The Morning Report 7/17/23

Good morning, kids. I guess I could just do a riff on the infamous New York Daily News headline from October 1975, which many see as an unfair attack that sank incumbent President Gerald Ford’s reelection campaign even before it started, with something that IMHO is more accurate:

PENCE TO AMERICA: “DROP DEAD”

Replying to Tucker Carlson’s retort about the nation and in particular its cities going to hell in a hand basket while Pence and others of the Uniparty shove billions in money and weapons at Ukraine, and touching off a war with Russia that potentially could go global, Pence then publicly took his head and shoved it up past his sigmoid:

It’s probably easier to start with the loser, chief among whom was Mike Pence, who might just as well have used the occasion to perform an act of self-immolation. The key moment came in an exchange about foreign policy, in particular U.S. policy with respect to the war in Ukraine. Pence said he was distressed that we had yet to send Ukraine the promised Abrams tanks or train Ukrainian pilots to fly F16s.

“You are distressed,” said Tucker, “that the Ukrainians don’t have enough American tanks. Every city in the United States has become much worse in the last three years. . . .and yet your concern is that the Ukrainians . . . don’t have enough tanks? Where’s the concern in the United States in that?”

“Well, that’s not my concern. Tucker, I’ve heard that routine from you before, but that’s not my concern.”

“Not my concern.”

Bang. “Not my concern.”

The internet lit up over that one, with some people saying that Pence had just committed suicide and others wondering what he was saying. To what did “that’s not my concern” apply?

Mollie Hemingway was probably correct that Pence was flummoxed and that it is “fair to say he intended to say something about how we can fight forever wars with unclear ties to national interest at the same time we begin to fight American decline.” Unfortunately for Pence, as Hemingway went on to observe, “many GOP voters would say he’s wrong on that as well.”

In fairness to Pence, whom I detest, I too could care fuck-all for America’s cities. The voters and the maniacs they perpetually put in office are responsible for their own destruction. Pence in a way is right, but for all the wrong reasons, and his tone and the way he came off were horrible.

Roger Kimball has a pretty good analysis on the event, of which President Trump was notably absent. You’ll note that he is all in for OrangeManBad. Rajan Laad over at American Thinker cuts to the chase: 

There are many who claimed that Pence’s awkward performance ended his presidential chances.

Well, they are wrong because to end his chances, he would have to have some chances in the first place.

Unless he is delusional, which is most likely not the case, Pence knows that he had no chance of winning the nomination.  He knows that his conduct on January 6 and his remarks after that attacking Trump had disgusted the GOP voters who participate in the primaries.

So what was he doing there?

Clearly, Pence was auditioning for a lucrative position in one of the “conservative” groups, such as the Lincoln Project, or maybe the kind that he supported by National Review, which longs for the return of the Bush era.  He could also find a position on Fox News or perhaps even a liberal media outlet where he can be a useful idiot.

When President Trump wins in 2024, one of the biggest challenges is to keep away cunning pretenders such as Pence and Barr. This isn’t going to be easy because there are many wolves in sheepskin, while others merely capitulate under D.C. pressure.

Personally I think Trump should have attended. I think his calculus is that he should be anointed and perhaps going to these events diminishes his stature somehow. Also, while Tucker Carlson is not going to pull the “Have you stopped beating your wife?” bullshit questions, he will obviously not pull punches even in a one-on-one with PDT. And Trump does have a lot to answer for. In fact, Pence’s Ukraine crap is one thing, but what the hell is this?

“I know Zelensky very well, and I know Putin very well, even better. And I had a good relationship, very good, with both of them. I would tell Zelensky, no more. You got to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give him a lot. We’re going to them more than they ever got if we have to. I will have the deal done in one day. One day.”

Trump’s remarks generated strong responses online from a wide range of commentators, including some who noted that the former president skipped going to Tucker Carlson’s forum in Iowa last week where Carlson scrutinized candidates in-large part over their views on Ukraine.

Republican strategist Ryan James Girdusky tweeted, “This is basically what Biden is doing.

”Claremont Institute fellow David Reaboi said that he was “knocked out” by Trump’s remarks.

“In order to end the war, Trump commits to following the Lindsay Graham and Neocon policy of arming Ukraine to the teeth,” he said. “That’s exactly what’s happening now, and it hasn’t changed Putin’s behavior. Would Trump escalate against Russia beyond that? That’s exactly what Americans don’t want.”

I think Trump is doing his Art-of-the-Deal schtick here, but I am not going to defend it because it comes out sounding totally insane, given the circumstances. As I and others have stated, this is a regional conflict between the world’s worst kleptocracy and a former superpower that is now nothing more than a regional power with nuclear weapons. There is zero strategic American interest that is threatened or at stake here. In fact, it was American diplomatic blundering involving at least three prior administrations and the current junta that caused this predicament in the first place. That or something along those lines should’ve been Trump’s response to Money Honey Bartiromo. 

That said, Ron DeSantis, the savior many are looking to to ride to the rescue himself has flip-flopped on Ukraine in recent months. In any case, I really do not know why I’m getting all worked up over this. About the only thing that does interest me is the slow emergence of Vivek Ramaswamy, not as the standard bearer for ’24, but as a future leader of the movement and/or party, assuming the GOP does not go the way of the dodo (or America for that matter). He’s thrown out a lot of red meat of late and has impressed me in that regard. Of course, as Kimball and others have noted, the big winner in Iowa was Tucker Carlson himself:

Carlson is free to ask difficult questions since he is not working for the establishment media. He lost his evening TV show because his populist questions prompted Fox’s establishment board to shut him down, despite the resulting huge loss of viewers.

In fact, Carlson has a pocketbook and a ratings incentive to keep the pressure on politicians. Millions of ordinary Americans have given up on the establishment’s media coverage of the establishment’s political priorities. That popularity was made clear the next day when Carlson spoke at the TPUSA Conference in Florida:

Tucker Carlson takes the stage at the @TPUSA Conference in West Palm Beach, FL to a standing ovation. “I don’t think most unemployed people get a reception like that,” he joked.

At the end of the day, it is going to boil down to Trump versus DeSantis. As of right now, if you can believe the polling, Trump is way out in the lead, and DeSantis’ campaign is showing major signs of stalling. But as CBD and I discussed on the latest podcast, does any of this even matter? 

The fix is already in place, especially in the key swing states and districts if not most everywhere else so what does American electoral politics even mean anymore? I tried making the point that I believe we are beyond that, or we will soon be when an inevitable financial or other catastrophe (intentionally induced or otherwise) hits us.

We have been so thoroughly corrupted at every level of society that nothing short of a radical change will right the ship. Or sink it, depending on the breaks.

Meanwhile, in far away Fargo, North Dakota, this happened per friend of the blog Robert Spencer:

On Friday afternoon, police in Fargo, North Dakota, responded to a report of a car crash at 9th Avenue South and 25th Street South. Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski said it was a “routine traffic accident,” but what happened when they arrived on the scene was anything but routine. A Fargo resident named Mohamad Barakat, 37, opened fire on the officers, killing one and injuring three others. Zibolski said that Barakat attacked the officers “for no known reason,” and authorities have as yet offered no hints as to the shooter’s motive. One of the most obvious possibilities, however, is being steadfastly ignored, as one might expect given today’s media narrative. . . 

. . . Yes, it did. And Zibolski added that the FBI had been called in, but given the fact that the feds are now far more interested in finding “domestic terrorists” at school board meetings and Catholic churches than in hunting down actual terrorists, Zibolski may still not get an answer to his question of why someone would do such a thing. FBI agents today would likely not recognize an Islamic jihadist if he stood behind a car and started shooting at them, but Mohamad Barakat may have been one. There is no indication that anyone is looking into this possibility, but it would provide an immediate explanation for the details of the case. . . 

. . . Now, Mohamad Barakat may have had entirely different reasons for his attack. But the possibility that this was a jihad terror attack in Fargo, North Dakota, cannot be dismissed out of hand, even as authorities appear disinclined even to consider it as a possibility. The FBI and the entire Biden regime have never given any indication that they’re aware that the global jihad continues. Unfortunately, it does.

Hat tip also to commenter “Old Chick” for her link here.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY REVELATIONS

  • Thad McCotter: “No, ‘irony’ isn’t enough to fully capture the follies, foibles, and failings of the American government and its self-anointed ruling “elite,” especially when the Democrats are heedlessly doing Putin’s disinformation job for him by exacerbating the animosity, apathy, and doubt among Americans; and our government remains hellbent on proving the term ‘intelligence community’ is an oxymoron.” Disinformation: Doing Putin’s Job for Him
  • Miranda Devine: “[Former NYPD top cop Bernard] Kerik thinks eventually the truth will leak because “the men and women in the federal law enforcement arena are sick and tired of having to conceal and suppress [and] basically commit crimes on behalf of the Biden White House.” (we’ll see what the last straw is vis a vis protecting their jobs and pensions – jjs)The Secret Service’s Investigation on the Cocaine Found in the White House Blows: ‘The whole thing is preposterous’
  • “Joe Biden, who bragged in 2018 about the firing of prosecutor Viktor Shokin by Poroshenko, was on an official visit to Ukraine in 2015. During the visit, he met with Poroshenko in Kiev about Ukraine’s corruption. But four months after the meeting, Poroshenko fired Shokin, a prosecutor investigating Burisma, which paid Hunter Biden $83,000 a month to sit on its board.” Burisma Exec Discussed Expectations of ‘High-Ranking US Officials in Ukraine’ with Hunter Biden

SHAMPEACHMENT 1.0, 2016 CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, MUELLER DECEPTION

CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG “RIOT” & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION 

FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH

SCOTUS ABOLISHES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

THE ECONOMY, STUPID

RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM

AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY

CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY

AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS

SECOND AMENDMENT

EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT

  • “Recent test scores show a 50-year downward trend for American students. We need to change course immediately.” Our Failing Schools Are a National Crisis
  • “Nationwide, hundreds of profs denounce the dumbing-down-math trend. It robs America’s kids and sends a giant gift to China. Count it as one more area where the ‘progressive’ road to the future is positively medieval.” (imagine what a President Newsom will do – jjs)Progressives’ War on Teaching Math Conquers California
  • “These radical gender ideologies endanger both the minds and bodies of impressionable and developing youth, and yet parents who object are either vilified or kept in the dark entirely. In an effort to undermine parental rights and advance woke social agendas, schools go so far as to implement policies to keep secrets from parents, who are primarily responsible for the health and development of their children.” It’s Time To Acknowledge America’s Education Crisis

THE 2020 AND 2022ELECTION HEISTS & AFTERMATH

OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY

DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY 

POLITICS 

* * * * *

THE UKRAINIAN “FRONT”

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL

DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE

  • “To the extent her fellow Democratic appointees agree to pursue her apparent agenda, her confirmation threatens a sea-change in the Commission’s understanding and application of American non-discrimination laws. Specifically, employers should beware that the new majority may well advance positions on Title VII’s meaning: (a) for race-balancing employment decisions, at odds with the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent SFFA decision; and (b) for the provision of single-sex facilities for employees.” Biden’s New Official Overseeing Workplace Discrimination Has ac Long History of Supporting Discrimination
  • “Republicans, like Ramaswamy, who really want to take on the culture war, should tackle major food industries exploiting corporate welfare to prop up artificial industries that leave Americans sick in the process.” No Subsidies for Big Food is the Only ‘Based’ Position

HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY 

  • “It will take time to get Chandrayaan-3 into the right lunar orbit for landing, which is presently scheduled for August 13, 2023.” India successfully launches Chandrayaan-3
  • “It appears the committee members have decided to find the cuts in the other departments, such as the Justice Department. In fact, this first budget review strongly suggests Justice is about to see huge cuts, something that corrupt and partisan agency richly deserves.” NASA survives first budget review in Congress

FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY

CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE

HITHER & YON 

NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.

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