Saturday, September 7, 2019

Shamelessness Unbounded

     Courtesy of Pacific Pundit, this morning we have the following:

     David Fahrenthold is a reporter for the Washington Post, and has also appeared on PBS, NBC, and MSNBC as a commentator. If we combine the secretive tone of this document-seeking email with the Post’s notorious and unbridled anti-Trump bias, the immediate conclusion must be that Fahrenthold is seeking “dirt” on President Trump and / or his organization. At least, that’s the only conclusion I could reach from the above.

     Fahrenthold has defended his email as “normal journalistic protocol.” Really? Did he take any comparable steps during the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama? A great many things about Obama were scrupulously concealed from public view. For example, to this day no one who attended Columbia University is willing to testify that he knew Obama there.

     Journalists once did things out in the open. They “pounded the pavement” seeking out the facts about important events. Why the furtive probing for disloyal employees at the Trump Organization? What’s the end in view?

     If I were President Trump of any member of his family, I would be incensed. The president can’t afford to act against Fahrenthold or the Post, but he can express himself about it. He can also advise his sons, who now operate the Trump Organization, on how to discourage responses to this sort of fishing expedition.

     Mind you, this isn’t something we should think to be “outside the playbook” for the Post, or for the media generally. The Post has already come out against facts, reason, and civility. Why not encourage disloyalty to one’s employer, if the employer is a Post target for calumny? Why not pretend that there’s nothing untoward about such machinations?

     As I wrote just yesterday, I want it all to go away. But it’s been a long time since I last gained the sympathy of any wish-granting entity.


     The shamelessness of the Left and its various allies appears boundless. It’s consistent with their priorities, of course. To him who cares about power and nothing else, there are no binding constraints of any kind. At one time leftists at least exhibited a desire not to be “found out” for such tactics, but that appears to have gone by the boards along with the rest of the moral-ethical rules the rest of us are expected to observe.

     It’s no wonder Americans are weary of politics and political discourse. It’s become unbearable. The maneuverings – the ones we know about, at least – are shocking. We can’t help but be aware that we’re being lied to and manipulated by conscienceless aspiring dictators whose servants are the basest of thugs. It’s enough to daunt anyone.

     An increasing fraction of the country is entering fight-or-flight mode. If we elect to fight, where do we aim? Whom do we target – and with what?

     Yet there’s nowhere to flee. Venus is too hot and Mars is too cold. Halley’s Comet isn’t expected back this way until 2061. As for other, more fanciful destinations, there’s no convenient wandering planetoid in prospect.

     All that’s left is to pull one’s head into one’s shell and hope to outlast the whole miserable mess.


     The great majority of Americans are perfectly decent...if you can get them not to talk about politics or government. That can make the most decent of us froth at the mouth and tip over backwards. The entertainment media have abandoned all pretense of allegiance to traditional American values, so there’s no balm to be had from them. Not that there’s much worth watching on the big or small screens, anyway.

     If there’s refuge to be had, it lies in rigidly avoiding politics and political discourse, shunning government at every level, and cultivating an ethic of privacy in all things. Relating to other people as friends and neighbors only, and never making any slightest suggestion about larger organizations and involvements. With 88,000 governments all striving to insert themselves ever more deeply into our lives – yes, Gentle Reader, there really are that many in these United States – that’s a harder task than it’s ever been before – for anyone.

     And as I have just realized that I’ve reached the edge of recommending that my Gentle Readers not come here for any more of this upsetting drivel, I believe it’s time to close.

7 comments:

Col. B. Bunny said...

Man is a social animal but not a political one. We're happy to offload the donkey work of government onto tiny minorities but take little interest in the mechanics or the inevitable trend toward aggrandizement and power.

Most citizens in a putative popular sovereignty lash up in the West now cannot manage to focus on the one thing about government that must always be kept in mind -- its tendency toward bloodshed. And destruction, be it suddent and violent or incremental and bureaucratic.

Reading two pages from any book on the Red Terror in Kiev or Budapest in every school every Monday morning for eternity would have no lasting effect. Most pople not directly affected by tyranny have no interest in combatting it. Sam Adams had choice words for such tits on a boar hog.

So chasing the possibility of popular epiphany on any issue one wants to name is pushing the proverbial noodle. Again and again and again Western electorates fail to punish their enemies and to demand any kind of Restoration. From what I can see, most are quite passive in the face of the left's evisceration of our homelands and proposal to replace them with variations of Bedlam and Lord of the Flies.

Still, repressive, failed Chinese dynasties fell for having lost the Mandate of Heaven and sounding the alarm in this corner or that helps to build up that inchoate popular notion that All Is Not Well. Generating a vague unease may be a righteous endeavor all by itself.

Too, didn't the Irish monks scribble away in their remoteness and keep a small flame burning?

Bottom line, however, given our elites' fascination with the putresence of life, primitivism, war, fiscal and monetary excess, and discretionary rule, the days of half-caf, soy lattes and heavy metal spasming are winding down regardless of any inchoate popular take on things. At least that will forestall elite plans for The Cull, which I think is their ultimate goal, advanced, of course, with economic madness, cultural madness, communist revolution, and whatever variant of Cloward-Piven you can imagine. The effect of the collapse may be the same but it won't be as organized as it would have been had the existing "order" continued. It won't.

I hope you won't close, for selfish reasons if no other. None of us pixel-stained wretches will move any mountains by any daily offerings but maybe it's simply a better idea to go with "less is more."

Brian E. said...

Isaac Asimov is quoted as having said:

“Above all else, clarity”.

That, Mr Porretto, is what I come here for the most.

I don’t always agree 100% with what you say (and in truth, what value would there be in that?), but I do find you to make clear and reasonable arguments for your positions. This, alone is a rare enough find. That it comes from someone with the same faith is refreshing, in spite of the difficulties it’s suffered over the years.

As someone who was trained as an engineer but found my place in the world crafting software systems - I understand how trying to make sense of and fight against the decay of Western culture can feel rather like tilting at windmills, or trying to heard cats.

It doesn’t mean that we need to run ourselves into the ground fighting the good fight, but neither should we surrender due to a sense of futility or for feeling inadequate to the task at hand. As my best friend (aka Wombat at TheOtherMcCain) and fellow Catholic has had occasion to remind me: “Try to remember that despair is a sin.” Upon reflection - it’s obvious why - because with Him, all things are possible.

I’ve come to believe that He works through the remnant, and that much of your writing feeds the remnant. It matters not the volume, but the quality is key - as is clarity.

I look forward to your writing - here, elsewhere, or in your published works - whenever that may be.

Take what comfort you can in knowing you and those dear to you are in my prayers.

Andy Texan said...

I order to remain oblivious to progressive proselytizing in all its haunts I do not watch any commercial TV. TCM old movies are nearly devoid of this all encompassing racket. Progressive friends and family avoid discussing politics like a Medusan head.

Sam L. said...

This is just ONE MORE unnecessary reason for me to despise, detest, and distrust the WaPoo.

Diogenese 5 said...

Trumps sons should change the name then send the e mail to every Democrat candidate .
See how they like it !

streamfortyseven said...

Gordon Liddy calls the WaPo the "Washington Pest". As for me, I think WaPo would be a good name for a brand of toilet paper - "nice, soft, absorbent WaPo".

As for politics and "sides", I find out what people's concerns are, often it turns out they're pretty similar, no matter what "side" they're on. I think the polarization thing is pushed by people who stand to benefit from it - "divide and rule" is what Caesar called it. Identity Politics is just the modern incarnation. Look at where that stuff comes from - elite institutions such as Harvard and Yale, places where the elite send their kids so they can become the new elite. And it's best to keep the lumpenproleteriat busy fighting each other, rather than coming after elites.

ELittle said...

Francis, Please do not stop your writings! I come here at least two or three times a week for some rational discourse.I don't comment because my brain matter is not as well infused with the 'smart' cells. But I do know rationality when I hear it! Long time reader from 6-8 years ago! Hang in there dude, you are my anchor! Everett R Littlefield ADCM AC, FE, NO, USN Ret over on BIRI