Trivia For Your Tuesday

     I have undertaken to endure one of the most challenging, trying, financially expensive and emotionally exhausting trials in contemporary American life. Yes, Gentle Reader, I’m transitioning to a new computer. To make matters worse, it runs Windows 10, which I cordially despise. So no long-form essay today. Have a few tidbits from recent events, instead.

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1. Schlichter on the NeverTrumpRump.

     Kurt usually has something piercing to say, but on this subject he’s more cutting than usual:

     Today’s Never Trump is a tiny group of greedy misfits whose gravy train got derailed – they would put it “an elite group of select individuals of discerning taste” – but we actual conservatives do spend a lot of time on manhandling them. They cite that as evidence of their lasting influence, but it’s actually the result of two other factors. The first is human nature – people hate traitors. There’s a reason civil wars tend to be so much more brutal than other wars. It’s the sense of betrayal, and the actions of turncoats like Bill Kristol – whose tiresome Twitter feed is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from those of Senator Will Brown Side Piece and Senator Panders with Wolves – infuriate the very same people he shamelessly hustled for decades.

     I would add this: Not only to we in the Right feel betrayed by the NeverTrumpers; we’re also angry at ourselves for letting ourselves be taken in by them, often for gigunda bucks. That sort of anger is never expressed toward oneself, always toward the con man. But the question immediately arises: Given our sense of betrayal and victimization, how do the NeverTrumpers maintain their outsized media presences?

     The other reason is that the NeverTrumpers have a media presence utterly out of proportion to their dwindling numbers and influence. Why? Because they say exactly what the leftist media needs them to say. You know when you get a NeverTrumper on your MSNBC or CNN show, he’s going to faithfully parrot the party line of Nickleback-channel cliché Joe Scarborough or noted particle physicist Don Lemon. When I defended Trump on CNN in 2015, Lemon cut my mic, and I’ve never been back on CNN since (though, hilariously they once called me begging to come on to discuss a big story because I was one of only a few in-the-know people without a non-disclosure agreement on the issue – I told them to pound sand). They want shills and hacks, and when you want shills and hacks, you get yourself a NeverTrumper.

     A “conservative” willing to attack genuine conservatives is a gold mine for the Left. A word to the wise: Don’t go to the goat looking for wool.

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2. Schlichter on the Democrat Socialists.

     Kurt’s back again this morning with some good news about the Democrats’ ongoing crackup:

     The only thing that should keep you from roaring in laughter as Nancy Pelosi freaks out trying to keep a lid on the freak show that is the Democratic caucus is the knowledge that the freshmen freakettes giving her fits would impose an ideology of tyranny and murder if given the chance. But you can still allow yourself a good giggle as you watch Nancy’s dreams of a Democrat majority die on the altar of anti-Semitism, taking away your health insurance, and banning cheeseburgers.

     This was on display as the Democrats struggled to find a way to publicly pretend to condemn their superstar bigot’s hatred of Jews without annoying all the Democrats for whom hatred of Jews is a key component of their intersectional web of leftist prejudices. Nancy essentially tried to excuse it by explaining that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Berlin) is too stupid to know she’s anti-Semitic which, to be fair, is plausible.

     Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlaib are electoral gifts to the Right. They’ll prove invaluable to conservative candidates throughout the campaign season. The Democrats’ strategists know this, but those three were duly elected, exhibit no inclination toward party discipline, and cannot be condemned without further fracturing the Democrat caucus. She’s up the proverbial tributary without the traditional means of propulsion.

     Applaud quietly – and don’t forget this part:

     But, of course, there is always a chance that things don’t go the way we hope, and that there are enough historically ignorant suckers in the big blue cities to allow these freaks to take over the levers of power. Sure, the Democrats’ pain is hilarious, but the fact that a major political party has surrendered itself to the zealots of an ideology that has murdered 100 million people is not so hilarious.

     Do keep that in mind.

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3. BigTech Bias.

     Tyler O’Neil has the scoop:

     On Monday, Google software engineer Mike Wacker published an email he received from a fellow Google employee. That employee recounted a discussion with his manager in which the manager said Donald Trump won the 2016 election thanks to fake news and hate speech.

     "I posted a comment on a meme regarding fake news on Search and someone reported it to HR. I didn’t say I was in favor or against, just cautioned that we need to be carful [sic]," the anonymous employee wrote. "My manager brought it up in our 1:1 last week. Made me feel very uncomfortable for having an opposing view. He said we need to stop hate speatch [sic] and fake news because that’s how Trump won the election…"

     The terrified employee kept quiet, censoring himself. "I obviously didn’t say anything and just wanted it to end. I … would like to see all managers required to take political bias training," he wrote.

     Most of us in the Right have known for a while about this sort of bias at BigTech firms such as Google. And of course we appreciate the daring of whistleblowers such as the unnamed Google employee who published the above. What piqued me was the final sentence quoted above.

     In all probability, the whistleblower’s manager has received political bias training. It taught him what bias is unacceptable (and will bring retribution), and what bias is approved (and will conduce to the favor of his superiors). In an already Left-colonized and conquered firm, the training the whistleblower hopes for is unavailable and will remain so.

     Always remember Robert Conquest’s Second Law.

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4. From Gerard Vanderleun.

     Hearken:

     One phrase that starts to pin my BS meter is “Scientists Say.” First you have this amorphous but supposedly YUGE! grouping of “Scientists.” Then this “amorphous but supposedly YUGE! grouping” is caught in the act of “saying” something in some sort of unison; a kind of vast Mormon Tabernacle Choir pronouncement that is “most scientific.” Sounds about as solid and stable as a bucket of eels. And just about as distasteful. This is especially true when the media gets a chance to debunk “religion” with “Because Science! Damnitall.”

     Back in 2006 National Geographic got all heated up about biblical ice in the sea of Galilee and so let drop a “Scientists Say” chunklet: Jesus May Have Walked on Ice, Not Water, Scientists Say. I’m not nearly so objective. After I read the story, I thought it could more reasonably be headlined, Scientist Confirms Popular Theory That Most Scientists Are Atheistic Asses with Too Much Time and Money on their Hands, Sensible People Say

     Whether “most scientists” are atheists is something about which there remains doubt, but the media’s use of “scientists” (especially when anonymized and genericized by the media) to promote irreligion, Leftist Causes, and miscellaneous destructive “trends” is beyond dispute. Religion has been the all-important force that has shaped the destinies of civilizations, for as long as we have recorded history. The West’s dominant religion, Christianity, is in large measure responsible for the Enlightenment, for the ethos that prevails in First World countries, and in the political structure of the United States. It is Christianity that has stood against the notion that “princes are gods” who have a “divine right” to absolute and unbounded power.

     Have a little Machiavelli:

     It must be understood, however, that a prince... cannot observe all of those virtues for which men are reputed good, because it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion in order to preserve the state. Thus he must be disposed to change according as the winds of fortune and the alternations of circumstance dictate. As I have already said, he must stick to the good so long as he can, but being compelled by necessity, he must be ready to take the way of evil.

     Trust one of them? Never. Not for an instant. Neither should we trust the media, handmaidens of the Omnipotent State, who are infinitely willing to use “scientists say” or “the scientific consensus is” to deprive us of our heritage, our wealth, our freedom, and our birthrights.

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5. The Cultural Appropriation Watchdogs Strike Again.

     Ace has the story:

     This story is from a couple of weeks ago but it's as timeless as suggesting that Jews are motivated by dual loyalty and money and the blood of Christian infants.

     In January, Karen Templer, a popular knitting blogger, told her followers about an upcoming trip to India, kicking off the whole debate. The post, which discussed Templer's excitement about her childhood dream finally being fulfilled, praised India's culture and food and also noted Templer's "lifelong obsession with the literature and history of the continent."

     Her innocuous comments about India were immediately attacked. One commenter, Alex, noted her "words feed into a colonial/imperialist mindset toward India and other non-Western countries." Vox author Jaya Saxena also jumped on board, saying the tone Templer used, as a white person, "felt like they thought India only existed to be all those things for them."

     After several days of this and other ridiculous abuse, Templer apologized for the post, writing that her earlier post was "insensitive" and that "words matter."

     “Knitting blogger.” I can’t imagine anything less noxious than knitting, though no doubt some Leftist troll will be along in a jiffy to disabuse me of my excessive innocence. And India! A place with so many cultures, cuisines, customs, creeds, demographics, and fashions that a Westerner should be proud to know about twenty percent of them! But the Left will have none of this “excitement” for a trip to a non-Western nation. Condemned, you racist knitting blogger, you!

     These people are scum. These people are filth. They are determined to render everything down into Left-approved and Left-disapproved vats – and they reserve the right to change the rules at their option.

     Yes, they’re a minority. For now. But note how often they succeed, through nothing but vicious gang pile-ons, at terrorizing innocent persons into disavowing or renouncing their lifelong pleasures. I’m itching with the urge to kick one in the crotch and step on his face. UnChristian of me, I know.

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     That’s all for today, Gentle Reader. That Win10 computer remains to be dealt with, as does a substantial amount of physical rearrangement to accommodate it. With luck I’ll be back tomorrow. Without luck...pray for me.