Willful Stupidity

Kilt a-borning

Posted on November 30, 2024November 30, 2024 by Mike

Dammit, Amazon delivered my nice new Thunderbolt cable this afternoon and it turns out it’s the wrong blasted one, I can’t use it. Consequently, my file transfer/monitor swap project is dead in the water until further notice.

Not Amazon’s fault in any way, mind; my dumb ass ordered the wrong one all unawares. After a bit of educational research into the whole T-bolt contretemps, I discovered that everything after Thunderbolt 3 (it’s up to v5 now, yet another thing I didn’t know) is basically just a beefier, higher speed-capable cord with male USB C jacks, whereas the ports on both the iMac and the MacBook, being older models, are strictly and exclusively the practically extinct, tragically unhip, and embarrassingly passé Thunderlizard 2.

Somewhat surprising that Apple, notorious for being zealously protective of the uniqueness, backwards-incompatability, and fits-specified-Macs-ONLY-ness of their proprietary parts, pieces, and accessories, would turn to bog-standard USB-C for its more recent Thunderbolt iterations. Where’s the money in that, man? Only way Jobs woulda ever shot himself in his bank balance’s foot, so to speak, via a gratuitously profit-shrinking move like this was if Bill Gates was holding a pistol to his head.

After wading through page after depressingly Tbolt 2-bereft page on Amazon, the WalMart app on my phone, and eBay* desperately seeking Thunderbolt 2 cables that weren’t chest-clutchingly overpriced, I was dismayed to find the barest handful of them, the cheapest of which was on eBay: out of Cullifornya, price just above 35 smackeroos with an additional seven bucks tacked on for shipping courtesy of USPS, estimated delivery in about 2 or 3 weeks, as opposed to the two days’ wait with which Amazon has spoiled me absolutely rotten.

The rest of the T-bolt 2’s on offer ranged anywhere from sixty fucking dollars all the way up to a hundred and a half (!)—this, mind, when garden variety USB-C cables can be had all day long for under ten bucks most anywhere, either online or at a brick ’n’ mortar Best Buy outlet near you, assuming it hasn’t gone belly up as of yet. There were Thunderbolt 2 hubs for sale as well, at the low, low fire sale price of just 300 to 400 US dollars. Don’t delay, folks; with prices slashed this low, these little beauties aren’t going to be around for long, they’re just flying off the shelves. Stock is limited, so better hurry on out right away and take advantage of these once in a lifetime bargains before it’s too late!

Jeez O Pete, what a crazy world. Somebody oughta sell tickets.

* Years back a great little website yclept Small Dog Electronics was my first stop for stuff like this. The prices were reasonable, the shipping times were fast, and having spoken to them on the phone multiple times regarding certain memory chips I was thinking about buying and installing, I know firsthand that the customer service was friendly, knowledgeable, and altogether helpful. Need to check and see if they’re still extant, I sure hope so

Update! Well howzabout that: Small Dog IS still around, bless their solid-gold hearts. That just restored a little luster to what hadn’t been much of a day up till now. Although it looks like T-bolt 2 cables are mighty thin on the ground over there too, alas.

Infuriating update! God DAMMIT, the above Raising Arizona embed is supposed to start at precisely 1:43. After a great deal of bootless mucking about trying to get things set properly, fucking YewToob STILL absitively, posolutely refuses to cooperate for some incomprehensible reason. If the vid jacks you around by starting either way before or way after 1:43, I hereby advise you to hoist a middle digit at YT by clicking in the progress bar at the specified time-stamp your own bad self. You must grab the bull by the horns, step up to the plate, seize the day, and boldly take control of your own destiny, Glasshoppah.

Well, unless you want to scope the entire riotous clip. Which, if you’ve never seen the Cohen Brothers’ masterpiece all the way through before, you really want to do anyhow. Myself, I’ve seen the movie so many times I can reel off almost every word of dialogue from memory. Yet even so, sorting through clip after clip trying to find the above one (took some doing, actually; the others either didn’t include the lines I wanted at all or cut Glenn off just before the “Someone oughta sell tickets,” exchange with Hi, which is the very thing I was looking for in the first place) gave me a yen to watch the whole thing beginning to end again.

RA is one of a handful of movies I simply can’t get enough of. It never gets old, it never lets me down or fails to hold my interest. Each and every time I’ve watched it I’ve picked up on some little something that had gotten by me before, seems like. Top-notch cinematography, lighting, direction, and editing; fast pace; perfect casting; talented performers with the skills, experience, and self-assurance to make best possible use of the brilliant dialogue; unusual, haunting, and unforgettable music; engaging characters who come off as real, complex human beings; an unconventional story told in an unconventional way: every person of intelligence, discernment, and a functioning sense of humor in the civilized world agrees it’s one of the finest movies ever made, and there’s a reason for that.

Raising Arizona, along with just about every other Cohen Bros production, is a 24k showpiece, an object lesson in not just how a great film is made, but in how great a film can be. It’s not in any way overstating the case to call this extraordinary movie no less than one of the verymost outstanding examples of the cinematic art ever, really and truly.

Wait, did somebody say something?

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Mike

Oh fer Christ’s sweet sake.

Bolton: Gabbard’s Extreme Views ‘Are on a Different Planet’ — She’s ‘Unqualified’ to Lead Intelligence
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed Tuesday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the intelligence community former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (D-HI) views were “on a different planet.”

Host Jim Acosta said, “We’ve seen Matt Gaetz withdraw his nomination for attorney general. Should Tulsi Gabbard do the same for Director of National Intelligence?”

Bolton said, “Well look, she said many things publicly that I think disqualify her. These are not just because her views are extreme. They are on a different planet. they are the views of somebody who doesn’t understand anything about American interests. And to put her in charge of the office of the Director of National Intelligence I think, is malpractice. I think the effect it will have on foreign governments saying we’re not sharing intelligence with the United States if it’s going to come into the hands of somebody like that.”

He continued, “There are a lot of claims out there that’s why the basic practice of administration after administration and Senate after Senate, for all senior appointees, but particularly people nominated to sensitive national security positions, is before the Senate votes on them. they get a full field FBI background investigation. This is not picking on Tulsi Gabbard or anybody else. This is how you find out what’s really going on with with all of them.”

Bolton added, “This is a bad nominee I think of all the nominees Trump has put forward so far she and Matt Gaetz were in a class by themselves.”

Yeh, yeh, yeh. Whyn’tcha just shut your cakehole already, be of use for once, and go take yourself a flying fuck at a plate-glass window, asshole-eyes. At least THAT would have some appreciable entertainment value, with the likely added benefit of your being sliced to ribbons when the glass shatters as your mortally wounded ass sails through it, resulting in a blood-soaked, butchered meatpile inside the chosen establishment.—ideally, a dingy dive-bar in late afternoon, not too crowded, but by no means totally deserted either. A library; a vintage clothing store; a cigar/tobacco shop; a bakery; a bodega—none of those would have quite the same ooomph as a good old-school gin joint, in my view. At least in one of those alcoholically-correct barrooms, there’ll be plenty of day-drinking Old Soaks on hand as eyewitnesses for the blessed event.

Regardless of its commercial focus, the owner of said establishment doubtless won’t be too terribly chuffed at needing to get his broken window replaced all of a sudden-like, let alone the timbers-shivering prospect of trying to wheedle one of his lowlier employees—a barback, a busboy, a dishwasher, let’s say—into rolling out the mop and bucket to swab up the nightmarish lake of congealing gore and/or gobbets of shredded flesh without him/her huffily downing tools and stalking out sans the customary two weeks’ notice at the first intimation of an assignment as onerous as that.

On further reflection, however, the proprietor will fast come to realize that the former NSA’s spectacular swan-dive swan song was well worth the attendant expense, effort, and inconvenience for himself and his luckless lower-echelon staff. Upon such improbable wings have great fortunes, reputations, even legends taken flight and soared off into American history. Ask any owner of a Midtown Manhattan eatery in which a prominent Mafioso got whacked before a roomful of diners during a busy dinner shot about how said whacking affected his bottom line ever after, he’ll tell ya all about it: reservations booked solid for a year in advance; walk-in customers standing in lines at the front entrance that extend for six or seven long Avenue blocks; three-figure cash bribes slipped to maitre d’s to purchase a shitty table by the door to the kitchen; SRO in the bar area with patrons jammed in four deep to while away the hours with a high-octane libation or three as they wait for their ticket number to be called by the hostess, etc.

What the hey: five’ll getcha ten that nasty ol’ floor was overdue for some serious scrub-uppery anyhoo, even before the self-made oaf Bolton conjured the unique notion that it’d be a swell idea to attempt conjugal relations with a plate-glass window, capping off the unforgettable extravaganza by being rendered into tender, juicy Long Pig Kibbles & Bits (just add liquid, it make its own gravy!™) on the floor—flaccid, freshly julienned micropenis out, a-dangle, and in ready view.

Come ON, man! Stop pussyfooting around and just DO it already. Your public breathlessly awaits; don’t leave ‘em twisting in the wind like this, get right on down to brass tacks and git ‘er DONE, big fella! Beats those wan, deadly dull talking-head turns as a Faux News “expert guest-analyst” all hollow, and you know it every bit as well as everybody else does.

In any event, I gotta say that I do find it simply too, too adorable that Bloviatin’ Blowhard Bolton—a pluperfect dick with ears if ever there was one; the sine qua non, the ne plus ultra, the cum-laude instantiation of this grotesque de-evolutionary sub-strain—still somehow dares to dream that anybody gives a moist fart for anything he might say, on any topic whatsoever. It’s pathetic when you think on it, to be frank. One could almost pity the poor, deluded lower-bowel obstruction.

Almost.

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Being New York

Posted on November 26, 2024November 26, 2024 by Mike

Not a hell of a lot of fun in it these days, I’m afraid.

Straphanger slugged by irate seatmate wrestles attacker to floor — but then fellow passengers helped HIM after he ‘turned into a little b—-h’
A straphanger was slugged in the face by an irate seatmate on a Manhattan-bound subway, but he managed to wrestle the “little b–ch” to the floor — but that’s when fellow passengers jumped in to help his attacker.

Alexander Rakitin, 42, was riding the N train to his Manhattan finance job Monday morning when he sat down next to 34-year-old Timothy Barbee.

As the train took off, the car jolted, causing Rakitin’s knee to jostle Barbee’s — which set the alleged assailant off.

“Apparently my knee touched his knee. That triggered him,” Rakitin told The Post.

“He was just very aggressive. I’m like, saying, ‘Dude, just chill, it’s like 8:30 in the morning. Like, who needs this s–t? Just chill.’”

Footage taken by another straphanger captured the two staring each other down, before Barbee yelled “It’s f–king done, stop staring at me” — and proceeded to tell the protesting Rakitin to “Make me chill” and “Shut the f–k up.”

Their verbal exchange quieted for a moment while they continued to stare each other down, before Barbee said, “I ain’t got time to go to jail today.”

Then he smacked Rakitin across the face — sending his glasses flying — before the camera cut out.

“I was able to wrestle him to the ground after that, and just kind of hold him,” Rakitin said. “And the craziest part was that — and this is literally upsetting, like I’m actually emotional about it — people on the train were trying to help him. Like, that was the most insane thing.

“It was also remarkable — he went from acting like such a thug. And then he turned into a little b—h right away. He’s like, ‘I can’t breathe. Please, let me go. Please, let me go. I can’t breathe. Somebody give me some water. I can’t breathe.’ And people started giving him water. That was so insane.”

Gotta give the candy-ass nigger credit for one thing: he seems to have taken fully aboard the things he needs to say so as to get him off the hook for being an obstreperous, mouthy, violent subway-shitbird, what with all that “I cain’ breeve, I cain’ breeve ’n’ sheeit” horsepuckey.

Rakitin’s stunned assessment is mostly on target in re his fellow B&T straphangers who jumped in to render aid to his attacker, except that “insane” doesn’t even begin to meet the case here. What they of right ought to have been doing was getting in some good, stiff kicks to the ribs and head while Rakitin had the PoS pinned for ‘em. That’s a world’s-record instance of squandered opportunity, if you ask me, a true teachable moment flushed right down the toilet. You can bet your sweet bippy that it’d be a long, long while before this Barbee cunt-fart tried cutting up rough on the subway again if they had.

Hey, let’s you and him fight!

Posted on November 26, 2024November 26, 2024 by Mike

Dump NATO NOW, please.

Military Chairman of NATO Admiral Rob Bauer: Preemptive Attack on Russia Should Be Considered
NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer from The Netherlands discussed the need for preemptive strikes on Russia in the event of armed conflict.

Joe Biden and NATO are hoping for all-out war with Russia, the world’s second largest nuclear power, before President Trump enters office in January.

Tucker Carlson calls these recent developments the most evil thing he has seen in his lifetime.

Dutch empty suit talks real tough for a guy who has no military to speak of backing up his fiery bluster, however powerful his beggar-nation might have been 400 years or so ago. Well, no military aside from OURS, that is.

Trump drew a shitstorm of outraged puffing and blowing from desk-chair warriors around the globe when he mentioned bringing the US role of propping up the rest of NATO to a past-due close early in his first term, but I thought then and think now that he couldn’t have been righter. NATO’s charter mission was rendered null and void the day the Soviet Union collapsed, and I’ve seen precious little to change my mind since then.

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“Sustainable”

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Mike

…ain’t.

Thyssenkrupp to cut 11,000 jobs at steel division in major corporate shakeup
DUESSELDORF, Nov 25 (Reuters) – Thyssenkrupp’s (TKAG.DE), opens new tab steel business plans to cut some 40% of its workforce over the coming years, it announced on Monday in the latest painful overhaul of a German industrial giant, with workers promising fierce resistance.

Germany’s largest steelmaker, a division of Thyssenkrupp AG, is under pressure from cheaper Asian competitors, high power prices and a weakening global economy, leading to operating losses in four of the past five years.

Not to be making light of German suffering or anything, but one can’t help but wonder if the following might have anything to do with those high power prices I put in bold above.

The German government knew shutting down nuclear plants during the Ukraine war energy crisis was a bad idea but did it anyway, and the Green party minister may have been been deceived by his own people to make sure the closures went ahead, a magazine that sued the government to get internal documents released claims.

Germany ordered the closure of its final three nuclear power plants in 2022, the culmination of a years-long process to transition towards ‘renewables’, which ironically left the nation scrabbling for hydrocarbons like brown coal, gas, and LNG. This confirms long-held “suspicions” of government lies, the conservative opposition says.

Bold mine again, and dispositive, it would seem. But nah, must be a coinkydink or something, I suppose.

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The need to Believe™

Posted on October 24, 2024October 24, 2024 by Mike

Is strong in these ones.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Early Voting
The whole idea of voting early marked a massive shift in my mindset. Although we’ve only had early voting in Georgia for a few years, I’ve always resisted it. I’ve always laughed when I heard Erick Erickson say on his show that you need to vote early because you never know if the weather is going to be bad on Election Day. The weather is never bad on Election Day in Georgia, although I do remember waiting outside in the rain in 2012 or 2016 (I can’t remember which).

When I would see people posting their “I Voted Early” stickers, I would think of it almost as bragging or maybe even virtue-signaling. Looking back, my stubbornness about not voting early might have been a different sort of virtue-signaling.

“I think traditionally, Republicans tend to want to go vote on Election Day,” Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said. I was one of those for sure.

My line in the sand was that Election Day was sacred. There was something about waiting in line and having conversations with the people in line (something I would never do the other 364 days of the year). There was a certain camaraderie about the voting line for me, no matter how impatient I got — and there were enough technical errors in 2020 to make us all impatient. Maybe I should’ve seen that as a sign, but that’s another conversation for another day.

I know that not everybody feels the way I do about early voting, but this is a journey that took me years to make. What I do know is that whether you vote early or on Election Day, whether you’re punching a hole in a ballot or tapping a touchscreen, your vote counts!

Uh huh, suurrrre it does. Hey, anybody remember when Real Americans felt such conveniences as early voting, mail-in ballots, and electronic voting machines were all things we desperately needed to get rid of as a fundamental part of “election reform” if we were ever going to straighten out the rigged, corrupt shitshow that Amerikan “elections” have become? Nah, me neither.

When, early in her first term, ***”pResident”*** Harris signs the executive order doing away with the Electoral College once and for all, expect there to be nary a “baaah” of complaint from cowardly, contemptible former Americans about it; if our bland, pathetic acceptance of the official institutionalization of the nuts and bolts of election-rigging is any indication, there’s no reason to think we won’t just swallow that down the same way. “Not the hill to die on,” don’t you know; apparently, none of ’em are.

In case you’re wondering why we lost America That Was to the Evil Left, look no further than this: because we deserved to, that’s why.

Can you say “War on Men,” boys and girls?

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

I knew you could.

Perhaps it’s a predictable irony that in an election cycle that could realistically deliver the first female president, so much of the commentary has been about men. Or rather, not about men exactly, but about “masculinity.” Because somehow, in 2024, we still find ourselves unable to talk about men and boys without using masculinity as the basic frame of reference.

The electorate is faced with a choice, the story goes, between two models for masculinity. Toxic versus positive. In response to the vein-popping, furious, felon model of the right, the left is offering us a more morally upstanding and expansive “positive masculinity.”

“Positive masculinity” has been around for a while. Most likely coined in early 2000s by psychologists as a way of working with male patients in therapy… Masculinity has had an unfairly bad rap, its proponents argue, becoming permanently shackled to the word “toxic.” Positive masculinity is an attempt to rebrand and reinstate it for the next generation, often with the claim that unlike the insecure posturing of the shirt-ripping strongmen, this is in fact “real” manhood.

The model is not a radical departure. Positive masculinity still draws on all the old trappings and anxieties of traditional manliness, the same belief that there is such a thing as a “real man” and the same fears of falling short. As its political standard-bearer, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz, is still required to constantly prove his masculine credentials.

Sorry and all, but that’s ‘cause Tampon Timmeh the Pillsbury Doughpyrsynz’s© “masculine credentials” straddle the line, reverse-cowgirl style, betwixt “laughable” and “nonexistent.” Whatever no-ball, cringing caricature of American manhood the preposterous Harris/Doughboy campaign plans to portray as “masculinity,” their dumpy, thoroughly emasculated Veep candidate is sadly lacking in anything resembling it. Case in point:

Something’s missing from this pheasant hunt in this video…. Something key. pic.twitter.com/M31KpCYX7x

— Brittany (@bccover)

October 12, 2024

Jeezum M Crow. It’s a dead cert that not one of these phony-ass punks has ever hunted pheasant—or owned a shotgun, for the matter of it—in his/her/its entire life. The paid actors/stunt hunter stand-ins all look like they just dragged a credit card through the Mordor On The Potomac (or possibly Minneapolistan) Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shop to gear themselves up with a brand new Serious Outdoorspyrsynz!™ costume for the filming of this pathetic, wholly-fraudulent joke of a campaign ad. I love what one X wag had to say in response to the question implied above: What’s missing in this video? A: Testosterone. Good one, pal.

NOTE: Link is to the Ace place, not to the original NYT article. I would never subject you good people to the horror of an NYT link, no way.

Update! Ed Driscoll reels off another knee-slapper.

OLD AND BUSTED: “Can I get me a hunting license here?”

—John Kerry, October 2004.

Heh. Indeed, Ed.

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Hamas “protester” gets his

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

Your feel-good video of the day week month year century millennium geological epoch.

Breaking: A restaurant manager in Los Angeles knocks out a Hamas protestor who was harassing his patrons in the restaurant.

This country must show these domestic terrorists that we will not be intimidated by them. pic.twitter.com/LJce7EWs4C

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby)

October 9, 2024

And PIIING! Down like the sack of shit he truly is goeth Mr Tough Guy. I’ve watched this one ten times already, and it ain’t ever gonna get old. My only regret is that X won’t let me press the “Like” button eight hundred and fifty bajillion times.

Via Ace, who quips:

Hamas made one enemy too many: This time, they pissed off an LA restaurant owner who, if I understand his words properly, is connected to the “Albanian mob.”

And he doesn’t need the mob for back-up. He’s got Mr. Left and Mr. Right with him at all times.

Heh. In-fucking-DEED. As the late great Charles Bukowski once famously said: the problem with these people is that their cities have never been bombed, their women have never been made slaves, they’ve never known hunger, and (I might add) they’ve never been punched in their silly faces or made to feel truly, deeply afraid.

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Disposable

Posted on October 2, 2024 by SteveF

Any individual man is disposable.

More broadly, any individual person is disposable. Even a George Washington or a Nikola Tesla could die in infancy and the species would muddle along. But as a group, men are more disposable than women.

Everyone knows this. All but the most broken societies are organized around it. “Women and children first” in a catastrophe, men are conscripted and sent off to die in wars, the jobs with the highest death rate are overwhelmingly filled by men.

It makes perfect sense, of course. The most primal instincts are to stay alive and to reproduce. A mammalian species which loses most of its females before they reproduce will probably go extinct. A mammalian species which loses most of its males before they reproduce might not even notice. See, for instance, the deer population in the United States. A sizable fraction of the bucks might be killed in any year, between hunters and other predators and car accidents and Winter, but the population comes right back up.

That’s for most species, either loners or those in which the males and females are equally able to obtain food.

Humans are different.

Humans obtain resources by specialization to a degree unknown in any other species. Humans choose to work in a specialized field according to their own opportunities and abilities and preferences.

And there’s the rub. Most of the jobs which keep modern society functioning are held by men: keeping the electricity and the water flowing, constructing buildings and roads, growing the crops. Any individual man might be replaceable but losing even 20% of men would cause systems to fail. The species might not be doomed but society as we know it would be.

Women are still essential, of course, because they are needed to produce the next generation. Any one woman can make only so many babies, so we need them all in order to keep the species going. Each individual woman is valuable and important regardless of her material or economic contribution.

… Or is she?

In modern, industrialized society, a large and increasing fraction of women have no children. The fraction of women who never have children went up from about 1/20 a couple of generations ago to 1/4 or even almost 1/3 today.

In almost all cases this is because they choose not to. In the past, most childless women were infertile or suffered repeated miscarriages. Today, fertility problems are much reduced and miscarriages, while individually tragic, are less common and are less likely to result in ongoing problems. That leaves choice. Some women never wanted children at all. Some put it off until they were emotionally or financially ready but by the time they’re ready they are unable to bear children. Some “can’t find the right man”. Some do indeed have fertility problems but they were caused by hormonal birth control or years-long use of IUDs or STDs left untreated too long.

We see the effects in birth rates and in demographic distributions. The United States, Canada, most of Europe, Japan, mainland China, and South Korea all have birthrates below replacement level. Their populations are either decreasing or are being sustained only by immigration. This has serious implications on societies and economies. Without a steadily-increasing population, most consumer economies will be shaken or or destroyed. Without a supply of younger workers, who will produce the goods and perform the services that an ever-aging population will need?

Demographic collapse signals societal collapse.

Demographic collapse is the result of women’s choices.

Demographic collapse can be halted only by women choosing to have more babies.

Women’s value as women was always based on their ability to have babies.

Women who choose not to have babies should lose that intrinsic value. No more “women and children first”. Now it’s “women /with/ children first”. No women-only college scholarships. No welfare for childless women. No hiring preferences for childless women. Draft childless women for war and send them to the front lines.

A woman who does not have children should be valued only for the value she brings. That is, what she does that others value enough to pay for. Just as men are.

Doctors (almost half female in the US) and nurses (overwhelmingly female in the US) are important but most people can go quite a while without needing to see them. Linesmen (overwhelmingly male) are unappreciated because if they do their job right no one notices (and because they don’t need college degrees) but if they disappeared, chunks of the nation would notice after every storm and the electrical grid would fall apart within a year or two. Garbage collectors (overwhelmingly male) are looked down on for their dirty, smelly job (and no college requirement) but if they all disappeared, people would for sure notice within a week. Sewer workers, doubly so. Modern city life would become impossible very shortly.

The loss of workers in jobs typically held by independent women would have, shall we say, somewhat less dire effects. If every social worker in the nation disappeared overnight, how long would it be before anyone noticed? If every HR department in every corporation was depopulated? If every not-for-profit little art gallery had to close?

If the ability to birth the next generation will not be used, if one is a net consumer of resources and wealth, who really is disposable?

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BWAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Mike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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Nobody does it like the Post do

Posted on September 10, 2024September 10, 2024 by Mike

Another rockin’ good headline from those wild, whacky NYP kids.

NYC artist who paints with human blood busted with cache of ‘illegal guns’ after cops responded to drug overdose

The article itself is kinda meh, just more of the usual self-consciously “edgy” obnoxiousness from a standard-issue, Mark-1 Mod-0 NYC “artist” type, whereas the breathless “cache of illegal guns” hubba-hubba refers to about as scrawny and undernourished a so-called arsenal as you’re ever likely to point and laugh at—except for the Mossberg, a scattershot collection of cheap junk none but a hoplophobic denizen of the Big Rotten Apple would think frightening: a Mossberg 12 ga pump; a KelTec .22; a Seecamp .32; a goofy fixed-blade “fighting knife” likely purchased at a boondocks truck stop for less than a double-saw, made of steel so buttery-soft merely sheathing the stupid, gaudy thing would be more than enough to dull whatever notional edge it may (or may not) have ever had; random boxes of ammo, probably all in 5.56, 9mm, .45ACP, and/or other mismatched calibers; one of those useless kit-stilettos you gotta assemble yourself, a practical joke from the bottom end of the otherwise generally half-decent Boker product line so flippity, flappity, and all-round raggedy-assed you couldn’t pop a soap bubble with it (ask me how I know, I dares ya).

If you find that sort of horsepuckey intriguing, feel perfectly free to click on through and read the whole thing. For my money, the headline pretty much says it all.

HOW I KNOW: Okay, okay, here’s the skinny. Many moons ago, long before the Innarnuts was even a twinkle in Albert “Arnold the Pig” AlGore’s eye (in days of old/when knights were bold/and Amazon not invented), I mail-ordered two (2) assembly-required stiletto kits from Boker. I affixed the plastic decorative handles to the pot-metal frame with model-airplane cement (not included), attached the blade-actuator button in its slot according to the minimal instructions, and was appalled to learn that, when the button was pushed to bring the blade (NOTE: not even the vaguest hint of an edge on the sorry thing, and I do mean none) zipping out of the opening, the internal spring was too wimpy to eject the blade with sufficient force to click it into the “open, locked” position. Imagine my chagrin as I stood there slack-jawed, brand-new knife in hand, the stabby part (HA!) of which lolled weakly in and out of its frame, of no more use to me than a 2-pound bag of ice is to your average Eskimo…a great deal less than, actually.

Upon further experimentation, it developed that now and again I could make the blade lock into place with a few sharp, vigorous flicks of my wrist, which felt every bit as foolish to me then as it sounds today. Regardless of all the jiggery, pokery, and Afro-engineering trickery I attempted, though, the button steadfastly refused to get with the program; after several years occasionally endeavoring such bootless meat-beatery, I finally gave up and tossed the Boker into the broken and/or non-useful tool drawer in my rollaway at the H-D shop. Once my youthful innocence had been forever lost, the trusty old Gerber Gator resumed its established role as my EDC shank, and the Boker pieces o’ shite eventually wound up in the rubbish bin where they rightfully belonged. THE MORAL OF THE STORY: As personal defense weapons, the Boker switchers make perfectly adequate paperweights, doorstops, and/or letter openers.

Open mouth, insert…foot, this time

Posted on September 1, 2024September 1, 2024 by Mike

Gee, Willie Brown’s dick, her own foot, gallons of cheap vodka daily—as my Grandma used to pointedly inquire whenever she heard somebody cuss (besides herself, natch): you kiss your Mama with that mouth, Kumala?

As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times. It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation.

It is not a place for politics.

And yet, as was reported this week, Donald Trump’s team chose to film a video there, resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff. Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.

This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members “suckers” and “losers” and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients.

A man who, during a previous visit to the cemetery, reportedly said of fallen service members, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

This is a man who is unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself.

If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude.

And it is my belief that someone who cannot meet this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.

I will always honor the service and sacrifice of all of America’s fallen heroes, who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our beloved nation and our cherished freedoms. I mourn them and salute them. And I will never politicize them.

That’s the entirety of Kumala’s ill-advised “Show more” Tweet, to which the response has been…erm, unfortunate, for her at any rate. For starters:

If the position being taken is that former Presidents can’t tape a video at Arlington, here’s the “Celebrating America” TV special for the Biden-Harris inauguration taped at Arlington and co-produced by the same person who produced the DNC. https://t.co/BmmwYwKS7e pic.twitter.com/l3GZUfRhtu

— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini)

September 1, 2024

OW, that smarts! And then there’s this:

Oh, Kamala, what have you done? In a move that was scummy even for her, Kamala Harris had the audacity to attack Donald Trump for appearing at the memorial for service members who died at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan. And, by extension, she attacked the Gold Star families who invited him to be there.

Keep in mind the only reason they’re Gold Star families is because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan and got their loved ones killed.

Now those families are responding:

And how. Follows, scads upon scads of stinging video denunciation from said families, which is a joy and a wonder to behold. For us, that is, not for her; not a-tall, in fact. No wonder the stupid, drunk-ass ho’ is so reluctant to be interviewed, debate the opposition candidate (or anybody else) honestly and fairly, or otherwise speak in public any more than she absolutely, positively must. My God, the woman makes even Dotard Jaux Bribem look like a gentleman and a scholar, which is really saying something.

One last excellent riposte I almost forgot to include:

Harris will send your kid to war ignore it if they get killed then whine about someone else laying the wreath to remember them.

— Doug Bright (@DougBright1)

August 31, 2024

I repeat: OW! Also: YIKES!!

Update! Senator Tom Cotton gets the last truly epic word.

You might think that would be the end of the story. After all, how do you keep pushing a false story that has even been rebuked by the very families involved who lost their loved ones due to Harris’ incompetence? The press took that as a challenge, though, and when Welker faced off against Cotton on Sunday morning, she told an inexcusable lie as she desperately tried to defend the vice president.

WELKER: The bottom line, I guess, though, senator, is it ever appropriate to make campaign content at military grave sites?

COTTON: He didn’t take campaign photos there. These families, Gold Star families, whose children died due to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s incompetence, invited him to the cemetery, and they asked him to take those photos because as they told me yesterday when I spoke to Kelly Barnett and Darren Hoover, the parents of Taylor Hoover, who has Arkansas ties, they don’t get to go to the beach on Labor Day. They don’t get to have BBQs. This is their one chance to have a memory of their children to commemorate their service and to honor their sacrifice. They wanted President Trump there, they wanted to take those photos.

You know who those families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting at a beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, DC. She was four miles away. Ten minutes. She could’ve gone to the cemetery and honor the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn’t. She never has spoken to them or taken a meeting with them.

WELKER: Well, they did meet with them during the dignified transfer. They were with them during the dignified transfer.

COTTON: It is because of her and Joe Biden’s incompetence that those 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan.

Cotton’s takedown of Welker’s talking points is perfect, not because of some impressive political prowess, but because it’s the truth. The claim that Trump made “campaign content” at Arlington National Cemetery is simply false. None of the pictures with the family have been used in ads or placed in a political context by the Trump campaign. He was there at the behest of the Gold Star families. Given their children died defending this country, I think they have a right to snap a few pictures if they’d like.

This game has long been played (by the) left and the federal bureaucracy. When John McCain took some video of him walking among the gravestones, the press attacked him for it. When Barack Obama and Joe Biden did the same thing (including Biden being pictured in Section 60), no one said a word. No (D)NC official came running out telling them to put the cameras away while accusing them of breaking the rules. Let a Republican show up to honor the fallen though, and suddenly it’s a scandal. The entire thing is so transparent.

What Welker did at the end of that exchange is just inexcusable, though. Cotton specifically said Harris has never spoken to or met with the Abbey Gate Gold Star families, and the anchor jumps in to insist “they” (as in both Biden and Harris) were at the dignified transfer. Kamala Harris was not there, and every attempt by the families to connect with her since has been rebuffed. Biden was there, but he infamously checked his watch multiple times.

The rush by these hack journalists to defend Harris has them now telling outright lies on national television.

Ummm…now, Bonch? Been a good bit longer than that, I’m afraid.

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Another Biden fuckup

Posted on September 1, 2024September 1, 2024 by Mike

Or lie, take your pick.

How the f*** do you start this tweet with “I’ve worked tirelessly.” https://t.co/FlRiOC2F60

— Isaac Schorr (@isaac_schorr)

September 1, 2024

Yeah, sure you will, Jaux. Or Kumala, or whichever flunky wrote that twaddle for ya, rather.

Right-wing idiots to wax hysterical claiming the IDF executed the hostages themselves rather than our blameless, peaceful, helpless Hamas friends and “natural allies” in 3…2…1…

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SF officials cut off noses

Posted on August 28, 2024August 28, 2024 by Mike

Successfully spite own faces.

San Francisco officials weigh in on departure of Elon Musk’s X headquarters: ‘Good riddance’
X owner Elon Musk’s plan to move the social media platform’s headquarters out of San Francisco has some city officials eager to bid farewell to the billionaire’s business.

“I share the perspective that most San Franciscans have, which is good riddance,” city attorney David Chiu told The New York Times.

The outlet noted that San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she had met with Musk “several months ago” but that she didn’t extend offers aimed at keeping X in the city, saying, “I’m not going to beg anybody.”

The report comes after Musk announced last month that he will move the company’s headquarters to Texas in response to a new law enacted by the state of California that prohibits schools from notifying parents if their children want to change their gender identity.

Musk said at the time that X’s headquarters would move to Austin, Texas, while he also announced that SpaceX would relocate its headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.

He cited the gender identity law as being “the final straw” and attributed the move to “this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies.”

Shortly after Musk announced in July that X would move out of San Francisco, he mentioned issues with the “crazy gross receipts city tax” making it “impossible for financial companies to operate in San Francisco.”

“That’s why Stripe, Block (CashApp), VISA and many others were forced out of San Francisco, as ‘gross receipts’ came to be defined as all transactions processed by a company, even if NOT revenue. That meant companies processing payments either had to leave SF or die,” Musk said last month. “Even if the severe crime problem in SF were to be solved tomorrow, X could not remain in SF and launch payments, as it would immediately fail.”

Will the last sane person to flee what was once one of the most lovely, eminently livable cities in all the world please turn off the lights? Thank you.

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