NR: Finnish MP's Conviction Shows Free Speech is in Retreat in Europe

Something that has been clear for some time now.

She was ordered to destroy the offending pamphlet. So: judicially-ordered book-burning.

Jay P. Greene: The Leftist Justification for Discrimination is Built on LIes

The Deep Academy is hard at work.

YOU DIDN'T DO MY GENDER EQUITY CARD RIGHT, NAZI; or: Selected Moonbattery from the NDP Socialist Conference

Trump Ahead of Birthright Citizenship Case: Gorsuch and ACB "Dumb," "Stupid," "Sicken" Him

Goddamnit can't this jackass just STFU, y'know, sometimes????

I'm sick to death of the guy.

Not that I think it'll affect the decision...but this is an absolutely crucial case.

Yet another thing I fear the red team is right about: demography is destiny.

U.S. AWACS Completely Destroyed on the Ground in Saudi Arabia

E-3 Sentry.
Replacement cost approximately $700 million.

Predictably, most of the stuff on the interwebs is hysterically anti-Trump/anti-war. So it's hard to tell what one should actually believe about this.

I still would rather Trump have focused on domestic policy...something he's largely right about. His foreign policy chops seem a lot dicer to me. Since early on my main concern about Trump was that he might start WWIII...

OTOH, I do to some extent agree with those who say we can't kick the can down the road on Iran forever.

Not that I really have a right to an opinion.

Anyway:

It's hard for me to believe that anyone is surprised that we're taking losses. So I don't see why some people are freaking out about this.

One argument goes like this: 

If anything, this shows that it's better to hit them now, rather than waiting for them to get even harder to beat three years, five years, ten years hence...

But I really don't know.

This may well help the blue team win even bigger in November...

Bruce Gilley: "What Do Democrats Mean By 'Democracy'?"

This is absolutely right on target.

My only disagreement is this: I do not think you can reasonably say that the January 2021 Capitol riot was the "most awful [of the attacks] on democratic government" we have recently experienced. Gilly rightly notes that all the other worst examples come from the left--including the BLM/Antifa riots of 2020, and the ongoing anti-ICE riots. The Capitol riot was godawful. But IMO it can't really compete with the other two, as it was fleeting and ineffective. Counterproductive, in fact. The wingnuts only harmed their own side. The BLM/Antifa riots and the current anti-ICE riots were/are both surprisingly effective in achieving their ends. The Capitol riot was, in some (but not all) respects uglier. But it wasn't worse.

"Officially Declaring War on the Republican Party"

Calm down sir.

Scott Jennings: Flags and Signs at "No Kings" Protests "Pretty Representative" of Democrats

The flags flown at the No Kings Rallies were pretty representative of the Democratic coalition: communist hammer & sickle, trans, Hezbollah, Hamas, & all being waved by weirdo boomers. If you want to know where the energy on the left is - they showed you. pic.twitter.com/tlpjJq0lmK

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) March 29, 2026

"No Kings" Must be Working

Number of kings the USA currently has:  0.00

"No Kings" Protest, NYC, 3/38/26

You could, of course, object that the NoKingsters have no control over who comes to their rallies...but the left certainly wouldn't accept such an excuse if some far-righties showed up at a Trump rally...

Though the more important point, IMO, is that there's really not all that much separation between the mainstream left and the extremist left. After all, the radical left is mainstream now. The ideological distance between the mainstream and the extremestream is as narrow as it's ever been. Also, of course, the radical left sets the agenda on the mainstream left. The right is always running away from its fringe. The left is running toward its:

Communists marching with Democrats at the NO KINGS protest in NYC on Saturday.

The communists chant: “There is only one solution—Communist Revolution!”

That’s the New Democrat Party for ya!pic.twitter.com/JiqazhKA46

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) March 28, 2026

Democrats Used to be Against Illegal Immigration

Guess they were all Nazis or whatever.

Your Blue Future: Seattle Refuses to Prosecute Murderers

link

It is the icing on the outrage cake that women, children, olds and other particularly vulnerable people are so often the victims of these people. I saw a story yesterday on a shitbag with like 40 lines on his criminal record beating up a blind woman and the very old driver on a bus.

"Democrats Need a Better Affordability Agenda"

So I guess "abundance" didn't catch on?

Well, "abundance," "affordability"...I don't so much see how either is a policy...unless they are implemented by e.g. lowering taxes and reducing regulation...which I don't see the Dems doing. They're likely to get rid of tariffs...because Trump... But otherwise...what?

   Well, as the authors say: they probably think subsidies, price controls, and all that shit will do it...but I don't. Currently, anyway.

   The authors suggest restraining debt (not a Dem priority since The Big Dog was in town) which I'm for, and zoning reform (which I'm against, but is sane). Some other stuff. Better than rent control and upping the minimum wage... The former is stupid and the latter a mixed bag at the very best.

   BUT: we can't do this whole have-a-nation thing without a sane Democrat party. And almost, like, literally, like, anything would be better than Woketarianism. Jeez, soft socialism would probably be better than Woketarianism. I'd rather they switched their attention to economic matters...even if they're wrong about them.

   I'm not asking them to agree with me...I'm asking them to be sane.

   So that we at least have to think about which party to vote for.

Matt Taibbi: Go Outside

Yeah, I can't recommend this enough. (The course of action, not so much the post, really.) I try to go trail running with my dogs about as much as possible, which ends up being about every other day in the Spring. Quoth Emerson: "In the woods we return to reason and faith."...

   Not to ruin the main message, but this is too much to pass up:

...This aspect of the Trump experience is wild. The man was twice elected on a negative mandate, i.e. just don’t suck as much as the other guy (neither were guys, but still). My house has a “Literally” jar, into which my sons pay a dollar every time they use the oft-unnecessary word, but here it’s appropriate: Trump could literally have sat on his ass and done nothing for four years, and he’d have left office to parades. Americans would pay a cost equivalent to the Apollo missions for history’s biggest Live Model Cam sub collection, if it could keep the president from starting this kind of conflict. His exact mandate was “Not this!” He did it. In every situation where all he has to do to win is not do something, Trump does the thing. It’s uncanny.

I disagree. I mean, Taibbi is right about the "negative mandate" in the sense that: Trump was elected--or at least I voted for him--because, though kinda crazy, he's significantly less insane than the other guys. They completely lost it over the past decade...and the recent return to power of VA Dems proves that they haven't gotten any of it back... 

   But I disagree with the other part: that he could have just done nothing. Do nothing and the crazy guys win. He had to roll back their lunatic policies--which he's done, at least in a sense. We really needed him to get Congress to do its job...but that seems out of the question anymore... Sadly, everything done by EO can be undone by EO...

   Also: he's never exactly going to go out with parades--and he certainly won't if he doesn't roll back the blue team's successes. You know how he's going to go out as well as I do: knowing that the left will never let him--nor his family--rest. They will come after him with lawfare and seek to ruin them economically. They're already openly admitting that they plan to come after him, people in his administration, ICE agents, and his supporters as soon as they're back in power. The cult will never rest until he's dead...and probably not even then. And maybe not until you're dead...

   But anyhoo, two points:

   [1] Yeah, though I'm not really sure what to think...and though it seems to me that we may have had no good options...I'd rather he had not taken us to war. (And, of course, I'm one of those Dinosaurs that think that Congress should have to declare wars...) (And I've not become any more sanguine about all this since Trump said that it was Hegseth who really pushed for it... Dear God...)

   But more importantly:

   [2] Get away from the interwebs.com and out into the woods. Not just outside. But into the woods.

Here's a somewhat interesting pair of posts from RCP:

Harold Meyerson: "Then They Came for the Immigrant Truckers"

Chirs Spear: "Get Dangerous, Unqualified Truckers Off the Road Now"

I read the Meyerson piece first. Obviously I was a bit suspicious, but I tried to be more objective than I'm naturally inclined to be.

This para didn't do anything to assuage my suspicions, though:

There’s a clear reason why the trucking workforce relies on immigrants: The jobs are arduous and low-paying. The average yearly take-home pay of those L.A. port truckers, according to a survey by the UC Berkeley Labor Center, is a munificent $28,000, which comes complete with no benefits whatever. In 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) put the median income of all long-haul truckers at $53,000 for those who were employees and $45,000 for those who were independent contractors (often mislabeled as such by their employers—Amazon and FedEx most particularly—as a means to save those employers money), but both groups had to work well more than 40 hours a week to make that much.

This reminded me of the NYT's (?) famous headline, roughly: Prison populations continue to climb despite reduction in crime...

   Not to put to fine a point on it, but: it seems likely that TAP is confusing cause and effect: the availability of cheap legal and illegal immigrant labor is likely to have suppressed pay. Or: there's a feedback loop, with each factor affecting the other.

   But anyway, the TAP post seems predicated on the assumption that Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are just implementing their mythical hatred of immigrants in yet another handy way. While I was reading it, it became--or seemed to become--overwhelmingly obvious that crucial parts of the story were being suppressed. In particular, it didn't even try to state the administration's argument. The motive was represented as hatred--the only reason conservatives ever need...

   Anyway, the Spear piece seems much more rational to me--but, then, all this lines up with my prejudices...so grain of salt and all that...

MO v. Biden Strikes a Blow Against the Biden Administration's Censorship-Industrial Complex

I don't believe I've ever had occasion to say such a thing before, but:

Good job, Missouri.

Noah Rothman: The Tide Turns for Ukraine

Git 'em.

Garret Z. McGuire (D-Fairfax): You Don't Need a Gun to Defend Yourself Against Mass Shooters! You Can Just Die Or Whatever

Debate to Showcase Civil Political Discussion: Conservative Shouted Down by Leftist Audience-Member

The PC/PoMo left in yet another nutshell.

Surprise! Bill Galston Thinks Orange Man Bad

ok, whatever.

I'm not the biggest fan of this war, either...but it's always the same crap from these people.

A tiny bit of actual thought might have prompted him to consider the possibility that it's not obviously better to persuade the public to support you instead of allowing them to make up their own minds.

I, too, wish the administration had made its case more clearly.

And I'm not saying that Galston's numbers are wrong.

And I'm not saying that the war is obviously the right course of action.

I'm just complaining about kneejerk Orange-Man-Badism...

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Museum to "Decolonize" the Bard

It's the same bullshit over and over and over with these people...only the trendy terminology changes. But the goal--"the revolution"...the destruction of Western Civilization...stays the same. "Multiculturalism," "postmodernism," "decolonization" and the rest...whatever differences there may be to the "scholar-activists" who discuss this crap in an at-least-somewhat academic way...the real aim of the popularized and practical manifestations of these things is always "the revolution"...  The same can be said about DEI, which aims largely at hiring faculty likely to advance leftist ideas. Look, nobody's out there using DEI to hire black libertarians...

Lawyer Among Those Arrested in Violent Attack on Hebrew-Speaking Diners in San Jose

Lock the bastards up.

Washington Gun Law: Virginia's Disastrous Legislative Session

Whelp, Hubert's Out at Carolina

DTH link

He was probably gone before I even made my "keep him" post.

I disagree with the decision, but not all that strongly.

Keep Hubert

Incidentally, since I haven't made this clear: I say we keep Hubert.

Douglas Feith: *Imminence* is the Wrong Standard with Respect to Iran

[1] I know nothing about Just War Theory beyond what everybody knows. Jonny Quest knows more about it...but she's asleep...so she's no help.

[2] The imminence condition is the one that's most questionable in the case of Iran, obviously.

[3] Feith...well...do take the source of the argument into account...though the strength of his arguments is by far the more important thing.

[4] He argues: the right standard is (un)acceptable risk rather than imminent threat. 

   Well, could be. But we should be skeptical of new standards seemingly proposed ad hoc. But, again, this isn't my area and I know no more about it than anybody else. I have no doubt that the (un)acceptable risk standard has been debated before. Hell, it was probably part of the public debate re: Gulf War Episode II: The Phantom Menace... But I don't remember it.

Anyway, what's really relevant here is:  the link

Tucker Carlson's Retarded

Tucker's just reverting to form.

He was an idiot...then he hit a brief window during which he was right about a fair bit of stuff...but that was during the heyday of Woketarianism. It was such a target-rich environment that anybody who wasn't an outright woke moonbat could get hits. And now he's an idiot again.

Which really means: he's an idiot, but not idiotic enough to miss targets that even a blind man can hit.

To summarize his current view:

Churchill: bad.

Hitler and Sharia law: good.

Jim Geraghty: The Democratic Party Becomes Its Fringe

"Virginia just goes to show that there are no moderate Democrats [anymore]"

And they don't even mention the lunatic anti-Second-Amendment bills...

"Not a Done Deal: Dems Start to Sweat Over VA's Redistricting Referendum"

Spanberger has to decide whether to sign the vast array of anti-Second-Amendment bills passed by Dems in the General Assembly...and she has to make the decision about a week before 4/21, the official day to vote on the gerrymandering referendum.

    Numbers apparently look good right now...but the blue team has a huge financial advantage.

   link

   VOTE!

Alex Hollings: Heavily Upgraded Raptor 2.0 Breaks Cover in Testing

Interesting factoid: the Raptor predates the iPod...

Criminal Illegal Alien Murders Loyola Student

That thing that never happens just happened again.

National Review: No On VA Redistricting

Obviously

Islam is Coming for your Dog. Also, Your Culture

Look, I don't really know enough about Islam or Muslims to have a very fine-grained view about the question of their compatibility with Western culture and liberalism (in the broad sense). Here's something I do know, however: liberals (in the narrow sense), progressives, and far-leftists simply refuse to honestly discuss or even consider the issue. Their automatic response to anyone who raises the question is: that's racist. Which is pretty much their response, in one form or another, to anyone raising any issue that might call their dogmas into question.

   So, among other conclusions we can draw: the opinions of people on the left don't matter here. And won't matter unless/until they start considering and discussing such questions seriously--e.g. admitting that it is at least a possibility that some groups of people, religions, etc. might be, to at least some extent, inconsistent with our culture and/or our political system.

   The left's standard responses--that's racist, you're racist, that's x-phobic, blah blah blah--are basically equivalent to: stop thinking about it and simply accept and implement our possibly-catastrophic dogmas. Chop of your kids genitals, give up your First- and Second-Amendment rights, open the borders, admit hoardes of apparently-hostile foreigners...oh and, give us your dogs...

   The answer to all those things is, of course: no.

   Sorry, I meant: HELL NO.

   Until the left stops refusing to think, we simply can't take their positions seriously. Maybe, some day, they'll start, y'know, actually thinking about things again. And then maybe they'll convince us... But we won't know until that day rolls around...if it ever does...

   Anyway, I like this guy:

"Bridging the Red-Blue Divide, One Concrete Deed at a Time"

I'm skeptical, but we certainly need things like this.

I don't see how anything will help much unless/until the Dems move back to at least the vague vicinity of the center, though.

Nick Shirley's Reporting on Hospice Fraud in L.A. Pushes MSM to Reluctantly Acknowledge the Story

Nick Shirley Reporting Timeline:

MN Child Care Fraud:

Phase 1: a conservative kid with a camera reveals massive (mostly Somali) child-care fraud in MN.

Phase 2: Progressives defend the fraud and attack the reporter.

Phase 3: The evidence is so appalling that even the MSM has to acknowledge it.

L.A. Hospice Fraud:

Phase 1: Same conservative kid reveals massive hospice fraud in Los Angeles

Phase 2: Progressives defend the fraud and attack the reporter.

Phase 3: The evidence is so appalling that even the MSM has to investigate it. <-- You are here

Next up:

Conservative investigative reporters prove that Dems in CA are paying bums and drunks to register and vote for Democrat causes.

Turley: Russiagategate: Buried, but Not Dead

Russiagategate, the Democrat conspiracy to convince Americans that Russiagate, Trump's fictional conspiracy with the Rooskies, was true, has never been fully investigated and aired. As Turley notes, it's got the wrong political valence. The Democrat hoax about Trump was total hogwash...but the press and all the other right people wanted it to be true. It was false--but politically correct... So it not only dragged on long beyond the point at which it had become obvious bullshit--which, to my mind, was late 2017--it still lives today in the minds of many on the blue team, trapped in that echo chamber.

   And don't forget: the MSM gave itself more than one Pulitzer Prize for its participation in Russiagategate. Not just propagandistic regurgitation of blue-team talking-points...but it's actual participation in the hoax...

   As Turley notes, this may well be the biggest political dirty trick in American History.

   But it has exactly the wrong political valence...so.,.. The media blared Russiagate from the rooftops (well...it owns transmitters and printing presses and websites...it doesn't have to resort to mere rooftops...), relentlessly amplifying the meager, near-non-existent evidence for the hoax. but it dismisses the copious evidence for Russiagategate when it bothers to mention it at all. One of its greatest powers is its control over the volume dial on public discussion--stories it likes: crank it up to 11. Stories it doesn't: all the way down.

   Anyway, Russiagate was one of the main things that slapped some sense into me about mainstream American politics as 2017 wore on. I've always been an inveterate enemy of political correctness--before it even came to be known as woketarianism--but I was still a Democrat, still on the blue team, still blind to the deceptions of the MSM... So, hey, at least Russiagate helped redpill me...

Robert Mueller RIP

.

RIP Nicholas Brendon

Damn.

Palmetto State Armory Increasing Production and Prioritizing Orders Going to VA

I think I know where I'm getting my next AR...

IMO SCOTUS is going to slap the left down hard on these gun bans...but I'm not taking any chances.

Nick Freitas on the Lying OD Dems

Honestly, you guys do really, really suck.

Something's Rotten in Fulton County

What the heck is going on in Fulton County, GA re: the 2020 election?

The blue team's laughable nonsense about the 2020 election being "the most secure election ever"...or whatever the hell their talking-point was...has always been, well, laughable nonsense. If you rely on mail-in ballots, you decrease the security of the election. And if you indiscriminately mail out ballots...well...that's just nuts.

But I've never believed the Trumpistas' side of the story, either. That is, I've never believed that the preponderance of the evidence indicated that the election was stolen.

But this lunacy in Fulton County...what the heck, man?

The most likely explanation is the PJ Media...hardly the most reliable source...got confused about something.

AJW: Antifa Terrorists Finally Held Accountable

A little taste of the madness that spans the left. From trantifa to their scumbag lawyers to the lame-ass stupidity of Democracy Now...and I'm sure you could find similar shit on NPR and much of the rest of the lamestream media...

   I share AJW's outrage at the scumbag little rat-roach of a lawyer lying his way through an account of the terrorist attack on the Houston ICE facility, calling it a "noise demonstration" and pretending that they were just, y'know, setting off some innocent fireworks on the Fourth of July...and, y'know, shooting cops in the neck... The crack-brained Democracy Now crone just eats that shit right up...

What the Left Has in Store for Trump Supporters When They Win Again

EXCLUSIVE: Longtime Trump Advisor @MichaelRCaputo Says Russia Gate Probes Cost His Family Everything: His Home, His Children’s College Funds, And The Most Profitable Years of His Career

“My legal fees are over a half a million…We lost our children's college funds and we lost… https://t.co/WSMHPPNKtt pic.twitter.com/BXHTuKsqDD

— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) March 20, 2026

Leftists themselves are saying this openly: they are planning a campaign of retribution. 

Trump Betrayal on Illegal "Immigration"?

Some on the right have been saying that Trump was about to betray us on this crucial issue.

Sadly, it looks like they may be right.

I've never thought that emphasizing the phrase "mass deportation" was a good idea.

Mass deportation, however, is, in fact a good thing.

And the only way to preserve the existence of the nation--once the other side has decided to facilitate invasion by foreigners--i.e. mass illegal immigration.

Progressive-left Dems now know that (a) they can open the borders and allow foreign nationals to flood the nation whenever they hold the Presidency, and (b) they can prevent deportations in their centers of power by shrieking and screeching and impeding law enforcement.

So they can let in everybody and prevent the vast majority of them from being deported.
That's sufficient to destroy the USA within a generation or two.

Even if we can formally keep the nation in one piece, by importing people who will eventually vote for their catastrophic policies, the Dems are basically guaranteeing the transformation of the nation into their leftist dystopia.

Perhaps Trump has just decided that we have to change our emphasis and our rhetoric to eventually win this battle. But even that is extremely bad news. And I fear it's worse than that.

"How Iran Sees the War"

I don't know what to think of this.

Not that I really deserve an opinion.

Prediction: Dems are Going to Win the VA Gerrymandering Battle

The anti-gerrymandering position is only slightly more popular than the pro- position. And the Dems are just absolutely kicking the red team's ass on this. They've produced a bunch of slick and misleading tv ads, for one thing, and the weak response I've seen is...well...weak. We got a fake "newspaper" in the mail the other day. The fake name of the fake newspaper was "The Virginia Independent." The lead story was thinly-veiled pro-gerrymandering propaganda, and the rest of the thing was thinly-veiled propaganda for other Dem policies and proposals (e.g. the "assault weapons" ban). The yard sign battle...well...I can't really tell. My neighborhood is packed with leftist yard signs, so it's not a random sample. There's one sad yard sign that reads "Vote No April 21st" (as if April 21st were on the ballot...) at an intersection about a mile away...

The OD is SOL.

The Left is a Parasitic Borg that Loots the Treasury on Behalf of an Army of Democrat NGOs

The Left is a parasitic Borg that loots the public treasury on behalf of an army of public and NGO employees who exacerbate the problems they purport to address at an ever burgeoning price tag. There is no effective countervailing force anywhere in Blue America. https://t.co/z0bjOW0Qbu

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 20, 2026

Sure starting to look that way...  I'm perfectly willing to accept that this may be wrong...but the idea absolutely, positively must be taken seriously.

Also, I think he meant that there's no countervailing force anywhere in red America...

(Incidentally, the left should obviously be red...and the normals should be blue...)

MSM Continues to Pretend that Male "Trans" Shooters are Women; Canada Bans Ads with Accurate Definition of Woman

link

The left knows it can win the battle--or at least gain significant ground--by relentlessly repeating the lies.

Adding in their other tactics--e.g. shrieking and "cancelling" and whining about danger and whatnot are helpful...but maybe not necessary.

Big Nonbinary Sibling is very, very good at this.

TWZ: Former CENTCOM Commander on the Situation in the Strait of Hormuz

link

One bit that seems right to me, FWIW:

Well, we’ve had a pretty adversarial discussion going on, particularly with our European allies for at least the last 12 to 14 months with them. We haven’t really sent a positive signal. And the whole thing about Greenland and getting everybody fired up over that, and pushing that kind of thing, I think really gave some pause to them.
And of course, you know, there’s continuous rhetoric coming from across the administration towards this, and in the lead up to this, we apparently didn’t do any kind of consultation with any of our partners that we expected would be impacted by this, or whose resources we thought we would need.

Trump has been a disaster in this respect, seems to me.

And I was behind him when he kicked NATO in the ass re: building up their military to agreed-upon levels. I think they needed that. Not that it matters what I think.

But in the second term, he's just been bullying everybody.

I suspect it's some kind of extension of his approach to domestic policy, where he's realized that we are fighting for the survival of the nation against an insidious and implacable opponent. The cult has its tentacles deeply embedded everywhere. And it is ruthless. And so, unfortunately, we have to be...well...at least more ruthless than we've been to this point...

But he's gotta stop acting like a crazy person to our foreign allies.

Carolina 78 - VCU 82

Well, that was a game we should have won...

Why the Sudden Vilification of Cesar Chavez?

I don't know whether these accusations are justified or unjustified. I have no idea whatsoever.

And I don't know whether this is the right explanation. Again, I have no idea.

However, even if the accusations are plausible/weighty/justifiable, we'd still need an explanation of why they're coming to light / being pushed now--thirty some-odd years after his death.

And I formed the same hypothesis: Chavez was against illegal immigration...and that is now quite politically incorrect.

Just about the last thing the left wants now is for a leftist champion of farm workers being on record against illegal aliens.

Though it should go without saying that hypotheses are cheap, and one of our most common errors in reasoning is to mistake abductive conclusions for inductive ones.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel: The Endless Cycle of Trump Embarrassments

The specific list of embarrassments and alleged embarrassments really doesn't much matter. The title would be accurate even if all their examples were bad.

   Look, if things go true to form, it'll turn out that a lot of these are bullshit. The Kushner investment stuff will turn out to be ordinary and unobjectionable, or the guy they fired for boozing on the job will turn out to have actually been boozing on the job, or whatever. The TDS crowd just makes shit up about half the time. (Insert standard complaint here: if he's so bad, why do they have to make things up all the time?) The complaint about playing golf is just stupid as hell. No President does nor could work 24/7. Every out-of-power party complains about the President playing golf, complains about him spending the weekend at Camp David (or wherever), etc. That one's so stupid and common that I'm not even going to count it. (Of course taking excessive amounts of time off is another matter.)

   But...yeah, the embarrassments are part of the fatigue. Though I'm a lot more concerned about e.g. the Greenland fiasco and his spazzing out about NATO refusing to help with the Strait of Hormuz than I am about the fundraising picture. Yes, the hat is "banal" (they probably wanted to say gauche...like the gold...like the diet Cokes...)...no, his people shouldn't have used that picture (Trump himself almost certainly never saw the ad). Blah blah blah. But I'd rather focus on his lunatic 2 a.m. tweets and seemingly random assertions on the international stage...

   It's hard to believe that we're not even two years into his term. He's done a lot of great things. But damn, the dude is exhausting. 

   And if this war goes bad...well, I don't even want to think about that right now.

Brian T. Kennedy: Why Attack Iran Now?

Exactly the question I wanted answered.

DHS Urges Fairfax Co. Not to Release Criminal Illegal Alien

A predator / sexual assailant.

Insert standard rant about how this is no longer a normal set of legitimate political disagreements.

York: Uncertainty about Iran War Aims

I think the burning question is: Why now?

Seems that part of the answer has to be: mass murder against their own people. Part of the case is moral, of course. Part of it is: the people they're murdering are the core of the opposition faction. If we ever want the Iranian regime to go away, we have to prevent the elimination of the opposition.

Look, I don't know whether this is smart or not.

Personally, I think I'd rather Trump focus on our dire domestic situation--focus on rolling back the advances of the Woketarian left.

But Iran is getting stronger and stronger conventionally speaking. It's dedicated to getting a nuke. It's the world's number one sponsor of terrorism. And it's run by theocratic lunatics. And it's been basically waging war against us for 50 years. This may be the best opportunity we'll have to do this.

But I just don't know what to think.

The Left is Stealing from Your IRA

I hope there's a wave of lawsuits over this.

I'm sure TIAA is terrible on this score.

The left is implacable. Relentless. It finds every chink in armor, exploits every loophole, finds ever way to screw the system and advance its cultish ends.

As much as the right pisses me off, it's just not as insidious.

British Heroes to be Dropped from Bank Notes in Favor of More "Inclusive" Wildlife

Death by a thousand stupid cuts.

Trump Fatigue

Is it 2028 yet?

More on VA Dems' Lunatic Gun Bills

They seem to have included some bills that are so insane that Spanberger will pretty much have to refuse to sign them. I expect she'll sign the merely insane ones--e.g. the "assault weapons" ban. But this one almost seems to have been passed just to give her something to veto so she can keep claiming to be a centrist with something resembling a straight face, and so that maybe the bills she signs might seem less nuts:

SB 727, Senator Jones, bans the carry of 1) a semi-automatic centerfire rifle or pistol that has a fixed magazine that holds more than 10 rounds or 2) a semi-automatic centerfire rifle or pistol that accepts a detachable magazine of any size and has any of a variety of cosmetic features or 3) a semi-automatic shotgun with a fixed magazine that holds more than 7 rounds of the longest ammunition for which it is chambered or has a detachable magazine of any size, with any of a variety of cosmetic features, on or about a person on a public street, road, alley, sidewalk, public right-of-way, in a park, or in any place open to the public. There is an exception for carrying to/from a place of purchase or repair or a shooting range.

Dan McLaughlin: Don't Burn Down Our Fortifications by Getting Rid of the Filibuster

AGREED

Critical Drinker: Buffy Reboot [Wisely] Cancelled

Agreed.

JQ and I both freakin' loved Buffy. But the Kuzui reboot idea sounded just catastrophically terrible. And the recently-abandoned sequel didn't sound a lot better. As the Drinker notes: without Whedon, there is no hope of success. I've heard the stories, and, yes, he sounds like a bad person. And the accounts of this from the cast sound very credible to me--FWTW. But--again, as the Drinker notes--dude could write.

Anyway. The chance of a new Buffy being anywhere near as good as actual Buffy are vanishing small. And the odds of it being a complete disaster--and probably a woke disaster--are pretty good. So it's just a really bad gamble. Is it really worth the risk of getting something like the new woke "Star Trek"--whatever the hell that's called. ST Academy or something? (Answer: no, it is not.)

Apparently one of these proposals wanted to make the main character Buffy herself, but make her black. Which...why? The story has a sequel-explaining storyline built right into it. Why the hell would you ignore that? Well...maybe because the final episode was so bad, and at that point apparently every girl in the world becomes a Slayer... So, come to think of it, maybe a reboot is the only real option...

Wonder which character they would make trans? Clearly having mere gay characters is passe now...no way that would be sufficient. Maybe some extra "neurodivergence" and whatnot, too.

Anyway:

Kenin M. Spivak: The Marxist Wing of the Democratic Party and the Destruction of the West

Something that sounded like wingnut insanity a decade or so ago...but now, I think, is rather difficult to deny.

   To repeat myself repeating myself: obviously your average Democrat does not want the destruction of the West. Not even close. On the other hand, the radical/Marxist wing of the left has always wanted that--and always been the most significant sub-sector of the radical left. Marxism in some version or other pervades the left. And the radicalization of the American left meant, basically, that the ideas of the fringe permeated farther into the heart of the faction. A very large percentage of American progressives now accept at least a few radical ideas--and many of them accept many of them. This is difficult to deny. This is a party that generally accepts the idea that men can be women, kids can choose which they are, and can be medically "transitioned"--i.e. sexually mutilated. In general, the party supports DEI, which is a catspaw for implementing the whole package of left-wing ideas, including racial preferences in hiring and mandatory indoctrination sessions. Over the past decade, the left overall has simply become radical. Socialism, destructive as it is, may be one of its less destructive new doctrines...

   And: the radical left has never made any bones about wanting to bring down the West (and capitalism, and liberalism). The far left is entirely open about that. Many less-overtly-radical types are not open about it. And many even less radical types don't even want it...not exactly anyway. Anti-Western ideas are packaged as "social justice" for their consumption. Mass unregulated immigration, for example--a well-known weapon of cultural and political destruction--is characterized as kindness and "equity." Those who accept the means without understanding the end are Lenin's useful idiots...

   Anyway.

   You've heard it all before.

What's Going on with U.S. Minesweepers?

moved to the Pacific

How Many Lies Can Saddam Salim Tell About the "Assault Weapons" Ban in Three Paragraphs?

Jackass.

Drew Holden: Terrorism's Spin Doctors

link

Chamath Palihapitiya's Story re: Trump is Exactly My Story

Though it didn't take me "six or seven years." Charlottesville was a big red-pilling event for me. Around that time I'd started to see through Russiagate and some of the other TDS bullshit...but I'd have to go back and look at the post timeline. Charlottesville was about two years and two months after Trump came down the "golden escalator." By November 2018 I voted straight-ticket Republican. But it's not clear what Palihapitiya means. Maybe he means something like: to really realize the full extent of the deception... Dunno.

Anyway. The left's reaction to Trump's statements on Charlottesville were just nuts. And this was before the "Very Fine People" hoax had coalesced into a standardized lie. Trump's initial statement was very good--I was pleased with it. But I was blasted for that by many commenters here (when we had comments...*). Anyway: I was right, they were wrong. If Obama had made the statement Trump made, he'd have been praised to high heaven. The criticisms of Trump's statement were bullshit. Then he issued another statement...and the left shrieked because he hadn't released it a day earlier...on Sunday... Utter nonsense. 

And, of course, the left portrayed the Unite the Right participants as completely evil, and the Antifa Lite counter-protestors as pure good...despite the fact that the UtR people were well within their First Amendment rights, and the "anti-racist counter-protestors" (as C'villians like to call them) were not--and they started the violence. (The bum who improvised a flame-thrower with an aerosol spray can and used it on the UtR guys became a celebrity in C'ville, fawned over by the local lefty papers (yes, 'papers' plural...). 

(Of course James Alex Fields gave the left the hook it needed to hang its argument on. Stupid asshole.)

But anyway: your First Amendment rights don't go away just because you are a racist--or otherwise an asshole...

Of course one must always add: Trump has his very significant downsides...but that's a different part of the story... 

Anyway, other than the "6 or 7 years" bit, this is me exactly:

* Anyway, in case you've forgotten: I stopped the comments basically as a way of stopping the blog...which I somehow never did. I still plan to switch over to Substack someday and start comments again.

Alexander Ward et al.: Trump Knew the Risk of Iran Blocking the Strait of Hormuz: He Still Went to War

I mean...this story doesn't strike me as terribly unreasonable...but doesn't it seem a bit...panicky? WSJ's news coverage leans left, of course...so one has to try to correct for that. Some of the concerns described (expressed?) in the story seem legit... But, as Chris Brey notes in a previous post, everybody knew Iran was likely to try to "close" the strait of Hormuz... That's just a cost of conflict with Iran. So what's with the apparently suggestion in the headline that Trump somehow just ignored the threat...or, rather, the obvious consequence of war? Everybody knew this would be one of the things that would happen...so it's peculiar grounds for panic...

   Also...what happened to Iran's announcement that it was opening the strait back up to everybody but the U.S. and Israel (and we don't really need it, apparently)? Why no mention of that? Because, you see, that seems huge to me. That's basically giving up on that front, so far as I can tell.

   And the stock market is tanking? Tanking?? Since when? Nobody tells me anything...

   Anyway.

   Look, I'm concerned about this war. Very, very concerned.

   But the overall tone of the news coverage is perfectly predictable: ominous suggestions that everything will go to hell...because Trump. Everything Trump does is bad and wrong. A tone of dread and disapproval is cast over every one of his actions and policies.

    And everything sure as hell might go to hell... I tend to think that's the most likely outcome of most wars...

   But I'm not going to let the MSM's TDS be the thing that sends me into panic mode.

   But what the hell do I know?

   Almost nothing, that's what.

Trump Saves the World?

Big if true.

OK, so the Abraham Accords. Taking down the Venezuelan cartel/dictatorship. Finally a response in the Iran War, the mullahs thought we were stupid and weak, they were right. Now Cuba.

You do get he's basically walking on water. Making every elected hack, bureaucrat and diplomat… https://t.co/iMOyB7xwA0

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) March 15, 2026

Cuba?!?!

Either an anti-communist uprising prompted by blackouts / an oil shortage 

or

Protests over blackouts exacerbated by the U.S. oil embargo...

y'know, depending.

Another situation I know literally nothing about.

Leftist Shuts Down Event Meant to Showcase Civil Disagreement

The left in yet another nutshell.

The second leftist--the woman--is, perhaps, an even better representation of the left. She pretends that shouting down the other side is "questioning who is at that table"...

Really, honestly, this is one of the best snapshots of the contemporary American left I've ever seen:

Contra the talking head at the beginning: this doesn't show how "toxic" (<-- stupid word) "political discourse" has become...it shows how insane and totalitarian the left has become.

Judson Berger: The Iran Fog of War

Agreed.

Foggy, protean justifications and ever-shifting conditions of victory.

I recognize that there are plausible reasons for this thing...but it's extremely disturbing that the administration hasn't been able to state its case.

Alicia Nieves: How Pro-Immigrant Activism Turned Dangerous

link

Alicia Nieves: The Moment Mass Migration Started

Astonishing and rage-inducing.

   It does offer some support for a view I started pushing during the election of 2020: Biden wasn't really the one to fear--but, rather, the lunatic progressive staffers that would inevitably permeate his administration.

   Some on the right are now afraid that Trump is going to knuckle under to the left and stop even trying to deport (and scare away) all the illegals. Some things he's said ominously suggest that he may shift focus entirely to criminals.

   It could just be talk--he could be trying to defang leftist propaganda.

   Hard to say.

   But if we don't figure out how to win this fight, we're done for. The U.S. won't survive--at least not in a recognizable form...i.e. in a form worth commitment and defense.

   Of all the left's ideas that threaten the nation, this may be the most dangerous one.

Behold, the Left: "We've Got to Get the Orcs Out of the Shire" Edition

This disagreement has two aspects.

First: dispassionate argumentation about borders and the enforcement of immigration law. The left loses there. They are ostentatiously nuts.

But the other relevant aspect is more visual or behavioral. It involves observation of these representatives--representations--of the left. Even if we didn't know which side was which, nor even what the disagreement was about, the grotesquerie of the left would be informative. There is just something wrong with these people. Yes, they're ignorant/misinformed. But that can be excusable (though perhaps not if you're out there demonstrating and impeding law enforcement. In that case, you probably have an obligation to inform yourself... But it goes deeper than that. Sane people don't do such things and don't say such things. One of their tactics is to say things to their enemies that no normal, sane person would ever say. Grotesquerie is an ideal to them. They want to be repulsive--visually and otherwise. They like the psycho "black bloc" look. It does have practical functions--making it more difficult to apprehend and prosecute them for their criminal actions, and so on. But it's also a kind of visual representation of totalitarianism. The umbrellas, the facemasks...the whole thing is supposed to look insane and inhuman. Again: those are goals of the extremist left. To gesture at just at something obvious: "queer theory" is one of the many expressions of these ideas on the left promoting such madness. It doesn't have all that much specifically to do with homosexuality. Rather, the point of "queerness" in queer theory is the destruction of normality (and sanity). The point is to destroy the West--by undermining reason. Madness and chaos are teloi of the left:

Z0MG PETE HEGSETH FEEDS THE TROOPZ0MG!!!1111one

There's plenty to fret about right now without making shit up to fret about.

4 of 6 KC-135 Crew Confirmed Deceased

link

KC-135 Goes Down During Iran Operations

shit

Terrorist Attack at ODU: 1 Dead, 2 Injured

link
The shooter is also dead--but nobody gives a shit about that.

Apparently some students subdued him...and now he's dead.

Oh well.

Shit happens.

Sorry to hear, though, that an actual person was also killed.

Noah Rothman: What's Gone Right in the Iran War?

link

John Masko: UT Austin Strikes a Blow to Critical Theory

Good.

I'd rather get rid of such programs completely--or form new sub-disciplines specifically designed to explain and criticize/counter them. But this is a step in the right direction.

Walter Russell Mead: How the Iran War Ends

I dunno.

Seems reasonable, I guess.

I'm just holdin' on for Spring Break at this point, man.

Anyway, I absolutely do not understand enough about all this to deserve much of an opinion.

I've really got little beyond: we seem to have had no good options--and we may have chosen the worse one. Or maybe not.

But the die is cast--no sense shoring up the side of the moonbats and the Mullahs by moping and puling.

Lefties Rejoice! Apparently We ARE Responsible for Bombing the Iranian Girls' School

Moonbats will be ecstatic.

This is what they've fervently been hoping for.

Riley: Trump Should Reconsider His "Failing" Strategy re: Deportations and Explaining the War

Look, the shootings of Love and Pretti were a godsend to the left. Even without them, the left's propaganda was working (or so it seems). Both shootings were easily avoidable, even if one or both turn out to have been defensible.

   The left is just better at propaganda, and it generally has and is willing to exploit the feelz angle. Those are huge advantages. Add to that: shooting a dopey, middle-aged woman who has been duped into thinking that she's fighting the Nazis in the face...well...we're in trouble.

   Sidebar: some on the right are concerned that Trump is going soft on the illegal invasion. He's said things that sound like he's shifting the focus completely onto criminals. If the left can pull that off, it really is Adios, America...

   And as for explanations/justifications for the war...I honestly have little idea what they're even saying.

   Almost makes me long for the buildup to Iraq. The reasons were bullshit...but at least we knew what they were...

   I rather wish Trump had focused on the homefront and left Iran to one of his successors to deal with...even though I think that might well be even worse. The extremist left is wrecking the country; it's a bigger threat than Iran, IMO. Take it out first. Then try to remake the ME later, if you've got the political capital...

More Medicare Fraud: Hospices (esp. in Los Angeles)

link

Two Pennsylvania Teens Just Enjoying a Spring Day in NYC...But Soon They Would Be Swept Up in a Web of Device-Hurling...

“The story itself was solid. But the tweet was outrageous.”

The tweet in question ***was also the lede of the story*** before the article was stealth edited. https://t.co/Ci7nNy30rq

— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) March 10, 2026

VA's GA Dumbass Democrats Pass Assault Weapons Ban

Dems in the General Assembly passed this idiotic bullshit, and the Spanberger will almost certainly sign it. 

But she's a moderate!

Then we'll have to wait until the Supremes nuke it.

As I've said before: the Dems are basically working their way through the Bill of Rights. They hate the First Amendment. They hate the Second Amendment. I keep waiting for them to come out in favor of quartering soldiers in our houses in peacetime...

I sincerely wish I'd started voting against these jackasses long before I actually did.

I'm going to send a big contribution to WinRed.

The Republicans may not be the greatest...but at least they aren't actively trying to destroy the country...

Therese Shaheen: The Realist Case for the Iran War

Tend to agree, but no settled view yet.

Bogus Pix of "Anti-U.S. Demonstration" By Iranians

I saw this the other day, experienced a second or two of concern, then said (out loud) "probably bullshit," and moved on.

Greenwald kinda starts slippin' whenever Israel and/or the U.S. Military are part of the story:

 

Step 1: Glenn Greenwald posts footage from 2020.

Step 2: Cenk Uygur doubles down and reposts it.

Step 3: These two tell you not to trust the media and only them because they’re the only who will tell you the truth. pic.twitter.com/w2c8EcPjvU

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 9, 2026

Funny how good some people can be on some kinds of stories, and how bad on others. Greenwald has been pretty good on the woke nonsense. But I don't even expect him to be that good on this story.

  Which is not to say that I'm discounting criticism. Hell, I'm certainly not sure what we ought to be doing....though it does seem pretty clear that military action against Iran is a reasonable--though perhaps not optimal--course of action. 

Gerard Baker: In a War of Words, Trump Always Defeats Himself

Exactly

Trump is often a good doer--but not a good talker.

Unfortunately, he can't accept the latter.

I wish he'd just say "Over to you, Marco..." and then sit down.

But he just can't keep his big mouth shut--to the detriment of the part and the nation.

McCarthy: Demanding Unconditional Surrender is Dumb; But it Doesn't Sanction Rape

I agree with McCarthy on all points--even the legal ones I don't understand.

Tucker Carlson hit some kind of sweet spot there for about a year. He was saying reasonable and sometimes even interesting things.

Then he went off the rails...I don't know when.

Maybe about the time of the UFOs...maybe sooner.

Seems to me this is a pretty common thing. Not that many people stay sane and interesting past a certain window--if then.

Anyway, now Carlson just seems to have lost it.

Misleading WSJ Story: "Americans are Now a [sic] Target in Trump's Immigration Crackdown

[1] Remember, WSJ's news coverage is just about as left-biased as that of NYT.

[2] All these cases should be investigated and wrongdoing by federal agents should be prosecuted--and ended.

However:

[3] I've watched a lot of this kind of footage, and the aggression and interference comes from the rioters/"protestors" far more frequently. 

   Which is not to deny that the LEOs have done some--perhaps many--things wrong. I have no interest in ignoring their wrongdoing. However there's just no doubt about it, the leftist mobs are out of control, and pushing things right up to and over the line along many dimensions. I'm not saying that this is the only factor in play, but I'd bet money it's a large part of it: currently, the agents don't seem to have the means to effectively deal with the raving mobs of crazies interfering with them at every point--shrieking, getting in the way, blowing whistles and car horns, screeching at them through megaphones, trying to pull arrestees out of their grip... So agents look for some way to push back...and sometimes undoubtedly get it wrong.

   Again: I'm not interested in defending outright wrongdoing.

   But the left is crazy. These people devote their lives to this. It's their religion. They have massive communication networks, funding, and teams of lawyers. The law is filled with spaces that are supposed to be governed by reason and good judgment...neither of which the leftist mob cares about. They will at one second be blowing whistles and shrieking the most heinous personal insults in the faces of LEOs...and then if so much as touched or pushed away, they'll flop to the ground shrieking bloody murder while ten other ones shriek and videorecord the "abuse"... Antifa tactics--in which these people are training.

   Well, you know my opinion of the open-borders crazies...

   Give ICE et al. the legal tools to fight back against the moonbats...but hold them accountable for their actions as any other LEOs would be.

   One last thing: note the (undoubtedly) intentionally misleading title of the piece. It means to suggest that ICE is going after American citizens to deport. They've been trying to get that idea into people's heads since the beginning.

Kate B. Odell: It's High Time to Restock U.S. Munitions

Way past time.

I was talking to an old CIA guy at a conference last month, and he wouldn't shut up about this.

But everybody knows it.

"Magazine depth," in the lingo.

I was watching a video of an Arleigh Burke firing cruise missiles the other day--Tomahawk after Tomahawk after Tomahawk...thinking $3 million...$3 million...$3 million...  And we can't just snap our fingers and replace them. Maybe we're ok with cruise missiles--I don't know--but it's much harder--and costlier--to replace Patriot and THAAD missiles...

Anyway, if China decided to go for Taiwan in about six weeks, I reckon we might be SOL...

Appeals Court Strikes Down DC 10-Round Mag Ban

Good.

My attitude about such things has completely changed.

Now I say: never, ever compromise with the left. About anything.

The left views compromise as a beachhead; it's just a temporary resting place from which to launch even more radical attacks in the future.

They'll never, ever stop pushing for more expansive gun laws.

They'll never rest until we're like the UK or Canada or Australia.

Compromise is capitulation.

I hate having to think like this.

But that's where I am.

Iran: More Concerns

So I just read somewhere that Russia--and possibly also China?--may be helping Iran target U.S. assets--including bases and carriers.

Now, I'm nothing like an expert here...but...:

Imagine that Iran manages to get a lucky hit and badly damage a carrier--or even sink it--on the basis of Russian (or Chinese) assistance.

Then wouldn't the WWIII chatter become...more than mere chatter?

OTOH I've also read that the Iranian regime is basically an apocalyptic sect...is that true? How can I possibly know so little about this? If it is true...then...seems obvious that we can't let them get nukes. And probably shouldn't have let them get as strong as they are...

What confusing mess.

To me, anyway.

Peter Berkowitz: U.S.-Israeli Action Against Iran is Just and Necessary

Well, not exactly necessary...but possibly better than the alternative.

Fortunately, I understand too little about all this to be too upset about it.

"Epic Fury" and Cinematic Military Operation Names in General

I've complained about this before: I'm against them.

It's basically a kind of advertising slogan for the war...not that we call them 'wars' anymore.

"Epic Fury"...come on.

During the GWoT, I read some General or other say, basically: we've rethought our system for naming them...nobody wants to say that he was part of "Operation Blue Spoon"...

Well, ok.

But, y'know, "Overlord" was extremely cool without being an advertising slogan...

We had: Overlord, Market Garden, Cobra, Torch, Goodwood, Pointblank, Bodyguard, Neptune, Pluto, Undergo, Smash...dozens or hundreds of others.

These over the top cinematic names--I just think it's a really bad idea. We don't want any such rhetorical nonsense influencing the public's evaluation of such things.

Carolina 61 - Duke 76

Hey, coulda been worse...and was worse there for awhile...

Gotta hand it to the Heels--in addition to losing Caleb's 20 and 9 or whatever--not to mention his disruptive (for the other team) presence--there's the psychological toll. But they haven't given up.

Let's hope for a good showing in the ACCT.

Alex Hollings on the Triple Strike Eagle Shootdown

Mohsen Farshneshani: Giving Khamenei a Martyr's Death

Giving Khamenei a Martyr’s Death - The American Conservative

I don't know enough to know whether this is better or worse than letting him live.

Basically, events like the Iran war are mostly an opportunity for me to reflect on and appreciate the vast depths of my ignorance of world affairs.

Tal Fortgang: States Take Steps to Fight Civil Terrorism

This stuff--e.g. blocking streets and highways--actually is civil terrorism. As are many anti-ICE mob actions, most Antifa mob actions, and as were many of the BLM riots/"protests." Noem and the administration threw around the term incorrectly...but Fortgang and the states in question are using it correctly.

   The ACLU is a joke now--just another hard-left catspaw of the cult. They don't even mind outright contradicting themselves as long as it furthers the cause...

Judson Berger: Will the Iranian People Join the War?

This seems to me to be the crucial question.

One would conclude that we--or, more likely, Mossad--have/has sources inside...that's probably how we got Khamenei. We should have known that the people were likely to fight before we committed to this...let's hope we did.

Also: I honestly didn't realize Iran had as many missiles and drones as it does. I knew its air force was lame...but I let that be representative...and it isn't. The fact that they seem to be stronger than I thought kind of makes me more sympathetic to kicking their asses now, before things get any worse...

Also: I'm sure that some of the weapons we're fighting against right now were paid for with some of those pallets of cash the Obama administration sent over... Not that I'm really qualified to speak on the wisdom of that policy...

Caleb Wilson: Broken Thumb, Out for the Season

First and foremost: everybody loves that kid, and he's ridiculously fun to watch. It really sucks that we got to see him in Carolina blue for such a short period of time.

   I fear today will be ugly...

   But, as a d00kie friend of mine said: never underestimate the rivalry...

Not Satire: Biden Administration Used Tax $$ to "Make Maps More Gay"

Every time I get fed up with Trump, I am reminded how insane the alternative is...

The U.S. Military is Downright Terrifying

If I were China or Russia, I'd be crapping my dra'ers.

Honestly, the U.S. military is just not to be messed with.

Our guys are very, very, very fucking good at this stuff.

The Austin Mass Shooting Was Probably Terrorism; Start Carrying

Links are easy to find and I'm in a hurry.

I don't like to carry, and ordinarily have no need to. I live in a low-crime place, and I can take care of myself just fine without a gat under anything like normal conditions.

But maybe we should all carry a bit more as a community service. The Austin shooting was pretty clearly Iran-inspired terrorism.

Iran War: Good Idea or Bad Idea?

I'm thinking about it...but...just for the record...I don't know.

Both, probably.

I don't have anything like all the information Trump et al. have. 

No war gets presumption, of course.

And, as others have noted, Trump et al. haven't even really tried to justify this publicly.

It wouldn't be that hard to get me on board. The Iranian regime is godawful (as it were). And, were the decision up to me, I expect that slaughtering tens of thousands (?) of their own people protesting for freedom would have been the last straw.

Or...funding and training Hamas for 10/7...that was just about the last straw, too...

Lots of last straws with these motherfuckers...

OTOH, I don't know enough about Iran to know what we can expect if the regime collapses.

I certainly don't want another wave of ME refugees to Europe...though Persians fleeing an Islamic theocracy >> than...well...you know...

So basically I don't know and there's no practical way for me to learn enough in the next six months to have an informed opinion.

Forced to say something, I might say: We know what Iran's trajectory was like before this. This doesn't seem to be at all like the idiotic Iraq debacle. These guys have made it clear what their endpoint is like. Our options are: waste 'em now or let 'em wipe out their people, stockpile more missiles, and build nukes... Don't forget that they turned down our offer of basically unlimited reactor fuel in favor of enriching their own uranium...and there's only one plausible reason for that...especially given their vast oil reserves... And, as I understand it, the regime is basically an apocalyptic death cult...so...there's that...

No good options, it seems.

But maybe the option we've taken is the less-terrible one...

But I do not know.

VA Supreme Court Allows Vote on Gerrymandering

I don't understand the legal arguments, but this challenge was based on the bullshit wording of this bullshit amendment:

Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?

"Restore fairness" my ass. Also probably my ass: temporarily. The only way to make this temporary is to kick the Dems out of power.

Scumbags.

Anyhoo: the wording is bullshit, and if the voters fall for this, then they're bullshit too.

Probably the only hope for this state is to reverse the retrocession, which would move 400k Democrats--and that's just the living ones--back into DC.

Noem Out

Now do Bondi...

Charles C. Cooke: James Talarico's Creepy Synthesis of Christianity and Woketarianism

link

No offence to my Christian homies...but I actually think this is a pretty natural combination--and I've been told that it's afflicted many American Churches.

It may be wrong--but is it really that much of a stretch to analogize "whiteness" to original sin? (Though then it would only afflict some of us, of course.)

Anyway, woketarianism is already right on the verge of being a cult/religion...so this really doesn't surprise me all that much.

Anti-ICE VA Dems Get Another American Killed

They've lost their collective mind...as I may have mentioned...

And, as if this even needs to be said anymore: Spanberger is no moderate.
link

Wagon Wheelz-N-The-Hood

Fat Amy Gets Her First Kill?

Was the Eagle Shoot-Down Intentional?

An obvious question...though I've been steering clear of it.

Kuwaiti F-18 Apparently Shot Down the Three Strike Eagles

As the story notes, this coheres better with some of the other evidence: e.g.:

That the Eagles were hit at all

That they seem to have been hit in the tail(s)

That all crewmen survived.

If the Hornet used Sidewinders, the Es might not have been locked up, or might not have realized it. If they were locked, they might not have thought it was that serious. Sidewinders fired from behind are more likely to hit the tail. And they have relatively small warheads. (Older Patriots have fragmentation warheads, IIRC; newer ones are hit-to-kill; but in either case, they're going to make a much bigger mess of things they hit than a Sidewinder.)

PilotPhotog on the 3/2 al Jahara Strike Eagle Shootdown

The consensus:  fog of war. Saturated electronic space. Mudhens don't have passive IR detection.

Suggestion floating around: it was some kind of IR SHORAD, not Patriots--which might explain why all three (?) were hit aft.

This is a channel I've just recently started following, so I can't vouch for it.

I'm, of course, waiting for Alex Hollings to tell us what happened...

F-15 Friendly-Fire Shootdowns: The Silver Lining

Patriots work...

Bing West: Drop Weapons to Iranians

Yeah, I've been wondering about this.

And I'd add: surely we already have some contacts with Iranian resistance.

And you think Mossad hasn't been cultivating such links for decades?

3 USAF F-15Es Shot Down by Friendly Ground Fire Over Kuwait

story

Two chutes visible in the one incident we have on video, looks like both crewmen survived.

Don't know anything else.

[addendum: CENTCOM says Strike Eagle shoot-down incidents were friendly fire.]

Ed Driscoll Rounds Up Some Lefty Crazy Re: Iran / Operation Epic Fury

link

It's becoming more and more difficult to distinguish progressivism from mental illness.

Which is not to say that any opposition to this thing is crazy or wrong.

I have little idea whether we're doing the right thing or not.

But Driscoll is absolutely right about the papier-mache puppets. 

Hegseth Declares Anthropic a "Supply-Chain Risk," Restricting Military Contractors from Doing Business With AI Giant

Boy, this does not sound good.

Kinda sounds like Hegseth is being unreasonable...but...that's nothing but an impression.

I do not understand what's really going on...

The Trump Administration in Yet Another Nutshell: Dr. Oz and "Transing" Children

link

Trump appoints an unqualified celebrity to an important post.

The blue team freaks out.

Unqualified celebrity proceeds to do a much better job than the progressives who previously occupied similar posts--at least in certain important respects...

Look, I made fun of this appointment. I still make fun of it. And I don't know how good a job Mr. Oz is doing overall....but his appointment was, we must now admit, far less of an outrage than the slew of roughly similar Dem appointments that preceded it-- e.g. during the Biden administration. Appointees who supported the brainwashing and sexual mutilation of children...

   This is basically Trump's greatest strength: he is not insane. Merely being not-insane--implementing non-insane policies and appointing non-insane people--has made him an enormous improvement over the Dems.

   As goes without saying, however, he has not been an unalloyed blessing...

David Brady: Mission Not So Accomplished?

I guess I didn't think any of this had to be said.

Yes, absolutely.

This could end up being an Iraq-like disaster.

Though:

This time we had much better reason for attacking.

and

I really don't think we're going to put "boots on the ground."

We really only had two bad options.

And Trump chose one of them.

Carolina 89 - VA Tech 82

Nine of the last eleven.

I didn't think they'd do this well without Caleb.

Steven Tucker: NHS: National Hostage Situation

DEI is just a catspaw used to advance the cult's ideological capture of institutions.

Fraser Meyers: "The UK's New Grooming Scandal"

What madness is this?

General Assembly Dems Attack VMI

Jackasses.