Thursday, May 4, 2017, will go down as a watershed moment in political history. This day showed us the culmination of all of the vices of our 28-year addiction to the binary idolatry of politics. Under the false dichotomy of binary choices (“but you might get the Democrats”), we are left with a political system that looks like a bad unibrow. If we don’t engage in some serious introspection and forward-looking planning, there is essentially no purpose to continuing this red vs. blue game. We have reached the moment when, just like the Whigs in 1854, after they failed to stand for anything related to the issues of their time, a group of us will have to meet in a schoolhouse and chart a new course.Keep reading.
Speaking of binary choices, I began the day with the choice of watching C-Span 1, where House Republicans sounded like Democrats on health care and were making ObamaCare popular again, or watching C-Span 2 and seeing Senate Republicans extol the virtues of a Democrat budget while having full control over government. For my own blood pressure, I opted for neither.
The events of Thursday – betraying the ultimate promise to save a sixth of our economy and pass a Democrat budget, all with control of all three branches – is the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act moment for the GOP. I am not comparing these issues to slavery, but the political dynamic is identical. At the time, the new Republicans recognized that the Whig Party was completely maladroit and failed to confront the consummate challenge of its time. That is the context from which the Republican Party was born. Yet we have now been keeping a comatose party afloat for 28 years – since the retirement of Reagan – longer than the entire shelf life of the Whig Party.
Too many people will get caught up in the minutiae of the politics, details, and process of the health care and budget bills. The reality is much broader. The party just doesn’t share our values. When a party has principles, it finds a way to win even when it has very little power. Thus the Democrats. When a party has no principles, it finds a way to lose, even with full control of government. Thus the Republicans...
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Conservatives Need Deep Soul-Searching
From Daniel Horowitz, at Conservative Review, "After budget betrayal, conservatives need deep soul-searching":
Carmen Goséy, 'Woke' Student Leader at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Attacks 'All White People' as 'Racist'
This is really something else.
I don't get too many students who are this hardcore on my campus. This chick's got it bad.
At the the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Daily Cardinal, "Outgoing ASM chair condemns university’s attitude toward students of color."
Here's her farewell letter:
I don't get too many students who are this hardcore on my campus. This chick's got it bad.
At the the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Daily Cardinal, "Outgoing ASM chair condemns university’s attitude toward students of color."
And at the College Fix, "Head of UW-Madison student gov. leaves in a huff; blames racism, oppression."Former ASM Chair issued a letter to the campus community condemning UW-Madison's treatment of students of color. https://t.co/zTc44WQyzG pic.twitter.com/XB1s92ALrN— The Daily Cardinal (@dailycardinal) May 4, 2017
Here's her farewell letter:
Dear Campus Community,Seriously, "woke."
As I move on from the role as Chair of Student Council, I believe it is necessary to leave honestly. The University is on stolen, Ho-Chunk land, yet does little to recognize its historic significance. For the University to truly recognize this sacred land and its inhabitants it would have to acknowledge the resentment and oppression that people of color face every day. This institution perpetuates and suppresses the voices that are the most vulnerable. As Chair, I used to be hopeful. I used to be proud. I am no longer content with the University's action and active silencing of students of color on this campus. I ask people of color to reconsider your place at this institution. I ask parents of color to rethink sending your children to this institution.
This University lacks the capacity, courage, and integrity to protect communities of color. I have held one of the highest student positions on campus, and I was a token for white supremacists. In my first semester, I was ambitious to implement change and new initiatives surrounding diversity and inclusion. However, I found myself lost and defeated. I was operating in a white position as a person of color. Now I see that this University was not designed for the success of minority communities; it was designed for white students to learn about my oppression while not having to participate in dismantling it. I have struggled with the juxtaposition of my identity and representing a campus that does not look like me or remotely relate to my experience.
Racism is an institutionalized structure which is embedded in ASM and the University. Racism is a system designed to disadvantage people of color and create inequalities in each pocket os society. All white people are racist. Not only by upholding a system of disadvantage but being born into a conditioned environment where you are many steps ahead. Being a racist is not an option, it is a condition. However, being an anti-racist is a choice. A choice that white people will have to make which boils down to what they are willing to do to actively participate in deconstructing racism.
My last and final words call out an unfortunate reality; this institution does not care about people of color. This institution does care about people of color.
Sincerely,
Your woke, ratchet 23rd ASM Chair Carmen Goséy
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Steve Bannon and Julius Evola
At the time, a few weeks months ago, the progressive Twitter literati was all "lit" up about this piece, at NYT, "Steve Bannon Cited Italian Thinker Who Inspired Fascists":
This is why Trump won. And it's why Americans hate politics and the corrupt leftist media.
More (FWIW).
Steve Bannon Cited Italian Thinker Who Inspired Fascists. @jasondhorowitz via @nytimes https://t.co/FaVVkYi6OT— Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani) February 19, 2017
ROME — Those trying to divine the roots of Stephen K. Bannon’s dark and at times apocalyptic worldview have repeatedly combed over a speech that Mr. Bannon, President Trump’s ideological guru, made in 2014 to a Vatican conference, where he expounded on Islam, populism and capitalism.You see, it's very important to document how Trump's key advisers may have been --- or may not have been --- influenced by esoteric fascist thinkers from the 1930s who nobody's even heard about. But when Obama spent a lifetime at the teat of the most radical Marxists, Weather Underground terrorists, and black liberation revolutionaries, to even raise concerns is "racist," gauche, and thus fundamentally lowbrow. You're clinging to guns and religion, bro.
But for all the examination of those remarks, a passing reference by Mr. Bannon to an esoteric Italian philosopher has gone little noticed, except perhaps by scholars and followers of the deeply taboo, Nazi-affiliated thinker, Julius Evola.
“The fact that Bannon even knows Evola is significant,” said Mark Sedgwick, a leading scholar of Traditionalists at Aarhus University in Denmark.
Evola, who died in 1974, wrote on everything from Eastern religions to the metaphysics of sex to alchemy. But he is best known as a leading proponent of Traditionalism, a worldview popular in far-right and alternative religious circles that believes progress and equality are poisonous illusions.
Evola became a darling of Italian Fascists, and Italy’s post-Fascist terrorists of the 1960s and 1970s looked to him as a spiritual and intellectual godfather.
They called themselves Children of the Sun after Evola’s vision of a bourgeoisie-smashing new order that he called the Solar Civilization. Today, the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn includes his works on its suggested reading list, and the leader of Jobbik, the Hungarian nationalist party, admires Evola and wrote an introduction to his works.
More important for the current American administration, Evola also caught on in the United States with leaders of the alt-right movement, which Mr. Bannon nurtured as the head of Breitbart News and then helped harness for Mr. Trump.
“Julius Evola is one of the most fascinating men of the 20th century,” said Richard Spencer, the white nationalist leader who is a top figure in the alt-right movement, which has attracted white supremacists, racists and anti-immigrant elements.
In the days after the election, Mr. Spencer led a Washington alt-right conference in chants of “Hail Trump!” But he also invoked Evola’s idea of a prehistoric and pre-Christian spirituality — referring to the awakening of whites, whom he called the Children of the Sun.
Mr. Spencer said “it means a tremendous amount” that Mr. Bannon was aware of Evola and other Traditionalist thinkers.
“Even if he hasn’t fully imbibed them and been changed by them, he is at least open to them,” he said. “He at least recognizes that they are there. That is a stark difference to the American conservative movement that either was ignorant of them or attempted to suppress them.”
Mr. Bannon, who did not return a request for comment for this article, is an avid and wide-ranging reader. He has spoken enthusiastically about everything from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” to “The Fourth Turning” by William Strauss and Neil Howe, which sees history in cycles of cataclysmic and order-obliterating change. His awareness of and reference to Evola in itself only reflects that reading. But some on the alt-right consider Mr. Bannon a door through which Evola’s ideas of a hierarchical society run by a spiritually superior caste can enter in a period of crisis.
“Evolists view his ship as coming in,” said Prof. Richard Drake at the University of Montana, who wrote about Evola in his book “The Revolutionary Mystique and Terrorism in Contemporary Italy.”
For some of them, it has been a long time coming.
“It’s the first time that an adviser to the American president knows Evola, or maybe has a Traditionalist formation,” said Gianfranco De Turris, an Evola biographer and apologist based in Rome who runs the Evola Foundation out of his apartment.
“If Bannon has these ideas, we have to see how he influences the politics of Trump,” he said...
This is why Trump won. And it's why Americans hate politics and the corrupt leftist media.
More (FWIW).
Brittany Pettibone
Following-up from yesterday, "Macron's Regime: So It Begins."
She traveled to France to cover the election --- in style, I might add.
She traveled to France to cover the election --- in style, I might add.
Off to Paris for the French Election. May Le Pen be victorious! pic.twitter.com/eLnoKSkNmu
— Brittany Pettibone (@BrittPettibone) May 5, 2017
Why Macron Won
Here's NYT "voxsplaining" the French election:
You know, that's fair enough, as far as it goes. I wouldn't vote for a party that was essentially the Vichy warmed over. But that's not what the National Front is today. Alas, too late. The party's going to change its name, attempting to put its so-called collaborationist, right-wing extremist, immigrant-hating, and racist anti-Semitic history behind. At Politico:
Et voilà. MUST READ this very good @AdamNossiter analysis of why Emmanuel Macron won and Marine Le Pen lost. https://t.co/EPWo2V6ofz— Rachel Donadio — NYT (@RachelDonadio) May 8, 2017
PARIS — The French presidential runoff transcended national politics. It was globalization against nationalism. It was the future versus the past. Open versus closed.More.
But in his resounding victory on Sunday night, Emmanuel Macron, the centrist who has never held elected office, won because he was the beneficiary of a uniquely French historic and cultural legacy, where many voters wanted change but were appalled at the type of populist anger that had upturned politics in Britain and the United States. He trounced the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, keeping her well under 40 percent, even as her aides said before the vote that anything below that figure would be considered a failure.
His victory quickly brought joy from Europe’s political establishment, especially since a Le Pen victory would have plunged the European Union into crisis. But in the end, Mr. Macron, only 39, a former investment banker and an uninspired campaigner, won because of luck, an unexpected demonstration of political skill, and the ingrained fears and contempt that a majority of French still feel toward Ms. Le Pen and her party, the National Front.
For the past year, a pressing political question has been whether widespread public frustration against Western political establishments had morphed into a global populist movement. Britain’s vote to leave the European Union last June, followed by the presidential election of Donald J. Trump in the United States, created the impression of a mounting wave. Ms. Le Pen, stalwart of the European far right, was the next truly big test.
But Ms. Le Pen’s challenge was different because French history is different. She has spent the last six years as president of the National Front single-mindedly focused on one objective: erasing the stain of her party’s association with the ex-collaborationists, right-wing extremists, immigrant-hating racists and anti-Semites who founded it 45 years ago.
She knew — as her father, the party patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen, always refused to acknowledge — that she would always be a minority candidate as long as she reminded the French of perhaps the greatest stain in their history, the four years of far-right rule during World War II. Inside and outside the party this process was called “undemonization” — a term suggesting the demons still associated with her party. The French do not want them back.
“There was no choice. I couldn’t vote for Le Pen. You’re not going to vote for the extremist,” said Martine Nurit, 52, a small-restaurant owner who had just cast her ballot in Paris’s 20th Arrondissement on Sunday. She had voted for the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round, on April 23, and it was with “not an ounce of joy” that she voted for the “business-oriented” Mr. Macron in the second.
“Mostly, I voted against Le Pen,” she said.
In the end Ms. Le Pen failed to “undemonize,” spectacularly. She failed during the course of the campaign, when her angry rallies drew the Front inexorably back into the swamp from which it had emerged. And then she failed decisively in one of the campaign’s critical moments, last week’s debate with Mr. Macron, when she effectively “redemonized” herself and the party, as many French commentators noted...
You know, that's fair enough, as far as it goes. I wouldn't vote for a party that was essentially the Vichy warmed over. But that's not what the National Front is today. Alas, too late. The party's going to change its name, attempting to put its so-called collaborationist, right-wing extremist, immigrant-hating, and racist anti-Semitic history behind. At Politico:
National Front will change its name after Le Pen’s defeat https://t.co/psbUtUDRA4 pic.twitter.com/90v1Yh2aGj
— POLITICO Europe (@POLITICOEurope) May 7, 2017
Victims of Communism Day
Via David Horowitz, on Twitter:
Communist May Day - now a day of protest for progressive neo-communists. Here's an informed view: https://t.co/OtrmAzy3zr
— David Horowitz (@horowitz39) May 1, 2017
Uncensored Richard Nixon Interview with Pat Buchanan from 1982 (VIDEO)
This showed up in my featured recommendations, and it's worth a look.
Take the way-back machine to the early years of cable television, and I guess, the rehabilitation of Richard Nixon:
Take the way-back machine to the early years of cable television, and I guess, the rehabilitation of Richard Nixon:
Pepe the Frog is Dead
Pepe is Dead. Long Live Pepe!
Heh.
At Althouse, "'Pepe the Frog is dead' — as depicted in the new comic strip by Matt Furie, the artist who originally drew the character."
I don't take this stuff too seriously, but apparently some people do, including the cartoonist who created Pepe.
At the BBC:
Heh.
At Althouse, "'Pepe the Frog is dead' — as depicted in the new comic strip by Matt Furie, the artist who originally drew the character."
I don't take this stuff too seriously, but apparently some people do, including the cartoonist who created Pepe.
At the BBC:
Pepe the Frog 'is killed off to avoid being a hate symbol' https://t.co/MONlOpnxZ3
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 8, 2017
Rule 5
Lovely.
@TwistysExile @TMBbyCiccio @kkoij75 @withlovealways2 @BrutuslWallie @goodstuffpage @Naughty_Flash @kokoroco25 @hannahobeyed @mayasroses @cCynthii @pjot_rock @elisomed5 @bustersmith6 @h20kogi @Daisykia @Elsie_geselsie @koerperkontakt @LourdesDean88 @vill_ha_dig @lovesladys57 @isrc1970 @Ginaoben @Tedhenrya @K__S__J__A @vipgirls4free @desires_unknown @daddyskitty6 @Coach0302 🦋@TwistysExile🦋#ClassyBabes#TeamBeauty#VIP pic.twitter.com/hmwyfbjUOP
— ღ Sabrina ღ 158K (@saby292) May 2, 2017
Monday, May 8, 2017
Amber Lee's Slightly Warmer Forecast
It was mild today. Perfectly nice weather. And no rain, heh.
Here's the lovely Ms. Amber, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
Here's the lovely Ms. Amber, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
California Democrats to End Ban on Communists in State Government
I had to sign a loyalty oath when I was a teaching assistant at U.C. Santa Barbara. I have to admit, I was caught off guard when the form was first handed to me. I'd never had to do that before, but of course I had no problem with it. It just seemed so hardcore.
I'm older today, though. And given the nature of leftist subversion, I think it's a big mistake to do away those requirements now. Frankly, some of the Republicans are furious at this piece, at the Sacramento Bee, via Memeorandum, "California may end ban on communists in government jobs."
I'm older today, though. And given the nature of leftist subversion, I think it's a big mistake to do away those requirements now. Frankly, some of the Republicans are furious at this piece, at the Sacramento Bee, via Memeorandum, "California may end ban on communists in government jobs."
California may end ban on communists in government jobs (Sophia Bollag / Associated Press) https://t.co/jLWuU6ie3h https://t.co/WfS1t1ZLWI
— memeorandum (@memeorandum) May 9, 2017
Macron's Regime: So It Begins
Seen at Brittany Pettibone's feed:
ADDED: It's worth noting, but this Breitbart piece is a week old. Still, it definitely "begins" with the election of that dang macaroon.
And so it begins. pic.twitter.com/Upa8AKmBJW— Brittany Pettibone (@BrittPettibone) May 8, 2017
ADDED: It's worth noting, but this Breitbart piece is a week old. Still, it definitely "begins" with the election of that dang macaroon.
Emmanuel Macron, No Nutritional Value
Francesca Eastwood in See Through Sweater
At Taxi Driver:
Francesca Eastwood Braless in See Through Tight Sweater - https://t.co/EblEMHkxPs - pic.twitter.com/ZqFtkoMfRY
— Taxi Driver (@TaxiDriverMovie) May 8, 2017
Lindsey Pelas Braless in See Through Dress
At Taxi Driver:
Lindsey Pelas Braless in See Through Tight Dress - https://t.co/6oqCrerQ1E - pic.twitter.com/4jhDuT8jrJ
— Taxi Driver (@TaxiDriverMovie) May 8, 2017
Was the American Revolution Such a Good Idea?
Heh. Here's the quick Instapundit reply, "YES. NEXT QUESTION? Was the American Revolution such a good idea?":
Like I said, this is evil incarnate. Leftists are evil. Never, ever forget that.
“We could have been Canada,” Adam Gopnik says. Well, there’s a Canada right up there for anyone who wants it.But, as good and satisfying as quick snark feels, it pays to drive the point home, that this piece, from Adam Gopnik, at the New Yorker, is fundamentally evil. I can't be more emphatic. The world today would be a much worse place without the U.S., but for demonic leftists like Gopnik, Australia and Canada are models of modern enlightened nation-states. Fuck the racist U.S. You should have been aborted, you cancer on the world.
Like I said, this is evil incarnate. Leftists are evil. Never, ever forget that.
Was the American Revolution such a good idea? https://t.co/09Rinf2qq7 via @adamgopnik— Marc-William Palen (@MWPalen) May 8, 2017
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