Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

September 30, 2023

HEH, INDEED: Let’s start another war to stop Antony Blinken singing.

During a surprise musical performance on Wednesday night, secretary of state Antony Blinken tried to convince the State Department he’s got the soul of a blues singer. The stiff-armed, frog-throated diplomat jammed out to a less than rousing rendition of Muddy Waters’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” that left the room full of his subordinates cheering.

“I couldn’t pass up tonight’s opportunity to combine music and diplomacy. Was a pleasure to launch the State Department’s new Global Music Diplomacy Initiative,” Blinken tweeted on Wednesday.

Blinken’s set followed performances from Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters and pop star Gayle. Before beginning, Blinken joked, “If this doesn’t clear the house, I don’t know what will.” Fearing for their jobs, or otherwise deaf, Blinken underlings gave him a standing ovation. Had Cockburn been in attendance, he would have gladly heeded Blinken’s advice and left. Clearly the secretary of state isn’t busy enough if he’s spending his time rocking out. Perhaps Biden could heed the cries from Arlington security contractors and start another war to put a bit more on Blinken’s plate and shut him up?

Blinken of course loves the feigned adoration from his underlings. As the late Tom Wolfe told Elon Green of Nieman Storyboard in 2014 in an article called: Annotation Tuesday! Tom Wolfe and radical chic:

I remember talking once to Abe Ribicoff. When I was a graduate student, they have these weeks where distinguished people come and make themselves available to all kinds of student organizations. We had a little thing called the American Studies Club. During the course of the week, Abe Ribicoff agreed to come. I asked him, very naively, “What is it that motivates politicians? Is it the money, the power? What is it? The publicity?” And he said, “Well, it’s certainly not the publicity. You get so used to it that you just expect it.” And then he said, “Unless you’re an idiot, it’s not the money.” And he says, “You find out that even at the federal level, you don’t really have that much power. There are very few people who you can point to, and say, ‘You do this and you do that.’ ” But, he said, “The real kick is seeing them jump.” I said, “Seeing them jump?” “Yeah,” he said. “You come into a room and everybody jumps up! Everyone offers you whatever seat you want. If you even hint that you might be hungry, 10 people want to go out and get you something from the restaurant.” He said, “Seeing ’em jump. That’s what it’s all about.”

For the vast majority of politicians, indeed, to coin an Insta-phrase.

Posted at 10:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Sep 30th, 2023

GREAT MOMENTS IN EXHIBITIONIST NARCISSISM: Cleanup of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate after climate protest to be longer and more expensive.

The cost of cleaning the gate was initially put at about 35,000 euros ($36,900). But the management company, Berliner Immobilienmanagement, made clear that it now expects a bigger and much more expensive effort.

The color that was used has seeped deeper into the sandstone monument than originally thought because of its water content, BIM said in a statement. It added that various cleaning techniques have been tested, and a combination of those methods will probably have to be used — as well as the potential use of laser technology.

That means the cleaning work will probably take “several weeks” and the costs will increase, BIM added. It said that it’s not currently possible to give a precise figure, but it expects “costs in the six-digit region” because scaffolding will have to put up around parts of the gate.

Earlier: Joel Kotkin: Environmentalism is a Fundamentalist Religion.

And Michael Shellenberger has a thread on the intersection of apocalyptic environmentalism and exhibitionist narcissism that’s well worth a read:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Sep 30th, 2023

THE FIRST OF TRUMP’S GEORGIA CO-DEFENDANTS TAKES PLEA DEAL:

One of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the sweeping Georgia racketeering case has entered into a plea deal.

Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit election interference on Friday.

He is the first of the 19 defendants charged in the Fulton County election interference case to plead guilty.

As part of his plea deal, Hall will serve five years of probation, pay a $5,000 fine, and do 200 hours of community service. He also agreed to write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia and to “testify truthfully” at future court proceedings in the case.

It will be interesting to hear what he’s “testifying truthfully” about going forward.

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Sep 30th, 2023

September 29, 2023

DIANNE FEINSTEIN’S FINEST MOMENT:

In February 2019, climate-advocacy group the Sunrise Movement — one of the most annoying activist organizations in existence — sicced a group of doe-eyed children on Feinstein, apparently expecting its juvenile proxies’ youthful exuberance and plucky charm to win the senator over to its side on support for the Green New Deal.

What it got instead was a master-class in public service. Instead of coddling the kids like many Democrats do, promising them they can have anything their hearts desire of public policy with nary a trade-off, Feinstein told them the truth.

“There’s reasons why I can’t, ’cause there’s no way to pay for it,” the California senator told the children, who clearly had never considered the argument that feasibility of legislation matters. “I don’t agree with what the resolution says,” she added. Feinstein went on to inform the kids, who seemed to have been put up to this in a shameful display of the progressive inclination to use American youth as political tools, that you actually need a majority of lawmakers to vote for a bill in order for it to reach the president’s desk. She didn’t mention this, but the president at the time was Donald Trump, who obviously would’ve vetoed a Green New Deal in any form.

Perhaps the best moment of the exchange came when one of the teens who barged into her office tried to impress upon Feinstein her obligation to do the bidding of those who voted her into office. After asking the girl’s age and learning she was 16 years old, Feinstein replied, “Well, you didn’t vote for me.”

One of the rare times a leftist objected to, as Thomas Sowell would say, a mascot of the anointed.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Sep 29th, 2023

September 28, 2023

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