Trying not to start the public floggings
From Pat Buchanan:
“We are an unserious nation, engaged in trivial pursuits, in a deadly serious world.”
Read the whole article, but his comment is true in many other instances as well. Think of Nero (the U.S.) fiddling away while Rome (the world) burns, and you’ll get the idea.
…and it doesn’t seem like the 21st-century French Revolution is going to end anytime soon, either.
It doesn’t look like there is anything President Macron can do to appease the mob because their protest has no focal point. The demonstrations are an expression of the frustration and anger felt by ordinary Frenchmen at how the government has taken them for granted in creating policies and new taxes they feel they were not consulted on. From refugees to a falling standard of living, the French people feel betrayed and no government giveaways are going to assuage their anger.
For details on the policies and new taxes, feel free to peruse Erik’s take at No Paseran!
I think the events Over There reveal a systemic difference between the U.S. and France. In Europe, the people basically let the elites run all over them (for hundreds of years Euros seem to have had little problem with their “betters” telling them what to do) right up until the situation becomes intolerable, and then they explode: heads roll, protesters take to the streets, whatever.
On our side of The Pond, we Murkins just elect people like Trump from time to time, to try to reverse the trend of oppression. This seems to let some of the steam out of popular resentment — which is also why we respond so strongly when the elected fail or falter in their mission.
I’m not sure that Murkins have the spunk to rise up as violently as the Frogs. Perhaps it’s because we have so many guns — not that we’re ready to use them, but their very presence acts as a damper on ourselves. Instead of rioting, we form a Tea Party movement and get politicians to follow its precepts.
It’s one thing to march in yellow vests, blockade streets, break windows and deface monuments. It’s another thing altogether to break out the AKs and ARs and start a truly violent revolution. That’s not to say we couldn’t, under truly intolerable circumstances, but I think we all agree that most of us — even the most fire-breathing — would shrink from taking that final, and very deadly step until that time.
Under these circumstances, our government and elites should be grateful for the Second Amendment instead of trying to shut it down all the time. That said, our elites would ultimately prefer that the State is the repository of all guns so that they and only they can go to the guns, which of course is the current state of affairs in Europe.
An interesting mental game is to wonder what the gilets jaunes would do if France had a Second Amendment as robust as ours or whether, if they did, the State would be as oppressive towards them as it has been.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll head off to the range. All this intellectual activity requires some physical release.
The story of the late Bush 41 — a man respected by many and distrusted by an equal number — should have proved an object lesson to the once-god-emperor Trump, but it seems like Trump doesn’t want to learn from history unless it’s his own history. Which makes him an idiot. Here’s why.
Facing election, Bush 41 got what would be the loudest cheers of his entire presidency when he made the unequivocal statement: “Read my lips: no new taxes! ” Well, we all know what happened later: “no new taxes” became a “great big huge tax”, passed as part of a deal made with arch-socialist and “Lion Of The Senate” Senator Ted “Swimmer” Kennedy. The result for Bush? The loss of the Presidency, because the Republican base, which hates taxes of any kind let alone new big ones, felt they’d been betrayed by the President.
Anyone see any parallels with the current incumbent, Trump 45? Here it is: “We’re going to build a wall to secure our southern border: a big, beautiful wall! ”
And now, this week? No wall. Why no wall? So he can keep a friendly working relationship with not one but TWO Congressional Socialists, Chuck “No-Guns” Schumer and future Repeat-House Speaker “Red” Nancy Pelosi?
Then Trump 45 gets pissed off when Ann Coulter — the same Ann Coulter who back in early 2016 predicted Trump’s eventual Republican nomination, to the loud jeers of a Jon Stewart audience — entitles one of her articles “Gutless President In Wall-Less Country“.
Well guess what, Donald old chum: just like Bush 41, you’ve managed to piss off your most loyal supporters, the ones who thought you were different, the ones who thought that if anyone could build a big, beautiful wall it would be a billionaire property developer.
Too bad you fucked up. And here’s another lesson you’re about to learn from Bush 41 (a.k.a. President Juan Term): just as Bush 41’s with Kennedy, your “partnership” with Schumer and Pelosi will last as long as the wet ink on the surrender document (“continuing resolution”) that you’re about to sign tomorrow (Friday). On Monday morning (if not Saturday morning), they’ll go back to sabotaging what’s left of your your agenda, attempting to have you impeached, and turning what was to be a transformational presidency into just another fucking swamp. Your last two years in the Presidency are going to be dead in the water, and nothing you said would happen, will happen. And you will go from God-Emperor Trump to President Juan Term II.
I hope it was all worth it, you blithering moron.
[This should have appeared over a week ago, but I screwed up the posting date thingy, sorry. It’s still relevant, and now updated.]
From the Diplomad, talking about the revolting French:
France is in real trouble. I mean REAL trouble. That once great country, in fact, is dying. It, along with most of the rest of Europe, has a worthless leadership class that, as we saw at the WWI commemorations, sees nationalism as a bad thing. That leadership argues that true patriotism means going along with the elite’s efforts to kill the sense, the very idea of nation; it means allowing one’s culture, traditions, and history to be wiped away, and rewritten to justify the on-going social, economic and political destruction. To object, for example, to the importation of hundreds-of-thousands of poor, illiterate and often violent migrants from some of the most failed countries on earth, many espousing an ideology of hatred for all that France and Western Civilization represent, makes you a vile racist and a deplorable, one who should not be heard, a “far right” pariah. In other words, Citizen, fermé la bouche and let your betters decide for you. Nothing to see, keep moving. Leadership should be left to the professionals; do not attempt decision-making at home . . .
Before any of us start to crow at the Frogs’ expense, however, look carefully at the words “true patriotism means going along with the elite’s efforts to kill the sense, the very idea of nation; it means allowing one’s culture, traditions, and history to be wiped away, and rewritten to justify the on-going social, economic and political destruction” and try to deny that this is precisely what our own “leadership” class — political, academia and corporate — is doing to the United States. [Hint: you’ll fail]
Now go and buy some more ammo.
(Some of you may wonder why I haven’t suggested also buying a hi-viz jacket as used by the French protesters. That’s because we Murkins don’t do hi-viz — we do camo.)
From an article detailing how ex-President Token and his harridan wife are making millions, we find this little nugget:
In October 2017, Michelle Obama was a keynote speaker at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, a non-profit that promotes education and networking. The New York-based Harry Walker Agency Inc., which books both Obamas for speaking gigs, billed the Pennsylvania Conference for Women $225,000 in 2017, according to the non-profit’s most recent tax filings.
Barack Obama currently rakes in $400,000 per speech, and earned at least $1.2 million for three talks to Wall Street firms in 2017.
But, but, but… #IncomeInequality !!!
Barack Shithead Obama earns twice as much as his Pore Wife, for doing the same job!
#ShameOnBarack #PayTheBitchMore #FairnessInSpeakingFees
Whatever all that shit means.
In this article, Rick Moran worries about Orange County Going Socialist, and What That Means:
Orange County Is Reagan Country No More
They used to vote Republican in huge numbers in Orange County, California. The county used to be one of the most Republican in the country, but with Democrat Katie Porter unseating GOP incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters, Republicans are beginning to look nervously at 2020 and wonder where all their votes have gone.
And Moran’s take is:
Is Trump accelerating the GOP decline? There’s no doubt that Trump’s antics as president have energized his base. They are, if anything, more loyal and enthusiastic today than they were when he was elected.
The rest of the country? Not so much.
As leader of the party, Trump is responsible for its growth or decline. Right now, it’s declining across the board. The answer is not goosing Trump’s base supporters. The answer has to be broadening the appeal of the party.
I’m not so sure. I think that the answer to the Orange County change is simple: I bet that Hispanic voters (i.e. Socialists) are moving in; but mostly, Republican voters are leaving California. And as Orange County has (or had) a huge number of suburban middle-class families — the people most adversely affected by California’s insane government — it’s a simple case of changing demographics.
I know that the plural of anecdote is not data, but not long ago I gave a lift to a one-time Orange County resident (a conservative Republican, by his own admission) who had moved to Plano because he was totally sick of California government’s effect on his small business. He told me that he wasn’t the only one; almost all his friends from his neighborhood (also Republicans) had either already left the state or were in the final stages of doing so. And he admitted to me that he voted for Trump in 2016, as had all those same friends whether still in California or not.
I likewise suspect (also from anecdote) that this is happening in Ventura County as well.
I would love to see the population-shift statistics from Orange County by party affiliation to see if that, and not Trump, has been the reason for the change in voting patterns. If that is the case, there’s nothing Trump (or any Republican) can do about it.
Oh, and one more thing: I think I persuaded my ex-Californian passenger to buy a gun and get his carry permit — and I’m pretty sure he’s going to do it because when I gave him the names of a few of our local gun shops, he keyed them into his phone. (I told him that he should do it just to stick it in CalGov Jerry Brown’s eye, and he laughed like hell at the thought.)
One at a time, folks; one at a time.