblance to an overgrown frog in mismatched, spectacularly unfashionable clothing, there by the bar-counter waving his hand unctuously at you. To my undying shame I’m personally acquainted with the ill-favored blighter, we were at school together as boys. Take it from me, he’s a wrong ‘un: a pox, a right perisher, an absolute rotter—by way, actually, of being the neighborhood curse. Sod him! Off y’go then, and good luck to ye. Well done, tallyho, yoicks, topping, cheerio, and all that rubbish…

That being the case, trust Newman and her Globalist Ruling Class cohort to bark at their national brethren and sistren (a-HENH!) more ferociously, bite them more savagely, harass them more perfervidly, and oppress them more creatively, variously, and incessantly than they ever will anybody else. With the GRC©, it’s nothing but bowing, simpering rumpswabbery for immivader hordes, avowed-enemy shitrapies, and assorted plunderous beggar-nations. For the poor benighted sods they misrule, however, it’s the back of the hand, sneering contumely, and languorous disdain at best, neither more nor less.

Yes, both Over There and rat cheer in Amerika v2.0 as well, in case anybody was about to comfort themselves with a relieved sigh and the tired old standby, “Thank goodness it can never happen here!” Alas, it is my painful duty to inform you all, with utmost sorrow and regret, that oh yes it certainly can; in fact it has, it is, and it will continue to. That is, unless/until it is stopped—forcefully, unmercifully, decisively, beyond the most niggling possibility of misinterpretation, misrepresentation, or disputatious picking of nits. I refer you to Mike’s Iron Law #873, among several others, for confirmation, related observations in support of etc, tawdry sloganeering, and other random unpleasantness.

The GRC©’s arrogance is illimitable; their self-regard insufferable; their perspective badly skewed; their immoderation rampant, their compassion for their own Serf Class inferiors imperceptible. It’s the way of all pusillanimous pissants, see; it’s who they are, it’s what they do, always and forever, in every place, in every time. It cometh naturally to them, this ragged pastiche of traits, tendencies, and motivations born less of conscious thought and self-volition than of quasi-autonomic reflex.

As for the FUSA itself, if John and Betty Sue Normal want this unprecedented traducement of all and every precept of good governance, basic human decency, and the security and safety of their homes, their towns, and their very persons to stop (which, it appears that they do; I mean, how could they NOT, for Pete’s sake?), they must needs deal with the grotesque, sewer-crawling mutants of their own domestic Swamp-Critter Class who are responsible—directly, spitefully, heedlessly, intentionally, and with malice aforethought—for calling this unwarranted affliction down on their heads if they seriously hope to make it happen.

We all know full well what that means, what it will necessarily entail, whether we admit the cold, harsh reality to ourselves or not. So will we or won’t we, then? Only time will tell. And, I suspect, not a great deal more of it, either.

Speaking of those GRC© shitwits, a classic Monty Python skit would not go amiss, I shouldn’t think.

Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs Lincoln?

Posted on September 16, 2024September 16, 2024 by Mike

The Show goes on. And on, and on, and interminably on.

BREAKING.🚨

Senator @HawleyMO releases *WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT* on the failed J13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

The whistleblower made a number of allegations. Highlights:

Majority of DHS personnel unfamiliar with security protocols

Only training received by many HSI agents was a single two-hour webinar

Law enforcement was supposed to be on roof where Crooks shot Trump, post was abandoned

Night before the rally, Secret Service denied offers to utilize Butler County’s drones

USS Counter Surveillance Division (CSD) did not perform routine pre-event surveillance

Gunman would have been handcuffed after being spotted with range finder if USS CSD present

Secret Service lead agent lacked competence and experience

Secret Service preemptively informed Pittsburgh field office the Butler rally was not going to receive additional security resources

Hawley’s whistleblower report concludes:

“Two months have now elapsed since former President Donald J. Trump was nearly assassinated. And the American people still know far too little about why this happened.”

“The Secret Service, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security have not been forthcoming with the American people. Far from it: they have closed ranks, refused to confirm or deny whistleblower allegations, and resisted meaningful oversight. In fact, sources with direct knowledge of Secret Service’s own internal investigation have alleged to Senator Hawley that the Department of Homeland Security is leaning on Secret Service not to comply with document requests from Congress.” […]

“Left alone, these agencies will not reform themselves. They will continue to stonewall and obfuscate. Plainly, it is now up to Congress and the President to clean house at these failing agencies at the earliest possible opportunity.”

WELL, thank goodness this report has at last come out to tell us what we all already knew! Now, betcher by golly we’ll see some for-real ACTION taken here. Right? RIGHT? RIIIIGHT…?!?

* crickets *

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Not that I wish to dump overmuch on Sen Hawley, mind; his heart seems to be in the right place, for the most part at least. Certainly, his child-like faith that “Congress and the President” will respond with alacrity and “clean house at these failing agencies at the earliest possible opportunity” is touching. But all in all, I have to agree with this response:

So now the Obvious is in a formal Report.
Thanks Senator Hawley.
Anybody going to go to jail over it?
I didn’t think so, pic.twitter.com/x8HueplLHE

— Arthur Dent (@ArthurDent2024)

September 16, 2024

Word to yo’ mother.

Civics lesson

Posted on September 15, 2024September 15, 2024 by Mike

A brief tutorial for pig-ignorant shitlibs. Not that they’re listening, or care.

No, the Electoral College Is Not a Relic of Slavery
Consistent with federalist principles, the Constitution gives the states control over our presidential elections, providing a check on majoritarianism.

Since the 2000 presidential election, the left has worked to undermine the legitimacy of the Electoral College, labeling it a relic of slavery. No doubt, if Donald Trump returns to the White House while again losing the popular vote, these attacks will be renewed with fervor. In fact, it has already begun as commentators denounce the undemocratic nature of the system. Just last month, the New York Times published a piece trashing the Constitution and asserting that the Electoral College’s only purpose was to protect slavery. These critiques are based on misconceptions and hostility toward the very structure of our Constitution.

The History
Our method of electing the president came about through compromise. The framers agreed upon a system that ensured the states had a say in choosing the president. The Constitution gives each state a share of electors, and the states decide for themselves how to select those electors.

At the time of the constitutional convention, popular elections would have favored the North because the North’s population of free persons would have outstripped the South’s. This dynamic is why the South pushed for a system that proportioned the electoral vote based on population, including slaves.

But nothing in the Electoral College system inherently favored slavery. You could have had an Electoral College system that did not count slaves as part of the population for the purpose of distributing electors. Thus, it was the counting of slaves in proportioning electors via the infamous “three-fifths clause” that protected slavery.

In fact, even if slavery had never existed, the states would never have agreed to a method of electing the president that stripped them of having a say in the matter. Protecting state sovereignty and ensuring less populous states had influence were key features of the compromise. Therefore, slavery may have been one of several reasons for the compromise, but it certainly was not the reason.

The Merits
The way state delegations elect the chief executive may have been the product of compromise, but that does not detract from the merits of the system, which include geographic representation and respect for state sovereignty. This is true even if you believe the Electoral College is a part of slavery’s legacy.

In a national election, in a country as large and diverse as ours, representation based on geographic segments of the population is far superior to the mob rule of a purely popular vote. We are not a monolithic society. Life and perspectives vary based on location. This is especially true when you consider the differences between state governments, which attract different types of people.

America is an enormous nation, and a system based solely on the popular vote would allow densely populated cities to dominate. This dynamic is particularly problematic when one considers that urban populations often want to impose their culture and policy preferences on others, whereas rural populations generally want to be left alone. Just think about how Democrats want virtually everything to be regulated nationally by the feds.

But regardless of this left-versus-right paradigm, it is simply better to give the different geographic elements of the nation and the states a voice on national matters to somewhat lessen the ability of the majority to steamroll political minorities.

Of course, “The Merits” are precisely why the Goosesteppin’ Left wants the EC—one of the most meritorious and ingenious innovations devised by the Founders to help stave off the rise of the “democracy” they correctly abjured as “mob rule”—tossed onto the ash-heap of History. With the lamentable 17th Amendment fully and firmly in place, the Electoral College is effectively the (former) Republic’s last desperate, flickering hope; once it’s been done away with, the disassembling of America That Was (ie, America as Founded) will be achieved, and its “fundamental transformation” into a tyrrannous shitrapy will be complete at last.

Lots more yet at the link, every last syllable of it fine, fine stuff. CF Lifers will be quite familiar with the subject material, no doubt, but you’ll enjoy reading the whole thing nonetheless, if only as a refresher-course. Lord knows they ain’t teaching this stuff in government schools anymore, and there’s a reason for it—a nefarious, unlovely, disturbing reason, to be sure.

Fight the Futurists

Posted on September 11, 2024September 12, 2024 by Mike

Forget Fox Mulder, what we need most right now is Sarah Conner.

Time To Rebel: We Are Now Entering The Total Censorship Stage Of Global Tyranny
The authoritarian regimes of the past century have all followed a pattern of events that is generally predictable. Almost every totalitarian government has been inspired by the ideologies of the political left. Meaning, increasingly bigger government, socialist control of resources, the melding of bureaucracy and corporate entities, demands for “social justice”, collectivist propaganda, the abandonment of individual merit for the sake of the state and the “greater good”, Marxism not just from an economic standpoint but also a cultural standpoint, and finally, the adoption of Futurism.

Futurism is, in my view, the key to all modern authoritarianism. It’s a philosophy that has been present at the birth of nearly every major despotic government in recent memory and it’s the root of leftist ideology today. Futurists argue that history is, for the most part, dead weight. They believe that every notion of heritage, the lessons of the past, the ideals and principles of our forefathers are all irrelevant.

Futurists think nothing is sacred and all new ideas are superior to all old ideas. Therefore, they claim, any society that clings to (or conserves) the old ways needs to be dismantled because it is holding humanity back from progress. In other words, anyone promoting or defending traditional norms must be silenced in the name of “progress.”

I suspect most people reading this at least intuitively understand the monstrous nature of this belief system. The very structure of futurism is based on a lie – The idea that all change is good and that any oppression committed in the name of change is justified.

In Brazil, leftist authoritarians have shut down Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) because Musk has refused to institute their censorship model on his social media site. To Musk’s credit, he has been willing to lose Brazil’s business and stand by his principles.

The developments in the UK are another blatant example, with the government now trying to hunt down and imprison people for the most minor of actions (a British teen was recently put in prison for two years for merely flying a British flag near a Mosque). Anyone who stands against multiculturalism (and futurism) risks being arrested and thrown in a cage.

UK authorities have suggested that Elon Musk should be charged and that other Americans should be extradited for promoting conservative values on immigration or arguing in favor of British protests. We’re just pointing out that there’s only two ways this can go: Either the British people rebel and violently overthrow the globalist puppets in their own government, or, they will become slaves living in fear within their own country.

It sounds truly insane; all of this drama over basic free speech rights, but this is the world we are now approaching and leftists are happily supporting the transition.

Musk has stated that he believes X will eventually be shut down in the US should Kamala Harris gain the presidency in the November election, and I’m inclined to agree. Look at what the establishment did to social media newcomer Parler when they started gaining traction; the elites simply shut down their ability to function efficiently on the web grow their user base. Under a Harris regime they will feel emboldened to go even further.

The rhetoric of the Democrats is quite clear – They are anti-free speech and they view certain ideas as a threat to our THEIR society.

And that, as is the way with all tyrants, is something they just will not stand for. The silver lining? Smith puts it pithily:

Frankly, a rebellion doesn’t need to ask for permission to rebel.

Indeed it doesn’t; certainly, it shouldn’t be asking. The question before us remains the same old one I’m becoming downright monotonous about asking: are there enough Real Americans left who are genuinely interested in rebelling? Read the rest for Smith’s perhaps overly optimistic response. Which brings us right back around to Bedford Forrest’s evergreen admonition to “get ‘em skeered, and keep the skeer on ‘em.”

Update! Via Glenn: related? Oh, you just bet your sweet bippy it is.

What September 11, 2001 Taught Us: There Are No Adults in the Room
The Axis of Evil in American politics is now complete: Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, and Kamala Harris are all on the same side. They will compromise on any of their supposed ideological differences and bury old blood-stained hatchets — remember when the Left called Cheney a war profiteer and blood-crazed jingoist? — in pursuit of a higher goal.

That goal is keeping power in the hands of tiny, privileged elites who despise most lesser Americans. And centralizing such power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, including the power to start pointless wars (see Iraq, Libya, and Ukraine), and flood American cities with tens of thousands of poor immigrants. Remember that it was Bush/Cheney that started the policy of recruiting Somalis and flying them over 10 safe Muslim countries in order to make Minnesota more “diverse.” Mission accomplished!

You could see the coalition taking shape years ago, when all the Best People gathered for John McCain’s funeral in Washington, D.C., and then-President Donald Trump was pointedly disinvited. Our elites air-kissed and traded alligator tears around McCain’s flag-draped casket. In a touching moment of bipartisan polyamory, George W. Bush and Michelle Obama flirted like 13-year-olds while Barack looked on with a smile.

What unites these power elites beside a haughty contempt for the public they claim to serve? One key qualification that is too little discussed, even among MAGA types: amoral, blasé, dilettantish incompetence, unencumbered by moral principles or basic human empathy.

Few of these high-flying powerbrokers rose to the top on merit. As one of us (John) explained in his September 31, 2022 TED Talk in Davos, Switzerland, these people are sharp-toothed, aggressive “alpha sheep,” whose skill set centers on sniffing out elite opinion, quickly conforming to it, then ruthlessly punishing any member of the herd that steps out of line.

Time and past time that these “alpha sheep” got their asses sheared, but good. Trust me when I tell y’uns that you’re gonna want to read every last word of this one too.

The Axis of Prestige

Posted on September 7, 2024September 7, 2024 by Mike

Dead on point, and a hilarious analogy.

Some of you may be wondering why the entire bureaucratic caste of the USA is completely obsessed with weird sex stuff.

Sure, we can all have good fun ranting about how insane this cult is, and watching them melt down when we leave skid marks on their sacred icons, but sooner or later, you gotta ask… why.

It’s the toaster-fucker problem. Some of you may be familiar. Goes like this, and I quote:

I blame the internet. Back in the days before it, we had to learn to live with those around us, now you can just go out and find someone as equally stupid as yourself.

I call it the toaster fucker problem. Man wakes up in 1980, tells his friends “I want to fuck a toaster” Friends quite rightly berate and laugh at him, guy deals with it, maybe gets some therapy and goes on a bit better adjusted.

Guy in 2021 tells his friends that he wants to fuck a toaster, gets laughed at, immediately jumps on facebook and finds “Toaster Fucker Support group” where he reads that he’s actually oppressed and he needs to cut out everyone around him and should only listen to his fellow toaster fuckers.

Apply this analogy to literally any insular bubble, it applies as equally to /r/thedonald as it does to the emaciated Che Guevara larpers that cry thinking about ringing their favourite pizza place.

But the toaster fucker problem doesn’t stop there.

Because every social group has an axis of prestige. They have to compete with each other for status somehow. That’s what humans do.

And in the toaster-fucking group, the axis of prestige aligns with fucking toasters.

So first they compete to see who can fuck the most toasters.

Then, when that is saturated, they one up each other by being most open with the general public about their toaster fucking ways.

Then they make toaster-fucker pride t-shirts and hats and bumper stickers.

Then they move on to bragging about how they sneak into other people’s kitchens and fuck their toasters, too, and swap tips for how to introduce kids to the joys of toaster-fucking.

But it doesn’t stop there, either.

Pretty soon normal people, who ten years before would shrugged and said “that’s weird”, are now sick of toaster-fucker flags everywhere and their kids being told to fuck toasters by sickos, and now they’re going to burn every toaster-fucker flag they see, and Florida just passed a law requiring you to be 21 years old with proof of ID to buy a toaster. And Utah has banned toasters altogether and the Mormons have stopped even eating toast, bagels, waffles, or any other heated bread product.

But it doesn’t stop there, either.

And, incredible as it may seem to saner sorts, it doesn’t. It really, really doesn’t.

(Via Bayou Peter)

SitRep

Posted on September 4, 2024 by Mike

Chris Bray discusses where it’s at, where it’s going, and where it might end up.

Jackbooted Paste Eaters
it’s illegal for you to notice that i pick my nose, you fascist, so you have to go to prison

The current unifying theme among a set of people who regard themselves as progressive, liberal, mainstream, respectable, and so on, is a spectacular punishment fetish. Arrest them arrest them arrest them arrest them, they helpfully explain about people who disagree with them about anything, ever. See, for an easy example of the discipline fetish, this quite popular reader-generated “diary” post from a few days ago at Daily Kos, arguing that Tulsi Gabbard’s “Quiet Skies” designation is a proper use of the state security apparatus against a domestic enemy:

It seems to this reader that our intelligence services are merely doing their jobs on this one. Given all of the terrorist horror that Putin has unleashed on the world, if Homeland Security wasn’t keeping an eye on people who meet Gabbard’s profile, I’d be deeply confused and worried. In any case, it seems that in Gabbard finally becoming a part of Trump’s team, the Kremlin is starting to put all of their rotten eggs in one basket and that should make things a bit easier for Homeland Security to do their jobs.

Underlying the teeth-grinding lust for a good firm application of the belt and the rounding up of domestic enemies is an attitude about authority that presumes the correctness of obedience and the proper absence of checks and balances. As Matt Taibbi noted yesterday, the Washington Post has just run a tech policy analysis arguing that social media executives have “thumbed their noses at authorities” — but the authorities are working to “bring tech giants to heel.”

Nearly every paragraph of this Washington Post thing contains extremely telling language, like the description of the brave judge Alexandre de Moraes fighting for democracy in Brazil by repressing platforms that tolerate the evil of dangerously unmediated speech, or the Eastern Bloc-flavored description of social media figures like Elon Musk as “impudent.” Note that, while social media leaders are being “brought to heel,” they’re also being “reined in.”

So the tolerant liberals are both yanking the leash and jerking on the reins, bringing the animals into submission. To protect democracy.

Underscoring once again why it was that the Founders abhorred and feared democracy vehemently, explicitly, and unequivocally. As a classic 1st-Generation meme had it: “Liberals” are the people the Founding Fathers warned us about; they’re the precise reason why the Second Amendment exists in the first place. Wise men, those Founder-dudes were. The bill for having ignored their sagacious advice is now coming due, and the price of our flaccid negligence is dreadfully steep.

But yeah, I’m sure we can find SOME way to peaceably coexist cheek-by-jowl with the Goosesteppin’ Left scourge. All’s Real Americans will have to do is agree to siddown, shaddup, and Submit©, no biggie. Left unanswered is just why any self-respecting, liberty-minded Patriot would even WANT to peaceably coexist with such as they.

Hit the road, Jack

Posted on August 20, 2024August 20, 2024 by Mike

It’s already been noted by Barry and Kenny in the comments, and happily, it appears to be the genuine article.

Normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck makes Harley-Davidson do a U-turn on woke policies
Conservative boycotts evidently work wonders.

Conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck announced on X Monday that under threat of boycott and amidst a concerted pressure campaign, the 121-year-old motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson has scrapped various leftist initiatives.

“We did it again,” wrote Starbuck. “3 for 3. The left fears what I’m doing because it’s effective. The attacks will increase with the plan we have but we have a plan and it accounts for the arrows that will be fired at us. We won’t slow down for anyone.”

Blaze News previously reported that Starbuck and others blasted Tractor Supply, a company established in 1938, for mandating that its employees undergo “LGBTQIA+ training,” for funding sex-change mutilations through its health plan, and for sponsoring so-called family-friendly transvestite performances, as well as for other leftist initiatives.

The exposure was evidently too much to handle, as Tractor Supply announced on June 27 that it had taken the “feedback to heart” and would no longer volunteer data to the powerful LGBT activist group that calls itself the Human Rights Campaign; would ditch “DEI roles and retire [its] current DEI goals”; and would jettison its carbon emission goals.

When similarly targeted for liberation, John Deere similarly traded the LGBT colors back for the red, white, and blue, indicating it would “no longer participate in or support external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals, or events” and would be taking additional steps to shore up customer trust.

Last month, Starbuck launched his latest campaign: a boycott of Harley-Davidson, a once-beloved motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1903.

In a series of social media posts and videos, he provided fuel for a Bud Light-style boycott, alleging that the company:

supports legislation that would enable men to enter “girl’s bathrooms, sports and locker-rooms”;

required thousands of employees to undertake training on “how to become LGBTQ+ allies”;

was a founding member of Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce — a group that opposed a law that would have saved children from sex-change mutilations;

celebrated two additional “Months of Inclusion” beside so-called Pride Month;

worked on having “less White suppliers, dealers and employees”;

partnered yearly with “Pride Ride”; and

partnered with the Human Rights Campaign on non-straight activism, ultimately securing a 90/100 rating on the HRC’s CEI index.

Starbuck also highlighted some statements made and actions taken by the company’s German-born CEO, Jochen Zeitz, that might prickle customers, including:

his boast that his corporate activism had at least one peer calling him the “sustainable Taliban”;

signing of a joint letter to the COP28 presidency demanding an end to fossil fuels;

criticism of President Donald Trump for leaving the Paris Agreement;

committal of Harley-Davidson to the UN Global Compact; and

advocacy for DEI.

“I don’t think the values at corporate reflect the values of nearly any Harley Davidson bikers,” wrote Starbuck. “Do Harley riders want the money they spend at Harley to be used later by corporate to push an ideology that’s diametrically opposed to their own values?”

Whatever pressure Americans helped apply in concert with the conservative filmmaker appears to have been enough.

At noon on Monday, Harley-Davidson stated on X, “We are saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks, designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community. As a Company, we take this issue very seriously, and it is our responsibility to respond with clarity, action and facts.”

Harley-Davidson claimed that pursuant to an internal stakeholder review initiated earlier this year, the company has kicked its supplier diversity spend goals to the curb and does not have hiring quotas. It noted further that its “DEI function” has been dead since April 2024 and the company does “not have a DEI function today.”

More yet at the link, all of it heady, enheartening stuff. Sincerest kudos and a hearty Yo Ho Ho for swashbuckling “Normalcy Advocate” Robbie Starbuck, who says he very much digs his new title, as well he might. I know plenty of CF Lifers don’t much care one way or the other about Harley-Davidson, which is their good right. Ultimately, though, the Motor Company being hauled off into Wokester oblivion would have been another resounding victory for the Goosesteppin’ Left—something we can ill-afford more of, greasy, grubby bikers and cage-driving squarejohns alike. So good on ya, Mr Starbuck sir, keep up the fine work.

H8RRRZ

Posted on August 20, 2024August 20, 2024 by Mike

Feel the love, the “joy,” the compassion, the empathy. That weirdo JD Vance certainly does.

What the hell is this?

Why is @AndyBeshearKY wishing that a member of my family would get raped?!?

What a disgusting person. https://t.co/11Kp1h92MN

— JD Vance (@JDVance)

August 20, 2024

The only thing at all shocking about this is how entirely NOT shocking it is. Still think I’m in any way kidding around, hyperbolizing, or exaggerating for effect when I call them The Enemy and/or say “kill them ALL,” prithee tell?

Sure, I could chase my tail pointing out that the overwhelming majority of abortions are not the result of rape but of using abortion as an alternate, last-ditch form of birth control, but I refuse to waste my time shouting at brick walls.

Another American icon bites the big Woke one

Posted on August 15, 2024August 16, 2024 by Mike

Gonna be a lot of serious re-thinking going on in American bikerdom thanks to this revoltin’ development.

Woke Harley-Davidson CEO Compares Himself to the Taliban
A Harley-Davidson rider can be almost anyone, from an actual Hell’s Angel to your kids’ orthodontist. While the company has had its ups and downs, the bikes have long been an American icon for riders with “a passion for the motorcycle lifestyle, valuing freedom, adventure, and camaraderie,” according to marketing experts Keegan-Edwards.

There’s an image that goes along with the iconic bikes, and although I hardly need to tell you what it is, I will.

That image is: “Islamic terrorist.”

Wait…wut?

In a video just made infamous on Wednesday by Robby Starbuck, Harley-Davidson president, CEO, and Chairman Jochen Zeitz says he became the “Taliban” when he became a board member and says his job is to “take on capitalism and redefine it.”

“It’s important that we create new leadership,” Zeitz said, “that we get others to join a new thinking of a more sustainable business, of a better business that is more equitable in every respect. Socially, environmentally, and financially.”

(For what it’s worth, German-born Zeitz came to Harley from luxury goods company Kering, where he chaired the Sustainability Committee.)

Customers have noticed Harley’s descent into wokeism since Zeitz came on board in 2020, but comparing his role to the Taliban must count as a new low.

Indeed so. I never thought I’d see the day, and fervently hoped never to. Actually, it never occurred to me that such a thing was even possible. But sad as it is, deeply as it pains me to have to say it, I can only agree with this guy’s assessment.

How I now view people that own and ride Harleys: pic.twitter.com/KUjY93sEbL

— RichardSloeWinslow (@SloeWinslow)

August 14, 2024

Pathetic. Dismaying. Maddening. Sickening. Infuriating. William Harley, Arthur and Walter Davidson, the great Jay Springsteen, Chocolate George, Billy “Chains” Flamont, and Sonny Barger are all rolling in their graves like a Shovelhead stroker crank assembly at 6k revs. In their eternal disquiet, they shan’t want for old-school-biker company.

I pray to Almighty God that the Wokester wreckers and despoilers will someday be made to pay for their vile predation, their iniquitous disrespect, their illimitable arrogance, and their callow gormlessness. In at least one way, the usurpers and besmirchers of the proud Harley-Davidson legacy almost certainly will pay ere the end, as Stephen goes on to explain.

David “Iowahawk” Burge, a man who knows more about American car culture than almost anyone else you’re likely to meet, just called it the “Possibly single most hilarious corporate self-immolation of all time.”

It is. And yet I’ve reached the point where I’m not sure I can laugh over the destruction of yet another American icon.

Your typical Harley buyer is going to become like your typical Bud Light buyer: increasingly scarce, driven away by a brand whose management despises them and their values.

I’m forced to conclude that when Zeitz says he’s going to change Harley-Davidson “in a sustainable way,” he means he thinks he can milk the company for several years before the loss of market value and brand cachet forces the board to kick his can to the curb.

It’d be nice to think so, perhaps, but I very much doubt that’s how the story will end. Far more likely, I think, that the Motor Company succumbs finally to the Wokester mind virus, goes out of business, and is forever lost except in the fond reminiscences of people like me.

H-D has very nearly gone under a good few times over its well over a century of sometimes precarious existence. How Kafka-esque it is, then, that after having somehow managed to stay afloat through so many trials and tribulations—WW2; Korea; Vietnam; the late-60s/early-70s calculated flooding of the US motorcycle market by cheap imports from Japan’s Big Four (Hon-duh, Kawasucki, Sudookey, Yammahammablamma); the ginned-up fuel “crisis” of the mid/late 70s; the rise of Safety Naziism in the 80s; the slow strangulation of individual liberty, independent-mindedness, and the quintessentially American spirit of rowdiness, defiance, and devil-may-care ebullience; the crippling effects of economic mismanagement, FederalGovCo meddling, and general malfeasance under D卐M☭CRAT regimes—it should be PC/Woke/Leftardism that ends up killing Harley off once and for all.

Update! Just remembered: for anyone interested in further perambulations from li’l ol’ moi on the Motor Company’s serially abusive, exploitative, and/or contemptuous relationship with its most loyal customers, check it, yo:

I love Harleys. I hate Harley-Davidson. That seems to be the consensus among old-school biker types these days, and they just might have themselves a point, too.

The Motor Company has always had its problems keeping its hardcore fan base happy. It seems to have a special talent for stepping on its own crank and pissing off (or on) the very people who did the most to make it the institution it is today. Ever since I’ve been riding H-D’s (since ‘82), I’ve heard complaint after complaint, and seen the Powers That Be at H-D making the sort of bonehead moves, again and again, that regularly generate those complaints like some sort of whacked-out fuckup factory.

What the hell could they have been thinking when they decided to sue independent bike shops that used “hog” or some variation thereof in their shop name? I’m sure most of you remember that one. It ain’t as if Harley thought that “hog” business up themselves, after all. But they sure were willing enough to glom onto the idea—and then have their slickee-boy lawyers claim it as their very own private property.

That’s the opening ‘graphs from one of my Leatherballs columns—the very first of ‘em, in fact—for the now-defunct Outlaw Biker rag, the rest of which column can be read here. Last time I checked, which I admit has been a minute, the Compleat Leatherballs Archives are exclusively available here at Ye Aulde CF Blogge and absolutely noplace else, seeing as how the OB site went the way of the diplodocus some years back.

I confess to being right proud of the work I produced under the Leatherballs nom de villein, every ounce as much as I am of my twenty-plus years of award-winning, justly (in)famous creative genius at this palatial websty, so I think it only meet and just that the LB catalog should at last find its Forever Home rat cheer at CF. Do check ‘em out if you haven’t yet; even if

You’ve never slung a leg over a leaky, squeaky, shaky, flaky ol’ Gnarley-D in your life
Have not even a tiny, inoffensive, easily-concealable tattoo
Don’t own any H-D dealership T shirts, engineer boots, chain-wallets, or black leather jackets
Don’t drink beer, chase loose women, participate enthusiastically in barroom brawls, and/or have never spent so much as a minute behind bars

…and ain’t about to subject yourself to any of those things at this late stage of the game, I think you’ll find the Leatherballs experience a highly enjoyable ride anyhoo.

Updated update! Just a few more thoughts on the topic I seem to have wandered off to: namely, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company’s perennially-contentious relationship with its core customer base.

For starters, it must be noted that, until the advent of what we hardcores, ironbutts, and/or scooter trash dubbed the RUBbies (ie, Rich Urban Bikers, mimicking the once-ubiquitous “Yuppie” (Young Urban Professional) moniker), long-haired, bearded, burly Hog jockeys were usually welcomed at licensed H-D dealerships with open arms. Most of the folks who owned, managed, wrenched, manned the parts counter or paint shop, or what have you were dedicated, serious riders themselves; as such, they didn’t have a problem with biker trash, even patchholders, habituating their dealerships, whether buying parts or apparel, checking out the new Harleys on the showroom floor, or just hanging out with other bikers to socialize and shoot the breeze.

Growing up on Jap dirt bikes as a child, then graduating to the street with a Kawasaki LTD 550, I had always been intimidated, sometimes even a little bit afraid, of those big, bad, smelly, dangerous Harley outlaw-biker types. And the one constant throughout my entire life has been this bizarre attraction to put myself right in the middle of any situation, company, or environment I was scared of. It was like a compulsion, really. That being the case, being a-skeered of them biker ruffians and all, what else could I do but start spending my Saturday afternoons at the long-gone H-D of CLT shop on S Tryon Street?

To my astonishment and lasting delight, those big, gruff-talking outlaws were without exception some of the friendliest, warmest, most big-hearted people I ever have met. They took this 19 year old, wet-behind-ears shavetail in like a long-lost brother or son, encouraging my interest, offering to help work on or wash my Kawasaki, telling road stories, just generally making the newb feel welcome and entirely at home.

About two years or so of hanging around and establishing my rightful place among Harley enthusiasts, I bought my first Harley: a 1983 Sportster XLH (for nonitiates, an XL prefix=Sportster; FX=Super Glide, Wide Glide, Disc Glide, Lowrider, etc; FL=full-on Hog of fame and legend). It marked the beginning of my lifelong love affair with the smaller, leaner, more nimble sibling to the Big Twins. And incredibly enough, I continued to find the bikers I was meeting more and more of to be unfailingly friendly, outgoing, and quite mellow. In fact, several of the friends I made back then remain close, dear friends to this very day; I just missed a call from one of them, my brother Dean, due to my being in the can taking a whiz. I’ll call him back tomorrow, no worries.

In sum, then, the antagonistic attitude, the officiousness and contempt, wasn’t something I ever encountered at dealerships, independent shops, or bars catering to those scary biker thugs. Except one: an H-D dealership in upstate Virginia, only a mile or thereabouts from I-81 near the West By God Virginia line. The name of the ‘burgh whence this asshole enclave got its name I won’t mention here; the account of that misadventure is recounted in full here. But yeah, trust me on this: assholes, every man in that sorry excuse for a Harley shop was a pluperfect asshole.

Years later, I was told by folks from the area who would know whereof they spoke that I didn’t catch the dealership assholes on an off day; according to these people, the staff of this dealership was renowned for being snotty, obnoxious, and unhelpful. I was informed that, should I ever find myself in similar straits in that locality in future, there was a really cool independent H-D shop not far away on the other side of the I-81 overpass, a small, honest establishment which had nary an asshole, prick, or douchenozzle on the payroll.

I’ve had neither dealings with nor friends at the Motor Company itself, in any of its manufacturing facilities, warehouses, or administrative offices, at any level. What I DO have, though, is several friends who operate or did operate independent Harley shops here in CLT, in ATL, in North Myrtle Beach SC, and in Brooklyn—hell, as I’ve mentioned lots of times here, I spent more than a few years working in a CLT shop owned and operated by my close friend Goose. And those shop-owners and employees have given me a real earful about HDMC’s vicious, adversarial approach towards them.

As I related in the last-linked Leatherballs essay above, their relationships with the H-D knobs consisted entirely of threats, lawsuits, and legal, written, and verbal harassment. I never will forget the day Goose spent a good fifteen-twenty minutes enduring a barely-coherent harangue demanding that Goose posthaste and forthwith remove H-D’s fabled bar & shield artwork from our sign or face consequences most dire. Goose just sat there holding the phone out from his ear snickering quietly to himself until he’d gotten tired of it, whereupon he cut in to calmly and collectedly inform the frothing ass-clown that, y’know, thanks for your concern and all, but the fact of the matter is our shop doesn’t even HAVE a sign, never has had, much less any bar-and-shield logo painted, etched, engraved, or embossed thereon.

Goose slammed the receiver down onto its cradle, and we both proceeded to laugh ourselves sick at the ludicrous H-D dweeb, after which interlude we put the shop Rottweiler in his crate, locked the doors, and walked up the hill to the diner to grab lunch, still laughing all the way HA HA HA HA!

Out of, what, four (five?) proprietors of two-or-three-man independent shops in the CLT area I know well (lemmesee now; threre’s Dean-O, Smiley, Ben, Max, Eyeball, and Country Earl, so six), every one of them called us over the next few days to warn us of the impending telephonic onslaught from H-D’s rep in the York, PA Sporty assembly plant, informing us they’d had the exact same hostile long-distance interaction that exact same week as we two incarcerees of dear old McElhattan’s Machine & Rod had enjoyed, probably with that exact same besuited H-D numbskull, all concluding the exact same way: a thunderous hangup, a moment’s stupefaction over what the blue-black blazing hell THAT was supposed to be, followed by prolonged paroxysms of rib-cracking hilarity. For months afterward all any of us had to say to put the others on the floor rolling, kicking, and crying for mercy, was to launch into his best Goose impersonation: “But…but…but sir, our shop doesn’t even HAVE a sign! Not ANY!!!”

Remember, now, these independent businesses were the very people who had kept Harley going through the nightmare days of the AMF (Annoying Manufacturing Flaw) regency extending from 1969 to 1985, during which Harley’s manufacturing and assembly plants were auto-afflicted by a whopping 50% factory defect rate—which, translated from the book-keeperese, means every other Harley-Davidson motorcycle built and shipped to dealerships was a fucked-up piece of utter, hopeless shite. Your pardon, please: a fucked-up piece of utter, hopeless, EXPENSIVE shite.

Notwithstanding the unpleasant realities, the diehards hung in there with Harley-D, put up with the wallet-exsanguinating cost of parts and labor to get the overpriced lemone Harley had saddled them with running again, whereupon it would break down for the fifty-hundredth time that summer, be re-loaded into the pickup, and go back to the shop for yet another extended stay while the riding-season days ticked agonizingly by. As this soap opera continues, the payment to H-D Motor Credit continues to come due the first of each and every month.

I’m glad I wasn’t a Harley owner back then. If I had been, the urge to just throw up my hands and say fuck it, call the credit agency to please please pretty please come haul this overpriced, chrome-bedecked boat anchor off for repossession, thus freeing me to go buy the rice-grinding Honda I wish I’da bought in the first muhhfuggin’ place would’ve been crushing, totally overpowering.

“Ride With Pride”? Yeh, sure; pride is kinda hard to maintain when you spend more time pushing than riding, unfortunately. “I’d rather push my Harley than ride Jap crap”? In the AMF era, that oath would be put to the sorest of tests. “Better a sister in a whorehouse than a brother on a Honda?” Better ask your sister how she feels about it before you make a firm commitment to anything, bub.

Hey, I got a million of ‘em, ladies and germs. Be sure to try the chicken cacciatore, it’s so delicious it’d make your sweet old mammina weep from pure joy. I’ll be here all week folks, do come back for tomorrow night’s show. Of all the classic bumper sticker lines about Harleys, though, my personal favorite was, is, and forever shall remain: “H-D actually stands for Hound Dog, because they both love riding around in the back of pickup trucks and they both leave puddles where they ain’t supposed to.”

Ain’t that America

Posted on August 14, 2024August 14, 2024 by Mike

Welcome to Thunderdome.

Gov. Tim Walz had his police use paintball guns to sh**t Minnesota residents if they broke curfew by being on their porches during C*V*D pic.twitter.com/7C6cEZldXZ

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl)

August 13, 2024

Anybody who knows anything at all about paintball guns and ammo knows that those little suckers hurt like a brass-plated bitch, leave one hell of a Technicolor bruise, and are entirely capable of inflicting serious, permanent injury should one catch a round in the face, eye, or throat. As such, I consider it a scandal and a shame that nobody returned fire at the Minneapolistan Geheime Staatspolizei—and I do NOT mean with paintball guns, neither. Far as I’m concerned, there should’ve been lead-poisoned cops lying all over the street within moments after those filthy pigs opened the ball.

On innocent people guilty of nothing more, mind, than sitting out on their own front porch bothering, threatening, encroaching on, and/or harming nary a soul, in any conceivable manner.

Perhaps most sobering of all is that we’re only hearing about this state-sanctioned brutality now, four years after it occurred. Have Americans become so anesthetized, so complacent, so docile that wanton assault by marauding bands of brigands-with-badges can pass them blandly by without igniting a firestorm of public outrage, vilification, and howls for justice in its wake? FORBID IT, ALMIGHTY GOD!

The detestable Command Master Chief First Top Bird Colonel DELTA Force Power Ranger Sergeant of the US Army Gov Tampon Tim AWOLz shouldn’t get a pass for his part in this atrocity, of course, but he’s a Communist idiot so one doesn’t really expect much better from the twatwaffle. The thug cops, on the other hand, knew damned well that what they were doing was immoral, unlawful, reprehensible, and completely over the top, yet they did it anyway—and seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously, if the vid is any indication.

We DO expect better from the “Protect and Serve” boys, and are perfectly entitled to; in fact, we not only should, but must. Every last man Jack of these vicious schweinhunden ought to be identified, hunted down, and punished unsparingly for this outrage.

Liar, coward, Blue Falcon Part the Umpty-leventh

Posted on August 12, 2024 by Mike

Remember the other day when I said:

Actually, as I understand it, it was NOT his “right” to “retire early.” His contractual service commitment was not due to expire until 2007, but when word came down in late 2005 that his cannon-cocker unit would soon be deploying to Iraq, he summarily dropped out—after shitting himself in sheer terror, of course.

Yeah, well. About that.

According to Walz’s Command Sergeant Major, Walz had signed a six year contract when he re-upped in the National Guard in 2000. When he was notified that his unit would be mobilized for Iraq, he put in for retirement, despite having two years left to serve on his contract.

His superior denied his request — so Walz went up to two levels of command above to get someone to grant his quickie retirement (and breaking of his contract).

Why would someone let him out of the contract?

I don’t know, but remember, in 2004-2006, the Democrats’ big plan for defeating Bush and the Republicans was to recruit lots of people who could claim a military background, so they could challenge the Republicans’ notions of patriotism.

And it just so happened that as soon as this coward was let out, he declared he was running for Congress.

Did that motivate a politically-minded superior to give him a Get Out of War Free pass?

Of course it did. Next up: ask a silly question.

“It’s not a hypothetical for me. I’ve done that.”

Tim Walz clearly states he went to Afghanistan during a debate.

This is getting insane. How can someone lie so much? pic.twitter.com/7mm6zZ5fO8

— David Hookstead (@dhookstead)

August 11, 2024

A: He’s a fucking lying-ass D卐M☭CRAT, that’s how. Lying is not just SOP for such slimeballs as they, it’s mandatory.

Getting it straight

Posted on August 11, 2024August 11, 2024 by Mike

Regarding Herr Kommissar Starmer’s latest outrage.

Let me get this straight:

Keir Starmer is releasing violent criminals from prison just to replace them with people who commit thought crimes on @X.

And he is spending police resources investigating and going after people for retweets and Facebook posts when there is a shitload of violent crime all over Britain.

— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen)

August 10, 2024

I’m trying a little experiment on an end-run of my own devising around the annoying “Show more…” Twatter links. Let’s see how it goes. Inline update! Nope, didn’t work. Oh well, whatcha gonna do. No biggie, really; if Elon needs the extra clicks, I’m okay with not depriving him of ‘em.

As for Herr Starmer, Divemedic makes a crucial point.

The UK says that they will extradite and prosecute Americans for saying mean things on the Internet, which is a violation of UK law. It’s illegal to say mean things while engaging in political speech online.

You might scoff, but remember that it won’t be UK police coming to arrest you. It will be US cops coming to haul you away to be sent to the UK for doing something that is entirely legal to do here in the US.

Indeed. Thank goodness no US cop would ever arrest and/or extradite an America citizen to Britainistan for exercising his God-given, Constitutionally-protected right to free speech. What a relief!

Hemi requiem

Posted on July 31, 2024August 1, 2024 by Mike

Our blog-bud Eric Peters mourns the auto-destruction of a once-noble Detroit marque.

The End for Dodge?
Dodge is looking a little green around the gills all-of-a-sudden. Not just Dodge, either. Parent company Stellantis just posted “worse-than-expected” stats for the first half of this year.

“The company’s performance in the first half of 2024 fell short of our expectations,” CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement that doesn’t quite convey the extent of just how far those expectations fell short. Stellantis’ operating income fell by 40 percent over the past six months – and “free cash flow” stands at “negative $400 million euros.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, this jibes with what is no longer available this year in all-but-one Dodge model (the Durango, which is a lingering last-call remnant) and no longer offered in Jeep and Ram truck models that used to offer it.

That being a V8 and specifically, the Hemi V8 that came to define the brands that no longer offer it.

Not that there is anything wrong, per se, with the new inline six that has replaced the V8 in the models that used to offer it. As Dodge and Ram and Jeep (Chrysler’s down to one model, a minivan, that never offered a V8) have said, the new inline six makes more power and is more efficient.

And that’s true.

The point is it’s not a V8 – and that’s a problem for brands that built their brands around V8s. Dodge especially. It’s analogous to what happened to VW when it stopped selling Beetles with air-cooled flat four engines; VW became more like all the other brands. That makes it harder to retain – and attract – buyers who wanted what those other brands didn’t offer but VW did.

This brings up a general problem besetting the entire industry, which is beginning to face real consequences for putting compliance rather than customers first. It was one thing for the latter to overlook or put up with being obliged – assuming they wanted a new vehicle – to accept seat belts and even air bags, which followed as inevitably as AIDs follows HIV. But what began as minor annoyances – and relatively trivial cost increases – has metastasized into a kind of cancer that is killing interest in buying new vehicles, not just those made by Stellantis.

As of last year – 2023 – the total number of vehicles sold in the United States had declined by 2 million, down to 15.5 million annually from the peak of 17.5 million in 2016. The figure is arguably more ominously suggestive than at first glance, too – because the population has increased by at least 10 million since 2016. If adjusted for that, the actual decline is probably closer to 3 million.

Some of that can be attributed to “the pandemic,” but that’s now more than two years in the rearview. What’s happened over the past two or three years is that a tipping point has been reached – and passed. The costs of compliance have driven the average price paid for a new vehicle to nearly $50,000 – and that was as of last year. It is likely to surge past that, this year.

As CF Lifers know—as Eric himself knows—only too well, Amerika v2.0’s power-drunk central goobermint considers this surfeit of trouble, misfortune, and woe a feature, not a bug. The carelessly-concealed bottom line here is that our FederalGovCo lords and masters don’t want Serf Class knaves driving any kind of car whatsoever—not even those feeble, useless, coal-powered Yuppie Puppie play-purties they’ve ordered everyone into, they don’t. Want/need to go someplace well outside easy walking distance from home, you cavil piteously? Work; grocery/hardware/pet supply/Big Box store; Happy Hour to chillax a while with friends (sorry, my bad, Happy Hour’s been outlawed); the kids’ Little League game; hospital/emergency room/Doc In A Box/pharmacy/dentist’s office; the gym; Gramma’s house, perhaps? Spit on your ass and slide, peasant.

Y’see, there’s a damned good reason why personal automobiles (and Harleys, natch) have long been hailed as “the great American freedom machine”—because that is exactly what they are. Unfortunately, individual freedom of movement—a/k/a the freedom to travel as, when, and where one pleases unmonitored and unmolested, empowering one:

To schlep the fam off to the beach, mountains, or lake for vaycay
To attend a movie, play, or concert
To visit a restaurant for dinner out
To grab a carton of milk, loaf of bread, pack of skid-paper, and/or bag of cat litter
To just joyride aimlessly way out in the sticks, windows down and radio crankin’, on a pleasant early-April afternoon unburdened by twelve (12) pounds worth of signed, dated, and notarized Official Authorization Application forms neatly filled out in quintuplicate by hand (black ink ONLY, mind; use of non-black inks or pencil will result in applicant’s immediate arrest on charges of Felonious Non-Compliance, Aggravated Meandering, and/or Unlawful Insurrection, among others). Completed forms must be duly submitted and registered with the Proper Authorities no fewer than eight (8) weeks in advance of intended date of departure; sloppily penned, smudged, and/or misspelled submissions will be rejected and shipped to a local facility for recycling. Applicant may submit a new form for review and evaluation after the required six (6) month cooling-off period has passed. A lawful maximum of three (3) submissions over no fewer than ten (10) years is permitted for each applicant

—is something They™ simply cannot, will not, abide.

You think I’m only kidding about this? Hyperbolizing, exaggerating for effect? Overstating the case to make a more general point? Would that it were so, my friends. Of all the rights and liberties They hate—which is, y’know, ALL of ‘em, actually—individual freedom of movement is probably the one They hate more ferociously than any other. It gnaws at Their vitals like a horde of termites on a floor joist: keeps Them awake nights, disrupts Their digestion, leaves Them feeling all achey, listless, and out of sorts.

So Stellantis finally bites the big one after decades of struggling to comply with arbitrary, unattainable FederalGovCo standards for auto emissions, fuel economy, and passenger safety? Big fuckin’ whoop. That makes it one down, three to go for Detroit’s once-mighty Big Four, then. For A) grabby, preachifying ProPols; B) scuttling bureauweasel lickspittles; C) innumerable Überstadt Enforcement Komissariat doorkickers humping a full combat-patrol loadout, including det-cord, flash-bangs and fraggers, select-fire battle rifle plus four (4) 30-round backup mags, Level IV body armor, and helmet-mounted NODs; D) climate “science” “experts” purchased wholesale by FederalGovCo out of Ivy League credential mills; and E) miscellaneous dreadlocked, damp-drawered Eco-tard cultists whose dorm rooms (and persons) exude an emetic miasma of patchouli, cat urine, spilt beer, unwashed asscrack, high-octane sinsemilla, and rancid bong-water—seriously now, what’s not to like?

True colors

Posted on July 25, 2024July 25, 2024 by Mike

Christopher Wray is a scheming, despicable liar, one of Trump’s very worst appointments.

This got lost yesterday.. but FBI Director Wray told Congress:

“I think with respect to former President Trump there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that you know hit his ear.”

Trump has not released medical records from after the shooting. https://t.co/BcsEFwRNHR

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles)

July 25, 2024

As Ace helpfully points out, Wray’s politically-calculated hairsplitting—bullet, shrapnel, who gives a drippy shit? Ask any combat vet whether jagged, high-velocity shards of glowing-hot steel can kill a man just as dead as any bullet*—moved the fever-swamp Left to joyously jump all over that immaterial speculative fiction, as Wray doubtless knew it would do, and are now having their usual loony-toony field day with it.

The left desperately, desperately wants to steal valor from Trump and claim AKSHUALLY he wasn’t shot, just hit by “shrapnel.”

They think this is a big win for them.

CNN’s freak-a-deak leftist “National Security Analyst” seized on the conspiracy chum:

Juliette Kayyem @juliettekayyem

I’ve waited a while to say this but the burden is now on Trump to show he was shot. I can condemn the assassination and still demand truth, especially since Trump is now politicizing taking a bullet. Wray has now opened the door; this is not a conspiracy theory. Wray, known for exact phrasing and being careful, didn’t say this on accident. He is begging us to ask.

Indeed, this vile monster is begging the left to pick up the crumbs he just left them.

A-yup. In light of which sick-making asshattery I can only repeat: Kill them. Kill. Them. ALL. Yes, I mean it. No, I’m not kidding.

As every Real American ought to know full well by now, noisome shitlib excrescences are plainly and simply unfit to live amongst decent, civilized human beings. They will never cease laboring arduously, single-mindedly, to bring the once-grand American house crashing down—encompassing not just our everlasting ruination but also their own, the witless chowderheads. The longer we go on tolerating them, the more likely they are to accomplish their mad societal-demolition mission, a long-term deconstruction project already far too near its final completion for any sane soul’s ease.

Meanwhile, Normals have blandly accepted an unending torrent of inanity, obnoxiousness, and withering contumely from the Left with little objection and absolutely no retaliation, suffering these among other insults as if they were no more than their due, presumably in just punishment for an extended, open-ended litany of vaguely-defined “crimes” starting with blasphemy most heinous against the sacred Wokester catechism. In reply to Normals’ ill-advised conciliation, Leftards have moderated their extremism, attenuated their innate aggressiveness, remitted their penchant for violence and destruction, and/or tempered their fanatical hatred not one jot or tittle. Not so’s anybody would notice they haven’t, which amounts to the same big, fat sack o’ nothing at the end of the day.

As has been predictable with overindulged brats throughout history, so it is with juvenile Leftards today. Tragically, Normals made the mistake of disregarding the Biblical injunction against sparing the rod, thus hath the child been spoiled beyond possibility of salvage. Time and past time, then, to throw out the rotten fruits and vegetables and give the storage bin a thorough scrubbing using bleach and a stiff-bristle brush, before our national home is infested by a plague of rats and the whole gorram neighborhood winds up stinking worse than a malfunctioning sewage treatment facility in summertime.

* PRO TIP: There’s a reason the external casing of hand grenades, land mines, bombs, battle-tank main gun rounds, and artillery projectiles are designed to produce wicked clouds of shrapnel (more precisely, fragments) in the first fucking place, stupid shitlib mouthbreathers, and it’s a very good one at that

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