Final "Gold Standard" Selzer Poll: Trump Takes Iowa Lead By 7 Points, Biden Fades. Same Margin As 2016.

 link.  We may stay in the frying pan yet.

Trump Looks Happy, Biden Looks Beaten

This is just a point made by a commenter on Free Republic (can you believe I read that site now? Egad.): Trump looks like somebody who thinks he's winning; not so much the Harris-Biden ticket. I know it's a weird and unreliable kind of point, but...gotta agree...  OTOH I've basically stopped reading the MSM and sites in the leftosphere...they've all just become horrifyingly cultified. So maybe I only see clips of Biden when he's bedraggled.

   But the MSM has turned all its power on dragging him across the finish line--suppressing Russiagategate for months, suppressing information about Hunter, downplaying concerns about Biden's health, pouring on the coal when it comes to pandemic panic porn... In addition to being horrified, I've got to say, I'm impressed by their "message discipline." The ability to control information is a powerful thing. 

My Coveted Endorsement: President

Trump, of course.

Is this is a nutty timeline or what?

The Totalitarian Left Wants To Control Every Aspect Of Your Life

 Really, how much clearer could they make it.

"It's Not A Felony To Destroy Trump Ballots"

 Normally I wouldn't even notice this insufficiently-funny joke...but the left is like a megaphone for terrible ideas. There's a nonzero probability that this will become the next "hate speech is not free speech"--hatevotes are not free votes or whatever bullshit linguistic legerdemain they come up with.

Don't Urge People To Vote

 If you pay attention to what's going on in the country, and to policy and politics, you'll likely want to vote. Great. And those who aren't motivated to vote are pretty likely to not know what's going on. So I quite urging people to vote years ago. Now I urge them to be informed about what's going on. If they become interested enough to vote, that's probably good. But if you just mindlessly urge people to vote, the best result is probably that they ignore you; the worse result is that you increase the number of uninformed voters.

Sez me, anyways.

Flu Vaccine Does Not Affect Seasonal Flu Deaths??

I need a fact-check on this. Is it true the varying efficacies of the seasonal flu vaccinations don't make an obvious difference in the number of flu deaths each year? (We believe some vaccines are far better than others.) https://t.co/VUQCOD25v9

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) October 31, 2020

ABC Breaks The Hunter Embargo

 Wow. Probably too late now...but  1.5 cheers for ABC on this one:

Woah ABC pic.twitter.com/dSetIbGcQF

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 31, 2020

You're Not Comparing Biden To Trump; You're Comparing The Most Favorable Biden The MSM Can Get Away With To The Most Unfavorable Image Of Trump They Can Get Away With

It's absolutely appalling.

If the progressive, prestige, mainstream media had been even vaguely objective for the last four years, this election would be no contest. Instead the frail, possibly criminal Russiagate conspirator and more-or-less puppet of the Orwellian left seems likely to beat the guy who stood up for free speech at universities and against Orwellian indoctrination of government employees, who got the economy roaring, and who has brought a shit-ton of peace to the Middle East. He's got his bad points, too...as you know because they've been blared in your face by the PMSM every day...

   I understand being exhausted by Trump, thinking he's unfit for office, and refusing to vote for him. I absolutely get it. But despite the fact that it's understandable, the progressive MSM is lying to you. 

   If you don't think of them basically as the journalistic equivalent of Pravda, you've had the wool pulled over your eyes. They're lying to your face. They're lying to your face right now. They're hiding significant evidence of Biden's criminality from you. They've hidden clear evidence of left-wing violence from you. They are bending their entire will toward preventing you from seeing politically incorrect truths. They are no longer interested in informing you; they exist, in fact, to disinform you.

Good Polling News: The Trafalgar Group

 Not exactly news...but grounds for hope.

John Staddon: "How Real Is Systemic Racism Today?"

No time to really comment on this, but it's good.

Stoddon says it's a bad concept, but I disagree. I think it's a pretty good concept--it helps us understand e.g. slavery and Jim Crow. That is: systemic (better: institutional) racism is an actual thing. There just isn't much of it around in the U.S. today. And it's become just another mindless bit of progressive-left jargon, invoked automatically, with no real thought or understanding. And, of course: it's become the central concept in a bunch of untestable (often auxiliary) hypotheses used to prop up leftist race hustling given the fact that there isn't all that much actual racism in the U.S. anymore. 

Is America Going To Let The Party Of Riots, Re-education Camps, Coups, Intolerance And Segregation Win The White House Tuesda

It's pretty likely.

For now: get the hell out there and vote and work. Drive Republicans to the polls. Nobody's saying you have to be a Republican. Nobody's saying you have to like Trump. You just gotta go out there and do your best against the blues until the pendulum of crazy swings back the other way. Our job right now is to push the dystopian blue future farther away and hope for the best.

Daniel Henninger: "Vote For Joe Biden? Seriously?"

 I find it as difficult to believe as Henninger does...but a whole lotta people are gonna do it.

More Bad Polling News

If the blues take the Presidency and control both houses of Congress... My God...what a horror... We're doomed.

   I know several people who have flipped from blue to red since 2016...they all seem pretty confident that Trump, at least, is going to win.

   Me...well...I'm not so confident. I'll admit that in my heart of hearts, I just can't really believe that the country would go for for Biden...but the polls have me very, very worried. And, of course, Trump has the power to repulse large numbers of people.

   And I did my weekly-or-so check of the front pages of the NYT, WaPo, etc....holy freaking shit. They are scary delusional. It's almost impossible to believe. There's no effort whatsoever to be objective. They're just frothing-at-the-mouth propagandists at this point.

   If Trump can beat not only the Democrats but the news media and the universities and the pop "culture" industry and...all the rest...dude will prove himself virtually superhuman.

   One thing I'm confident of: there will be more "shy" Trump voters this time around than last time--since this time it's much clearer that being a Trump-supporter can get you ostracized or fired or beaten up or killed...  

   My street is filled with stupid lefty yard signs (Biden, BLM, we're glad you're our neighbor--and the worst: in this house we believe...). Of the houses with no yard signs three routinely fly their flags. We now do, and two sets of neighbors. I know that one set of them flipped from blue to red since '16, and I saw the other one wearing a Trump t-shirt yesterday... I'd have a yard sign, but, sadly, JQ probably isn't voting for Trump--but she isn't voting for Lyin' Joe...so that's good...

"Difficult Conversations" About Race

When progressives say that we have to have "difficult" or "uncomfortable" conversations about race, what they mean is: they want to have a conversation in which they say a bunch of false and insulting things about conservatives and white people.

   They don't want to have true conversations--conversations in which we state uncomfortable truths... Those truths basically cannot be spoken. Progressives are eager to have false conversations in which they state a bunch of falsehoods and insult us while pretending that they're regretfully speaking unhappy truths...

   But if our only two options are (a) watch the country go into a flaming leftist tailspin or (b) speak those actual truths we'd rather not have to speak...well...you see what we've got to do.

   The difference is that progressives are eager to speak the insulting falsehoods. But we'd really rather not have to speak the genuinely uncomfortable genuine truths...

Halfway Through, I Realized I Was Unconsciously Half-Expecting Trump To Rappel Down Out Of The Chopper

2 movies / 1 screen. Literally. @ScottAdamsSays pic.twitter.com/CW9vQngZBc

— Geoff Pilkington (@geoffpilkington) October 27, 2020

Lyin' Biden Isn't Even In Office (Yet), And He's Already Trying To Infringe On Our Freedom

 You can take your "national mask mandate" and stick it up your withery white ass, you crooked sonofabitch. If there's one thing that will make me wear a mask even less, it's a "national mask mandate."

I see that the NYT still has pandemic panic porn front and center, and still no word about the fact that their preferred presidential candidate is apparently a big, fat crook...

The MSM Is Hiding The Fact That Hunter Biden Is Under Active Criminal Investigation

7 days after this NPR statement the DOJ confirmed Hunter Biden is under active criminal FBI investigation https://t.co/X0VcN7f2VS

— Jack Posobiec VOTE 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 29, 2020

So It's Come To This: Greenwald Quits The Intercept Over Censorship By Pro-Biden Editors

Right.

   There is now officially no possibility of rationally arguing that we are not in a red alert situation. 

   We have credible evidence that the Democratic candidate for President is involved in influence-peddling via his crackhead, possibly pedophiliac son. We also have evidence that said candidate is, consequently, beholden to a foreign, totalitarian, genocidal nuclear power. The cherry on top of this shit sundae is that the progressive press--which has its own clear totalitarian sympathies--is suppressing this information. 

   When Glenn F'in Greenwald is being censored by the PMSM...and not just any bit of the PSMS but his own The Intercept itself...shit has gotten way, way real.

Are Masks A Distraction From COVID Realities?

maybe

I wear a bandana over my face if I go in somewhere that asks me to, or if there's fair human density inside someplace. I upped my mask-use at the suggestion that the kung flu might cause cognitive impairment...I've got no smarts to spare, and I expect other people feel the same way. About theirs I mean. Though probably mine, too.

   To repeat myself: part of what's going on there is that progressives try to control every aspect of our lives. They're constantly shrieking about something we ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO DO (recycle, not smoke, vote Democrat, global warming, "anti-"racism, blah blah blah), and we've been bombarded with bullshit pseudoexpertise and spastic demands since the beginning of this thing. Oh and: black lives matter! And none of the draconian batflu restrictions apply to Black Lives Matter stuff! Including the mostly peaceful social justice riots for peace and justice! 

   Anyway: we're all sick of the progressive pseudoscientific bullshit...and masks are likely to be just more of that. Better safe than sorry is often a reasonable policy...but we've gotten to a point such that it's a matter of freedom and autonomy. At some point, you just have to say stop fucking telling me what to do. I'm currently more concerned about the docility of Americans than I am about batflu. This has become a matter of principle...and it's not our fault that that happened. 

Trumpian Linguistic Incaution / Coarseness vs. Progressive False Accusations Of Racism

Trump's no racist. We shouldn't have to say that. We certainly shouldn't have to say that by now. He does speak inarticulately / sloppily / incautiously very often. He does say things that justifiably raise eyebrows. But everything he's said that the left claims was racist simply wasn't. They repeatedly lie about what he said, spin other things as uncharitably as possible...and for anything that's still interpretable as racist, the appeal to his past record of (non-)racism! Just one more way they lock themselves up in their largely fact-free preconceived worldview. You say "the cat is on the mat." I say "that's racist!" You point to the transcript and point out that it obviously wasn't. Later you say "the dog is on the log." I say "That's racist!" You again point out that it wasn't. I then say "Well, given your past history of racist utterances, I'm justified in interpreting it that way." Lunacy.

   Now...there are legitimate criticisms of Trump in this vicinity. Race is a volatile issue even independently of progressive race hysteria. You can reject progressivism's minefield of irrational jargon and still think that it's an area in which one ought to tread with greater caution than Trump does. One of his great failings is that he simply doesn't seem capable of speaking carefully. The President needs to be above reproach in this respect--and that doesn't mean: satisfying irrational progressive demands. It means: not leaving any doubt in the minds of ordinary people. 

   However: he's not a racist, and he's never said anything racist, and it's mainly progressive lies that have raised doubts about the subject.

   And, of course: progressivism lives by pumping up race hysteria. And by subordinating facts to its dogma. And false accusations of racism are its bread and butter. None of this should be controversial by now.

   So we face a choice between:

(a) A President who speaks incautiously, and sometimes leaves himself open to vaguely plausible accusations of racism.

and

(b) A political faction that accuses everyone it disagrees with of racism at every turn.

   First: (b) is a much, much greater enemy of truth than is (a). 

   Second, (b) is more destructive than (a). It's not (a) that's caused violent riots to break out across the nation. It's not (a) that's convinced many nonwhites that their nation hates them. It's not (a) that's involved in trying to tear down our entire system of government. 

   The progressive left is lying about Trump, and lying about racism, and lying about Trump being racist. It's radically, religiously devoted to its ideological dogma, and it honestly sees all who oppose it as racist. It also recognizes such accusations as powerful weapons, and, having little regard for truth and believing that it should be subordinate to dogma, it also issues accusations it knows to be false--because they're damn effective.

    As I've said, I think Trump's unfit for the office. Not because he's anything like the left represents him--but for the reasons I've articulated before, including his imprecise manner of speech and inability to control himself on Twitter. But these are desperate times. We're not merely choosing between Trump and Biden. We're choosing between two vastly different political worldviews, and two vastly different governments. Our decision will result in a significant shift redward or blueward. The former is far more sane, centrist, and commonsensical. The latter is speculative, radical and quasi-religious. Furthermore, Trump has extremely significant strengths that the left and the media simply refuse to acknowledge. Finally: the Biden family is apparently up to its eyeballs in influence-peddling...but the vast left-wing conspiracy is so powerful it has actually suppressed this information, showing--finally, conclusively--that we have no journalists anymore in the MSM. They are, indeed, nothing more than propagandists. 

   I've been wrong before--a lot and by a lot. But I don't think I'm wrong this time. Trump is clearly the better choice, given the two we have.

Economy Grows At Record Pace In Third Quarter

link.   Yeah, yeah, the "record" part kinda doesn't count because it's a rebound...but I don't care anymore against the lying liars. It's true. Use it. 

Do Lockdowns Lead To More Deaths? Is MSM Lysenkoism Making Things Worse?

 maybe:

Any news programmers that choose to ignore this are aiding and abetting the biggest, most deadly deception of my lifetime.https://t.co/EhKFxVusJU

— Todd Ξ Herman (Parler: ToddEHerman) (@toddeherman) October 28, 2020

WHY WON'T TRUMP DISAVOW WHITE SUPREMACISTS????????

Because being accused of racism--like being accused of sexual assault--means you're guilty. If you deny that you're guilty, then you're guilty and a liar. According to the progressive left, the only acceptable response is to admit your guilt, prostrate yourself, abase yourself via hyperbolic self-denunciation, and beg for forgiveness. No, wait...no forgiveness. Just keep humiliating yourself. You deserve it.

   Once again: the cornerstone of progressivism is political correctness. Political correctness is the subordination of facts to leftist political dogma. Their dogma is that Trump is racist...because their dogma is that all who oppose them are racists. (Again: this isn't about Trump; this is about you. He's just in the way.) No facts can overturn leftist dogma. Trump is racist--and you are racist--and nothing he or you can say or do can change that in the collective delusion of the progressive left.

   This is madness...but there's also a degree of method in it: repeatedly asking the question is the next best thing to repeatedly making the accusation. It says to an unwoke audience: it's not clear whether this person is racist...it's so unclear that we have to keep asking him over and over and over... That'll do for contexts in which flat-out accusations won't work.

   The idea is that, if you don't scrupulously adopt the beliefs and language and manners of the progressive left in every ever-changing detail, then your racist enough that nothing else you could ever say or do will ever matter.
 

Philadelphia Rioters "Specifically Targeting White People;" Antifa Has To Hold A Separate Riot

So...is there any chance that this will ever be discussed honestly in the mainstream media?

We keep hearing that we must have "difficult conversations" about race...well...

More Mostly Peaceful Social Justice Riots For Peace And Justice...Brooklyn?

 What the hell happened in Brooklyn? 

Thinking there ought to be a reason for riots is probably white supremacy or something...

Anti-cop protesters leave trail of destruction in Downtown Brooklyn https://t.co/RAqnE0sejO

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 28, 2020

"QAnon And The Proud Boys Strike Again"

QAnon and Proud Boys strike again. https://t.co/OzCMlG0oJY

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) October 28, 2020

Your Blue Future: Here Today! If The Person Trying To Kill You Is Black, And You Defend Yourself With Deadly Force, It's Mostly Peaceful Riots For You And You're City

 So...we're all supposed to, what? Pretend this isn't completely f*cking insane?

The Biden Crime Family: "Plausible Deniability"

 Ho. Lee. Crap.

Oh it’s more than plausible https://t.co/77szntBnCl

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 28, 2020

In The Midst Of Actual, Frequent, Deadly Leftist Mob Violence...The Media Wants You To Worry About POSSIBLE Violence From The Right

link

Does Batflu Decrease Intelligence?

 Probably not--this study didn't even have pre-batflu data on the subjects. But scary, nevertheless. I'm on the raggedy edge as it is...

What's Actually Going On With The Baftlu: Raw Cases vs. Cases Per Million

Be afraiiiiiiiiiiiid....

👇🏻👇🏻 https://t.co/4cn4TqldGO

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) October 27, 2020

Hunter Biden Implicates Joe Biden

 Holy crap.

BREAKING: New audio of Hunter Biden talking about his partner “the f**king spy chief of China”

“I’m receiving calls from SDNY” @TheNatPulse pic.twitter.com/vDYnxNTvo6

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 27, 2020

Trump: The Only Middle Finger Available

 I try to resist the urge to think like this...but with only partial success...

A Reasonable, Liberal Case For Voting Against Trump

Nathaniel Givens at Public Square.

(Sent to me my a Mormon friend, obvs.)

I disagree with it--in particular the final, anti-Trump section. But it's worth a read, and worth taking seriously.

Myself, I think it's kinda crazy to worry about the possibility that an illiberal right might rise in power when Stalin is bearing down on your capital.

But I do worry that lone wolves on the right tend to snap all of a sudden. But that's a worry about mass shootings, not about the rise of a political movement.

Danish Mask Study Still Being Censored By Journals?

That's the lead hypothesis.

The chatter is that nobody's brave enough to publish it because it supports the very politically incorrect view that masks don't work.

Your blue--and Lysenkoist--future...it's here already!

Of course maybe the study and/or the paper contain legit flaws. That's possible.

Furthermore, just from reading the chatter, it sounds to me like the study could, at most, only show that masks don't protect the wearer--which now seems to have evolved into a lesser consideration as compared to protecting others. 

And why don't the researchers just publish it online? Is the pub cred really that important to them? 

Iowa Electronic Markets: Grim

 link

ACB Confirmed

I think this is good.

Independently of (a) the left's crazification and (b) my slight shift toward the Burkean right, I came to think that textualism was the better position on Constitutional interpretation. I'd really not sat down and thought about it much before. 

   At any rate, if Biden wins--and even more so if there's a blue wave, God forbid--this will be huge. 

DJT Leads In PA?

 maybe

Rasmussen Less Bad

 Still hardly great.

The Polls Are Still Bad

 Not f'in good.

Yascha Mounk: "Hate Wokeness? Vote Biden"

LOOOOOOOOOOL

Though points for finally noticing the illiberal left...

Until they started noticing it was threatening the Dems' chances, they just told us it didn't exist...

Mounk is right about the two destructive tendencies of the left: focusing too much on the country's failures, and holding that the right is so dangerous that it's permissible to do absolutely anything to oppose them. And, of course, we've all wondered whether a Democratic win might take the wind out of the sails of the Orwellian left.

But no. This is just another ploy to get centrists to go along with the extremists. Trump is actively and intelligently opposing the illiberal left. Biden will simply go along with them--or work to advance their agenda. He's already claimed that the first thing he'll do if elected is to sign the "Equality Act." And, of course, it's already pretty clear that he won't last long--and then the most liberal member of the Senate will be President. And such an election will have had coattails...and then we are right and truly f*cked.

So no: don't try a three-bank shot hoping that by helping Pantyfa & co. they'll become your friends and start hosting Federalist Papers reading groups. 

Just f*cking vote for the guy with a proven record of opposing the goddamn Maoists, willya?

The Press Is No Longer A Watchdog, Nor A Seeker Of Truth--It's An Enforcer Of Leftist Orthodoxy

Surely no one is just now noticing this.

Check Out The Beverly Hills Trump Rally

link

   Giant, genuinely peaceful rallies comprised of ordinary, happy. patriotic Americans...vs. tiny smatterings of skinny, effete "elites" oh-so-eager to wear their masks at every opportunity...or mobs of angry, criminal, black-clad, paramilitary anarcho-communist freaks.

   More and more I think Sowell is right: there aren't really two ends of a political spectrum... Rather, there are: ordinary folk trying to make a living and raise their families and live their lives in the ordinary ways...and the crazy left who wants to burn it all down and replace it with something thought up in the women's studies department last Tuesday. The latter are angry, repulsive, unhinged, violent nihilists. 

   Needless to say, progress is possible. But nothing on offer by the contemporary left looks like a plausible candidate for a rational goal.

Michael Goodwin: Why I Voted For Trump In 2016 And Why I'll Vote For Him Again

 I couldn't have said it better myself.

How Can The MSM Get Away With This?

They've blocked more NY Post stories on the Bidens' influence peddling. Are progressives really so brainwashed that they don't smell a rat?  In other news: Biden called another "lid" today. One hypothesis is that the campaign thinks that hiding out / hunkering down / hoping for the best is their best strategy. The more obvious hypothesis is: Biden is sicker / more Alzheimeric than he seems, and can only be trusted out in public about 2/3 of the time.

   Trump rallies with thousands of people in the spillover continue, while even Obama gets fewer than 50 people "out on the hustings" as we say. Of course progressives are much more afraid of the batflu than conservatives...but still...

   I just don't believe that Biden is ten points up.

Progressivism Is The Denial Of Reality: "Not All People With Periods Are Women"

 Political correctness is the subordination of reality to leftist dogma; and PC is the cornerstone of progressivism. Also note that women are referred to as "people who bleed"...

Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let's celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed! 💙🎨: @gobeeharris #mythbusting #periodtruths #transisbeautiful pic.twitter.com/5s1416cZBw

— Tampax (@Tampax) September 15, 2020

Longstanding Claims Of Biden Corruption All But Confirmed By Emails

link

   It's a race, and the MSM seems to have won it.

   If either the full Russiagategate story or the Biden influence peddling story had broken out, Biden would be sunk. But the MSM and social media have been pouring fire retardant on them. All they need to do is keep the conflagration contained until...well...right about now, actually. There's probably too little time remaining to change people's minds even were the stories to break out today. Especially given the high numbers for early voting.

   What this means is probably the best case for Democrats and the worse case for Republicans--and the country. Even if even one of the stories should break through the media fire line, it'll be too late to harm the Dems in the election...and will only serve to hasten the presumed ascendancy of Harris to the Presidency. 

   From my perspective, of course, this is a grim development--or absence of developments--for the country. 

   One of the most depressing parts of it all is that the very people who have squawked about obscure and seemingly fictional violations of the Emoluments Clause for four years don't care--and/or don't know--about these Biden self-enrichment projects that are, apparently, neither obscure nor fictional. In fact, they seem clearly and actually criminal.

   And, again: I realize that most progressives seem to be blamelessly ignorant about all this because they justifiably--but wrongly--trust the MSM. But will this information remain concealed from them forever? If not, what will they do when they find out about it? 

   It's starting to look like democracy really does die in darkness after all.

The Medicalization Of Everything: APHA Declares Prisons A "Public Health Threat;" Recommends Ending Them

 The medicalization of everything, weaponized by Woketarianism. This pseudoexpertise turned to the ends of the illiberal progressive left is what conservatives (and others) reject--as I've said, they don't reject genuine expertise. 

American Public Health Association names prisons a public health threat. Recommends getting rid of them. https://t.co/gDfAzrePg2

— Sexy James Lindsay, Undesirable No. 1 (@ConceptualJames) October 25, 2020

Many Expect Post-Election Violence; I'm One Of Them

link

I mean...the left's anti-Trump mob violence began before he was even elected. The BLM/antifa mob violence lasted through Spring and Summer, and abated only when it started to hurt Biden in the polls. There's simply no doubt that it'll start up again if Biden loses--they're already planning it right out in the open. And they've been attempting coups for four years...you'd have to be a fool to think they'll stop now--especially if they think they can make a difference in keeping Trump out of the White House... 

   Just open your eyes and ears. Look and listen to what they've been doing and what they say they're going to do next. 

   The cult is unhinged. It has no respect for American values like free speech or free elections. You have to be (willfully?) blind and deaf to think otherwise. 

   And, of course, the crackpot mass vote-by-mail scheme is either specifically designed to sow confusion and chaos...or it might as well have been.

   Trump's contributed his own share of uncertainty. That's not good. But, as usual, his contribution pales in comparison to that of the other side.

Progressitarianism Is A Cult

Click on the photo and enlarge it to get the full cult energy. https://t.co/ElCn1gRKzP

— A New Radical Centrism (@a_centrism) October 23, 2020

"Let's Finish This"

I'm actually kinda starting to actually like this guy.

White House source tells @OANN Trump walked off stage, looked at staff, said "let's finish this" and walked off to the motorcade.

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 23, 2020

"I Ran Because Of You, Joe"

dayum

That was so vicious it was painful to watch...

But, honestly, it drove home a point to me that I'd only partially appreciated before: the trope about do-nothing politicians isn't just an insult.  It's easy to jaw, jaw, jaw about all the big things you're going to do. Ridiculously much harder to actually do them. Trump's got lots of actual accomplishments--including some amazing ones (like, oh, say: peace in the Middle East...). Biden...well...

   I tend to focus on the fact that the things Biden says he wants are mostly bad. 

   But the Trump point is probably a more powerful one.

   Of course: better a feckless progressive than a feckful one...

   But better a non-progressive over either type.

“...you guys did nothing. You know Joe, I ran because of you. I ran because of Barack Obama. Because you did a poor job.”

Great shot from @realDonaldTrump

pic.twitter.com/gQQ1qgqkhf

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) October 23, 2020

[Also don't miss: "You're a politician" (and I'm not...)]

Will "America Remain America?" Pubs: Yes. Dems: No

 I honestly never thought it would come to this.

It Takes A Kook To Speak The Truth

That's one measure of how far down the rabbit-hole things have fallen. The only prominent guy in politics who's willing to speak the (approximate) truth is Trump. Who's, well, kind of a kook. The people who seem fairly normal (at least for politics)--e.g. Biden--stand there and lie and lie...and say shit with utter sincerity that are utter nonsense...and recite dogma, chapter and verse, from the Holy Book Of Contemporary Myths. Like: climate change is an existential crisis, and the USA is packed with "systemic racism," and carbon neutral by 2035!

   Nobody wants the kook in control. 

   Except it turns out that his kookiness is mostly superficial. In terms of actual substance, he's mostly an ordinary guy, speaking ordinary--but politically incorrect--truths. 

   I agree that we need a president who's both substantially and stylistically reasonable. In fact, I think the stylistic stuff is very, very important.

   But I have to choose between a stylistic kook and substantive kook.

   And I just don't have it in me to support the guy who stands up there and spews falsehoods nonstop with a straight goddamn face. Trump repulses people with his style. I get that. What I don't get is how people aren't repulsed by someone spewing absolute lunatic falsehoods. That's what really repulses me. In fact, it's worse that someone can say false and crazy things with a reasonable demeanor.

   At least Trump's bullshitting tends to be superficial...or even to serve to illuminate the greater bullshit of the other side. His spastic demeanor is combined with a bunch of pretty ordinary views--and they stand opposed to the ordinary demeanor and crazy views of the other guys. I understand why people depend so heavily on demeanor. It's a pretty reliable indicator of the other stuff. It's a good thing to go on if you need to make a snap judgment, or have nothing else to go on. But neither of those things is true in this case.

ABC Kicks Into Full-Bore Anti-Trump Mode

Do progressives really not care that their media treats them like this?
Wow...ABC's just flat-out lying at this point.
"Most people won't even know what the President was talking about" re: the corruption charges. Um...right. Who's making sure they don't know? 

So they're defense is really that Joe hasn't been proven to have gotten any of that money...and didn't declare it on his tax returns?
Absolute, full-bore anti-Trump bullshit.

Boy, if these assholes win this, I am going to be pissed as hell. 

What a bunch of lying, cheating assholes.

They really do make Trump look good.

Scott Adams: Solid Debate. Trump Won

Solid debate. Trump won.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) October 23, 2020

Could be. I can never tell. I don't know how to judge rhetorical contests if they're even close. Trump's such a spastic goofball. He did pretty well. Biden's a lying sack of shit, and he again deployed the lies about Trump's alleged racism. Trump didn't bust him on it. Aside from being lying sacks of shit, it's the blue team that's tearing the country apart with their nonstop lies about how the country is made of racism. So even if you don't care about the truth, maybe you care about that...

Final Question: Whaddaya Say To The People Who Didn't Vote For You?

Biden: Better words.

Trump: More money.

I'll take the money.

Notice how Stephanopolous got that accusation of racism into his summary?

Other dude: declares Biden the winner.

Other woman: declares Biden the winner.

Other dude: Surprisingly, does not declare Biden the winner!

ABC, in general: declares Biden the winner.

Zero Emissions By 2025?????

whut????

"Climate Change Is An Existential Threat To Humanity"...Eight Years to "The Point Of No Return"

 Both outright lies.

Even the IPCC doesn't think it's an existential threat to humanity.

Lies, lies, lies. Outright lies.

Biden Is A Lying Sack Of Shit

Everything Biden just said is a lie.

Trump's not busting him on any of it.

...Not Enough People In Jail... / Central Park Five

He was probably right...there probably aren't enough people in jail.

As for the Central Park Five being innocent: utter bullshit. 

...With The POSSIBLE Exception Of Abraham Lincoln...

facepalm

The 1% With Lowest IQs Come Back

 wince

And it's not 1%.

Biden: Amnesty For All 11 Million Illegals

There it is.

Trump Just Can't Keep His Mouth Shut

Repeatedly talking over the female moderator...probably not the best way to get those suburban women to vote for you...

[He really, really can't.]

Malarky...His Family...My Family...Your Family...Scranton...Community College...Kitchen Table...

 Blah blah blah

Biden Is So Full Of Shit

He's going to...did he mean force?...everyone to wear a mask all the time.

Fuck off, asshole.

"He is xenophobic"...but not for the reason I said he was...

This guy is a lying fucking asshole.

BE AFRAIIIIIIIIID!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL "Joe locks himself up in a basement." Nice.

The moderator is not even pretending to be neutral.

Trump: We're learning to live with it.

Biden: WE'RE LEARNING TO DIE WITH IT

BE AFRAIIIIIIIIIIID!!!!!!

[incoherent nonsense]

Biden: "I'm going to shut down the virus not the country"

So, so, so full of shit.

Trump: We can't close down the country or we won't have a country.

[true]

Biden: [some bullshit] c'mon

Moderator:  Did you call Fauci and everybody else idiots?

Legit burn.

Trump:  WAAAALLLL STREEEET I KEEEEE YOOOUUUUU

Egad.

Biden: [Continuing to pretend that Russiagate was for real]

            [Pretends that Giuliani isn't onto anything.]

            [Pretends the Russian bounties in Afghanistan were real.]

Moderator: [Pretends Russiagate was for real.]

Trump: Your family got money from Russia and China.

Biden: No you did!

Wow Biden is a piece of shit.

Camp Of The Saints "Under Review" For A Year At Amazon

 I think it's going on a year now that the Kindle version of Camp Of The Saints has been "under review"...which obviously means censored at this point. $70 for a used paperback, $130 for a new one...:

Beats BN.com, where a search doesn't turn up the title at all...

Is Trump's Approval At 52%??

 Big if true.

The Left Plans Havoc If Trump Wins

 Not exactly surprising.

Do Progressives Not Know That The MSM Is Lying To Them, Or Do They Not Care?

Honestly, even if I were still on the blue team, I'd blow my stack if I knew the MSM were doing what it's doing. Granted, I have a lot less political-tribal allegiance than a lot of people of my ilk...but...that much less?

   I think I personally know only one other academician (actually: former) who used to be blue-team but has been so repulsed by recent events she's gone Trumpy. One! I mean...I understand how repellant Trump can be. But, even given that, if people were deciding on rational grounds, we'd expect to see a mass defection from the blue team. There are extremely good reasons for a liberal (an actual liberal--where I don't mean that in some No-True-Scotsman-y sense) to support Trump over Harris-Biden. The fact that there doesn't seem to be any such defection indicates--I think--that the decision is being made on particularly non-rational grounds. Of course there's a ton of nonrationality and subjectivity in such decisions under most conditions. So I suppose it's no big surprise.

   Complicating factor: the blue team has become so unhinged that there is a high price to pay for admitting you're supporting Trump. So there may be more "shy" academic Trumpians than we think. In fact...there almost have to be.

   Still...the very fact that there's psychotic pressure from the left against voting for Trump...you'd think that itself would generate some defection from the blue team... Except that academicians aren't particularly independent or brave, so far as I can tell. Far from both, it actually seems...

Out Of the Nonstop Stream Of Bullshit About Batflu, Finally Something Of Real Concern

Very weird.

Berenson is great on this stuff, and I've been checking in to keep updated on the Danish mask study--which is allegedly the best thing we've got. But can't get published.

Which means: it found that masks don't work (or make things worse).

Anyway, bigger news is the below. I don't believe it, but its huge if true: a permanent (???) loss of IQ. Holy crap! Very strange that he dismisses that as "tiny," since even mild cases seem to have (allegedly) produced losses. Severe cases allegedly produced -8.5 IQ? =? 10 years of aging?:

1/ Huge UK Study: being on a ventilator is bad for you! Luckily, of the 84,000 people in the study, only 60 were on ventilators. The vast majority of people who supposedly had the ro (that bar on the left) needed no medical aid and showed tiny cognitive losses - ~0.5 IQ points... https://t.co/Hq7QzSkHKQ

— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) October 21, 2020

Probably just more hysteria. Just one study. We've heard almost every crazy claim about this stuff. But scary. 

No Justice, No Peace

Sounds like a conditional at first; 

Is actually a conjunction.

Blueprint For Electoral Disaster

You could hardly do worse if you tried.

Leftists *Contra* The Constitution

Needless to say, such things should--must--be discussed, especially at universities.

But one of the problems is--or so I'll put it now--that the left listens too much to its intellectual wing, and too much to its leftest wing, and there's too much overlap between those wings.

Should this view take hold--and I'd bet some money that it will--it won't remain purely theoretical. The left always wants to put its crazy ideas into practice--and to do it now. 

I have a professional obligation to think about crazy ideas. But, having done that now for 30-odd years, I've--provisionally--come to the Peircean conclusion: philosophy and practice must be kept apart (as much as possible) for the benefit of both. Merging 'em wrecks both of 'em.

This possible dispute, should it turn actual, would be representative of the broader divide between conservatives and the left. The conservative view would roughly be: we won the government lottery; the Constitution is the product of genius and experience; it's stood the test of time and done its job better than the Founders probably had any right to hope, and better than we probably deserve. DO NOT FUCK WITH IT. Not in any major way anyway. The leftist view is: Oh, hai, I just had this, like, SUPER-fun idea that I came up with on the basis of a Chomsky podcast I didn't finish and this one queer theory course I got a 'C' in...let's ditch our whole form of government and start from this here scratch I just thought up!

I may not be giving the left its best case there. But I'm fed up with 'em.

Nobody thinks total stasis will work. 

But I now think that conservatives are deeply right about the Burkean point: slow, deliberate evolution is almost always preferable to revolution / radical change. 

Imagine a new Constitution written by the dim luminaries of the contemporary left. That thought ought to be enough to put the stop in dystopia.

Trump Running Ahead of 2016 Polls In Top Battleground States

 And I'd bet money that there are more shy Trump voters now than then. We may stay in the frying pan yet.

4 Cheers For Kemi Badenoch, Conservative MP and Treasuries And Equalities Minister

 The article.

The video:

The Equalities Minister could not have been clearer:

Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory are political and do not belong in schools.

Teaching ideas such as 'white privilege' as a factual reality is breaking the law! 🚫👨‍🏫 pic.twitter.com/6VoIDVJxLi

— Calvin Robinson (@calvinrobinson) October 20, 2020

I mean she is right smack dab on the money. I think I'm going to look into bringing her in as a visiting scholar...if we ever have visiting scholars again...so she can give my university a right good talking-to. 

"86 45"

I think '86' means something like get rid of--not kill.

Let's not turn into the other guys, ok?

Even The CPD is Cheating Trump

link.  Trump, as usual, shot himself in the ass by refusing to participate in the virtual debate...but the CPD is cheating, too. They've appointed anti-Trump moderators ever time, and are now cheating him out of a foreign policy debate...which is, weirdly, where he might be strongest. 

The Myth Of Moderate Democrats

 There's a lot more to say about this general topic. Most people voting for Biden don't participate in Democratic party politics, and have no influence over the direction of the party. It's the party of radical, progressive, identity politics--and political correctness--now. There's no Bill Clinton to put the brakes on. I understand pining for a post-Trump, less exhausting and embarrassing presidency...but not if that means handing the keys over to a frail and fading Biden who doesn't seem to have a half-term in him. And who's backed up by the most leftist member of the Senate.

Steve Inskeep (NPR) Interviews Michael Anton

link. Neither guy covers himself with glory. They seem fed up with each other immediately. dunno whether they had some kind of pre-interview discussion that went bad, or are just natural enemies. I think Anton is right--and Inskeep immediately going to "Fox News!" to counter Anton's claim that the blues control everything basically proves his (Anton's) point. But Anton is too exercised and flustered and doesn't make his points well. I listened to a little more NPR afterwards on the clip...used to be a big fan, then finally caught on to their game, haven't listened at all in something like 5 years. Wow, they're slimy.

Progressive Race Hysteria: ACB Edition

Look...when a political faction goes so batshit crazy about race that they argue that adopting kids of another race shows that you're racist...well they've pegged the needle at that point. That's a kind of practical Kafkatrap. It's the practical equivalent of claiming that having black friends provides no evidence that you're not racist. If having black friends isn't evidence that you aren't racist, then what is? 

   Answer: nothing. 

   Which is what identity-politics progressivism has been saying for years: there is no defense against accusations of racism. This is the racial analog of: believe all women. If you've been accused, then you're guilty. To deny your guilt shows that you're a racist (or: sexual assailant)...and you're a liar. 

   Though, actually, I've read some stuff by Kendi that's right--and way less crazy than standard progressive fare. In this case, all I've read from him is the claim that white couples adopting nonwhite kids doesn't guarantee that they're not racist. Which is true. In fact, most notably: does anyone doubt that there are white progressive couples out there with severely fucked-up attitudes on race...who adopt nonwhite kids to virtue-signal and assuage their own consciences? 

   Anyway. There's plenty to complain about about progressivism. No need to exaggerate.

One Of The Main Reasons To Vote For Trump: Progressivism Is Made Of False Accusations Of Racism

Disgusting lies from the Hartford Courant.

Donald Trump isn't a racist. But the progressive left continues to lie in order to make him seem like one. The unhinging of the left on this issue is, even by itself, grounds for voting against them. Because this isn't about Trump--this is about everyone who has a sane view of race, and everyone who opposes the progressive left. They spew these lies at all who oppose them--Trump's just the most prominent example.

   I rarely make such arguments, because I think it should be enough to point out that someone is lying in such a systematic way. But: these aren't just any lies. These are scurrilous lies that aim at character assassination. And they are tearing the country apart. The claims that the U.S. is a racist nation are lies--systematically promoted by the left in order to achieve their nefarious ends. They're happy to convince black Americans that their President--and their country--hates them. If that's the price of vilifying conservatives, they're happy to pay it. 

   These lies are particularly destructive lies. Even if you don't care that they are lies, and nor that they aim to besmirch the character of an extremely flawed, but basically good man, you should at least care that these lies are on a trajectory to destroy the country.

Twitter Refuses To Unlock NY Post Account Unless Posts About Hunger Biden Deleted

link

I think that finding your way out of the prison of the left is largely a matter of getting out of the prison constructed by the mainstream media. As long as you get all your information from there, you have virtually no chance of busting out. 

Your Blue Future: Your Free Speech Is Violence; Their Violence Is Free Speech

 The left is very open about its aim to narrow the bounds of free speech. Make no mistake about it: a blue future is a future without freedom of speech.

Trump: "Lock Up The Biden's", Lock Up Hillary

 You just can't have a president who says shit like this. It's right out. That sort of thing really does make him sound like a dictator--though he obviously isn't one. He loves to talk, but it's the part of the job he's worst at. He simply can't control his moth--nor his thumbs. If the other side hadn't gone nuts, and times weren't desperate, Trump simply couldn't even be considered for the Presidency.

Michael Yon on (a) Proud Boys and (b) America's Drug Problem

 He's just back from Asia, and traveling around the PNW. His take: (a) are not a problem; (b) is a problem.

Remember How Trump Was Undeniably In Violation Of The Emoluments Clause?

 Funny how he's always so obviously a crook, but the evidence is just never there...

Jimmy Dore on Russiagate

 

Trump on The Biden "Crime Family"

This is not the sort of thing a president should say without conclusive proof. It's this kind of thing that's going to give us a half-year of Biden and 3.5 years of Kamala Harris...

   OTOH, the left constantly (and, no, I don't mean repeatedly) falsely accuses Trump of racism. And that's worse, in many ways. So we could call it even...if it were anywhere close to even. Both Biden and Harris have repeatedly repeated the "Very Fine People" lie--which is the equivalent of accusing him of racism. Or "white supremacy"...even in its older, normal, meaning. God knows what it means now... And, of course--and as I've repeated said--this has nothing to do with Trump. Accusing everyone who disagrees with them of racism (and similar things) at every turn is the progressive left's modus operandi. And the only reason they're not calling people something worse is that they haven't thought of anything yet. When they do, you can rest assured they'll add that to the list.

   Anyway: progressivism and its multifaceted Pravda have slightly better manners than Trump...but they're way, way crazier. His demeanor is worse--but, in a way, that's better. They're sneakier, crazier, and meaner. Trump's antipresidential demeanor is a big problem. But it's nothing compared to the deep, wide streak of mean and crazy on the other side. Trump's problems are immediately discernible...and when you actually get to understand the guy, you see that he's way less bad than he initially seems. (Unless you're doing business with him, apparently.) The Dems seem fine at first--especially with their saccharine weeping for the downtrodden... But when you get to know them...they turn out to be very, very, very bad. 

   So, we've gotta choose between a President who--via Twitter, for the love of God--accuses his opponent of criminality...or an entire, unhinged, political faction that controls all of our institutions spewing accusations of racism at everyone who opposes them. Non-stop...

   So far as I can tell, Trump's one of the main things standing between us and something akin to the destruction of the country. If I thought Biden would push back harder against the loony left, I'd be voting for him. But he won't. So I'm not.

How The Media Is Misreporting The Batflu Death Toll

Seems about right to me, but I really don't know.

An Ex-Liberal Reluctantly Supports Trump

 We're not 100% on the same page...but I agree with a lot of this...  He's got a lot of views about the recent history of American politics that I can't speak on. I have new skepticism about Obama, but haven't gone as far as Siegel has. Anyway: way work a read.

Translation: Give Us Your Guns

 link

Amy Coney Barrett Is Really Freakin' Smart

 Look, to be honest, I'm notably far down the right-hand-side of the IQ curve... But I'm dissolute and feckless, which more than cancel out my God-given smarts. It would have been so much better if a more noble and diligent person had received the natural gifts I have squandered... But anyway, the point of this is: it's not all that often that I'm brought up short, right in my tracks, and find myself thinking/saying: That person is freakin' smart.

But Amy Coney Barrett is freakin' smart.

Scummy Lincoln Project / Vindman Commercial

First: thanks to Vindman for his service. I respect him for it.

Second: that made you feel threatened? Oh come on.

Biden's Blarney About Gays and Transgendered Children

The story about his dad and the two gay dudes kissing sounds pretty false--but big props to him if it is true.*

The "trans" stuff is nuts in most cases, especially re: kids. She turns out to be a Democratic activist, too. What a surprise, both ABC and NBC packed both the Trump and Biden events with blue-team ringers.

Asked by a mother of a transgender child about what he will do to protect LGBTQ rights, former VP Biden says: "I will flat out just change the law." https://t.co/JEyTOkB6qk #BidenTownHall pic.twitter.com/fxg7AhKwHG

— ABC News (@ABC) October 16, 2020

*Whoa...in retrospect...how much ambiguity can you (by which I mean I...) pack into one sentence? Do I always write that badly?

[update]

The Hunter Biden Laptop Story: For Real?

I'm just going on record with my position:

I have no idea.

I think I've already said that I think it's idiotic that this is the story that might make the difference, given that Russiagate / Russiagategate ought to lock the Dems out of the presidency and legislature for a decade...

But, if all the allegations currently on the table are true, that has to be it for Biden. Because that would include not only influence-peddling but kickbacks from it to Biden himself.

I doubt that they're all true--but even if some of them are, it'd probably be the end of the road for Biden in a sane world.

But in this one? 

Dunno.

I'd think this was all pretty unlikely if we handn't already caught the Democrats running a secret coup out of the Oval Office. But we have. So I don't.

Anyway, at some point it's simply going to become impossible for the MSM (aka Progressive Pravda) to stifle all of these stories...isn't it?

In Case You're Wondering Whether Masks Work

Well that's a pretty good jokey/informal experiment, I gotta say...

   I go back and forth on this, but mostly I think: masks probably do something, so it's a good idea to wear them a fair bit when you're around other people. I don't wear them outside unless there are a lot of people around, and I don't wear them inside unless a fair number of people are fairly close to each other. 

   I think that the left has handled this badly, as usual, insisting on wildly differing things, and then settling on WEAR MASKS ALL THE TIME, BIGOT, OR YOU'RE A MURDERER!!!!111

   All that does is give the rest of us legitimate reason to wear them less than we might otherwise have. Because now it's become a legit issue about freedom--a legit battle in the culture war. I certainly wear them less than I would if the prog-left didn't tell me I have to...

In case you’re wondering if masks work: pic.twitter.com/fqAgYgmWcb

— spooky roly poly 🎃👻🙀 (@rolypolyistaken) October 16, 2020

Ugh...The Border...

I hadn't even thought of that.

Odds that he'll tear down what's been built of the barrier?

Do T.V. Reporters Not Realize That They Don't Have To Wear Masks If They're Outside And There's Nobody Else Around?

 I guess not.

Biden: You Shouldn't Question Someone Else's Motives

 Uh...that's all your side does anymore.

Biden Basically Just Said He'll Be In Favor Of Packing The Court If ACB Is Confirmed

 Big surprise.

Biden Is SO Full Of Shit

"Shoot to kill"?

   Cops don't generally shoot to kill, they shoot to stop--which sometimes kills people. And they certainly don't do it "first"--by which he meant: immediately and without trying anything else.

   "Shoot them in the leg?"

   Jesus Christ. How clueless can you be?

   I was just thinking "well, he sounds less full of shit than Trump"...but it's totally superficial. He's linguistically more adept...which...[shakes head]...but about equally full of shit. Thing is, Trump's shown that he can do a good job. Other than the talking part, important as it is. I can't believe that anybody thinks that Biden has any chance of doing a good job. Not that he'd even be in the job for more than a year.

   But...though the idea of a Biden-Harris/Harris-?  administration is an absolute fucking horror...it would be rather a relief not to have to hear Trump talk all the time.

Tried To Listen To Trump

Just can't do it.

It's borderline painful.

Yamiche Alcindor Is A Liar

 Which makes her exactly one of the following two things: liar, journalist.

I have denounced white supremacy for years, President Trump says, before saying he also denounces Antifa and people on the left burning down gilding.

Context: Trump clearly didn’t denounce white supremacy during the last debate and then did so days later on Fox News.

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) October 16, 2020

It's A Set-Up

 Uh...Trump knows this NBC thing is a set-up...right?

Your Blue Future

The more of this we have, the closer we get to something like civil war. It's not the right that's pushing us in that direction, you'll note.

Time For The Quadrennial Airing Of Hollow Threats By Leftists To Leave This Hell That Is Amerikkka If The Republican Wins

 It's not the threats I mind, it's the lack of follow-through.

Leland Keyser Now Skeptical Of Christine Blasey Ford Accusation Against Kavanaugh

 Well, she was lying her ass off for one thing...

Is The Culture War Lost?

We have lost the culture war and until we acknowledge that simple fact, we’ll never come up with real solutions. They hold total control of every part of American culture. We even won the presidency and they handcuffed him for four years.

We lost. Time for a new plan. https://t.co/4q0d5p2rCW

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) October 15, 2020

If so, that's the end of the USA.

Behold, The Progressive Left

 How can anyone be so stupid, so ignorant, and so just plain disgusting?

Outside @LindseyGrahamSC house in DC this morning. pic.twitter.com/KmssaCJu6F

— Matthew Miller (@mattmiller757) September 21, 2020

More Casual Racism / Sexism From The Left

t doesn't bother me because I'm a white dude, it bothers me because the left has gone insane. And part of that insanity is racism and sexism. It's specifically against white males, but I don't care who it's against, And they are made of false accusations against anyone who disagrees with them...but are happy and permitted to shout their actual racism and sexism from the rooftops. Of course consistency, however, is a white male thing...:

Unlike the self-assurance of white men, PhDs are actual experts. https://t.co/cutAq57Jvj

— critical thinking is a cop (@criticalthotcop) October 15, 2020

Jason L. Riley: Will Amazon Suppress Shelby Steele's True Version Of The Michael Brown Story?

 Seems like it's already received too much attention...but, then, they get away with a lot more than I could have ever predicted.

James Freeman: Russiagate Promoters Attack New Biden Story

 The gang that eagerly helped create Russiagate suddenly turns skeptical when it comes to Biden-family influence-peddling.

Trump Tracking Just Fine In Electoral College?

Could be.

Byron York: Trump's Been Objectively Successful, But Fails On Personality

I think this is exactly right.

Trump did the hard stuff surprisingly well. But he can't handle what, for most people, would be the easy part of the job: acting presidential.

And I by no means think that's trivial. In fact, I think it's extremely important.

If the Dems hadn't come completely unhinged, I think I'd be pretty hesitant  to vote for Trump despite his objective successes.

Media Anti-Trump / Pro-Dem Propaganda Efforts Peg The Needle

Wow.

   I almost thought I couldn't be surprised anymore. Twitter banned people yesterday for even mentioning the Hunter Biden story at the N.T. Post...it suddenly decided that it had a policy against allowing people to post...uh...links to stories with unverified information? Like...every single bit of Russiagate which they never complained about in any way. Then they claimed to have a policy against posting information that the person the information was about had not agreed to release...which policy obviously wasn't in play when Trump's alleged tax information was released... Then there was something about illegally-acquired information...but the Biden information was legally obtained...

   Apparently none of the major networks covered the story. In addition to major networks, I checked CNN... Not only did it not cover the story, but front page was like a parody of TDS hysteria. I've honestly never seen anything like it. The NYT was similarly awful but in its own inimitable faux-refined way. I think the WaPo had an actual news story prominently referenced amidst the propaganda. Neither of them mentioned the Biden story, either, when I looked. 

   I think I read that Facebook had also tried to ban the story.

   I mean...it was breathtaking, actually. I suppose the full weight of the Pravdafication of American news media hadn't hit me before. I thought it had...but it hadn't. 

   Of course compared with the media's collusion with the deep state (or whatever we should be calling it) to produce the Russiagate hoax...and its suppression of information about Russiagategate...well, outrageous as this is, it's really nothing by comparison. And once you've got to the point of rewriting the dictionary on they fly...hell...

   One of most laughable stories I ran across last night--maybe in the NYT?--was about people fearing right-wing violence over the election. I mean...the same sources that spent all summer downplaying massive, violet left-wing riots across the country are still pretending that the not-exactly-a-plot by some Trump-hating anarchists (and also, apparently, some pro-Trump guys as well...but it isn't clear) against Whitmer is a portent of right-wing violence to come...  Look, it's good to keep an eye on extremists...and some lone wolf or other on the right blows every now and then. But it's just nuts to pretend--in the midst of leftist insanity and, well, terrorism--that the right is even a problem worth mentioning right now.

   Well, anyway.

PC Jargon Calvinball: They Just Make This Shit Up As They Go Along

They just make this shit up as they go along--it's hardly news.

   This is the way the game has been planed since the paleo-PC era. The neo-PCs are no different than the PPCs. The only thing that's different about the NPCs is that they've got the internet, so they can produce ridiculous jargon at a faster rate.

   They're all about words--and they struggle to outdo each other with respect to neologisms. Even they can't keep up. What we see in this case is a common kind of move: several different bits of jargon become fashionable, and they snark at each other with vaguely plausible, impressionistic arguments about which jargon is preferable, depending on which ideas happen to have become fashionably ascendant. Since it's a big mess, it makes it easier to bust outsiders--especially since everyone else has basically ceded power to them to determine what language is permissible. ACB used a term that seems to be less-fashionable than one of its competitors. They desperately want to score points against ACB or whichever evil non-progressive they're after at the moment...so they pretend it's some horrific linguistic sin--when, in fact, it's just a word that's become less-fashionable among PC cultists. 

   Their lame justification is that 'preference' suggests changeability...but the fashionable idea on the left--right now--is that such preferences aren't changeable. Hence they prefer 'orientation.' Which, again, impressionistically, they think suggests something in the vicinity of immutability.

   So...your sex is totally made up by words and clothes! But your sexual preference...that's totally hardwired in! Bigot!

   Everything the contemporary left believes is inferior to what the left believed fifteen years ago. 

Arson Attack Against House W/ 'TRUMP 2020' Sign? (Or Hoax?)

 I heard this story right after it happened, and immediately concluded it was a "hate crime" hoax.

We'll see, I reckon.

Gallup Poll: Republicans Dramatically Less Terrified Of Coronavirus Than Democrats

Or: fun with ambiguity.

I say: both interpretations are true.

Did Merriam-Webster Change Its Definition Of 'Sexual Preference' To Accord With PC Newspeak *During* The ACB Hearing?

During the hearing, ACB was chastised by some of the lamer Dems (Hirono, Spartacus) for using the term 'sexual preference' which they claimed is now terribly unwoke/unPC/offensive/whatever. The more fashionable PC jargon is now 'sexual orientation,' which, allegedly, avoids suggestion the unfashionable view that sexual preference is, well, a preference. Because, you see, things are biological/non-optional when and only when the left says they are. So e.g. your sex is just made up by words! It's purely discretionary! You can change it by fiat--or with clothes.But your sexual preference is hardwired in and immutable... 

   Because this is the clown world of the PC left. 

   Anyway, some people doubted this, and decided to check online...only to find out that--or so it seems--Merriam-Webster had altered its online entry for the term that day to label it "offensive"...that day:

Today Mazie Hirono said the term "sexual preference" is offensive. @SteveKrak showed as of September 28 Merriam-Webster didn't say it was offensive, but today it does say that.
So I checked when the entry was last changed according to merriam webster and *THEY CHANGED IT TODAY* pic.twitter.com/sb9gK69M0R

— Wokal DistΔnce (@wokal_distance) October 14, 2020

Anyone care to argue that this isn't Orwellian?
   The Ministry of Meaning not merely rewriting the language to make it accord with PC fashion...but doing so "in real time"...

   If you aren't concerned about the overwhelming power the unhinged left has to control our institutions, then you're probably being controlled by them and those institutions.

RCP Poll Averages: Catastrophic

If they really are as bad as they're showing today (Biden +10 overall, +5 in top battlegrounds), it's scary as hell. There's really no terribly plausible explanation for it other than: the media's propaganda machine has done its job with horrifying efficiency.

   Again, I tend to be a pessimist about such things, and am very wary of, as we might say, false positivism... But--even resisting the urge to give too much weight to what happened last time--these numbers just don't seem like they can be right. 

   Of course it's pretty easy to tell the story so that the outsider is crushed by the two-party alliance (plus the press, plus broadcast media, plus universities...) that opposes him--once they're woken from their dogmatic slumbers... 

   But I kinda just don't believe it.

ACB Hearings: Blackburn

 I don't disagree with the content of her main points...but damn, I hate this kind of pontificating thinly veiled as questions.

ACB Confirmation Hearings

 Kennedy was BSing nontrivially, obviously. But some of that exchange was pretty good. Other of it I had to mute.

ACB is damn impressive.

ACB Hearings: Kamala Harris

God, Harris is just awful.

I'd never be able to listen to her for four years.

ACB Confirmation Hearing

 My God Blumenthal is just rambling emotively.

The Plot Against The President

Holy crap.

I somehow thought I knew the whole story. But that wasn't true. The details you get in a documentary like this... Well. Very powerful.

I'm even more depressed than I was before I watched it.

More Bad Polling News

Not good.

   I'm usually pretty pessimistic about such things. That is, I'm more inclined to fret about possible failure than to be subject to irrational optimism. 

   But, honestly, I find it very difficult to believe that Biden is up ten points on Trump. 

   In fact, I find it difficult to believe that he'll win.

   The Dems have become so extreme, unhinged and irrational that I just can't believe that most Americans will vote for them. One would think that their support of riots in the streets would tear it. But maybe not. Trump's rallies are massive and raucous...he himself is the picture of health and vigor. Biden looks like he's ready to keel over at any second, and seems to be speaking to groups of a dozen. If Biden did win, it would really be Harris--the leftmost member of the Senate--winning. 

   And, yet...the polls do look bad.

   I have no doubt that there are shy Trump voters. How could there not be under the prevailing, lunatic conditions? Needless to say, I hope there are enough of them.

The Plot Against The President

Holy crap, I didn't realize this is out. I'm buying it and watching it tonight...sadly, no time now...gotta get ready to teach Descartes in American Philosophy...

YOU HEARD ME

It’s Saturday!

Know what that means?

Time to watch the Plot Against the President! https://t.co/NDXxzLuXDn

— Cernovich (@Cernovich) October 11, 2020

Hinderaker: How Politicians Lie

This is right on target.

Team Obama Invented and Perpetrated Russiagate

 How long can the MSM keep this out of the public consciousness?

Conservatives Have Been Right About Everything Re: Russiagate And Russiagategate

As you know, I tried to sit out Russiagate. I couldn't figure out what was going on--though I felt pretty sure that firing Comey must have been obstruction. I explicitly said that I didn't have the time to put in the kind of work I'd put in on the election 2000 debacle or WMDs and the lead-up to Iraq. For one thing: I'd come to realize how little I actually understood about such things. In the last 5 years or so, I've come to realize that background knowledge and specialized, professional modes of reasoning are more important than I used to realize. (It's something like "tradecraft.")  I declared that I was waiting for Mueller's report, and would accept whatever he concluded so long as 

   But, about halfway through the investigation, even the casual attention I was paying it began to reveal that the Russiagate tale just wasn't holding up. The story began to ostentatiously fall apart, the media reports became even more laughable, and the blue team generally became hysterical about the whole thing. Dozens of times I heard or read Blues proclaim "there's no other possible explanation of the facts"--other, that is, than that Trump was either "colluding" with the Russians, or that he was an outright Russian "asset." 

   It became clear via e.g. the reporting of Aaron Mate, for one, that the whole damn story was a joke. It wasn't even clear that there was any "hack" of the Clinton emails--and if there was, it seemed to have been in-house, not over the internet. The DNC refused to hand over the servers. The story had already fallen apart, but the media went into full-blown propaganda mode suppressing the information and explaining it all away as "conspiracy theories." Eventually, though I was trying to keep my powder dry and resist getting dragged into it all, it became too much and I concluded that it was bullshit and began saying so. Then I started pointing out that conservatives had basically been right about more-or-less everything about Russiagate all along. (Nunes and the Nunes Memo had been viciously derided by the MSM / Blues. As we now know, he was right early and often.) 

   Then it started to become clear that Russiagate wasn't mere bullshit...it began to seem like it had been a hoax perpetrated by Democrats, the MSM, and members of the intelligence community. At that point I said that I didn't think conservatives could possibly be right about what I started calling Russiagategate...it was just too outlandish. But there was evidence for it. I pointed out that if conservatives turned out to be right about this, too, it'd be game, set, match, season, world championship...there's almost no way to express how big it would be for them to have been so completely right about so much while progressives were so completely wrong...

   It seems crazy, but here we are. It's become clearer and clearer that conservatives/Republicans were not only completely right about Russiagate, they've likely been completely right about Russiagategate as well. It's the biggest political scandal of my lifetime, far, far bigger than Watergate. Bigger still for the fact that Team Blue, including all of the mainstream media, are working just as hard to suppress Russiagategate as they worked to help construct and propagate Russiagate. 

   This is a scandal for the ages.

   It's turned out that Team Blue is rotten to the core--all the way to Obama, Biden and Clinton. And the blue propaganda apparatus is trying to ram one of the conspirators into the White House again.

   I never thought there was any possibility that American politics (and its surroundings--e.g. the media) could possibly be this corrupt. I simply never would have believed it. But here we are.

   It's part of the tragedy that Durham is so upright that he's refusing to make any concessions to the election. Right now it looks like that decision will re-install the cabal that perpetrated this outrage. Basically the worst possible outcome. A tragedy and a farce. 

   Maybe Durham is just playing it completely straight, discharging his prosecutorial duties as if the election weren't even a thing. That's my view.

   But there's another, darker possibility...

   One of the few things the right has seemed to go overboard about has been the murder of Seth Rich. I've never really taken that part of the story very seriously...weird though were the circumstances of his death. I know it sounds crazy...but this has all sounded crazy. I've  begun to wonder whether Durham might be after something even bigger than what we can already see he's after. That could be a topic to itself. But one possibility is: Seth Rich really was murdered because he knew too much about Emailgate/Servergate/Russiagate. Speculative. I don't believe it. But I no longer believe it's crazy.

Lauren Southern Captures The Progressive Left In A Tweet

How it started vs how it’s going 🤗 pic.twitter.com/EcRkG96q6a

— Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) October 10, 2020

The Great Barrington Declaration

 Read it.

I don't deserve a view about it...but I agree with it anyway.

Harris-Biden Won't Admit They're Going To Pack The Court: Republicans Pounce!

First: well, y'know, Republicans pounce.

Second: I've just been assuming that everyone realizes that their answer is yes. Otherwise they'd admit it's no, and put everyone's mind at ease.

Hmm... no, wait.

Their cageyness might be a ploy to keep their crazy left wing on board... Which...would be way, way, way better.

But: there's no way anyone should even consider letting them get away with this. This is, like, a zillion times more important than Trump's refusal to release his tax returns...and the press lost its god. damned. mind. about that. 

This is like us asking: do you plan to wreck the American system of government by doing shenanigans with one of the three branches of government, and them saying "we refuse to say because we might get criticized." 

No, fuck you. That should be dispositive.

LI: Durham Dreams Destroyed

 I basically agree with Jacobson, FWIW: it was important to get indictments, a report, or something well before the election. Without it, we're likely screwed. And you can bet that, were roles reversed, the Dems would have had this thing signed, sealed and delivered in time to guarantee a win.

TDS Report:: Keith Olbermann: Trump Supporters Must Be "Prosecuted And Convicted And Removed From Our Society"

 Every movement has its crazies, as I often recognize. I don't think outliers should count much against a faction. But Team Blue has become the most dangerous major U.S. political faction of my lifetime because the fringe keeps getting closer and closer to the center of the movement. Effectively insane people are at the wheel on the left. Here's some shit:

"So, let us brace ourselves," he continued, saying, "The task is two-fold: the terrorist Trump must be defeated, must be destroyed, must be devoured at the ballot box, and then he, and his enablers, and his supporters, and his collaborators, and the Mike Lees and the William Barrs, and Sean Hannitys, and the Mike Pences, and the Rudy Gullianis and the Kyle Rittenhouses and the Amy Coney Barretts must be prosecuted and convicted and removed from our society while we try to rebuild it and to rebuild the world Trump has destroyed by turning it over to a virus."

"Black Women's Smirks" Declared Latest Non-White "Superpower"

 Progressitarianism really just can't get much stupider.

Lyin' Biden Tries To Pin Whitmer Kidnapping Plot On Trump: "Why Can't The President Just Say 'Stop'?"

Why can't Biden just tell the BLM/Pantyfa rioters to stop?

   These guys seem to be anarchists, anyway--or at least it isn't clear yet.

   Not only are they stupid assholes, but they're a godsend to team blue. This one non-act will be treated by the media as something that counterbalances all of blues' totalitarian bullshit. Riotous mobs murdering, burning and looting across America...mostly peaceful protests! The FBI talks four losers into talking about kidnapping Whitmer...WHITE SUPREMACIST COUP FOR TRUMP!!!!!!

   The left is wrecking the country and making it very clear that they plan to keep doing so...and yet, somehow, the handful of actual white supremacists lurking on the fringes of the internet are the real threat...and also, mysteriously, the cause of the anarcho-communist riots for black "lives."

   It's not that I don't take white supremacists seriously--I've always taken them seriously, and spent years fretting a lot about them at one point. The thing is, they simply aren't anything like the biggest threat we have currently. They often act as lone wolves...and one of them can easily snap--and inevitably will given the overtly racist anti-white ideas and programs being advanced by the current left. But it's just another PC uber-absurdity to try to make them out to be the problem with BLM and Pantyfa are burning down cities--and the riots dominated by the former often target people specifically because they're white. Not even to mention that black-on-white violence is a much bigger problem in this country that white-on-black violence. But those, of course, are hatefacts and cannot be spoken...

   And, of course, the Harris-Biden campaign--with the help of e.g. Michelle Obama--continues to spread the Very Fine People lie...because they are lying liars, and lying about racism is just what the left does now. The contemporary left is basically made of lies about racism. 

   I don't see how anyone who cares about the truth even a little bit could vote for them. Trump's a paragon of honesty by comparison.

Are Polls "Psyops" Aiming To Depress GOP Turnout?

This is one line you hear a lot among conservatives. It's one specific version of the polls are left-biased line. I didn't realize how maniacally biased the mainstream media is until...what? Two or three years ago? I spent decades deriding the idea that the MSM was biased. I used to spout the lefty line that this was just "working the refs." (Though I think that was originally some conservative or other. Agnew maybe? Norquist? I don't know.)

   Of course now it's impossible for any even vaguely objective observer to deny the bias. The MSM has flipped its shit so ostentatiously that I rarely even look at it anymore--other than the WSJ. It's so hysterical and horrific that it just pushes me farther to the right--something I don't need right now. (But I did need--badly--10, 20, 30 years ago...) 

   But I've long rejected the idea that polling was left-biased. On the dopey grounds that polling outfits have to be accurate on pain of losing prestige/money. That's dopey because the MSM, theoretically, is supposed to be producing accurate accounts of current events, and they fail at this task flamboyantly--and seemingly without paying any price. 

   One kind of response is: predicting the outcome of an election is more like predicting the score of a baseball game than it is like arguing that Trump is a racist. The latter lie can, as we've seen, be repeated for years, even in the face of contrary facts. There's a whole lot less wiggle room when you're predicting two numbers. 

   Anyway. The polls look bad. They looked bad in '16, of course, and it's possible that the pollsters failed to fix whatever was wrong--if anything. I think it's extremely obvious that there will be more "shy Trump voters" this time around, now that social vilification and violence against Trump-supporters has become basically routine. 

   And, of course, we now hear that the Durham investigation isn't even trying to drop indictments before 11/3...which...well..it's rather difficult for me to resist the thought that that basically means it's all over... Media hysteria, the fact that the blues have gone all-in on the "racist Trump" lie, as well as the lie about Trump being responsible for every single batflu death in the U.S.... It's hard to believe that anyone could win with all the powerful institutions in the country arrayed against him--and completely unhinged from reality. And I'm not sold on the "psyops" theory...  

   But! Despair does no one any good. Donate. Volunteer. Vote. We're fighting for the future of the country. Four years of Trump presents us with certain obvious challenges. Four years of rule by the newly-insane Democrats may not be survivable. Hold fast, as they say, and fight the good--or at least the less-bad--fight.

MSM Dishonest: Vanity Fair / Tucker Carlson Edition

 This doesn't even count as low-grade journalism anymore. It's just leftist propaganda.

Progressivism Masquerading As Experts: NEJM Backs Biden

Nobody knows how well Trump dealt with the Wuhan virus / batflu. We may know more some day, but currently we can only say: looks like, overall, the USA handled the thing about as well as most European nations. 

   But progressives control all our major institutions. And political correctness is a cornerstone of of progressivism. And PC is the view that reason and truth are subordinate to leftist political doctrines. So what happens over and over is that progressives and liberals misuse their expertise by promoting their political views for political reasons...but pretending that they're advancing those views qua experts, on the basis of the nonpolitical evidence and reasoning of the area in which they are experts. And that, of course, its what's happening with the NEJM.

   And its this sort of pseudoexpertise--political preferences masquerading as expertise--that conservatives tend to reject. Not actual expertise.

   Furthermore, we'd have been better off if Trump hadn't allowed medical expertise to override his better judgment--in particular, we'd have been better off if we'd have opened back up at Easter. 

   Of course I could be wrong, but I'll bet I'm not.