Posse Incitatus

Shoeless Joe Jackson; Spineless Joe Biden

My headline was just a feeble attempt at alliteration ... I'll tell you why "Sleepy Joe," as the Trumpster calls him, is spineless, but first let me digress a bit on Joe Jackson --- two of 'em, as a matter of fact.

First, there's the British musician named Joe Jackson who had several hits in the late 1970s / early 1980s, including "Is She Really Going Out With Him" and "Steppin' Out." He's a talented composer, pianist and producer. But other than his name, he has little in common with the other two Joe's I'm writing about.

As for "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, you have to go back six or seven decades prior to the musician's heyday. In the early 1900's SJJ was a star outfielder for the Chicago White Sox. He got his nickname when, while playing in a game in his native South Carolina, he removed a pair of cleats that were giving his feet blisters, and went to bat in his socks. He got a hit and ran the base paths in his socks. According to Wikipedia, a fan shouted out, "You shoeless son of a gun, you!" and the name stuck.

SJJ was associated with the infamous Chicago Black Sox scandal in which Jackson and seven other White Sox players were accused of accepting bribes to throw the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Although a jury acquitted the eight players two years later, the commissioner of baseball banned them from ever playing again.

So there's my daily dose of digression... Now on to Spineless Joe Biden, a hack who has had his own shameful moments and foolish gaffes over the years. So many, in fact, that I'm not going to regurgitate them, except to say that it still gives me a good belly laugh whenever I watch that video of Sleepy Joe acknowledging a man in a wheelchair and asking him to stand up and be recognized. "Oh, what am I doing," Joe chided himself. "God love ya, man! Let's everybody stand up and give Chuck a hand..."

In recent months, Biden has positioned himself as a moderate Democrat -- the one out of the two dozen or so contestants who has a legitimate chance of beating Trump in 2020. Without coming out and saying it, his messaging seems to be implying what former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill said during the 2018 election (she lost): "I'm not one of those crazy Democrats."

But one thing has been a liability to Biden in his bid to secure the Democrat nomination (one thing, that is, discounting the fact he's an old white guy in a skin pigmentation-obsessed party): His longtime support for the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits use of federal funds to pay for abortions (with exceptions being to save the mother's life or if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest).

So, sure as clockwork, Biden folded like a cheap suit. He came out a few weeks ago and did an about-face, saying he was wrong to support the Hyde Amendment all of those years. "I can't justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to exercise their constitutionally protected right," he said, hoping to get back in the good graces of his party's significant left flank.

But I strongly suspect Biden will lose more prospective voters than he'll gain from this gutless, spineless move. Lunch Pail Joe loves to boast about the fact he grew up in working class Scranton, Pa., and is a so-called devout Roman Catholic. Twenty or 30 years ago -- long before the craziness of transgendered identity politics and fantasies about abolishing fossil fuels overtook his party --  Biden attracted blue collar, working class voters who traditionally had supported Democrats.

But now, many of those folks are in Trump's camp. They're fed up with radicalism and unsettling cultural changes being shoved down their throats. They deeply resent being labeled bitter clingers and deplorables by millions of smug, elitist Democrats who think they're smarter than the rest of us and whose contempt for flyover country knows no limits.

What Biden did in casting aside the Hyde amendment is similar to what many RINOs have done in recent years when they decided to abandon their previous pro-life positions and become "pro-choice" in hopes they could peel off more independent voters and moderate Republicans from their Democrat opponents. Yes, they may attract a few more of those suburban soccer moms and RINO Republicans, but they will also lose plenty of conservatives who will either vote for a third party candidate or won't vote at all in that election because they rightfully consider abortion to be a heinous act. It's happened time and time again.

What the heck: It's Saturday and I've already started off by rambling about a musician and a baseball player. Why not throw in a crude analogy about Joe: He's like a divorced 40-year-old woman, emotionally scarred, yet still somewhat attractive, and milling about the singles bar competing against babes half her age. Looking for Cougar opportunities, she's hiked up her skirt, put on tons of makeup and  lipstick, downed a few drinks to eliminate whatever shred of modesty and inhibition she once had, and basically advertised herself as willing to go home and put out for the first (non-slug) guy who asks her. In other words, Biden has zero principles, and it's painfully obvious.

The corrupt media has been replete with polls showing how Biden could beat Trump in the general election, and here in Michigan, they're saying Sleepy Joe leads Orange Julius by 11 points. Ah, but lest we forget, Hillary was favored over Crazy Bernie Sanders by 20 points in Michigan's May 2016 Democrat primary, and the old Marxist beat her. Polls are about as reliable as forecasts from economists and weathermen. In other words, not very accurate.

Which enables me to segue into another thought:

HAD ENOUGH ABUSE? I have been one of many conservatives asking for years why the African American community doesn't wake up and stop blindly giving 90-95 percent support to Democrats in presidential elections. I am encouraged that thanks to articulate, intelligent black spokespeople such as Candice Owens and Allen West, more and more blacks are realizing that the Democrats' opposition to school choice, open borders immigration policies, support of gay marriage and transgendered identity politics, and advocacy of Planned Parenthood are positions that are destroying large swaths of the African American community. Because of these issues and the healthy economy, I'd be willing to bet that black support for Trump will shock the dimwits of the corrupt and inept media. It might be surprisingly high -- maybe in the 20-30 percent range. Another group that needs to wake up and smell the coffee is Jewish Americans, who have traditionally supported Democrats. The anti-semitism among Democrats is raging like a wildfire, and the cowardly Democrat House couldn't even bring itself to pass a strongly worded resolution denouncing anti-Semitic bigot Rep. Ilhan Omar for her anti-Jewish remarks. Expect a fair number of these Democrats to either vote for Trump or simply sit out the 2020 presidential election. Bad news for Democrats, but they're so off-the-charts egotistical and narcissistic, I doubt they even realize it.

 

 

 

 

 

Oberlin college gets smacked for $44 million in defamation suit

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

Folks who haven't been following the case closely  may not know that Ohio's ultra-liberal Oberlin College got in to a bit of hot water when its administration decided to weaponize the students against a local bakery.

Legal Insurrection has provided exhaustive coverage, which I will not bother repeating.  

What's significant is that a liberal-dominated institution did its usual thing: insult and try to destroy honest, hard-working people with an onslaught of lies.  When it failed, they figured they could just walk away.

The jurors disagreed.

For too long the people who style themselves the elites have treated individual reputations like toilet paper - something to be smeared with feces and then flushed away.

Part of the problem is that the US Supreme Court gravely weakened libel law, making it hard for the little guy to defend himself.

All that seems to be changing, and the ruling class has no one to blame but themselves.  Read through the link I gave and ponder the combination of arrogance and incompetence at work here.  These people should be asking if you want a shot of whipped cream on your latte, not boasting of their academic achievement.  It is a mark of the terminal decline of higher education that these people somehow achieved positions of prominence.

I'll be watching the Covington Kids cases with great interest, because here too, the rich and powerful will finally find themselves held to account by the commoners.

 

Pedestal of Losers

CNN is truly a pathetic network. It continues to pretend it's an authentic news network while actually serving as a 24/7 Trump-bashing propaganda machine. Its ratings are so low, on any given night it has around 760,000 viewers during primetime. That's about 0.3 percent of the adult population.

In addition to having a staff full of left-wing sympathizers who have no objectivity and limited professionalism, CNN has a sophomoric habit of putting ridiculous "experts" on the air to bolster its flimsy case against President Trump for the RUSSIA!™ hysteria.

A few months ago, it was slip-and-fall LOYA Michael Avenatti and porn star Stormy Daniels. Max Boot, a largely discredited hack pundit who's wrong as often as Bill Kristol, is a CNN "analyst." Let's put it this way: Boot is a Washington Post columnist! That tells  you all you need to know.

The latest idiot to be put up on a pedestal, revered by CNN's brain-dead fans, is convicted felon John Dean, White House Counsel under Richard M. Nixon (that's 46 years ago, for those who are counting). Apparently, because he obstructed justice, Dean is an expert who will shed light on Trump's alleged obstruction of justice.

To give you an idea how inane Dean's "analysis" is, he compares Nixon's firing of Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox to Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey in May 2017. News flash: President Bill Clinton obstructed justice, and that was only 20 years ago. Far more people know who he was. But it would be a cold day in hell before he would come on and speculate about Trump obstructing justice. That would be beyond the pale.

Hate to burst your bubble, CNN, but most people these days don't know John Dean from Adam. Putting him up on a pedestal as a big gun in the analytical annals is tantamount to boasting about an exclusive interview with the "Fifth Beatle" -- Pete Best? Stuart Sutcliffe? Whatever. It's largely irrelevant, as is Dean.

CNN's business model -- bash Trump all day, every day and attempt to drive down his poll ratings so much that he's not a viable candidate for re-election -- is failing. But rather than be wise and change course, they double down by parading out piss-poor "experts" and useless hacks whom they put on the air 'round the clock. 

The behavior of CNN reminds me of the corporations my esteemed co-blogger has mentioned that pursue policies that hurt their bottom line just so they can engage in feel-good virtue-signaling. Collusion flopped; obstruction of justice will, too. Now Dean is dusting off the old Watergate analogies. 

CNN, like so many hysterical loons on the left, will just keep throwing as much shit against the wall as it can, in hopes some will stick. It's truly a sad state of affairs, but then, often those who need help the most are the least aware of it. Denial, as they say, is not a river in Africa.

The social conservative rebellion

Sohrab Ahmari’s frontal assault on David French seems to have been the spark that lit the powderkeg.  The pile-on from the right is reaching epic proportions.

The newly rebooted Human Events has taken up the sword, hacking away at David French-ism in general and National Review in particular.

Over at American Greatness, Julie Kelly came flying off the top rope to pin French to the mat, while her colleague Matthew Boose metaphorically swatted the stunned Pharisee with a folding chair when he tried to get up.

The response of French and his acolytes is both predictable and revealing.

Naturally, French doubled-down on his virtue, and his followers were quick to remind everyone of the things they already knew (because he keeps bringing it up) about his family life and military service.  This was the predictable part.

What was revealing was that French also began playing the “beware a Christian theocracy” card, which is a staple of the liberal left, even as it makes nuns pay for birth control and persecutes Christian bakers and florists.

Since French was making a liberal argument, naturally the liberals have applauded and the usual suspects who normally bash National Review and French are now portraying them as the “good guys” and the “reasonable” wing of the conservative movement.

So far, this is little more than a catfight among the swamp creatures who dwell inside the beltway, but out in the hinterland, something else happened.

For the first time I can recall, a Catholic bishop has formally denied Holy Communion to nominally Catholic politicians for their voting record.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield put out a public statement that the President of the Illinois Senate and the state Speaker of the House (both Democrats, naturally) were barred from Communion because of their support for legislation legalizing virtually all abortion up to the moment of birth.  The Bishop also included any other nominal Catholic politicians in his diocese who voted for the vile measures.

This hard line against “cafeteria Catholics” is a long time coming and demonstrates that the frustration of Ahmari is not unique.  For decades Catholics have tolerated politicians who profess to share their faith and then vote to undermine and persecute it at every opportunity.

All of these events make clear that social conservatives are tired of being used by the corporatist liberals who run Conservatism, Inc. 

For decades the “social liberal but fiscal conservative” recipe has been pitched as the key to a successful GOP majority.  It has failed utterly.

I think a crucial step in cracking this coalition was the failure of the GOP leadership to defund Planned Parenthood when Republicans controlled both branches of Congress and the presidency.  This was an easy thing to do, and – given the horrible news that Planned Parenthood made money selling off baby parts – utterly defensible.

But instead Congress could only rouse itself for corporate tax cuts.  Actually keeping its pledge to the Right to Life movement was too much to ask.

These people may have claimed to support conservative positions, but they were always liberals at heart.

How else to explain their sudden eagerness to hop in board the gay marriage bandwagon?  It’s telling that Ahmari’s example of degeneracy (a drag queen reading to young children) draw such a vehement defense from French, who insisted that really, there was nothing to be done to stop it other than ask nicely.

I’ve been using the phrase Quisling Never Trumper for a while now, but it’s clear the treason goes well beyond the advent of the Trumpening.  These people kept losing not because they were too principled to fight, but because they secretly internalized all of the lies of the left.

They were always liberals.

And now they've been revealed.  The super-religiousity was a blind to dupe their fellow Christians into confusing "nice" with "faith."

For example, early on, Ahmari was asked if he "loved his enemies" in regards to the liberal left.

You see, if he didn't, he was a hypocrite and UnChristian.

Note that no one asks David French if he loves Donald Trump.  Mr. Super-Christian can dump hate on him all day long and that's okay because it's righteous, liberal hate.

At any rate, the curtain has now been pulled aside and social conservatives are acting accordingly.

The Longest Day

What better headline than the title of a book and movie, both all-time classics, about the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, 75 years ago today?

When I contemplate the enormity of the D-Day invasion, it overwhelms me. Some 160,000 troops. The complex logistics; the months of planning; the military leadership; and America's industrial sector transforming itself into a unified producer of military weapons and equipment ... Superseding all of that was the courage and valor of the troops, the staggering toll in terms of lives lost and grievous injuries -- these are incredible in the annals of human history. Today's technology means there will never be another land battle tantamount to Normandy or Gettysburg, and that's something for which to be grateful ... UNTIL one considers the possibility of nuclear war. But not to get off track...

Too many people these days do not realize what a prodigious clash this was: Liberty Vs. Tyranny. The preservation of Western Civilization. Human rights vs. human atrocities. The evil Nazi fortress of the Normandy bluffs -- batteries, mortars, machine guns, pillboxes and bunkers, and untold machine guns, cannons, grenades, and minefields ... This hellish arsenal was a tangible representation of the heinous, malevolent Nazi ideology.

The Americans brilliantly fooled the Germans into thinking the main amphibious landing would be near the French port city of Calais, where the Germans installed three massive gun batteries. Even after the bloody beachhead invasion, there were months of bitter battles amidst the hedgerows and ditches further inland. France would prove to be a major killing field, but it was also the turning point of World War II. 

There are plenty of good books and movies describing the heroism, the suffering, the grit and determination of the Allied forces. It is my sincere hope that the young people of America, many of whom have little knowledge of history because of the schools they attended, will take an interest in this topic and desire to learn more about it -- through books, movies, museums, and maybe even by visiting Normandy. And to this day, millions of French people are grateful for what the Americans did. We read and hear a lot about snobbish, elitist French who look down on Americans. But these are like our coastal elites: Not truly representative of their fellow citizens.

Patriotism, sadly, is waning in America. Whiny victimhood, identity politics and "blame America first" attitudes are on the rise. Just a little bit of knowledge about the suffering and sacrifice of Normandy would make most decent people ashamed that they ever whined about poor cellular service, a power outage or bad service at a restaurant.

Would that today's millennials realized that there were no "safe spaces" for the Allied soldiers, who faced a barrage of gunfire rather than politically incorrect speech or Twitter shaming. There were no "trigger warnings" -- only triggers pulled to unleash a barrage of bullets. And "micro-agressions"? Not when we're talking machine guns and heavy artillery.

We owe an unending debt of gratitude to our American heroes. There are still a few American veterans alive who fought at Normandy. But their numbers have dwindled to a precious few. We need to ensure them of our gratitude and remind them of their crucial role in American history -- part of a special, forever heralded group that showed uncommon bravery and valiancy. Call it the greatest generation of the greatest nation.

Thank you, heroes, and Godspeed!

 

Case in Point...

Belatedly, I would like to extend my condolences and prayers to the victims and those who lost loved ones Friday when a City of Virginia Beach engineer opened fire on coworkers at the end of the workday, killing 12 and injuring four before being killed himself in a gun battle with police.

I have a brother-in-law who has worked for 15 years in the same municipal complex where the shootings occurred, and I even had a job interview there back in 2004, so I am well familiar with those buildings. On Friday afternoon, I texted Charlie and was concerned when I hadn't heard back from him in an hour. My son, who is close to his Uncle Charlie, had the good sense to call him. After he spoke with him, he called my wife and gave us the good news that Charlie was okay. Shortly after that, Charlie called me, and I expressed my profound relief that he was safe, but our conversation was brief as he needed to call others, and his sister was on the other line. 

It is always tempting for leftists to pigeonhole criminals and regurgitate tiresome talking points when it comes to firearms related mass killings such as Friday's horror.

But more often than not, there is nuance involved with perpetrators of such crimes, and it is easy to decimate liberal arguments for gun control, gun free zones and expanded background checks. Liberals are champing at the bit for a shooter to be an angry white male, a Christian, a Trump supporter, a racist neo-Nazi skinhead, a right-wing social media blowhard. This feeds their hateful, spiteful narrative about the political opposition. It's deeply disappointing to them when the perpetrator turns out to be a black man, as was the case here, or has any other characteristics that don't fit the left-wing narrative.

It's also, to use Al Gore's term, an "inconvenient truth" when background checks and a gun-free zone failed to prevent the horrible slaughter. The perpetrator in Friday's atrocity was a seemingly straight-laced 40-year-old with no criminal record. He had a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and had served in the Army National Guard. But he apparently did not engage in social media, and was not known for being outspoken about politics.

But he did acquire some firearms in the months leading up to the shootings, and given that he had served in the military, I'm willing to bet he could shoot well. So again, beefed up background checks would not have deterred this crime, nor would they have revealed whatever demons were troubling the perpetrator.

As for the matter of gun-free zones, it's obvious to anyone with common sense that such areas represent soft targets that are highly desirable for those bent on shooting and killing as many innocent people as possible, with little or no chance of opposition.

The Commonwealth of Virginia operates on a "shall issue" policy for concealed carry permits. Supposing a few people in the building the gunman hit had been armed when the assault went down. There's a good chance lives would have been saved. Now, it's always possible an innocent person -- or several -- could have been hit in the crossfire when a good citizen attempted to shoot the gunman. But I still say fewer people would have been killed if armed resistance had preceded the arrival of the police.

In this case, we were fortunate that the Virginia Beach Police Department Headquarters is located only a few hundred yards from the municipal complex, meaning a quick response, or many more people might have died. But there's no questions that many other mass killings in recent years would not have taken so many lives had armed opposition been present as soon as shots rang out.

Mass murders, whether committed by guns, bombs, planes used as missiles, or trucks driven through crowds, often have at their root hatred, insanity and / or undiagnosed severe mental illness. Perpetrators of mass murder through firearms don't care that there are thousands of gun control laws on the books. They flagrantly disobey these laws. Gun-free zones, expanded background checks and absurd rules that restrict magazine capacity for semi-automatic rifles are largely ineffective. (In the case of the magazines, the vast majority of firearm homicides involve handguns, but since when do liberals let logic and facts get in the way of their emotions and virtue-signaling?)

As the Daily Caller points out, the Democrats -- er, DEMAGOGUES -- were quick to politicize this horrible Virginia Beach crime, turning it into another futile plea for more gun control. Some things never change. Some people choose to remain willfully dense. Guess we'll just have to learn to live with it.