Archive for 2019

TO BASE A METAPHOR ON CURTIS LEMAY, IF YOU KILL ENOUGH OF THEM, THE REST STOP FIGHTING: Cowed by the culture cops. Punish the left. They’ll change if you do.

JOEL KOTKIN: The populist dilemma. “The recent upsurge in support for populist conservatives, not only across Europe, but in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and even India has inspired talk of a ‘a nationalist revival’ and ‘the cosmic magnetism’ of Donald Trump and Brexit. Here, it is argued, is a movement that finally can take on both the Green-oriented and increasingly authoritarian left. Yet maybe it’s time for right-wingers to put down the Champagne glasses. Conservative nationalists may have made considerable headway, but in many countries, the geographic, demographic and economic tide continues to pull the other way toward ever more politically correct, climate-obsessed rule from above.”

But see: Think America can ditch Trump in 2020? The world says otherwise. “Treating Donald Trump as an anomaly is misguided. Look around the globe: He’s the new normal. . . . American news is often parochial, barely noticing developments around the world outside of the occasional feature on NPR. But Trump-style populism is breaking out all over, upending the staid, polite politics of nation after nation. . . . It’s understandable that politicians, pundits and lobbyists who prospered under the old order would want to return to its, in retrospect, genteel ways. But voters will not be shamed into renouncing their frustration with politics as usual. The more insults hurled, the greater the populist reaction.” And his counterparts abroad, like Trump himself, are achieving considerable policy success.

I do think it’s impossible to understand today’s politics without thinking in terms of the class struggle.

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HE CREATED SPECIAL ID’S FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS: Buttigieg’s big accomplishment that he never mentions on the campaign trail. “Buttigieg’s part to make it all work was to sign an executive order requiring local services and institutions — like law enforcement, schools, the water utility and libraries — to accept the card as a valid form of identification.”

OPEN THREAD: Pontificate as usual.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK: “Scratch a socialist and you find a snob.”

‘RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW:’ We’ve Forgotten Why We Won The Cold War. “The Cold War was about defeating all that for the sake of human freedom. 2019 marks 30 years since communism cracked up. Thirty years on, are we really going to forget what we won, and why? Will the world wake up in time?”

It says something about the limitations of rock music that while there was an entire oeuvre of Vietnam War protest songs in the late ’60s and early ’70s, there were infinitely fewer songs focusing on the Cold War. The ones that come to mind are David Bowie’s 1977 slice of life in divided Berlin, “Heroes,” and those written after the Wall fell in 1989: the aforementioned Jesus Jones’ “Right Here Right Now,” the Scorpions’ “Winds of Change” and Pink Floyd’s “A Great Day for Freedom.” Were there any others?

CHANGE: ‘True the Vote’ Wins Big Case After Decade-Long Battle with IRS. “This remarkable new ruling by US District Court Judge Reggie Walton was in favor of True the Vote, penalizing the IRS with extensive attorneys fees. The ruling indicates that, throughout the case, the IRS displayed unconstitutional discrimination and unethical behavior against True the Vote, a group that fights for election integrity. The judge’s decision marks the end of a nearly decade long battle that first began in 2010.”

The way the Obama Administration weaponized the federal bureaucracy against its political opponents is more reminiscent of a criminal gang than the “rule of law” that Trump opponents keep talking about.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK:

ELVIS COSTELLO SLAMS AMERICAN PRESIDENT WHILE ACCEPTING ROYAL HONOR:

“It would be a lie to pretend that I was brought up to have a great sense of loyalty to the Crown, let alone notions of Empire. I used to think a change might come but when one considers the kind of mediocre entrepreneur who might be foisted upon us as a President, it’s enough to make the most hard-hearted ‘Republican’ long for an ermine stole, a sceptre and an orb,” he said in the statement.

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His agreement with his mother’s remark about Theresa May isn’t the first time he’s jumped ugly on a prime minister. Back in 1989, he sang about dancing on the grave of Margaret Thatcher. Somehow I don’t think Elvis Costello would have been any match for the Iron Lady. The song was titled “Tramp the Dirt Down”.

While the Corbynization of the Labour Party is nigh complete, I’m not at all sure why Theresa May nominated Costello for a “gong:” As Avi Shamir of the Times of Israel wrote in 2016, “Roll Over Roger Waters – and Tell Costello the News:”

Back in 2010, Costello caved in to Waters/BDS pressure and cancelled his two Israeli show dates. He may not be a proven anti-Semite like Waters, but he does have one damning racist remark in his portfolio. Way back in 1979, Costello, then an up and coming young rock star, was sitting in a hotel bar in Columbus, Ohio with blues singer extraordinaire Bonnie Bramlett, of Delaney and Bonnie, when he infamously called Ray Charles a “blind ignorant n*gger.” This earned him a smart slap on the face from Bramlett, lots of bad press, a ton of hate mail and racist baggage that he has been trying to discard ever since. My guess, maybe as late as 2010 Costello figured he could somehow cover up his racist image with a handy politically correct cosmetic makeover, i.e. by hopping on the Israeli boycott bandwagon.

It worked well enough to win an OBE, it seems.