Archive for 2020

HOWIE CARR ON MIKE FLYNN: FBI railroading Americans, but we knew that here in Boston.

Who would have ever believed that James Comey and Andrew McCabe might be arrested before Donald J. Trump?

As the president said Thursday of this greatest scandal in American political history: “I wish I knew then what I know now.”

Every day, in every way, this catastrophe of corruption by the FBI’s “human scum,” as the president so rightly describes them, metastasizes into something ever more appalling.

Did these effete, crooked cops ever stop railroading their fellow American citizens and obstructing justice?

And yet the Democrats and the media, but I repeat myself, just keep saying, nothing to see here folks, move along.

They’ve gone from covering the news to covering up the news.

According to one account Thursday, the “news” networks spent 2,284 minutes over the years promoting the Russian collusion hoax from start to finish.

But here’s the amount of airtime they’ve devoted to these latest revelations about the FBI’s pervasive top-to-bottom corruption in promoting the hoax:

CNN, ABC and CBS: a combined zero mentions. MSNBC: one mention, at 5:14 a.m., NBC: one mention, at 3:41 a.m.

The New York Times, which handed itself a Pulitzer Prize for years of “reporting” Russian collusion that didn’t exist, now argues that President Trump wants prosecutions of the crooked FBI agents so he can “weaponize” their criminal behavior for the campaign.

So it was totally OK for the feds to try to frame Trump and everyone around him, but to want someone brought to justice for it is just politics — weaponizing and seizing and pouncing on those wonderful Democrats in the FBI and the CIA?

Thursday, the Associated Press was still couching these latest revelations about the FBI’s frame-ups as something that Michael Flynn was “claiming” and “contending.”

One of the pro-Deep State blogs “claimed” and “contended” that the newly-revealed handwritten notes about Flynn were no big deal, because the briefers at the J. Edgar Hoover Building often brainstorm on how to best destroy anyone who gets in their way.

Which everyone in Boston, at least, has known for decades. But isn’t that the problem, that this has been going on forever?

Tar, feathers, and a noose should be the remedy for deliberate abuse of official power.

THE DANGER ON THE ROCKS HAS SURELY PASSED. STILL I REMAIN TIED TO THE MAST. Protests sweep California as governor promises changes to lockdown. “The California Highway Patrol (CHP) had announced that it would be barring protests at the capitol because of a lack of social distancing by participants at a previous rally, but protesters gathered on the steps of the capitol regardless, chanting ‘Whose house? Our house!'”

Heh. They probably don’t know what to do when faced with lefty chants — you never arrest the chanters of those. Next try “the people, united, will never be defeated.”

But Newsom’s big problem is that his rules don’t make sense, and he can’t defend them on the basis of saving lives. All he’s got is “because I said so,” and that’s not working.

IS THE PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY MOVIE STEALTH PROPAGANDA FOR THE RIGHT?

Rose Byrne’s Gloria Steinem comes off as a vacillating, shallow, vain egomaniac; Tracey Ullman’s Betty Friedan strongly suggests that her feminist anger came out of crushed romantic dreams; Bella Abzug is only slightly more appealing — but largely because her pragmatism seems so sane in comparison with the antics of her fellows…. And what the series gets so right about left-wing identitarianism is how riddled it often is with jealousy, personal rivalry, and internal spats… The intersection, if you’ll forgive my using that word, of glamour and elite left-wing politics is pretty damning of both. The feminists completely underestimated Schlafly, because their vain self-regard could not believe that any serious pushback against the ERA could be rooted in real arguments about the difference between the sexes rather than their interchangeability…. Schlafly’s version of feminism is, in fact, less a reactionary one than a truly prescient one. She was the first feminist (though she would reject that label) to depict traditional home and family life as something not to be despised, as long as women had the choice to abandon it…. This is the first time I’ve seen a conservative woman portrayed as human, complicated, vulnerable, and also extraordinarily courageous.

How was that even permitted? Plus, from the comments: “Schlafly recognized the culture war for what it was. Others realized it too late.”

OPEN THREAD: You’ll think you’ve heard this one before.

WORLD ENDS, WOMEN AND MINORITIES HARDEST HIT.

FREEZERS: A reader emails: “Daughter tried to purchase a 20 cf frost free freezer yesterday, Lowes, Home Depot and Best Buy had none. 90 day waiting period. Have freezers replaced toilet paper as the panic buy of COVID-19?”

A quick perusal of Lowes’ website showed a banner announcing that a lot of freezers are unavailable, which was backed up by some random checks. Walmart’s site seemed to have more, but was leading with a lot of unfamiliar brands. I suspect people want to stock up on meat because of shortage fears, and some don’t have a big enough freezer. My sister bought half a cow last week, but she does have a big enough freezer.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AUTHORITY.

It was probably easier on rulers — and maybe rulers were easier on the ruled this way — when adversity could be blamed on the will of a sometimes inscrutable God.

MUSTN’T LET PEOPLE THINK FOR THEMSELVES: The Trust Deficit. Faced with disaster, authorities too often suffer “elite panic,” worrying about more an unruly public than about the crisis at hand.

THE CITY THAT SOMETIMES SLEEPS: New York’s Darkened Future.  The subway system has never shut down at night — until now. Another bad move by Cuomo and di Blasio.