JIM TREACHER: Now It’s D.C. Firefighters Who Are ‘Racists’ for Playing the Circle Game. “Journalists call themselves ‘firefighters.’ Then they malign actual firefighters who’ve done nothing wrong. And they wonder why we all hate them.”
TYLER O’NEIL: SPLC Demands Big Tech Silence Conservatives in the Name of Fighting White Supremacist Terror.
As always, the left demands those it disagrees with “Shut Up.”
NO, STATELY INSTAPUNDIT MANOR IS NOT FOR SALE: $14.5 million Knoxville mansion up for auction.
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A QUESTION NO ONE IN THE MSM IS ASKING: Various Democrats are all over the media today saying that the fact that the GAO found that Trump acted illegally re spending appropriated funds means he should be tossed out of office. Does this mean that Obama, whom the GAO found illegally defied Congress in ordering the Defense Department to send five Guantanomo prisoners to Qatar in defiance of duly-enacted legislation prohibited Obama from expending any funds on such action, should have been removed from office as well? If you can find me a Democratic House member or Senator who denounced Obama for that move, I’ll concede that he is sincerely interested in presidential lawfulness and the separation of powers.
BOLSHIE BERNIE: Just came across an interview with Bernie Sanders from The Progressive in 1988, in which he suggests that Castro’s Cuba has a superior economic system to the U.S.:
Q: But apart from the Soviet Union, it seems that in more democratic countries—France, Spain, Italy—socialist parties in power are almost indistinguishable from conservative administrations. Socialism doesn’t seem to be working in those countries either.
Sanders: Fair enough. But take small countries like Norway or Sweden. Give them credit for creating decent health-care systems, decent housing for their citizens. good educational opportunities. media that are of an appreciably higher quality than our own. That may not fit some definitions of socialism, but it’s a significant improvement over what exists in the United States, isn’t it?
And what about Cuba? It’s not a perfect society. I grant, but there aren’t children there going hungry. It’s been more successful than almost any other developing country in providing health care for its people. And the Cuban revolution is only thirty years old. It may get even better.
But don’t get him wrong: “I’m not a communist, so no one has ever heard me defend the Soviet Union, for example, as any kind of model for other countries. I suppose that those people who did see the Soviet Union in that way are having some big problems these days.”
AS LONG AS THERE ARE EXAMS, THERE WILL BE PRAYER IN SCHOOL: Trump Protects School Prayer: ‘We Will Not Let Anyone Push God From the Public Square.’
BE NEITHER TOO LATE NOR TOO SOON: Success of knee replacement depends on timing, study says.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES SEETH WHEN REPUBLICAN CALLS REPORTER DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVE WITH BYLINE: Journalists Rage After Arizona Republican Martha McSally Calls CNN Reporter a ‘Liberal Hack.’
But he’s one of the very few John McCain-approved CNN reporters!
Curiously, as Jim Treacher notes, CNN’s Jake Tapper “sat there like a big dope while Scott Israel blamed Dana Loesch for the failures of his own department. That was less shocking to you than a senator calling one of your pals a hack.”
IT’S AS IF THEY WERE ALL A BUNCH OF MOBSTERS OR SOMETHING: Fifty Years Ago, the Murder of Jock Yablonski Shocked the Labor Movement: The conspiracy to kill the United Mine Workers official went all the way to the top of his own union.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Pro-Bernie-Sanders subreddit ‘is indefinitely suspending the hosting of all content produced by CNN.’
Earlier: Sanders Supporters Shocked to Find Bias at CNN. “Did these people actually believe the cable network was in the news business?”
Presumably, they’ll be going full Salon shortly, and call for a nationalizing, and socializing, of the news media.
TO BE FAIR, LEFTIES ALWAYS WANT VIOLENCE, EITHER TO INTIMIDATE THEIR ENEMIES OR TO SMEAR THEM: Gun groups: Virginia Democrats want violence to disrupt, ‘smear’ gun control protest.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Don’t Lean On Me Man If You Can’t Afford A Ticket Back From Chlamydia City.
FROM AMERICA’S NEW NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Somber Impeachment Ceremony Concludes With The Impeachment Dancers.
LOVE LETTERS: Nancy Pelosi’s Impeachment Pens Look Like Bullets.
CHANGE: US drinking more now than just before Prohibition. Well, I’m certainly drinking more than I was before Prohibition.
SHE SHOULD; THE AUTHORITIES LET HIM OFF AWFULLY EASY. Woman files $5 million suit against officer who broke into her home, yelled racial slurs.
THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: The GAO Ruled Obama Broke The Law in 2014, But No One Called for His Impeachment.
To be fair to them both, if it’s true that the average American unwittingly commits three felonies a day, then it’s probably impossible for any American president to conduct his foreign policy with breaking more than a few stupid laws.
Congress needs to get into the business of repealing stuff, but as Ayn Rand wrote:
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
I think Trump understands it, but fortunately in his case, it makes him much more difficult to deal with.
UPDATE: Biden’s Threat To Withhold $1 Billion from Ukraine Violated the Law.
DRIVING HISTORY: If You Can Find a Better Car Than Lee Iacocca’s Personal Chrysler LeBaron, Buy It. “This 1986 Chrysler K-car convertible has amazing provenance, and it’s going up for auction this week.”
Not that it was a great car, but a wood-paneled convertible K-car with just 20,000 miles and no rust would have some serious nostalgia value.
USE IT OR LOSE IT: Less sex may bring on earlier menopause, researchers say. “The findings of our study suggest that if a woman is not having sex, and there is no chance of pregnancy, then the body ‘chooses’ not to invest in ovulation, as it would be pointless.”
PASS THE JUCHE ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE: Joe Scarborough: Children, Grandchildren of Trump Defenders Will Be Punished!
SCARBOROUGH: We don’t know how this ends in the Senate. These shameless Trumpsters will remain shameless Trumpsters. But we do know how the story ends. We do know how history writes this. We know that everyone who defends Donald Trump right now will be exposed. We know Mike Pence will be exposed for what he is. We know that Barr will be exposed for what he is. We know that all of these characters, Rudy Giuliani, will be exposed for what he is.
History, it will be bleak. And their families, their children, their grandchildren—everyone who has their last name—will carry that around with them, if they decide to continue lying for a failed reality TV host who will show them no loyalty.
“Among the most shocking of North Korea’s human rights abuses is the ‘three generations of punishment’ rule. If one person is found guilty of a crime and sent to a prison camp, so too will their entire family, and the subsequent two generations born at the camp must remain there for life.”
(Or former Trump supporters can simply renounce their “crimes,” make the rounds and shed a few tears on Oprah-style chat show, and declare themselves newly reborn “Progressive” true believers, and —whammo! — instant redemption by the DNC-MSM. Just ask the governor of Virginia and the prime minister of Canada.)
FUNNY LADS MAKE GRAUNIAD MAD: Ricky Gervais and Jeremy Clarkson are no laughing matter. As Glenn likes to say, leftists are still trying to cope with their loss of accustomed impunity. While Clarkson, the veteran Top Gear/Grand Tour host has long been associated with England’s Torys, he’s anti-Brexit, and Gervais is reliably leftist on most issues, but understands that a comedian’s job is to poke fun at whoever the sacred cows in power happen to be. But these days, to mock the left is to be dubbed a cross between a crypto-Nazi and neo-confederate, based on the illustration that accompanies the Guardian’s screed:
That’s some highly subtle and nuanced leftist humor on display right there.
HARSH, BUT FAIR: Nancy Pelosi Is Doing Putin’s Bidding.
I GUESS I HOPE IT WORKS, BUT I CAN’T GET EXCITED ABOUT SLS, WHICH HAS BEEN A PORK PROJECT FROM DAY ONE: NASA Has Loaded Its Big Ol’ Rocket Onto Its Big Ol’ Barge. “Once the SLS core stage arrives at Stennis, it will be hoisted up onto the B-2 test stand and subjected to a number of tests of its avionics, propulsion systems, and four RS-25 engines. Eventually, the Pegasus Barge and SLS core stage will embark on a six-day trip to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There, NASA engineers will begin to assemble the rocket and ready it for launch in the mid-2020s, barring any additional delays. While NASA intended for the SLS to return a crewed mission to the moon, the project has been plagued by delays. In May 2019, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine relented that it may cede the honor to a commercial company after all.”
THE RECEIVING END: Sanders Supporters Shocked to Find Bias at CNN. “Did these people actually believe the cable network was in the news business?”
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi tweeted, “This is an unusually vile performance by CNN.” The Nation’s Elie Mystal raged, “Jesus Christ I hate these biased questions from the moderators. ‘How would you keep your plan from bankrupting the country?’ JUST ASK THE KOCH BROTHERS TO MODERATE NEXT TIME!” HuffPost’s Zach Carter griped about CNN’s post-debate panel discussion, “CNN’s crew is just straight bashing Sanders post-debate.” The New Republic’s Libby Watson whined, “CNN is truly a terrible influence on this country.”
Hmm … Where have we heard that before? Oh, that’s right. Conservatives have been making the same point for decades, only to be sneered at by progressives who insisted that such claims were conspiracy theories. In reality, it has long been obvious that CNN operates more like the PR department for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) than a legitimate news outlet.
Well, Bernie Bros, are you going to just sit there and take it?
SLAVERY DEFEATED: “HBO Cancels ‘Confederate’ Series Before a Single Script Is Written.”
I don’t see anybody freaking out about The Man in the High Castle, which ended its run a few months ago. The entire series is on Amazon Prime. You can watch it right now. It exists. And guess what? Nothing bad happened in real life! Or at least nothing worse than usual happened, if you’re one of the people who think 62 million Americans are actual Nazis because they voted for Trump.
Maybe Confederate would’ve been a bad show. Considering how GoT turned out, I’m approaching any new Benioff & Weiss show with a healthy dose of skepticism. But if it had been made, it wouldn’t have hurt anything but your feelings.
Alternative history TV shows are highly problematic, except when they’re not, apparently.
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Buzz Aldrin is My Hero.
BERNIE CERTAINLY HAS A WAY WITH WOMEN: ‘I Sort of Can’t Believe This Is Happening’: Young Progressives Agonize Over Bernie-Warren Feud.
THE MSM HAS LEARNED NOTHING AND FORGOTTEN NOTHING:
Shot: D.C. Fire Department recruits might be making “white power” hand gesture in photo.
—CBS News, today.
Chaser: West Point investigation concludes cadets did not flash “white power” sign at Army-Navy game.
—CBS News, December 20, 2019.
As Glenn noted back then, “The 4Chan trollers have scored again. I remember when ’culture jamming’ was a lefty thing, but the lefty culture jammers never scored at this level.”
INCENTIVES MATTER: Illegal Alien Crossings Down an Extraordinary 78 Percent.
BECAUSE MUCH OF THE WEST’S POLITICAL CLASS IS IN BED WITH (OR PAID OFF BY) THE PEOPLE AGAINST WHOM THE REVOLUTION IS TAKING PLACE: There’s a revolution going on in the Mideast. Why doesn’t the West see that?.
IT’S MINDBLOWING WHAT WE’VE BUILT DESPITE WASHINGTON’S BEST EFFORTS: We Are (Half) the World: What’s Your Real Worth, America?
A couple of years back, AEI’s Mark J. Perry put together a cool map renaming all 50 of our United States, if each one of them was an actual country of equivalent wealth (or GDP). Being the map freak Longtime Sharp VodkaPundit Readers™ know me to be, someone brought Perry’s map to my attention a few weeks ago, and I immediately fell in love with it.
But I have to warn you: It only tells a small part of the story I’m going to tell you today.
As that sharp commenter said to me, the United States economy is like an entire world unto itself.
Just how big that world is, and just how fantastically productive this country is, are the subjects of today’s column for our VIP members.
If you’re considering becoming a supporter, don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.
I’M SORRY, THAT’S INCORRECT: Uproar as American game show host refuses to accept “Palestine” as an answer.
The show is structured under a number of different categories in which contestants answer questions that revolve around the same theme. In the episode that aired earlier this week, contestants were asked questions under the “Where’s the Church?” category, in which they had to name the place that was,”Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity.”
In response, contestant Katie Needle said “What is Palestine?” But, her answer was rejected. Her opponent, however, responded with “What is Israel?” and was awarded the point.
As a whole, America recognises Israeli occupation of the Palestine region as Israel, however, internationally, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is not recognised as part of Israel. The Church of Nativity in question is where Jesus is said to have been born and is located in Bethlehem, at the Israeli occupied West Bank, which, again, is recognised as Palestine in most places, but not America.
It’s an American show, Israel is an American ally, and anyway that might have been a lawful part of Palestine if the Palestinians hadn’t rejected a peace offer giving them 93% of what they wanted and pursued the Intifada II terror campaign instead.
And Trebek is a national treasure.
OUR UNIVERSITIES ARE RUN BY HYSTERICAL CHILDREN: University suspended College Republicans because someone said they practiced ‘Nazism.’ “Someone said” the University of Maine should have its funding slashed because it’s a joke. And that someone is me.
COLD WAR II: China Discovers Underwater Spy Drones In Its Waters. “The secretive world of naval underwater surveys rarely breaks the surface. Now recent events are briefly shining a light into the darkness. In the Adriatic a Croatian fishing vessel caught one of the U.S. Navy’s undersea sensor systems last week. That mysterious object has largely been explained. Meanwhile, China has held an award ceremony for fishermen who alerted authorities after discovering similar devices in their nets. The devices may have been operating in international waters, but still in China’s back yard as they see it. We can infer that some of these devices may also belong to the U.S. Navy.”
I should hope so. I’d also hope we’ll get better at not getting caught.
Related and recommended: Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage.
PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: UConn students arrested for ‘ridiculing’ speech are now suing.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: The Granny Wine Box Traveling Impeachment Circus Heads to the Senate. “The impeachment of the president should be a solemn undertaking. Pelosi and Co. have turned it into a tawdry extended photo-op, complete with tacky souvenir tchotchkes.”
Are you not entertained?
A FIRST-PASS ANSWER IS “NEVER.” “When Will They Admit They’re Wrong?”
Plus: “It’s a bitter pill but here’s the truth, the real deal: it’s about emotion. It’s about rationalization, and wow, are humans talented at rationalizing whatever we have chosen to commit to. Once we have, it seems perfectly sensible to us and divergent views look wrong. There may, in fact, be a clear right and wrong side to a political issue, one that would be obvious to a disinterested observer; but you and I are not disinterested observers. We’re inside the social machinery and it’s well-nigh impossible to take a colorful pill and step out.”
This is why, in my opinion, the realm of politics should be kept as small as possible. And I’m not wrong.
IRANIANS ATTACK THE AYATOLLAH REGIME — THEIR REAL ENEMY: My latest Creators Syndicate column.
Since December 2017, deeply aggrieved Iranian citizens have publicly denounced two blatantly linked injustices perpetrated by the corrupt ayatollah regime: the clerical dictatorship’s hideous corruption and Iran’s acute economic deterioration.
Iran’s Islamic revolutionary dictatorship is a case study in repeated failure, incompetence, corruption and mass murder.
The Iranian people are now responding with splendid ferocity.
Voice of America News reports that instead of chanting, “Death to America,” Iranians in Tehran chant: “You are tyrants. Don’t call us seditioners.”
According to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Persian language broadcast unit, Radio Farda, on Jan. 13, protesters in Isfahan Industrial University chanted, “Execution and imprisonment no longer scare us.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is funded by the U.S. government. Radio Free Europe is definitely not a Cold War relic.
Protestors in Tehran and western Iran have been heard chanting, “Death to the dictator,” meaning Ayatollah Khamenei.
He is the IRGC’s mob boss.
A Twitter video clip shows protestors in Tehran chanting: “They are lying that our enemy is America. Our enemy is right here.”
Peruse the entire essay.
LIGHTNING LINEUP: F-35A Lightning IIs taxi during an exercise at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, Jan. 6, 2020.
“CNN’S ANTI-TRUMP BIAS IS SO INTENSE, THEY CAN’T EVEN BROADCAST A SYMPATHETIC INTERVIEW FOR HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE:” CNN nixes Mike Pence-Wolf Blitzer Israel interview, citing impeachment.
SHOULD BUT WON’T: The US government should stop demanding tech companies compromise on encryption.
Related: FBI reportedly accessed locked iPhone 11 Pro Max with GrayKey third party tool.
The Feds don’t seem to have much trouble breaking into devices when they have a warrant. So I’m forced to conclude that they want official backdoors built in — which opens everyone up to all kinds of easy attacks — to easily get into devices when they don’t have a warrant.
WHEN YOUR DEMOCRATIC DEBATE IS GETTING HAMMERED IN ROLLING STONE: CNN’s Debate Performance Was Villainous and Shameful.
To be fair, “villainous and shameful” isn’t actually a departure for them these days.
AS A WISE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER ONCE SAID, ELECTIONS MATTER: Judge Rules Against Donna Quixote.
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MOTHER KNOWS BEST: Warren pledges to cancel most student loan debt without Congress.
TRYING TO INCITE DEMOCRATS TO MURDER? Iran Video Stages Assassination of Trump, Pompeo, Netanyahu.
I mean, it’s not like that’s much of a stretch.
IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME: On this day in 1883, President Chester Arthur signed into law the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, thus abolishing the federal “spoils” system and creating a civil service based on … uh … merit.
Just three years prior to becoming President, Arthur had been Collector of the Port of New York, which made him NYC’s grand poobah of political patronage. He was the last person on Earth one would expect to be the angel of death for the old way of doing things.
But Arthur had ascended to the Presidency after a disappointed job seeker assassinated President James Garfield. Americans were hellbent on getting civil service reform and feared Arthur would stand in their way. Arthur, ever the politician, enjoyed pleasantly surprising them.
The “spoils” system (called that by its detractors) had a lot of faults. But its virtue was that job holders tended to actually believe in President’s agenda. And if they didn’t or weren’t doing a good job, it was easy to get rid of them. The system that replaced it has both virtues and vices too. But as time goes by, its vices are increasingly on display.
BETHANY MANDEL: On National Review’s (Several) Disgraceful Swipes at Jews.
Read the whole thing.
WOULDN’T BE THE FIRST TIME A BERNIE GUY TRIED POLITICAL ASSASSINATION: New Footage of Bernie Staffer Emerges — Reveals People Thought He Might Try to Kill Trump.
Related: Bernie is not normal. Neither are his supporters.
PARIAH NATION: Iran warns Europe as diplomat says officials ‘lied’ on crash. “The downing of the Ukraine International Airlines flight last week came amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. over its unraveling nuclear deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for the first time Wednesday threatened Europe by warning its soldiers in the Mideast ‘could be in danger’ over the crisis as Britain, France and Germany launched a measure that could see United Nations sanctions re-imposed on Tehran.”
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders accuse each other of lying in post-debate confrontation.
More here: “Sanders supporters immediately flooded Twitter with images likening Warren to a snake. Warren defenders hurled back charges of misogyny, an accusation that plagued Sanders’ 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton. Those caught between them despaired.”
And Joe Biden thinks of Henry Kissinger’s quote on the Iran-Iraq War, and laughs.
BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE DID: Pelosi Pulls A Schiff, Deliberately Misquotes Trump-Zelensky Call on House Floor.
DAN MARKEL UPDATE: Florida Bill Would Stop Adelson Family From Preventing Dan Markel’s Parents’ Access To Their Grandchildren. “Markel’s parents, Phil and Ruth Markel, have not seen their grandchildren since 2016 amid allegations that the family of their mother, Wendi Adelson, is being investigated in connection with a murder-for-hire plot.”
STATE SECESSION UPDATE: West Virginia Lawmakers Invite Virginia Counties Fed Up With Gun Control to Secede.
House Concurrent Resolution 8 would allow certain Virginia counties and independent cities to be admitted to West Virginia as constituent counties.
The group of 20 West Virginia Republicans, and one Independent, introducing the resolution said in the proposal that Virginia lawmakers have repudiated “the counsel of that tribune of liberty, Patrick Henry-who stated to the Virginia Ratifying Convention in 1788 that ‘The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.’”
“[T]he government at Richmond now seeks to place intolerable restraints upon the rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution to the citizens of [Virginia,]” the proposal reads.
My paper on state secession is looking steadily more timely.
IN THE EMAIL FROM PATRICK CHILES: Frozen Orbit.
THE BEGINNING OF LIFE AWAITS AT THE END OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
A FROZEN ANSWER AT THE EDGE OF PLANETARY SPACE
Set to embark on NASA’s first expedition to the outer planets, the crew of the spacecraft Magellan learns someone else has beaten them by a few decades: a top-secret Soviet project codenamed Arkangel.
Now during their long race to the Kuiper Belt, astronauts Jack Templeton and Traci Keene must unwind a decades-old mystery buried in the pages of a dead cosmonaut’s journal. The solution will challenge their beliefs about the nature of humanity, and will force the astronauts to confront the question of existence itself. And the final answer lies at the edge of the Solar System, waiting to change everything.
AND RELATED TO THAT LAST ITEM: De-Worse It Gets.
NOT TO MENTION A HUGE IDIOT — THE WOKE DON’T BUY BOOKS! AND HONESTLY ARE A TINY AND NOISY RUMP OF THE REAL POPULATION — AND ABSOLUTELY AND ABJECTLY IRRATIONAL. MR. KING, NOTE THAT MAKING SURE THAT THERE ARE MINORITIES BY THE NUMBERS IN AWARDS SUPPOSED TO BE GIVEN ON MERIT IS NOT A FAIR SHAKE. IT’S THE OPPOSITE. IT’S PREJUDGING PEOPLE BASED ON CHARACTERISTICS THEY WERE BORN WITH AND CAN DO NOTHING ABOUT: Newsflash: Stephen King is a Coward.
THE PROBLEM IS THAT IT’S NOT JUST THE BERNIE CAMPAIGN. THERE ARE A NOT INSIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF LEFTISTS WHO REALLY BELIEVE THIS STUFF. WHAT THEY DON’T GET IS THE LEVEL OF INSURRECTION THEY WOULD FACE: VGulags Are Awesome, Says Bernie Organizer To Project Veritas.
Ah, well, truth be told they’ve been like this for 20 years. Ever since I could pass and would sit among them and listen. It’s just that now the masks are coming off.
YEP, YET ANOTHER ATTEMPT BY THE WOKESCOLDS — AKA WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS — TO KILL AN INSTITUTION, SKIN IT AND PRANCE AROUND IN ITS SKIN DEMANDING RESPECT: Romance Writers And The Bullying Woke Scolds.
One of the things I noticed is that they convince themselves that everyone respects them after. Even as we’re actively pelting them with (metaphoric) refuse. It’s an example of their “run to mommy” obsession. They think these institutions retain power after being skinsuited. Just yesterday someone threatened to denounce a bunch of us to SFWA for saying mean things about her. What she thinks an organization I no longer belong to and which has no power over me (or truthfully over anyone or anything) is going to do to me I don’t know. It’s like a kindergartener threatening me with his mommy. Or worse, a mommy threatening me with her kindergartner.
THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT ONO WAS AT LEAST IN TUNE WITH HER TIMES, (AND OF COURSE WASN’T LIVING AT THE EXPENSE OF A COUNTRY’S TAXPAYERS) WHILE THE DUCHESS FOR THE NONCE KNOWN AS SUSSEX IS GOING ASTONISHINGLY AND BIZARRELY AGAINST THE TIDE OF PUBLIC OPINION AND SIDING WITH THE WOKE WHO ARE ELITES IN THEIR OWN MINDS ONLY: While Yoko Ono Makes For an Amusing Meme, There is Nothing Funny About Her Radical Roots.
As for Ono’s “art”…. pretentiousness and an attempt to shock long dead Victorians. Who at any rare were far more outrageous than she can even imagine. Bah.
THIS PECULIAR COMBINATION OF SELF-ASSURANCE AND UTTER, BIZARRE, ROCK BOTTOM STUPIDITY IS DISTURBINGLY COMMON ON THE LEFT: Ilhan Omar, Dope.
The sad thing is that even that doesn’t explain the clown car that is their primary candidates. For that, you’re going to need to posit more stupidity.
AS WE STAND TOE TO TOE WITH THE BOOGALOO: Ever Feel Like Custer?
Pray for sanity in Virginia’s government. Yes, I know it would take a miracle. But without it, the powder keg will blow. Where the explosion stops only future historians know. And they ain’t born yet.
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Plus, deals on Software.
SEEN ON FACEBOOK:
OPEN THREAD: Enjoy every sandwich.
VIRGINIA HAS RATIFIED THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT. This is basically meaningless, as the time set for ratification expired long ago, as did the dubious Congressional “extensions.” Some are prepared to argue that time limits on ratification are invalid, but there’s no authority for that, and it’s been common practice for decades.
Of course, a genuine, fairly-and-evenly-enforced Equal Rights Amendment would be a disaster for feminists, but they’re expecting to get something like the judicially-rewritten and expanded Title IX. But Keith Whittington is right:
If we think there is a serious need for the ERA and genuine support for it in the contemporary United States, then there is a ready solution—draft a new amendment, push it through Congress, and send it to the states. If we think that the ERA could not currently be adopted and ratified in a reasonable amount of time, then perhaps we should not be eager to say that the ERA is part of the Constitution because exactly three states legislatures have endorsed it since Jimmy Carter was in the White House.
If there’s support now, pass it now. If there isn’t support now it shouldn’t be ratified at all.
A NICE PIECE ON KNOXVILLE’S OWN CULINARY TREAT, steamed sandwiches. I’ve had those since I was a kid, and always loved them; the first time I had one was a near-religious experience. Still miss the Sam & Andy’s by campus, and the Roman Room.
PAUL KRUGMAN ON ELECTION NIGHT 2016: “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.”
Today: Stocks Hit Record Highs As U.S. Signs Phase One Trade Deal With China.
UPDATE: China Pledges To Buy $200 Billion Of American Goods Under Phase One Trade Deal.
Plus: Landmark Trade Deal With China; New York Times Hardest Hit. “All in all, Phase One is a significant achievement of the Trump administration, accomplished in the face of hysterical opposition from the Democrats, who implicitly, at a minimum, have encouraged the Chinese not to make a deal, but rather to hold out in hopes of getting to negotiate with a Democrat in 2021. That context makes the administration’s accomplishment doubly impressive. President Trump understands the dynamic in play between the Red Chinese and the Democrats, and hasn’t been afraid to talk about it. Thus, today he signaled that he is not worried about the 2020 election, and the Chinese shouldn’t hold out in hopes of getting to negotiate with an anti-American like Bernie Sanders or a naif like Pete Buttigieg.”
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SEEMS ONLY FAIR. YOU WANT FAIRNESS, RIGHT? Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Calls for Dem Presidential Candidates to Recuse Themselves from Senate Trial:
Today, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) gave the following statement regarding the participation of the four Senators running for president in the Senate impeachment trial:
“Tomorrow, one hundred United States Senators will be sworn in to serve in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Four of those Senators must recuse themselves for their unparalleled political interest in seeing this President removed from office. These four Democrats, Senators Bennet, Klobuchar, Sanders, and Warren, cannot sit in judgment of the very President they seek to replace. To participate in this trial would be a failure of the oath they took to be an ‘impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws’. Their presidential ambitions prohibit their ability to view this trial through an objective lens.” – Senator Marsha Blackburn
I had actually forgotten Bennet was running.
THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT TRUTH about obesity.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 9 Reasons You Should Have A Baby This Year If You’re Young And Married.
RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Global Politics Becomes a House of Noise.
The oceans used to be a fluid coupling that prevented sudden external shocks from being transmitted to domestic politics. The heydays of Hydramatic were coincidentally those of the saying that “politics stops at the water’s edge,” uttered in reference to the bipartisan creation of NATO. But now the gears are fused. As foreign influence grew in Washington, the drive-train stayed clutched in with no more slip at the water’s edge. The enabling ideology for this was “multiculturalism” and a naive globalism, supposedly good for all, but which transmits the shocks directly to the political engine and may in time destroy it. It’s already led to Crossfire Hurricane, an impeachment, and on the return stroke what may be an equivalent investigation of Obama and/or his security staff. It won’t end there. There’ll be many more investigations and impeachments and no way to decouple from external forces.
Read the whole thing.
TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY IS A SYMPTOM, AND A REACTION TO, THE MORAL COLLAPSE FOSTERED BY HIS CRITICS ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT: Guy Who Called Daughter a ‘Thoughtless Pig’ Blames Trump Voters for ‘Near Moral Collapse’ of America. They thought the new standards were just for other people.
