The Woman Who Killed #NeverTrump

Posted on | August 26, 2021 | Comments Off on The Woman Who Killed #NeverTrump

In June 2018, an article appeared in The American Spectator with the headline, “The Collapse of the Never-Trump Conservatives.” Written by Emerald Robinson, then chief White House correspondent for One America News (OAN) Network, and since with Newsmax, the article began thus:

With the installation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and a yet-to-be-named reliable replacement for the unreliable Anthony Kennedy, Donald Trump will have confirmed himself as the most consequential conservative president of the modern era (or a close second to Reagan if you’re nostalgic). This will be complete vindication for Trump supporters, which means it’s really the end for the so-called Never Trump conservatives. Of course, there have been so many humiliating defeats for that crowd that we are spoiled for choice. What was your favorite blunder, or blown prediction, which marked their ignominious end?
For some, it must have been in March when Bill Kristol, longtime editor of the conservative magazine the Weekly Standard, showed up in New Hampshire telling people he would run against President Trump in 2020. Or in April when the conservative website RedState was taken over and purged of writers who were “insufficiently supportive” of the president. Some go back to October 2017 when a Twitter spat broke out between Stephen Hayes and Brit Hume of Fox News over the Weekly Standard’s anti-Trump editorials. . . .

You can read the rest, and you might think it was just another magazine article. At the time, as my friend Donald Douglas pointed out, the response from Jonah Goldberg was a contemptuous dismissal, calling Robinson a “trollish, attention-seeking writer,” whose article was “gloating, smarmy, gleeful” and, of course, completely wrong. Everybody was doing just fine over there in NeverTrumpland, Jonah wanted us to believe, and perhaps they were, but six months later, the Weekly Standard was out of business, and many of Jonah’s Trump-hating friends were kicked to the curb. Goldberg himself was soon to be forced out at National Review, and in retrospect Emerald Robinson’s article was, to Never Trump, what Waterloo was to Napoleon Bonaparte.

She has now written a follow-up explaining how that happened. Rush Limbaugh read her article on his show, and this generated enough heat that Weekly Standard editor Stephen Hayes got booted off Fox News, and then the owners of the Weekly Standard began asking themselves, “What exactly is the purpose of this money-losing publication?”

Those who remember the 1990s and the first decade of this century will recall how closely the Weekly Standard and Fox News were once allied. So when Kristol’s publication began to defecate all over the Fox News audience — which is what their #NeverTrump stance amounted to — it was inevitable that a parting of the ways must eventually come, and when it did . . . ? Well, the big selling-point for the Weekly Standard was that they were “influential,” and an important element of their influence was that their writers — Kristol, Hayes, et al. — made regular appearances on Fox News. Once they got called out by Emerald Robinson (and her call-out was amplified by Rush Limbaugh) however, Fox News was forced to choose between (a) the network’s core audience, which solidly supported Trump, or (b) these pointed-headed neocon intellectuals who couldn’t park their bicycles straight.

“Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies . . .”

But there was something else going on at the time, which many of us either didn’t notice, or have since forgotten, but Ace of Spades remembers: Jim Swift, an obese former Hill staffer who spent six years working at the Weekly Standard, in 2018 launched a crusade to get Salena Zito fired from the Washington Examiner. This made no sense at all because (a) Zito was, and still is, a very popular reporter, and (b) the Examiner is owned by the same company that at the time owned the Weekly Standard, so that (c) Swift was trying to sabotage one of his own company’s star employees. The foolishness of Swift’s course of action, and the failure of his editors to rein him in, may have been a major reason why, instead of selling the Weekly Standard, the owners just fired the entire staff and shut it down. If Ace’s theory is right, then Swift — a talentless, no-neck blob of sweaty failure — may have had more to do with wrecking the #NeverTrump movement than anything else.

As it is, however, Ace’s theory is mostly speculative, even though the disgusting obesity of Jim Swift is a confirmed fact. He may not be ready to star in an episode of My 600-Pound Life yet, but he’s definitely looking like a high-risk candidate for Type II diabetes. For now, though, Emerald Robinson holds the title of Never Trump Slay Queen all to herself.

Category: Journalism

In The Mailbox: 08.25.21

Posted on | August 25, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.25.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

The future will not only be stupid, it will be more stupid than we can imagine.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Red Pilled Jew: Nemesis Checks The Time
357 Magnum: I Guess What’s Called For Is Another Strongly Worded Press Release
EBL: How Emerald Robinson Murdered The Weekly Standard
Twitchy: WH Cuts Off Biden’s Appalling Response To NBC Journo’s Question About Americans Stranded In Afghanistan
Louder With Crowder: SCOTUS Smacks Down Biden, “Remain In Mexico” Asylum Policy Is Back
Vox Popoli: Confucius Condemns Neoliberalism, also, The Next Domino
Stoic Observations: Sword & Sorcery In Afghanistan
Gab News: The No Vax Mandate Job Board

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: We Hate Our Government
American Conservative: Resuscitating Kipling, also, (Why) Is Uber Failing?
American Greatness: Hey, Biden Voters! also, Former SF Op Re. Mike Waltz Says State Dept. Checkpoint At Kabul Airport Has Turned Away American Citizens
American Power: The Last Neocons
American Thinker: Why We Succumb To Micro-Control Over Our Lives
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: New Ministry Of Truth Launched In Cuba, also, Another Canadian Diplomat In Cuba Felled By “Havana Syndrome”
BattleSwarm: Scenes From The Afghan Debacle
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American – Gets An Apology, also, Blue Origin BE-4 Engine Delayed Again
Cafe Hayek: Quiet This Panic
CDR Salamander: For Afghans, The Clock In Kabul Just Ran Out, also, Remember WESTPAC?
Da Tech Guy: An American Father, Report From Louisiana – Get Me Out Of Here! and The “Time Tax” Of Social Security
Don Surber: 5% Believe Afghanistan Is Going Very Well, also, Biden Negotiates With Terrorists
First Street Journal: It Ain’t Just Southern Rednecks Protesting Them #VaxxMandates
The Geller Report: Forensic Audit Of 2020 Election Moves Forward In PA, also, Sinema Refuses To Back $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, Government Censorship
Hollywood In Toto: Dave Made A Maze Shows The Limits of Twee Storytelling, also, The Green Knight Is Everything A Cinematic Experience Should Be
The Lid: Two Congressmen Take Secret Kabul Trip, Say U.S. Won’t Get Everyone Out In Time
Legal Insurrection: Stanford Law Students Create Guide To Dismantle “Patriarchal Racial Colonial Capitalism”, also, CIA & Pentagon Officials “Furious & Disgusted” At Leaving Afghan Helpers Behind
Nebraska Energy Observer: Lupus Tenebrosis. Chapter 3
Outkick: Rachel Nichols Done At ESPN – Network Cancels Her Show, also, Cris Carter Doesn’t Think LeBron James Is Tough Enough To Play In The NFL
Power Line: Biden Agonistes, also, Former CA Senate Majority Leader (Democrat) Endorses Larry Elder
Shark Tank: DeSantis Regains Ground In new Quinnipiac Poll
Shot In The Dark: The Ultimate “White Privilege”, also, The Big Beat
The Political Hat: Out – Alien Greys, In – Alien Gringo Honky Cracker Whites
This Ain’t Hell: Skip Archer, Fake Vietnam POW, also, Noone Left Behind – Vets Rally To Assist
Transterrestrial Musings: Sweet, Sweet Connie [RIP]
Victory Girls: Matthew Dowd Thinks Biden Should Be Congratulated On Job Well Done In Afghanistan, also, California Students & Parents Trapped In Afghanistan
Volokh Conspiracy: Federal Judge Beaches Kraken, Orders Sanctions
Weasel Zippers: Nigel Farage – No Military Cooperation With U.S. Under Biden, Pentagon Spox Still Doesn’t Know How Many Americans Are In Afghanistan, and Biden Laughs As Reporter Asks About Stranded Americans In Afghanistan
The Federalist: Only 5% Of Those Evacuated From Kabul By U.S. Are Americans, also, “Trust Not In Princes” – Seven Reasons For Hope
Mark Steyn: Taliban Diversity, also, Charlie Watts Always Played The Right Thing

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Category: Linkagery

R.I.P., Charlie Watts

Posted on | August 25, 2021 | Comments Off on R.I.P., Charlie Watts

The great rock-and-roll legends of our Baby Boomer youth are now marching like a parade toward the grave, and I ignore most of these routine obituaries, but I’ll make an exception for Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, arguably the most dapper man in rock-and-roll.

Watts was not originally a rocker, but instead was a youthful jazz enthusiast who was recruited in 1962 as the drummer for Alex Korner’s Blues Incorporated, a London group that over the years gave rise to many future stars of Britain’s blues-rock scene. From a working-class background, Watts was actually more bourgeois than Mick Jagger who, as the son of a school teacher, was more of the middle-class rebel. It took about six months for Jagger to persuade Watts to join the Rolling Stones in 1963, because this move required Watts to give up the steady paycheck he’d been earning as Korner’s drummer. While the Stones courted controversy as the “bad boy” alternative to the nice, polite Beatles, Watts was not into the decadent lifestyle that the Stones’ reputation would seem to require. He got married in 1964 and stayed married to the same woman for more than 50 years, and never had a substance abuse problem, except a few years in the mid-1980s when he started drinking more heavily, a phase he later attributed to a “mid-life crisis.”

It was during that mid-80s phase that Watts did something that contradicted his famously low-key personality. Mick and Keith Richards had been partying all night on tour, and Mick called Watts’ hotel room at 5 a.m. to shout, “Where’s my drummer?” About a half-hour later, Watts showed up at Mick’s room, dressed in a Saville Row suit, punched the singer in the face and told him, “Never call me your drummer again.” Keith had to intervene to soothe Watts’ injured pride.

Here is video — from a documentary directed by Martin Scorcese, of all people — showing the Stones playing “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” in 2006, where the camera focuses on Charlie Watts the entire time:

Something to notice is that, while most rock drummers nowadays play “match grip” (both sticks held overhand), Watts played “traditional grip,” with the left stick held underhand. That can probably be attributed to Watts’ background as a jazz player, although Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, who played match grip, was also influenced by jazz. The vast difference between Watts and Bonham is worth contemplation. Like the Stones, Zeppelin were very blues-influenced, but were much more into a psychedelic style, with extended instrumental solos, and Bonham’s drumming style was idiosyncratic. You noticed Bonham’s beats — listen to the final two minutes of “Stairway to Heaven,” for example, and hear those thundering syncopated tom-tom riffs — in a way that was seldom the case with Charlie Watts. Reliable and yet unobtrusive, the steady beat of the Greatest Rock and Roll Band — quite a career, one that lasted nearly 60 years. Not bad for a truck driver’s son from Wembley. R.I.P.

Category: Music

In The Mailbox: 08.24.21

Posted on | August 24, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.24.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Pull the other one, Bad Orange Woman.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: How Serious Is Chicago About Stopping Crime?
Red Pilled Jew: Quick Takes – Hat Trick
EBL: Charlie Watts, RIP, also, The Democrats Are Only Half The Problem
Twitchy: “Damn The Deadline!” also, Democrat Strategist Outs Politico As “Right-Wing Propaganda Operation”
Louder With Crowder: Unjabbed Teen Has To Wear Ankle Tracker At School – But It Gets Worse
Vox Popoli: Red China Shows Up For The Future, also, It’s A Mystery

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Big Five-Oh
American Conservative: Lockdown Australia – Eureka Rebellion Round Two, also, Why Permanent Renting Is Bad For Our Souls
American Greatness: Feds Lower Expectations For 1/6 Probe, also, Biden Bends The Knee To The Taliban
American Power: “Dumkirk”
American Thinker: The Deep State & Afghanistan, also, The Afghanistan Debacle Will Consign The Current Ruling Class To The Dustbin Of History
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Biden’s Failures News
Babalu Blog: Another Building Collapses In Havana
BattleSwarm: Cuomo Leaves His Dog Behind, also, Why The Hell Does Twitter Need Access To Network Devices?
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, also, First Hi-Res Radio Images Of Metal Asteroid Psyche
Cafe Hayek: Religious Exemption At GMU, also, Another First-Hand Report From Dystopia Down Under
CDR Salamander: Eight Days In Kabul
Da Tech Guy: Give All of Our Allies The Bomb, also, One Line Responses To Tweets Under My Fedora
Don Surber: The Taliban Is Kicking Us Out, also, The Elite Wants Us Destroyed
First Street Journal: Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics, also, Does Lexington Herald-Leader Columnist Linda Blackford Actually Read The Herald-Leader?
The Geller Report: Sexual Predator & Mass-Murderer Cuomo Stripped Of Ridiculous Emmy, also, CBS Poll – Majority Of Americans No Longer Think Biden Is Competent
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Non-Stranded Non-Hostages, and Not Just Clueless But Lawless Too
Hollywood In Toto: Shang-Chi Shows MCU’s Decline Not A Foregone Conclusion, also, Will Antiwar Hollywood Make Movies About Biden’s Afghanistan Debacle?
The Lid: During Kamala’s Singapore Visit, Team Biden’s Afghanistan Bungling Takes Center Stage
Legal Insurrection: Diversity Training At Vanderbilt U Employs “Feelings Wheel”, also, LA Times Columnist Dragged On Twitter For Tone-Deaf “Latinx” Tweets
Nebraska Energy Observer: Neo – The Interview
Outkick: Herschel Walker’s Running For The Senate From Georgia, also, The Wokes Are Trying To Cancel Notre Dame’s Leprechaun Mascot
Power Line: What About Pakistan? also, Beyond Baghdad Bob
Shark Tank: Miami Herald Reporter Insinuates Matt Gaetz’ Wedding Was Staged
Shot In The Dark: Open Letter To All You “Punch A Nazi” Morons, also, I’m Old Enough To Remember
The Political Hat: American Express Goes Woke
This Ain’t Hell: Something Is Rotten In WDC, also, Biden Caves To Taliban, Will Stick To 8/31 Deadline
Transterrestrial Musings: Chaos On The Ground
Victory Girls: Yes, Jen, Americans ARE Stranded In Afghanistan
Volokh Conspiracy: “Vaccine Passports As A Constitutional Right”, also, Kim Klacik Sues Candace Owens For Defamation
Weasel Zippers: A Former CIA Op Got 500 Terps To Safety – State Dept. Sent Them Back, also, Schiff Sticks It To Biden
The Federalist: DeSantis Vindicated – No Science Behind Masks On Kids, also, “My Body, My Choice” Was Always A Lie
Mark Steyn: Remembering “The Big Voice On The Right”, also, Screwing The Pooch

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Category: Linkagery

Biden Turns His Back on America

Posted on | August 24, 2021 | Comments Off on Biden Turns His Back on America

So it was announced that Our Alleged President would give a press conference at noon. But noon came and went, and then they said 2:30, which also came and went and then, finally, about 5 p.m., Biden comes out and reads a 15-minute scripted statement, before turning his back and walking out while Peter Doocy of Fox News shouted, “Do you guarantee every American will be out before the troops leave?”

No response. The transcript of Our Alleged President’s remarks is not online yet, but he began by talking about “Build Back Better” (i.e., the bloated $3.5 trillion “infrastructure” bill that’s not actually about infrastructure), as if business as usual on Capitol Hill is what really matters and not the thousands of Americans currently trapped in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. But no mean tweets.

That’s what really matters, isn’t it? Just say whatever, screw up our national security, let the border descend into chaos, crank up some hyperinflation and the people who voted for you won’t ever care, just as long as you’re Not Donald Trump. The only policy that matters is . . .

Get vaccinated! Wear a mask! And don’t be Donald Trump.

Jaw on the FLOOR

Biden used his Afghanistan speech (!) to praise his unpopular hyperinflation bill that barely passed the house on party lines (220-212) & then read a 5 minute platitude on the largest terrorist hostage situation in American history.

Then took NO QUESTIONS

Fu*k pic.twitter.com/F9QxqrVOKw

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 24, 2021

Category: Joe Biden

In The Mailbox: 08.23.21

Posted on | August 23, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.23.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Red Pilled Jew: Hungry Wolves & Darkened Campfires
357 Magnum: What A Democrat President Has Lost CNN
EBL: The Miniaturist, also, Proud Boys Vs. Antifa In Portland
Twitchy: LA Times Columnist Catches Tidal Wave Of Criticism For Using Patronizing Term “Latinx”
Louder With Crowder: JP Sears Attempts To Explain Biden’s Embarrassing ABC Interview
Vox Popoli: A League of Boomers, also, Why The Hospitals Are “Full”
LifeNews: Woman Refused Lifesaving Treatment Because She Declined The Jab
Gab News: Yet Another Failed Hit Piece On Gab

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Do The Americans Even Realize They Just Lost A War?
American Conservative: Who’s To Blame For Afghanistan?
American Greatness: The Rotten Edifice Revealed, also, The Drossy Touch Of Joe Biden
American Power: They’re Liars & Hypocrites, But You Knew That Already
American Thinker: Stand By For The Real Insurrection – By The Democrats, also, None Dare Call It Conspiracy
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Two Judoka From Cuban National Team Defect In Madrid, also, Milking The “Diaspora” Is Critical To Tyranny’s Survival In Cuba
BattleSwarm: The Woke Zone, also, One Rule For Them, Another For You
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, also, Russia Launches Another 34 OneWeb Satellites
Cafe Hayek: On Science, Scientism, & Classical Liberal Individualism, also, Dystopia Down Under
CDR Salamander: All Roads Lead To Kabul, On Midrats
Da Tech Guy: Don Surber Notes The “What”, Glenn Reynolds Provides The “Why”, also, What Do The White House Staff & The Media Know About Biden’s Cognitive Decline?
Don Surber: AP Has Critic Censored, They Seem To Want Joe To Go, and Afghanistan Learned The Lesson Of Vietnam
First Street Journal: The Kentucky Supremes Slap Down Gov. Beshear, also, Paul Krugman Is Angry Because You Didn’t Take Your Medicine
The Geller Report: Court Rules AZ Senate Must Release Election Audit Records, also, DOJ Shuts Down Investigation Of Capitol Police Cold-Blooded Murder Of Ashli Babbitt
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Leaks In The Memory Hole, and I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
Hollywood In Toto: Why The Night House Won’t Keep You Up At Night As Promised, also, Did Stephen Colbert Just Have His Worst Week…Ever?
The Lid: SecDef Austin Should Be Impeached, also, Taliban Rejects Possibility Of 8/31 Deadline Extension
Legal Insurrection: “Mamas, Don’t Let Your (Male) Babies Grow Up & Attend A Woke Liberal Arts College”, also, Update On Teachers Union V. RI Mom Nicole Solas – Union Withdraws Motion For TRO
Nebraska Energy Observer: Piccadilly Lilly & Leadership, also, The Hollow Men
Outkick: Player Feels The Wrath Of Saban – “This Is Not A Democracy”, also, Patagonia Latest Company To Wander Into The Woke/Broke Waters
Power Line: Afghanistan As Foreign Policy Disaster, also, Anti-Trump “Republican” NatSec Officials – From Laughably Wrong To Tragically Wrong
Shark Tank: Eskamani Catches Bipartisan heat Over Mask Double Standard
Shot In The Dark: The World Is Discovering…, also, Towards Solutions
This Ain’t Hell: Troops Report Being Required To Wear Armbands Indicating Jab Status, also, Did The 82nd Airborne’s CG Tell The SAS To Stop Making The U.S. Look Bad?
Transterrestrial Musings: Still Think Joe Isn’t Too Old? also, Thanks, Facebook?
Victory Girls: Taliban Commandos Mock Iwo Jima Photo, also, Capitol Police Decide Their Officer’s Murder Of Ashli Babbitt Was Lawful
Volokh Conspiracy: If The VP Becomes President, What Happens To Her Tie-Breaking Vote In The Senate?
Weasel Zippers: Blinken Calls Leaving Americans To Find Their Own Way To Kabul Airport “The Best Way To Do This”, also, After Promising Orderly Withdrawal, Biden Says Chaos Was Inevitable
The Federalist: The Only Way Back To Deterrence – Firing Biden’s Entire National Security Team, also, Former NS Adviser O’Brien – Everybody In DC Knows This Is Biden’s Disaster
Mark Steyn: Canadian Connections, Meltdown Of A Superpower, and Written On The Wind/The Tarnished Angels

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Category: Linkagery

Rule 5 Sunday: One From The Vaults

Posted on | August 23, 2021 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: One From The Vaults

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Those of you who play video games are probably familiar with the Fallout franchise, which is set in a postapocalyptic North America three centuries after a Sino-American nuclear war has devastated the planet. Most of the survivors are descendants of people who rode out the war and its aftermath in shelters built by Vault-Tec, and naturally called “Vaults”. Here’s Manchester (UK) bodypainter Em from r/cosplaygirls done up to look like a sexy Vault Dweller.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.