The 'Woke' New Appeal of Totalitarianism

I don't know Roger Kimball, the bow-tie-wearing editor of the New Criterion (which I do not read), and the editor (publisher?) of Encounter Books.

But his essay today is quite good, and it's interesting to me, because I could've written it myself. I've been saying the exact same things all semester, in my (at least) twice-weekly "all class" announcements, where I sometimes add an "optional" section below the "all business" section that starts my messages, and then I offer some of my own (humble) thoughts on the news of the day --- providing links to books, as needed --- and if students read those or not, I tell them, it doesn't matter much to me, because, I also tell them, they are "free to choose" what's best for themselves; and they might not care one whit what I might have to say on the bloody, horrific violence, mayhem, and organized "mainstream" media hypocrisy that's very likely propelling us to a new --- and very "hot" --- civil war, not a "cold war," which is probably what we've been in since the 1970s, in the aftermath of the mayhem and murder inflicted back during the 1960s, care of the "Destructive Generation" that grew out of the "rights revolution" of the era, and especially the "antiwar" movement that arose in opposition to the alleged U.S. "imperialist" war in Vietnam (which was, actually, a war of the most vital national security interests), and one that's a shame we lost, as I doubt Vietnam today is anywhere near as successful, as, say, South Korea, which was not "unified" by the force of arms of both Chinese and Soviet military power.

All that said, just read Kimball, who, although he can't stomach baseball (which is strange to me, indeed), is a good guy, and a darned good thinker and writer.

At American Greatness, "The Appeal of the New Totalitarians":

It’s easy to understand and reject the horrors of totalitarianism. It is much less easy to grasp its inexorable logic or its seemingly implacable attractions.

I am not a follower or a fan of baseball. But I understand that it is, or has been, an important national pastime, beloved by many, not least, as Andrew McCarthy observes in a recent column, because it offered its acolytes a respite or oasis from politics, an arena where our differences of opinion could be redeemed or at least temporarily forgotten in the benign if intense partisanship of fandom.

It is for this reason that, impervious though I am to the charms of the sport, I regard with disdain the decision on the part of the woke commissars who run Major League Baseball to abandon Atlanta, Georgia. The reason they gave was that Georgia had passed new voter rights legislation requiring, among other things, that voters present valid identification in order to be eligible to vote. They called that a violation of “fair access to voting” when in fact it is legislation, very similar to that in effect in many other states, whose chief effect will be to make elections fairer. You need an ID to board a plane, check into a hotel, enter most urban businesses, but not to vote?

I see that Delta Airlines has also joined the woke brigade by taking a public stand against the Georgia legislation. How will the airline respond if you refuse to show a valid identification before boarding? (After Delta finished with its woke high horse, American Airlines borrowed it to present its own little exhibition of politically correct grandstanding with respect to similar legislation in Texas.)

This is all just business as usual in what more and more seems like the twilight of the republic. The cultural critic Stephen Soukup has anatomized the phenomenon in a new book that we just published at Encounter called The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business. Quite apart from its illuminating historical analysis, the book is a plea to turn away from the politicization of everything that stands behind such phenomena as sports concessions and airlines—to say nothing of Hollywood, the media, and the fount of it all, academia—insinuating politics into every dimension of life. “The choice here,” Soukup writes in his conclusion, “is simple.”

If we, as a civilization allow even the spirit of capitalism to become part of “the political” and part of the total state, then we will have order—for however long that lasts. If we resist the politicization of business and of capital markets, however; if we determine for ourselves that disorder and depoliticization are the preferable options, then we not only preserve liberty but also preserve the spirit of innovation and expression that harnesses liberty to create wealth and prosperity. I think Soukup is correct, and his analysis of the way the totalizing process of the politicization of everything has proceeded in other situations should give us all pause.

Political correctness has always had a silly as well as a minatory side. The silly side is evident in its juvenile narcissism. It is so obviously a product of a rich and leisured society that it is hard to take its antics seriously. There is a reason that it had its origins in the academy. Those privileged eyries could afford to allow their charges to prance around whining about how oppressed or “triggered” or offended they were since they occupied the coddled purlieus of a place apart—apart from the serious business of everyday life and in this country, anyway, apart from the less forgiving imperatives of genuine want...

Later, I'll write a full post linking this new book from Soukup, of which and whom I was unaware, but appears to be a real winner, and, obviously, reflects back well on Mr. Kimball.

And I should have more blogging tonight, or tomorrow, so thanks again for reading. 

Plus, there's still more of the American Greatness piece at the link.

 

Two Dead After 32-Year-Old Man Stabs Mother and Her Brother During Live Zoom Session With Four Others Watching (VIDEO)

Honestly, if it wasn't for my wife, who uses some news app on her phone, which bombards her all the time with stories (and me, as I had to finally download that sucker, as my wife constantly forward articles to me), I doubt I would've caught it.

The New York Times reported on the story last week, with a lot of details there, "Woman Is Fatally Stabbed by Her Son During Video Call, Authorities Say: At least four people were on a work video call when Carol Brown and her brother were stabbed in an Altadena, Calif., residence on Monday."

Also at KABC Eyewitness News 7 Los Angeles, "2 fatally stabbed at Altadena home in incident partially witnessed on Zoom, officials say: Part of the incident was witnessed on a Zoom call, officials say."

Apparently, Ms. Brown worked as "a coordinator of Pasadena City College's Black STEM Program," according to London's Daily Mail, and her son, Robert, is black.

So, there's not much point in belaboring the argument, but as Altadena is in Los Angeles County, which foolishly elected the radical, Soros-backed District Attorney George Gascón last year, it's hard to see how justice will be forthcoming for Ms. Brown and her brother.

And while it's likely that her son had mental issues, and as I don't see anything about the motive for the killings, one can bet that that ghoul Gascón will find some way, perhaps justified, but likely not so much, to let this man, Robert, get away with murder.

And I'm already grieving for the four witnesses, because no matter how much psychotherapy they're offered or go through, they'll never get those heinous images out of their minds. 

Please Shop Amazon Until I Can Get Back to This Blog, Tomorrow, or the Next Day

I'm heading out to Fresno/Clovis in a bit, so here's the link to Amazon, if you'd like to do some shopping, which is appreciated. 

And for some reason, I woke up with Elvis Costello's "Alison" on my brain, and I was singing the song in my head while taking my morning piss, heh.

I'll be back up blogging again as soon as I can. Have a great Easter holiday!

G. Gordon Liddy, 1930-2021 (R.I.P.)

Gordon Liddy has passed away.

I'll just note, briefly, that Liddy was, of course, one of the MAJOR figures in the Watergate scandal, a topic I cover every semester, and teach the history of which, during my week of coverage on the presidency in my POLSC 1 classes. And of note, while Liddy himself has been really no interest to me all these years, the Watergate scandal has been. You see, in my very first "Introduction to American Politics Class," at Saddleback College, in 1986, our professor had all students read two books (besides the required textbook), and students were required to write a review and analysis of their chosen books, and I read two by the late, great American journalistic icon, Teddy White, who was, perhaps, one of the most important chroniclers of the Watergate scandal. These two tomes were, The Making of the President 1960, and Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon, both of which I still have copies sitting on my bookshelf; and which, especially the latter, I read parts thereof, from time to time (especially when similar such scandals erupt in current politics, and I need to "get a grip" and perspective on things).

In any case, read the obituary, at the New York Times (with video here, featuring Judy Woodruff, at the P.B.S. News Hour, who is not a "newbie," and would actually know something about what happened back then), "G. Gordon Liddy, Mastermind Behind Watergate Burglary, Dies at 90":

G. Gordon Liddy, a cloak-and-dagger lawyer who masterminded dirty tricks for the White House and concocted the bungled burglary that led to the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974, died on Tuesday in Mount Vernon, Va. He was 90.

His death, at the home of his daughter Alexandra Liddy Bourne, was confirmed by his son Thomas P. Liddy, who said that his father had Parkinson’s disease and had been in declining health.

Decades after Watergate entered the lexicon, Mr. Liddy was still an enigma in the cast of characters who fell from grace with the 37th president — to some a patriot who went silently to prison refusing to betray his comrades, to others a zealot who cashed in on bogus celebrity to become an author and syndicated talk show host.

As a leader of a White House “plumbers” unit set up to plug information leaks, and then as a strategist for the president’s re-election campaign, Mr. Liddy helped devise plots to discredit Nixon “enemies” and to disrupt the 1972 Democratic National Convention. Most were far-fetched — bizarre kidnappings, acts of sabotage, traps using prostitutes, even an assassination — and were never carried out.

But Mr. Liddy, a former F.B.I. agent, and E. Howard Hunt, a former C.I.A. agent, engineered two break-ins at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington. On May 28, 1972, as Mr. Liddy and Mr. Hunt stood by, six Cuban expatriates and James W. McCord Jr., a Nixon campaign security official, went in, planted bugs, photographed documents and got away cleanly.

A few weeks later, on June 17, four Cubans and Mr. McCord, wearing surgical gloves and carrying walkie-talkies, returned to the scene and were caught by the police. Mr. Liddy and Mr. Hunt, running the operation from a Watergate hotel room, fled but were soon arrested and indicted on charges of burglary, wiretapping and conspiracy.

In the context of 1972, with Mr. Nixon’s triumphal visit to China and a steam-rolling presidential campaign that soon crushed the Democrat, Senator George S. McGovern, the Watergate case looked inconsequential at first. Mr. Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, dismissed it as a “third-rate burglary.”

But it deepened a White House cover-up that had begun in 1971, when Mr. Liddy and Mr. Hunt broke into the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, looking for damaging information on him. Over the next two years, the cover-up unraveled under pressure of investigations, trials, hearings and headlines into the worst political scandal — and the first resignation by a sitting president — in the nation’s history.

Unlike the other Watergate defendants, Mr. Liddy refused to testify about his activities for the White House or the Committee to Re-elect the President, and drew the longest term among those who went to prison. He was sentenced by Judge John J. Sirica to 6 to 20 years, but served only 52 months. President Jimmy Carter commuted his term in 1977.

“I have lived as I believed I ought to have lived,” Mr. Liddy, a small dapper man with a baldish pate and a brushy mustache, told reporters after his release. He said he had no regrets and would do it again. “When the prince approaches his lieutenant, the proper response of the lieutenant to the prince is, ‘Fiat voluntas tua,’” he said, using the Latin of the Lord’s Prayer for “Thy will be done.”

Disbarred from law practice and in debt for $300,000, mostly for legal fees, Mr. Liddy began a new career as a writer. His first book, “Out of Control,” (1979) was a spy thriller. He later wrote another novel, “The Monkey Handlers” (1990), and a nonfiction book, “When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country” (2002). He also co-wrote a guide to fighting terrorism, “Fight Back! Tackling Terrorism, Liddy Style” (2006), and produced many articles on politics, taxes, health and other matters.

In 1980, he broke his silence on Watergate with his autobiography, “Will.” The reviews were mixed, but it became a best seller. After years of revelations by other Watergate conspirators, there was little new in it about the scandal, but critics said his account of prison life was graphic. A television movie based on the book was aired in 1982 by NBC.

Mr. Liddy found himself in demand on the college-lecture circuit. In 1982 he teamed with Timothy Leary, the 1960s LSD guru, for campus debates that were edited into a documentary film, “Return Engagement.” The title referred to an encounter in 1966, when Mr. Liddy, as a prosecutor in Dutchess County, N.Y., joined a raid on a drug cult in which Mr. Leary was arrested.

In the 1980s, Mr. Liddy dabbled in acting, appearing on “Miami Vice” and in other television and film roles. But he was better known later as a syndicated talk-radio host with a right-wing agenda. “The G. Gordon Liddy Show,” begun in 1992, was carried on hundreds of stations by Viacom and later Radio America, with satellite hookups and internet streaming. It ran until his retirement in 2012. He lived in Fort Washington, Md.

Mr. Liddy, who promoted nutritional supplements and exercised, was still trim in his 70s. He made parachute jumps, took motorcycle trips, collected guns, played a piano and sang lieder. His website showed him craggy-faced with head held high, an American flag and the Capitol dome in the background.

George Gordon Battle Liddy was born on Nov. 30, 1930, in Brooklyn to Sylvester J. and Maria (Abbaticchio) Liddy. He grew up in Hoboken, N.J., a fearful boy with respiratory problems who learned to steel himself with tests of will power. He lifted weights, ran and, as he recalled, held his hand over a flame as an act of self-discipline. He said he once ate a rat to overcome a repulsion, and decapitated chickens for a neighbor until he could kill like a soldier, “efficiently and without emotion or thought.”

Like his father, a lawyer, Gordon attended all-male St. Benedict’s Prep School in Newark and Fordham University in the Bronx. After graduating from Fordham in 1952, he took an Army commission with hopes of fighting in Korea, but was assigned to an antiaircraft radar unit in Brooklyn. In 1954, he returned to Fordham and earned a law degree three years later. In 1957, he married Frances Ann Purcell. The couple had five children. Along with his son Thomas and daughter Alexandra, he is survived by another daughter, Grace Liddy; two other sons, James Liddy and Raymond J. Liddy; a sister, Margaret McDermott; 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Mr. Liddy’s wife died in 2010.

From 1957 to 1962, Mr. Liddy was an F.B.I. field agent in Indianapolis, Gary, Ind., and Denver, and a supervisor of crime records in Washington. He then worked in patent law for his father’s firm in New York for four years. He joined the Dutchess County district attorney’s office as an assistant prosecutor in 1966.

In 1968, he began a dizzying, three-year rise from obscurity in Poughkeepsie to the White House. Challenging Hamilton Fish Jr. in a primary for the Republican nomination for Congress in what was then New York’s 28th District, he fell short, but his consolation prize was to take charge of the Nixon campaign in the mid-Hudson Valley, which the president won handily.

His reward was a job at the Treasury Department in Washington as a special assistant for narcotics and gun control. He helped develop the sky marshal program to counteract hijackers. Impressed, Egil Krogh, a deputy assistant to the president, recommended him in 1971 to John N. Mitchell, the attorney general, who recommended him to John D. Ehrlichman, the president’s domestic policy adviser...

Still more.

 

Corporations Get Political With 'Cancelling' Georgia After State Passes New Voting Rights Legislation (VIDEO)

At the video, Tucker Carlson shreds "woke" corporations who have, really, no business getting involved with "racial" politics in Georgia (or for any other state, frankly), and the only bummer about the video is it doesn't include the Turcker's interview with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who sounds like a stand-up guy, and pledged not to back down to our wannabe corporate dictators (and it ain't just Coca Cola and Delta Airlines, to say nothing, sadly, of Major League Baseball).

Of course, there's "mainstream" news coverage at the Los Angeles Times, "‘There is no middle ground’: Corporate America feels the pressure on voting rights."

And, naturally, the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, "Companies, facing new expectations, struggle with pressure to take stand on Georgia voting bill":

Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to stay on the sidelines of the nation’s social and political debates after a year of intense protests that led many firms to declare their support for racial justice and opposition to attempts to overturn the presidential election.

On Friday, executives from more than 170 companies -- including Dow, HP and Estee Lauder -- joined the corporate push to protect voting access not only in Georgia but in states across the country, writing in a statement that “our elections are not improved when lawmakers impose barriers that result in longer lines at the polls or that reduce access to secure ballot dropboxes.”

“There are hundreds of bills threatening to make voting more difficult in dozens of states nationwide,” the companies said in the statement, which also included signatures from the CEOs of Target, Salesforce and ViacomCBS. “We call on elected leaders in every state capitol and in Congress to work across the aisle and ensure that every eligible American has the freedom to easily cast their ballot and participate fully in our democracy.”

But as major corporations speaking out about Georgia’s controversial voting law discovered earlier this week, deciding when to step in, how far to go and whether to follow up with actions, can be fraught.

On Fox News Thursday, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) compared early-voting rules in Georgia to other states and defended the measure. “They’re not going to get back on board because they’ve been pressured by their board of directors, who have been pressured by these activists. And there’s nothing I can do about that.”

He also said: “They’ll have to answer to their shareholders. There’s a lot of people that work for them and have done business with them who are very upset,” and said that “We are not going to back down when we have a bill that expands the opportunity for people to vote on the weekends in Georgia.”

After initially mild criticism of the measure, which was signed into law last week, companies scrambled to issue more forceful statements. James Quincey, the CEO of Coca-Cola, described the bill as “wrong” and “a step backward.” Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian offered up an abrupt change in tone, calling the legislation “unacceptable” and contrary to the company’s values.

Those statements won guarded praise from activists — as well as calls for more concrete action. “Delta’s statement finally tells the truth — even if it’s late,” Nsé Ufot, head of the activist group New Georgia Project Action Fund, said in a statement.

But companies have struggled with growing expectations from the public and employees that they take stands on important social issues, forcing corporate leaders into positions on issues they’d probably prefer to avoid, from Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the national anthem to the “bathroom bills” that targeted transgender people to President Donald Trump’s statements about voter fraud in the 2020 elections.

Last summer, it was the Black Lives Matter protests, when many companies made clear their support for racial justice.

And now: voting rights.

At a time when public faith in a number of institutions — the presidency, Congress, the electoral process and the media — is faltering, many Americans continue to look at big companies and entrepreneurs with admiration.

“The whole idea of companies getting involved in political issues, it’s all pretty new. They prefer to stay above the fray,” said Bruce Barry, a management professor who teaches business ethics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. “But now they are getting religion on these issues, including voting rights.”

For weeks, activists and civil liberties groups had been complaining about the proposed changes to Georgia’s voting laws — long before companies took serious notice. At first, the corporate reaction was mostly muted. The Georgia U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a statement expressing “concern and opposition.”

But on Wednesday, an open letter from 72 Black executives seemed to open the floodgates. The letter said the new Georgia voting bill would make it “unquestionably” harder for Black voters in particular to vote. The letter also said, “The stakes for our democracy are too high to remain on the sidelines.”

Executives from the companies that made Friday’s statement acknowledged these leaders, saying they “stand in solidarity with voters 一 and with the Black executives and leaders at the helm of this movement.”

“What we have heard from corporations is general statements about their support for voting rights and against voter suppression. But now we’re asking, put those words into action,” Kenneth Chenault, managing director and chairman of venture capital firm General Catalyst and the former CEO of American Express, who helped organize the letter from the Black executives, said in a CNBC interview... 

 

Wow! Tucker's Complete Opening Segment from Last Night's 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'! (VIDEO)

Well, I shouldn't be surprised. 

Fox News has been promoting Tucker as if he's the new reigning king of the American mass media, which, well, he most definitely is (at least in television news programming, as previously noted here). 

So, while I am surprised to see Fox News indeed upload his entire opening segment to YouTube, it's pretty logical, after all, considering that Tucker's doing the real news reporting --- including traveling the Central America to interview Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele --- that the idiot lying leftist "mainstream" networks refuse to touch (for all the regular reasons), for doing so would just totally f*ck up their stupid ideological lies and memes with all things related to illegal immigration, Trump's very laudable (yet also flawed and imperfect) policies on border security, and the Biden regime's epically dishonest and incompetent handling of the crisis (which these White Hose ghouls constantly refuse to identify as such). 

I'm not watching any news this morning, as I'm trying to get caught up on grading, but I did want to post some content here to the blog, as blogging's going to be light for a couple of days, as I travel out of town with my wife and young son to visit relatives in Fresno/Clovis. I should have an update on that perhaps later today, or early tomorrow morning, and I'll post some Amazon links for reader shopping opportunities, and of whose reader purchases are greatly appreciated.

Watch and enjoy:

Suspect Identified in City of Orange 'Mass' Shooting as 44-Year Old Fullerton Resident Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Four Killed, Including Child, in Latest 'Mass Shooting, in Orange, California (VIDEO)."

Well, first off, the suspect, Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, is obviously not a "white supremacist domestic terrorist," and thus the lying "mainstream" media --- at all the major leftist cable and network news outlets --- can't run with their continuous and despicable lying memes of this so-called epidemic of "right-wing extremist violence," which these ghouls must be hatin' to their everlasting regret. 

Lots of facts are still unknown, including the motives of the suspect Gonzalez; but it is known that the killings were completely premeditated, and the suspect knew the victims, and that he had secured bike-locks to the front and back gates to the business building complex there, and it appears, as O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer indicates at the video below, that the man is definitely eligible for the death penalty. 

And one thing about Spitzer --- who I don't really like, and who I never vote for --- is that while he's actually a craven career politician, he's a freakin' hardcore "tough on crime" mofo, and he will push it to the max to make sure this Gonzalez guy gets the full "justice" that's coming to him, and if it's not lethal injection, that f*cker will be going behind bars for a very long time, perhaps even for life in prison.

In any case, at the Los Angeles Times (and with the KABC Eyewitness News 7 segment on yesterday's press conference here), "Orange shooting gunman knew his victims and how to trap them":

The gunman knew his victims. He knew the office park — and how to trap them.

He locked the gates to the complex with bike cables before he slipped inside a manufactured homes business called Unified Homes, backpack slung over his shoulder, gun in hand.

That’s how police Thursday described the start of a shooting in Orange the night before that left four people, including a 9-year-old boy, dead.

Officers arrived at the scene about 5:30 p.m., minutes after receiving reports of shooting. They encountered gunfire and shot through the locked gates, wounding the gunman, said Orange Police Lt. Jennifer Amat. They used bolt cutters to enter the complex.

Officers found two victims in the courtyard — the boy and a woman who was alive and taken to a hospital, where she remains in stable yet critical condition. Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said it appeared that the boy died in the arms of a woman who “was trying to save him.”

The boy is believed to be the son of one of the victims who worked at Unified Homes. It is not clear if the mother is the woman hospitalized.

Police found three more bodies: a woman on an upstairs outdoor landing, a man in an office and a woman in a separate office.

The victims’ names have not been released because their next of kin have not all been notified, Amat said. The suspect is Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, a 44-year-old man last known to be living in Anaheim who police said had a “business and personal relationship” with the victims.

“It is a horrible, horrible tragedy,” Spitzer said, “that Mr. Gonzalez made a decision to use deadly force to deal with issues he was dealing with in his life. So he will suffer and face the consequences.”

Police recovered a semiautomatic handgun and a backpack with pepper spray, handcuffs and ammunition, “which we believe belonged to the suspect,” Amat said Thursday.

The suspect had been living in a motel room in Anaheim, and arrived at the business in a rental car, police said. A photo released by authorities showed a man entering the business dressed in black and gray with sunglasses, a baseball hat and a black bandanna covering his face. He had a backpack on his left shoulder and a gun in his right hand.

Two police officers discharged their weapons, said Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office, which investigates officer-involved shootings. Both were wearing body cameras.

The incident — the third mass shooting in the United States in two weeks — stunned the quiet north Orange neighborhood.

Tim Smith was sitting in his living room watching TV news about a commercial fire in Compton when he heard the crack of gunfire.

Seconds later, three more shots. His wife, Kim, joined him. The couple has lived in their home on Dunton Avenue since 1992, and said the most disruption they deal with on a typical day is the sound of neighbors mowing their lawns.

They looked at each other as four more gunshots sounded.

They got low in the house to shield themselves. After a moment, Smith went to the back door and cracked it open to listen.

Smith’s backyard — lined with tall cypress trees — is feet away from the office building’s back parking lot. Smith heard a male officer’s booming voice barking a command: “Don’t move or I will shoot you.”

He watched from his shed as the SWAT team moved into the building, silently, and in strategic formation. Smith says he was heartened that police arrived so fast.

Still more at that top link.

Marc Morano, Green Fraud

I actually wanted to blog more tonight, but, alas, there's too much stuff going on around here at home (including responding to loads of student requests for "extensions" on their semester term paper assignments, which I scheduled to be due BEFORE the Easter break, so students could actually chill while they're supposed to be on vacation; though now that I've actually given some of those "extensions," they'll actually be working over the same Easter break, that I told them, *sigh,* they needed to have off to relax, recharge, and reflect). 

Oh brother, what's to come of this country? 

(Well, I guess that's a rhetorical question, "shouting to the wind," with no other purpose, in a sense, but to rant helplessly).

Well, for one thing, we have to endure at least, what, the next 18-months with these idiot leftist totalitarian crackpots now hunkering down in the "Capitol," and I don't mean Washington, D.C., but the "Capitol of Panem," from the film (and novels) "The Hunger Games"?

Because, like just suggested, we're at the mercy of stupid, privileged, and hypocritical elites, like A.O.C., "Transportation Secretary" and now "climate expert, former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, and, last but not least, lying "Fauxcahontas" Senator Elizabeth Warren, who wants to raise your taxes (but not hers) for you to pay for all of this "new" technology (which isn't; I mean "windmills"?, c'mon, how long has world civilization relied on those ancient dealybobs, until these same starving and freezing folks, actually, didn't have to rely on that ancient technology that much anymore, because fossil fuels made their lives and work less burdensome and onerous, while at the same time improving the economic/material quality of life at rates that had never been seen in human history); but what do I know? If I don't shut up soon, I'll be up at the "Capitol" competing in some to-the-death "reality show" that would be a bit "too real," with me being called up from the "district" of KKKalifornia, to fight and, perhaps, die, for the entertainment of the same stupid "elites," who'd be stuffing their faces with the most obnoxious and expensive foods and wine, looking ahead to the next "spectacles," like those they had in Ancient Rome, and where human life was devalued and squandered (then, just like now), without so much as the bat of nicely, and cosmetically touched-up, eyelashes.

In any case, here's Marc Marano, at Amazon, Green Fraud: Why the Green New Deal Is Even Worse than You Think.

Marano was on "Tucker" earlier this evening, and the both of them, thankfully, I guess, inspired me to spin out this little tale of our coming "utopia" over this next 18-months; and frankly, if we do, indeed, survive until the next election, the 2022 midterms, maybe all us "rubes" in "flyover country" back in the "districts," will, at last, freakin' rise up and kick some muthaf*ckin' ass, and boot these "Green New Infrastructure" idiots back to the own sh*thole "blue states," where they can choke on their own, environmentally-friendly, and non-carbon baked, arugula cream pies. 

I Forgot Maxine Nightingale!

Well, following-up on my post the other day, "Ooh Woo ... I Feel It Still (VIDEO)."

It turns out I'd forgotten about Maxine Nightingale, whose song, "Right Back Where We Started From," used to come on all the time at K-EARTH 101 Los Angeles. 

(And the same goes for Junior Walker and the All Stars, "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)?," which I've posted to this blog more than once; and that's not to mention the Bellamy Brothers, and a few other "oldies buy goodies" kind of folks.)

In any case, here she is, and looking good too. She's apparently still active, according to her Wikipedia entry.

Four Killed, Including Child, in Latest 'Mass Shooting, in Orange, California (VIDEO)

Well, first of all, what's a "mass shooting"? If I'm not mistaken, any "officer-involved" shooting in which at least two deaths occur, is defined as a "mass shooting." And who defines this? I don't know? Maybe it's a federal definition that's been on the books for years, if not decades. 

But the implication, especially for the hated leftist media, is that with such a "low bar" on defining such events, any and all such incidents, can be sensationalized, and of course, any person's wrongful death is a tragedy, the killings in the City of Orange yesterday, again, all horrific and despicable, can easily be exploited by these same disgusting media outlets, especially the "progressive" national cable networks (notably, CNN and MSNBC) who're always the first "off the gun," so to speak, to turn any and all of such terrible crimes into some new Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Hotel-type of definitive "mass shooting" incident, involving the shooter, Stephen Paddock, 64-years-old, from Mesquite, Nevada, which left 58 people dead, and almost 900 people injured, in what was, really, one of the all-time deadliest gun-related murder-massacres in American history.

Now, as for the City of Orange, I grew up there, and the shooting took place maybe a less than a mile from my dental office (the guy who does root canals, of which I've had too many), and Orange is also the location of my young 19-year-old son's school, and, as he had a recent bad incident himself, on Monday, March 22nd, and of which he's still processing, he might not appreciate how worried all of this makes his parents. 

Helpfully, this L.A. Times story below is not very "sensationalist," whereas as this one, at CNN, is very much so, where the piece notes: 

The FBI's Los Angeles division confirmed to CNN it had responded to the shooting as a matter of routine, but the Orange Police Department is the lead investigative agency. 

This is at least the 20th mass shooting since the Atlanta-area spa attacks two weeks ago that left eight people dead. CNN defines a mass shooting as a shooting incident which results in four or more casualties (dead or wounded), excluding the shooter.

Now, CNN does go with the at least "four or more casualties (dead or wounded)," and in this case, the shooter himself was arrested. But still, even four "dead or wounded" remains a very low bar, and for CNN to lump in this number of "at least the 20th mass shooting" since the horrific Atlanta killings a couple of weeks back --- which itself was quickly politicized by CNN, before literally any genuine facts were known --- gives you a pretty good clue as to what exactly's going on, which, of course, is to perpetuate all the "Big Lies" that all the leftist media peddle, about the "epidemic" of gun violence in this country, with the media's "final solution" being to strip Americans of their God-given rights, and not just the Second Amendment, but perhaps even more importantly, the First.

In any case, at the Los Angeles Times, (and a KABC Eyewitness News 7 segment, from last night, below), "4 killed, including child, in mass shooting at Orange office complex":

Four people, including a child, were killed Wednesday evening and a fifth person was injured in a mass shooting at an Orange office complex.

It marks the third mass shooting in the United States in two weeks, coming after incidents at three Atlanta spas that killed eight people, including six Asian women, and at a Boulder, Colo., supermarket that killed 10.

Few details were immediately available about the victims or a potential motive for the shooting.

Lt. Jennifer Amat, a spokeswoman for the Orange Police Department, said officers received a call about 5:30 p.m. of shots fired and responded to a business at 202 W. Lincoln Ave. in Orange. The beige, two-story office complex at the address contains a number of small businesses.

The officers encountered gunfire when they arrived and opened fire, Amat said. The shooter was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound and was listed in critical condition Wednesday night. It was unclear if the wound was self-inflicted or if he was struck by police gunfire, Amat said.

There is no current threat to the public, she added. A firearm was recovered at the scene.

Have a good day, and don't ever, let them try to take away your rights.

Victim-Blaming D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Dragged for Sharing 'Preventing Auto Thefts' Video While She Stays Mum on (Alleged) Murder of Mohammad Anwar (VIDEO)

I did see the video of the carjacking on Twitter, and I didn't want to jump to conclusions as to the race of the youth suspects, although watching the video in its entirety, it's clear at the end of it, that the two depraved "children" perpetrators were certainly not "white supremacist domestic terrorists" inflicting bloody murder-mayhem on a decent, immigrant family-man making some money, in his own car, delivering food during a pandemic for Uber Eats.

My wife and I were both stunned by this story, and personally, it's one of the worst crime stories I can recall in years, and that's saying a lot, considering how almost all the big Democrat-controlled cities in the U.S. have seen skyrocketing crime rates since the death of George Floyd, and the subsequent "peaceful protests" that burned down police stations, neighborhood shops, and more, during our dreadfully dishonest summer of "racial reconciliation" and "Black Lives Matter" lies.

At Twitchy, "Victim-blaming: Mayor Bowser gets called out by both sides of the political spectrum over VILE tweet on how to prevent carjackings."

And at Fox News, "DC mayor takes heat for sharing 'preventing auto thefts' video amid silence on Mohammad Anwar's death":

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser is taking heat for sharing a video on "preventing auto thefts" amid her silence on the death of Mohammad Anwar, who died just days ago after two teen girls allegedly tasered him to steal his vehicle.

"Auto theft is a crime of opportunity. Follow these steps to reduce the risk of your vehicle becoming a target. Remember the motto, #ProtectYourAuto," Bowser wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

"Carjackings are a senseless act of violence that risk the lives of innocent individuals, and over the course of this month, we have worked to raise awareness about a troubling increase in this violent crime, related arrests and safety tips," a spokeswoman for the mayor told Fox News in a statement. "Today’s prescheduled social media post was part of that effort and should not detract from the tragic death of Mohammad Anwar. Our thoughts and prayers remain with his family and the families of those we have lost to violence."

Bowser's tweet received instantaneous backlash.

"Horrible timing on this clearly scheduled tweet. And even if Mohammed Anwar wasn’t dead, carjackings are a plague in DC — there isn’t a lot you can do [with regard to] risk reduction besides simply not driving a car. This was broad daylight," journalist Natalia Antonova wrote on Twitter.

"Blame the victim huh? How about cracking down on perpetrators to deter this behavior?" Twitter user Jesse Hunt wrote.

"Uber Eats driver Muhammad Anwar was the victim of a carjacking by two teenage girls, who committed felony murder, in DC. He died as a result of injuries. I presume this is a scheduled tweet but it’s extremely tone deaf. Bowser’s silence is deafening," media strategist Gabriella Hoffman wrote on Twitter.

Two teenage girls fought Anwar, a 66-year-old UberEats delivery driver, for control of his car, leaving him dead as he was flung from the vehicle when it wrecked. The suspects, who police say are ages 13 and 15, have been charged with murder.

The suspects, who police say are ages 13 and 15, have been charged with murder in the death of Anwar.

One of the girls told D.C. police officers that they had set out with a stun gun to steal a car on Tuesday, according to court testimony from homicide unit Detective Chad Leo.

The girls got into Anwar’s car around 4:30 p.m. at the Navy Yard Metro Station as he was making deliveries, Leo said.

Anwar drove the girls to Nationals Park where he pulled his car over and a struggle ensued between them. Officials, citing police, said Anwar partially left the car and was pinned between the door and the driver’s seat as the teens allegedly put the vehicle in gear, the New York Post reported.

The car then lurched forward, causing Anwar to be fatally flung out as the car made a sharp right turn, causing it to roll over on its side and crash into two parked cars.

Officials arrived on the scene and found Anwar suffering from "life-threatening injuries," police said. D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and transported the victim to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead...

Also, at the video above, it turns out one of the youth suspects, not identified, had been arrested for a previous carjacking, so, I mean, what gives? Who's the racists here? The two girls, who (allegedly, as they've still got to face trial), or the court system, which let one of them off, presumably, with a slap on the wrist, not just because minors "have their whole lives in front of them," blah, blah, but, because, obviously, these two suspected murderers are black.  

And, I don't know, Mayor Bowser, she's stayed silent right? Is her team still brainstorming to figure out another way to pin it on this poor Pakistani-born immigrant, driving his own car, and not taking in Jamie Dimon-level wages for his hard work? Dimon is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase, the same bank that delayed the recent pandemic-economic relief checks for two-days after the feds sent the money to his bank branches, so no doubt Chase could reap windfall interest-earning profits, on the hundreds of millions of dollars of cash that sat in their coffers for two days, while regular Americans were scratching out their next meals, and downing anxiety meds like candy, while stressing over whether they'll go totally bankrupt when their rental eviction moratoriums expire, and they'll be on the hook for tens of thousands in unpaid back-rent, and which there's literally no way the average family would be able to afford (including millions of ethnic minority families in "marginalized" communities), unless Congress passes legislation making the rest of us --- the rest of us regular citizens, regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender identity, also struggling to make ends meet --- bailout our corporate masters on Wall Street, whose lobbyists meet regularly with Washington D.C. power-brokers, especially Democrat Members of Congress and top Biden administration officials.

So tell me, again, who's the racist in all of this? 

Ooh Woo ... I Feel It Still (VIDEO)

So, I'm just back from Cerritos, where I came from visiting my young son, who was hospitalized this last week (due to a psyche breakdown dealing with his A.S.D.). He's coming home tomorrow, so I don't need to say too much more about that, other than, "Thank God," because working with these numbskull so-called "professionals" at such places is a nightmare.

Okay, in any case, driving back down the 91 freeway to I-5 South, I did have on 93.1 Jack FM Los Angeles, and it turns out they've screwed up their website, and I can't find the "playlist" of recent songs just aired, like I used to post back in the days of my regular "drive-time" musical updates. (I guess the station had to "consolidate" with some others on "radio.com," or some such bull, but no matter, at least it's still on, shoot.) 

I mean, 95.5 KLOS Los Angeles is still going strong, since back in the day when I was in high school, and K-EARTH 101 Los Angeles, which 20 years ago was an "oldies but goodies" station, playing everything from the Beach Boys to the Beatles to Sam Cooke to Dobie Gray to Elvis to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles to the Temptations, and more. Now it's just, basically, another "classic rock" channel, with a few 80s "new wave" hits thrown in, which is okay, but I miss KKLQ 100.3 FM "The Sound" Los Angeles, which, frankly, was just as good, and even better, when you figure in the nostalgia, as the old KMET Los Angeles, a.k.a., the "Might Met," which used to have D.J.s like Jim Ladd, who used to smoke "doobies" while on air, as well as Cynthia Fox, who years later, was back "spinning" the classics, at "The Sound."

The one other radio station I really miss was the Long Beach-based "Pure Rock" 105.5 KNAC, which used to have the most hilarious morning D.J., Norm McBride, who after I'd had a couple of "tokes" in the morning, my eyes would be watering and my stomach aching, non-stop, because I'd get the "lolz" bad. 

In any case, it's all iTunes and whatever the f*ck nowadays, so who really gives a rat's ass? Most of the old "classic rockers" are starting to kick the bucket now anyway (R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen), so I know I'm getting too old for this stuff anyway.

But I like Portugal. The Man, so I guess I should count my blessings that I'm still here, and I never O.D.'d on some damn stupid coke-cocktail, or some such dumb sh*t (heroin, f*ck, hated the "junk" myself, holy motherf*cker, and I only tried it once, and that was once too many, jeez), that some of my long lost buddies, from back in the day, succumbed to. 

And pfft, don't even get me going about "KROQ," as, frankly, with folks like "Darby Crash," former alcoholic lead singer of the "Germs," now also dead, I don't need to relive the experience; and Rodney Bingenheimer, the stuck up old c*nt, used to spin records at the "Starwood" punk nightclub, in West Hollywood, at the time, when I wasn't so smart as I am now. No need to relive that sh*t, sheesh.

Thanks for checking back in at this old fart's old blog.

Can't keep my hands to myself

Think I'll dust 'em off, put 'em back up on the shelf

In case my little baby girl is in need

Am I coming out of left field?

Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now

I been feeling it since 1966, now

Might be over now, but I feel it still

Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now

Let me kick it like it's 1986, now

Might be over now, but I feel it still

Got another mouth to feed

Leave her with a baby sitter, mama, call the grave digger

Gone with the fallen leaves

Am I coming out of left field?

Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now

I been feeling it since 1966, now

Might've had your fill, but you feel it still

Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now

I been feeling it since 1966, now

Might've had your fill, but you feel it still

We could fight a war for peace

Is it coming?

Is it coming?

Most Wished For Items

At Amazon, Most Wished For Items.

BONUS: Douglas Murray, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity.

Ireland Baldwin Photos

She's the 25-year-old daughter of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, and she's looking good!  

See, at Taxi Driver, "Ireland Baldwin Braless Pokies in White Tank Top."

And, at the Fappening, "Ireland Baldwin for Voting (3 Photos)."

BONUS: At Drunken Stepfather, "FLASHER FRIDAYS OF THE DAY," and "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY." 

And here, some scantily laced beauty, via Twitter:

Tucker Rips Bumbling and Stumbling 'China Joe's' Press Conference Debacle (VIDEO)

Following-up from last night, "Trey Gowdy Has the Clear Lead in Viewership for Fox News' 'Rotating' Fox News Primetime, Which Airs Daily, at 4:00pm Pacific Time (VIDEO)."

I will very pleased if Mr. Gowdy scores the 4:00pm broadcast, because then I might be able to have two straight hours of news programming that I actually would enjoy watching, and I won't get all the "woke" bullcrap from CNN, and, of course, I rarely, if ever, flip over to the clowns at MSNBC.

So, fingers crossed, because Tucker's "Da Man!"

Kara Del Toro Freakin' Deep Cleavage While Out Dining in Los Angeles; Plus, Sara Jean Underwood Totally Wild; And Still More Billie Eilish! (PHOTOS)

Hoo boy!

Great way to start the weekend, boyz! (And girls too, if you do the "crossover" thing, NTTAWWT!)

Here, "KARA DEL TORO WENT OUT FOR DINNER OF THE DAY."

Also, "Sara Jean Underwood (5 Hot Photos)."

And still more Billie Eilish!

Have a great day, and get out for some wonderful sunshine before it starts raining again, man.

Trey Gowdy Has the Clear Lead in Viewership for Fox News' 'Rotating' Fox News Primetime, Which Airs Daily, at 4:00pm Pacific Time (VIDEO)

The news is at Outkick, "MARK STEYN TO RETURN TO HOST FOX NEWS PRIMETIME AS NETWORK SETS NEXT 3 WEEKS DURING SEARCH." 

And Steyn is a worthy host, and he's even more hilarious than Tucker is at the 5:00pm show, "Tucker Carlson Tonight" (which, right now is the highest rated cable program out of all the cable networks, and it's no surprise, because he's just been killin' it).

Here's the list of ratings leaders for the 4:00pm "Primetime" program: 

In order of viewership:

3/8, Trey Gowdy: 2,057,000

2/1, Trey Gowdy: 1,988,000

1/1, Brian Kilmeade: 1,960,000

1/25, Maria Bartiromo: 1,877,000

3/22 (Mon-Wed), Brian Kilmeade: 1,777,000

3/15, Maria Bartiromo: 1,767,000

2/8, Mark Steyn: 1,759,000

2/15, Rachel Campos-Duffy: 1,728,000

3/1, Lawrence Jones: 1,713,000

2/22, Katie Pavlich: 1,647,000

Now, I'm a little surprised that Rachel Campus-Duffy beat out Katie Pavlich, who, I think, is 100 times smarter than Ms. Campus-Duffy, but who knows? Ms. Katie did look a little "green" in the role as "host" of an hour-long show, and, I don't recall, but perhaps Ms. Campos-Duffy is just more experienced. And Ms. Bartiromo's a freakin' pro, in any case, and I wish I saw her on T.V. more often, because I'm rarely up at 3:00am (Pacific) to watch her "Wall Street" program, although I do remember reading she got into a little "hot water" with her aggressive promotion of the "voter fraud" allegations being pushed by Team Trump. (And while there was fraud, and probably monumental fraud, I just wanted personally to "move on," and just gear up for the Georgia special elections, which Republicans lost, not just because of the hypocritical idiot Kelly Loeffler, but because all of those invovled, in the Washington G.OP. [the RNC], and folks down in the "Peach State," just refused to coordinate a wining electoral strategy down there).

Beautiful Florida Women (PHOTOS)

Via Rad Chicks.

Plus another Florida hottie here.

BONUS: Completely NSFW, "What a damn body on this college freshman" (VIDEO).

Shop Online for Apparel, Computers, Electronics, and More

At Amazon, Apparel, Computers, Electronics, and More.

BONUS: Jamie Glazov, United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror.

Ellie Goulding, "Lights" (VIDEO)

Following-up on my previous entry, "Ellie Goulding Enhanced (PHOTOS)," here's a music video featuring the lovely lass, snagged from the Other McCain:

Ellie Goulding Enhanced (PHOTOS)

 Way back when, about 9 years ago, the Other McCain posted about Ellie Goulding, where he writes:

Speaking of new theme songs . . . while I was riding with Ali Akbar to the Romney event Friday in Abingdon, Virginia, Ali was doing the usual thing he does when we’re traveling in his car: Playing crappy pop music from his smartphone through the car stereo system at top volume and singing along at the top of lungs, off-key.

Seriously, we’re like Oscar Madison and Felix Unger, except that Ali’s not old enough to know who Oscar and Felix were. We get on each other’s nerves something awful and it’s really amazing that we’ve been friends for three years. Anyway . . .

So Ali was cranking out his wretched music when, amid the noise rotation, I heard a song that wasn’t quite as awful as the rest. In fact, it was kinda catchy. A pulsing bass riff in a minor key with some techno stuff in the treble and a chick singer with a keening falsetto. “Hey, man, play that again,” I said.

Intriguing. There was something spooky about the lyrics — lights and sleeping and “constant calling me home” — although I couldn’t understand them clearly enough to make out every word. And what was it about that voice? The chick had a weird Celtic-folk quaver going on, with a little bit Stevie Nicks, and also a little bit Cyndi Lauper. (Ali: “Cyndi who?”)

So I looked up the lyrics and the singer, a British chick named Ellie Goulding, and thereby learned...

Well, I personally don't have any such muscially-moving reminiscences, but I do have this:

At Celeb Jihad, "Ellie Goulding Selfies Set Remastered and Enhanced."

She does it all, music, (no-clothes) selfies, or whatever, and that's worth dancing over, for sure. 

Glenn Reynolds, The Social Media Upheaval

Instapundit was on the 4:00pm Fox program today, discussing "cancel culture" (what else?), which I thought was cool, as I did get that Instalanche last week, and he's an expert on this stuff anyway (as you can tell, from reading his own book about it). 

At Amazon, Glenn Reynolds, The Social Media Upheaval.

Hoo Boy! Billie Eilish is 'Bigger' Than I Thought! (PHOTOS)

Holy humongous, dang! 

I mean, I've posted about her "enviable assets" before, but not this enviable, hot darn!

At Celeb Jihad, "Billie Eilish Nude Behind-The-Scenes Photo Released (PHOTOS)."

It's like "release the hounds" with those honkin' "sweater puppies," shoot!

Jack Phillips Said 'No', Again

This is a really excellent piece, and hits so close to the bone, it's almost too good.

From Bill McGurn, at WSJ, "The Christian Baker Who Said ‘No’":  

Jack Phillips is America’s most famous baker. People have taken him all the way to the Supreme Court in hopes of getting it to force him to bake them one of his custom cakes. This week he’s back in the dock, again defending his refusal to bake a custom cake with a message he says goes against his Christian faith.

Mr. Phillips owns Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., and holds traditional views on marriage and sexuality. The first legal action against him came via the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, when in 2012 he declined to bake a custom cake for a same-sex wedding and found himself accused of unlawful discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This time he’s being sued because he wouldn’t bake a cake celebrating a gender transition.

“Jack is being targeted for his religious beliefs,” says Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, who defended Mr. Phillips in his first case and continues to represent him. “His opponents are weaponizing the law to punish and destroy him because he won’t create expression that violates his Christian faith. They want to make the law an arm of cancel culture.”

In the first go-round, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 for Mr. Phillips. But it did so narrowly, on grounds that the commission had displayed “clear and impermissible hostility” to Mr. Phillips’s religious beliefs. (One commissioner compared Mr. Phillips’s invocation of his Christian beliefs to defenses of slavery and the Holocaust.) The court left unresolved the key constitutional question: Can the government compel people to create speech or artistic expressions to which they profoundly object?

The latest trial started Monday in Colorado state court. It dates to 2017, when Autumn Scardina called Mr. Phillips’s shop. She requested a custom cake—pink on the inside, blue on the outside—reflecting her gender transition. When the shop refused, she complained to the commission.

The commission pursued the case but dropped it in 2019 after Mr. Phillips filed a federal lawsuit against the state. Ms. Scardina then filed her own suit. Given that Mr. Phillips has already lost 40% of his business because he has stopped making his signature custom wedding cakes, these suits are plainly aimed at harassing him into submission.

A 2017 New York Times profile opened with this lead: “Jack Phillips bakes beautiful cakes, and it is not a stretch to call him an artist.” As an artist, he argues that his custom cakes are speech, and that he shouldn’t be compelled to create cakes with messages he deeply objects to.

In her court filing, Ms. Scardina says she asked for a birthday cake, not a cake celebrating her transition, and accuses Mr. Phillips of refusing her because she is transgender. But her story has shifted. In her original complaint to the commission, she wrote that she’d told the bakery the design was “intended for the celebration of my transition from male to female.”

After Masterpiece turned down this cake, Ms. Scardina called to request another. This one would feature Satan smoking a joint. Mr. Phillips declined, again because of the message...

Still more at that top link, and I do hope and pray Mr. Phillips prevails again in court, even if, once again, it goes to the Supremes.

 

David Horowitz, The Enemy Within

Due out April 6th, at Amazon, David Horowitz, The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America. 

'Ms. Davis, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army who at the time worked as an insurance lobbyist, said Mr. Reed put his hand on her back, unhooked her bra and touched her leg during a fundraising trip, according to an account she gave to the Washington Post. She didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night...'

Whoa!

Maybe this dude will set a good example for New York's serial abuser, Gov. Andrew "Emmy Award" Cuomo.

At WSJ, "Rep. Tom Reed Says He Won’t Run for Re-election in 2022: After allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct, the New York lawmaker said he wouldn’t run for governor either." 

Tammy Duckworth Blames Trump for Border Crisis, and Margaret Brennan Botches Follow-Up on Recent Attacks on Asian-Americans (VIDEO)

You know, I actually think Tammy Duckworth's a freakin' patriot. She lost both legs after her Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq, when she was "over there" working on troop support missions, and she did multiple tours, if I recall correctly. And she made an amazing health recovery (because losing both legs, and dealing with all the initial trauma and surgeries, and rehab, and PTSD, and whatnot, is incredible), and she was elected to the Senate, and that's no small achievement, and I don't care what party, in that respect. So that's all good.

What's not so good is she's an extremely partisan Democrat, and she's got the blame-game and the "woke" left's victimology down to a "T". I mean, c'mon, what is it with all these "poor" and "marginalized" and "weak" Asian women? They are none of these things, so cut me a freakin' break. It's Duckworth who's actually being "racist" when she lowers the bar for folks like this, who are actually hard workers and entrepreneurs. (Though, of course, I abhor the attacks on them, which is f*cked up, and bad, even if the dude really did have a "sex addiction" --- you just don't kill people when you should be getting your own damned psychiatric treatment, the motherf*cker.)

And y'all know I love that hottie Margaret Brennan, but she screwed up by not following-up on her decent questioning by pressing Duckworth on the race of the perpetrators. That is, Brennan let stand Duckworth's false meme of "white supremacist" violence against these "poor, helpless" "communities of color." What bull.

So, Brennan should have pressed on the background of the perps, because we have the data, both at the federal, state, and local levels, regarding exactly what ethnic groups are committing the most crimes, and as I've noted before, if you just watch the many, many videos posted to social media, and YouTube, or whatever, it's mostly black street thugs in "hoodies" who're knocking down and killing the old Asian folks, and it needs to stop, and fast. Sheesh.  

At "Face the Nation" earlier:

Holy Cow! That's One Buffed 'Country Gal', Dang!

I like it!

I don't even know what weapon she's toting, but she could prolly knock you out cold with one big roundhouse, dang!

At Country Girls, on Twitter:

Plus, more bodalicious babe, here and here. 

Well, That Didn't Take Long: Sharon Osbourne Out at 'The Talk' as Unhinged Leftists Claim Another Scalp Over Imaginary Racism (VIDEO)

So, my wife was on target, naturally. 

Sharon Osbourne is definitely out at "The Talk," and just one quick search for "Sharon Osbourne" on Twitter gives you a glimpse into the radical --- and so "pure" --- left's utter ideological fury over the audacity that this woman might actually stand up for something, that thing being, er, the truth.

Here's my earlier entry, "'The Talk' Extends Hiatus After Sharon Osbourne's 'Controversial' Defense of Friend Piers Morgan (VIDEO)."

And now at OK Magazine, with, what looks like, a bit of actual news on some likely nasty litigation to be forthcoming: "CBS Will Reportedly Have to Pay Sharon Osbourne a 'Sizeable Settlement to Keep Her Quiet' Amid 'The Talk' Investigation." Also, "'It's All Out of Control': Sharon Osbourne 'Not Expected to Return' to 'The Talk' After Shocking On-Air Meltdown, Says Source."

It wasn't a "shocking on-air meltdown." 

Indeed, Ms. Osbourne was freakin' ambushed, and she's right to claim she was set up, for whatever reason, the most likely being that this black race-mongering beatdown queen, Sheryl Underwood, came to the taping all ready to go for the big "you be racist!" backstab --- and the rest is history, or it will be, once we get more on the true juicy details of exactly how this degenerate bull came down.

The kicker is this Don Lemon segment at CNN from the other night (below), which I did not see in real time, in which he "discusses" how "calm" was Ms. Underwood in responding to the "privileged Ms. Osbourne, who shoulda just sucked it up. And further, neither has the "brother" Mr. Lemon, nor the "I ain't never seen no white person who wasn't no racist cracka" Ms. Hill, accepted Ms. Osbourne's apology, which I had not seen until today; and they claimed Osbourne's mea culpa wasn't "really" addressing" the "underlying" issue, which is that if muthaf*ckin' black folks call you out for your "enabling" of alleged "racist" treatment of "people of color" (and a "coloured" royal, no less), then you best be shuttin' the f*ck up, bitch.

And don't forget, Ms Hill was first suspended at then basically fired from  --- after a year of turmoil, and with Ms. Hill brokering some kind of "settlement," er, payoff --- ESPN, after she basically attacked Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (on Twitter, of course) as the second coming of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. 

And this lady's been bad news for a long time. See the Washington Examiner, for example, "Lessons from Trader Jose and Jemele Hill: Calling everything racist is a really bad way to fight racism."

I'm am done.

I can barely get through Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room" anymore, and if I continue to watch the network, it's going to be just to monitor how low Zucker's FUBAR programming will go down the hole of despicable and hysterically deranged leftist racial paranoia (and obvious pro-Biden/Dem "white supremacist" propaganda).

Oh brother, Sharon Osbourne should just turn the tables and retort, "Bitch Better Have My Money." (*Eyes rolling into the back of my head.*)

Joe Biden 'Doing Fine' After Falling 'Up the Stairs' While Boarding Air Force One (VIDEO)

Heh, again, at the Guardian, which, as noted previously, is more likely to defend "Bumbling and Stumbling" Joe Biden than they are to criticize him. 

Here, "Biden 'doing fine' after stumbling once, twice, thrice on steps of Air Force One: White House spokesperson blames windy weather after Biden loses his footing three times boarding presidential plane."

Also at the New York Post, "Biden keeps falling up the stairs as he boards Air Force One."

And, of course, here's the inimitable, and hilarious, Tucker, to deliver the coup de grâce. 

(And as I schedule this post for later, I still haven't finished watching Tucker's entire episode from "yesterday," because again, family, work, and actually, emailing all my classes about the story of Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, who Tucker covered about midway through his program, had me procrastinating like a lazy mofo, lol; and so, if I'm behind on my grading, it's only my fault, and I'll probably have to pull another 10-hour-day on Monday, just to get caught back up; but the late afternoon is, really, the only time I can catch a little news, so if a couple of awesome Fox News segments here and there actually, "make my day," then it's a trade-off I'm more than willing to take.)

Watch:

Blockbuster Maria Bartiromo Opening Segment on Fox News' 'Prime Time' (VIDEO)

I was busy yesterday, but I did catch this opening segment with the fabulous, and most beautiful, Italian-American, Maria Bartiromo. 

Just great stuff, and I hope more and more folks hear, and heed, her message, and shout about these very threatened notions of "liberty" and "opportunity" in the U.S. today, "from the rooftops."

Watch:

San Francisco Asian Woman Who Fought Back Now Has 'GoFundMe' Campaign Closing-In on $1 Million (VIDEO)

It's been a big day, again, with work and family stuff, so blogging has been light.

But I did see the story earlier this morning, on "CBS This Morning," when at that time the San Francisco lady's "GoFundMe" hadn't yet reached $600,000.

Now the Guardian's reporting it's getting up to $800,000, and I won't be surprised if it passes a cool million over the weekend. (And I hope that helps the woman with all her medical bills, and what not, and perhaps she'll be able to "spread the wealth" to some of her neighbors, who many, no doubt, could use a hand, as this pandemic hurts everybody, even generally hard-working Asian families living up that way).  

See, "Nearly $800,000 raised for two elderly Asian people attacked in San Francisco: Video of an injured and crying Xiao Zhen Xie standing on a street corner prompted thousands to share messages and donate." 

(ADDED: Of course the Guardian had to get in the obligatory, "Anti-Asian rhetoric, fueled by Donald Trump and the far right’s insistence on using offensive, stigmatizing language to describe the coronavirus, has helped provoke violence," blah, blah.)

In any case, and good for them, but some of lady's younger Asian-American neighbors are forming "citizens' patrols" to, frankly, stand guard and protect their communities from these kinds of attacks; and remember, most of these attacks are not from "white crackers," but black "hoodlums" whose culture is already anti-social, and committing crime for these idiots is just another day "on the job."

At KPIX News 5 San Francisco: 

Now That's What I'm Talkin' About! 75-Year-Old San Francisco Woman Beats and Bloodies Her Anti-Asian Attacker! (VIDEO)

Now this is some story!

And it's interesting, because, if you think about it, it doesn't follow the script regarding recent attacks on Asian-Americans in San Francisco (so far, it's been mostly black urban hoodlums). I mean, here's some young white dude, who hates Asians, and let's say, he comes from outside the city to mount his attack? Where'd he come from? Who taught him this clearly racist and violent attitude? Because you know, while Gavin Newsom's overplaying his hand on all the "white supremacists" sponsoring the recall, it's not like we don't have any in this state. 

I mean, you have the "State of Jefferson" secession movement, and those folks, probably many of them, are no doubt "white crackers." They live in the northeast part of the state, in some of the most remote counties, including Tehama County (just south of Redding), Modoc County (at literally the most northeast corner of the state), and Yuba Country (which abuts, on the east side, State Highway 99, which following it up north, about 100 miles or so, connects back over to Interstate 5 at Red Bluff).

So, yeah, it's just a hypothesis, but still --- who is this guy and where'd he come from?

So, that brings us back to the 75-five-year old Asian lady. She was carrying a stick, and though she suffered a horrible black eye, she gave as good as it gets. Now, what should really happen is San Francisco should expedite concealed-carry permits for local Asian-Americans who want to get armed, and frankly, the city should subsidize firearms training, to put their money where it counts (but not where it "is," sadly, because S.F. District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, is a "red-diaper baby," and he'll resist anything that conflicts with the Soros-leftist's "criminals are really vicitims" stupidity, which is one of the massive drivers of residents right the hell out of this dumphole of a state).

In any case, three cheers for this woman. I hope she sets an example and emboldens other S.F. Asians (especially those of the Chinese-American community) to do the same.

Via KPIX News 5 San Francisco:

Fox News Should Just Give Stephen Miller His Own Show, Dang! (VIDEO)

Heh, keeping my with my "unaccompanied minors" story-line here, and following-up, "Even the Far-Left Los Angeles Times Can't Ignore Biden Administration's Cluster at the Southern Border."

Shoot, Fox should just make this guy a permanent anchor on any and all immigration news. No doubt the ratings for an hour with "Stephen Miller on the Border" would be right up there with Tucker's, heh. 

From Laura Ingraham's last night:

Suspect in Heinous Atlanta Asian-American Spa Attacks Charged With 8 Counts of Murder (VIDEO)

Well dang, one would think!

The Other McCain is on the story, "Georgia Massage Parlor Massacre":

When my brother mentioned this story to me this morning, my reaction was: “Massage parlors? In Cherokee County? WTF?” I’m old enough to remember when that area was largely rural, and the idea that you would have Asian massage parlors there is just mind-boggling to me.

Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds just said at a press conference in Atlanta that the suspect in this case appeared to have “sexual addiction” problems and “may have frequented” some of the establishments where these shootings occurred...

Keep reading.

And at the video, from CBS "The Morning, "Police say the suspect in the deadly Atlanta spa shootings confessed to the killings, but told them he's a sex addict, not a racist..."

Well, of course you wouldn't want to suggest that these were RACIALLY motivated all while the suspect is WHITE, but hey, in this age of unlimited pornography, and the misogynistic culture that comes with it, who knows?

Even the Far-Left Los Angeles Times Can't Ignore Biden Administration's Cluster at the Southern Border

Following-up once again, "Thousands of Unaccompanied Minors Are Crossing Over to the U.S., as the Biden Administration Continues to Hide From the Media's Questions (VIDEO)." 

Here's Molly Hennessy-Fiske, who's about as "woke" a journalist you can find, reporting on the humanitarian disaster of the Biden administration's making.

At LAT, "Surge of migrant families and youths overwhelms Border Patrol in Texas":

MISSION, Texas — The priest arrived to bless about 90 Central American families Tuesday at an old parish hall that had been converted into a shelter to absorb the rising number of migrants and unaccompanied children streaming into Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The Rev. Roy Snipes, a native Texan who preaches in a straw cowboy hat, stood in front of a portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He prayed in Spanish over the families, sprinkling them with holy water drawn from the Rio Grande, the same river many had crossed just days before.

“You made it here, and here you are,” said Snipes. The parents — some holding infants — applauded.

Migrant families and unaccompanied children are overwhelming U.S. Customs and Border Protection holding areas and federal youth shelters even as the facilities are being expanded. The surge is happening as families flee gang violence, unstable governments, poverty and hurricane damage at a time many believe the Biden administration will be more welcoming than the former Trump White House.

“We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said Tuesday. “We are securing our border, executing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s public health authority to safeguard the American public and the migrants themselves.”

The number of migrant families has doubled this year but remains below previous spikes, including the most recent influx in 2019. But the flow of youths arriving without adults has increased to near-record levels, to 9,457 last month from 5,858 in January — more than the number who arrived in the same period in 2019. The influx is straining U.S. immigration resources and intensifying pressure on the Biden administration to stem an emerging crisis Republicans say it should have been prepared to handle.

Federal officials have reopened a migrant youth shelter for 700 in central Texas and created a temporary shelter for another 700 at a former oil camp in west Texas. The Dallas convention center will house up to 3,000 youths. Some shelters have faced criticism in the past amid allegations of mistreatment, and migrant advocates oppose reopening them.

The Border Patrol’s main holding center for migrant families in the Rio Grande Valley is closed for renovation. About 600 families and more than 1,800 unaccompanied migrant youths were held at a nearby Border Patrol tent facility last week, some sleeping on the floor because there were not enough mats, according to Leecia Welsh, one of the lawyers who interviewed about 20 youths held there Thursday.

She said some young migrants told the lawyers they had been held at the facility for more than a week, despite the federal government’s three-day limit for detaining children. Many said they had not been allowed to phone their parents or other relatives.

Some parents have been unable to locate children for more than a week after they arrived in the U.S., said Dr. Amy Cohen, co-founder and executive director of Every Last One, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that works to reunite separated migrant families.

“We are forcing the hand of these parents who are in a situation of tremendous danger in Mexico, where they are seeing or experiencing being kidnapped again and again,” Cohen said. “I’ve had parents who were in the situation where they were afraid they would be murdered and their child left alone.”

Two Honduran children, ages 11 and 9, were separated from their uncle recently. The man was returned to the Mexican border city of Miguel Aleman, where he was kidnapped and freed only after his relatives in the U.S. paid $5,000 ransom, Cohen said. Relatives in Texas are still trying to find out where federal officials are holding the children.

By law, children are supposed to be transferred by Border Patrol to Health and Human Services shelters within 72 hours, but there have been delays because of pandemic restrictions. Some children have also been transferred out of state to federal foster care, Cohen said...

And as always, the despicable Dems blame on it "Texas Republicans." Well, now, maybe A.O.C. can fly back down to Hidalgo and Zapata Counties, right near the border, where the surge of illegals continues unabated. And while she's there, maybe she can do some fundraising for the AMERICANS getting hammered by her party's clusterf*ck policies? 

Thousands of Unaccompanied Minors Are Crossing Over to the U.S., as the Biden Administration Continues to Hide From the Media's Questions (VIDEO)

I wanted to post this one earlier, but I'm glad I waited until after I found the Tucker segment posted earlier, "Spectacular Tucker Carlson Episode 'On Assignment' in El Salvador! (VIDEO)."

At one point at the video below, CBS News correspondent Mireya Villarreal is near tears, as she watches a young boy start off down the highway into the U.S., with no one "accompanying" him, so who knows what fate awaited that child, because the "bad hombres" prey on children not just south of the border, but inside the U.S. as well?

And I've got Fox News on right now as I'm working on this, and they've already had three segments blasting Jen Psaki and other administration officials for their lies and deceit, and it's not just Fox's Peter Doocy doing the grilling. 

No doubt I'll be keeping up with this story, because it's one of the most volatile for Biden, as he's just not up to the task on this issue, or any other, dealing with actually helping Americans rather than foreign "migrants," many of whom have in fact been designated as "terrorists," especially the untold number of "MS-13" gang-bangers and murderers Biden's now letting into the country, to kill, maim, and rape U.S. citizens, who're being literally f*cked by the ghouls now in charge in D.C. 

New Gina Carano Scenes

At Celeb Jihad, "Gina Carano Scene From 'Cancel This' (VIDEO)."

"Former UFC fighter and actress, Gina Carano, appears to take the fight to 'cancel culture' in the ... scene [at the link] from the new film 'Cancel This'."

This is obviously NSFW.

Have a great day!

Spectacular Tucker Carlson Episode 'On Assignment' in El Salvador! (VIDEO)

Shoot, I'm surprised Fox News actually posted this whole segment, because as I've mentioned before, they're kinda stingy on posting Turker's stuff to YouTube. But this one is phenomenal, and I'm glad they did!

(Maybe they're just really "pumping up" some of the new content that will be part of the new "Fox Nation" package of specials, of which Tucker's new programming will be the highlight.)

Anyway, he keeps getting better, that's for sure, and as always, I can't stop laughing when I'm watching his segments. 

Here:

Media's Entire Georgia Narrative Is Fraudulent, Not Just The Fabricated Trump Quotes

It's Mollie Hemingway, at the Federalist. 

She's day in and day out, a one-woman wrecking-crew demolishing the endless lies streaming from all the hate-addled (and despicable) leftist media outlets, be they print, broadcast, cable, or whatever. I'm glad she's on our side. 

She's the author, most prominently, of Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court, but also, Trump vs. the Media (Encounter Broadsides Book 51).

Also, my apologies for the light blogging today, but the pace of posting should pick up a bit over the next couple of days, and into the weekend.

Be well.