The Age of Blunder: Rob Long's Unified Theory

Listened to Rob Long on the GLOP podcast and he makes a pretty keen unified theory of why things are the way they are: 

“There was a period in the 20th century where there was great advancement, knowledge... We split the atom, flew jet planes, went to the moon, created the computer, etc...Concurrent with the great rise of knowledge was also this giant decline in religious faith and observance. Once you’ve decided we’ve come from apes...

On September 11, 2001, we entered the 'age of blunder' where very smart people who know things make colossal, colossal mistakes. It’s the Great Humbling. What was most humbling for America, Iraq or Vietnam? I don’t think Vietnam, which was a mistake, but a policy mistake that everyone knew going in. It was the Iraq War. We had a war based on satellite imagery which tells you everything you need to know, right, so we had to go in!  

Covid. Enormous blunder of science, investigation, and public health officials. Huge world-wide blunder. We locked people in their houses, we did all sorts of crazy stuff based on ‘science’ and ‘knowledge’.  

Vladimir Putin. The night before he invaded Ukraine he was thought of as a really smart guy: ‘I don’t like him, but he managed to to swing the 2016 election, etc....’ - all these things he didn’t do! - and then by the next morning, after the invasion, we have to wonder if he’s dumb.  He really thought when he asked how many tanks he had that he had that many... he really thought he had all the information he needed to go into Ukraine. 

All are huge mistakes of pride, arrogance, the feeling that you have all the details covered. And it’s the world, or God, coming back and saying, ‘No, you don’t understand. You know nothing. You know nothing.’  I hope we get out of this age soon but we’re in an age of enormously smart people making huge errors based on their own or their culture’s arrogance of how much you can know.  

Take political polls. The anger when the polls are wrong is so bizarrely neurotic: ‘I’m angry that I didn’t know the future. I’m angry that tomorrow is a question mark, and that really makes me mad because I want to know.’  I think that’s a new feeling and a new era we’ve entered.” 

I think that's spot on in part because the need to be in control, and to know the future, appears critical when you don't believe that God has control and knows the future.  

William F. Buckley's Brother, the Christian Nationalist

This Daily Caller interview with William F. Buckley’s brother Reid back in 2010 was really spot-on. Stands the test of time:

**

To awaken his late brother’s movement, Reid Buckley offers bold conservative vision

In the last months of his life, William F. Buckley, Jr., the founder of the iconic National Review magazine and leader of the conservative movement for nearly half a century, saw his life’s work in shatters, writes Buckley’s brother Reid in his new book, “The Idiocy of Assent.”

“He evidently knew…that all his work was disintegrating around him and there was nothing he (nor anyone else) could do to resuscitate it,” Reid Buckley writes.

Buckley’s book seeks to fill the void with a blistering assault on American culture he sees as faltering due to moral decay, universities steeped in post-modernism and a conservative movement smugly pleased with itself and narrow in its focus.

Buckley rails against the baby boomers’ sense of entitlement, fitness “freaks” who put their faith in the “corruptible body” and, in six consecutive chapters, “American stupidity.”

He discusses resigning from a teaching position at a university out of disgust at the dismal work of his students, the big spending betrayals by Republicans during the Bush years and urges the right to make “the true, the good and the beautiful” its top priority.

Though the GOP made huge gains in the midterm elections, Buckley views conservatives’ – and America’s — overall situation as dire. Buckley urges radical spending cuts, but concedes the right will need to somehow make peace with big government or find itself soon on the fringes of American political life.

The Daily Caller talked with Buckley about his book, why expected Speaker-to-be John Boehner should resign, and what East Coast elites can learn from Sarah Palin:

Q: Republicans just won over 60 seats in the House and made major gains in the Senate, in part because of the energy of a protest movement, the Tea Partiers, who demand a smaller government. Yet you see a dark future for conservatives?

A: I think it’s sort of the last gasp of an expiring base. It’s delightful and I hope that the Tea Party-backed people in the Congress have their way, but I think, still, that we’re talking about a base that is bit by bit disappearing.

Number one, the American public is almost incredibly ignorant [about] the founding of the Republic. Number two, there is a paganization in our culture. And number three, we have to absorb a whole bunch of Hispanics and also Asians, who in all their history, going back before the middle ages, have never experienced free government or the notion of a republic. That takes a huge change in their native reflexes, and it requires acculturation which is not done by the immigration services.

My wife was born in Spain, raised in Spain, she’s now an American citizen. And I can tell you, the instructions she got to become an American citizen were incredibly superficial — none of the major philosophical questions that brought up our republic.

She doesn’t really have much understanding of the structure of the government. And why should she? Nobody is really giving that kind of instruction any more.

Q: What about the GOP’s congressional leadership that presided over the electoral victories?

In general, I think the becoming thing for them to do is to resign, resign their posts and then have election and see who comes up. I think John Boehner should resign his position. And he may be reelected, but lets let that happen with the authority of the new members of Congress.

It would clean out the good old boys. These good old boys were the ones who under the Bush administration started the terrible spending.

Do they have the stomach to actually talk about Social Security? How are we going to get spending under control unless we actually talk about Social Security? And not only talk about it as a program that is out of control fiscally, but talk about it as a program that should never have started.

Q: At one point there was a vibrant conservative movement led by William F. Buckley, Jr., your late brother, but now you say the conservative movement is in peril. What happened?

It’s the victory of the baby boomers. The 1960’s were big. And all the attitudes, all the materialism, all the egoism, the narcissism of that era have [invaded] our politics. The harm gets done through the universities. The education of liberal arts is woeful. It’s almost non-existent. And what it does teach is generally wrong. In most cases, it is totally materialistic, with no input on the spiritual status of the human being at all, and ignorant of the history of the United States.

Q: You write your brother was saddened by the state of conservatism in the waning years of his life.

I think his sadness was extraordinary. His sorrow was so deep. He saw the conservative movement, I believe, go downhill and the Bush administration offended him. He was very anti-Wilsonian and he was offended by Iraq, number one.

Number two, he was deeply offended by the domestic agenda of the Bush administration, for example the outrageous farm bill, the outrageous steel bill. The extraordinary deficit that it was leading to. I think what also offended him was the idea of keeping the cost of the Iraq war off budget, because it was dishonest.

But I think largely what Bill worried about was that we had lost the edge. And that the movement had become establishmentarian. He was a natural rebel.

Q: What role did National Review play in the conservative movement faltering?

National Review still has some wonderful articles in every issue. But it’s lost wit, it’s lost bite, it seems to me. And it seems to be satisfied. There’s a smugness about the writing and an arrogance that rubbed me the wrong way.

What I would like to see injected there is somebody from rural America from across the Mississippi and to inject a different kind of philosophy in the leadership of National Review.

And in this I include the Weekly Standard – the neoconservatives there – and the American Spectator.

Q: In isolating education as where “the damage is done,” what would you like to see students taught?

I’d like them to be instructed in vision of the city on a hill. That this was a special, an extraordinary event, it was almost guided by the Holy Spirit that there should exist this continent between two immense oceans, and that we should be permitted to try to build a small republic here.

This is an ontological vision that young people have to understand in order for them to understand why we have such a thing as equality. Equality makes absolutely no sense to anyone unless you believe that we are heirs, all of us, to kingdom of the hereafter. Christ made us equal. Without Christ, equality is a delusion as shown by Jacques Barzun in his recent book, “From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present.”

Q: You have said conservatives need to make peace with big government. How would they do that?

Well, I would like to find a theoretician who can make this concordant. I don’t know of one right now. We need a philosopher who can bring us together.

One of the things that arouses my hope in the recent election is that we do have the Tea Party people there who really attack spending.

And, for example, I would like to see Republicans work for the abolition of the departments of Energy and Education, the Rural Electrification Board [now called the Rural Utilities Service], the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Army Corps of Engineers – just to begin with. Then abolish or sell Amtrak.

Curtail the ambitions of the EPA by specifying exactly what that agency is authorized to do. Freeze all spending associated with Obamacare, raise the Social Security retirement age to 70, eliminate all payments by Medicare for drugs to the people who can afford it, and also payments by Medicare for health care for people who can afford it.

Reduce Medicare funding by those amounts. Reduce the salaries and expenditures of Congress by 25 percent. Ditto for the White House. Reduce by withholding funds all government employment by 25 percent including the Department of Defense. Authorize no spending beyond subsistence for the DOD unless it is accompanied by a cut in spending elsewhere. This will make future military expenditures pay as you go.

And all these things, right now, I think should be brought up.

Q: Your spending proposals will, I’m sure, warm the hearts of many Tea Partiers. But in other areas, your views depart from conservative orthodoxy. One of those is on the environment.

Conservation and conservatism should be on and the same thing.

That there is conservative establishment irks me, because we should anti-establishmentarians always. But what we have is the petty bourgeoisie of the beltway trying to run our conservative philosophy. I resent it.

These people are urban. They have practically no exposure to anything beyond the beltway. I don’t think half of them have lived two months in a foreign country. They probably have never visited Mexico, Peru and Chile or any of the other countries who are our neighbors. These people have little understanding of what makes America tick.

This is where somebody like Sarah Palin makes fools of them. She comes from the rural northwest. She speaks like a person from the Dakotas. She speaks like a person from Wisconsin. She drops her present participles.

This is something that is reacted to by snobs in the wrong fashion. They should try to learn from people like Sarah Palin.

Q: Is she the type of leader who could rectify the conservative movement?

Well, I don’t know. Sarah Palin or somebody who is raised in that philosophy.

Nobody is equipped to be President of the United States. The bureaucracy has not been contained. You can’t possibly do everything well. The government’s become too large.

We have to find out some way to reduce the size of the government without actually attacking any of its agencies. I think the way to do that is to emphasize the policy of subsidiarity. That no public agency should do what a private agency could do better, and that no larger public agency should do what a smaller public agency could do better. That’s the principle of federalism and that’s what, I think, we have to get to.

If we want to have a Department of Energy, this should be through the states, not through the federal government.

The way to do it is to start from the premise that the indispensible social unit in any republic has to be the family and that the family has to be made responsible for its members. In other words, sons and daughters should be responsible for their aging parents. Their parents should be responsible for their sons and daughters.

If any member of that family becomes ill, the other members of that family should be the first people to respond, not the federal government, not even the state.

If someone happens to be so unfortunate as to be completely alone, then we should rely on the church, the community hall, the county, and then — only then — move onto the state in cases of total neglect.

Q: In your book, you lament America’s moral decay, including a sense of entitlement in the baby boomers and subsequent generations. How would conservatives ever restore the sense of responsibility necessary to recreate a society in which sons of daughters care for their aging parents, for instance?

The first thing that has to be done is to tell people, “you don’t deserve anything.” They’re told they deserve everything, that everything is an entitlement. But we should be very clear that the only thing they deserve is the liberty of their conscience and justice under the law.

Otherwise, it is up to them. If, for example, they want to go to college, well, they have to work hard enough to get a scholarship or in the summers to save money.

This attitude that is not narcissistic has to be implanted in young people.

I think what does that, I point back to the old time religion. That is something that has to be revived, and in a hurry.

The republic, without its Judeo-Christian base, cannot survive. Only with a strong Judeo-Christian base can this republic move forward and exercise the kind of compassion that is necessary in so many circumstances.

Q: Another thing you discuss in your book is the loss of beauty as an end of American culture and politics, including blasting ugly strip malls and chain stores.

I think we have to go back to the idea of beauty and the true and the good, that those things are integrally related.

If you savage the countryside, one way or another, you are hurting the beautiful. And if you hurt the beautiful, you will also then deter the good. If you offend the aesthetic sense of human beings, then you will also harm their ability to make distinctions in an examination of the good.

We don’t have distinctions about the actual worthiness of what we are trying to do with the government or locally, anymore.

We have to go back to an understanding that these things are interrelated and that one cannot harm the beautiful without harming the true and the good also. We should be very careful about ravishing our countryside.

People who are raised in urban circumstances have very little appreciation of natural beauty. Their aesthetic sense is largely blunted by their upbringing.

There was an example of children raised in New York City, many of whom didn’t know where milk came from and had never seen a live chicken. I think these were serious problems.

I don’t think we need to go back to an agrarian republic. But I do think we have to give that a place in a general concept of a republic. If we commit sacrilege against some of the beauties of this countryside, we are hurting ourselves. And the immediate gain of, say, a Wal-Mart, does not satisfy the loss to a community when you have that old hardware store that’s been there for years all of the sudden goes down because it can’t stand the competition.

Q: What’s your beef with fitness “freaks”?

It’s the ultimate narcissism. And it’s also solipsistic. Nothing is more important than their body parts. And what they are putting their faith in is the corruptible body, which I think is very stupid. So I feel that anything that leads to this kind of narcissism is bad for society and bad for human beings individually.

This is my argument against why I think republican government is very difficult to make work nowadays. People who are nobody until they win an election, in Washington they are in the lap of idolatry there and they are petted, they’re fawned over. And all of the sudden they’re a big person. So it makes it very difficult for these people to vote against enhancing the government and enhancing their prestige. You have to be a [Republican South Carolina Senator] Jim DeMint.

Q: Who are the neoconservatives and what is their role in the state of conservatism?

The neoconservatives did a wonderful service in the United States of America when the communist ogre was still alive and the Soviet menace. They did a wonderful service then.

But the neoconservatives are largely agnostic. As agnostics their understanding is, to me, limited. They don’t understand the Judeo-Christian basis on which this republic was created and without which the republic I don’t think can withstand the pressures of the modern world.

I lean to the Krauthammers.

Q: Is Charles Krauthammer the theoretician who can bridge the chasm?

I think he has that kind of reach. I think what we need is a philosophical understanding of post-modernism, its virtues and its faults. And what we need to do is to try to inject our individualism and our desire for small government somehow within that context.

We cannot ignore modern communications. We cannot ignore globalism. It’s preposterous to even think we can do that.

So if we keep preaching small government to people, our audience will be progressively smaller. And we will end up being on the fringes of politics in the sense that the Rands [the followers of Ayn Rand] still are today.

One thing that symbolizes our current situation is a howlingly funny anecdote that regards a museum that received two packages in the mail. It rejected one package, which was the bust of somebody and accepted the second package that turned out to be the plinth of the bust. The plinth became honored as a work of art. And that I think summarizes the wrongheadedness of post-modernism and it's rejection of the Christian religion.

A Poem For the Midterms

The great Mark Halperin posted a lot about the midterms, suggesting a red tsunami. I make no predictions but in case he's right and the team Red does win... (borrowing some of Halperin's evocative phrases). 

 

Even through the sense-blinding haze we saw

that trio of devils - inflation, crime, Brandon

Wiping the mealtickets of the business-as-usuals

While patriots huddled near dropboxes and post offices.

Around their doorframes Blues affixed their masking tape

Tried their end-arounds and reverses

Charged the Trumpian cape to exhaustion

While old hoarse-throats echoed “Defund the Police!”

And donkey souls were washed ashore.

Roiling waters now threaten cheats

Blue homes built fat with mules and Zuckerbucks

Stirring a sleepy red polis to their senses

Sending out candidates athirst for equity.

From Rhode Island to Seattle,

the Blues sing the blues:

Where have you gone, Jimmy Comey?

The blue eyes turn their lonely orbs to you

Woo, woo, woo

What’s that you say, Mrs Oprah?

Joltin’ James has left and gone away... 

Why the News is so Exhilarating

I’ve figured out why I’m so addicted to the news these days and it’s for the same reason people like to work on Rubik’s Cube or solve crossword puzzles or watch a TV detective series. The human brain loves to solve mysteries and puzzles. 

And the reason the news is so interesting now is the dominant media rarely tells the truth so it’s constantly fascinating to try to figure out what the real story is.  To try to figure out from half-truths and outright lies what’s really going on.  

It’s like we’re living in this geopolitical/scientific detective series. From the Epstein case, to the Russia hoax, to Ray Epps, to the covid source, to vaccine reactions, to Ukraine funding, to the pipeline explosion it’s all upon the shoulders of Citizen Jones to figure out the real story. 

And so it was very helpful puzzle piece to read Matt Taibbi’s recent substack on the backstory on Ukraine.  Hie thee to read it, but the highly simplified version: Russia wanted Ukraine for years but couldn’t touch it because needed route through there to deliver oil to Europe. Built Nordstream to deliver oil far more cheaply, which made Ukraine expendable (i.e. invade-able). USA very unhappy about it because we want to be European gas-suppler and we don’t want Europe dependent on Russia.

I wonder if part of it is we have this odd relationship with Europe where we are not only a major trade partner but also their military protector. We own them as far as providing for their security. So when they went rogue by doing a trade deal without our sanction we were mad not only about the lost market revenue but the ramifications militarily.

Regardless, I think we get a glimmer of what it was like in the Soviet Union when Pravda was the only news in town. You had to read the Kremlin tealeaves, every citizen trying to ferret info. 

Seems like the main problem for dominant media is they became state media before the state took dictatorial powers (ie locking down internet completely). Feels like they maybe got ahead of themselves? There's still ways to semi-easily get information from alternative news sources. 

The funniest thing of late is how the climate activists aren’t raising a big stink about 700 million cubic meters of methane from the pipeline blast.  But look out for the local farmer's cow! Hypocrisy is the new black. 

My Experience with the Board of Elections

One avenue of voter fraud is, obviously, poorly maintained voter rolls. 

And since no one is good at their job anymore we all have to assist in doing everyone's job for them. Life in these United States, 'eh? 

So via the Look Ahead America org I've secured a list of 14,000 voters marked "ACTIVE" in Franklin County who, according to the USPS, have *permanently* moved to other states. 

Meaning they could vote in the midterms. Validly but invalidly. 

In the 2018 midterms there were just over 161,000 ballots cast. So 14k of 161k is a huge percentage and gives the algos some wiggle room if vote-manipulation is happening. 

I brought it to the attention of Board of Elections and here was their reply: 

Thank you for your recent request for information.  The Ohio Secretary of State directs county Boards of Election to change voter statuses based on USPS data as part of the NCOA (National Change of Address) process which we have not been directed to do as of yet this year. The 2022 NCOA/Supplemental process is scheduled to be carried out in December 2022 and January 2023 as part of SOS Directive 2022-46. If you have any further questions regarding this matter please contact the Ohio Secretary of State Office at 1-877-767-6446. Have a great day & thank you for your service as a poll worker!

Our government in (in)action.  

Vote Maras for Secretary of State for paper ballots. 

Hilton Head Trip Log

Day 1: Sigh-worthy weather on the beautiful isle. Hilton Head competes well with the self-appointed title of paradise that Fort Myers advertises, although admittedly Fort Myers would say, “uh, let’s compare in January.” But September in Hilton Head is startlingly beautiful given the variety of pines, palms, and Spanish moss. It covers itself with glory. 

Our dog Max, however, did not so.

He managed to pee twice indoors despite taking him out last night at 9pm and again 6am (he woke Steph sufficiently for her to take them). A veritable flood under the kitchen table this morning such that I thought we had a roof leak. (Wishful thinking.)

Day 2: Early wake-up for church since we wanted to pick up groceries we order online btwn 9 and 10.

The homily of Fr F was unexpectedly moving. He was very self-deprecating, apologizing for not having time to prepare a good homily since the past week has been crazy and unexpectedly so. He said not that any of his homilies are much good which would get 5 Pinocchio’s from me. 

He said that having had recent heart issues with a pacemaker installed has led him to consider how selfish he is and how unappreciative of how all the stress, sadness, strife in his life was much for the good. He said without the suffering he would still be an atheist. He said of those who tell him they had a hard childhood basically everyone does and “welcome to the world”. He also said how everything is falling apart at the same time, crime up, and the southern border wide open. 

**

Reading a book on bourbon making and one has to give a nod of respect. Corn, wheat, a special yeast and water - plus time. Five to twenty-five years of idleness. What other product do I use that takes so long to make? Even a house takes only a few months. Perhaps wood furniture, made from trees grown from seeds. A fine bourbon is subject to time and cannot be arrived at without it. 

An analogy to how God makes humans?: water, blood, spirit that take a lifetime before the ultimate taste test: God’s judgement. 

**

Picked up coffee at the nearby “Skillet” with the dogs (“dog-friendly” said the sign so I didn’t have to feel like I was being an imposition in bringing in the beasts and bothering passersby).  The thirst for coffee is real given they don’t have the promised Keurig until tomorrow sometime.  Cost an amazing $7.50 for two cups of coffee with tip.  The coffee was okay but no Perkins. Speaking of, found out their brand is Mothers Parker (or Mother Parkers?) but while they sell coffee grounds they don’t sell Keurig cups.

**

Two days of 9 miles running and walking (3.6 of the former) seems to have been too much given my still weakened post-Covid state. Figured I could workout hard in the strength of yesterday’s fitness level. 

Seems to be some bad weather on the horizon. Picked up a book called, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Hurricane”.  Just a joke,  but I am trying to get figure out rainy day activities so I signed us up for a Hilton Head distillery tour on Thursday. It was actually rated as the number 1 best thing to do in Hilton Head on a rainy day.  (The level of competition isn’t high - going to Holy Family Catholic Church is number 7 and St. Francis by the Sea at number 2.) 

But today a gorgeous day today spent gorgeously.  I contemplated on the front porch area with a cigar and packed up all the stuff to head to beach-land. Went solo since Steph was going to work out virtually.  Jogged the beach and then to the condo to pick up the dogs. Then back for the sun and read, this time a lot of the great “Pilgrimage to the Museum”. Riveting short history of the empires of the world. Tried to read some of “Harlem Shuffle” but it’s sluggish-going. I liked the New Yorker except much more. 

Tues: So today I ordered breakfast for pickup at Skillets, including the “main attraction” two coffees. Then we headed out to Burton Wells dog park (actually Burton Wells, so I had to re-jigger directions to the dog park a minute away). It was a 55 minute drive but worth it because the whole time we were there we were the only dogs. Which meant we could leave Max off leash.  Been many years since Max has been off-leash somewhere on purpose outside our back yard. 

M. and her boyfriend K (who is studying to be a doctor and technically already one as far as degree). He’s shorter than her, probably 5 8’’, and seems like a nice guy. Generous with their time as they did an hour and a half with us and the dogs. 


Maris was unbelievably giddy around Bailey. It’d been 2 years since the litter mates were last were together and all her old puppyhood came back to her and they were tussling and running like crazy. It was endearing, 

Her brother, a priest, is stationed in Guam now as chaplain. He sure had a rough service in Afghanistan when he gave last rites to all his military buddies. Seems like he had a bit of PTSD as he wouldn’t talk about it for a few months.

The dogs plunged into nearby lake and they were all having a time while getting filthy.  At the end Maris tried to get into Maria’s car as they were getting ready to leave. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, Bailey stuck her head out the window plaintively as if pained at the coming separation. Maris came up to the car, stood on her hind legs to reach the SUV window and they briefly touched noses. A tear-jerker. 

On way back home we stopped at Harold’s Diner on recommendation of Maria and Keegan, but they were closed. Harold is a gruff, rough, transplanted New Yorker and Maria said she was taken aback. But the burgers there are sooo good. 

That plan off, we stopped at Smokehouse BBQ and I picked up ribs and wings. Garrulous old man bellied up to the bar with three women of varying ages and races. Seemed an odd combo. Maybe work mates playing hooky. He says that he has 7 children, all boys, and all are productive high fliers. He said he’s old school and wasn’t going to raise any slackers. He seemed the quintessential barfly, the sort of friendly-aggressive, aggressively-friendly sort. 

**

Listened to Oathkeeper’s Stewart Rhodes on Conservative Daily show. He’s pretty nonchalant about the lay of the land, how every dictatorship starts with using sham trials to try political opponents and that is just the way it’s always been since time immemorial. He also said that as a Christian it should be expected - that we would find trouble (persecution) in this world. Says that what he’s going through (solitary confinement for 22 hours daily and looking at a sentence of a decade or two) is nothing like what Solzhenitsyn went through.  He says he wants to keep the mindset of Nelson Mandela, who always knew despite 20 years in prison that he would be vindicated and cleared of charges. 

**

Wed: The idyllic weather of the past three days has fled in solidarity with the folks in Florida who are getting hammered.  Fort Myers especially it seems. The webcam at Island Inn in Sanibel where we once stayed a week was a picture of health yesterday, with a large sand margin showing and an overcast sky.  This morning, not so much. The waves cover everything and it looks turbulent. An hour later the feed is offline presumably because the power is out. 

Our rental owner’s only concern is that the electricity might go out. Steph’s going to cook a meal ahead in case that happens. We can just use our phone service to watch TV on our iPads if the wifi dies. It’s an adventure! Or should I say misadventure. 

Grateful for the three beautiful days we’ve had. Certainly a big upgrade over Ohio weather based on what I’ve seen on the app - about 15-20 degrees warmer and much sunnier. Even today much better: 54 and cloudy in Columbus versus 70 and cloudy here. Plan is today to just go to pool. 

**

Fell into some “doom-scrolling” as they call twitter feeds. In this case all the doom was the pretty much direct hit of a cat 4 or 5 hurricane to the tender parts of Florida, specifically Fort Myers and Sanibel.  Unimaginable windspeeds to go with the rain. I guess I’m glad I didn’t make reservations at Diamond Head resort yet. 

Going over land takes a lot of a hurricane so it will get tamer as it goes over Florida but they say could pick up enough over the Gulf to reenter South Carolina as category 1 storm. Which means I could say I experienced a hurricane, if a mild one. Either way Friday is a “lost day” although that’s relatively speaking. We can still read, drink, think...and watch movies. 

Surprisingly, they cancelled weekday Mass at St. Francis already for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Glad I contacted them rather than just assuming they’d have it, especially since Thursday is supposed to be only mildly rainy, hardly a weather event at all. 

My over/under for how long it would take for the Left to criticize DeSantis for the hurricane was one day, but it turned out to be zero days. On “The View” they slammed DeSantis for causing it due to his climate change policies.  So those who picked under got it right - not even 24 hours before the Left used it. 

**

Ponderous world event in that someone blew up Russia pipeline. Tucker Carlson thinks Biden admin did the dirty deed (literally dirty since it’s very bad for the environment). Democrats don't worry about the environment except as a lever for power. Gifts for demagogues: environment “crisis”, covid, and then Jan 6 federal road show. 

It seems likely it had to be US, UK or Russia and the latter seems extremely unlikely. 

I feel cynical these days on account of politics. A cynic believes everyone acts from selfish motives, at least that’s the dictionary definition. But isn’t that what Jesus meant when he told his generation they were an evil generation? Christ seemed singularly unimpressed with human unselfishness during his time on earth except for a very few, like the Roman centurion who professed great faith (and even then Jesus was praising his faith, not his lack of selfishness). Or is it that cynic is only vindicated before the coming of Christ?  Or perhaps cynicism is spiritually acceptable only with respect to politicians, ha. 

**

Weatherman on twitter says, “Biggest tropical threat in 3-4 years for South Carolina.”

Response from a local: “It’s going to be at most a CAT 1 hurricane….we have dealt with a lot worse in the Lowcountry.”

**

Later went to the local hardware store to visit the “White Dog”: Maverick. He’s a huge 145 lb all white Great Pyrenees who sings along to the background music in the store, and to our delight a song came on that he likes and he launched into it, actually in keeping with the music. Steph got it on video. He’s even performed with the local symphony. He’s the canine star of Hilton Head Island.

Thurs:

So today’s goal was to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, or lemonade out of lemons. The weather was surprisingly good; the forecast had rain starting at noon but nothing yet and it’s 4pm. It’s cool, at 65 degrees, and certainly windy at 30mph. We headed off to the Distillery tour and enjoyed the rapport from one transplanted New Jersey dude, an old fat short guy who could tell a story. He went into the history of Hilton Head and how it was developed by a guy with Ohio roots (Fraiser) and it’s been all Ohio ever since. We were on the tour in fact with half Ohioans, two from Cleveland and two from Troy.   I told him we call it “Ohio south” and he averred. I think he’s slightly exasperated by the number of Ohioans he meets. Says he will be drinking most of the next two days while staying at a friend’s house for a prolonged hurricane party. 


We tried some 6 shots, 5 of which were rum. Most were average to middling. “Island Cream” was the last one and a favorite locally; they can’t keep the bottles in stock due to demand. Between that and the mai tai initial cocktail, I had my share of alcohol today. 

In hindsight a brewery tour would be more in my wheelhouse but I’m not sure there was one handy and this was ranked super high on the list of things to do in Hilton Head. 

**

Hit Mass in the morning. Holy Family (unlike St. Francis of the Sea Catholic Church) is not afraid of a little hurricane and didn’t cancel. 

It doesn’t look like we’ll get a direct hit - it’s moving up the coast towards Myrtle Beach. A titanic struggle between the hurricane and the coastal air mass according to a local weatherman. 


Meanwhile I can’t look away from Sanibel and Fort Myers. Wow. Some amazing videos that look like the Ohio flood of 1913. Other pictures of just wreckage that looks like a tornado tore through. I’m thinking a Sanibel trip is out for us this winter.  

**

Ventured to the beach for an icy dip in the frothing Atlantic. Some serious waves and fierce undertow. Would’ve been fun to really engage but didn’t have boogie board - and the fact no one else was in the water was off-putting.  Not far away there was a big lifeguard vehicle, no doubt telling people to stay out of the water. So I only went in to my waist and only for a minute. The 30mph winds made it feel like January weather. 

Fri: t’s starting to sink in just how bad that hurricane in Sanibel was. The air footage looks like war zone.  Our old historic “Island Inn” got destroyed looks like.  Looked for info about St. Isabel’s and came across a 2019 tweet which makes me like Isabel all the more: “We were on Sanibel for a wedding this weekend. We went to St. Isabel's, at the end of Mass our priest said Franklin Graham had asked all pastors to pray for President Trump.”  

Our weather meanwhile has been a nothing burger. Just light rain and clouds. In other words, in Columbus we call that a Tuesday. I was able to easily take the dogs on a couple walks already today. Also smoked a cigar on the balcony.  Amazing how fast the day goes by when you’re doing little but dog walks, eating and a nap. 

On the way to the beach on a whim I decided to see if I could get the dogs in Piggly Wiggly to pick up more bacon, eggs, and ham. And I asked a cashier, who was helpfully lingering in the doorway, and he didn’t seem to know the store policy but said it was okay with him so I took the chance. Max was distracted by the smells of packaged foods but I managed to steer them on the dual leash through the narrow aisles (fortunately there were few people around due to the “hurricane” or “tropical storm”). 

Afterward I had to carry the grocery bag to the beach which was a bit cumbersome. Max also pooped along the way so for awhile I had poop bag, grocery bag, and two dogs.  I set the bags down for a brief visit to the beach. The waves were fierce but not especially large. Sort of like Rudy of Notre Dame fame.  There is a certain majesty to the waves when their crests have spray coming out of them due to the wind. It looks sort of like incense rising. Holy smokes! 

Nice to have the Bengals game distraction last night and a win no less. The game ran longer than a Wagner opera however.  I feel like it’s another sign of what your society values in how long an event is “permitted” to go on. In the old days, frontier Ohio church services would carry on for 3 hours. Now we complain if something is over an hour; even Steph’s non-denom service is about an hour.  But now our religion, sports, goes on for 3-4. 

Sat: Back to Hilton Head being good ol’ sunny Hilton Head.  Brilliant morning with the tree-sun glistening. Seven foot tall banana plants stand along the path off our back porch. An ancient live oak tree is directly in front of us and leans precariously on the condo next to ours. At first I thought it was leaning on ours and had grown concerned given the prospect of an approaching hurricane.  It’s already done a little damage to the neighbor’s roof, crunching the corner of it. 

That neighbor came out earlier and said we really dodged one (meaning the storm). I forgot to point out the tree leaning on his condo but I’m sure he’s aware. 

Hit Mass this morning. Good Fr. Farrell is back from a priest’s retreat this week but is feeling sick so he skipped both the homily and the Confessions afterward. One of the beauties of the Mass is how there’s no greater signifier of the dignity of man than that. For a priest, flesh and blood, to be able to call Jesus down from Heaven to be physically present is a gobsmacking sign of the regard God holds man. And it’s so either/or, so binary: either the priest is up there doing nothing, being a fool, playing pretend, or that priest is engaging in the most important and awe-inspiring work on earth in changing bread into the Body of Christ on the altar. It is the zenith of prayer and faith. 

Good line from rosary meditation book on the Presentation in the temple: "It is not a strong will that helps Mary withstand Simeon’s ominous prophecy, but love. Mary places all her hope in the presence of God who is Love."

We got to the beach early - for us - at noon, and the water looks as it does at no other time: translucent, transfigured, glorified. The sun between 10am and 2pm strikes the waves and sends a thousand points of light.  By 4pm the effect is dulled and the water turns to blue with gray patches and dirty white foam. 

But at noon white stallion waves leap from the glinting, sparkling white-blue.

**

Added a few to my Babylon Bee reader-submission headlines:

Local Man Worried About Becoming Pregnant After Learning Men Can Become Pregnant

Biden Praises Press Secretary’s Hit Song “Fast Car”

Study Shows Covid Vaccine 100% Effective At Increasing Pharma Profits

Sun: Sparkling wine of a morning. Last night watched lengthy but meaty interview with Darren Beattie on the lay of the land with Trump and populism.  He said it’s actually a pretty good sign for a democracy that Trump was elected at all, given every power center in America was against him. But obviously it’s a very negative sign that he was hamstrung constantly and was warred upon from the get-go. In fact, he said that was Trump’s big sin: not recognizing the war was NOT over after he won.  (I naively thought the war was over once he won. I had thought a duly elected president would be accepted as president.) 

Trump tried to govern as a conventional Republican when something else was called for. The big moment was likely when he backed down from the Deep State by firing Gen’l Mike Flynn. At that point the Deep State had already won. Trump, understandably, was trying to work with a system that he didn’t know was already broken. 

Beattie also said that political reality is that Trump has a following that DeSantis does not. Until DeSantis can get 10,000 people in a rally for him like Trump can, he’s very skeptical of the chances of a DeSantis in a nationwide election. Trump is it for the GOP; there’s no substitute. 

**

We’d rode over to Seaside and witnessed the power and glory of my brother's electric bikes. Wow cool toy for sure. They zoom-zoom-zoom at a press of a button and Doug and my sister-in-law let us ride them the 12 miles we did to and from Land’s End Tavern where I had delicious fried chicken sandwich. I think of it as a motorcycle for non-dare devils. 

**

Mon: Cold-ish morning here in Hilton Head. When it’s 40 in Hilliard it’s not going to be warm even 700 miles south especially when there’s a breeze. But I don’t mind much as I’m enjoying the contemplative atmosphere of a cigar on the balcony with Max. Things are quiet and calm when the weather’s “poor” even if 65 degrees and cloudy probably doesn’t qualify for many. 

Really feeling the cumulative enjoyment of the vacation. Does make quite a difference just to get the extra couple days in (Sat and Sun). I’d be okay with a midweek departure although the weather looks too good for that to happen. There’s just a different vibe on vacation. Maybe partially the difference of flora and fauna and scenery on the dog walks, but also doesn’t hurt all the fun activities we’ve had that we wouldn’t in Columbus: lunch & bike with my bro, distillery tour, Maris and Bailey reunion at dog park, and, of course, long visits to the sea. (Although jogging on the hard sand is playing havoc on my feet.)

**


Feel a bit wistful that a niece is so committed to the global warming crisis that she’s refusing to eat hamburgers or steaks because cows make methane. She was told that her that her sacrifice will affect overall global warming by .000000000000000001 percent (or less), but she says that’s not the metric, that it’s the principle, etc... Which is a the Christian viewpoint since we believe our smallest sacrifices or “offering up” make a difference (similarly, for that matter, voting - since our single vote count is 99.99999% never the difference maker in any election).  

But I felt wistful because I thought about how great and powerful would be her idealism if turned towards Christianity, how amazing it would be to know someone willing to give up something like that for Him. But then that reminds me that it all starts within not without and that I hardly have room to talk given my limited willingness to sacrifice. The young are idealistic, the old more cynical, and the problem is the young are not idealistic towards the right things and the old know the right things but are usually unwilling to give up their comforts for them. Thus is the conundrum of the human condition!  Both young and old are foolish for different reasons. 

Certainly it would seem she and her sister have totally bought in to the world's priorities. Certainly the failure of the education system is going to have an impact as night follows day. 

**

Meanwhile back at the ranch I fade into a semi-nap and what comes to mind, oddly, in this hazy state, is a memory of a party on a hot Tuesday night in 1969, May 27th to be exact if my graduation certificate coincided with the party. My relatives and others are there, for my kindergarten graduation. I can’t tell if this is a real memory or a conflation of another.  The weather, as reported by the historical web engine, said it was 79 degrees at 5pm. Reasonably hot, I guess, for May. Cue Bryan Adams. 

**

Tues: Went to church because I didn’t feel like going, which is when you most need to go to church they say.  And turns out to be the feast of St. Francis. Unaware of that, I brought Max so I hope he got a little blessing from the parking lot. 

Fr. gave homily on how St. Francis continues to change lives. He knows a man in North Myrtle Beach area whose wife took him to Assisi in Italy.  He was an atheist who went along just for his wife’s sake and lo and behold was converted and joined the Catholic Church and is a fervent and devout man. Just being around Assisi, the holy sights associated with St Francis, as well as being with the holy group of pilgrims apparently did the trick. 

**

Took the day off workout-wise which was wise. Started off reading at the pool reading an eccentric Irish novel titled, “The History of the Rain”. The sun was warm and eventually we decided to catch the breeze at the ocean. We headed down for a restful three hours. Read more about the founder/developer of Hilton Head, Charles Frazer, in the book about him.

More and more journalists and historians are noting the parallels between 1914 beginning of World War 1 and what’s going on with Russia and Ukraine today, how we sort of sleep-walked into both by needless escalations. 

As it happened, I just read these lines from that Irish Rain novel about the beginning of World War I: 

“The message went loudly from Gavrilo’s gun into the passing head of Archduke Ferdinand and from there out through the mouth of Lord Kitchener in England. It was a fairly blunt system actually, download speed slower than Irish dial-up, but one hundred thousand men a month got the message and signed up to fight For King and Country...They poured out into the night afterwards, the starlight, the spires, all of them feeling like jumping, like dancing, as if for each a weight had been replaced by a lightness, as if that’s what it meant, Light Infantry. You signed your name on the line and you felt a little lighter, a little ascension.” 

The conundrum is that war is no longer a manageable exercise given the weapons we now possess, but the need for war doesn’t dissipate accordingly. Alas. 

**

Wed:  Headed down to the “cement pod” as the Clampett’s called their pool) for the morning coffee. Gives off a Southern California vibe just now: hibiscus and palms, preternaturally blue sky, stucco siding, sunny and arid. Putting-green grass in the courtyard evokes Bob Hope invitationals. And the swimming pool itself is the state symbol of California, or if not should be, and this one is a generous sized aquamarine rectangular with gently pulsed water adding dimples. 

Come 1pm I figured it was time to do a dog walk so we wandered leisurely down picturesque Dune road, parallel to the beach. Mansions to the left, castles to the right. We went to the end and Max didn’t want to head back the same way we came, so I accommodated him and we scampered over a presumably private beach path and headed back by sand where Max acquired a coterie of compliments from passersby. I joked later with Steph that I now know what being a celebrity is like due to walking around with one.  Max seems to have a lot more energy down here; we walked some 3+ miles (over 3 walks) and he still wanted more. Not like him. 

After the walk Steph and I decided to take it easy with a trip to the beach without dogs or tent and it was a lot easier.  Just did a couple hours before heading back for steaks on the grill. 

Thurs: Today dawned beautifully so I took the dogs on walk to ocean. Max again wanted more; he's machine down here. 

They scared a cat or some furry creature up a tree and “blew up” as the guy on “Mountain Men” says of his hounds when they tree a mountain lion. It happened so fast couldn’t tell what it was for sure but it was way too big for a squirrel. 

We headed to the beach where we saw body surfers and kayakers. As the sun hits the west sky I see what looks like the mermaid masthead of a great ship, proper posture at the front of the kayak, come to life. Steeds of waves carry them in and the sun silhouettes her like a Grecian goddess. 

Later we rode out to Skull Creek restaurant and bar, starring sunsets over the marsh.  Very crowded place which is hard to believe given it’s a Thursday in October, hardly peak tourist season, but “if you build it they will come”.  Long drive to get there, almost off-island.  We had an hour wait for the table but that was a feature not a bug since we enjoyed drinks in Adirondack chairs watching the sunset. Comfy and the quintessential Low Country view. The scene made me think of writer Pat Conroy who had an house on Fripp Island and wrote all his books with this region in mind. 

**

Fri: Our last day in this jungle paradise. Took the dogs on their morning amble and appreciated all these “Jurassic Park” ferns.   I also wondered what my initial reaction was to seeing Spanish Moss some 30+ years ago. I suspect I though them gloomy draperies, messy. Now of course I associate them with vacation good times and lenders of atmosphere.  

Came across an excavation site and looked in the deep hole. Sand all the way down. 

Also noticed the ubiquitous Palmetto trees, which South Carolinians love so much they put it on their state flag and state license plates. It only covers some of the state and can’t survive in the northeast portion but still it gets all the glory. Seems unfair to those in the Spartanburg/Rock Hill/Greenville area. 

Headed to church today and the gospel was about Jesus expelling multiple demons. 

More backstory on Fr. F: he was an atheist during his 20s but liked movies. He went to see “The Exorcist” and it really got to him. He didn’t believe in demons at the time of course, and knew that movies were fiction.  But he said it felt like intuitively we know there is darkness and evil and for the first time in his life he felt it was there,  adding the movie was “one of the moving moments in my coming to believe in God. We never know what will touch us or change us.”  

**

Fumbled the ball this morning. I normally don’t do dishes on vacation as Steph handles that, washing by hand. I thought I’d do some by the dishwasher but unfortunately put dishwashing liquid in since there were no pods around that I knew of (which is what I use at home).  But apparently washing dishes by hand requires a completely different soap set than automatic washer and we ended up with a mess, a huge flood of soap bubbles and water on the floor below washer. So spent about twenty minutes trying to clean that up. 

**

Last beach day and the sun and surf wear down my defenses, ebb me and en-sleeve me in a past which is never quite reachable but always on the tip of my skin.

Great time soaking in the beach from a less crowded location. Much more enjoyable to find that sweet spot with little music and little traffic. Read a lot of “Geography of Nowhere”.  Hard to leave the beach but so we did. 

As we traveled back north through North Carolina mountains adorned in red, gold, and green now in early Fall, I couldn’t help thinking that I still like the Low Country more than the high country.  That SC coast really gets into your blood.  As I drove I thought about the wind skipping across the waves...

No Other Elite Will Ever Again Say, “Here’s a gun, don’t take any …”

One of key differentials between America and most countries is crystallized nicely in this tweet I happened across:

“We all know that elites like the ones from our founding were a godsend that will never happen again. No other elite will ever say ‘here's a gun, don't take any shit’.”

Certainly the founding fathers put their money where their mouth was concerning their trust in democracy, to the point they wrote the second amendment to ensure gun ownership in case of a tyrannical government. (And they were the government at the time! Bold move.) 

It was their last check and balance, the last line of defense for the people in case the Constitution’s separation of powers and three branches of government failed (which is rapidly happening now, in part because of the shocking weakness of Congress and due to the addition of a disruptive fourth branch of government, the FBI and DOJ, which obstructs or cancels the functioning of the executive branch.) 

The power dynamics are all screwed versus what the founders intended. Instead of three equal branches you have this:

Legislative: very weak due to internal division and a desire to be pundits rather than legislators. They are most vulnerable group to elections so have morphed into a group that refuses to make stands that will cause them to lose their prestige decision in Washington. They love the Capitol city too much to leave it. 

Executive:  Stronger than the founders intended and yet also weaker in the sense that the internal spy agencies can remove (Nixon) or hamper the functioning of a presidency (Reagan, Trump).  Meanwhile, the huge production of federal agencies and bureaucrats have taken over many of the functions of congress and are huge unelected, permanent power brokers. 

Judicial: Stronger than founders intended. Lawyers run the country and the Dep’t of Justice has become now a venue for punishing political enemies. The Supreme Court was intended to interpret the law but have, of course, made law (again impinging on Congressional function) by “finding” in the Constitution a right to abort (only recently overturned) and the right to marry someone of your same sex. 

So the founders vision was hampered primarily by a weak legislative branch that no longer does effective oversight on the spy agencies, by the addition of a layer of permanent bureaucracy in the executive branch they could not have foreseen, and by the usurpation of power by the Judicial branch. 

The power grabs by the judicial and executive were partially at the behest and negligence of Congress but also simple power grabs “because they could”.  This is how you move from a functioning republic to a more despotic regime.  It’s like the frog boiling in the saucepan, slowly getting less and less democracy per year with most unaware of it.  The founding fathers knew this would be the constant temptation, the taking of power from the people, and put in heroic safeguards in the case of the Bill of Rights.  But, alas, those rights are constantly chipped away at and threatened. 

And as if that isn’t bad enough, Thomas Jefferson’s expressed wish for a vigilant press has of course faltered. We have a media that functions barely at all except as a press release for elites. 

Fake Tom Cotton Memo

In the tradition of Mark Halperin’s substack fake memos here’s one: 

To Sen Cotton

From Brian Colas:

You were great in Georgia with Herschel.  It’s a shame that your shot at running for potus is dead in water until at least 2028.  John Smith in Ohio has as much chance being president in ‘24 as you at this point. I say this in love and honesty because, as you may know, the affection ordinary Americans feel for a warhawk has been greatly diminished since 2008. Obama and Trump were both helped by the perception they were against nutty wars and Biden was perceived as simply as a caretaker potus who wouldn’t do anything rash beyond sniffing hair.

Needless to say, bleeding our Treasury to “save” forsaken Ukraine makes you a nonstarter for the next election despite your smarts, likability, and formidable communication skills.  But on the positive side you would get the bulk of the Urkainian-American vote.  And since NYC schools have mandated saying the “Pledge of Allegiance to Ukraine” you would also benefit there. 

Ideally you could come up with a statement or long interview in which you explain why a border dispute between two crap countries in Eastern Europe is worth bringing the world close to nuclear war, shutting down energy to Western Europe, giving billions to Ukrainian oligarchs, etc.. I’m sure there’s a good reason!

Evil Sure Gets a Lot of Press for Being Banal

There’s “the banality of evil” but is it really so banal?  The story of the fall of Rome is more interesting, in some ways, than its rise. It certainly gets more published books. 

Listened to Oath Keeper’s Stewart Rhodes on Conservative Daily podcast. He’s one of the political prisoners in the D.C. gulag and is very matter-of-fact about the lay of the land, how every dictatorship starts this way (i.e. using sham trials to try political opponents) and that is just the way it’s always been since time immemorial. He also said that as a Christian it should be expected - that we would find trouble, and persecution, in this world. Very inspiring guy. Says that what he’s going through (solitary confinement for 22 hours daily and looking at a sentence of a decade or two) is nothing what Solzhenitsyn went through.  He says he wants to keep the mindset of Nelson Mandela, who always knew despite 20 years in prison that he would be vindicated. 

**

I've of late become fascinated by the leaders being agents of destruction. No one is owed a biography of a public person. Perhaps barely we are owed a logical explanation of an illogical decision but the actions speak loudly enough. Perhaps it's enough that their dogma speaks loudly within them, to quote Sen Feinstein. And that in itself is helpful in understanding the times we are in, and who has chosen which side. 

**

The homilist was unexpectedly moving. He was very self-deprecating, apologizing for not having time to prepare a good homily since the past week has been crazy and unexpectedly so. He said not that any of his homilies are much good which would get 5 Pinocchio’s from me. 

He said that having had recent heart issues with a pacemaker installed has led him to consider how selfish he is and how unappreciative of how all the stress, sadness, strife in his life was much for the good. He said without the suffering he would still be an atheist. He said of those who tell him they had a hard childhood basically everyone does and “welcome to the world”. He also said how everything is falling apart at the same time, crime up, and the southern border wide open to narco traffickers but God makes the crooked straight and brings good out of evil. 

Good OpEd

Good OpEd from a newsletter I receive. Some excerpts: 

It’s debatable whether arsonist Marinus van der Lubbe actually set the fire that burned the German Reichstag on February 27, 1933.

Absent a newly discovered letter from Hitler to van der Lubbe reminding him to do the deed, we will likely get no new source material. Of course facts should speak for themselves if we know them. But sometimes historiography has to make inductive leaps.

There are basically two possibilities, the Nazis lit the fire (or directed whoever did). Or they capitalized on the outrage over an independent act.

Events like these are ultimately remembered for their impact. The Reichstag fire is a study in abuse of power and magnification of panic.

And the impact of the Reichstag fire was not the reaction or the initial blame but the “Enabling Act” that followed about a month later.

This Act is instrumental in understanding the Nazi’s rise to total power.

So while the facts of the fire are debatable, the results are not. 

It’s important to know that representative government can end in more of a process than an event, and that the myth built around events is often just an excuse to implement the plan.

It’s important to understand that the American left is desperate to convert what happened on January 6, 2021 into an American Reichstag event.

But it’s more important to understand why.

All the left wants is power. Power for its own sake.

They fully realize the only thing they stand for is demonizing the other side. They know they have nothing to say. They don’t even believe what they claim to believe.

The left struck first to portray the right as revolutionaries who can’t accept election results. That means results that aren’t believable are coming, or at least a level of cheating meant to bring that about.

This strategy has no downsides for them. If the Democrats get shellacked in November, this will all be forgotten. But if they win the only way they can, they will have already calibrated the rioters to protect them.

**

Like many presidential speeches, Joe Biden’s speech at Independence Hall on September 1st will be analyzed for years to come.

Unlike many speeches that had a cause, a provoking event, it will be hard to imagine anything but the most base, the most crass reasons for putting the Senile Ice Cream Man in front of the teleprompter that night.

The point was to drive voter turnout in the midterms by demonizing half of the electorate as essentially Nazis. The Democrats are looking at their polling and they are very scared.

They have perseverated over January 6th for so long they have imagined that it was a revolution, a second civil war. They’ve lost it. And now they are convinced they can get people to forget the incompetence of this administration and be grateful for $4 gas. So it is important to look at what happened on September 1st while realizing what’s really at work.

We got a speech on federal property, using US Marines as props and implied threats to the free exercise of Constitutional rights, a top-to-bottom Hatch Act violation if presidents weren’t exempt.

Biden may not know America is a representative republic, but his speechwriters do. And yet, there were countless references to losing our “democracy.”

In chant-like repetition in this speech, Biden portrays “MAGA Republicans” as a threat to democracy more times than is worth counting. And whereas Hitler had an event to react to, when Biden gave his speech, there was no event he was responding to other than the fantastical delusion of the “insurrection” of January 6th, twenty months prior.

“But as I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise.” Absurd.

When Ronald Reagan exhorted Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” he did so standing on the ground in West Germany. Where a speech is given is often fundamental to its message.

For Biden to stand in front of 520 Chestnut Street, where the phrase “We the People” was first drafted and proceed to give a speech that is nothing less than an othering of half the electorate cannot be ignored.

This is both a deliberate provocation and an exercise in desecration.

The whole framing of the speech is insane but belies a concrete, serious goal: the death of the Republic and the beginning of a democracy, in the Marxist sense.

For hundreds of years, revolutionary leftists have mastered the art of defiling the sacred.

And as Biden recognizes in his speech, Independence Hall is “sacred ground in America.” Our nation’s most sacred totem, the Liberty Bell, is housed nearby.

There was a time when it was understood that the realm of the sacred and the realm of the profane were different and necessary places. In that time, profane simply meant not sacred.

Eventually, the profane came to be thought of as dirty rather than not ritually clean, we began to use the word profanity to refer only to the obscene rather than that which was common or not holy.

French sociologist (and influence of Marx) Émile Durkheim wrote extensively about the dichotomy of the sacred and the profane.

To make something of this world, you must remove it from the realm of the sacred and make it profane. We used to reserve the sacred to the temple.

The goal of the left is to deny the sanctum, in total. The only ideas allowed are the profane ones, even while they are described in sacred language.

This transition, the act of sacralizing the profanities, is deliberate. It’s what George Orwell was getting at with the concept of newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The sacred is displaced, in its entirety, by the profane, to the point that it can no longer be spoken of because we no longer have the words to do so.

Trump was often profane, yet inadvertently protected the sacred, while Biden is a destroyer of the sacred whose goal is to tear asunder the American experiment.

At about the 21’00” mark of Biden’s speech, there is a throwaway reference to Habits of the Heart.  The book was largely an attempt to reframe a basic part of the American mythos as in harmony with communism. It’s weird for that reference to show up in a speech like this, until you consider how long they have been waiting to be in charge.

In the late 1980s and early 90s, as Marxist fifth-columnists were traipsing through the institutions, they began introducing something called communitarianism. Supposedly, the root word was community.

They made a generation of college students read insipid books like Habits of the Heart. [It was ] billed as a rethink of rugged individualism. 

This canon introduced concepts that were barely cloaked communism. It was a strange exercise and for those of us who lived through it, in retrospect, it’s obvious that they just hadn’t gathered enough strength to pull back the curtain.

In many ways the Independence Hall speech was a turning point.

During the Obama presidency, we saw many speeches that attempted a crude sort of crowd hypnotism due to Obama’s belief in neurolinguistic programming. Anthony Robbins tier nonsense.

We have left that all behind. Now the left’s goal is to program the rabble to enforce their will, and let anyone who notices be damned. Distribute soundbites to the orcs is where we are now.

The obvious desperation would be hilarious if it didn’t portend such ominous things.Biden’s speechwriters know America is not a democracy and they know the vast difference between a democracy and a republic. But they are down to semiotic primitivism.

If Republicans are evil, so too is the republic. If evil people are destroying our (nonexistent) democracy, vote for Democrats to save it.

The nature of the distrust that the right, or more precisely all who are not on the left, holds for the modern American left is the instinctive recognition of the depth of their lust for absolute power.

We have listened to Rahm Emmanuel say, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” All they ever want is an excuse, no matter how flimsy.

Sharing a country with these people is to have the sword of Damocles always hanging over your freedom.

The fact that they are making fools of themselves is not enough to feel relief because they have an army of greater fools at their disposal.

Tom and I have talked a lot about what we feel right now, how we read the zeitgeist and I can say we have never been less sure about what is around the corner or more sure that it’s not good.

Independence Hall is sacred ground in the mythos of America. And Biden made a big show of defiling it. He didn’t just bring the language of the rabble in, he brought in the obscene. In every way, in the scripture of America, he blasphemed the best of what we are.

Because he declared that debate was treason. In a country which is nothing less than a noble experiment based on the free exchange of ideas in the public square, he declared that half the citizens have no right to speak or appeal for a redress of grievances.

He played the role not of a commoner, but anti-priest.

Even if this were a democracy, he cast himself in an anti-democratic, monarchic role.

Even as the crack in the Liberty Bell evokes the never ending effort towards a more perfect union, it still rings clearly, perhaps not as loudly as it could.

Just as it once echoed the voice of Benjamin Franklin who stood next to it, while Biden spoke it echoed the hecklers. It resonated with the vibrations of the commoners amplified by their megaphones. Because Americans can still speak, and shout, and reject those who imagine themselves to lord over us.

Let England mourn their Queen. God Save the Republic.

Brush With Greatness, ABC/MSNBC Style

I often exchange emails with former MSBNC political analyst and former political director at ABC News. 

He seems a tad more centrist than most beltway journalists (though he’s of course very anti-Trump) so I asked why his lack of interest in the story of how the a certain 3-letter agency is going after Trumpy folks early and often, even just average Joes/Janes. 

He replied that such abuses are "perennial, and a perennially important story”. 

So I tried to get at why he was gun-shy on the topic and asked “Do you recommend that people not criticize them on substack or social media given the tools they have at their disposal?” (since he has a Substack newsletter).

You would think he’d say something like, "it’s still a free country, of course you’re free to criticize the government”. 

His response wasn’t overly consoling: 

“Good question.

I think it depends on one’s appetite for trouble.” 

Which says a lot, both about his appetite for risk and the tacit admission about our government. 

Patrick Bryne's Open Letter to the Federals

Interesting to keep up with ol' Patrick Byrne, he of Overstock.com who was proven correct on his "conspiracy theory" regarding corrupt Wall Street back in the day: 

 **

Dear Federals (Heroic, Corrupt, & Undecideds Alike)

Sirs & Madams:

First, respect.

Second, I am sorry about what you are experiencing. If I could fix it, I would.

About a year ago I wrote a letter to you: “Zen & the Art of Being a Federal”. In it, I told a story from the book Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance concerning a small town minister whose sermons start to bother his own board of trustees. They put pressure on him to change his tone. He realizes that though they sign his paycheck, they are not He for whom a minister really works. His ethical choice is to stick to his principles, and let them release him if they will.

I suggested that the same analysis may apply to you, because the day you took the job and swore an oath to the Constitution, you made the decision for whom you work. That day, when We the People conferred on you the awesome powers we did under the Constitution, it was in return for the pledge you made to us that day regarding our compact.

Heroic federal agents are now making choices that show they do remember these oaths. At least 20 whistleblowers from numerous agencies have gone to Congress and let them know of massive corruption going on at or near the top of the FBI and other agencies. I believe I may have substantial knowledge about what has happened to force these 20 federal agents from numerous agencies to decide it was time they bypass all methods of redress within their home agencies, and take their concerns directly to the people: Congress.

I know how crazy difficult that choice may have been, and I applaud you.

Two years ago I was told that my decision in the summer of 2019 to go public in a limited way was discussed around “all the three-letter agencies, Byrne. Half of the people think you did the right thing, half of them think you are Edward Snowden but not smart enough to flee the country.”

Around last November I was told that my support across those same agencies was up to 65%.

Earlier this summer I was told that about 80% were on the side that, for want of a better expression, I will call “the Constitutional side”. Even a significant fraction of previous “true believers” had become cognizant of what was going on. I was also told that the rift does not run strictly along the split between SES and the rank-and-file, but that a non-negligible part of the SES and substantial majority of the non-SES were supportive of my efforts, and that a specific faction within the SES was intent on defining me as the enemy.

Now I hear that within the DHS a leadership faction is telling people to suspect me as Domestic Extremist #1. And that not only is their internal audience not believing it, it has come to suspect those DHS leaders trying to convince them so hard are the problem (or so I have been told).

Oy. What a meshugas.

So I am in the semi-strange position of knowing that right now there is likely a bit of interest in me from our government. It would normally be flattering, of course, but not so much these days. Federals are looking me up-down-and-sidewise, I suspect, in an effort to figure out if they should believe what their SES are trying to sell them.

This is where I am supposed to tell you whether I am a good guy or a Domestic Extremist intent on undermining our Constitution.

I would rather your esteemed selves would figure it out for yourselves. To aid you in that effort and with humble desire to aid you in making an informed decision, however, and on the off-chance that what you are being told about me includes lies and/or deliberate omissions (the lingua franca of the day and the more likely choice), I have made this meager video. Coincidentally, over the years and even more in the last 18 months I have given a number of talks into which I wove aspects of my history, such as it is. I will tell the requisite story as briefly as possible in this video, leaving links as well to places where you may, should you have the unfortunate urge to know my story in more detail, dive deeper.

The Conversation America's Not Having

Hypothetical thought experiment:  

1. What if Trump admitted he had messed up, had been a threat to democracy? Would that, in turn, create change or a cleaning house in the FBI/DOJ/CIA/Media etc.. ?  No. 

2. On the other hand, what if DOJ/FBI admit they were (and continue to be) a threat to democracy and offer transparency on 1/6?  Would that create change or repentance in Trump? No way!  But what it *would* do is take much of the passion and Trumpism out of the MAGA movement. It would reduce the odds of Trump winning by allowing someone like a DeSantis to gain steam. Absent the rogue admin state I'd vote DeSantis and I was one of 11 million Americans who voted Trump in '20 but not '16 so I'm not too much an outlier. 

In other words, the one way to effect change is to get to the *root* of Trumpism, not simply try to lop off Trump’s head and allow the root to fester. 

I think the really salient point in all of this, and it’s really the only interesting question, is whether or not the dismantling of the intel community is worth blowing up the country over (metaphorically speaking).  That’s the convo we need to have. I’m not sure of the answer, as we all have a lot to lose. But I think of how the Founders pledged their lives and fortunes and their version of liberty is the president gets to serve until both Houses of Congress impeach him. 

And, of course, you could respond that their version of liberty would be for the Congress to exercise authority over the FBI or re-establish it anew.  

It’s a conundrum because Congress will neither reject Trump nor reject the FBI so that’s why we’re here. 

So it’s up to the American people to be the tie-breaker. And we can’t vote out the unelected deep swam so that’s why I’m voting Trump in ’24. 

It's funny how National Review all those years was mostly concerned about issues that turned out to be negligible compared to civil liberties and rule of law.  We all missed that boat. "Big government" was fearsome mainly because of a ballooning federal debt and wars of choice and business regulation and taxation and red tape.  Who knew it was primarily a threat to civil liberties, to its own citizens? 

But, to end on a cheery note, this from Patrick Byrne:

"I am about the only guy on [our] side not using words like ‘treason’ for a reason. We are not beyond the point that we as a society can forgive and move on peaceably.”

The Unicorn House with Three Flags

Headed out today for my annual German Village bike ride to soak in the old world architecture after having read James Kunster's The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. 

Normally I would bike and explore but this time I added a meal - Katzinger’s Deli (#34, garlic roast beef on rye). But on a Friday at 1pm good luck with dat. A good 30-40 minute wait. Not exactly fast food but I figured what the heck. I haven’t been to German Village all summer (including no Shakespeare in the park) such that it doesn’t seem like I have much time these days. Nobody has enough time unless they're serving it. 

But I did Words with Friends and checked the Mark Halperin daily email inside the deli before getting released to the live-long, Fall-defying summer day with the coveted sandwich in hand. 

Then it was back on the bike where I roamed randomly until reaching St. Mary’s Church. I wandered in there a bit before heading back outside and drinking in the old architecture and red brick buildings. The brick reminded me of Oxford and I felt for brief interludes like I was young again. 

Saw many a flag but in German Village you’re hard pressed to find a German one (I saw but one). I suspect the reason is because a German flag doesn’t make a political statement and we’re all political animals now. There were about half American flags and half Globalist or sin-promotional. 

American flags are, alas, primarily a relic of Republicans and the patriotic, while Ukrainian and Pride flags speak for liberal globalism. Tis true that Ukrainian and Pride flags do split their constituency. I saw one house with both a Ukrainian and Pride flag up, which felt vaguely redundant. I pretty much know their politics on both issues from either flag. 

Be interesting to see how long before the FBI considers the American flag a symbol of rightwing extremism. 

But at the very end of the ride I saw a “unicorn house”: it had an American, Ukrainian and German flags up! A uniter of a house albeit no Russian flag. 

The unicorn house. 

My theory of the case is that the Democrat party is the European party in America. This would explains why Americans are not their priority, why they are obsessed with climate change, why a border dispute in Eastern Europe consumes them, and why we essentially fund (or are) the European military (hardly anyone other than Trump even cared that NATO wasn’t receiving even 2% of individual countries’ GDP). 

I think it’s partially due to our leader’s envy of European panache and the feeling America is still the uncouth “nouveau riche” trying to ingratiate itself.  The ties of Andrea Mitchell and Nancy Pelosi seem far stronger to the south of France than the south of Ohio. 

Tom Luongo brought up how it’s probably not a coincidence that the green movement started in earnest about 20-25 years ago when Europe saw that they would soon be energy dependent. They had incentive to want the world to go off the energy platforms they lacked. 

Certainly the actions of Al Gore and Barack Obama, to name two, are pretty relaxed about the climate since Gore travels by private jet and Obama bought coastal property that was supposed to be underwater, like, next year. They know it’s no crisis - except maybe for Europe if they are dependent on energy from people they don't like. 

Next I got lost, throughly enough. Passed Parsons Ave and ended up directionally disoriented which wasn’t ideal because I could barely hear my phone directions given the traffic noise and, besides that, overconfidently thought I would run into familiar ground. But having lost my north-south internal compass all my turns were awry. Funny how once you get the compass in your mind hosed it still lingers even after you’ve been pointed in the right direction. Metaphor wrapped in an analogy. 

No time to do the German Village book shop; I did cross paths with an indie shop called “Two Dollar Radio” but didn’t go in.  Indie shops are notorious black holes of affirmative action writers riffing on characters who have self-nourished on victimhood. I do feel a tad jealous that the liberals get all the cool cities and interesting bookshops.