CDR SALAMANDER: Can You Make Existential War Bend to Pragmatism?
Archive for 2025
December 16, 2025
SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS IN COMPLETE REMISSION: FBI to give Congress bombshell memos warning Biden DOJ didn’t have probable cause to raid Trump home.
The memos show the FBI’s Washington field office “does not believe they established probable cause” prior to raiding Trump’s Florida home, according to one source with direct knowledge of the memos about to be turned over to Congress.
It has long been rumored that some FBI agents disagreed with the decision to raid Trump’s home to look for classified documents at the request of the National Archives.
But the soon-to-be released emails will chronicle the specific concerns that DOJ under President Joe Biden had not met the standard for a search warrant, but proceeded anyway, officials said.
Of course they did — that’s how witch hunts work.
GREAT GIFT: 5 Precision Adjust Knife Sharpener. #CommissionEarned
ICYMI: Ignoring Islamic Threat, Aussie PM Vows Tougher Gun Laws After Bondi Beach.
Related (from Glenn):
How does a 24-year old Muslim male who is known to the government for being affiliated with ISIS get to possess not one, but SIX firearms, in a country where guns are essentially banned?
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) December 15, 2025
Australia 🇦🇺…
When you don’t wear a mask VS when you shoot a bunch of Jews. pic.twitter.com/NINJFAJ23Y— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) December 15, 2025
JIMMY LAI UPDATE:
The Washington Post calls the Jimmy Lai conviction "the end of Hong Kong" but the better term is the end of soft power, the end of a "rule based" world. In today's universe being a Nobel Prize winner means you are hunted down.https://t.co/n2iQI6l1mN
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) December 15, 2025
COMMON SENSE COONS: The Delaware senator offers some hard-headed, reality-based advice to his fellow Democrats. Interesting that two Democrats from adjoining states are looming as significant voices of reason in their party.
Obviously, there is much in the Coons analysis with which to disagree, but statements like this could be tremendously encouraging signs of an openness to a genuine policy debate about where the country is headed:
“Democrats need to stop telling Americans how to be and what to feel and believe. Instead, we need to listen. Then we need to solve the problems they’ve shared with us. In the last few years, it’s not just our message that was wrong—it was some of our policies, too.
People didn’t recognize the impacts of the bills we wrote and the votes we took. That’s why Americans don’t believe us when we preach at them from auditorium stages, cable news desks, and social media posts. We have to get back to the values and ideas that draw people to be Democrats to begin with.”
Let’s see where this goes.
HOLIDAY DEAL: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 16GB (newest model). #CommissionEarned
THEY ARE EVIL AND SHOULD BE DESTROYED:
If this reporting is true true, Hollywood not only violeted CRA for years by discriminating against white men, but has been merrily telling the white men this, and writing it down in widely circulated emails in case they wanted to file a lawsuit. No words https://t.co/FDOCf2YZ2H
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) December 15, 2025
Related:
This is a great deep dive into the systemic hate and discrimination White males have faced due to DEI policies. I’ll always fight for these young men. We have a long way to go but I’m proud of the progress we’ve made incinerating these policies. https://t.co/4DWy04uzR2
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) December 15, 2025
Also:
Just to be clear, for those who have been telling me "This happened everywhere", I am not surprised they did it, I am surprised they TOLD THE WHITE MEN THEY DECLINED TO HIRE and WROTE IT DOWN. It's like pinning a "sue me" sign on your backside. https://t.co/5jKXGvJVez
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) December 15, 2025
And:
It starts well before this, even before college. When one of my kids was 16, he wanted to do some sort of science-themed summer internship or volunteer wor,k, since everyone knows if you don't have this sort of thing on your resume, you can't get into a decent college.
— Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) December 16, 2025
White men deserve reparations for the past ten years. https://t.co/BxrMKu614Z
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) December 15, 2025
DEI delenda est https://t.co/vvZScmLMjO
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) December 16, 2025
AGREED: ‘Financialization of All the Things’ is Parasitism, not Capitalism.
Friend-of-the-blog Alexandria Brown offered up a recent X/tweet addressing the financialization of, well, everything in business and commerce, and how it should be viewed in relation to the ideal of capitalism. Specifically, Alex wrote: ”Here’s a fun question to which I have not made up my mind even a little bit: is the financialization of All The Things a form of capitalism which is at least tolerable or is it so reductive of human life and endeavors as to be past a limitation on acceptable commercial behavior?”
Those of us who advocate for free markets understand that capitalism also presents an opportunity for bad actors to misbehave within the system. Be it 20th century snake oil salesmen peddling patent medicines, or 21st century Wall Street investment bankers selling pools of subprime mortgages as high-quality securities, there have always been bad actors exploiting the opportunities within a free market.
But just because we conservatives endorse capitalism doesn’t mean we must endorse – or even tolerate – the worst practices that occur therein.
In my opinion, the “financialization-of-all-the-things” is a form of parasitism that does not create wealth, rather it serves to extract the accumulated wealth from entities where wealth has previously been created.
Read the whole thing.
LOOK, THEY NEED HEAT. THEY CAN’T LIVE IN A REFRIGERATOR: Help the Gregorys with home repairs!
IT’S NASTY STUFF: Trump Designates Illicit Fentanyl ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction.’
BEYOND PARODY:
They’re actually going to do it.
They’re actually going to ignore the immigration policies that caused this attack. https://t.co/FTDKhMeXBZ
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) December 15, 2025
“We’ll do anything to keep Australians safe”
“So you’ll monitor mosques for radicalism?”
“No, too far”
“You’ll restrict immigration?”
“No, too far”
“You’ll take more rights from law-abiding Australians?”
“Yes, perfect.”
— Sunny (@sunnyright) December 15, 2025
SIXTY YEARS ALREADY. WE NEED TO GET OUT THERE AND COLONIZE PLANETS! First Rendezvous. Today marks the 60th anniversary of first orbital space rendezvous between the crews of Gemini 7 and Gemini 6A, which holds the record for time spent in space.
IT IS THE SEASON OF HOPE: Proud, fervent, diverse – Unite the Kingdom carol service’s message of hope.
THREE GUESSES (AND THE FIRST TWO DON’T COUNT): London Mayor Sadiq Khan Knows Who the Real Victims of ‘Radicalization’ Are (and Guess Who He Blames).
ARE YOU KIDDING? THE MAN PUTS CHEESE ON RAW BEEF PATTIES ON THE GRILL! Tone Deaf: Did Chuck Schumer Really Say This About the Bondi Terror Attack on Sunday?
THE LIGHT WILL KEEP BURNING: A ray of hope during a weekend of horror.
THE LEFT NEVER SEEMS TO UNDERSTAND THAT: The Law of Unintended Consequences remains undefeated.
IT IS AN ATTEMPT AT A WORLD WIDE TERROR CAMPAIGN: Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre.
HE’S RIGHT, YOU KNOW: Here’s a handy helper to understand how libs compare gun stats between the US and countries with gun control like they love.
And for the X-Cancelled.
DEFEND WHAT YOU HAVE OR LOSE IT: I had a conversation with a client yesterday that made my brain hurt. At one point she said something about Trump’s “treatment” of immigrants & how mad it made her. Probably 20 minutes later she started telling me about some issues she was having with neighbors.
And for the x cancelled.