Since I was too lazy to watch last night’s debate I settled for reading the ZMan’s review. It was funny and if accurate means Walz is a hopeless weirdo-loser. But we already knew that so hopefully America was paying attention.
Tag: ZMan
ZMan Has a Good Post on the Weirdness
The post considers the unlikely events that seem to be happening more and more frequently. He points to the two Trump assassination attempts and some of the other weird things that just get passed off as random.
It’s well written and thought provoking, so I won’t write a summary. I will say that it’s obvious that clandestine operations by agents and subcontractors of the United States government have been given permission to do things that formerly would have been forbidden for fear of being discovered and thus delegitimizing the agencies involved.
Apparently they’re no longer worried. That can’t be a good sign for us.
The ZMan Has an Excellent Post on What’s Ailing Baseball
The ZMan says that the modern quantitative mode of managing a baseball team has robbed the soul out of our national pastime. Well, that and players kneeling during the national anthem and all the other divisive crap they’ve allowed on field and off.
I like his solution, “The answer to fixing baseball and other sports is to open the windows of the skyboxes where the stat guys run the game and throw them out of those windows. Let the players play the fans enjoy the human drama.”
The ZMan’s Take on JD Vance
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.
ZMan and Trump
In a particularly thoughtful article the ZMan considers the spectacle going on in a Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump is being given the full treatment from a cartoonish New York City legal system that is astonishing in its corruptness.
I think it speaks well of ZMan that he recognizes the stark contrast between Trump and his enemies. Even while rejecting and even reviling Trump’s civic nationalism ZMan points out the stark superiority of the man versus his odious enemies.
A good read.
What Could a Coalition on the Right Look Like?
According to Joe Biden in his famous 2020 election message to black voters Republicans want to, “put y’all back in chains!” Well, how could anyone doubt the accuracy of statements by Joe (Cannibals ate my Uncle Bosie) Biden? But to be fair to Dementia Joe, even with the economy cratering in front of us no one thinks that Donald Trump can get more than a maximum of twenty percent of the black vote. So, I guess Biden’s strategy isn’t uninformed.
But regardless of how durable the Democrat coalition seems to be, the thinking that needs to be done on the right is what kind of coalition can be created that will last for more than just the disaster that is 2024.
And I’m not thinking of a, “the enemy of my enemy” kind of situation. I think it’s time to find commonalities with whoever is out there that isn’t diametrically opposed to us. And I guess I better define who, “us” is.
Well, that’s easy. Us is anyone who isn’t a card-carrying member of the leftist project. Well, maybe it’s actually easier to say who it isn’t. It isn’t feminists. They want to dissolve the family. It isn’t the LGBTQ. They want to outlaw normal. It isn’t the anti-white coalition. They want to erase me. It isn’t the climate warriors. They’re nuts. It isn’t the communists. They want to steal our money. And it isn’t the globalists. They hate this country.
So, anyone who’s not a part of these groups is “us.”
You might think that eliminates a lot of people. I’m not so sure. I don’t think that the “normal” people in this country are outnumbered. I just think they’ve never been allowed to think of themselves in that context. For the first time, maybe ever, a Republican presidential candidate may win the Hispanic vote. Now think about that. If the Republicans manage to hold onto the majority of the white vote, namely men and married women and also win the Hispanic vote it’s got to be pretty hard for the Democrats to win elections.
And it can get even worse than that. Democrats are currently winning the “women” vote. But the amount of fuzzy thinking that is currently going on about abortion and the whole “Handmaiden’s Tale” nonsense that the Democrats feed women is ripe for some pushback. Young women are finally realizing that they’ve been sold a bill of goods by the Left. Their dreams of having it all have turned out to be a pretty hollow fiction. Squandering their twenties and thirties as corporate middle-management drones and then spending their forties desperately trying to find a husband and start a family is hardly, “having it all.” Of late the talk about a “trad-wife” movement is a little bit overblown but there is definitely something going on that makes me think that organizing young women to join the normal coalition could pay big dividends in the future.
In a way, the hardest group to get on board is the most surprising one too. It’s the Dissident Right. These are people that have become so embittered by the consistently anti-white and anti-normal actions of the United States government that they refuse to believe that they can find common cause with anyone but their own ethnic and political grouping. And from what I’ve read, they’re pretty adamant in their opinions on this. And I can sympathize with their point of view. But I think that a situation could arise where they could find some kind of common ground with a broader grouping of people that contains ethnic groups that they are unfriendly with. Now this won’t happen until this broader coalition begins to poach away parts of the leftist coalition. And once it does it can begin to prove its usefulness as a vehicle for promoting traditional values across ethnic groups as a strategy for attacking the leftist positions. So, if you can get multiple old and new constituencies backing up family values as opposed to the feminist/LGBTQ anti-human values it would help to show the dissidents that there are practical, concrete advantages to making common cause with other groups based on cultural and philosophical commonalities.
What sparked this chain of thought was a post that the ZMan put up about a moderate group on the right that he characterized as the Cosmopolitan Right (Cosmo Right). This includes people like Auron MacIntyre, Lomez and the others on the moderate right who include some of the people in the orbit of the Claremont Institute. The interesting thing about the post was that as opposed to most other moderate right groups or entities, ZMan was guardedly positive about this group’s agenda and capability. I’ll have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Who knows? Maybe one day we can, “all just get along” on the Right. But in the meantime, it gave me food for thought.
That Zero is Too Cold for Me
In the immortal words of Billy Preston in his 1974 song of the same name, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.”
Follow me here. You’ll get the picture.
As is my habit on Friday morning I listened to the podcast of that most suave of demons, the Voice of Saruman himself (aka the ZMan). And he did not disappoint. This week he was banging the drum against the Stupid Party (aka the GOP). And as usual, he made some devastating points. The gist of his diatribe was that between the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, the districts have been gerrymandered to the point where each party has a death grip on 90% of the districts they currently control. And because of this partisan lock on particular Congressional seats, the Republican office holders really fear only one thing; displeasing the party bosses. Because it’s the party that gives them the money they need to run their campaigns and essentially only the party can remove them by primarying them. And for that reason, the will of the electorate is completely ignored in favor of what the party apparatus decides.
And so, the ZMan declares that the only way to break the GOP’s stranglehold on power is to vote them all out of office. This is similar to the present campaign to “zero out” the Tories in the British House of Parliament. If all the conservative voters voted for Labor (and less surely if they all just don’t vote at all) the Tories will be wiped out. Once that happens the establishment will be thrown into a panic and some kind of reform might take place. Of course, in the meantime while the progressives are in complete control all kinds of horrors will unfold but without a doubt the stalemate going on in their government will disappear. Who knows maybe Nigel Farage’s Independence Party might replace the Tories and actually reinstate representative government in England.
So, the ZMan has a similar idea. Although I’ll give him credit. He modified the idea enough to allow that conservative voters should split their vote. They should vote for Trump for President but not vote for a single other Republican. He reasons that regardless of whether Trump wins or not the huge discrepancy between Trump’s vote totals and the other Republicans will make the point that the Republicans have lost the confidence of the people and the system is completely broken. He even states that if Trump wins and the Republicans are wiped out in the House and Senate, he would hardly notice the difference in how he would govern. Now this isn’t accurate. If the Republicans were almost completely wiped out then the Democrats could easily remove Trump from office by impeachment. But I do admit it’s a pretty attractive idea. Vote for Trump but poke a thumb in the eye of Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson.
Of course, I think about introducing a bit more complexity to this scheme which definitely has its points. I would hold off until 2026. In the meantime, I would want some authority, maybe Donald Trump or some independent right-wing group to produce a score card for members of Congress that would decide if they deserved to be re-elected or fired. This list would be provided to the Republican party with the ultimatum, either replace these lawmakers or have them zeroed out. And first off, the House and Senate Republicans should be provided with the names that must be immediately installed in their leadership positions to replace McConnell and Johnson and any of their cronies that currently thwart the will of the voters. And if this ultimatum is ignored then we go straight to full zero (with maybe a few exceptions for anyone I really like!).
Now would this really work? I think it would if the people completely lose faith in the election process. And that is why I would wait until 2026. If Donald Trump wins, this idea could help him tame the GOP. And if he loses in 2024, I think the backlash would power a zero movement that could completely disrupt the Republican party. Maybe it might even be Donald Trump who could lead the charge to zero out the Republicans. If not someone else would do. Maybe Tucker Carlson would like to organize an investigative team to vet each member of Congress and single out the zeroes for zeroing. Anyway, that’s my spin on an interesting idea.
A testcase for this strategy is going to take place in the UK later this year. The ruling Tories are already on track to lose two thirds of their seats in Parliament and even the 24% estimate for their post-election share may be generous. Nigel Farage’s Independence Party may get a chance to see if replacing a major party can be done in a large modern nation.
The ZMan and the Republicans
Today’s ZMan post was very thought provoking. He links to two other articles that take a pro and con stance on whether ineffective “conservative” parties like the Republicans in America and the Tories in England should be totally abandoned or reformed.
The abandonment thesis is that if the British Tories were completely abandoned by their supporters this would have the twin benefits of destroying the spineless Tory part, thus paving the way for a replacement and delegitimizing the whole Uni-party arrangement that the Labor and Tory parties have practiced for generations.
The reform opinion holds that destroying the brake on the power of the progressives that the half-hearted but at least existing opposition party provides will make things much worse with all the worst policies now happening unchecked.
It’s a very difficult argument to pick a side on. It’s hard to imagine a worse situation than the one we find ourselves in presently with Joe Biden ruling by executive order. That is until you imagine what would happen if he had even a two thirds majority in the Congress. They’d impeach and remove Supreme Court justices and anyone else standing in their way.
So, the ZMan is staunchly on the abandonment side of the argument. He’d let the Republicans go down to complete defeat and depend on an accelerationist scenario to drive the present government into disrepute and depend on a reset to produce a new system that suits him better.
I guess I’m currently in the reform camp. But I will say, if the Democrats hold onto the presidency this year I may change my mind. At a certain point you just give up on “working within the system.”
It’s a pretty good read.
Baltimore Bridge Collapses. ZMan Unavailable for Comment
Well, he moved out just in time. Apparently there won’t be much left of the city soon.
Update:
Hat Tip to Mac for the new link
ZMan’s Farewell Tribute to Baltimore
In ZMan’s parlance Baltimore is Lagos on the Chesapeake. And today he wrote his swan song to residency in that troubled urban hell. He moved to the country.
Now he jokingly titled it “Missing Lagos.” But in a real way, he is feeling a loss. Obviously the overwhelming emotion you feel when you escape a hellhole like Baltimore is relief. All of the large and small problems and even existential dangers are essentially gone. And with them goes the tension and stress that takes a continuous toll on your body and mind.
But you can’t live somewhere for decades without it becoming a part of you. Leaving it produces something like that “phantom limb” experience that amputees experience. There’s a feeling that something isn’t right. Of course that eventually subsides but never entirely disappears. I remember when I moved out of New York City. It took me months to get used to the sound of frogs and crickets. It took me a couple of years to stop locking all the car doors.
But reading his account which was mostly disparagement of the dysfunctional residents of his former residence, I could still detect a certain pride in being a member of a club. The pride is that he has proven that he can survive and even thrive in a war zone. It’s an odd kind of a badge but a real one none the less.
Congratulations on your escape ZMan. Enjoy the crickets. They’re very soothing.