White Dudes For Kamala: Aren't You Ashamed of Yourselves?

In her interview on 60 Minutes, Kamala Harris, the Democrats' presidential candidate, said this: 

Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. 

As Americans later learned, CBS doctored the transcript to make Harris sound less incoherent, and Donald Trump sued the network for biased reporting. 

Harris's 60 Minutes babble was just one example of her inability to speak clearly and forthrightly. Nevertheless, more than 70 million people voted for Harris to be the next leader of the Free World.

Presumably, this number includes all those male Democratic sycophants who showed up (via "live video call") for a "White Dudes for Kamala" rally last July.

According to the New York Times, 60,000 men attended this video event, which was headlined by Jeff Bridges:

Kicking off the White Dudes call was, of course, the Dude, the actor Jeff Bridges, abiding in a comfortable-looking chair. He had seen a link for the “White Dudes for Harris” trucker hat and wanted one. “I qualify!” he said. “I am white. I am a dude. And I love Harris!”

As reported by the media, the White Dudes rally was a stunning success and raised $4 million for the Harris campaign--enough to cover the fees the Harris team paid to production companies owned by Ophrah and Beyonce for their efforts on Kamala's behalf.

We know how that turned out. On election day, Donald Trump soundly defeated Harris. Indeed, he made gains in key demographic groups compared to previous Republican performances, including white, black, and Hispanic men. 

Is anyone embarrassed?

Why did so many celebrities publicly support Harris for president when she was clearly a dud? I think the glitterati were just lazy.

Like the cinematic Big Lebowski, who was described in Sam Elliott's voiceover as "the laziest man in Los Angeles," the coastal elites always support the most liberal and progressive candidates for any public office. It's easier than thinking for themselves.

Fortunately, millions of white dudes did their own thinking and voted for Trump. Can you imagine where the country would be right now if Harris and Tim Walz were running the country?

The laziest man in Los Angeles.

 

 

 

Please, President Trump, get the U.S. the hell out of Ukraine

 "Ignorance of history," Robert Conquest wrote, "is one of the most negative attributes of modern man."

Indeed, among our woke politicians and pseudo-intellectual academics, it is fashionable to sneer at anyone who makes a historical reference.

Everything that occurred before the election of Barack Obama, our chattering class believes, is nothing more than the machinations and exploitations of racist, homophobic, and misogynistic white men. The past is irrelevant, and seeking wisdom from history is offensive to the uber-sensitive.

Ask AOC to state the dates of the Civil War and hear what she says. You'll probably get a sneer and no answer.

Ask Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren to define Operation Barbarossa, the Battle of Britain,  and the years they occurred. I'll bet she doesn't know.

Now, our nation's policy wonks and military bureaucrats, apparently ignorant of history, are stoking the war in Ukraine.

As President Trump has said, it's a stupid war,  senseless and tragic.  The American public doesn't know how many people have died in the conflict because everyone is lying about the casualties. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that half a million people have been killed, and hundreds of thousands more have been maimed. Cities have been leveled, and millions of Ukrainian refugees have been driven out of their native country.

For what? To prop up the Ukrainian government, a corrupt and venal crime gang. Isn't anyone aware of Russia's long dominance in Crimea or the millions of Russian speakers in the Donbas?

Barack Obama's State Department and his CIA destabilized Ukraine in 2014 and pushed Russia toward war. Hunter Biden enriched himself in Ukraine, and then Joe Biden, morally bankrupt and cognitively ravaged, shipped billions of dollars in weapons to prop up Zelensky's corrupt regime.

And Americans don't care. Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde, bleats about transgender children who supposedly fear for their lives, but she doesn't give a fuck about the Ukrainians, or at least not enough to mention it in her lecture to the President.

 And neither do the folks in the legacy media. Do you think Whoopi Goldberg could find Ukraine on a map?

Please, President Trump, stop the war in Ukraine. If you do that, you should get the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee might give you Barack Obama's. He never used it.

I Go Full Keto (Or Maybe Half Keto): Reflections on My Post-Stroke Lifestyle

I had a stroke a couple of years ago, which impaired my left side. I walk with a cane now, which is no fun, and my semi-functional left side prevents me from participating in a host of enjoyable activities.

Consequently, I've gained some weight. A couple of weeks ago, I determined to go on a formal, serious diet--the first in my life.

I was attracted to the carnivore diet that would allow me to eat nothing but meat. Consuming a lot of ribeye steaks, pork chops, and bacon--how hard could that be?

I did some Google research, however, and learned about some downsides. Joe Rogan, the famous podcaster, tried the carnivore website and reported that it gave him diarrhea.

Pretty severe diarrhea. As Joe described it:

It’s a different thing, and with regular diarrhea, I would compare it to a fire you see coming a block or two away, and you have the time to make an escape, whereas this carnivore diet is like out of nowhere, the fire is coming through the cracks, your doorknob is red hot, and all hope is lost.

Other people warn that a meat-only diet is exceptionally dull. Eating a ribeye steak every day loses its appeal over time, the carnivores say, although I'm skeptical.

I finally settled on the Keto diet--which is a "high-fat, low carbohydrate diet that aims to put the body into a state called ketosis" (whatever the hell that means).

I've been on the Keto diet for about two weeks and haven't lost a significant amount of weight. I feel better, however, as a result of giving up processed bread and sweets

I've also given up alcohol. which was difficult. I'm drinking nonalcoholic beer now, which is pretty good. Heineken's zero beer, in particular, is delicious and tastes like real beer.

Nevertheless, I've already found myself making compromises. It was impossible for me to get through the Superbowl last Sunday without a couple of brewskis.

I also found I can go only so long without a cheeseburger, and my religion requires that I quaff a Shiner when I eat that holy meal.

I decided I would enjoy a total of two alcoholic drinks on weekends and allow myself a weekly high-carb meal (cheeseburger, mothership pizza, enchilada plate, etc.)

Thus, I have not gone full Keto; I've gone half Keto. I'll let you know how it works out.

Of course, the other half of a weight-loss regime is exercise. I've resolved to walk a half mile four times a week, which I think will help me lose weight.

It is no fun living with the damage from a stroke. My duck hunting days are over, and I'll never crank another fishing reel.

There are compensations, however. With the help of my brother-in-law and a patient guide, I shot a deer last month in Alabama, and I'm feasting on low-carb venison meat.

To paraphrase William Wordsworth, nothing can bring back the splendor in the grass, but I'll find strength in what remains. Besides, the grass was not that splendid when I was growing up in western Oklahoma.

And Keto or no Keto, I'm gonna have a Shiner now and then.

Trump Should Allow Distressed Student Debtors File for Bankruptcy, and Proggressive Democrats Should Get Onboard

Progressive Dems protest every move President Trump makes, and then they file lawsuits with judges who were appointed by Obama and Biden. It will take months or even years to resolve this litigation, which is the whole point.

Is there anything Trump and the Democrats can agree on? 

How about this? The Democrats and Republicans can join hands and amend the Bankruptcy Code to allow overburdened student debtors to discharge their college loans in bankruptcy like any other nonsecured student debt.

Under current law, students cannot escape their education loans in bankruptcy unless they prove that the debt creates an "undue hardship" for them. The Department of Education and the federal courts have interpreted "undue hardship" very harshly, making it virtually impossible for most student borrowers to free themselves from crushing college loans.

How can that problem be fixed?

Easy peasy. All Congress needs to do is remove two words from the Bankruptcy Code: undue hardship. It's that simple.

Surely, the aged and bleating bulls in the Democratic Party--Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, etc--can get behind this reform and get this simple change through Congress.

If not, President Trump can get the same result with a one-page executive order. Henceforth, the order would read, undue hardship is presumed when an insolvent student debtor files for bankruptcy. Thus, the burden of proving no undue hardship will fall on the US Department of Education and its debt collectors.

Of course, the Bankruptcy Code should include some safeguards to prevent scofflaws from getting a lucrative degree and immediately flushing their student loans away in the nearest bankruptcy court. College borrowers should be required to wait five or even seven years after completing their studies before accessing the bankruptcy remedy.

Progressives might argue that this sensible reform would undermine the student loan program as millions and even billions of dollars in student debt get wiped off the books. But hey--no one paid down their student debt for three years during the COVID crisis, and the progressives expressed no worries.

And let's remember that President Biden's revisions to the income-based repayment formula are so generous that most student loans will never be paid back anyway.

I predict that college leaders will oppose bankruptcy reform if it gets introduced. They like the status quo--an unending flow of federal student-aid dollars and no accountability for results.

And progressive Democrats will probably oppose it, too. They will suddenly develop a keen appreciation for financial discipline. They don't want anything good to happen for which Trump would get credit.

That's okay. President Trump can open the bankruptcy courts to financially strapped student debtors with a stroke of his pen. All he needs is a Sharpie.

Image credit: Getty Images

Where Can We Find American Culture: The Super Bowl or the Streets of Bakersfield?

Hey, you don't know me, but you don't like me,
Say you care less how I feel.
But how many of you that sit and judged me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

The Streets of Bakersfield

Homer Joy

Sung by Buck Owens

Kendrick Lamar performed at the Super Bowl last night, spewing rap lyrics I couldn't understand. Kendrick's performance was backed by a platoon of well-choreographed dancers--as disciplined as a Russian military unit.

What did Lamar's Super Bowl presentation mean, if anything?

Jon Caramonica, writing for the New York Times, treated Lamar's presentation as if it were as important as a Nobel Prize-winning novel, writing:

But what will always be remembered from this performance is not the musical choices Lamar made, or the aesthetics of his choreography, or the silhouettes of his outfit. What will remain is his grin when he finally begins rapping that song. It was wide, persistent, almost cartoonish in shape. 

The grin of a man having the time of his life at the expense of an enemy.

Caramonica clued me into the meaning of some of Lamar's lyrics; he was cryptically taunting another rapper! Gee, I'm glad I wasted a few minutes of my life watching that drivel.

Was Kendrick Lamar's performance a cultural event? Were there elements of his lyrics and the backup dancers' gyrations that were expressions of American culture? I don't think so.

I know what you're probably thinking. Who cares what some old Mississippi wheezer thinks about rap music? How could a retrograde fossil who lives on a gravel road in the goddamn middle of nowhere understand the profound meaning of Kendrick Lamar's lyrics?

If that's what you're thinking, it's a fair point. People living in Flyover Country have been left behind as mainstream American culture grows more youth-oriented, cynical, urbane, and dismissive of anything that happened last week.

Nevertheless, there are neglected currents of American culture that will endure long after Kendrick Lamar's music and his feud with another rapper are forgotten.

For example, most Americans are unaware of the Okie refugees who fled the Dust Bowl in the 1930s and settled in California. These people brought a music tradition that blossomed in the Bakersfield region. 

Merle Haggard was the son of Okies; his parents were from Checota, Oklahoma. He became the greatest singer and composer of country music to ever live--greater than Jimmie Rodgers or Hank Williams.

Buck Owens was born in Sherman, Texas, during the Great Depression and eventually moved to Bakersfield, where he and Haggard created what became known as the Bakersfield Sound.

Other Dust Bowl refugees contributed to the Bakersfield Sound: Tommy Collins, Wynn Stewart, and the great Wanda Jackson--the Queen of Rockabilly.

Americans enthralled by rap music have probably never heard of the Bakersfield Sound and may despise the people who listen to it as just a bunch of hicks from Flyover Country.

Nevertheless, 50 or 100 years from now, Americans will be listening to the Bakersfield Sound when Kendrick Lamar is just a footnote in the obscure history of rap.

"You don't know me, but you don't like me."
Image credit: WPA

 

What the hell was Nancy Pelosi doing in Belgium anyway?

The will to power came to take the place of the will to justice, pretending at first to be identified with it and then relegating it to a place somewhere at the end of history.

Albert Camus

Last December, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi suffered a severe injury while traveling in Europe. She fell in her high-heel shoes and underwent hip replacement surgery in Luxembourg.

What the hell was Nancy Pelosi, a wobbly octogenarian, doing in Europe anyway? According to a press release from her office, Pelosi traveled to Belgium and Luxembourg as a member of a bipartisan congressional delegation to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.

Really? Does anyone think Nancy's junket benefited her California constituency in any way? And how did she get to Belgium? It's safe to assume she didn't fly coach.

Nancy went to Belgium five years ago to attend the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. Isn't one European holiday enough for Nancy to celebrate the Second World War?

Americans will remember that the Democrats were predicting the end of democracy last fall if Trump were elected President. They were calling him a fascist and a Nazi. Given the perilous state of the Republic, why did Pelosi think it was a good idea to put on high-heeled shoes and go to Belgium?

Our so-called progressive politicians pretend to be fierce advocates for social justice, but all they really want is power and the perks that go with it. Karen Bass, mayor of the nation's second-largest city, was in Africa as a presidential delegate when the Eaton and Palisades fires broke out. Is running Los Angeles a part-time job?

Our national debt tops $36 trillion and grows bigger every day, and yet President Biden, far gone in senile dementia, jets off to Angola. Meanwhile, federal bureaucrats don't even show up for work.

America's house is on fire, and Donald Trump showed up to douse the flames. Unfortunately, he may have arrived too late to save us.

Thank you for your service!
Photo credit: MEGA

Americans who help foreign criminals evade the police should do a little jail time: Governor Phil Murphy take note

 In Rules For Radicals, Saul Alinsky observed that it's okay to go to jail but not to stay too long.

Over the years, radical activists have adopted Alinsky's disruptive tactics again and again to paralyze local government, and many are quite willing to do some jail time. Al Shanker, head of the American Federation of Teachers, made his career by being jailed for promoting New York City's illegal teachers' strike in 1968. Incarceration converts irritating protesters into martyrs.

Today, some Americans oppose President Trump's efforts to stop illegal immigration. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy seemed to be flirting with martyrdom when he vowed that the Garden State would "fight to the death" to oppose Trump's effort to deport foreign criminals.

A few deportation opponents have gone so far as to aid immigrant felons in evading the police, which is a federal crime. Perhaps they believe they can thwart law enforcement officers with impunity.

These folks should go to jail, and they need to stay in jail long enough to dissolve any delusion that they're martyrs.

I'm not arguing for long prison sentences. Indeed, they shouldn't be imprisoned for as long as the nonviolent January 6th protesters. Nevertheless, they should sit in the cooler long enough to dissolve any romantic notion that they are the spiritual kin of Mahatma Gandhi.

And they should do their time with the general jail population and suffer the same daily indignities. Pro-life activists who went to prison for protesting at abortion clinics report that they were deprived of toilet paper when they were in the slammer. 

Governor Murphy, take note. If your opposition to Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration goes beyond bombastic rhetoric and you actually help felons evade the police, you should spend some time behind bars. Should this occur, remember to bring your toothbrush and some toilet paper.

Governor Murphy, don't forget to bring some Charmin!