There Are No Solutions; There are Trade-Offs

That's Thomas Sowell, bitches.
Actually, my off-the-top-of-my-head hunch is: when a tradeoff is good enough, it counts as a solution. But mostly tradeoffs are not that good.

A Must-Read: Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals And Society

I don't think I've been this blown away by a book in at least five years. Sowell is almost scary smart, and his arguments--and this book is almost all arguments--are things of beauty. I wish I'd have read this book when I was 18:

Murkowski: No More Witnesses

No Earthly clue whether this is the right or wrong thing to do...but, honestly, I'm relieved.
I guess I still suspect that Trump did something stupid and shitty but not inexcusably awful, the Dems tried to pull some shady shit, and the Pubs ultimately decided that it wasn't overtly terrible to refuse to assist the Dems in pulling off their shady shit.
But I really haven't put in the time to untangle it all.

Congrats Brits!

Brexit at last.

Border Barriers Are Morally Wrong Because Borders Are Wrong Because Nations Are Wrong Also Barriers Don't Work

The border fence is bad both because it keeps people out and because it doesn't.

   Also, of course, it is trivially easy to climb up 40' bollards and any child can just scamper on up and down the other side without missing a beat, or dig under it in like five seconds so. Most people just pass on through it without even noticing it was there, even in the sections that haven't disintegrated in the rain. In fact, the fence is actually increasing illegal immigration which is a cost-free blessing to this country in every imaginable way and is the only thing known to man that has no risks or costs...no, wait, that would make the fence good which it isn't so just scratch that last part.

   Remember when even Dems admitted that there is such a thing as bad immigration? Good times.

Warren: A "Young Trans Person" Will Vet Secretary Of Education Candidate

There simply are no words.

   This isn't even funny anymore. We now have one entire political party being controlled by a political faction that has completely lost its god. damned. mind. 

   They start with rare and possibly-not-eve-real condition. We don't understand it. And, again: it may well not be real. Then--instead of addressing it rationally and scientifically...they make up a whole creationist metaphysics on the basis of it. According to which metaphysics, whatever people with this possibly-not-even-real condition believe becomes literally true. So they can change their sex just by thinking differently...or dressing differently...or something. (This is, of course, all supported by ambiguous terminology...which is what he whole mess really comes down to in the end.) Of course, because progressivism is a kind of contagious madness, it runs wild in the intellectually weakest sector of the society--which, God help us, means ed schools. We are so f*cked. So it then takes over primary and secondary schools. And they brainwash kids to believe that they have this disease, and so they can change reality with their thoughts. Then at least one Democrat decides that a brainwashed child with a, let's face it, almost certainly made up condition, possessed of a magical metaphysics made up in the women's studies department last Tuesday...will get a say in who occupies a cabinet-level position...running the department in charge of brainwashing children to believe they have this let's-face-it-not-real condition...and to adopt the creationist metaphysics...and...

   If you're still considering voting for this insane party...well...all I can do is beseech you to step back for a second and think about what you're considering. You may judge the other lot to be worse. I don't think that's utterly nuts, though I currently disagree. But, whatever you think about the red team, the blues have totally lost it.

[The video is, believe it or not, even cringier.]

NYT 1619 Project Already Misleading School Kids On Race

Which is, of course, its purpose.
What are the odds that the NYT will give up the money, influence, PC cred, and ideological satisfaction it gets from this project...and admit that it's bullshit?
Yeah, that's what I think too.

CNN: Trump's Coronavirus Task Force Lacks "Diversity"

Progressivism is now officially beyond any possible parody.

Next Gen F-15s

Has nothing to do with fighting J-10s, contra the title.
Still worth it:

Dershowitz???

WTH was that argument??????
I must have misunderstood.

Schiff Sucks

   1. Why did the administration resist producing documents/witnesses? None-a' your damn business. The question is: were they within their rights?
   2. Mixed motives: nope. The defense seems right about that. If there's a legit motive for doing x, it doesn't matter much that there was also a shitty motive. And: we're not talking about "making up" motives--we're talking about actual/realistic ones.

President Bernie Would Be A Disaster

facepalm
   I know this probably all sounds good to 13-year-olds who just found out that politics is fashionable...but...what a disaster.
   My family has the following policy: you're never permitted to say Well, at least things can't get any worse...
   (This hearkens back to a story of my dad coming home on leave from the Guard, and his engine blowing up on the way, and spending more than a day getting towed back home (in the days way, way before cell phones), and when the whole ordeal was finally over, and everybody was collapsed sitting around my grandparents' living room, somebody uttered the phrase above...whereupon the phone rang and my dad was informed that, due to a paperwork mix-up, he was AWOL... Hence that phrase was banned forever... The few times anyone said anything like it in my family, it was like saying the name of the devil in the Middle Ages...everybody nearly made the sign of the cross...)
   I didn't say the banned phrase the night of Trump's election...but I sure as hell thought it.
   Serves me damn right.


[Even legal weed doesn't sway me on this. So you know it's bad.]

Should The Senate Call Witnesses?

I dunno, man.
I'm tired of being jerked around / Kavanaughed by the Democrats.
But given the extraordinary importance of impeachment, needless to say I understand that important information basically sitting ready to hand ought to be examined...
Again, I basically won't be surprised if Trump is fairly far down the guilty spectrum. And, of course, he's a hot mess in many important respects.
But it's virtually impossible for me to side with the Dems now that they're dancing to the tune of the Orwellian left.

Last-Second Game-Playing Looks Like Kavanaugh 2.0

That's a good point.
Incidentally, I'm reading Hemmingway and Severino's Justice on Trial. I already knew all the basics...but damn...:

NYT Editorial Board Says The Walls Are Closing In On Drumpfff!!!111

Gosh, I almost feels as if I've heard something like this before...

   But I'm through being jerked around. Every one of these sure-fire Trump-dumpers that the progressive establishment has coughed up in the past has turned out to be a dud. This impeachment has been a joke thus far--except misusing the power of impeachment for political gain isn't funny in the least . Now we get still more hearsay that somebody said something that--if true--would add some support to the anti-Trump case...though we're not even told what it was that was allegedly said in this unpublished manuscript of which we have fifth-hand "knowledge"...or whatever. And the Dems didn't bother to build the case because they were too busy gaming the system.

   I want the truth to out, and--catastrophic though it would be for the nation--if Trumpo the Clown needs to go, he needs to go. But I'm not going to let Nancy trick me into kicking at the football yet again. These people are even more ridiculous than the other guy.

   This is serious business, but you wouldn't know it to look at it.

Angelo Codevilla: Why America Is Set To Lose The Next War

I have no idea whether this is accurate.

ATF Team Handsignals

via /r/WeekendGunnit:

Don Lemon and CNN May Just Have Re-Elected Trump

The GOP put out an absolutely devastating ad (and fast):

Again, I wonder whether there's any amount/degree of such derision for ordinary Americans that would make our cultural betters stop and wonder whether they're the baddies...
Read more »

Sean Wilentz Rebuts Jake Silverstein's Mendacious Defense of the "1619 Project"

Well, this is devastating.
   Of course the subordination of truth to dogma is the central characteristic of political correctness, itself the central phenomenon of the contemporary left... So I doubt that Silverstein, Hannah-Jones et al. will care much that they're wrong...except insofar as it thwarts their political efforts.
   Unfortunately, Wilentz ends with this:

   The specific criticisms of the 1619 Project that my colleagues and I raised in our letter, and the dispute that has ensued, are not about historical trajectories or the intractability of racism or anything other than the facts—the errors contained in the 1619 Project as well as, now, the errors in Silverstein’s response to our letter. We wholeheartedly support the stated goal to educate widely on slavery and its long-term consequences. Our letter attempted to advance that goal, one that, no matter how the history is interpreted and related, cannot be forwarded through falsehoods, distortions, and significant omissions. Allowing these shortcomings to stand uncorrected would only make it easier for critics hostile to the overarching mission to malign it for their own ideological and partisan purposes, as some had already begun to do well before we wrote our letter. 

  Taking care of the facts is, I believe, all the more important in light of current political realities. The New York Times has taken a lead in combatting the degradation of truth and assault on a free press propagated by Donald Trump’s White House, aided and abetted by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and spun by the far right on social media. American democracy is in a perilous condition, and the Times can report on that danger only by upholding its standards “without fear or favor.” That is why it is so important that lapses such as those pointed out in our letter receive attention and timely correction. When describing history, more is at stake than the past.

Read more »

More Historians Call *Bullshit* On The NYT's "1619 Project"

But falsehood is not considered a problem by the Orwellian left.

Public Preschool Kids Indoctrinated with BLM Gender Mythology

At what point, if any, will this BS become too absurd even from within the magical worldview of the left?

Dershowitz

Well that guy landed some solid hits.

Carolina 75 - State 65

Wow, Roy sure is motivated to beat State.

The "Equality Act" Is Another Step Toward Totalitarianism

I'm skeptical of the main thesis that it's a step toward a "social credit" system. But that part seems inessential to me. Obviously I think that the outright, systematic, principled denial of plain facts is a line we must not cross. So did Orwell. And, y'know, every other sane person. Few progressives seem to agree. If we don't draw the line there, I have no idea where we might draw it. I don't think this is something I should have to convince people of. If you find yourself at that point, you're already half-lost, I fear.
   Not mentioned in the piece: the recent attempted revival of the ERA. I don't see how this can work, given that the window for passage has closed...but rules are for narrow-minded unwoke bigots, I suppose. Seems like the combination of the ERA and the Equality Act would be a disaster: the prohibition of any discrimination based on sex + the redefinition of sex to include things that aren't sex, including the pseudoconcept "gender identity." And that's not to mention the general principle that sufficiently irrational parties are permitted to declare such things by fiat, simply by redefining non-F things to be F.
   The danger posed by Trump pales in comparison to the Orwellianization of America.

   Also: before the unhinging of the left, I was usually for the ERA. I would flip to the other with some frequency only because I'm under the impression that the ERA doesn't do anything that isn't already done by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. And I don't favor amending the Constitution unnecessarily.

Ilhan Omar: Marriage Fraud and Threats of Violence Against Journalists?

link
Conservatives have been saying for about two years now that there was strong evidence that Ilhan Omar committed marriage fraud. The non-conservative media has scrupulously ignored all this the whole time. Now "Omar's enforcer" is threatening one journalist who didn't ignore it.

CNN: Trump Supporters Are The "Credulous Boomer Rube Demo"

First: these guys probably don't have any room to denigrate anyone's intelligence.
Second: I hope they keep it up. The progressive left deplores middle America, and I'm actually glad when they admit it. I tend to think that honesty is the best policy. And I don't think there should be any doubt about this in the minds of the deplored.
Third: The most salient thing about all this is that so many on the progressive left consider themselves intelligent...but just aren't. They're often a bit more verbal/articulate than the average...but that's a very different thing. Per Thomas Sowell, it also has the disadvantage of making it easier for them to pretend to be smart. And to fool others. And to fool themselves.

Biden Tries To Outwoke The Competition

By pandering to transgenderism.
   This is why the Dems are now unacceptable. It's not about their frontman. No matter who it is, they will have to bend the knee to the various insane progressive orthodoxies that are now non-optional on the left. And that includes (a) giving up on biology and reality, (b) insisting that everyone else do likewise, right down to compelling (nonsensical, to boot) speech, and (c) working to enforce this bleeding-heart Orwellianism with the force of law. That is: working to complete the left's project of eviscerating/revoking the First Amendment.
   And: Biden is supposed to be the moderate Democrat. But the most moderate Democrat now wants to force us all to accept an outright absurdity that, ten years ago, would have been laughed out of the room. And of course: we don't know which additional absurdities will be insisted upon by this time next year--but we can be sure there will be new ones. Because the logic of the left dictates that no extremism is ever extreme enough.

Aaron Mate Right On Target Again

John Bolton freakout has everything that defines Russiagate & its Ukrainegate sequel to date:

-2nd-hand leaks (let's see an actual Bolton quote)
-maximalist & erroneous interpretations of those leaks (https://t.co/Sck7aHMNS5)
-liberals placing their hopes in a right-wing hawk

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) January 27, 2020

How bloody many times are we going to go through this? Drumpffff is finish! My cousin's wife's sister's ex-bf heard from his boss that somebody said that Drumpffff said "I like red ties!"!!!! RED TIES...get it? TIES...to the REDS! COLLUSION WITH RUSSIA!!! He totally admitted that Russiagate was true all along guise!!!!!!
Wait til Rachel Maddow hears about this!!!

More Anti-Trump Distortion From The NYT

What the NYT says the Bolton book says: 

"Trump Tied Ukraine Aid to Inquiries He Sought, Bolton Book Says"!!!!11111

What the Bolton book actually says:

Bolton news is fuzzy. Bolton isn't saying Trump tied Ukraine weapons $ to opening a Burisma/2016 probe. Bolton says Trump wanted Ukraine to "[turn] over all materials they had about the Russia investigation that related Mr. Biden & and supporters of Mrs. Clinton in Ukraine." Huh? pic.twitter.com/RNiBM6ANwT

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) January 26, 2020

   A little snapshot of our predicament. To make it really representative, Trump seems to have gone off on Bolton via Twitter last night... 

   Note also that the NYT is still pretending that election meddling by Ukraine is a debunked "conspiracy theory." Russian "meddling," however...an absolutely proven threat to our democracy! What could be more dangerous than Facebook ads! Ukraine, however: a mix of (a) perfectly legitimate activities and (b) conspiracy theories! 

   More and more I think it's imperative for Trump to beat this rap and do as much as he can in the next five years to fight back against our Orwellian cultural overlords... It's a gamble, obviously. We'll still have a loose cannon with his finger on the button... But more and more this seems like a risk worth taking. If he's convicted, the Dems win the presidency in November, and we're sunk.

   I do want the truth to out...though, honestly, a huge chunk of the truth has already outed: we know the Dems are willing to manufacture and sell even the most outlandish conspiracy theories if it suits their political ends. And their wingmen in the news media are right there guarding their six, basically no matter how obviously loony their accusations get. And on the other side...Trump, God help us.

   These Bolton revelations don't seem that bad, but they're spannable and, obviously, already spun. They could force more witnesses, which is what Schiff et al. want--throw more and more wildcards into the mix and eventually something significant might break their way. 

   And, of course, it's possible they're right. But at this point, I'm less sure how much that matters. the realpolitik of the situation is: it's a battle between two dangerous factions, and we need the one to win that's likely to be better for the country--and the world, actually.

   That could all be utterly confused, of course.

"Dazzling": Schiff's History Of Falsehoods And Conspiracy Theories Follows Him To The Senate Floor

What a piece of work.

Will Hard-Left Progressive Dems Force Dem Candidates To Eschew Private Jets?

If so, that's a big advantage for the Pubs.
   It's a little silly to bust on a candidate for using private jets when he's trying to accomplish something that would give him the authority to implement massive carbon-emissions cuts. Any Dem who wins this year will likely be able to mandate enough cuts to far outweigh emissions from the flights that allowed him (or her) to win. These sorts of purity hoops seem penny wise and pound foolish to me--if you accept climate hysteria. It's basically the same sort of silliness that motivated the mean green tween to sail around the Atlantic rather than flying coach.
   OTOH, there's no excuse for movie starts to fly to Davos at all. Much less on a private jet. That, again, is the sort of thing that makes it clear that even they don't believe their own bullshit. Ergo we certainly needn't.
   Anyway--it'll certainly be an advantage for Trump to be able to fly freely if the Dems have to minimize private flights to keep their carbon-hyseriac base from abandoning them.

Bernie Doesn't Know How Much His Plans Will Cost

One estimate: $60 trillion...but, hey, who knows!?
And that's without the Green New Deal--estimated cost: upwards of $90 trillion.
These are not the proposals of serious people.

Coronavirus Transmission

link

Obama Called Trump A "Fascist"

Probably not a considered opinion--the left throws that term around like the right used to throw around 'commie.' 

Remember how Trump was going to round homosexuals up and put them in extermination camps and whatnot? Whatever happened to all that anyway? 

And he issued that executive order protecting free speech on campus...more funding for HBCUs...food-stamp reform...surprising levels of support among Hispanics...

Man, that guy is the worst fascist ever.

I say again: actual Trump has many weaknesses that deserve to be criticized. Criticize the real Trump, not the straw Trump.

Purpura: Six Facts

Nobody Could Have Possibly Anticipated That Eating Bat Soup Would Lead To Something Bad

I'm not sure I'd watch this movie on Netflix unless it were free.

Antle: "Impeachment Super Bowl: Trump 2, Dems 0"

Roughly the direction I'm inclining.

Remember: Not Even All "Transgender" People Accept Progressive Transgender Ideology

It shouldn't matter all that much, since it's clear that the view is incoherent, ergo not true. But, as I've noted before: not even all "transgender" people think that they become the opposite sex (or gender, whatever that means) when they "transition." Here's a guy who considers himself a "transwoman," but acknowledges that he's not actually female, ergo not actually a woman. He's not the only such person to acknowledge/admit this.

Carolina 94 - Miami 71

Nice work, Heels!

Cippolone

Whelp, he's good.

Claremont: Defend America--Defeat Multiculturalism

I'm currently inclined to think that this is largely correct.
Modest versions of multiculturalism are benign; ambitious versions are pernicious. It's no accident that the latter is popular basically among the same crowds that think that the U.S. is the main source of evil in the world, and who advocate getting rid of it. The positions fade into each other.

Losing War Games vs. The Rooskies And ChiComs

link

Turley: Dems Have To Scrap Obstruction Stuff

As for the substance: well, if the charges really do amount roughly to: we're accusing you of exercising your legal right to ask the courts...then yeah, that's almost got to be crap.
   Though, of course: it's not supposed to matter that you have one or two or ten or a hundred crap arguments, is it? So long as you have a good one somewhere? I assumed that the Dem strategy was: give 'em both barrels--our powder ain't gettin' any drier... Same with the early Pub arguments about the need for an underlying crime. Sounded weak to me, but why not lay them down in case anyone buys them? Especially when more than half the quasi-jury wants to buy them?

William Voegli: "Liberty, Equality, Reality: Questions We'd Rather Not Ask About Race"

But facts must bend the knee to political correctness here in Greater Oceania...
   Obviously there are questions here that even reasonable people are uncomfortable talking about. But it's only the Orwellian left that leaps so readily to Lysenkoist reactions like stifling and outlawing research.

Pompeo Accuses NPR Reporter Of Lying, Calls News Media 'Unhinged'

Well, we know for sure he's at least half-right...
I stopped listening to NPR, in particular, a couple of years ago. The combination of their bias, their attitude, and that godawful tone...once it all comes into focus, it's just insufferable. Which is, of course, not to suggest that they never get anything right.
I don't really know anything about Pompeo, but this is the sort of jackassery I basically just assume Trump-admin-types engage in. Probably significantly exaggerated, though. When they'll distort the reasonably objective stuff, imagine what they're liable to do with an account like this.
But, obviously, it's way more important if, indeed, Pompeo can't keep his temper under such circumstances.
But the unhinged news media bit is right on target.

Left Claims Women Are Essential To Businesses, Optional To Families

Um...Jeez, that's really a pretty good point in the title.
I mean, there are lines of possible response...but it's a really good point.

Transgenderism as Gnosticism?

Makes as much sense as anything else I guess.

The Doomsday Clock Sounds Like Kind Of A Joke

I remember hearing about this when I was younger, but not more recently.
First: it seems ridiculous to suggest that we're "closer to doomsday" than we were during the Cold war...including the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Second: Eventually, one comes to realize that predicting doomsday is some kind of a weird obsession with some people.
Third: Jerry Brown??
   Of course it's largely about global warming, when progressive Jesus rises from the ocean and floods the third world and takes all the meek with him back to heaven and leaves the rest of us here without coffee to be scolded by Greta Thunberg for eternity...or something like that.

There's a lot of stupid in the world. I don't know why I feel like I have to complain about so much of it. It's probably harmless. Well...no. Actually, I take that back. I wonder what stuff like this actually does? It can't be good to gratuitously fan the flames of anxiety about everything all the time.
   Another START treaty does seem like a no-brainer, though. There was link to a piece about horrible Trump and nuclear agreements, but I thought I'd look for an actual news source instead of the Guardian.
   Eh, I've gotten too fed up with such stuff to be neutral about it right now. What to I know? Nothing is what, when you get right down to it. Instead of complaining about this I should be reading all that stuff about impeachment that I've been ignoring and be wrong about that instead.

Boy, That WWIII Hysteria Faded Quick

Jeez what idiocy.
   Millennials would have pooped their draws if they'd been around during the Cold War. Now there was a war, baby! WW0! The Big One!
   What is a millennial, anyway? Were they around in '91? Wait...I forgot that I don't care.
   Anyway: how clueless do you have to be to think that Iran could seriously consider starting a full-blown war against the U.S.? Not to mention that such a thing could be a world war... It'd be more like World Wa...Happy V-I day! Time to build some Chick-Fil-As in Tehran...
   I certainly wasn't sure that the decision to hit Soleimani was a good one...but WWIII...that was one of the looniest manifestations of TDS we've seen yet.

Dude Who Dresses Like A Woman Says Straight Dudes Have No Right To Refuse Sex With Dudes Who Dress Like Women

This nonsense is also deployed against lesbians, in case that matters to you more.
It's also, in case you haven't figured this out by now, basically the crux of the matter.

Is Bernie A Commie?

Ehh...kinda sounds that way...

The President Of The United States, Ladies And Gentlemen...

Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M. on @FoxNews, @OANN or Fake News @CNN or Fake News MSDNC!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2020

facepalm
For the very love of God...

"Majority Report" On Joe Rogan

Wow, these guys are pretty terrible.
The first rule of the progressive left is: you are not permitted to disagree with the progressive left.
When a faction makes squelching speech and thought its prime directive--and shutting down criticism of itself in particular...well...at the very least, that should send up massive red flags.

"How To Avoid America's Coming Secession Crisis"

Back to real federalism seems like a decent answer to me, as to Buckley.
I'm currently sympathetic to conservative side of this: (a) the progressive left has lurched hard left, and (b) it is intent on imposing its weird, extremist preferences on the rest of the country. In fact, it's reasonable to say that it aims to destroy American culture and the ordinary American ways of life. At some point, it will become rational for those on the receiving end of this--which the left would surely call cultural genocide were it directed at any other culture--to say no. Also, I'm currently inclined to think that secession is legal under the Tenth Amendment, Texas v. White notwithstanding.
   I don't want the Union to dissolve. But I do currently think that secession would likely be preferable to union if Orwellian progressivism continues to sink its hooks in. In fact, I think that would constitute the destruction of the United States, and that secession would become the only way to preserve what's valuable about the nation.
   I continue to think that people are sensible enough to reject the radical left... Well, I continue to hope it, anyway.

Impeachment Thus Far

God knows.

"The Dangerous Rise Of Men Who Won't Date 'Woke' Women"

Behold, contemporary feminism.
   Men who refuse to kowtow to every aspect of the no-longer-even-vaguely sane left are not merely politically incorrect, nor merely not to some women's taste...they are...you know what's coming...dangerous. They are TEH WITE SUPREMASY!!!! THESE WORDS UNFORTUNATELY WILL HAVE TO DO UNTIL THEY THINK OF SOME THAT ARE EVEN MORE SCREAMY!!!!!
   This dude has the temerity to say that he's not interested in dating women who belong to the far-left, quasi-religious political super-cult that shrieks its inane doctrines at us from every internet rooftop 24/7. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!! Although Ms. Spratt undoubtedly has no interest in dating Mr. What's-his-name, HE IS OBLIGATED TO WANT TO DATE HER! (One eventually begins to wonder how much of this actually comes down to that...)
   There's no reason to refute something so hysterically unhinged. Pointing and laughing is the appropriate response; hence to that I limit myself.
   It doesn't have to be like this. This is an unforced error. It's the easiest thing in the world not to shoot right past liberalism and fall off the edge of the world. You've almost gotta try to be that nutty. It's the groupthink that does it. It seems to be a common religious story. An incentive structure gets set up in which in-group status is the reward for extremism. The more extravagant and obviously daft your views, the more you signal your commitment to the cause. Damn that shit is...well...dangerous, actually, come to think of it...

Noah Feldman: "Trump Defense Memo Is Wrong About High Crimes And Obstruction"

Yeah, some of these arguments by the defense just don't seem plausible.

Paul Sperry: "Whistleblower" Overheard Discussing "Taking Out" Trump in '17

Significant, IMO.
Vindman sounds even worse, actually.

NYT: Summary Of Arguments For Impeachment And Rebuttals Thereof

Dunno why the two columns are "evidence for" and "Repubicans have argued" instead of "evidence for" and "evidence against" or "Democrats have argued" and "Republicans have argued"...but I'm on a hair trigger about such things now, and it's a little kooky, frankly.
   Anyway, there's nothing new here, but it's a nice, short review. I keep thinking that the Dems must have some arguments that I don't know about...but I suppose not. The case just doesn't seem sufficiently strong to overcome the rebuttals at what seem to me like the crucial points. But I've never been sure how heavy the burden of proof is. Naively, my old self wants to say: it should be a light burden, because any whiff of wrongdoing should be enough to give the president the boot. But that doesn't seem to be how it's been through of up til now, and we can't introduce a lighter burden at this point. My newer self says: look what a witch-hunt this, in fact, is. Given this witchhuntiness, you're going to have to do better than this. When I don't trust your motives, I'm permitted to set the bar higher. But I don't matter, of course.

Brandon: Based Shitlord Of A Patriot, Honorary Virginian

/r/WeekendGunnit vs. The DNCMSMNPCs

link

How Far Left Will Democrats Push Virginia?

God knows.
At least the General Assembly isn't my fault. I was onto them by then, and voted my first-ever straight-Republican ticket.

Progressive Delusions Great And Small: The Covington Kids

This was a small one.
   But, I think, extremely telling.
   It's a tiny little, largely self-contained, object lesson in contemporary progressivism.
   I called it as soon as it came out, and I've gone over the appalling details before. And Soave does a great job of the same.
   In short, the most astonishing thing about all this was the ability of the progressive hive mind to look right at black and hysterically proclaim it white white WHITE. One thing Soave doesn't mention: the comments section of the WaPo. Insane, delusional, spittle-flecked comment after insane, delusional, spittle-flecked comment, almost every one proclaiming that Sandman and the other kids were obviously horrible--because little Trumps--and deserved punching, and there could simply be no doubt about it... Their race was emphasized over and over and over: punchable white boys with punchable faces, filled with mythical "privilege," and therefore deserving of violence and ruination. Some put out calls for college admissions officers to covertly deny them admission in the future. Seriously. These are kids we're talking about!
   And this, of course, isn't an outlier. That's just progressivism. That's what it is at its core. We see these same traits manifested over and over and over again, in cases big and small. It's Russiagate. It's transgenderism. It's the same unhinged hatred and denial of reality over and over and over again.

Did Racial Hate-Crime Hoaxes Undermine Race-Relations In The U.S.?

Kinda sounds like it.

The FBI Did Find Three White Supremacists Headed For Richmond Rally

Including one illegal alien.
Honestly, that's three more than I expected them to have actually identified.
Some of what went on apparently was merely hoping for violence. But it also sounds as if they were possibly planning violence, too. It sounds a lot more like bullshitting than actual planning...also they were surrounded by hundreds or thousands of people with AR-15s...so it actually would have been just about the worst place imaginable to try to start shit. But these guys aren't likely to be among the sharpest tools in the shed.

Dershowitz: The ACLU Is No Longer A Civil Liberties Organization

No secret, of course, but it's gone full-bore lefty.

As Dershowitz notes, we need an organization that does what the ACLU used to do.

ADL Progressive Bullshit: The Boog

Wow, they did actually manage to get this mostly right...until, of course, they pull the now-standard progressive move: "some" "white supremacists" have allegedly adopted x, ergo x is now TEH RACIST!!!!!11
Here's a laughable bit toward the end:

Care must be taken when evaluating boogaloo-as-civil-war references, as some people—even those in extremist movements—still use the phrase jokingly, or to mock some of the more fanatical or gung-ho adherents of their own movement.

"Some" people "still" use the phrase jokingly. Similar to: Care must be taken...some people still use the OK sign to mean OK!
   How many actual white supremacists are there in the country? Or "white nationalists"? As opposed to autists who shitpost on subs like /r/WeekendGunnit? A miniscule number, that's how many.
   But, as the saner side points out a lot: the demand for white supremacy radically outstrips the supply.
Of course the ADL could have easily said something true: lots of people joke and mostly-joke about the boog. Virtually none of them are "white nationalists," nor racists, nor do they actually want a civil war. But progressivism gets more and more insane by the day. And sanctimonious horseshit begs to be made fun of. And, honestly, by this point one has to wonder exactly how insane progressivism is might get. Because it gives no sign of stopping. The boog's a joke...but, obviously, it's dark humor. Because it's not exactly 100% clear that progressivism is going to let up on the crazy. So it's not exactly 100% clear that it'll all remain a joke forever... Recognizing that is not equivalent to wanting it to happen. How dense does one have to be not to understand that point?
   Honestly, how can anyone take progressivism seriously anymore? It virtually can't get any more ridiculous. They've managed to turn conservatives into the sane, level-headed ones. How the hell do you manage that?
   Remember, these are people who think signs saying It's okay to be white are the very height of racism.
   Keep pretending that anyone who disagrees with your insanity wants civil war...or you might just manage to start making it true.

The Op-Ed That Got Jon Caldera Fired From The Denver Post: The AP Stylebook Is A Progressive Propaganda Handbook

According to me, this is 100% right--and actually an important column.
Of course you've got to silence the truth-tellers if you're going to keep your propaganda operation running smoothly.
Caldera thinks it was the bit about there being two sexes that got him fired.
The Lysenkoist left has always hated biology. Sadly, that's not even a joke.

Great Videos of "White Supremacists" From The Lobby Day 2A Rally

There's something strange about these white supremacists, but I can't quite put my finger on it...

Eric Felten: Analyzing The Dems' Repetitive Impeachment Text

I find myself gravitating toward the view that this particular Democratic dog probably won't hunt.

Mate: Dems' Impeachment Case Very Thin; Russiagate/Ukrainegate Are Excuses For Losing; Clinton Corruption

I really trust Mate.

Joined #Rising w/ @krystalball & @esaagar this morn to discuss Democratic centrists' two-pronged failure: pushing a weak, all-consuming, Russiagate-addled impeachment case and attacking Bernie Sanders https://t.co/83YMaB20hv via @HillTVLive

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) January 21, 2020

AOC: Dems Are A Center-Right Party; You Didn't Make That

As to the first point: ridiculous.
As to the second: look, I'm not speaking so much about billionaires. But the general attitude seems to me to be juvenile, and largely based on ressentiment. JQ and I have the equivalent of a small business. We had help from her folks starting it, and couldn't have done it without them. But after that, it was blood, sweat and tears. I mean we took a risk, put a lot on the line, worked our asses off, employed a lot of contractors along the way, and channeled a lot (by our standards) of money into the community. I took a career hit for it. And our part of the community is a lot better off for our efforts. And we pulled all this off while JQ was experiencing very serious help problems. We did not single-handedly accomplish what we did. But we mixed a shit-ton of our labor with the thing in question, others directly benefit from it, and they often express gratitude for what they receive from the relevant transactions.
   People like AOC basically seem to think that everybody who succeeds in business is Scrooge McDuck. It's just plain ignorance.
   None of which is to say that I know, say, what the top marginal tax rate should be, nor any such thing, of course.

David Harsanyi: "Never Trump" Revisited

I wasn't a conservative in 2016 (I'd say I'm still not, but whatever), but, other than that and other minor differences (e.g. I'm not a "pundit"), this basically describes me and my attitude toward Trump.
   In '16, I thought Trump was beyond the pale--maybe even the end of everything. In retrospect, that was TDS. I mean the second thing. He is beyond the pale... Like Harsanyi, I had no idea how respectable Trump's actual policies would be, nor how crazy the left would go, nor how quickly. Or, rather: I knew the crazy left was already off the scale; but I thought the Dems would keep them at bay. Somehow it hadn't sunk in how far left the Dems had already gone, and I in no way expected them to capitulate so quickly to the crazies. And it never in any way occurred to me that they could so flip their shit as to perpetrate Russiagate, Ukrainegate, and the impeachment fraud. I mean: they could turn out to be right about the latter two--but even if they are, their actions have been...dare I say deplorable? Or so it seems to me currently, anyway.
   Anyway. Aside from the trade stuff, about which I have and deserve virtually no view, Harsanyi might as well be describing me.

Dems Must Disavow Every Normal Position They've Ever Held

I came to more-or-less that same conclusion awhile back, though not expressed so clearly and pithily:

Dems must disavow every normal position they’ve ever held. https://t.co/5jL85U6Uwu

— Dan Gainor (@dangainor) January 21, 2020

Should English be the official language? I actually don't have much of a position on that. It seems pretty reasonable on its face. But I don't know anything about the issue, the hidden advantages and disadvantages, the likely unintended consequences. I used to think that there wouldn't be much wrong with having a more bilingual country...and it's spare us some of that supercilious Euro-ridicule.
   But that was before the Great Lurch Left. Now they advocate so many policies that aim at dissolution of social cohesion that fighting back with, e.g., an official language might be a good idea.
   Of course capitalism, too, seems to work against social cohesion in certain ways...but I have no idea what to say about that...
   I'm more interested in the point that progressive leftists must ceremonially apologize for believing basically anything normal. And yet everybody keeps acting like they are part of a normal political faction/party/movement. Everything's just fine. Surely the Raze-It-All-And-Set-Your-Calendars-To-Year-Zero party* is better than Drumpffff!



* Hyperbole warning!

Even The Dems Don't Seem To Understand What The Charges Actually Are

Back to bribery? Or what?
J'accuse!...vous...d'etre le Trump! Or however you say it in Frog.

ARMED MILITIAS FORGOT TO STORM THE CAPITOL

TRIGGER WARNING AS IT WERE:
Vice: not an actual news source.

"It's Like A Foreign Language": Trump's Struggle With The Constitution Did Not Go Well

(1) I find this entirely believable
(2) I realize I can't believe any of the sources involved here when they're reporting on Trump.
(3) Honestly, it is a little bit like the Constitution is written in a foreign language. I don't read aloud particularly well anyway, and I'm sure I'd be nervous and screw it up.
(4) Would anybody be at all surprised to find out that Trump had never read the Constitution? I wouldn't be all that surprised if there were parts even I haven't read. I think I read it straight through as a kid, but, other than that, I've only read whatever bits were relevant at some time.

Impeachment Trial: Day 1

Sucks being an atheist, because, were I a believer, I'd probably pray for the Senate to do the right thing--whatever that is.

I suppose that, speaking for myself, I couldn't vote to convict on the basis of what I think I understand. But, as I've said, I haven't had time to attend to the evidence with sufficient care. I'd like to see the Dems rebuked for this ridiculous shitshow they've engineered. But that's not a particularly good reason to acquit, obviously.

Heather Heyer's Mom Owns Guns, Thinks VA Dems Have Gone Too Far

When you've lost Heather Heyer's mom...

MSM Propaganda Montage: 2A-Supporters At Richmond Lobby Day = White Supremacists/Nationalists/Extremists

One would think that, at some point, this nonstop stream of progressive propaganda would become such an embarrassment that even the left would find it repulsive.

#NEW MONTAGE from me showing how @CNN and @MSNBC spent their mornings hyping fears that "white nationalists" and "extremists" would cause "violence" at #VirginiaRally for the #2A like in 2017 at Charlottesville #LobbyDay2020 pic.twitter.com/wR91mMPfmR

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 20, 2020

Times-Dispatch: Photos From Lobby Day

Inspiring, TBH.

Northam Blackface Jokes

Totally unfair.
It was never proven that he wasn't the guy in the Klan outfit.

The Governor Spends Some White Privilege

An African-American man waving a Trump flag jokingly tells the crowd: I am Gov. Ralph Northam and I am in blackface today.#VirginaRally pic.twitter.com/z32mnR5Tzp

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 20, 2020

No Step On Snek

Thus be it ever to snek-steppers

NO STEP #VirginiaRally pic.twitter.com/dxh5TQRIKN

— Alec Sears (@alec_sears) January 20, 2020

For The Record: I'm Not Inveterately Opposed To Seriously Considering Additional Firearm Restrictions

I've gone back and forth on more stringent background checks, some kind of sane-but-greater restrictions on something like "assault weapons" (Though we'd need to figure out a sensible characterization of the category)...hell, I even recently expressed a willingness to hear more about "red flag" laws.
   But after this latest madness by Northam and the VA Dems, that's over. For now, I mean. When the Dems' fever breaks--as I still hope it will and expect it to at some point (though not soon)--then we can go back to the table and think about additional restrictions. This madness, however, has probably permanently increased the burden of proof I'll expect them to bear.

Armed Minorities Are Hard To Oppress

One of the best signs I've seen all day #VirginiaRally pic.twitter.com/5VzJLuMIzN

— Alec Sears (@alec_sears) January 20, 2020

Jeff Dove (Candidate For Congress VA10) Is At The Day Of Lobbying

What a great day expressing our First Amendment rights in Richmond today at the #Richmond2ARally. We will not be quiet as our Constitutional rights are trampled on. #VA10 #LobbyDay2020 pic.twitter.com/rENZ9gE3np

— Jeffery A Dove Jr. (@JefferyADoveJr) January 20, 2020

LOL@Politi"fact"

I mean, good on them for getting out the truth about the bogus Klantard tweet--no question about that.
But you gotta marvel at the clear implication that, while cutting off people's electricity would be a "drastic measure," sending the police to confiscate firearms isn't. Whew! No "drastic measures"! Just using the cops (and the Guard, perhaps) to confiscate private property in contravention of the Second Amendment! Nothing to see here, bigot...move along...
It could be worse, obviously. But when that sort of bias is so pervasive, one becomes irritable about it.

VSSA Tweet

A view of the crowd in Capitol Square.  Still coming in. pic.twitter.com/be9DwO3XaD

— Virginia Shooting Sports Association (@VSSA) January 20, 2020

And I'm An Idiot For Voting For Him

Capitalism on display outside the capitol grounds. #LobbyDay2020 pic.twitter.com/5mJrEXU6KH

— Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) January 20, 2020

MLK Day Twitter Account

here

Noah Rothman On Trump's Alleged Quid Pro Quo: Big If True...Also True

link

Cam Edwards From The Day of Lobbying

The crowd is filling the capitol square now. Chants of “USA, USA” from various sections of the crowd. #LobbyDay2020 pic.twitter.com/RwU59FkxJE

— Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) January 20, 2020

VCDL Twitter Account

here

VCDL: Huge Turnout At Second Amendment Day Of Lobbying In Richmond

Huge turnout! pic.twitter.com/Yk6K2EYMeC

— Phil Van Cleave VCDL (@VCDL_ORG) January 20, 2020

Is The Second Amendment Day Of Lobbying In Richmond Being Set Up?

   There certainly are reasons for thinking that the answer is in the affirmative. Keep in mind that Democrats and the media aren't exactly two separate entities--they're both aspects of a multi-faceted, on-a-trajectory-toward-totalitarian progressivism. And both are working to promote the idea that this is somehow an analog of Charlottesville, and that the Second Amendment advocates are analogs of the Unite the Right attendees. The right tends toward conspiracy theories, IMO, and they particularly tend toward "false flag" theories.* And obviously the participation of Antifa is suspicious. So there are rumors of Antifa false flags, plans to attack anti-firearm counter-protestors. Seems to me that, were Pantifa planning such a thing, it wouldn't also admit to attending the rally. But Pantifa is a loose collection of kooks, not a tightly-organized group. So I guess the other is possible.
   Progressivism's more-or-less only argument is you're a racist. But since rhetorical escalation is always required, they've upped that to You're a white supremacist. And they've deployed that one and only argument from the beginning against the VCDL et al.
   Jonny Quest suddenly insisted, yesterday, that we needed to get ourselves down to Richmond, but I just can't work it in. Conservative Yoda argued forcefully that we shouldn't do it--he thinks a disaster is a real possibility.
   I think what we really need to worry about is progressive control of the public "narrative" (I really hate that term). They have a supply of tales they tell to achieve their ends. One of them is that everyone on the right is a racist. Another is that everyone who owns a gun is a white supremacist. You'd think at least the first one would be absurd enough not to work. But you'd think wrong. Seems to me that liberalism, when we had it, was particularly concerned to undermine such brainwashing. Progressivism, on the other hand, simply wants to make sure that it, rather than the other side, is the one that controls how our brains are washed.



* I don't think the right is any more prone to conspiracy theories than the left; in fact, if anything, they're less so. As usual, they're not as sophisticated about it. No conservative conspiracy theory gets taught in schools, so far as I know, nor treated as fact in the media--whereas an enormous number of left-wing conspiracy theories do--everything from "the patriarchy" to Russiagate…

McGregor Destroys Ceronne In 40 Seconds

JFC
Is the shoulder strike the next advance in MMA?

Almost Heaven...

...West Virginia...

The MSM Controls The Discussion To Promote Progressivism: The Boog And Why It Has Nothing To Do With Race Nor White Supremacists

I currently think that merely seeing through the deceit of the mainstream media would be enough to redpill a very large percentage of more centrist people on the left. This isn't an isolated case. It's very similar to what they did with Pepe the Frog, and with Gamergate. Here's what they wrote on Friday:

For weeks, discussions about the rally have lit up Facebook pages and chat rooms frequented by militia members and white supremacists. Various extremist organizations or their adherents are calling Monday’s rally the “boogaloo.” In the lexicon of white supremacists, that is an event that will accelerate the race war they have anticipated for decades.

To be clear, this is bullshit.
   Of course it's possible that some white supremacists latched onto this terminology, but I kinda doubt it. But who knows?
   'The boog' is a joke from /r/WeekendGunnit. Which I frequent. And which is, IMO, approximately the funniest sub I've ever seen. It's all a big joke. The entire sub is dedicated to shitposting. Such as this shitpost:

And this one:

And, oh, hell, this one:

Alright, alright, one more:

AND THIS ONE:

Also:

These are mostly boog-related, though that's basically accidental. There are other shitthemes on the sub. But whatevs. 

   The NYT wants you to believe this is about a white supremacist race war. Instead of obvious shitposting. Other progressive bullshit-outlets have said that the term 'boog' is a racial slur. 

   My God, these people are ignorant liars. If you're still being manipulated by them, it's probably largely your own fault.

   In actual fact, 'boog' is from 'boogaloo'...which progressives also desperately want to be racist. But nothing could be further from the truth. This is about on the level of CNN's "the hacker known as 4chan." In fact, 'boogaloo' is short for "Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo." Which, you see, is what we on the interwebs call a goddamn joke. It has nothing to do with racism, nothing to do with white supremacy, nothing to do with anything serious whatsoever. Again: it's a goddamn joke.

   It's a joke about something serious--the totalitarization of the left, and its clear intention to begin taking our firearms away...but it's still a goddamn joke.

   It is, of course, possible that some white supremacists have picked up the phrase. And that's the progressive MO: if one bad person has latched onto something, even post facto...etc.etc.

   And, of course, no deviation, no matter how minor, from the progressive orthodoxy will be tolerated. And humor is, of course, verboten. And anything characteristic of men is evil. So this is all right out before guns even come into it... Iconoclastic humor that aims to undermine the sanctimonious bullshit of progressivism is waaaay too heterodox, way too politically incorrect, way too dangerous, and, let's face it, way too male to be allowed to survive in the brave new world of the bleeding-heart Orwellians. 

   You'd think progressives would get tired of the MSM manipulating the shit out of them... But eventually one must conclude that they are either dense or eager to be manipulated.

   And, of course: this is just one tiny bit, one tiny fragment, of the massive, complex, multi-layered manipulation in which the MSM engages. This should be below their radar, for the freakin' love of God! The fact that this even registers, and they are willing to expend space and time and energy to try to distort it... Seriously, dude. That's scary as hell. They cannot let one single shitposting subreddit escape their web of manipulation and deceit and control. If this doesn't alarm you...well...then...you're wrong.

Robert W. Merry: Democrats Ignore The Immigration Elephant In The Room

IMO this is exactly right:

   Indeed, in their 2018 book, The Great Revolt, Salena Zito and Brad Todd posit that Trump got an extra boost from working class Americans put off by the attacks on him from prominent politicians of both parties who called his immigration concerns “unhinged,” “reprehensible,” “xenophobic,” “racist,” and “fascist.” Zito and Todd write that many Trump voters “saw one candidate, who shared their anxiety about immigration’s potential connections to domestic terrorism, being attacked by an entire political and media establishment that blew off that concern as bigotry.”
   In this great political divide, the Democratic candidates at the debate represent the elite preference for policies that embrace or nearly embrace open borders. An NPR study of candidate positions indicated that, on the question of whether illegal crossings should be decriminalized, four of those on the debate stage say yes, while the positions of the other two remain “unclear.” On whether immigration numbers should be increased, four say yes, while two are unclear. On whether federal funding for border enforcement should be increased or decreased, five have no clear position, while one says it should be decreased. A separate Washington Post study on the candidates’ views as to whether illegal immigrants should be covered under a government-run health plan found that five say yes while one has no clear position.
   The Democratic Party has become the party of the country’s elites—globalist, internationalist, anti-nationalist, free-trade, and open borders. Those views are so thoroughly at variance with those of Trump voters that it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that we have here a powerful issue of our time, perhaps the most powerful issue. Yet the journalistic moderators at Tuesday’s event didn’t see fit to ask about it. And the candidates weren’t inclined to bring it up in any serious way.

Read more »

Trump Admin Rolls Back M. Obama's School Lunch Program On Her Birthday

That's the kind of petty bullshit that helps fan the flames of TDS. In fact, it's a rational reason to dislike the guy. Petty, mean-spirited, seemingly obsessed with extirpating every remnant of Obama's legacy. I don't in any way think he's the monster the left feverishly imagines him to be. But he does seem to be an asshole. I have no idea whether the program was good or bad, nor whether the new program will be better or worse. But that birthday thing is just repulsive.

Racism Is Unconstitutional, Anyone Voting For Trump Is Racist, and Unconstitutional Votes Are Both Invalid and Punishable By Law

"NBC News: Think."

I.e.: not even a fringe source.

One hardly knows what to say anymore.

Progressivism has lost its mind.

Mann And Ornstein: Five Myths About Bipartisanship

These are, so far as I can tell, arguments they've been making for years now, and props to them for their work.
I either tend to agree with or could probably be persuaded of just about everything they say right up to the end. It's a little difficult for me to believe that the Pubs are that radical, and it's incredible to me that anyone could say that the contemporary Dems are a "traditional" "center-left" party. The Pubs have definitely tended to be way more conservative than I've been--have they really moved that far right of the traditional American center? Perhaps the move to extreme free-marketism could be what did it in their eyes. That's something of which I could be convinced anyway.
   But today's Dems are a "traditional" "center-left" party? I'm utterly baffled by that claim. They seem to be going on voting records--probably a significantly better indicator than Crazy-Left Twitter and the stuff that gets said in this primary... But that stuff can't really be left out...
   Look: just take an issue that I don't have much of an opinion on: abortion. It's easier for me to be objective about that. You basically can't be a Democrat if you don't advocate Constitutional protection of abortion on demand. Northam, for example, has defended what's been called "fourth-trimester" abortions. If anything, I tend to lean more Democrat on this one on general libertarian grounds. But it's extremely difficult for me to believe that this--significant as it is both objectively and for the Dems--is an indicator of a "traditional center-left" party. The equality act, which entails that men can become women and vice-versa for a variety of insane reasons--feeling that it's so, believing that it's so, dressing as if it's so--rejects observable, empirical facts, empirical lexicographical facts about English, and a central logico-metaphysical foundation of all reason: thinking so (in and of itself) doesn't make things so. (And I think Dems voted unanimously for the "equality act). I suppose the ideas of race-based and sex-based hiring, and that people should be evaluated morally on the basis of their sex and skin color are pretty traditional alright...so there's a couple of things. Socialism has a significant history in the U.S., so that seems ok to me... One could go on--but I wonder whether they're actually focusing on economic issues and, perhaps, using Europe--which has, of course, kinda lost its mind--as a touchstone...
   Anyway. Obviously my opinions on this don't really stack up well against actual research.

Northam Setting Up False Flag Op For The 2A/VCDL Rally In Richmond

The right loves false flag conspiracies. 

Somebody on Twitter assured him he had killer sourcing on this though!!!!

Not buying it.

Andrew McCarthy: There Is No Impeachable Offense

Well, when you put it that way...
   I have no settled view on this because I've had very little time and energy to put into understanding it. I've been reduced to trying to do drive-by reads and puzzle out a guess about what the hell is going on.
   McCarthy makes a pretty good...what? Second-order kind of case or something. I probably can't understand the legal arguments...but if we look at all the surrounding stuff...the way the Dems are acting and approaching all this...it sure does have the hallmarks of another bullshit, Russiagate-esque hoax.
   That's, of course, the best-case scenario for the country.

Larry Elder Gets A Hate Call

I don't know why this cracked me up so much. There's really nothing at all funny or original in it. It's just objectively not that funny. But it did. Crack me up, that is.

Carolina 52 - Pitt 66

At this point, I'm not even sure we're going to make the ACC tournament.

Everything Is White Supremacy: The NYT Is White Supremacy

I mean it's basically the Volkischer Beobachter, amirite?
Nobody is left enough for the new new left, bigot.
Remember back before 'racist' was redefined to include all and only white people in its extension, and 'white supremacists' were, like, the Klan and the Aryan Brotherhood and suchlike? That is, before 'racist' meant white person and 'white supremacist' meant racist?
Good times.
Thing is, now we need another term that means white supremacist--you know, the Klan and whatnot. But, so far as negative rhetorical valence goes, I'm really not sure where we go from 'white supremacist'… I guess that's really the point, though, isn't it? Now that all whites are racist and all racists are white supremacists, all white people are white supremacists...well, I guess that's probably congenial to the progressive left, actually. In fact, I guess it should have been obvious that that's where we've been going all along.
You're literally Hitler, Hitler.
Denying it just makes you Hitlerier.

Everything Is White Supremacy: Brexit Is White Supremacy

God, is this ever par for the current course.
Progressivism has become a massive web of transparent fictions.

Trump Adds Dershowitz and Starr To Legal Team

facepalm
   I mean seriously. No Judge Judy? Perry Mason unavailable? Judge Roy Moore? Too bad it's too early to cull any JAGs from Spaaaace Fooooooooorce…
   If Trump were salvageable, he'd have gone after Jonathan Turley...though, as Reynolds (or somebody) said: maybe he did. Dershowitz is smart, tho. Dunno anything about his lawyerly chops.
Here I'm tempted to add: we are so screwed... But that's loser-talk. I've gotta stop saying that shit. Ten years from now, it's pretty likely that we'll look back on this as a dark, but transient, era. Trump will be gone and Orwellian progressivism will have retreated back, defeated, into the Mordor of ed schools, administration, and women's studies departments...but always watching...waiting...longing for its chance to emerge and defile the.....oh, hell, forget that last part... Would a little optimism absolutely kill me?

Walls and Fences Never Work!...But Northam Inexplicably Orders Fencing Erected For Pro-Second-Amendment Rally

More importantly: the FBI did seem to scrape up three neo-Nazi militiamen who were going to go to the rally. Which...I mean, obviously f*ck those guys...but there's nothing illegal about being a Neo-nazi. Stupid assholes have First Amendment rights, too. But I don't know the details in this case. They are apparently members of "The Base," which is notorious for having some sort of commitment to / plans for actual violence. Which is different. Though... Antifa is openly attending the rally, and they're openly violent, anti-democratic leftist totalitarians...
   But as for the other point: we were assured repeatedly that Trump's border barrier wouldn't work, because no barrier has ever worked to do its job in the entire history of mankind! After all, the Great Wall of China only worked for like 2,000 years or something... I mean, look, Northam can put up the fence around the capitol...but people will just climb over it...or tunnel under it! Fences never work!
   Consistency is the hobgoblin of politically incorrect minds, I reckon.

Why You Should Finish With A Hook, A Jab, Or a Rollout

RIP Christopher Tolkein

link
(h/t SR)

Dystopian Equality Now!

Handmaid's Tale: Politically correct dystopianism! Despite the fact that there is basically no sign of this one ever coming to pass, we are, weirdly, always on the very verge of it! You can also make a tv series out of it, have billboards, and dress up like it every time the other guys do something you don't like, and parade around DC.
Camp Of The Saints: Politically incorrect dystopianism! Despite the fact that this one actually seems to have been kinda prescient, do not read! In fact, you are not permitted even to have heard about it, bigot.

Actually, I haven't read CotS. Maybe it really is a racist (or whatever it's supposed to be) screed. But I doubt it.

VDH: "The New Post-Trump Constitution"

I'm skeptical of this.

   I'm more inclined to think that we're at a pretty unrepresentative time, when things have gone very bad. The bleeding-heart Orwellians drove the blue team hard left, this gave us Trumpo the Clown, this made the blue team completely lose it, this led to the attempted coup that was Russiagate/Pee-Tapegate...then the streams of crazy seem to have crossed big time in Ukrainegate. Seems to me like the Dems just mindlessly reloaded their mindless anti-Trump fantasy investigation after the failure of Rg/PTg...but it turns out that Trump was (or so it seems) up to some kind of shenanigans or other in Ukraine. Yahtzee! 

   Maybe I'm an optimist, but I think it's too soon to declare this the new normal.

Antifa Blackshirts To Join VCDL Pro-2A Rally In Richmond

My first thought was that this was a way to tarnish the rally...but since the average vocal progressive seems to be pro-...or at least not anti-...Antifa, I suppose that doesn't actually make much sense. Both sides have noted that gun-control has often been used in the U.S. to oppress blacks, but I've never been sure how good an argument that is. Democracy has been used to oppress blacks, too... Such historical arguments have to be handled carefully. It's more important to ask what the parameters of a generic American's rights are without regard to race. My inclination is to think that the Dems' hoplophobia harms contemporary blacks, because it harms us all. Though perhaps the point is: everyone should be concerned...but blacks should be especially concerned. 

   Leave it to Antifa to ignore all the bigger issues and find the racial angle, I reckon...

   It could also be a way to provoke violence, again, in order to tarnish the cause. 

   I ought to go, but I'm just too damn busy. Lame on me. Talks a big line, but not willing to schlep his scrawny ass down to Richmond to demonstrate on behalf of the Constitution. Lame, lame, lame.

   Hey, there's always tons of announcements about climate hysteria rallies at and around my university...wonder why I didn't see any announcements urging students to leave in the middle of class to go demonstrate for the Second Amendment? Weird, right? Must have just overlooked 'em.

   Institutional neutrality is dead at public universities. But that's a different aimless lament for a different time.

David A. Graham: "We Can't Afford To Ignore Lev Parnas's Explosive Claims"

My God what a shitshow.
   On one side, DJT, Rudy G., and the ever-more-unlikely array of crooks, nuts and petty con men that they apparently do "business" with routinely. Behold the debasement of the office of the president of the United States... On the other side: thorough-going lunacy. Bleeding-heart Orwellianism. Fantastical stupidity propped up by the foolishness and dogmatism of ruling "elites" who cannot really even envision the possibility that they might be wrong.

Jerry Kammer: "I'm A Liberal Who Thinks That Immigration Must Be Restricted"

This is so right I can hardly believe the NYT published it.

Progressives Scare Themselves Again: The "OK" Hand Sign Is Not A Racist Thing...

...and this is not even the "OK" hand sign.
OK?
This is the OK sign:

As has been pointed out: the demand for white supremacy outstrips the actual supply by many orders of magnitude...  Actually, stupid shit like this is great. Were the USA even 1/100th as evil and white-supremacistical as the left wants it to be, we'd all be too busy fighting Klansmen to waste so much energy making up hate-crime hoaxes all the time. White supremacism is the devil for the progressive left, which is the new religious right. And the OK sign is their devil horns:

Who's Zoomin' *Whom*...

Yeah, I also agree that, were Warren telling the truth, she'd have been more likely to have said something like "You know you said it." Or "Bernie, you lyin' sack a' shit..."

Delusions Should Not Be Codified Into Law And Become A Reason To Put Women In Danger

Apparently we live at a time when "delusions should not be codified into law," on its own, isn't enough. I'm against putting women in danger, too...but I sure wish the first bit were sufficient. 

"The Problem With Switching Gender In Prison"

And speaking of "gender," here's another idea for an article: The Problem With Having A Term That Means Whatever You Want It To Mean.

Taibbi: CNN's Debate Performance Was Villainous And Shameful

And this is how they treat someone who is barely distinguishable from the candidate they support.
   I can't believe I used to watch CNN. A lot. I am an idiot in a large number of ways. Jesus, I even used to watch MSNBC! When their sleazy mendacity came into focus I was disgusted at myself. I have no earthly idea how I could have been so blind to it. IT'S RIGHT THERE. IT'S VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO SEE.
   Really, it's like my brain isn't even on sometimes.

Go Elise Stefanik!

That is all.

GAO Says Trump Broke Law By Witholding Ukraine Funds

Sumbitch is looking guiltier all the time IMO...
   When I saw the headline I thought it was going to be some bullshit progressive "watchdog" organization like the SPLC or ACLU. Hey, remember when those used to be legit organizations? I'm so old I remember back before they were merely parts of the progressive propaganda/cultural-control apparatus...
   But it's the GMFAO.
  This doesn't, however, sound like confirmation of the articles of impeachment to me. Sounds like the GAO found some law-breaking, but it doesn't sound as if it's saying that it was exactly the kind that would do the impeachment trick. Still, it might count toward impeachment to some extent.
   If you only had some kind of...I don't know...public information source...or...maybe broadcast... I don't know what idea I'm grasping at here...something like...like the NYT or WaPo...but without the political affiliation. Some sort of objective source of accounts of new events....extremely current events...oh, I don't even know what I'm saying. This is some kind of sci-fi pipe-dream...
   It'd actually be kind of funny--in a catastrophic, Dems-take-power, end-of-American kind of way--if, after the two-year, non-stop, Russiagate hoax, Trump did himself in with this Ukraine foolishness. Especially if Biden turns out not even to be the nominee.
   If that happens I'll LOL myself to sleep every night, even unto the complete opening of our borders, mandatory transgender surgery for all, and absorption of the U.S. into the Greater EU.

MSM-Watch: Progressives Reaping What They Done Sowed

Bon appetite!

NHS Leader: "Stop Prioritizing Your Own Health"

Since private health insurance will be illegal in the brave, blue new world, I guess we won't have this "problem."

Bernie Gets The Pub Treatment From CNN

Whelp, "Berniebros," now you know what the Pubs have felt like for the past, well, basically, ever...:

   Even in her set up, Phillips seemed to reject Sanders’ earlier denials of the story: “Senator Sanders, CNN reported yesterday, and Senator Warren confirmed in a statement, that in 2018, you told her that you did not believe that a woman could win the election. Why did you say that?”
   While Sanders made these points and repeatedly denied the allegation, Phillips left many of us confused when, literally just after he again denied the story, she asked him again if he denied the story. Some in the audience laughed at the weird follow up but that was followed by gasps when Phillips then turned to Warren and said “Senator Warren, what did you think when Senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?”
   Phillips then turned to Klobuchar and asked her how she felt about people making such comments to female candidates.  [My emphasis]

   Holy crap. That's blatant.
   I'm too lazy to look for it, but there's a tweet bopping around (FWTW) asserting something like: the "lesson" of "#MeToo" is that women should not be doubted. Ergo we should not doubt Warren's accusation. So now it's not even: every accusation of sexual assault made by a woman is true; it's every accusation of any kind made by a woman is true. Or, perhaps: everything ever said by any woman is true. Wonder what the rule is if a woman accuses a woman?
   I've always been 100% on-board with efforts to identify and address actual sexual harassment. Like everybody else I know. It's hardly an exceptional view. As far as I'm concerned, one actual case of serious, clear sexual harassment is enough to give someone the boot, no second chances. I've got no tolerance for that shit whatsoever. But the history of feminism for about the past 40 years is a story of moving past the reasonable positions of old-school, liberal feminism. A story, that is, of radicalization. Which means: crazification.
   Identify and address actual instances of sexual harassment is a sound and unobjectionable principle that we'd all go to the mat for. Believe every accusation is lunacy. Take the case at hand: Warren is a known liar, and she's known to lie in order to advance her career. Bernie's kind of a nut, obviously, with a crackpot view of government and economics...but I, at least, don't know of any major (i.e.: more-than-ordinary-for-a-politician) accusations of lying against him. He has a perfectly coherent set of reasons for the proposition that he doesn't believe what she accused him of saying--for example he thinks that, in a sense, a woman already did win. And it's kind of slimy to accuse someone of calling you a liar when they deny a scurrilous accusation against themselves. Anyway, as Bernie points out: in this sense, Warren's calling him a liar, too. In fact, she's calling him a liar and a sexist.
   Anyway. Warren's accusation isn't credible. And she isn't credible. I'd be willing to bet some money against the truth of her accusation. I'm not a betting man, nor a rich one, but I don't think I'd hesitate to bet $100 on it.

Northam Declares State Of Emergency To Discredit Pro-Second-Amendment Rally

Allegedly there's information that other groups aim to show up to cause trouble--but I doubt it. I could be wrong, but my guess is that this is largely a political move. Wonder whether that's impeachable?

Progressivism Destroys The University

My university's theory of how you create an intellectually more expansive institution:
Hire people on the basis of their intellectually irrelevant, generally biological, characteristics like race and sex (and also "gender" WTF ever that means now), and a bunch of other irrelevant shit.
Oh yeah.
This is gonna work great.
God knows the last thing you want to do for kids is put them in contact with great minds. Or, well, in our case: pretty good minds. Because, though they've never met a black person before, their lives are lousy with good philosophers! What's one more? What's contact with yet another a good philosophical mind going to do for them, compared to contact with, say, a guy with darker-than-average skin? I mean, that's the truly rare and transformative experience, amirite?

Progressivism is madness, man. And its most notable effect will be the destruction of Western Civilization.
[Eh...could be, anyway...]

VA Dems Back Off Of Gun Confiscation

But they've already tipped their hand.
It's now clear what their actual goal is, even if they don't think they can effect it right now.

Who's Lying, Bernie Or Warren?

As Althouse points out: maybe neither.
But if someone is, and it's exactly one of them: probably Warren.
Does Bernie have anything like Warren's record of lying? And about exactly this sort of thing?
Also, as Bernie notes, it would be a ridiculous thing for him to say given that Clinton did win--the popular vote, anyway.

David A. Graham: "Whatever The Question, The Answer Is Trump"

That should probably be: ...The Answer is 'Trump'...but whatevs.
I think this is pretty right.
Trump may have done a really good thing. Maybe he's even really good at foreign policy. But he talks/tweets like a loon. Which makes it seem pretty probable that he got lucky at best. And: a president needs to be stable and sensible. And Trump doesn't seem to be either. At the very least: we can't be sure that he is those things. And we can't have a wild-card in the White House.
   I still think the guy should never have even been in the running to be POTUS.
   But I also still think that progressivism has basically (a) gone mad and (b) taken over the Dems. And so they're also a completely unacceptable option.
   So here we are.

Crazy-Talk From Progressive Activists: If Bernie Doesn't Win "Cities Burn"; Denazification Needed For Trump-Supporters; Gulags Not That Bad

Kinda looks like we are watching a progressive political bull session over beers. Don't get me wrong--it's nuts. And nuts in ways that are genuinely representative of certain tendencies on the progressive left. It's not like anything in there is a surprise. It's not like we've never heard this kind of stuff before from such folk. But that being said: people say a lot of dumb shit when they're in their cups and hanging out with the similarly-outraged. I'm not wild about the fact that these ideas are so prevalent now in the U.S. But I certainly don't advocate pretending that this sort of thing tells us what these guys really think in a cool hour. Does anybody want his drunkenest, rantiest conversation to be on the interwebs? As a representation of his actual beliefs? And to get at the same kind of point from a different direction: isn't this basically what the screechy left does? I mean, I know it's project "Veritas". But still...

Trump Authorized Killing Soleimani 7 Months Ago, With Conditions

I've been too busy to follow developments re: whether the administration lied about Soleimani planning imminent attacks. It's never been clear to me that they needed that justification--though I expect they probably need it. One way or another, if they lied about it, then they're lying mofos.
   This is informative. It  in no way shows the Soleimani operation to have been unjustified, though.
Man, I can't even stay up on what's happening--much less think carefully about it--when I'm on break. There's just no way for ordinary people to really keep up with what's going on.
   And now the NYT and the WaPo have both gone nuts with TDS, I not only won't pay for subscriptions, I don't even like looking at them. (And I get tired of erasing my browser history.) They're so daft that they're making my own anti-progressive derangement syndrome (aPDS) worse. Gosh, you'd think that even NYT and WaPo readers would get fed up and start demanding some modicum of objectivity...wouldn'tcha? I mean, reading them is a bit like reading a thinly-disguised Democratic press release. It's not like there's nothing true in 'em… Even Democratic press releases contain truths from time to time. Thing is, with Democratic press releases, you can--or use'ta could--check them against, y'know, the NYT and the WaPo. But when the sources you used to check things against are now the sources most in need of being checked... Well, it's not good is what I'm saying.