Tag: J. D. Vance

Little Marco Grew Up

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In the above linked video CBS journalist Margaret Brennan confronts Secretary of State Marco Rubio about JD Vance’s statement that Europe has a problem with free speech.  She condemns Vance for defending free speech in Germany where she declares free speech was responsible for the Nazi genocide against the Jews.

I found this video interesting because I wouldn’t have guessed that Rubio would be as agile as he showed himself to be.  He fired back that he disagreed with her premise and forcefully stated that there was no free speech in Nazi Germany but there was a totalitarian state there.  And it blamed part of its population for economic and social problems and had no moral qualms with murdering these innocent men, women and children on an industrial scale.

I’ve never held the opinion that Marco Rubio was all that sharp.  But he did a very competent job making Brennan seem ridiculous.  Maybe he’s wised up over the years, maybe he’s more confident nowadays to speak sensibly out in the open because Trump has his back or maybe Brennan is just such a lightweight and her logic was so ridiculous that any half intelligent person can make her look like an idiot.

But whatever the cause it was stunning to see just how stupid her case sounded.  But Brennan can’t take all the blame.  After all free speech is not the law of the land in Germany, England or France.  In fact, in Germany there are laws that ban the distribution of materials from groups like the Nazis or other “unconstitutional organizations.”  These laws are being used to try to suppress the AFD (Alternative for Germany) party because they want to restrict immigration.  So, JD Vance advocating for free speech is actually radicalism in a place like Germany.  But Margaret Brennan managed to make it sound completely ridiculous by trying to blame the Holocaust on free speech.

What you see here is the difference between the American conception on free speech and the European fear of speaking uncomfortable truths.  To them some things are too dangerous to say or even think.  And that is the viewpoint that the Democrats tried hard during the Biden administration to import.  That is the reason for the emphasis on misinformation.  Apparently, people can’t be trusted to make up their minds about what is true and what isn’t.  We are too stupid to figure out what’s true so the government and the media have to tell us.

And that is why organizations like CBS fought like hell to make sure Donald Trump didn’t become president.  Because if he did people would be allowed to say what they really thought about things like transgender identity or how bad crime is and whether millions of illegal aliens were a good thing or not.

So here was CBS trying to condemn JD Vance for outraging Europeans with the opinion that denying their people free speech would come back to bite them.  And it was a useful demonstration of where main stream media’s true beliefs sit.  They are solidly behind the globalist position that regular people should just shut up and take at face value whatever the “experts” in the government (except Trump) or the media or the NGOs tell them.  And if you voice a dissenting opinion then your guilty of spreading disinformation and in a perfect world you’d be silenced and sent to the reeducation camp.  Very interesting indeed.

Kudos to JD Vance and (surprisingly) Marco Rubio.  I guess Little Marco grew up.

Times that Try Men’s Souls

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One step forward two steps back.  Ah, the slings and arrows or outrageous fortune.  Last week the mainframe that I keep my photos and editing software on died a terrible death.  I had hoped at first that maybe the power supply had given out.  I sent it off to the local computer geeks with this dream of a call back the next day about how a wire had come loose or a fuse had blown and all was well.  Yeah.  Not so much.

I received the dreaded news that, “The motherboard is fried and all you can reuse is the case, drives and the fans.”

The horror.

Well, at least my photos didn’t go up the chimney so that’s good.  But this has put a kink in my photo-editing schedule.  For the last week I’ve been scouring my camera memory card for stuff to post and I’m reaching the bottom of the barrel.  I’ll need some more stuff really soon.  Plus, I can’t use my favorite editing software or the big monitors I usually use.  Well maybe I can, but I’d have to fiddle around with the wires and I’m too lazy to do it as a one-off.  But I must be stoic.  As the bard reminds us, “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;  They kill us for their sport.”

Or something like that.

But not everything was bad this week.  I decided on a path forward for my story.  If you remember in the last installment, I had my good guys strike back at the vicious President of the United States who had hurled a 10-megaton nuke into their underground retreat.  As a counter attack they undermined the White House, the US Capitol, the Pentagon and a few other key federal buildings and sent them hurtling hundreds of feet into the underground abyss.  This effectively decapitated the United States federal government.  Specifically, the president, vice president, the congress and the cabinet secretaries are all dead.

What I’ve decided to do is arrange for the only honest man in the FBI to be selected to succeed the president.  And this is the guy who I’ve been using to track down my protagonist and his sponsors.

So, the antagonist I have who has been hunting for the sniper is selected for succession to the presidency.  In part he is selected for the knowledge he’s gained hunting the sniper and the organization supporting him.  But because the head of the FBI had been assassinated earlier, he was also the acting head of the bureau.  Of course, that isn’t technically in the line of succession for the presidency but with all the legitimate successors dead, the military and the supreme court put their heads together and after doing an inventory of who was left and who was willing, they chose my guy.

Now this is an outrageous scenario.  And so, it’s really a lot of fun to poke around with.  And because it’s so outlandish I can do more or less whatever seems like fun with it.  I have the poor schnook summoned to a military base and he’s thinking that he’s about to be blamed for the catastrophic failure of the manhunt for the sniper and instead he’s being asked if he will accept the presidency.  That’s a pretty great scene.  I think I’m going to have him ask if he can work remote from home.  That would be a nice touch.  I think that’s what I would ask for.

So anyway, the story is moving forward.  So that’s good.

Camera Girl laid down the law today and had me put the weatherstripping around the basement door.  She found where I had hidden the supplies and brought them out to me.  So, I grumbled and dragged myself over to the door and did it.  And you know, it really made a big difference.  But I really did a lousy job installing it and I’m planning to redo it and add a sweep to the bottom of the door.  Funny how these home improvement projects can grow on you.

And looking around at the Trump juggernaut I see he’s making headway in all directions.  He’s travelling to North Carolina and Los Angeles to get involved with the hurricane and fire victims.  And tonight, JD Vance was the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.  Collins, Murkowski and good old Mitch McConnell were the holdouts that made Vance’s vote necessary.  Well, that’s why we needed the other Senate pickups last November.  But things are looking up everywhere in Trump world.

So that’s my post, a little this and little that.

The Curse of the Cat Ladies

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J D Vance has struck a nerve.  Recently I was at a town event and I was in the presence of a woman who has cats.  I know this because she was talking about her cats to anyone who would listen.  And she was looking for support from other people with cats as she talked about Fluffy or Tabby or whatever her cats were named.  But suddenly she changed gears and started getting angry about someone who had some kind of video on-line about killing cats.  I don’t know if it showed cats being killed (doubtful) or just talked about it as a thing that happens.  But she was very stirred up about this.  She got quite agitated and started swearing about it.  And then she changed gears again and started talking about J D Vance talking about childless cat ladies.  And that got her even angrier and she started swearing at him and saying you don’t mess with cat people.

Needless to say, this was very off-putting.  Seeing an adult in a public place lose control over a discussion about her cats was very unpleasant.  It’s always distasteful being witness to public displays of mental illness.  But what I realized later was that this was a form of virtue signaling.  There was a group of leftists close by and this performance was a public affirmation that disrespecting childless cat ladies will be answered by childless cat ladies flipping out in public.  It reminded me of that famous video clip of the androgynous, shapeless leftist in a yellow raincoat howling nooooooooo! at the sky after Trump’s election in 2016.  It was this primal scream therapy routine, probably more for the benefit of those watching than for any actual emotional release for the screamer.  It was validation of their point of view.

 

I was tempted to reason with this cat lady and inform her that what Vance was doing was just energizing his base by berating the part of the Democrat base that is most despised.  I would have further pointed out that this was a milder form of denigration compared to the Left’s demonization of straight white men and the more generic hatred of “whiteness” in general.

Luckily common sense prevented me from engaging with the crazy childless cat lady (CCCL or C3L for short).  After all she has nothing to lose.  Whiskers or Snowball or whatever her cats are called, could survive a day or two while their “mommy” was in the rubber room for observation.  Whereas, if I were incarcerated for brawling with the C3L I would embarrass Camera Girl and the other normal citizens of Dunwich who know better than to bait the insane.

And it turned out I was smart to refrain from interacting with the C3L.  Later on, that day, at the same event, I noted her sitting on a bench reading a book and every once in a while, emitting a screech or a laugh depending, I guess, on the action of the book.  I assume this was performative but still, someone who acts out like this in public must be close to some kind of mental breakdown.  I will do my best in the future to avoid any contact if possible.

There are an enormous number of highly unstable people on the Left.  After the assassination attempt on Trump, if I were J D Vance, I’d have the secret service scan the crowds at his rallies for anyone emitting very high levels of cat dander and keep them far away from his podium.  Apparently crazy childless cat ladies are very unhappy to be singled out and who knows maybe one of them is even crazier than the one I saw.  J D, it couldn’t hurt to be careful.

Update:

TomD opines:

“I love dogs but I’m partial to cats.”

A7307172

The ZMan’s Take on JD Vance

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This is a pretty measured evaluation to what it means that Trump has selected Vance for his running mate and presumptive successor.

“Another angle to this is that this subculture has attracted the interest and limited support from members of the oligarchy. Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are two examples of billionaires who seem to support this project.

…

Trump tapping into this space and thus getting support from members of the oligarchy bodes well for him and the subculture that produced Vance. No reform effort can survive without elite support. This not only bodes well for the project, but it means Trump has a chance to not only win the election but get something done. Proof that the universe has a sense of humor is that this is the real Flight 93 election, a last attempt by reform minded oligarchs to save the system.”

This is a much more hopeful spin on what the Christopher Rufo/Claremont Institute nexus might achieve with the likes of Thiel and Musk as backers.

Thoughts On J. D. Vance

 

 

First Reports on 2022 Primaries

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Here we are in the 2022 Primary Election Season.  Last night J. D. Vance won his race primarily because Donald Trump rescued him from Vance’s own earlier statements calling Trump reprehensible.  Whether Vance really regrets his earlier statements or is following his political self-interest is very hard to know.  But even if it is the latter, it is a sign that politicians are awakening to the reality that almost all Republican voters, most Independents and even some Democrats are completely fed up with the madness that has been going on at the behest of the Left for the last few years.

And that is good.

It’s good because if politicians think that their self-interest is tied to the America First movement then some progress will be made.  And more important than this carrot will be the stick.  The fate of the Republican congressional representatives who voted for Trump’s impeachment will be an object lesson for the rest of the Congressional Clowns who suckle at the Federal Teat.  Seeing these “brave patriots” losing their cozy offices on Capitol Hill and forced to look for honest work will send chills of panic down the spines of their fellow congress critters.

Who knows it might even energize mavericks like Mittens Romney to suddenly see the light and discover their hidden love of all things Trumpian.  Stranger things have happened.  But that would be a shame.  There is nothing I would enjoy more than seeing Romney successfully primaried out of office in 2024.

So, what we may be seeing is the beginning of the reaction to the 2020 debacle.  It won’t be 100% effective.  Phonies will masquerade as friends.  Crooks will sneak in as they always do but even they will begin to vote the right way.  These people can tell which way the wind blows and they’ll join the winning side at least for the moment.  What’s more important will be to see if any effective plans are made by our “leaders.”  Blocking any further Biden judicial candidates is a no brainer.  Investigations into things like the Biden laptop could produce useful headlines in the run-up to the 2024 election season.

Most important is to deny Biden anymore funds for his Climate Change boondoggles.  The trillions of dollars that have been poured into the coffers of phony green energy companies is the source of all the corruption that the Democrats feed on.  Cutting off that supply is critical to saving our economy.  Unfortunately, many of the Republicans feed at that same trough.  It will take a long time before the McConnells of the Republican Party are finally booted out of Washington.

But the single biggest thing that the 2022 mid-terms can provide us with is the spectacle of Joe Biden going through an impeachment.  It’s 99% sure he won’t be convicted but performing the trial will provide a powerful image of all the things that were swept under the carpet in 2020 being put on display.  All of the obvious evidence of Joe Biden’s complicity in Hunter’s influence peddling will be exposed.  And all the other failures of the Biden administration can be tacked on too if there is a good way to present them as malfeasance or even incompetence.

So, this is all just foreshadowing what I hope to see as the results of a successful 2022 election cycle.  But I will confess there does seem to be more energy than I anticipated.  Could we be seeing a really big change this time?

The ZMan Doesn’t Hate J. D. Vance!

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I suspect the FBI has swatted the ZMan, spirited him away to an underground, under-volcano lair for torture and replaced him with a robotic imposter.  How else to explain this post where he more or less declares that J. D. Vance might just not be an establishment fink.  Be still my beating heart.

Well, good for the ZMan.  Being a protege of Peter Thiel I imagine Vance is a very smart guy who has one foot in the cloud world but with still one foot dragging wistfully on the dirt side.  Let’s call him an ally for now.