WAS IT OVER WHEN JOE BIDEN BOMBED PEARL HARBOR?! Trump says cognitively impaired Biden will lead us into WORLD WAR TWO — during gaffe-laden speech in which he appeared to say he was leading OBAMA* in the polls.
While questioning Biden’s cognitive decline, Trump says it could lead us to World War 2….
77 isn’t much better than 80 when you’re talking about a 4 year term.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 16, 2023
* Okay, given who’s actually running the White House, we’ll give him that one.
OUT ON A LIMB: Sen. Kennedy is right: It’s not anti-gay to want books such as Gender Queer removed from schools.
This stunt shocked the audience, with one witness calling it “very disturbing.” But it effectively raised an important question: If it’s too outrageous to read these books out loud in a room full of adults, why on Earth are they freely available in some middle school classrooms ? And why are liberals and Democrats fighting their removal in the name of “gay rights” and “opposing book bans”?
“Politicians have targeted books that include LGBTQ subject matter,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) lamented in his opening statement. “One of four banned books features LGBT characters and themes.”
“No parent should have the right to tell another parent’s child what they can or cannot read in school or at home,” he continued. “Every student deserves access to books that reflect their experiences and help them understand who they are. These efforts to ban books violate our most cherished principles as Americans and betray our values as a nation. We must protect our students and their freedom to read and learn.”
Though as Jim Treacher notes, “During a Senate Judiciary Hearing, Louisiana Senator John Kennedy read aloud explicit excerpts from books like Gender Queer and All Boys Aren’t Blue. Look, if I want politicians to talk dirty to me, I’ll subscribe to their livestreams.”
FINALLY: Senator Blutarsky Is Vindicated!
The description of the title on Amazon is that it’s a straightforward history book for a young audience, not a “what if” tale. So how on earth did this cover happen?!
CONSERVING CONSERVATISM MOST CONSERVATIVELY:
"If this was action was taken contrary to the wishes or even without the express permission of the United States government, the Biden administration should strongly consider nationalizing Starlink." But if the administration blessed it, shame on them too. https://t.co/8xzeTxdzt3
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) September 16, 2023
I’m so old, I remember when the Nation was the only far left publication that wanted to nationalize all the industries.
WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY: “‘The use of violence is a tactic of how we keep our communities safe,’ [Portland Antifa member ‘Milo’] said.” So how is that working out? More left Oregon than arrived last year, Census Bureau says, reversing decades of growth.
HOW IT STARTED:
No, Los Angeles is and should remain a Sanctuary City and the LAPD should not be burdened with the federal government’s responsibility to enforce immigration law. I do not support an ICE presence in local and state correctional facilities, nor do I support ICE transfers, absent a judicial warrant.
—“Karen Bass on how she will reach Latino voters,” Calo News, November 1st, 2022.
How It’s Going: LA mayor ‘fearful’ that planes of illegal aliens might arrive in city that ‘welcomes immigrants.’
—Fox News, yesterday.
The ghost of Saul Alinsky smiles: “Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. ‘You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.'”
WHY IS THE BBC SUCH A CESSPIT OF ANTISEMITISM? BBC under fire after linking ‘fanatic Jews’ of history to 9/11 terror.
DEMOCRACY DIES IN DRAFTING FAKE NEWS:
The headline is intentionally cloudy so you think he did this while in office.
He didn’t. He didn’t have to disclose. He wasn’t governor. https://t.co/Y7DxXJIpxN
— Sunny (@sunnyright) September 14, 2023
DON’T GET COCKY:
Here's the map with the Reuters poll numbers today
Now you know why Dems are hitting the panic button about Biden pic.twitter.com/R7yp9Jvcnt
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 15, 2023
THE LID: Mask Mandates Will Spread If Not Contained.
An elementary school in an opulent Maryland suburb outside Washington D.C. sent a Sept. 5 note telling parents that all children would be required to wear masks indefinitely because three students tested positive for COVID.Do not be fooled into thinking this is an isolated incident. If schools start requiring masks for tiny outbreaks — of a virus where children were safe even before the entire population acquired immunity and had access to vaccines — you can expect increased mask mandates throughout cold and flu season.Mask mandates act like a virus; they spread if not contained. Masks are a talisman to Montgomery County denizens, who consider themselves superior and lead Washington-based governance. They are the so-called experts. The school district was among the most locked-down and masked in America. If this “progressive” cabal restores mandates, others will undeniably follow.
Private colleges in Atlanta and New Orleans already mandated masks for the academic year. Joe Biden is masking up again, albeit inconsistently.The elites discarded science and data in the past and now want their power back. Can facts stop them?Mask mandates do not curb the spread of COVID-19 to any meaningful degree. Yes, well-fitted, high-quality masks appropriately worn can decrease the spread of respiratory viruses, but that doesn’t mean mandating them is important or that they don’t cause accompanying harm. The preponderance of research does not show any good effect for masks, especially among school children.We know liberal politicians didn’t believe masks mattered because those who supported them also flouted them. Recall the photo of maskless Stacy Abrams posing before young, masked school children. They ought to have permanently ended mandates in schools.
AP IS HANDED AN ACTUAL PEE TAPE, CHOOSES TO ALERT CANDIDATE RATHER THAN COMMIT JOURNALISM:
[Susanna] Gibson posted her videos to a site where she had more than 5,700 followers. She said in the videos that she wanted as large of an audience as possible, saying “And I love that they’re all watching me getting f—-ed right now and it turns me the hell on…. Yeah I want to see you on Checkmates too.”
In exchange for her performing specific sex acts, she solicited monetary “tokens” from viewers, where 100 tokens is worth approximately $5. “Y’all can watch me pee if you tip me and some tokens,” she said. “Again, I’m raising money for a good cause.”
Correspondence viewed by The Daily Wire shows the Associated Press was tipped off about the pornographic content on September 5, but chose not to do anything with the story. It did, however, make Gibson aware of the videos, which she appears to have had taken down in the days after the Associated Press alerted her that they had been discovered.
The outlet did not cover the videos until September 12, after it had already been reported by others.
Michael Isikoff could not be reached for comment.
Related: Sex, Lies and Virginia Law: The Susanna Gibson Case.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Jets File Restraining Order Against Colin Kaepernick.
In Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories,” he uses an analogy of a smudged window to describe a person’s view of universal truth. Man, by nature, can occasionally take the beauty of faith, family, and duty for granted. His view of beauty can become blurred, his window smudged. Tolkien argues that fantasy stories can be a strong tool for removing the smudge from your window to bring back into view the light and majesty of truth.
Tolkien used his fictional stories to convey universal and religious truths about how we should live, and the American right should take a few notes from them.
There really is a Tolkien lesson for everything, whether you’re discussing religion, technology, industrialization, history, politics, or environmentalism. The themes that dance across the pages of his writings seem endless, and you may discover a new point almost every time you read.
One Tolkien story conservatives can learn from is “The Fall of Numenor.” “The Fall of Numenor” or “Akallabeth” (“The Downfallen”) is the tale of the greatest nation of men to exist in Tolkien’s legendarium, one whose material success, technological prowess, and military might were surpassed by no other nation, whether of elves, dwarves, or other men.
Read the whole thing.
OLD AND BUSTED: Florida Man.
The New Hotness? California Man! California man arrested for riding horse while drunk.
FASTER, PLEASE: The Death of Late Night as We Once Knew It Seems Imminent.
Carson’s final show was watched by 55 million people. 55 million. Let’s put that number in perspective: President Biden’s State of the Union address was watched by 27.3 million viewers earlier this year — and Biden’s address was carried by 16 different networks in primetime. Carson was live at 11:30 p.m. on just one network, NBC.
So one could only imagine what Carson would think about what late-night has become, particularly during and after the Trump presidency: hyperpartisan, pious propaganda pushed by Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah and a few others. It would be one thing if these hosts hit members on both sides of the political aisle, but that almost never happens. Conservatives are not only wrong on policy, audiences have been told on a nightly basis, but conservatives are bad people with nefarious intentions, all while Democrats are treated with reverence and portrayed as purveyors of truth.
“Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine,” Colbert once said of President Trump in a 2017 monologue. “You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign-language gorilla who got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s (expletive) holster.”
Could you envision Carson ever getting so personal and angry?
* * * * * * * *
Kimmel, who once declared that he hoped Trump supporters would never watch his program again, has seen his viewership drop to just 1.5 million nightly. Meyers, who has the old “Late Night with David Letterman” 12:30 a.m. time slot, saw his viewership crater to under 800,000 nightly. For context, in 1984, in the same time slot, Letterman averaged 2.5 million viewers nightly.
In 2021, Matt Purple of Spectator World referred to the myriad leftist cable hosts who followed in the wake of Jon Stewart’s version of The Daily Show (a show that itself was inspired by SNL’s “Weekend Update” segment) as churning out “partisan comfort food.” In the age of a massively splintered media, the palace guard approach seemed the safest method to holding onto an audience that’s a sliver of what Johnny Carson enjoyed:
This is also my theory about the big entertainment awards shows like the Oscars and the Emmys. If the big, broad, general audience you used to have is gone, and deep down you think it’s never coming back, then why not make a harder bid for the loyalty of the smaller audience you’ve got left? In a time when the entertainment industry is (or thinks it is) a one-party state with no dissenters, you had better echo that politics back to your base.
What were once cultural institutions with a broad, bipartisan audience are becoming niche players with a narrow fan base. They no longer view partisan politics as a dangerous move that will shrink their audience. Instead, they’re using partisan politics as a lure to secure the loyalty of their audience, or what is left of it. Not that it’s going to work over the long term, because people who want to have their biases confirmed will just watch the five-minute YouTube clip Chris Cillizza links to the next day.
And then the writer’s strike breaks the remaining viewers’ habit of tuning into their partisan comfort food, causing those numbers to shrink even further. But in one sense, Biden’s late night palace guard is safe. In 2011 at Ricochet, TV critic Richard Rushfield explored “The Cultural Imperialism of Mad Men:”
Next March, AMC’s Mad Men will return to the airwaves after a year and a half absence. It’s return will be treated as the most significant cultural event of the year. Its stars will blanket the covers of our glossy magazines. Articles will be written in the New York Times and our most elite literary journals dissecting the show’s meaning. Banana Republic will promote its high end Mad Men line.
Mad Men at its height was watched by 2.9 million viewers. In contrast, CBS’ military police procedural drama NCIS last week was seen by 19.7 million viewers. As far as I can tell, NCIS has never been featured on the cover of any major American magazine apart from TV Guide and one issue of Inland Empire, the magazine of California’s suburban Riverside and San Bernadino counties.
* * * * * * * *
The New York Times and GQ Magazine have the right to cover whatever shows they wish and are free to bury themselves in any obscure niche they like. Our great journals still behave and write however, as though their coverage is guided not by personal preference but totally and completely by that good old objective journalistic judgement of what is important. It would be one thing if the papers (and the New York Times certainly is not alone in this) were to say, here’s our picks for the new season or what we think is the most interesting show on TV, or perhaps more to the point, here’s what we believe that the rarefied niche of upscale, urban readers that we target will be interested in reading about.
But they don’t; they still operate under the frayed pretense that they are covering the “news” of culture, giving their readers a report on what the most important developments of the day in the entertainment world. By that standard, the “flood the zone” coverage of Mad Men is completely unjustified in comparison to the information blackout on NCIS.
Similarly, the PR accolades for the late night leftists will roll on no matter what their actual audience numbers are.
HE JUST WANTS TO DATE HER: GOP Senator Josh Hawley channels his inner AOC with new nanny-state credit card proposal.
With Republicans like this, who needs Democrats?
The days where Republicans stood for free markets and limited government are over, at least as far as one Missouri senator is concerned. Senator Josh Hawley just introduced legislation that closely mirrors a plan by far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and would have the government dictate citizens’ financial decisions.
Hawley’s new bill would set a legal cap on the interest rate credit card companies can charge consumers, permitting them to charge 18% annualized and no more. The senator cites mounting credit card debt and describes this proposal as a “fair” and “common-sense” plan intended to give “the working class a chance.”
“We have a long history in this country of statutes, at the state and a federal level, that prevent what we used to call usury – an old-fashioned word for ripping off working people,” Hawley told RealClearPolitics, “and we need to get back to it.”
There are so many problems with this nanny-state proposal that it’s hard to know where to start.
Not least of which is that it’s Bernie Sanders approved as well: Josh Hawley Denounces ‘Usury,’ Follows AOC And Bernie Sanders With Proposed Cap On Credit Card Interest.
QUESTION ASKED: Dems Prepping for a New Veep? Pelosi Repeatedly Refuses to Say Harris Is Old Joe’s Best Running Mate.
Nancy Pelosi (D-Smirnoff) is no longer speaker of the House, at least for the moment, but there is no doubt that the octogenarian insider trader still wields considerable influence within the party of madness and treason, popularly known as “the Democrats.” And so it was by no means a trivial incident on Wednesday when Pelosi refused to affirm that Kamala Harris was the best running mate for Old Joe Biden. Could the party of Antifa and drag queens be preparing to throw Kamala under the bus and bring in someone who can more plausibly serve as president once Old Joe finally gives up his act and stops pretending to be the man in charge? It’s entirely possible.
On CNN, Anderson Cooper asked Pelosi what should have been a softball question, a prelude to Queen Absolut praising The Cackler to the skies and reassuring the American people about what a noble, inspiring leader the Figurehead-In-Waiting really is. Cooper’s question: “Is Vice President Harris the best running mate for this president?” But instead of taking the cue to gush over Kamala, Pelosi responded: “He thinks so. And that’s what matters.”
Jamie Raskin goes even further:
"I don't know whether Biden has named his running mate" is one hell of an answer https://t.co/PxpX8l7Ngh
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) September 14, 2023
And this is what they’re telling CNN:
If Raskin & Pelosi are acting this way in public imagine what they are saying behind closed doors. https://t.co/DQfnQgd74f
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 14, 2023
She’ll always have The View, though: ‘We’re Not Interchangeable!’ Sunny Hostin Says Biden Will Lose Black Vote If He Ditches Harris As VP.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN):
If the internal decision to drop Joe in 2024 has actually been made within the bowels of the system, what you would expect to see next is the emergence of some heretofore overlooked star within the progressive firmament that will suddenly begin to shine bright.
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) September 14, 2023
Plus:
Today’s indictment of Hunter Biden is a smokescreen. Don’t fall for it. This is a fig leaf designed to deflect attention away from the real problem: the Biden family is selling out U.S. foreign policy for their own family’s private financial gain. That’s really what’s wrong, and… https://t.co/8TvIUM9Mgd
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) September 14, 2023
JIMMY CARTER IS NO LONGER HISTORY’S GREATEST MONSTER:
The horror. The horror.
Classical reference in headline:
SPEAKER MCCARTHY HUMILIATES REPORTER IN TENSE EXCHANGE ABOUT BIDEN IMPEACHMENT:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy brutally savaged a reporter who questioned if there was any evidence to warrant an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. There are almost no words to describe how comical this is, as if there was any evidence to support the impeachment of former President Donald Trump. There was no evidence of Russian collusion, which turned out to be a hoax, the real big lie, and nothing to support the equally shoddy quid pro quo allegation regarding Ukraine aid and investigations into the Biden family.
The best part of this exchange is that he gets this reporter to admit that there’s evidence of wrongdoing, at least enough to warrant an inquiry:
AP reported that McCarthy's impeachment inquiry was launched "without evidence.” Here’s McCarthy forcing an AP reporter to admit that there was lots of evidence to support an impeachment inquiry. pic.twitter.com/lgzU1BNNlE
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) September 14, 2023
As Ed Morrissey writes, “They’ve found nearly 200 Suspicious Activity Reports from Treasury adding up to at least $10 million that were laundered through 20 LLCs or more controlled by Bidens while the Bidens never explained what that money bought, but sure @AP, go with ‘without evidence.'”
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