Trump Rules Out Using Military Force to Steal Greenland

Idiot.

The real headline here is that he had to rule it out...

Democrats (and the Bulwark...but I Repeat Myself...) Desperate to Avoid Admitting that "Trans Women" are not Women

Lindsey tries all the tricks: this not our biggest problem! Why do conservatives care about such a small group of people? Let's not talk about kids, let's talk about adults! It's nobody else's business!...Let people say what they want about themselves...blah blah blah...

   And, contra Robbie: the most important problem here isn't about public policy.

The most important points: 

• [1] No male is a woman and no female is a man.
• [2] Truth matters.
• [3] The American left--which now includes the Democratic party--denies both [1] and [2].

   Political correctness...i.e. prope-Lysenkoism...i.e. the subordination of truth to (leftist) political dogma is...well...plausibly the most dangerous threat the USA has ever faced. If you give up on the very idea of truth, that is the end of everything. As bad as the left's mass sexual mutilation of children is, it is far less dangerous and destructive than the general leftist rejection of truth. A bad as Trump's habitual bullshitting is, it's nothing compared to the outright, in-principle rejection of the very ideas of truth and falsehood...

   And the fact that Gavin Newsom, the shitheads at the Bulwark, and all other not-quite-sufficiently-radical Democrats are spewing out every red herring they can think of to avoid answering the question tells you everything you need to know about them: they know their party has gone insane, but they're too afraid to admit it.

Horrific.

To repeat myself repeating myself:

Breakdown of contemporary Democrats:

• ~1/3 believe that men can become women just by saying so--or by putting on dresses or having plastic surgery.
• ~1/3 know that's insane but can't bear to admit it--either because they can't bring themselves to contradict the dogmas of their tribe, or because they're afraid of being dogpiled by the crazies.
• ~1/3 are either stuck in a superposition of the first two states...or are not smart or intellectually honest enough to understand the difference between them.

If a huge percentage of a major political faction is willing to say that up is down or left is right or dogs can fly or the sky is red...and to say such things because their political tribe tells them to...we're screwed. But even worse...many leftists don't just say such insane things...they actually believe them...

   People like Gavin Newsome are repulsive. He knows the truth, but refuses to say it. Worse are people like Lindsey Grager (who I actually think I would like personally if I knew her), who frantically prevents herself from even focusing on the question, knowing that, if she did, she'd likely have to admit the truth. But worse still are the people on the fringe who actually believe that up is down...

   Look, I think similar things can be said about religion--and those folks are mostly on the right. But I think they have excuses the left doesn't have. People are generally indoctrinated with religion from the time they're kids. The left knew the truth about men and women, but decided to forget it (or pretend to) when it became politically fashionable to do so. It's not like they were raised from childhood to believe. That'd at least be some kind of excuse. Rather, their vanguard just basically announced one day ca. 2014, that 2+2 would henceforth equal 5...and they all either jumped right on the crazy train...or looked away...or just decided to shut up and go along with it all...

Disgusting.

Bad Times Ahead for the OD

Whelp, the Democrats are now more-or-less completely in control of the government of the Commonwealth.

Strap in, boys 'n' girls...'n'...nondichotomous persons of indeterminate classification...

It's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Jim Geraghty: "Tearing Apart NATO Over A Trinket," or: A Different Kind of TDS

As Geraghty notes: in a saner world, Trump's cabinet would be at least discussing invoking the 25th Amendment.

In addition to doing lasting damage to the nation and its alliances, Trump is basically breathing life into a moribund Democrat party.

Nice work, dumbass.

Danes Stunned at Trump's/America's Betrayal

As well they should.

Fuck Trump, in case I haven't mentioned that recently.

I've defended him from unfair criticisms for 8 years.

And I'm still grateful for the good things he's done for the country.

But he can fuck right off on this one.

It needs to be made clear to Demark that this is a Trump thing, not an America thing.

Oh and: Vance.

He's being a fuckhead about this one, too.

Danish Lawmaker Tells Trump to "Fuck Off"--Greenland's Not For Sale

link

Let me second that fuck off.

The Contemporary Left In Yet Another Nutshell

It's amazing how much leftist discourse is just them pretending not to understand things, thus making discourse impossible.

— Millennial Woes (@MillennialWoes) February 22, 2025

Jeffrey Blehar: "Trump Versus the World;" So...Is Trump Insane...or What?

Yeah...I'm afraid the guy really might be insane. Either that, or a fucking idiot.

Or, of course, both...

This is a pretty fair summary of this dismal, embarrassing, and possibly disastrous Greenland business:

For those too embarrassed to keep up with current events, I recommend the work of my colleague Andrew Stuttaford, who has been covering the breakneck pace of weekend developments like a hawk. I will summarize: Donald Trump’s thuggish demands for Greenland, an island that we already have unlimited military basing rights with, are now at a fever pitch. In the wake of his big show of force in Venezuela, he cannot rest until he has added it to his trophy case: Its acquisition is “psychologically needed for success.” So now not only will Denmark be tariffed — at an opening rate of 10 percent, escalating to 25 percent until such time as they give Trump what he demands — so too will ten other countries who have responded to Denmark’s symbolic request for NATO allies to come to Greenland.
Who knows if Trump will actually go through with it; half of what he writes on Truth Social is bloviation, but the other half is deadly serious, and given this, the only safe thing to do is to take him at his word. But I have no time for those who blithely wave off this sort of wildly destructive behavior as “dealmaking.” It is no such thing; it is outright megalomania. There is no other way, no more “neutral” a term, to describe a president who now mutters about his personal right to “a sacred piece of Land” like Captain Queeg hunting for missing strawberries, or who now hints at war with NATO if he is not given what he will never be able to have. This language will have repercussions.
Because yes, that’s where Trump is at now rhetorically, and if you didn’t see the tie-in coming from a mile away, you need to update your Unified Theory of Trump. Just yesterday, the president wrote a missive to Norway’s leader that he had cc’d to every American embassy in Europe: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
Please read that again. Let the implication sink in: Trump is now on the warpath against Denmark, and is threatening the forced dissolution of the American alliance, and as an excuse, he is citing to Norway their awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Machado. Maybe, you might say, he’s just lashing out blindly in his frustration, reaching for any weapon to hand. But what a commentary that is on the mindset of the president of the United States: We are asked to understand him either as a schoolyard bully or a child throwing a tantrum. Wresting the physical medal from Machado — by dangling the prospect of freedom for her people before her eyes — was clearly not enough: All of Europe must pay for its sin in not awarding it to him in the first place. (For those wondering what relationship the actions of a Norwegian Nobel committee have to the government of Denmark, just assume that Trump thinks all Scandinavians are the same.)
This is our president. Is he “on tilt?” No, I think he is operating as programmed. He is living a power fantasy. He has mastered the Republican Party through both showmanship and fear. Only external forces — the bond markets, perhaps the Supreme Court, and finally the ironclad laws of political gravity — will act as a check on him now. So all of his actions are of a piece: demands for the fulfillment of his ego, relentless escalation, and desperately cheap attempts to create a permanent “legacy” that will forever be denied to him. Trump may be the main character in his own story, but he will never be able to write history’s verdict of him; that work belongs to future generations, and his helplessness in the face of it lies at the hidden core of his narcissistic rage.
The clearer this becomes, the more I expect Trump to lash out against a world that has rejected him — and I fear with disastrous, irrevocable consequences. Defend Trump’s actions with respect to Greenland if you must — my job is to judge them. And I have a clear enough picture of the man at this point to predict the dire future to come: To paraphrase the verdict of Cormac McCarthy in Blood Meridian, what’s wrong with Donald Trump is wrong all the way through him. And this will not end here.

Trump has done a helluva lot to save the country. He's still, as of this moment, done a lot more good than harm. But he seems to be going over the edge now.

   Sure, maybe this is all trolling and negotiation...but it doesn't seem that way...and even if it is negotiation, it seems like the most retarded of all possible negotiation...

   WTF is wrong with this stupid jackass?

   And the Nobel Prize shit...it's just like the cherry on top of this batshit sundae...

   I legitimately can't believe how fucking stupid this all is. Nobody can reign him in? Nobody?

Peter Schweizer: How Radical Muslims Unite to "Fight America Everywhere and All the Time"

Establishing this conclusion would require a lot more evidence, of course.

My view here has a couple of components:

[1] Important parts of the left are open about their goal of destroying the U.S. and Western Civilization more generally. These views obviously trickle down from the radical vanguard to blue-team types who would not regard themselves as radical. But they trickle down in forms that are obscured--they have the effect of undermining the U.S., but this isn't open/obvious. Thus, e.g., the blue team's current views on immigration are, like so many destructive policies, marketed to progressives in terms of kindness...but their ulterior motive is destruction of the country.

[2] Every faction has its anti-American fringe. The right clearly has one. But an important question is: how extensive and influential is it? That's the question here. This fringe obviously exists on the left...and is actually pretty extensive and influential...but we need to know: how much so?

[3]  Perhaps the major problem here is: the left simply will not even consider such arguments. Show this Schweizer piece to a lefty and you know what the response will be: REEEEEE RACIST!!!111one!

I'd be happy for this thesis to be false. But it has significant prima facie plausibility. Mostly, I just demand that it be considered rather than rejected out of hand with the left's standard sophistry and name-calling. 

Rich Lowry: The Deportation Numbers Vindicate ICE (and Trump) and Rebut Its Critics

HMD: Trump: Rude, but Right About Crime

I Mac Donald articulates an important point here almost in passing: for all his bluster and bullshitting, and despite his occasional insistence that obvious falsehoods are true, Trump also often speaks important truths that others--particularly those on the left--refuse to acknowledge. One of Trump's great strengths is that he cannot be cowed into accepting and/or paying lip service to wacko aspects of, as the Critical Drinker would say, "The Narrative." I wish his commitment to the truth were more thoroughgoing...but, as is so often the case, I plead comparative choice. At least Trump, unlike the other side, does manage to stumble across the facts with fair frequency.

Moonbat Mobs Amok in Minneapolis

Boy, I feel like busting some heads after watching this.

These commies really need to be taught a lesson.

The Self-Parodying Moonbats: TRUMP CANCELING MIDTERMS Edition

These people are almost beyond self-parody at this point.

Trump, in essence:  I'm doing such a good job that we shouldn't even have a midterm election...but I can't say that or you people will say I'm going to cancel the midterms.

MSM: TRUMP SAYS HE WILL CANCEL MIDTERMS

Again I ask: If he's so awful, why does the left have to routinely lie about what he says?

Yinka that Guy: Anthology of Anti-ICE Moonbats

It's basically been sane people vs. crazy people for a decade now.

Sasha Stone: 100% Right, Yet Again

I feel like quoting this whole piece.

Mostly though:

Uh, no, NYT, there is no contradiction in Trump supporting the Iran protestors while condemning the anti-ICE protestors.

The Iran protestors, you see, are right, and the anti-ICE protestors are wrong.

The Iran protestors are demonstrating for democracy; the anti-ICE protestors are protesting against it.

The Iran protestors are speaking out peacefully and being killed and beaten for it.

The anti-ICE protestors are blocking streets, assaulting LEOs, and tacitly insisting that they get to veto laws they don't like.

It’s a sickness on the Left by now, a reality distortion that spilled out into real-world violence.

That's the contemporary left in a nutshell...

And it's why Trump is our least-terrible option.

As bullshit-prone as he is, he's less unhinged by far than the progressive left is. 

Dowd: Behold Donald of Deliria!

Well, we agree about Greenland, at least.

Oh, and that Trump is an "impresario of chaos"...

Why the Tech World Thinks the American Dream is Dying

I suppose, eventually, one of these prophecies of doom will end up coming true...

Carolina 78 - Cal 84

Things are not looking good for the Heels...nor for CHD.

Nobody really seems to know what's gone wrong. Of course one popular view is that Hubert just isn't a very good head coach. He was a good assistant...but that's a different thing.

Me, I don't know.

But I tend to think that things have been going downhill since Hubert stupidly fired coach Rob...and did so for bogus Carolina "family" reasons. Robinson wasn't a Carolina alum...but he was more a part of the "family" than the assistants CHD brought in. I mean, I love all those guys...but think about how much longer coach Rob had been here, and how much deeper his roots, than even, say, Marcus...

Now, instead of Robinson, Roy's trusted Lieutenant, with his own head coaching experience...we've got a bench full of greenhorns. (Except for Lebo.)

Another major theory: the era of the Carolina juggernaut is just over. It ended with the advent of NIL and the Portal. Hubert is still trying to sell the program on its traditional strengths--personal connections. Now it's all about $$$. Players come and go, often staying for just one year. School loyalty and personal connections are fading in importance.

Of course I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but it's all depressing to see players we've come to be invested in go elsewhere...especially just as they're hitting their peak. Sorry to see Love go (and help turn AZ great, no less)...and Cadeau (off to UM...also great).

Oh and: we have no point guard. Our front court is great...but without a true PG...not good...

Trump's Idiotic, Potentially Catastrophic Greenland Whim/Obsession

What the hell is wrong with that guy?

Even supposing he's right about the importance of Greenland--as he might well be--he's gone about this in the most catastrophically stupid way.

When you're the baddest dude in town, you don't routinely push your buddies around and demand they give you their stuff.

We're the baddest guy, obviously...but not bad enough to take on the rest of the world...

We need allies, you dumb shit.

I'm to say the least no expert about geopolitics, nor about massive land deals...but this just seems like the very goddamn stupidest thing we could possibly do (with respect to Greenland, that is... There are, unfortunately, even stupider things we could do... And "we" just might...)

Acquiring Greenland and wrecking NATO puts us in a worse position, not a better one.

Again I ask: what the hell is wrong with that guy???

WSJ: Hawaii Should Not Be Able To Ban Firearms By Default

Agreed.

The Dems and the states they control just seem to be on a disastrous downward spiral.

Anti-ICE Riots, St. Paul, 1/15/26

Still not a full-on insurrection, I'd say...merely relying on my tenuous grasp of the ordinary concept. But, like the 1/21 Capitol riot, these are coming way too damn close for comfort...

   This is the second time in five years that the left has conducted large-scale riots across the country. In both cases, the point was to circumvent democracy and intimidate others into capitulating to their hard-left policy preferences. In the current case, they've basically just decided that laws they don't like must not be enforced...and they're trying to enforce that decision.

Snippets from WSJ: Leftist Lawlessness, Progressivism is Wrong about Everything, Yale's Faculty Monoculture, China's Temporary Rare Earths Monopoly

link

Perhaps most striking:  in 2025, Yale professors made 1,099 donations to federal political campaigns and partisan groups. Number made to Republicans: 0.00.

Nate the Lawyer Changes My Mind Back on the Minneapolis ICE Shooting

Shoulda gone to NtL first thing--but I didn't know he was making videos again after his brain surgery.

I didn't need to wait for his opinion--his commentary on / breakdown of the videos swung my mental needle back toward probably innocent. Still about a 70-30 case to my mind though.

Candice Owens Has Completely Lost It

Now she apparently thinks that Charlie Kirk was a time-traveler... 

Is Trump Chickening Out on Iran?

Kinda seems that way.

VA Democrats Pre-Filed "Assault Weapons" and Suppressor Bans, Many Other Repressive Anti-Firearm Bills

The Democrats just completely suck now.

Assholes.

SCOTUS: WV v. BPJ

link

I've listened to some of the arguments...many of which I can't understand, not being a lawyer. You've got to have a lot of concepts, distinctions, terminology and cases on the tip of your brain to follow them--and I don't. If you have to stop and look something up every other sentence, you're pretty much screwed. Even if you can understand the new concept right away, your attention has been diverted. This is a pretty common phenomenon, of course. To understand complicated ideas and arguments deep down in any subject, you have to have a lot of other ideas and arguments already at your mental fingertips.

   But I can say one general thing:

   It's downright painful to hear Supreme Court Justices speak the language of "transgender" pseudoscience. It unnecessarily complicates the arguments, and gives the impression that, e.g., 'transgender girl' is a real category--and a kind of girl.

   Look: you might play along with this nonsense if you had a delusional friend or colleague who you didn't want to embarrass or offend... But when it comes down to serious business like determining public policy, you've got to leave the circumlocutions of politeness behind...

   Also look: here's the question. Actually, I'll artificially break it into two parts:

[1] Is it permissible to have girls' sports teams--i.e. teams that girls can join but boys can't?

[2] Is this permissible even if the boys in question are pretending to be girls? (Or we might say: misrepresenting themselves (to others and perhaps even to themselves) as girls?)

   I'm perfectly fine with asking question [1]. For all I know, some legal arcanum actually makes this a no-no. Many decades ago, I thought it should be impermissible, basically because it discriminates on the basis of sex. I though you should have, basically, top-tier teams, second-tier teams, and so on. My gf during part of that time was a hot-shot local tennis player and a philosophy grad student. I'd never really played tennis--nor watched it--more than very casually, and I foolishly thought that it was a game women might compete in on a level equal to that of men. Gf laughed out loud at that, informing me that even many boys from the local HS team would beat her. (Note: when we tried to play a couple of times, her returns knocked the racket out of my hand more than once. She hit hard.) But somehow I even managed to convince her with my dumbass arguments.

   But anyway: [1] seems to me like a reasonable question.,

   Though now I think the answer is in the affirmative.

    And, as for [2]: there is no reason on Earth that it should be taken seriously. Someone lying about themselves--or being deluded--does nothing to change the answer to [1]. 

   Now:

   All you do is confuse things if you insist on discussing these questions in the arcane, laughably ridiculous, language of "transgender" pseudoscience. There are no "trans girls." "Trans girls" are not girls. They are boys. Thus the question at issue is just [1]. Since [2] doesn't matter, their lies/delusions about their own sex are irrelevant.

   However, instead of phrasing their arguments in the plain language of common sense, common experience, and science, we find the Justices asking about "trans girls" and "cis" girls. Instead of straightforwardly asking about males, they are often asking about people "assigned male at birth." Instead of asking about boys, they are often asking about "biological boys"...the only kind of boys there are...

   There is simply no reason to speak the language of the cult--especially when evaluating the cult's cultish doctrines...

   Of course even many conservatives and conservative outlets have been doing this for years...but you've heard those complaints before...

   Anyway.

   Perhaps...perhaps...it's impermissible, some violation of equal protection, to have boys' and girls' sports divisions. I think it would suck if it turned out that way. But here's what cannot be true: it's permissible to have girls' and boys' sports divisions...but a boy who is pretending to be a girl (or who is legitimately deluded) must be allowed to play in the girls' division...because he's actually a kind of girl...

   Look, if I'm fighting professionally, and I'm pretending to be a welterweight when I am, in fact, a middleweight...I'll be outed at the weigh-in. The scale detects the relevant fact...and my false beliefs (or lies) about my weight are entirely irrelevant. I'm not a "trans welterweight"...I'm a middleweight. The left might make up a whole panoply of dumbshit terminology...but the fact of the matter is: I didn't make weight. If it's permissible to have weight classes, it's permissible to hold someone to them, regardless of their false beliefs--or pretended beliefs.

   It's an embarrassment to the country that we've allowed this kind ideologically-motivated nonsense to take over so much of the public mind, and even impose itself on Supreme Court justices. Though, almost certainly, some of the more conservative Justices know better, and are just speaking with the vulgar for some practical reason.*

* Here's a kind of interesting thing: actually, the wrong thing in this case is to speak with the learned. The vulgar understandand all this stuff and get it right. It's the learned who are delusional, and who speak confusedly...

This is What I Voted For: Trump to Defund "Sanctuary" Cities

Excellent.

Of course some minor league leftist Obama-appointee judge somewhere in Bumfuck Illinois will claim the authority to rule against it...

Some Lefties Mad About "Say Her Name" Stuff for/about Renee Good

This shit is so idiotic that I'm not even going to hunt it up to link to it.

   Apparently some lefties are doing the "say her name" thing about Renee Good.

   Then other lefties (largely other Caucasian cat women), worried that they were being out-leftied, decided to regain superior leftiness by making up a rule that says that you can only say that for black women.

   Will the first group think of some different bullshit to make up to get their bullshit woke supremacy back...? Stay tuned!

   They just make this shit up as they go along.

Ok I changed my mind.

"Saying her name"

Getting mad about people saying her name.

These people are morons.

Lowry: The Anti-ICE Insurgency

Rather like the BLM/Antifa riots of 2020 or the Capitol riot of January 2021--not exactly an insurgency per se...but kinda insurgenc-y...

   A question that arises, I think--and maybe this is already established in law--is whether doing a bunch of things that would ordinarily be legal in a massed, organized, intimidating way is illegal. Blowing whistles, for example: legal. Honking your horn: ordinarily legal. Etc. Well, what happens when a large number of basically crazy people start doing these things en masse in order to prevent other people from going about their daily business? Let alone: enforcing some of our most crucially important laws...

   This is something that the left has raised to an art form: going right up to the limit of legality to intimidate and harass its opponents. Ordinary people with some non-zero degree of self-respect would never do nor say many of the things that lefties (especially Pantyfa) do and say on a routine basis. They're basically weaponizing self-debasement...it's embarrassing to watch...even though I hate them and want them all to die...

Did ICE Agent Jonathan Ross, Who Shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, Suffer Internal Bleeding From Being Hit By Her Car?

Seems a bit unlikely to be, given the footage I've seen...but I'm obviously not in much of a position to judge.

Pretty Good NYT Analysis of Available Minneapolis ICE Shooting Video

This is the most neutral summary I’ve seen of the Minnesota murder by ICE. It has ALL angles, it syncs them together, and shows the lead up and aftermath… if you watch this all and still think those shots were justified - you just might be a psychopath.

pic.twitter.com/BTQ30YFFbj

— Andy Signore (@andysignore) January 8, 2026

I'm back to where I was on this three days ago: probably not a justified shooting. (Note: layperson's valueless opinion).

But:

Recall that the officer who shot Ms. Good had recently been dragged 300' by a car driven by an illegal, and he was seriously injured (requiring 30 stitches). His arm had been caught between the seat and the door/interior side of the car.

Note that his partner is in a position ripe for just that kind of incident when Ms. Good hits the accelerator. He wasn't caught and dragged...but he was in a position to be.

I haven't heard anyone say this, but: that may have been a consideration. 

Josh Hawley vs. Moonbat Doctor: Can Men Get Pregnant?

Look, as much as I understand people who don't want to vote for Trump...and I really, really do...this video shows yet another The progressive left in a nutshell moment. They babble about their commitment to science...but they more-or-less shamelessly and more-or-less openly subordinate one of the clearest and most obvious scientific facts known to man to this patent, crackpot, bullshit, cooked up in the women's studies department like last Tuesday, that barely even rises to the level of pseudoscience...

   Hawley made two small mistakes:

  [1] Don't get mad, and don't try to force them to say that men can't get pregnant. You can't make them. You can't make them say words. Just keep asking the same question, in different ways if possible, and make them say the same insane nonsense over and over. Anyone with more than half a brain will be affected by that eventually. The others can't be reached no matter what you do.

  [2] Don't say 'biological men.' A biological man is the only kind of man there is. If you say 'biological men', you're basically playing into their hands. It's part of their crackpot ideology that there are two kinds of men--"trans" ones and...y'know, men men... Which, of course, is akin to saying that there are two kinds of dogs: dogs and cats. Or "trans dogs," if you like...

   If she weren't a complete ditz...

Narrator: But she was, in fact, a completely ditz...

...she would have said something like "OH, biological men...well, why didn't you say so? I thought you were just talking about men in the generic sense, to include trans men, and so...

   Also, Hawley should have said "Stop making up stories about why I'm asking the question--and just answer it." Or maybe: "In fact, I'm asking the question specifically to show that you and other leftist "doctors" are either unaware of basic biology, or willing to lie about it if it's politically incorrect/inconvenient. And I believe we've already all seen that... Unless you'd like to change your answer..."

   As I've said before: if you told, say, pre-2013 Democrats about this, they'd never believe it. They'd accuse you of straw-manning their future selves.

   

OMG. Doctor REFUSES To Admit Men Can’t Get Pregnant

Sen @HawleyMO: Do you think that men can get pregnant?

Dr. Nisha Verma: I hesitated there because I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or what the goal was…

Hawley: Let me just remind you, you testified a moment… pic.twitter.com/HKtXMzjfA4

— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) January 14, 2026

Sasha Stone: Confessions of a Recovering Liberal White Woman

This is worth reading even just for the collections of insane moonbat--or shebat--shrieking.

I was a Democrat, of course, but almost always (with a few slight deviations) of a very centrist sort.

Unlike Stone, I gave up on the Dems as soon as they capitulated to the Woketarian cult.

So, uh...two cheers for me, I guess...

Rothman: Iranian Civilians are Being Massacred; Progressives Silent

I don't know whether this is exactly right. It's true, I'm not seeing a lot of lefty chatter on Iran--it's all about ICE now. But, then, even Gaza seems to have taken a back seat to open-borders/anti-ICE hysteria...

Iran is Murdering Protesters, Including Via Kangaroo Courts and Executions

I'm seeing 2,500 civilian deaths as a common figure. CBS says possibly as high as 12,000 or even 20,000.

Fuck those guys.

I have no idea what our realistic options are, though.

But we're now looking at the possibility of two nation-building projects at the same time...when few of us even have the stomach for one...

But restoring the Shah seems like a plausible plan to me...based on my extensive ignorance of everything about Iran...

Jenkins: Now Lawfare Engulfs the Fed

Yes, the Democrats started it--or at least elevated it to all-out war...all-out lawfare, anyway.

   They're proud of it. (Not that important, but: one of their longstanding legal/political blogs is called Lawfare.)

   Has Trump made it worse?

   Well, he seems to have made it more blatant...which is one way of being worse...

   Anyway, to me, having only the superficial knowledge of a somewhat-more-than casual reader of the news, that he has made it worse. It used to at least be kind of on the DL. And the people doing it openly/blatantly were state-level figures like the loathsome Letitia James, and the also loathsome Alvin Bragg... But it seems to have gone federal* under Trump.

   There was a red-team talking-point recently...I think even repeated by Vance. Went like this: we shouldn't refrain from doing things because we fear the Dems might to them to use in the future...because they're going to do them to us anyway...

   Sadly, that point makes a lot of sense.

   The Pubs still probably haven't done anything that can hold a candle to Russiagate...yet, anyway...

   I'd prefer for the team I currently support to be at least slightly more on the side of reason and justice than the other guys...but Trump seems to think that's a losing strategy... And he's fairly likely to be right.

   So anyway...here we are...

* Yes, I, too, dislike this misuse of the 'federal.' I'm using it here anyway.

George J. Terwilliger III: ICE, Minneapolis and the Rule of Law

This seems right on the money:

Just as the federal agents’ lawful presence in the cities isn’t a justification for the use of unnecessary force, objection to their presence on policy grounds provides no justification for civilian interference in their operations, or for local officials to leave them bereft of local law-enforcement help when that occurs. The administration has a duty to protect its agents from violence. If state and local officials mean what they say about the rule of law, they will draw the line there and provide protective support—even if they disagree with national immigration policy. The failure to do so will encourage more interference and violence and necessitate stepped-up measures by the administration to protect federal personnel and property.

The left thinks it has some kind of moral authority to simply prevent the enforcement of laws it doesn't like.

And/or:

   It thinks that if it has the physical power to do so, that's good enough.

   For this reason--even if we didn't have plenty of other reasons--we have to keep insisting on enforcing these laws. Driving home to the left that it cannot control the country merely by acting crazy* and employing physical intimidation.

   I live in a college town--actually a medium-smallish(?) city (about 50k residents...the biggest city I've ever lived in...though Charlottesville is really bigger, even though technically smaller...) It was red when I got here. I worked with the Dems to turn it blue...was pleased when it went purple...then it turned full-on blue about the time the Dems went insane and I switched allegiances...nice work, dumbass...

   Anyway.

   My pretty average neighborhood is rife with lefty signs. BLM. In this house... ICE out of [cityname]. Families belong together. And the ...we're glad you're our neighbors signs that apparently originated here before metastasizing elsewhere. We had a candlelight vigil on Court Square for "victims of ICE" recently.

   I kinda wish there were some reasonable way to signify my opposition to the madness--e.g. my support for border enforcement... But I don't think there is. I think it'd be dumb to put up a sign or walk around in a t-shirt blatantly supporting the administration...I think we should always have a somewhat antagonistic attitude toward the government...even if just pro forma. Also, of course: my support for this administration is dicey at best...

   I did buy some 'Antifa = terrorists' stickers and I'm in some kind of stupid battle downtown with an unknown adversary. He/she/they/xe puts up lefty stickers and graffiti on out-of the way components of the infrastructure. I put my stickers over them... LOL stupid. One of my (far) former students was with me once when I did it and he cracked up and said "I hope you're hamming it up for my benefit and you don't actually go around doing this." Unfortunately, however...

   Well, I put my flag out on major flag-relevant days...that's--sadly--probably enough to make it clear where I stand..

* who's acting?

Dan McLaughlin: Investigating Good's Widow Another Self-Destructive Decision by Trump's DoJ

Prima facie, this is just pointlessly cruel and vindictive.

Special bonus stupid: it's brought the lead prosecutor (and several others) on the MN fraud investigation to resign.

I don't even know what Justice's rationale for this is...it just seems inhuman.

And on top of a not-obviously-justified killing, no less...

RIP Scott Adams

We weren't always on the same page, but he was a likable guy worthy of respect. He stood up to the woketaria mob when the cost of doing so was high.

RIP.

Iran Signals Plans for Swift Trials and Executions of Protestors

I really don't want us to be the world's policeman anymore...but...surely there's something we can do here.

We have both geopolitical and humanitarian reasons to want the regime of the mullahs to fall.

Needless to say, nobody else is going to do anything.

As is so often the case, it's the USA or nobody...

How'd We Get To This Point, Anyway? Some Dems Remind Us

TBF, the Pus, though less bad, aren't blameless. Recall the 1/6/21 Capitol riot...

Fund and Vedder: Are America's College Students Brilliantly Disabled?

No.

Though this article merely suggests that and doesn't demonstrate it.

"Disability" "accommodations" are mostly a scam.

Of course the blue elites now hold that all their favored groups are allowed to "self-identify"...so claims to disability (like claims about "gender") cannot be questioned. And, indeed, a university with which I am very familiar apparently does not even attempt to verify them...

Eric Levitz: Left and Right: The "Fiction" at the Heart of the American Political Divide

This was really irritating me until Levitz got around to stating his own view of the matter.

   The currently-fashionable middlebrow view that one encounters commonly in Reddit-level discussions: there's no such thing as "left" and "right".../...the distinction makes no sense.

   Well, bullshit.

   These views tend to be supported by starting with a straw man that Levitz called ideological "essentialism"...'essentialism' being one of the many philosophical terms "appropriated" by the left and vaguely Continental-style academicians outside philosophy...but that they don't understand.

   To cut to the chase, and put it in my own terms: as is often the case, concern with "essentialism" distracts from realism. Left and right are real tendencies--Levitz agrees. There's a certain amount of arbitrariness...but so what? That doesn't matter. It's to be expected. What matters is that there are some strong tendencies that cluster together. E.g. the left's greater love of equality and the right's greater respect for merit and earned advantage. I'd add: the left's affinity for rapid and frequent change and the right's more circumspect approach to it. Freedom...much as I'd like to say it's a more conservative value...tends, IMO, to wander around back and forth. For most of my life, free speech, for example, was something the American left / the Democratic party tended to be more committed to protecting. That all changed on campuses during the political correctness spasm of of the late '80s - early '90s. And it started noticeably changing in the country as a whole ca. 2013ish...until, by 2020, free speech was considered downright reactionary.

   Anyway, bottom line, as you already know: the left/right distinction is a messy one. Like most ordinary, practical distinctions, there's something to it...and it's handy...but not much more than that.

"Trump's Big Swing at Credit Card Interest Rates"

A surprisingly positive assessment at Business Insider...

Articles like this should automatically have a community note by economists telling us about the likely unintended consequences.

I mean, one seems obvious: credit cards will become more difficult to get, no? (I guess this is what's presupposed by the claim that this would drive people to worse kinds of credit.)

Anyway, I tend to automatically dismiss such schemes now because TANSTAAFL...

But I dunno, maybe this isn't as dumb as it sounds.

Hawley supports it...that's something...

Gerard Baker: Iran Cracks Down. Where Are The Western Protests?

It's like the contemporary left has a bizarro compulsion to be wrong about everything...

link

I guess the only thing we can really do is look for reliable organizations to donate to?

I don't know whether it really makes sense for Trump to launch strikes against the regime...but if it does, I hope he does it.

Fuck those guys.

Incidentally, Foucault supported the Iranian "Islamic Revolution" in '79...

Recent Continental philosophy also has a pretty solid record of getting shit wrong...

Chad Carlson: Men in Women's Sports is Unfair--And Dangerous

link

Before any more specialized discussions about this topic are taken up, one thing must be made clear: there are no male women and no female men. The leftist Newspeak term for men who misrepresent themselves as women is 'trans women'--a patently and absurdly misleading term. It's astonishing how much mileage the progressive left gets out of its Newspeak--but that's all it is. Making up a new term ("trans") and misusing the term 'woman' does nothing to change the facts. "Trans women" are, in fact, men.

Dr. Carlson does it right: to conduct this discussion rationally, we must refer to men as men and eschew progressive Newspeak terms like "trans woman."

To paraphrase Lincoln: calling a horse's tail a leg won't give it five legs... And calling it a "trans leg" won't change anything.

What Time Should You Get Up? Probably Not 5 a.m.

LOL if you get up at 5 a.m. willingly, you're nuts.

I generally wake up for the last time around 2:30, and then try to get back to sleep until 5 or 6. If I do everything right, that works a coupla times a week. I don't let myself get up for the day before 5--I don't want to accidentally establish another bad pattern. I'm not supposed to sleep past 6 because of The Sleep Protocol!!!111...but [looks around stealthily] if I can, I usually do.

Anyway, yeah, as a habitually sleep-deprived American, it's hard for me to fathom being able to sleep but not doing so. 

Brittany Bernstein: Mainstream Media Consumers Left Unprepared for Supreme Court Reality Check on Men in Women’s Sports

link

I hope Gorsuch doesn't Bostock us again...

(Ehhh...actually I'm not sure Gorsuch's argument in Bostock was wrong. I'd identified it ahead of time as the strongest argument "on the other side"...which is a bad way to think. We ought to just follow the arguments and not think in terms of sides... But I can't shake the conviction that that argument is bad...and that if I find myself agreeing with the moonbats I must have gone wrong...)

Actual Justice Warrior on the Minneapolis ICE Shooting

I've seen about thirty lefty posts (mostly Reddit so...) shrieking that it's obvious that the ICE agent flat-out murdered Ms. Love.

I've seen about ten or fifteen things from people on the right insisting that the shooting was obviously justified.

The left, as per usual these days, is being crazier than the right. Some are even trying to deny that there was any effort to impede ICE, some deny that she was blocking the road.

Robby Soave on Rising had the correct take, IMO--basically the same as mine: we need to wait until police use-of-force experts have gone over the evidence carefully. The rest of us understand next to nothing about this business.

As for hunches and inclinations...gotta say, I kinda don't see this shooting being reasonable.

Anyway, AJW disagrees:

Jeffrey Blehar: The Trump Administration's Lawfare Will Destroy More Than Just Itself

More on the Trumpian thuggery against Powell.

As crucial as it is to keep Democrats out of power--unless/until they come to their senses--Trump is doing his best to make it a close call.

I'm starting to root harder for some kind of health problem that will put the Presidency in Vance's hands.

Hey, Remember How Antifa Didn't Exist?

Well, we've apparently transitioned to the It exists and that's a good thing part of the cycle...

Haley Strack: Renee Good Belonged to "ICE Watch" Group That Trained Activists to Interfere with Agents, Block Vehicles

link

   If you've watched much footage of the "activists"/rioters that swarm ICE and CBP, you know that their strategy is to do everything they can to impede agents--up to and sometimes beyond what is legal. They track them online, follow them, demonstrate loudly all night outside their hotels, block roads, blow whistles and honk horns, scream the vilest insults, throw chunks of ice and whatever else they think they can get away with, stick cameras in their faces, grab and shove and jostle them, etc. One point of this is to minimize the effectiveness of the raids--thus, with luck, saving the murderers, ped0s, rapists, and other miscreants and illegals targeted for arrest. A sub-goal is to put so much psychological pressure on the agents, and create such chaos, that they will make a mistake or lash out and do something stupid/illegal/violent...which will inevitably be caught by at least some of the dozens of rioters/"activists" recording the action--or one of their "green hat" "legal observers."

   The shooting of Ms. Good is exactly the kind of thing they were hoping for. I usually wouldn't make that sort of accusation...and this movement would be insane and repulsive even if this weren't true. But it's true.

   These people outright lie about everything--and they're lying about the shooting of Ms. Good, too. But, unfortunately, this is one of the few cases in which their overall conclusion might be right: the shooting may well have been unjustified. In fact, I'm now inclined to think it probably was...

   ...however: given the intentional creation of chaos by the rioters/"activists," their strategy of testing and repeatedly transgressing the boundaries of the law just shy of what they're likely to be arrested for...and the large number of vehicular assaults against agents...I think one can reasonably argue that the leftists have created an environment in which errors by agents are inevitably more common...and therefore are more excusable than they would ordinarily be.

   But, as I keep saying: this is really something we need to hear from use-of-force experts on.

   Laypeople like me are just bullshitting about something we barely understand at all.

Radical Islam Such a Problem in the UK that the UAE is Now Hesitant to Send Its Students There

You can't make this shit up.

Trump's Weaponizing DoJ Against Powell

I'm no lawyer and could easily be wrong...but: this seems like madness, doesn't it?

Brianna Wu on Mamdani's Commie Housing Czar: "They All Talk Like This Behind the Scenes"

Mr. Wu, as you may recall--a man who represents himself as a woman--was one of the main lefties in the Gamergate dispute. Gamergate, as you might recall, was an early battle between the forces of progressive-left wokefied media and the liberal/conservative rebellion against it. That is: against the ideological capture of videogames "journalism" by the illiberal, Orwellian left.

   Even Wu--who is still pretty far to the left--has gotten fed up with the lunacy of the politically correct left. He's been openly criticizing them for some time now.

   At any rate: though he's still stuck in the leftist worldview in many ways, there's reason to believe he's trustworthy with respect to points like this one:

I spent a decade working in progressive politics. They all talk like this behind the scenes.

Eventually, I came to the conclusion they were morally unfit to hold any power whatsoever. https://t.co/UR1bZYnfki

— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) January 5, 2026

Coulter: Venezuela: We're Nation-Building...the USA; Things Were Better When We Called the Shots in Latin America

This is the kind of post that would have sent me through the roof ten years ago.

   And, in fact, it was the GOP's support for Latin American strongmen like Pinochet that helped drive me to the Dems early in my political life. I agreed with fighting socialism and communism there (and I still believed in "democratic socialism")...but I thought that Republicans like Jesse Helms were way too eager to support people like Pinochet.

   I still think that attitudes like Coulter's are of a kind that you have to keep firmly under control, lest they wreck you.

   But...God help me...I'm pretty sympathetic to them now.

   I no longer think we can save the Third World. And we can't leave it alone in our own hemisphere...largely because the Democrats have decided to let all the criminals and refugees from all those failed states in here. And that will destroy the country. First by putting more Democrats in office...and, partially thereby, turning us into a less-than-First-World nation. Mostly, though, just by importing the kinds of people who constitute such countries.

   Import the Third World, become the Third World...

   And: giving them money now seems to me to be of dubious value.

   And we can no longer afford it.

   Anyway.

   I'm not happy about thinking this way. I used to be one of those chirpy Democrats that blithely insisted that everybody in the whole world was an American waiting to be liberated. Also, that's one of the many false beliefs that make you a good person, of course. According to our cultural betters.

    My problem is that I have a hard time making myself believe obvious falsehoods.

   Which is why I'm such a bad person.

The Return of Ranger Up

I think it's actually still been around for the last five years or so, but in a diminished state.

Now it's back, baybeee...

(Note: I have no affiliation with them. I just like their stuff. Esp. their really awesome t-shirts. Like this one. And this one. And this one. Really, like a zillion very cool ones.)

And now they've got a whole disreputable crew on board--e.g. MandatoryFunDay and Sam Kearns).

Anyway, I'm psyched.

Iran Update

Holy crap this might actually succeed...

Trump has warned the regime not to kill protestors. I hope he makes good on the threat if they do.

New Blue Talking Points Dropped: Hamas: Bad

All of a sudden the blue team is all singing from the same hymnal...and suddenly anti-Hamas.

McCarthy: MN ICE Shooting Tragic but Justified

He does not seem to take into account the considerations raised by the use of force document I mentioned this morning.

NRO: The Unnecessary Greenland Crisis

I could hardly agree more.

McCarthy: Trump Lacks Authority to Add Greenland to the U.S.

Only Congress can add territory to the U.S.

Global Trump Fatigue: Greenland Edition

from Imgflip Meme Generator

Short Shot Tony: Cheap, Chinese and Practical

Er...the holographic sights...not SST...

Trump Threatens Denmark Over Greenland. Again.

What to say about this other than that it is absolutely fucking insane?

Oh, yeah: also probably counterproductive.

So there's that, too...

OTOH, again:

Number of monumental, gigachad real-estate deals made by Trump: like a gazillion.

Number made by me:  0.00

But to me, threatening your ally when you want them to do something for you seems like not a good goddamned strategy...

A 2014 CBP Use-of-Force Report that Puts the MN ICE Shooting if Renee Good in a Whole New Light(?)

Came across this late last night, and it immediately did a lot to change my view of the shooting. The most relevant part:

The dishonesty from the MSM on this has been...well...par for the course actually, so I'm not sure why I even bring it up. Oh, right: but: even ignoring all the dishonest descriptions of the orientation of the front wheels and so on...the ICE officer does seem like he's placing himself in front of her car. Right in front of the car. And, as a friend pointed out to me last night: he switches his phone to his left hand. Now...of course that could be a standard thing for an officer to do if he fears violence is a threat. In fact I suppose I'd be surprised if it weren't. It could also be: preparing to do something you already planned to do. Draw your firearm, not to put too fine a point on it. ... After she hits him, he seems to say "fucking bitch--which the Daily Beast eyerollingly refers to as "a vile slur"...jeez, you can't even make this stuff up. Now, if somebody hit me with his/her car I'd likely call him/her a fucking bitch...and much worse. As should you. So I took that to be a natural reaction, especially under the charged circumstances. LEO aren't obligated to be nice in their narrative asides. But, the same friend pointed out: it could also indicate pre-existing animosity.

   Now, Ms. Good's wife was taking trash before the incident. She was trying to provoke a reaction. But that's just what these people do. And the things she was saying were bush league I've heard so much worse from these lunatics (I've probably watched 20 hours of video of anti-ICE rioters/"activists"). "Go get some lunch big boy" is a Midwest mom version of the things these lunatics say to officers. And, of course, it's part of the job to ignore even the really vile stuff...though in some cases I think it maybe should count as a mitigating circumstance. But certainly not in this one. The woman's attitude is gross. She knows (or at least is certain) that she's safe. So she can talk big at no cost. But, again, nothing compared to other things I've heard from such folk. Entry-level moonbat trashtalk.

   Again, as Friend pointed out: it's clear neither of these women were hardened criminals. I'd add: they're suburban moms doing Civil Rights movement reenactment theater. OTOH, a vehicle is a weapon, and it really did plausibly look like that's how she was going to use it...but...it wasn't obviously how she was going to use it... And if the officer weren't standing right up on the bumper, he wouldn't have gotten hit and might have been able to evade. So one important question--which neither I nor anyone I've read even imagined might be necessary to ask--is: was he standing where he was in order to have an excuse for shooting the driver?

   Furthermore: he drew his gun fast. Fast enough that, the first time I saw the video I thought: Damn, that was fast. Now, again, there's more than one explanation of that.

   Also: the officer was recently got 30 stitches after being dragged 300' by an illegal alien resisting arrest--and basically using his car as a weapon. That raises a lot of questions itself. It may well be an excuse for being on high alert (e.g. switching the phone to the left hand)...but..if the incident goes to his mental state: shouldn't he have been, say, at a desk until he had psychologically recovered? Isn't the worst possible situation that the actions of an illegal alien causes an American LEO to shoot an American protestor??

   And if he did intentionally put himself in front of the car as an excuse, this seems to indicate vindictiveness rather than fear. Not fear, anyway.

   Counterpoint: I think I'd rather be 1' in front of a threatening vehicle than, say, 10' or 20' in front of it. At 1' I'd expect to be knocked out of the way or to be able to jump onto the hood...at 15'...maybe run down or two broken legs... But here we need some expert judgment, not dumbass bloggy speculation.

   Bottom line: my needle was previously moving a bit more toward Defensible Shooting. Now it's moving significantly toward Indefensible Shooting.

   It's a tragedy. I'm sad that Ms. Good is dead. She thought she was doing the right thing. She was brainwashed by the demented left--a movement that cloaks its insanity in weepy, weaponized emotion and loony literary-theory gobbledygook. And this is exactly what the Movement left wanted: a martyr. They don't care about Good, the person. They wanted to manufacture another George Floyd. One of their main goals is and has long been to train their useful idiot followers into martyring themselves. This is ideal for the left (or it would be if only Good hadn't been white. That's a small suboptimality).

   As for the officer; there are good and bad LEOs. This guy may be a bad one--one of those guys attracted to law enforcement for the wrong reasons.  Or not. We don't know. Mostly, these guys are normal people like you and me: different mixes of good and bad on different days. Rational. Irrational. Calm. Angry. All the things. The officer in question does a hard job--a job that has to be done if the nation is to survive--and he has been seriously injured in the line of duty in exactly this kind of situation. These guys are demonized by the left, including that part of the left that buys ink by the barrel. Part of the left's strategy is to say and do insane, infuriating, repulsive things to LEOs, putting as much psychological pressure on them as they can--one reason being: to make them snap.

   So, well, maybe it worked this time.

   Or maybe not.

   I don't know.

Josh Hammer: Law Cannot be Held Hostage to Democrat Temper Tantrums

word

Matthew Walther: The MAGA-fication of the Rosary; or: Here Comes the Right-Wing Culture War!

Awesome.

The left started the latest phase of the culture war and, thus far, the right, center and some of the moderate left have mostly just been responding.

But that may well be changing...

The MN ICE Shooting: Circumspection from The Editors

A pretty reasonable post, I think.

I do agree that Trump should maybe have been a bit less aggressive going into these "mass deportations." The proper attitude may be something more like regret. I mean, I, personally, am sorry for many or most of the people who have come into the country illegally (not the criminals, of course). I don't blame people (much) for seeking a better life. And, as I've said many times: I'd do the same thing if I were in their shoes.

   And: they'd do the same thing were they in ours.

   No borders, no country. No enforcement, no borders.

   OTOH, the left does not respond to moderation. They'd be out there shrieking "No borders, no walls, no USA at all" regardless of how Trump went about this.

   More substantively: I believe that what's going on is supposed to be kind of a show--there's no chance of actually deporting the tens of millions of illegals in the country. And as soon as the Dems are back in power, they'll move us back toward a de facto open borders policy. And that probably means that Trump has three years to clear out as many of them as he can. And one major way he's doing that: deportation theater. Make 'em think we really mean business, and convince them to self-deport.

   That's not to say that ICE's methods are too aggressive. Contrary to leftist propaganda, they aren't. Screaming and crying don't make you immune from law enforcement. All sorts of perpetrators scream and cry (and say "I can't breathe"...).

   Anyway, aside from that friendly quibble, I think The Editors are being reasonable. It's a tough case.

   One more thing: those of us who have no experience in law enforcement...our opinions are basically valueless. This is something that happens over and over in public political discussions: people speak with great passion...and no experience. There are police use-of-force experts out there. (I posted what one of them said about this a day or so ago.) People act as if you can just look at the videos and--with no experience or knowledge of such events, police procedures, etc.--make a reasonable judgment about it.

Well, you can't.

(Needless to say, that goes for me, too.)

You're free to say what it looks like to you, of course. But you have to recognize that you're basically guessing.

Unleash the Wimmins of Mass Destruction

Asmogold feelin' sorry for th' Muslims...

The Fall of the Mullahs?

Holy crap.

I just keep expecting this revolt to collapse...but if it doesn't...:

Anyone who understands the Middle East knows this: the fall of the Iranian regime would be more consequential than the fall of the Berlin Wall, not because the Islamic Republic is a global power, but because it has been a central tool for China and Russia and a major engine of… https://t.co/CDUkAwSRzL

— ثنا ابراهیمی | Sana Ebrahimi (@__Injaneb96) January 8, 2026

Rising on the Minneapolis ICE Shooting

The Trump administration is a mess in so many ways. Noem--like so many others in this admin--was chosen largely because she's attractive. Trump's tweets always make things worse. No, this was not an act of terrorism. And, as for the agent...not trying to second-guess a professional acting in the heat of the moment...but...it sure does look like getting out of the way was at least as good an option... Easy to say from my desk chair, I guess...

   However...

   The left is such an abject clown show that the Trumpistas almost always come out looking like the less-insane party to every dispute...by quite a bit. The shrieking, irrational protestors...Walz and Frey...their backup singers who look like they're from a Portlandia skit (the absolutely crucial sign-language translator especially...because closed-captioning isn't a thing...)... 

   Now they're basically saying: We refuse to allow you to enforce immigration law in our state...we are unilaterally declaring open borders.

   They pumped up their lunatic neo-hippie minions, convinced them that this is some kind of mass kidnapping event...upped the violence against ICE...and now, as was inevitable, somebody got killed.

   Nice going, moonbats.

   And Lindsey on Rising...Jesus Christ. "Shoot 'em in the leg"..."shoot the tires"...

Facepalm

   Good on Robbie for calling BS on that BS. Though he did flub a bit of it. Police don't shoot to kill--they shoot to incapacitate. Whether the incapacitated perpetrator lives or dies is, theoretically at least, immaterial. What matters is that they're stopped.

Anyway:

Judge Glock: Spanberger, Dems on "Affordability," and Cross-Subsidization

I'm somewhat out of my economic depth here...but I don't like the sound of any of this.

I'll get a raise--the Dems always give us raises.

And my institution will get more money.

(I don't think I or it deserve more.)

Weed will be fully legalized.

(Personally: yay. For the Commonwealth overall...dunno.)

But, overall, the next four years are gonna be rough ones in the OD.

Especially for gun rights and the economy.

Youngkin was great.

Spanberger...will not be.

Annexing Greenland: Kimball Makes a Case; Reynolds Things Trump Thinks Europe is Going Islamist, Greenland Needed to Strengthen Fortress America

link

Europe is, indeed, in a bad way. The left is more powerful than it is in the U.S, and maybe crazier as well. Whereas our left threw the national doors open mostly to third-world Catholics, Europe's threw theirs open to Muslims and Islamists--mostly fighting-age males...

   The left thinks this will be ok because their normative political commitments tell them that it would be nice if it were ok. And they infer is from ought. Their geopolitical view is basically based on a Coke commercial. They get warm fuzzies from thinking about us all joining hands and them teaching the world to sing... Islam cannot pose a threat to the West because that would be mean and ugly and not sweet and heartwarming and multicultural. Of course the other half of their madness is: they don't much care for the West. If the CCP or the Caliphate take it over, well, that's democracy or something and it probably serves us right for our sins and something something multiculturalism and all cultures are, curiously, exactly as good as all others...just...different...dhimmi...

   I've always been profoundly dedicated to NATO...until recently a friend (looking at you, Kurt) pointed out that Western Europe is like blue America...but worse... 

   That is a profoundly disturbing thought...

   Anyway...

   I think Trump is a dumbshit for stomping around threatening Denmark. This seems like the course of action least likely to work. What, we're going to take on the rest of NATO? After which the Russians will take Eastern Europe, the Chinese will take Taiwan (etc.), and everything goes totally to hell?

   Something's got to be done about Europe and, in general, the invasion of the West. Christendom, one is tempted to say...even if one is an Atheist...

   But: build more bases on Greenland. Shower the Danes with money...

(...keeping in mind that Once you pay the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane...

...and, of course: Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute...

...but we're not talking about Danegeld or tribute here...)

   Sweet-talk 'em. Honey, not vinegar.

   If Europe does go Islamist, well, then we take Greenland.

   But then all is lost anyway.

   We've got to keep that from happening.

   And invading European allies--or threatening to do so--is not going to get that done.

   Says me, in all my geopolitical wisdom...

Noah Rothman: The Trump Administration Goes Full Tinfoil Hat in its Revisionist History of the Capitol Riot

Wow.

   I could quibble with a few points of Rothman's post...but in light of this monumental bit of Orwellian lunacy perpetrated by the administration, that'd be more than a little churlish.

   I've noted repeatedly that it's wacko to pretend that Trump can hold a candle to the moonbat left when it comes to outright counterfactual fantasy...but...this piece of shit misuse of taxpayer money does more to close the gap than I would have thought any single document could.

   Well, ok, one complaint: Rothman is far too dismissive of concerns about the '20 election. I have little confidence in the tally. But suspicions are not proof. Ok--shutting up about that now.

   Bottom line: this piece of shit site needs to be taken down immediately.

   Not that there's any chance of that happening...

The DC Shorts Breaks Down MN ICE Shooting Video

She was apparently trying to block ICE vehicles, she refused to comply with orders, she resisted arrest, she accelerated right toward an officer, and apparently hit him with her vehicle. In retrospect and in a cool hour, it does seem that he could have dodged the vehicle by leaping to his right...but there's little reason to think that he realized that in the moment.

   These idiots are playing with fire. They're acting like insane people around federal officers attempting to make lawful arrests of murderers, rapists, ped0s, and other illegal aliens. This woman was using her vehicle to block ICE vehicles, impede them in the performance of their duties. She was whipping the vehicle around near the agents, either using it as a weapon, or fleeing arrest, or both.

   I'm sorry she was so goddamned stupid. I'm sorry she allowed herself to be brainwashed. I'm also sorry she's dead. But it seems to me that she brought it on herself.

   Of course I'm less than perfectly neutral in the matter...

   On the bright side, she was white. If she were black--or perhaps even hispanic--we might well have another round of BLM/Antifa/Floyd riots on our hands.

Use-of-Force Expert: MN ICE Shooting Seems To Have Been Justified

A tentative judgment, but a correct one, I think.

Needless to say, the blue team immediately began shrieking that the shooting was unjustified. But most of them seem to think--or to have convinced themselves--that the shooting officer was the one standing by the window. That's what I thought at first. But, in fact, the officer who took the shots seems have been in front of the car. Obviously the left's claims about such cases are entirely weightless. They'll say anything to impugn ICE.

NPR: 40% Of Youngish Lefty Women Say They Want To Leave America; Also: NPR, Amirite?

The problem isn't that 40% want to leave...the problem is that only about 0.01% will follow through with it.

It'd be worth the money for the rest of us to help fund their moves. Though they'd have to sign a contract that said something like: if you come back in less than five years you have to pay the money back x1.5 or something...

Look, there are normal, sane, smart, good women all over the world who'd like to come to the USA. Think of how much better the country would be if we basically swapped our disgruntled, leftists, theory-addled Gen-whatever women for those women...

Of course the same goes for similar dudes. But (a) this NPR story is about women (surprise!), and (b) women are a much bigger problem in this respect now. Ten years of flamboyant Woketarian insanity redpilled a lot of guys--made them stop ignoring it and stare the lunacy of the left in the face. Women, however, seem to have a greater ability to subordinate reason to ideology. Guys went back to the center and the right--women went even farther left... 

And NPR...it's now basically indistinguishable from an episode of Portlandia...

One of the Nastiest Dunks in Carolina-d00k History

Stackhouse FTW:

Micaiah Bilger: Harvard President Admits Faculty Activism is a Problem

link

It's bad enough outside the classroom.

Any self-respecting university should at least ban it inside the classroom.

Professors should, IMO, be able to argue--as many on the left do--that activism should be part of scholarship. Now, that's a fucking idiotic view...but it's permissible to argue for idiotic views.

However, in my current opinion, they should not be able to engage in activism as part of their paid professorial duties. Analogous to: you can argue for the view that cannibalism is permissible as part of your scholarship and teaching. But you shouldn't be paid or promoted on the basis of your cannibalism...

Noelle Merring: Cutting Off Your Parents Is Identity Politics, Not "Boundaries"

Meh, this isn't so good.

I link to it not because I think it's right--in fact I don't get the argument that "going no-contact" is identity politics at all.

It is a leftist fad--part of the left's general anti-familialism. They've been pushing that twisted BS since Marx and Engels. And that's worth noting.

Juan S. Gonzalez: The End of the Beginning in Venezuela

I'm clueless about all this.

But this seems reasonable.

Neutering Dogs: Not the Norm Everywhere

link

My dog, Ajax, is not fixed. He's my best bud, and I'm not having his 'nads cut off.

I'm very sure he hasn't sired any pups, and I'll make sure he never does.

But I'm a responsible owner. And he's not uncontrollably girl-crazy like some dogs. He's never, e.g., jumped the fence because he got a whiff of a female upwind somewhere.

Anyway, though we'll probably expand the pack beyond Ajax and Charlie at some point, and though we'd like to help out dogs at the shelter, we'll never have anything to do with VA animal shelters again. We had already lined up Charlie's adoption in WV...but the day JQ showed up to get him, we were told that some fuckwits from a VA shelter up near DC had snatched him up b/c border collie mixes are popular. And the WV shelter had made a paperwork mistake. But VA shelters require that you sign a contract saying that you'll castrate or spay pups you adopt. JQ signed the papers b/c she really had no choice...but we began plotting how to circumvent that bullshit.

   The shelter started hassling us about it, and we made their lives as miserable as possible in return. After about seven months, the pandemic hit, and they dropped it for awhile...but started calling again in about a year. I told JQ we should just ignore it and fight it in court if we had to--shelters aren't exactly rich, and we could likely outspend them...but she was torn on the issue anyway, and decided to go ahead with the operation. I still say we should have fought the sons of bitches...but that's just me...

   Anyway, I do think irresponsible people or people with difficult-to-control dogs should get them fixed...but I'll never to it to one of my dogs. Hell, canine vasectomy is a legit option now, and that's the route I'd go if I had to. There are, apparently, more complications associated with those, I'm told.

Casey Jones--Professional Engineer: Is 3 Gorges Dam Invasion Insurance for Taiwan?

Think Before You Sleep: Women Are Converting to Islam for Clicks

facepalm

I thought this dipshit fad was over:

Obviously, Not All Democrats are Like This...

...but holy crap:

NEW: Liberal podcaster Jennifer Welch suggests the Dem establishment needs to get on board with wanting conservatives dead or else far-leftists will come “after you in the same way that we come after MAGA.”

Welch: *Plays video of protester celebrating Kirk's murder."

Welch:… pic.twitter.com/qJFSZBX8Bb

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 28, 2025

I thought that this blue-team madness would abate long ago.

I'm kinda starting to worry that it never will... 

Jonathan Alpert: Ozempic Melted Away Weight--and the Idea of Body Positivity

As I've said before: something analogous would happen if someone were to develop a shot that actually changed people's sex. Insisting that a man can become a woman simply by saying that he is, or dressing as a woman, or having plastic surgery, is basically a fallback position given the medical/technological (and perhaps scientific) impossibility of actual sex-changes. Were sex changes to actually become possible, then men who really wanted to become women and women who really wanted to become men, would avail themselves of the treatment.

   There would probably still be some people remaining--ideological transgenders--who wouldn't do so. "Queer theory" isn't really about homosexuality or transgenderism. It is, rather, a left-wing theory about how to undermine Western Civilization by trying to case its categories, concepts and kind into doubt. So those people, of course, might not take the treatment. Actually changing sex (or "gender") isn't their goal. They want to engage in "praxis" that (allegedly) challenges reason.

Carolina 83 - SMU 97

Carolina's second-worst defensive performance, according to Kenpom, since Kenpom started Kenpomming.

Oh well.

WSJ: MN's Fraud Problem Isn't Immigrants

This seems silly--or at least perversely partial.

The problem seems to be:

[a] Irrational, irresponsible government largesse of the kind described by The Editors...

and

[b] Mass immigration from a failed state, bringing in a large number of people with alien sensibilities--including an insular, corrupt, tribal culture--who don't speak (and probably won't learn) English and who live in ethnic enclaves. Being Muslim is another reason to carefully vet. There's no doubt that many Muslims make good Americans. But, in general, not really so much. (Remember, according to at least one survey, 51% of American Muslims want Sharia law... If it's even half that, that's very, very bad.)

   That's to say: it's both things--though not immigration per se, of course. The error is to think that immigrants are interchangeable--and that there aren't better and worse ways for immigration to be conducted.

   Again, it goes without saying that many Somali immigrants probably make good Americans. But it's not a demographic that we should import en masse. Unless I've been extremely misinformed, immigrants from places like Somalia need to be vetted more carefully than immigrants from, say, Norway. Or, for that matter, Nigeria. And--again, unless I've been extremely misinformed--Somalians in Minneapolis have not, overall, made it a better place.

Dan McLaughlin: Addressing the Actual "Root Causes" of the Venezuelan Refugee Crisis

When quasi-border-czar K. Harris went to South America to investigate the "root causes" of the refugee crisis, my expectations were low. Democrats play the "root causes" card when they (a) don't want to do what it would take to mitigate a problem, and (b) see a way to push one of their pre-existing, not-necessarily-related commitments. So, with respect to crime: they don't want more cops and don't want to put crooks in prison...but they do want more money going to NGOs and whatnot in blue cities. So we get a lot of midnight basketball and the like. I figured the "root cause" of the refugee crisis would turn out to be climate change--that's their usual go-to. But, honestly, I don't remember what her verdict was--if any.

   But I agree with McLaughlin on this: here's how you deal with the relevant "root cause"...

   That's not necessarily saying that I support this operation. I neither have nor deserve much of an opinion on it. Getting rid of Maduro is at least narrowly good. But it comes at a cost. And, like most Americans, I've had a bellyful of nation-building. All I can really do is hope for the best...