This is a strange cast of characters. Erik Prince makes sense; but Steve Bannon? James O'Keefe in Qatar, working against the impoverished and enslaved Bangladeshis and Pakistani workers?
Of course, it's The Intercept, and their quality is a mixed bag. Some of their stuff is really solid, but this may not prove to be.
Spygate and Anti-Democracy
A few links that go together in my mind.
One: A summary of yesterday's NYT story about spies being deployed against Trump campaign figures; and another, separate story about Ukraine admitting that they were asked for damaging information about Trump's campaign.
Two: Both California and Washington state have bills aimed at forcing Trump either to release his tax returns, or not appear on the ballot. California tried this once before, but the bill was vetoed as unconstitutional. Since it was declared so by the governor rather than a court, however, they're free to try again.
Three: Facebook and its allied platforms banned a host of conservative voices, as well as Louis Farrakhan. While the latter is far from my favorite person, defending his freedom of speech is important just because it is how you defend the principle that speech should be free. Loathsome speech has to be defended in order to secure the whole.
Four: Anti-populism as anti-democracy. This last really should be read in full.
One: A summary of yesterday's NYT story about spies being deployed against Trump campaign figures; and another, separate story about Ukraine admitting that they were asked for damaging information about Trump's campaign.
Two: Both California and Washington state have bills aimed at forcing Trump either to release his tax returns, or not appear on the ballot. California tried this once before, but the bill was vetoed as unconstitutional. Since it was declared so by the governor rather than a court, however, they're free to try again.
Three: Facebook and its allied platforms banned a host of conservative voices, as well as Louis Farrakhan. While the latter is far from my favorite person, defending his freedom of speech is important just because it is how you defend the principle that speech should be free. Loathsome speech has to be defended in order to secure the whole.
Four: Anti-populism as anti-democracy. This last really should be read in full.
From the Rooftops
Colonel Kurt.
Our first responders are awesome, but it takes nothing away from their heroism to point out that the title “first responder” is a misnomer. The citizens on site are the first responders. And they should be ready to respond. We all should. Personally.That's it. That's right.
Some duties of citizen should never be outsourced. If you are an able-bodied adult, it’s your duty to know how to stop the bleeding and give CPR until the pros who do it for a living arrive. And it’s your duty (and right) to defend yourself, your family, your community and your Constitution. With guns – effective guns, which sometimes means your concealed pistol and sometimes means the guns that those who want you defenseless call “assault weapons.”...
It’s your duty to be prepared to defend our community. Your duty. Yes, being a citizen of a free country is sometimes hard. Too bad. Tighten up and be ready and able to pick up a weapon. Whether it’s a riots and disaster, or whether it’s some scumbag who decides to shoot up your house of worship or a shopping mall, it’s on you.
Two Very Unpopular Ideas From the Federalist
The Federalist has two pieces today forwarding ideas that are explosively unpopular with the campus left, and the activist left in general.
1) "The Moral Case for Israel Annexing the West Bank -- And Beyond."
2) Christina Hoff Summers facing off with a popular #MeToo activist in front of an activist crowd.
1) "The Moral Case for Israel Annexing the West Bank -- And Beyond."
2) Christina Hoff Summers facing off with a popular #MeToo activist in front of an activist crowd.
Venezuelans Regret Gun Ban
After Brazil elected a new president partially on his promise to restore gun rights to a people oppressed by criminals, Venezuela may do so once it gets rid of the oppression of its dictator. This article was written in December, before the current chaos, but it captures the popular sentiment that the ban was a mistake.
Eli Lake writes, today, about the right of the people to overthrow a dictatorship and restore lawful government.
Eli Lake writes, today, about the right of the people to overthrow a dictatorship and restore lawful government.
Antifa Buying Cartel Guns
Why? According to the left, you can buy legal guns more easily than birth control.
VZ
The article says the US 'backs' the coup -- or restoration of the lawful government, depending on which side you're on -- but so far it seems like 'backing' is limited to some praise on Twitter. Call me when the 75th Rangers show up.
This is rich, too:
This is rich, too:
On the sidelines of the recent Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Venezuela on Sunday and "highlighted that it is totally unacceptable when anyone tries to topple authorities in a third country, attempting to use force and illegal international pressure against a sovereign state, in order to change the leadership there," according to Peskov.Taiwan and Ukraine will be so relieved to hear of your principled stand, comrades.
Ancient Wild Ruins
If any of you have the opportunity to travel in Wales, here is a guide to some things that are worth seeing.
"Mermaid" To Challenge Susan Collins
Susan Collins' decision to vote for Brett Kavanaugh -- who, by the way, turns out to be innocent of all of the charges hastily arranged against him in an attempt to destroy his life and career -- had prompted a challenger for her Senate seat.
On Facebook, Kidman is described as a "criminal defense attorney by day and radical fat queer/performance artist/model/musician/activist most other times." On Spotify, Kidman is "Bee Kay Esq." and the biography is the same. Five songs with collaborator Mr. Gadget use "inhuman instruments to give voice to human vulnerability with beats that invite just enough dancing to feel slightly less dead."Thank goodness for that.
On the website for the Maine Educationalists on Sexual Harmony (MESH), Kidman is described as a "queer feminist lawyer, mermaid, writer, activist, and artist."
Mermaid is "an artistic identity, not a serious identity," Kidman said.
Confederate Memorials are War Memorials
Well of course they are. What else would they be?
These are strange times.
[Judge] Moore finds the issue to be so clear-cut that "if the matter went to trial on this issue and a jury were to decide that they are not monuments or memorials to veterans of the civil war, I would have to set such verdict aside as unreasonable..."I'm not a big fan of judges setting aside jury verdicts. All the same, what else could a reasonable person conclude? Maybe judges should or shouldn't have the power to set aside a jury verdict; I think I'd tend to side with the jury, all things considered. But if we allow, for the point of discussion, that a judge might exercise reasonable judgment -- well, what else would he rule, than than a war memorial is a war memorial?
These are strange times.
"Lock Her Up"
Donald Trump ran on the mantra, and it may have won him the election; it certainly won him this debate.
So why hasn't he locked anyone up, even when there are clear and demonstrable crimes? Angelo Codevilla answers the question.
So why hasn't he locked anyone up, even when there are clear and demonstrable crimes? Angelo Codevilla answers the question.
Politics is not responsible for the non-application of Section 798 to Brendan and Clapper. It is difficult to imagine that the public would not approve massively the straightforward application to prominent men of a law that is so unambiguous, which is the foundation of arguably the main part of U.S intelligence, and which has been applied countless times to ordinary people.Time for a change.
Rather, the absence of real politics—of real competition between opposing sides in American life—is the culprit. What we see is that those in the upper echelons of American life, whether they call themselves Republicans or Democrats, have greater loyalty to the ruling class to which they belong than to any law or institution. The refusal to apply Section 798 to Brennan and Clapper —the fact that they are free men —is simply the most obvious manifestation of the fact that we have a ruling class, that it is coherent, and that it has yet to be challenged in any serious way.
NRA Board in Executive Session
LTC(R) Ollie North announced yesterday that he will not be returning as President, and prosecutors in New York announced subpoenas related to charges Colonel North made about misuse of funds by the longstanding NRA leadership. Today, the board has gone into an executive session that has so far lasted six hours.
As I've mentioned before, I know Ollie North. I met him in Iraq, spent some time with him there, and have spent time with him on other occasions here. I trust him, and know him to be a man of honor. My strong assumption is therefore that he is going to prove to be on the right side of this. If he says there's been dirty business going on there, the audit he called for is warranted and wise.
The NRA is an extremely important civil rights organization, and I am angry that anyone would put it at risk for any reason -- but especially if it was done for personal profit. We'll have to keep an eye on this story and see how it shakes out. The best source I know of right now is this journalist's Twitter feed.
UPDATE: Few public changes announced at the end of the closed-door session. Keep your eyes on the ball.
As I've mentioned before, I know Ollie North. I met him in Iraq, spent some time with him there, and have spent time with him on other occasions here. I trust him, and know him to be a man of honor. My strong assumption is therefore that he is going to prove to be on the right side of this. If he says there's been dirty business going on there, the audit he called for is warranted and wise.
The NRA is an extremely important civil rights organization, and I am angry that anyone would put it at risk for any reason -- but especially if it was done for personal profit. We'll have to keep an eye on this story and see how it shakes out. The best source I know of right now is this journalist's Twitter feed.
UPDATE: Few public changes announced at the end of the closed-door session. Keep your eyes on the ball.
Death of the Calorie
I was surprised when this article, allegedly on nutrition science, began with an armed kidnapping in Mexico. But it is in fact about nutrition science, and it's one of the more interesting and useful things I've read lately.
No Church in Sri Lanka
John Rendon reports that, a week after the Easter attacks, churches in Sri Lanka are conducting televised services rather than in-person ones because of security concerns. Hard to receive Communion over the television set.
The Martyr of Passover
Echoing the Easter massacres, though fortunately on a much smaller scale -- a single gunman, a single death -- another attempt to profane the most sacred. Or, more properly, to argue about what is and is not sacred; and to sacralize, in the old way with blood, that which the enemy holds sacred into something sacred for you. The Easter bombings were intended to be like the transformation of Hagia Sophia from basilica into mosque; this, an attempt to transform the day that God passed over the Jews into a day for killing them in the name of a mythical race.
Fortunately, even in California, an armed citizen -- an off-duty Border Patrol officer, by reports -- was there to stop it. And fortunately, in America unlike in Sri Lanka, the enemy sought to do his work with guns instead of bombs. There's not so much you can do with bombs, not even if you are armed and brave. As long as they stick to guns there is a fighting chance.
These attacks are attacks on a particular religion, but they are also attacks on the American ideal of religious liberty: on the idea that it is all right for you to be a different faith from me, that I don't consider it my business just as long as you grant me the same courtesy. The enemy isn't just an enemy of Christians here or Jews there; they are our common enemy insofar as they feel it proper to turn people into blood sacrifices in order to exert control over us.
We must oppose all of this sort because our cause is liberty. Non enim propter gloriam diuivias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatum: quam nemo bonus nisi simul vita amittit.
Fortunately, even in California, an armed citizen -- an off-duty Border Patrol officer, by reports -- was there to stop it. And fortunately, in America unlike in Sri Lanka, the enemy sought to do his work with guns instead of bombs. There's not so much you can do with bombs, not even if you are armed and brave. As long as they stick to guns there is a fighting chance.
These attacks are attacks on a particular religion, but they are also attacks on the American ideal of religious liberty: on the idea that it is all right for you to be a different faith from me, that I don't consider it my business just as long as you grant me the same courtesy. The enemy isn't just an enemy of Christians here or Jews there; they are our common enemy insofar as they feel it proper to turn people into blood sacrifices in order to exert control over us.
We must oppose all of this sort because our cause is liberty. Non enim propter gloriam diuivias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatum: quam nemo bonus nisi simul vita amittit.
Trump at the NRA
The President offered a welcome sentiment today:
"[T]hat American liberty is sacred, and that American citizens live by American laws, not the laws of foreign countries."
That's right. I'm hoping to help other nations attain protections for their own natural right to keep and bear arms, of course. Whether they do or they do not, though, I intend to pass those rights intact to my grandchildren and to future generations.
Others disagree. We can expect a fight. It is a fight I mean to win, or to die in.
"[T]hat American liberty is sacred, and that American citizens live by American laws, not the laws of foreign countries."
That's right. I'm hoping to help other nations attain protections for their own natural right to keep and bear arms, of course. Whether they do or they do not, though, I intend to pass those rights intact to my grandchildren and to future generations.
Others disagree. We can expect a fight. It is a fight I mean to win, or to die in.
Trend Lines
Compare and contrast the trend lines for school shootings for all schools, versus schools with armed teachers.
Well, it's empirical. It could change tomorrow. Still and all, so far it's a striking delta.
Well, it's empirical. It could change tomorrow. Still and all, so far it's a striking delta.
Elvis is Everywhere
Joe Bob Briggs writes about threats to sell Graceland to Dubai.
Here's the song, by the way. I have to admit I always thought this was a Grateful Dead tune, because in my own youth their version of it was so much more prominent. I didn't realize until reading Joe Bob today that it was an Elvis tune, let alone his first radio hit.
But as I say, I qualify as an amateur expert on Elvis’ place in world history since I was an actor in a critically trashed 1989 movie called Great Balls of Fire, a Jerry Lee Lewis biopic filmed entirely in Memphis and vicinity. My character was Dewey Phillips, the pioneering radio personality who had a show called Red, Hot and Blue on WHBQ in the 1950s. In my youthful zeal for background research, I sought out every newspaper article, recording, and reminiscence about this disc jockey who had been the first to broadcast an Elvis record. (The song was “That’s All Right,” although he also played the flip side, which was “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”) And what I discovered was that a phenomenon like Elvis could only have occurred in the Mississippi Delta of that era.He has a brief but plausible argument for why Memphis had to be the place where rock n' roll was born. It touches on the current debate about 'cultural appropriation' by raising a contrasting point that is often missed. It also gives rock n' roll a kind of locality, a place and time where it belongs, which is harder to appreciate now that it has become so universalized. Even the United Arab Emirates wants a piece of Elvis.
Here's the song, by the way. I have to admit I always thought this was a Grateful Dead tune, because in my own youth their version of it was so much more prominent. I didn't realize until reading Joe Bob today that it was an Elvis tune, let alone his first radio hit.
Why Notre Dame?
The DB had a funny joke about Trump sending the 82nd Airborne to secure Notre Dame -- the joke being that he sent them to the university, not the French cathedral. Not everyone who is out of place at Notre Dame is part of a satire, however. Consider the new director of gender relations for the student government.
That said, if that's how you feel about things, Notre Dame might not be the right place for you. I know: she chose the place just because she wants to take a hammer to the Catholic faith. That's also why she seeks a position in student government, which ordinary students completely ignore because it has very little real effect on anything. It's merely a platform for activism, and some people were raised to believe -- or came to believe -- that activism is good in itself.
Minding one's own business is another good, in part because it allows people who disagree to get along. When 80% of people in your community agree, they represent the norm in your community, and as a dissenter you should consider trying to get along with them -- or else finding a new community that better fits your view of what is right. It's a big country, and there are lots of communities that do, pretty much no matter what you believe.
[A fellow student] expressed concerns that [the director]’s condemnation of Catholic sexual ethics would affect her policies as director of Gender Relations at Notre Dame, where at least 80 percent of the students are Catholic.I'm leaving out the names of the students because, though not minors, they are still young and figuring things out. The ideas are worth criticizing, but I don't want to engage in any sort of personal attacks on someone so young.
[She] had said in a now deleted tweet: “I see the [Catholic] faith as inherently against female empowerment and sexual freedom.”
She also tweeted, “Catholic marriage isn’t about love, it was conceived to make licit the illicit act of sex for the purpose of procreation (evangelization).”
That said, if that's how you feel about things, Notre Dame might not be the right place for you. I know: she chose the place just because she wants to take a hammer to the Catholic faith. That's also why she seeks a position in student government, which ordinary students completely ignore because it has very little real effect on anything. It's merely a platform for activism, and some people were raised to believe -- or came to believe -- that activism is good in itself.
Minding one's own business is another good, in part because it allows people who disagree to get along. When 80% of people in your community agree, they represent the norm in your community, and as a dissenter you should consider trying to get along with them -- or else finding a new community that better fits your view of what is right. It's a big country, and there are lots of communities that do, pretty much no matter what you believe.
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