The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The “Character” Issue II: More Personality

Posted on | January 5, 2019 | Comments Off on The “Character” Issue II: More Personality

by Smitty

I’d linked both Jonah Goldberg and Roger Kimball the other day, coming as they did when the

. . .carefully constructed, pre-planned, pre-scheduled, and pre-organized public op-ed by incoming Senator Mitt Romney was deployed in the Washington Post… for those who have watched McConnell work; we knew exactly who orchestrated it and why.

Senator Romney will be one (not the only) visible face of the opposition. However, just like former Senator Corker and current Senator Sasse, the instructions (direct and indirect), and/or the approvals, will come from Leader McConnell’s office.

Through his power structure McConnell directly controls about 8 to 15 republican senators; we have called them “The Decepticons” for years. [Cornyn, Thune, Porter, Blunt, Portman, Burr, Barasso, Crapo, Murkowski, Gardner, Roberts, Sasse, Tillis, Graham and now Romney]

McConnell needed to test Romney’s commitment to the Decepticon club. Romney passed the test. Romney was rewarded with placement on the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Those Senators who sit on this committee get the most financial benefit from foreign lobbying. To understand the financial process think: Qatar & McCain Institute etc.

I’d fall well short of saying the NRO is directly related to any orchestrated campaign to undermine the POTUS. The NRO certainly was opposed to the piece of work that preceded Trump.

But Jonah continues to insist that

the transactional defense of Donald Trump is intellectually defensible.

No amount of pragmatic, real-world regulatory, economic, or foreign policy evidence can mitigate the need to remove Trump due to his penchant for “clutching the kitty”:


And then Jonah tries to walk the idealism that fuels his posts back just a little:

But I can’t object to the logic of someone who says, “Yeah, I know Trump is crude and a boor, but I like what he’s getting done.”

Roger Kimball has the far better argument, in my opinion.

The status quo is the nutrient jelly in which [conservatives] live. They may criticize it. But they would not dream of changing it.

It is in this context—the context of Hillary Clinton as the only alternative to Donald Trump and the existential peril that Anton outlined—that we must place any meaningful discussion of Trump’s character.

Restated, Goldberg’s punditry borders on an academic detachment from any real-world context for his arguments. Somewhere out where “all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God” we cannot refute Jonah. Trump himself allows that he’s never had a beer, and that it’s one of his only good traits. In stark contrast with Pseudajawea, who quaffs a brew in an attempt to bridge the gap her impossibly curated political image to a distant planet Earth.

Dear @GOP Elite Weenies,

We’ve got a globalist Goliath threatening to devour our liberty. The homo bureaucratus infestation, culminating in Obama, is a future of ruin. We elected you wankers to repeal #ObamaCare. #YouHadOneJob. We’ve seen your value, and elected a specimen of homo Americanus to deal with you and your swampy breeding pit.

You keep tubing it at your peril, Republicans.

Cheers,
America
—
via Paco

Category: Uncategorized

In The Mailbox: 01.04.19

Posted on | January 5, 2019 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Marie Kondo
Twitchy: The Look On Anderson Cooper’s Face When Occasional Cortex Says She Wants To Tax The “Tippy Top” At 70% Is EVERYTHING 
Louder With Crowder: Ellen DeGeneres Defends Kevin Hart, And Of Course The Left Attacks Her
According To Hoyt: Living In Elfland
Monster Hunter Nation: What I Got Done In 2018/January Update Post
Vox Popoli: Financial Blacklisting

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Podcast #99 – The Holiday Episode, also, Friday Hawt Chicks & Links – The Bad Santa Edition
American Power: Lisa Delpit, Multiplication Is For White People, also, Rookie Muslim Rep Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) Vows To “Impeach The Motherf*cker!”
American Thinker: MAGA – First Real Household Income Gain Since 2000
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Socialist Sweden Friday
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For January 4
CDR Salamander: So, Would A Littoral Combat Group Have A…, also, Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Non-Tweets Under The Fedora For January 4
Don Surber: Trump Recession Lasted Less Than A Day, also, Trump Brought Xi To His Knees
Dustbury: Working Dog
First Street Journal: Americans Are The Freest People In The World!
The Geller Report: New “Islamic Party Of Ontario” Claims Islam “Is The Native Religion Of Ontario & Canada”, also, Muslim Convert Runs Down Three LA Pedestrians, Chase Ensues
Hogewash: Quote Of The Day, also, Team Kimberlin Post of The Day
Hollywood In Toto: How Faith Made Goddard’s Bad Times Better
Joe For America: Trump – Government Could Stay Shut Down For Months, Years
JustOneMinute: And Here Comes The Boom!
Legal Insurrection: Conservative Talk Host Michael Savage Moves To Secret Location After Death Threats, also, Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) To Retire In 2020
The PanAm Post: The Laughable Launch Of Venezuela’s Petro, also, Brazil’s Bolsonaro Might Be Wise To Step Back From The Culture Wars
Power Line: Tlaib Talks Trash, also, Can Trump Build The Wall?
Shark Tank: Gruters Wants “Butts Off Beaches”
Shot In The Dark: America’s Conservative Pundits Called, And She Answered
STUMP: Mortality With Meep
The Political Hat: Reimagining The Human
This Ain’t Hell: US Court Rules For Trump On Transgender Military Limits, also, Valor Friday
Victory Girls: Congressional Proglodytes Still Don’t Grok Economics
Volokh Conspiracy: Short Circuit – A Roundup Of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Weasel Zippers: House Democrats Vote Unanimously To Leave Town After Four Hours Despite Shutdown, also, Occasional Cortex Ducks & Runs When Asked If She’s Forgoing Her Salary, As She Urged Congress To Do
Megan McArdle: Occasional Cortex Was Just Trying To Get Into The Spirit Of Congressional Deficit Irresponsibility
Mark Steyn: Straw Man


Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 01.03.19

Posted on | January 4, 2019 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.03.19

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Ilhan Omar Gets Sworn Into Congress Today
Twitchy: Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) Introduces Constitutional Amendment To Eliminate Electoral College
Louder With Crowder: Someone Compiled Jordan Peterson’s Greatest Comebacks

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: 2019 – The Year Of The Powder Keg
American Thinker: No Sharia In America
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Fauxcahontas News
BattleSwarm: Pat Condell On The Anti-American Dream
CDR Salamander: An Army Historian’s D&G To The Navy
Da Tech Guy: Our 10th Anniversary Top Ten Posts Of All Time, also,  Add Gosnell To Your Queue
Don Surber: Trump Gets China To Buy Rice, also, Go Ahead, Impeach
Dustbury: Youthful Exuberance
First Street Journal: The Neocons Are Revolting!
The Geller Report: Racist Rep. Tlaib (D-MI) Removes Israel From Her Office Map, Replaces It With Palestine, also, States Consider Sex-Offender-Like Registries For Released Jihadis
Hogewash: Congress Convenes Today, also, Team Kimberlin Post of The Day
Hollywood In Toto: Golden Globes Hosts Vow No Trump Jokes
Joe For America: Jonny Kim – Navy SEAL, Doctor, And Now Astronaut – He’s Only 34!
JustOneMinute: How Do You Like Them Apples?
Legal Insurrection: Leading House Dem Introduces Articles Of Impeachment Against Trump, also, Fauxcahontas Campaign Already Defined By Her Native American Problem
The PanAm Post: Bolivians Go On Hunger Strike To Protest Morales Installation As President For Life
Power Line: Trump Trolls The Democrats, also, What We Have Learned So Far
Shark Tank: DeSantis Unveils More Appointments
Shot In The Dark: Surely There Must Be Some Mistake
STUMP: Geeking Out – The Best Way To Graph Stock Market Indices, also, New Book Project – A Dickens A Month
The Political Hat: Woke Geekdom – Social Justice Computer Games, Social Justice Board Games, and Social Justice Comics
This Ain’t Hell: Giraffe Riddle Resurrection, also, Muslim Patrol Cars Now On American Streets
Victory Girls: 116th Congress Convenes Today, And Liberals Are Revolting
Volokh Conspiracy: Laws Banning Organ Sales Kill Even More People Than Previously Thought
Weasel Zippers: Pelosi Thinks The Constitution Makes Her Trump’s Equal, also, Rep. Johnson (D-GA) Compares Trump To Hitler, Makes Horrifying Remarks About President’s Supporters
Megan McArdle: Instead Of Right & Left, Our Politics Are Increasingly Defined by Rooted & Mobile
Mark Steyn: Teaching The Masses A Lesson


Category: Linkagery

The Wheel Turns on SPLC’s Heidi Beirich

Posted on | January 3, 2019 | Comments Off on The Wheel Turns on SPLC’s Heidi Beirich

 

Exclusive news from PJMedia’s Tyler O’Neil:

In December 2018, a Baltimore lawyer filed a devastating lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and two of its employees. The SPLC targeted Glen Keith Allen over his former ties to the National Alliance (NA), a white nationalist group. In doing so, the liberal group allegedly violated laws and legal codes of conduct by receiving and then paying for stolen documents in violation of confidentiality agreements. The group went after Allen with the intent of getting him fired by the city of Baltimore and permanently destroying his future prospects. Allen’s suit claims that the SPLC should have its 501c3 tax-exempt status revoked, that it owes him restitution for racketeering, and that it should pay $6.5 million in damages. It also references Allen’s pro bono work on behalf of African-Americans and his mentorship of an African-American teen, powerfully rebutting claims that he is a racist. Allen told PJ Media he now regrets his NA support, and an African-American friend of his laughed at the idea of this lawyer being branded a racist.
Perhaps most importantly, the suit attacks the liberal group for undermining America’s tradition of free expression. In an August 2016 interview with The Washington Post cited in the lawsuit, SPLC Intelligence Project Director Heidi Beirich (a defendant in the case) claimed to have watched Allen “like a hawk” because he had “the worst ideas ever created.”
“This East Europe Communist thought-crime surveillance mentality is antithetical to fundamental American cultural and Constitutional principles protecting freedom of expression and association,” Allen wrote in the suit, which can be found on his website. His lawsuit uses concrete claims of lawbreaking and defamation to expose the SPLC’s Orwellian strategy of branding its opponents “hate groups” and orchestrating campaigns against them.
In August 2016, the SPLC published an article branding Allen a “neo-Nazi lawyer” and insinuating that this lawyer’s work for the city of Baltimore was racist. Beirich, the article’s author, smeared a small political party as racist and then published allegedly stolen documents protected by confidentiality agreements connecting Allen to the National Alliance.

(Hat-tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)

This makes me smile because it was Heidi Beirich who first falsely labeled me a “white supremacist” in a failed effort to get me fired from my job at The Washington Times. Have I ever told that story in its entirety? No, and I’ve never sued them, either (just the same as I turned down the opportunity to sue Twitter for banning me three years ago).

Over the years, the SPLC’s smear against me has been endlessly recycled, despite its self-evident falsehood. Anyone who actually knows me knows that I am not a “white supremacist,” and if I were concealing a crypto-Nazi agenda, you might think there would be substantial evidence of this. The paucity of evidence — beyond guilt-by-association smears and what I’ve called the “Ransom Note Method” of assembling parts of disparate statements to create a sort of word-collage — is particularly remarkable, given that I’ve been an independent blogger for 11 years now. How can anyone believe that it is my desire to incite hatred or advocate racial oppression, when I’ve published so many thousands of posts here, with no editor to filter my entirely candid expressions, but never once written anything that would justify the “white supremacist” label?

You see that my silence was strategic. The First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment are highly related. Just as I have the right to free speech, I also have the right to remain silent, and cannot be compelled to answer my accusers. During my 2009 blog war against LGF’s Charles Johnson, I used this to my advantage, following the advice someone once gave me: “Don’t get down in the tall grass with them.” That is to say, if you are innocent, there is no need to make a point-by-point rebuttal of every bit of “evidence” put forward by your self-appointed prosecutors in the court of public opinion. Did you say this “offensive” thing or did you associate with this notorious person? “Objection your honor — irrelevant.”

The so-called “evidence” cited by these Thought Police apparatchiks doesn’t matter, because the actual accusation is that you are somehow a menace to public safety, that you harbor sentiments that make you dangerous, and that you advocate wrongful treatment of others.

 

It is not illegal to express opinions with which Heidi Beirich disagrees, nor is it illegal to befriend people Heidi Beirich dislikes. And yet, as an employee of the SPLC, Dr. Beirich seemed to believe that she was authorized to determine the limits of our personal liberty. Because no one has ever offered to pay me to write the full story of my career as a Thought Criminal, and because I have not (yet) felt any need to share every detail of that saga, Dr. Beirich never understood my jocular good cheer in response to being defamed and, on advice of my close personal friend Bert the Samoan Lawyer, I have been content to watch patiently as she has proceeded down her chosen path to her inevitable destruction.

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Two words for you, Dr. Beirich: Deo Vindice.



 

Category: Culture, Racism

YouTube Suspends Jordan Peterson’s Daughter @MikhailaAleksis

Posted on | January 3, 2019 | 1 Comment

A screenshot of Mikhaila Peterson taken from a YouTube video was removed due to a spurious DMCA complaint.

 

If the Left ever decides you’re an Enemy of Social Justice, they won’t stop at trying to destroy your life, they’ll also attempt to destroy the lives of your family members. This appears to be the case with Professor Jordan Peterson’s daughter Mikhaila, whose YouTube account just got a “first strike” suspension because . . . “spam and deceptive practices”?

This is obviously bogus, as bogus as Twitter’s claim that I was a participant in “targeted abuse,” and anyone who has followed the SJW jihad since #GamerGate understands what is really happening. YouTube is owned by Google, a company that is controlled by SJWs; the company fired James Damore and is being sued for allegedly prohibiting the hiring of white males. While the Cultural Marxists within the company are afraid to ban such a high-profile free speech advocate as Jordan Peterson, they figured they could get away with punishing his daughter, depriving her of advertising revenue and whatever other limitations this “first strike” suspension involves. The process whereby Google enforces its terms of services, however, is arbitrary and opaque. We don’t know which SJW apparatchik inside the company imposed this “first strike,” and there is no way the executives at Google (all of whom are major Democrat campaign contributors, by the way) will give an honest explanation.

 

Because I don’t like to publicize the tactics these monsters use, I’ve never discussed some of the ways my family members have been targeted by the Left, but trust me when I say that being an Enemy of Social Justice is quite a dangerous occupation, and that there is no known limit to the Left’s vindictive methods. There is a reason why I always say the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

Category: Culture

In The Mailbox: 01.02.19

Posted on | January 3, 2019 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Expecting The System To Protect You Is A Losing Proposition
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #481 – Christmas Edition, also, Episode #488
EBL: Daryl Dragon, The Captain Of “Captain & Tennille”, RIP
Twitchy: Democrats Vent Their Rage At Campaign Reporters Who Kneecapped Hillary In 2016
Louder With Crowder: Border Patrol Agent Has Harsh Truth About Southern Border

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: President Trump Still Committed To Syria Withdrawal, also, Spending Less Time On Twitter
American Thinker: The Truth About Democrat Morality
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
BattleSwarm: Your Obligatory 2020 Democratic Party Presidential Horse Race Roundup
CDR Salamander: For 2019, Everything Needs To Get Harder
Da Tech Guy: My 2018 Posts That You Might Not Have Noticed, also, Your Five Favorite Posts Of 2018 And An Special Honorable Mention
Don Surber: First #FakeNews Of 2019, also, Reasons Why They Hate Trump
Dustbury: Error Code Begins With WTF
First Street Journal: What Will Be The Low Skill Jobs Of the Future?
The Geller Report: Watch Muslim WaPo Reporter Chanting “Death To America”, Other Greatest Hits, also, Muslim Migrants In Sweden Sending Kids To School In Somalia To prevent “Westernization”
Hogewash: Something Positive About President Trump, also, Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Hollywood In Toto: Rust Creek – Sly Feminism Sans Preaching
Joe For America: Woman Berates Flight Attendant For Calling Her “Miss” Instead Of “Doctor”
JustOneMinute: Mitt Is Back
Legal Insurrection: As Gov. Brown Leaves Office, He Blasts Rural Voters, Pardons Illegals Facing Deportation, also, Mitt Romney Casts A Pathetic Shadow
The PanAm Post: Beatriz Becerra – The MEP Fighting For Freedom In Nicaragua & Venezuela
Power Line: In Re Romney, also, Free Mumia?
Shark Tank: Matt Caldwell Reflects On 2018 & What Lies Ahead
Shot In The Dark:  Amateur Hour At Parkland
STUMP: Mortality With Meep – French Annuities & The Revolution, also, War & Peace – I AM DONE
The Jawa Report: Sandcrawler Report – Probe New Horizons Sets Records For Most Distant Dick Pic Ever
This Ain’t Hell: Wednesday Feelgood Stories, also, The Army, Needing Recruits, Turns To Liberal-Dominated Cities
Victory Girls: Democrats Refuse To Budge On Border Security Funds
Volokh Conspiracy: The Ever-Shifting Definition Of “Assault Weapons”
Weasel Zippers: Sheila Jackson Lee Pushes Reparations Bill, also, Republicans Blast Romney For WaPo Op-Ed
Megan McArdle: What Connects Trumplike Figures Around The World? The Internet
Mark Steyn: Campaign 2020 Update


Amazon Warehouse Deals
New Year New You

Category: Linkagery

‘They Took a Wild Chance’

Posted on | January 2, 2019 | Comments Off on ‘They Took a Wild Chance’

 

Smitty has already commented on Willard’s embarrassing anti-Trump column, so I’ll refrain from further comment on that. What seems to have eluded the comprehension of Sen.-elect Romney and other #NeverTrump Republicans — looking at you, Jonah Goldberg — is that their insulting disdain for our President is rooted in their elitist loathing of the people who voted for him. That is to say, Mitt and Jonah aren’t just against Trump, personally, but they are against the 62.9 million Americans who elected him. Considering themselves to possess the authority of Platonic archons, our elite deny that the people are capable of self-government, and thus oppose their right to choose their own rulers.

Trump won because he got more votes in key states — including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan — than Hillary Clinton. Also, quite relevantly, Trump got more votes in 2016 than did the Republican presidential candidate in 2012. Compare the outcomes:

PENNSYLVANIA
2012 — Romney 2,680,434 (46.6%), Obama 2,990,274 (52.0%)
2016 — Trump 2,970,733 (48.2%), Clinton 2,926,441 (47.5%)

OHIO
2012 — Romney 2,661,437 (47.7%), Obama 2,827,709 (50.7%)
2016 — Trump 2,841,005 (51.7%), Clinton 2,394,164 (43.6%)

MICHIGAN
2012 — Romney 2,115,256 (44.7%), Obama 2,564,569 (54.2%)
2016 — Trump 2,279,543 (47.5%), Clinton 2,268,839 (47.3%)

In these three Northern industrial states, the GOP vote increased by a combined total of 734,084 votes. However you explain this result, you cannot deny the fact that Trump got more votes and he did so despite the furious attacks of the liberal media establishment, and despite the vocal opposition of the #NeverTrump Republican elite. How much better would Trump’s re-election prospects be if his GOP critics would stop whining and start helping? Their endless petty complaints, their childish butthurt tantrums, are giving aid and comfort to the Democrats, and perhaps deliberately so. And it never seems to occur to the #NeverTrump crowd to wonder what was in the minds of those voters who elected Trump. Who are these people, anyway? Karol Markowicz is a Republican who didn’t vote for Trump, but who isn’t #NeverTrump:

To understand what happened, I devoured reporting about Trump voters and sought to understand them.
I wasn’t some liberal, mind you. I had worked for years in Republican politics. Yet I hadn’t known any Trump primary voters. I didn’t know his fans, his base.
Reading their concerns was eye-opening. They weren’t stupid, and they weren’t hateful. Mainstream politicians had ignored them for so long that they took a wild chance on the reality-TV star from Queens.

(Hat-tip: Hogewash.) Quite simply, the political elite of both parties are out of touch with the American heartland, and Trump was able to appeal to voters who felt their interests had been neglected. The elite’s objection to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” nationalism is evidence that our political establishment cares more about their own prestige than they do about the American people. The elite are our enemies.



 

Category: Donald Trump

It’s the Degeneracy, Stupid

Posted on | January 2, 2019 | 1 Comment

Instapundit calls attention to a study showing a 5-point IQ decline between men born in 1975 and those born in 1991 — between Generation X and Millennials, in other words — and researchers blame this on increased childhood time spent on computers, smartphones and videogames. Ace follows this with research showing that too much screen time contributes to psychiatric disorders among children.

While I don’t deny the destructive influence of all these gadgets, I think this research underestimates the ways in which demographic decadence has contributed to the decline in IQ. The problems that Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein described in The Bell Curve are highly relevant to any such discussion. If effective contraceptives are widely available, and if there are social pressures on young women to pursue college education and professional careers, fewer highly intelligent women will become mothers, and those who do become mothers will have fewer children. If the smartest women have the fewest children (and this is the general trend that has developed over the past 50 years), then the overall average IQ of the population will decline. This is not an opinion, but a fact — the science is settled — and our policy-makers have been ignoring the dysgenic trend for too long. Instead, we have doubled-down on a rhetoric of “empowerment” for women that is anti-natalist in effect, if not also in intent. There are limits to what can be done, in a free society, to reverse the disastrous demographic trends that have afflicted the United States in the past half-century. However, when we witness evidence of degeneracy, we ought not to pretend that we don’t know what we’re actually seeing, or what is causing our society’s descent into idiocy.

Could saying this be considered . . . offensive?

Here’s the thing: If you’re smart enough to comprehend the preceding paragraph, then obviously you must be quite intelligent. Besides which, people who enjoy reading about politics and current events are quite generally above-average. (Stupid people just watch TV.) It should be obvious that I, as a conservative, would never advocate any policy that would infringe anyone’s constitutional liberty. But what has happened is that the elites who control our institutions of education and communication do not wish to permit a free discussion of these demographic realities. You cannot solve a problem you’re not allowed to discuss, and so we keep drifting toward catastrophe in eerie silence.

UPDATE: Of course, Mike Judge’s 2006 film Idiocracy might be helpful instruction, for those too stupid or lazy to read books.



 

Category: Culture, Education
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