HAS ANY GROUP OF PEOPLE BEEN MORE WRONG ABOUT ANYTHING?

…ever been more wrong about anything? (2/2) https://t.co/YevpjMk9y9

— Dan Mitchell (@danieljmitchell) January 9, 2025

LIGHTNING DEAL: Pro-LifT C-2036DG Black/Green 300 Lbs Mechanic Creeper. #CommissionEarned

NIALL FERGUSON: The Monarch of Mar-a-Lago.

Alexander Hamilton, famously, was among the strongest supporters of a monarchical order. He himself proposed that the president be elected for life—a position supported by James Madison, John Adams, and George Washington himself. And Hamilton wanted the president to have “an absolute negative (i.e., unlimited veto) on the laws” passed by Congress.

The counterargument against American monarchy was as much cultural as constitutional. As Adams explained in a letter in 1776, “A Monarchy would. . . produce So much Taste and Politeness, So much Elegance in Dress, Furniture, Equipage, So much Musick and Dancing, So much Fencing and Skaiting; So much Cards and Backgammon; so much Horse Racing and Cock fighting; so many Balls and Assemblies, so many Plays and Concerts that the very Imagination of them makes me feel vain, light, frivolous and insignificant.” Not everyone accepted the radical Whig position that the presidency was nothing more than an “executive magistracy. . . for carrying the will of the Legislature into effect.”

The result, enshrined in the Constitution, was a compromise. The president was elected for four years, but there were no term limits until 1951. He had a veto over legislation, but not an unlimited one.

Since November 5, there has been no shortage at Mar-a-Lago of the frivolities and luxuries Adams associated with monarchy. Though one pays to play, Trump’s Palm Beach club is unmistakably reminiscent of a royal palace, and Trump holds court there with regal relish. Its décor a gaudy fusion of Las Vegas and Renaissance Florence (as seen on TV), Mar-a-Lago’s most striking features are the absence of art, aside from a “capitalist-realist” depiction of a young Trump as a tennis champion; the centrally located, elevated, and roped-off royal dining table in the middle of the alfresco restaurant; and the multiple stages on which the monarch can present himself to the courtiers.

Moreover, like most courts in history, Trump’s is a scene of ferocious intrigue. The power of patronage is essential to monarchy, and—after four years in the political wilderness—Trump has learned how to turn the traditional process of naming administration appointees into something between The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III and The Apprentice.

* * * * * * * * *

The problem is that this is almost certainly the zenith of Trump’s power. At Mar-a-Lago, he truly is King of the World. The world leaders and tech CEOs all come to do homage and pay tribute. Apple’s Tim Cook donated $1 million to the inauguration. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg—all must kiss the ring. Best of all, His Royal Highness can troll the world with impunity. Canada for 51^st state? Take back the Panama Canal? Stake a claim to Greenland? Rename the Gulf of Mexico? The whims and memes of the Sun(tanned) King can conjure up a new American empire just for the lols.

However, the moment he’s sworn in on January 20, Trump’s just the plain, old president of the United States, for four years, with congressional majorities only for the first half of that term (unless the midterms defy history), and with his powers deliberately circumscribed by a constitution designed, despite Alexander Hamilton, to prevent a King of America.

I’m hoping that as Scott Adams tweets, Trump’s boasts about annexing Greenland, making Canada the 51st state, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, etc are designed to overwhelm the DNC-MSM with over-the-top lunacy “so his critics don’t know which way to aim their fake news.” We’ll know how disciplined Trump 2.0 is pretty quickly once he’s in office, firing off executive orders, and as Glenn wrote in November, the GOP Congress has “bills lined up like airplanes on a runway.” We’ll see.

NOT A GOOD LOOK, LAFD, ON AT LEAST A COUPLE DIFFERENT LEVELS:

LAFD Asst. Fire Chief Kristine Larson

“You couldn’t carry my husband out of a fire. He got himself in the wrong place.”

wtf pic.twitter.com/bd7Wd0R4tZ

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 9, 2025

“Screw that little kid who fell down the well, too, because our firefighters aren’t fit enough to get down there.”

Mostly though, it seems as though DEI-controlled institutions actually enjoy rubbing your face in their inability to perform.

Exit Question: Ever heard of anyone declining to be pulled out of a burning building because the firefighter didn’t look enough like them?

VDH ON THE L.A. FIRES: “A DEI Green New Deal hydrogen bomb.”

🚨NEW: VDH weighs in on the LA fires: “It's something like a DEI Green New Deal hydrogen bomb — the alarming symptoms of a society gone mad."

An incisive, two-minute breakdown of the political and ideological issues that led to this disaster:

“It was a total systems collapse… pic.twitter.com/QVyUFvcV2R

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) January 10, 2025

FOR CERTAIN DEFINITIONS OF ‘WATER’:  Mercury may have frozen water in craters, spacecraft flyby reveals.

GENDER DYSPHORIA A SOCIAL CONTAGION? Radical Leftists claim the recent explosion of gender dysphoria cases is simply people discovering something that was always true, for them. But on HillFaith this morning, in the Colson Center’s latest “What Would You Say,” the data convincingly demonstrates the explosion is of a social contagion, not biology.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: The Great Unmanning of Britain. “We need to discuss some unpleasantries today.”

VIP members asked for longer pieces and I’ve been happy to oblige.

I’VE DONE IT. IT’S EXHAUSTING:  Land hunt.

THOSE AREN’T THE GIRLS THEY’RE CONCERNED WITH:   Gang rape of white girls – feminists are still turning a blind eye.

WITH THE STORM THAT’S BUILDING? OF COURSE THEY WILL – NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES: Dolan’s Digest: Will Reeves and Rayner be thrown under the bus?

THE PUBLIC CAN’T LOOK AWAY:  Big talk, little action.

NEVER EVER EVER GIVE GOVERNMENT THE RIGHT TO KILL CITIZENS FOR THE CITIZENS’ “OWN GOOD”. IT ALWAYS ENDS UP IN “LIVES UNWORTHY OF LIFE”, AND IN SOMEONE PROFITEERING FROM THE DEATHS:  Canadian Doctors Suggest Harvesting Organs From Euthanasia Patients Before They’re Dead.

WHAT A SHAME IF THIS WENT VIRAL!  Newsom Flees Angry Citizen as L.A. Fires Rage On.

STILL 11 DAYS UNTIL HIS INAUGURATION:  Port Strike Averted…and Who the Union Credits Is a Massive Embarrassment for Biden.

THEY CAN TURN A LITTLE $ ON THIS BY SELLING THE NAME FOR A CONVENIENCE MART CHAIN:  Goodbye ATF? GOP Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Abolish the Bureau.

NOISOME MAKES FRIENDS AND INFLUENCES PEOPLE:  Gov. Newsom passes the buck to ‘local folks’ when asked about hydrants running out of water during Pacific Palisades fire.

PIECE BY PIECE, ONE STATE AT A TIME:  Governor signs 2 BFA-backed bills to prohibit firearms liability insurance, sales tracking, registries.

AND IT HAS FOR A LONG TIME NOW:  Victimhood U: colleges’ leftist brainwashing is making young Americans miserable.

THEY FORGOT THE REASON FIRE DEPARTMENTS EXIST:  The Nile does not in fact flow through Los Angeles. This may come as a surprise to many given how much denial is happening regarding the fires there.

NO, NO, NO! IT’S CONSIDERABLY MORE IDIOTIC THAN THAT, AS THE COMMENTS SHOW:  If I’m following correctly, the British government: 1. Gave up an island it owned for no reason other than woke virtue signaling 2. Realized it needed the military base on that island 3. Is now desperate to buy a lease from the new owners to operate that base, at any price, having given up all negotiating leverage.

And link for those without an x account.

I ALSO NEVER UNDERSTOOD LEFTISTS OBSESSION THAT ONLY THE RIGHT SEX AND ETHNIC MIX “REPRESENTS” THEM. HUMANS ARE HUMANS:  If my family is in a burning building, I don’t need someone with the right mix of German, French, Irish, Polish, and Apache ancestry to rescue them. I need someone who can rescue them. “Oh, gee, thanks for running into the burning building to save us, but first, can you please give me a DNA analysis to ensure that you sufficiently look like me to be worthy of rescuing me?”

Link for those without an x account.

GETTING THE JOB DONE IS THEIR LOWEST PRIORITY:

$17.6 million doesn't seem a huge cut ( $837 million remained). Surely there's that much flab. But a second prong of the Fireman First principle, IIRC, is that the people at the bottom who do the real work (not the people at HQ) are the ones who'll actually get cut if it comes to…

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) January 10, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Come make some noise.

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN A NUTSHELL: Gavin Newsom literally lies to a woman about the fires, and we can literally see that it is a lie.

From the comments: “As a follow-up she might ask what earthly good it would do to talk to President Biden. Or maybe he was trying to get in touch with Trump.” Yeah, but I don’t think so.