21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Special Ops C-130 Tests Pallet-Dropped Cruise Missiles In The Arctic.
Author Archive: Ed Driscoll
November 10, 2022
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Republican Party Staves Off Red Wave.
“This was a close call,” said one Republican leader in Washington. “We were worried that we would achieve massive victories tonight, but we thankfully snatched defeat from the jaws of victory to achieve a much more proper and sensible red trickle, like the proper gentlemen we are.”
Some Republicans achieved major victories, which were largely ignored by party leadership due to the fact that those Republicans were loud and icky “MEGA-MAGA” culture warriors. “Ron DeSantis won by double digits, and frankly, we find that quite uncouth,” said a D.C. consultant while holding up a glass of red trickle victory champagne. “Everyone knows the key to being a good Republican is to muddle your message and make it really squishy so no one knows what you stand for and everyone will like you. Duh!”
Everyone in the room then golf-clapped politely.
I had no idea that the Babylon Bee had moles in the Bulwark’s offices.
IT’S COME TO THIS: ‘SNL’ staff writers boycott over Dave Chappelle’s hosting gig.
There’s unrest at 30 Rock, Page Six hears, over the decision to sign up Dave Chappelle to host “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.
We’re told that some staff writers are so furious that the comedy superstar — who has made transphobic and homophobic jokes — has been chosen to helm the iconic show that they’re sitting out the episode.
“They’re not going to do the show,” an insider told Page Six. “But none of the actors are boycotting.”
Wait until the current writers discover what the show’s original writers crafted — and ‘80s cast member Eddie Murphy’s stand-up routines poked fun at.
GOODER AND HARDER, MINNESOTA: ‘More of the same, please.’ “Crime and public safety issues were reportedly of high concern to Minnesota voters this election cycle. The crime problem that had exploded in our state in recent years was supposed to be a solidly persuasive issue that tipped the scales against the likes of Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, Hennepin County Attorney candidate Mary Moriarty, and others. Inexplicably, voters who have all felt the negative and corrosive effects of crime in some way, went to the polls yesterday and said, ‘I’ll take more of the same, please.’ If creating an unwelcoming atmosphere for criminal behavior, and holding offenders accountable is important to you, there is reason for concern.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE AND THE LIVES OF OTHERS: Students Mistook an East German Uniform For a Nazi Costume, so the Principal Was Fired for Explaining the Truth.
What this incident is really all about is power. And Ms. Tang and her fellow “empowered” students are stomping all over the school administration.
She said many students were happy to see Powers suspended and hope he will be replaced with a principal “who is actually willing to listen to students and take the right step toward change.”
Gabriel Willis, 18, said he was “really disappointed” the school’s administration failed to immediately address the costume last week and looked for ways to explain and contextualize the outfit rather than listen to concerns.
“He shouldn’t have been able to walk the stage,” Willis said of the student who wore the soldier costume.
Incredible. The infants don’t care about what was actually happening, nor did they want anyone to explain any context to them. They wanted to order the principal to do what they were telling him to do.
Seig heil, baby.
“Are we the baddies?” Why, yes. Yes you are.
JEFF DUNETZ: The 2022 Harold Stassen Awards For Special Political Losers.
For those who don’t remember or have never watched The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, because Minnesota’s Harold Stassen lost so many times, he was a regular target of Carson’s jokes. Therefore this award will go to politicians whose careers of losses were very special, just like Harold Stassen. In fact, these losers are so bad it’s embarrassing.
In a unanimous vote between me and my computer, the 2022 Midterm Stassen award winners were Beto O’Rourke, Stacey Abrams, and Charlie Crist.
Charlie Crist didn’t even get an Annie Leibowitz cover or Star Trek cameo along the way.
TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: Now the Real Work — the Hard Work — Begins for the GOP House.
Yes, investigate Hunter Biden throughout the next two years, and let the public learn how all the corruption, from Ukraine Burisma money to China money, leads directly to Joe, but leave Joe in the White House. He not only is the Democrats’ symbol of Political Correctness but also will become the Republicans’ standard-bearer, too, the symbol of Political Corruptness.
The one to impeach — and then to convict — is Alejandro Mayorkas, the brazen liar who, at best, has failed miserably in protecting our southern border in his role as secretary of Homeland Security — and, at worst, has not “failed” but in truth deliberately and calculatedly has engineered and acquiesced to the chaos and anarchy there in order to import millions of illegal immigrants so as to change the demographics of the electorate, as has happened in California and, a bit less so, in Nevada and Arizona.
It now will be a time not for basking on laurels but for tasking very hardy work. Republicans must begin sending one bill after another to Joe Biden’s desk. Yes, he will veto them, and Republicans will not have the votes to override. Or Republicans in the Senate may get shot down by Senate Democrats wielding filibuster rules that they come to celebrate. That all is fine. That is perfect. Put Joe Manchin and his cohort on record. It will demonstrate daily to Americans in the clearest of terms where the parties stand and how they differ on the issues of the day:
Read the whole thing.
November 9, 2022
DEAD DEMOCRATS HAVE PROGRESSED FROM BEING VOTERS TO ACTUAL POLITICIANS! Deceased State Rep. Tony DeLuca Reelected in PA Month After Death.
Related: Question asked and answered by Stacy McCain: “What kind of people would elect John Fetterman? Short answer: The kind of people who live in Philadelphia, a city that has become America’s Mos Eisley, a ‘wretched hive of scum and villainy.'”
But what’s next for Fetterman? The sky’s the limit!
FETTERNECK 2024?
I am living in a simulation
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) November 10, 2022
TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Biden Delivers Clueless Response to Voters and Midterm Results:
Notice how suddenly there doesn’t seem to be a threat to “democracy” anymore? Funny how that works.
As noted above, we don’t know yet for certain, but it looks like the Republicans could win both the House and the Senate. You can see the predictions at the bottom of the chyron with 51 in the Senate and 218 in the House. We’ll have to see how it continues to shake out.
So did Biden take away anything to learn? A reporter asked him about the one thing everyone seemed to agree on: the wrong direction of the country under him. Biden’s response showed he wasn’t even pretending to have learned anything.
Reporter: “75% of people say the country is heading in the wrong direction. What do you intend to do differently?”
Biden: “Nothing because they’re just finding out what we’re doing.”
How horrible is that answer? He’s unabashedly going to continue along the disastrous path he’s been following.
Americans who voted for Democrats or who were fooled into believing Biden had achieved something by his sleight-of-hand tricks over oil and gas are about to get a rude awakening. Prepare for the oil and gas prices now to start going back up once the releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stop. The railroad strike Biden put off? That may hit now in December, in the holiday season. On top of all that, here comes the diesel shortage as well. Prepare for all that, because it’s coming.
The grinding down of the middle class will continue until morale improves.
More from Biden’s press conference: Nasty Deranged Tyrant Joe Biden Promises to Use the Government To Go After His Political Enemies, Such as Elon Musk, “In a Lot of Ways,” Eyes Twinkling Maliciously. “As he vowed: Democracy was on the ballot. And democracy lost. Now it’s time for fascism.”
I’M PRETTY SURE I SAW CRIMSON HELLSCAPE OPEN FOR OZZY AT THE PHILADELPHIA SPECTRUM IN 1985: Christina Pushaw points and laughs at South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial on Florida’s new ‘crimson hellscape.’
Nice knowing you, Florida.
After Tuesday’s stunning election results, the state’s political transformation is now nearly complete, from deep purple battleground to crimson hellscape, an ideal launch pad for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential aspirations. We now await a second-term agenda that may feature an open-carry gun law, tighter abortion restrictions, new strategies to suppress the vote and more charter flights for out-of-state migrants, presented with even more of the governor’s trademark hubris.
And who can blame him? DeSantis’ 19-point blowout victory was historic and nothing short of astounding. Best of all for him, he’s not Donald Trump.
He carried 62 of 67 counties, including Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, leaving Broward isolated as a blue island surrounded by red. Besides Broward, the only counties that Democrat Charlie Crist carried were Orange and the medium-sized trio of Alachua, Gadsden and Leon, a sea of red reflecting an epic Democratic collapse.
They’ve since changed it “crimson landscape,” but the original sounds much more metal.
DON SURBER: Life after Trump. “Dr. Oz showed how it went with Trump. That’s how poisonous he has become in purple America. We, his fans, see the good in him and the evil in his enemies. But the majority doesn’t and never will. It is a sale that cannot be made. There will be no second term from The Donald. It breaks my heart to see this. I wrote three books on the man. Looking for someone else — likely DeSantis — will cost me readers. As I said about the covid vaccine, you do you. But Trump failed. He cost America the red tsunami we need to rein in Democrats.”
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THREAD YOU CAN READ FOLLOWING WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT:
I’m not saying you have to agree with it, but there’s a lot of wisdom here:
Yeah, we’re jumping into the deep end of the pool.
Some hard truths ahead.
Read the whole thing.
ROD DREHER: The Red Wave That Wasn’t.
To the MAGA diehards, I say: is this really what you want? A Republican Party that can’t decisively whip the Democrats even in an extremely favorable year? Because this is what you are going to get if you keep sticking with Trump. Like it or not, a lot of independents just hate the guy, and that’s never going to change. Conservatives like me would vote for him in 2024 just to keep the Democrats out of office, but in that case I would vote knowing I was checking the box for a big mouth who won’t get much done, because whereas Ron DeSantis would actually govern, Trump would do nothing but preen and talk about himself.
But as Stuckey and Walsh say, the normie Republican Party doesn’t give people much reason to vote for it, other than its not being Democratic. That’s enough for a lot of us, but not enough to win big, and certainly not enough to deserve victory.
The future of American political conservatism is Ron DeSantis, J.D. Vance, and National Conservative-style Republicans like them. Not MAGA. Not the Bulwark sad remnants of the pre-Trump GOP establishment.
I’ll update this as we get news about Georgia and Arizona. Hoping hard for Blake Masters and Kari Lake wins. Hey, at least we no longer have to hear from terminal losers Stacy Abrams and Beto O’Rourke again.
As Steve writes in his requiem for Trump’s political future in his column for PJ Media VIP readers: So Long, and Thanks for All the Judges.
WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY: The View Cries ‘Tremendous Voter Suppression,’ But ‘Huge Turnout.’
THE GHOST OF HARRY REID CHUCKLES: The Democrats Sold Their Soul for a Congressional Seat. Was It Worth It?
MICHAEL LAWLER CONTRIBUTES TO FLIPPING THE HOUSE, KNOCKS OUT DCCC CHAIR SEAN PATRICK MALONEY IN NY-17: “Also, the defining moment was when Maloney lectured his constituents to stock up on Chef Boyardee in order to deal with soaring inflation. ‘Well, I grew up in a family where if the gas price went up, the food price went down, so by this time of the week we’d be eating Chef Boyardee if that budget wasn’t gonna change. So, that’s what families have to do.’ God don’t like ugly, and voters despise arrogance. I suspect this was the kill shot that finished off Maloney’s congressional career. At least this time around. Feckless Democrats, like dead voters, seem to keep coming back to life at the worst possible time. The Lawler campaign was smart to pounce on this, and it paid off. He has now contributed to moving the House closer to the majority column.”
ROGER KIMBALL: How did I get the midterms so wrong?
About as wrong as I was about the character of the midterm elections. I thought there would be a red wave, fueled in part by high-octane orange fuel. Clearly I was wrong.
It is no consolation to know that I was hardly alone in my assumptions. Nor is it much consolation to hear from Donald Trump that it was a “GREAT EVENING” because there were “174 wins and nine losses.”
I didn’t check his math, but even if accurate it is obvious that there was no red wave. Several of his high-profile candidates lost, most conspicuously Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. The fact that he lost to a man who is ostentatiously a mental incompetent added insult to injury. The most that John Fetterman will be able to do is show up to the Senate in his hoodie and vote “yea” or “nay” on the orders of his handlers.
A friend suggests that perhaps the Democratic strategy is to let Fetterman assume office and then have him resign, leaving Josh Shapiro, who won the gubernatorial race handily against Trump-endorsed Doug Mastriano, appoint a mentally competent successor. Rumors suggest that Scranton mayor Paige Cognetti is the likely replacement. That scenario appeals to the Machiavellian in me, but who knows if it is in the offing.
Power Line’s Scott Johnson has a mea culpa as well: After Last Night: “I expected the worst and hoped for the best, but I had no ken that the elections could have played out as poorly for Republicans as they have.”
PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ! “John Fetterman, the state lieutenant governor, has won Pennsylvania’s high-voltage race for an open Senate seat, NBC News projects, defeating celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz.”
DESANTIS’ RIP-ROARING VICTORY SPEECH: ‘I Have Only Begun to Fight.’
On Election Day, at his victory party at the Tampa Convention Center, Governor Ron DeSantis celebrated with around 4,000 of his supporters as he cruised to a 19+ point victory for reelection over Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist.
In his speech, DeSantis gave yet another full-throated defense of liberty, freedom, taking on wokeism, and putting a stop to pandemic lockdowns.
He gave several memorable lines, with Churchillian overtones, and a clear and repeated message to keep fighting, never give up, and never back down. Indeed, it was a wartime speech, as America fights to preserve its liberty and its sovereignty. “Florida was a refuge of sanity when the world locked down,” he roared to a frenzied crowd. “We stood as a citadel of freedom for people across this country and indeed across the world. We faced attacks, we took the hits, we weathered the storms, but we stood our ground. We did not back down. We had the conviction to guide us, and we had the courage to lead. We made promises to the people of Florida, and we have delivered on those promises. And so today, after four years, the people have delivered their verdict. Freedom is here to stay.”
He pointed out how Florida has gone deep red in very unexpected areas, to the delight of those in attendance. Every time Fox News showed Miami-Dade County with huge vote advantages for DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio, they exploded with applause.
Where is DeSantis headed next? His supporters shouting “Two more years! Two more years!” might be a clue.
GEORGIA GOV. BRIAN KEMP WINS RE-ELECTION, OVERCOMING SECOND CHALLENGE FROM STACEY ABRAMS.
To be fair though, wouldn’t governing Georgia feel like a massive step down, after serving as the president of United Earth?
Flashback: But she was running for the children!
AUDIBLE SHOCK: MSNBC Devastated Over ‘Catastrophic’ Hispanic GOP Vote. “The devastation for the MSNBC panel set in early when national political correspondent Steve Kornacki went to the electronic board and showed that Senator Marco Rubio had an early lead in Miami-Dade County. This news received an audible shock from the panelists off-camera[.]”