Tuesday, April 30, 2024

"Regulating" Speech, Totalitarian BS

You saw this coming, right?

In landmark guidance, the federal commission created to fight racial and sexual discrimination declared Monday that employers that fail to use a worker's preferred pronoun or refuse them the chance to use the restroom of their choice will be engaging in prohibited harassment. The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission published the new harassment guidelines Monday after voting along partisan lines on Friday...

There were two parties here:  the Party of Normals, and the Party of the Permanent Revolution.

This sort of stuff simply will. not. end. well.

A Question "The Press" Didn't Ask

 The "reporters" assigned to this circus failed to ask a question which--in the larger scheme--is kind of important.  You'll see and/or hear all the silly incantations which are really meaningless, of course--because "reporting" these days is actually taking dictation from A Narrator.

So as you look at this video (the same stuff can be found on all the other "news" outlets), notice that there is a lot of not-cheap equipment which suddenly appeared.  Bullhorns, tents, 'fencing,'......

Did you send your kid to college with a pup-tent?  A bullhorn?

THEN WHO THE HELL PAID FOR ALL THIS STUFF???

Inquiring minds, but not the minds of "reporters."

Virtue. Valor. Purpose.

 Sometimes you really need to know the derivation of words.  In this essay, Christopher Morrissey corrals a movie, Tacitus, Thomas Aquinas, (and Aristotle) to expand on the terms "Valor" and "Virtue."

...The word being translated as “valor” in English was the Latin word for “virtue.” I found this quite exciting, because indeed the original meaning of the word “virtue” is military courage, or “valor,” if you want to use the best word to describe military courage. A valiant man is a man who displays valor. In Latin, “vir” literally means “man,” and so “courage” as a kind of root virtue tying together all other virtues indeed reflects the original Roman military notion that “manliness” (the literal translation of “virtus,” the Latin word for “virtue”) is that height of virtue that a valiant man can show in battle....

The four key (or “cardinal”) virtues of courage, temperance, justice, and prudence are discussed at length by Thomas Aquinas in a number of his works. These four species are the four “hinge” specimens of the entire genus of virtue. These four cardinal virtues, the “hinges” upon which all the other virtues turn, get their most classic, lengthy treatment by Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae. Aquinas, of course, is riffing off of Aristotle’s original classic treatment in the Nicomachean Ethics, and developing Aristotle in a more detailed and systematic way for Christian theology....

There are all sorts of battles.  One of them--the one Aquinas illuminates--is the battle against evil, or the battle to save one's soul.  It's arguably more important than any 'war battle' for territory, or for gold, or even for defense of self and others.

 ...With all this in mind, it is interesting to read how Aquinas in De Decem Praeceptis interprets a verse of Scripture (Matthew 22:37). We may recognize that his discussion is structured by the four cardinal virtues. First, he begins by stating the verse, and identifying the four words in it that he is going to associate with the cardinal virtues. “Heart,” “soul,” “mind,” and “valor;” these are the four words he will go on to interpret in light of the four cardinal virtues of “temperance,” “justice,” “prudence,” and “courage.”...

Here's Aquinas, translated by the essay's author:

 A man owes God four things: his heart, his soul, his mind and his valor. And thus it is said (Mt 22:37): You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all manliness, i.e., your valor.

Therefore,

...[Aquinas] discusses courage as the virtue tying the discussion together. It is interesting to see how he again uses “virtus” as synonym for “fortitudo” at this point. He cites the Scriptural passage as his authority for concluding that the other three cardinal virtues alone are not enough. That is, we are enjoined also to be men of valor:

 But that does not suffice; on the contrary, one must give to God all manliness and valor (Ps 58:10 Vulgate): “I shall guard my valor towards you.” For there are some who allot their valor towards sinning, and in this they display their power; against whom it is said (Is 5:22): “Woe to you who are powerful for drinking wine, and who are men valiant for hard liquor.” Others show their power or manliness by doing harm to their neighbors; they should have shown it by coming to their aid (Prov 24:11): “Rescue them, they who are being led into death; they who are being dragged into slaughter, you must not cease to liberate.”...

The author concludes:

... [This reading of Scripture] allows us to affirm “spes in virtute” with both Tacitus and Thomas Aquinas. To be precise: “In valor, there is hope;” namely, the hope that our virtue may be fully complete. To express the thought another way: it is as men of valor that we will be all we can be....

"Be all we can be", i.e., in the short term, 'virtuous,' and in the long term, saved.

Yes, that is the Army's recruiting slogan.  Just remember that Christ, the King, also has an army, and you owe your first allegiance to Him.

Monday, April 29, 2024

The Jim Jordan Dance

Another amusing story.

Apparently Ms. Bartiromo loosed a tirade on Cong. Jim Jordan (R-Spineless) about 'investigations that go nowhere.'

Jordan countered that 1) Congress doesn't prosecute, they legislate; and 2) the Bai-Den criminal gang stonewalls the investigators.  In sum:  Jordan & Co. can't really do much.

Huh.

As I recall, Donald Trump was President (Republican) and had Bill Barr (lethargic Deep State "Republican Faithful Catholic" Guy) as A.G. for about four years.

What the Hell did Jordan do then?

Nothing.  Same as now.

Terry Wall's Hard-Left "Forgetfulness"

It's amusing to read an alleged 'conservative' rant about the Horrible Injustice of Rapacious and Greedy Electric Utilities (that won't pay for his sun-catcher scheme) while he "forgets" some serious numbers.  Let's ignore the inane "climate change" crap that Wall is assuming to be fact here, and concentrate on his missing--or 'forgotten'--numbers.

...All utility companies [in Wisconsin] except [Madison Gas & Electric], pay a tiny fraction of the value of that solar electricity to the solar provider (property owner). Up until recently, MGE paid at a ratio of 1:1, i.e. paid $1.00 for $1.00, which is to say, MGE paid the same rate for the solar electricity delivered to MGE as MGE charged for electricity.

Good for them! But recently even MGE announced that they would reduce the reimbursement rate for new solar electricity providers as well....

Wall carries on about the (very limited) benefits of solar; his case is that sun-catchers provide 'peak usage power' during daylight hours.  That's true, assuming that it's a sunny day.  Therefore, in Wall's opinion, the utilities do not have to spend a bunch of money increasing their 'peak usage' capacity.

So solar deserves equality, dammit!!

... Think of it this way – if the utilities value electricity at $1.00 (I made up that number), then that is the market value of the electricity and they should pay you $1.00, but instead the utilities are saying that electricity is worth $1.00 when they sell it to you, but it’s worth only pennies of that when they buy it from you....

Umnnnhhhhh......not exactly, Terry.

Do you suncatcher-lovers provide the poles, wires, and transformers?  Do you provide the skilled labor for installation and maintenance of those wires, transformers, and switchgear?  Do you provide the (expensive) trucks and equipment for such installs and maintenance?  Do you pay taxes on your 'solar' income, like utilities pay taxes on their income?

No?  Oh, gee, Terry!

So all you really want is more money for your expensive hobby-horse.

That's "conservative"?

Defining Congress on the Nat'l Debt

Former Comptroller General offers a definition which is accurate yet incomplete.

The former U.S. Comptroller General said Congress' failure to address the federal debt burden was "irresponsible."

David Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States and a member of the Main Street Economics Advisory Board, said recent economic data should prompt lawmakers to take action before the debt problem gets worse....

He refers to the recent news that economic growth is only 1.4% while inflation is just over 3%.

 ...Walker said voters want to see action.

"It's time for Washington to stop the rhetoric, get to work on resolving the national debt, and show the voters some results," he said. "Continuing inaction by Washington is irresponsible, inequitable, and immoral."...

Your adjective-string is incomplete, Mr. Walker.

You forgot to include "congressional."

Ten-Year Grift for Ukraine?

How much does the Big Guy get?

And how much gets laundered into the pockets of Senate and House "leadership" members?

Inquiring minds, and all that.....

Zelensky announces that Ukraine is working on a security agreement with the U.S. that will fix levels of support for the next 10 years. The $61 billion was just the beginning. The next two U.S. presidents won’t be able to switch it off....

"Won't be able to switch it off....."

Maybe US patriots can "switch off" the thieves and grifters in Congress, State, and CIA instead. 

Ford Taking a Green Weenie Hose Job

Ford Motor Company, like GM, follows the rules of the Bai-Den Maladministration.

Ford Motor Company reported a whopping $132,000 loss on each electric vehicle (EV) sold during the first three months of 2024, amassing a $1.3 billion loss.

The auto manufacturer’s electric vehicle unit revealed Thursday that they experienced a 20 percent decrease in sales volume and were forced to slash prices due to low consumer demand...

Maybe Ford Motor will learn that swallowing the Green Weenie is not good for the company.

Sunday, April 28, 2024

To Power or Not To Power? That's the Question

 Davidson v. Erickson!!

Erick Erickson (a squish if there ever was one) said some stuff about the "three-legged stool of conservatism" to which Davidson takes serious exception.

...It’s like watching someone talk about the state of conservatism halfway through Obama’s first term, when Republican leaders were vowing to repeal Obamacare and inveighing against Democrats for violating the Constitution with a “socialist” health care scheme....

And that's the nicest thing he said about it!

... Erickson’s point, which he also made in a post for National Review, is that the Republican coalition for decades was built on the “three-legged stool” of fiscal conservatism, traditional values, and a peace-through-strength foreign policy....

Yes.  That's the old "Fusionism", the unworkable shotgun marriage arranged by Bill Buckley a few decades ago.  And by "unworkable" I mean that it couldn't last too long and its children (such as Obamacare) would be slouching bastards.

Davidson points out that Emperor Erickson (et. al.) has no clothes:

 ...On fiscal conservatism, we’re swimming in an ocean of debt that grows no matter which party controls Congress, while inflation is killing middle- and working-class families. On traditional values, we legalized gay marriage and then quickly moved on to normalizing transgenderism and acquiescing to so-called “gender-affirming care,” even for minors. On peace-through-strength foreign policy, we lost the War on Terror and are now funding multiple wars all over the world as part of a crumbling global imperium. The stool has no legs left....As for limited government, we saw how much the GOP cared about the former during Covid, and even recently when it refused to do anything about our intelligence agencies routinely spying on us and censoring disfavored speech online. And free markets, although fine in theory, have in practice served as a permission slip for massive corporations to hollow out America’s industrial base and ship jobs overseas, enriching the upper and managerial classes while everyone else struggles....

He didn't even mention abortion, and it still sums it up very well, and it's painfully accurate.  Very painfully for those who are forced to "learn to code" or flip burgers or go into drugs and suicide because GM, Ford, and Chrysler are making cars in Red China and Mexico.  Pretty soon all the coal miners will be coding too.  Ain't that swell??

So the question is:  what to DO about all this?

Contra Erickson, Davidson says Keep the Big Gummint (and club the Alinsky-ite Commies into submission or death.)

 ...we are in a life-or-death struggle against the left, and the left is playing by a different set of rules. If the right agrees as a matter of principle that it will not wield government power to achieve its preferred outcomes, but the left vows to use the government whenever and however it can, then the left is going to win every time. And that is exactly what has happened.

So what to do about this? Erickson’s admonition amounts to a posture of permanent defeat. If conservatives can’t wield power to bring about their vision of the good, of a rightly ordered public square and a prosperous society, then the leftist radicals will continue to seize power and press forward with their permanent revolution, as they have been for decades....

  we have to stop thinking of ourselves as conservatives and start thinking of ourselves, and our movement, as restorationist and counterrevolutionary. In a very real sense, we have to re-found our country, and to do that we will have to seize power from the left — and use it....

Hmmmm.

Lancing the Boil at Catholic Human Development

Read between the lines:  the boycott works.

Ralph McCloud, who began leading the CCHD in 2008, resigned earlier this month, USCCB spokesperson Chieko Noguchi confirmed to The Pillar Monday....

 ...McCloud’s resignation comes amid acute financial troubles for CCHD, which has reportedly dwindled its cash reserves by conferring grants beyond its own financial resources.

“CCHD is in a difficult situation, because it’s been giving out more in grants than it takes in,” one source close to the conference told The Pillar. “It’s becoming clear that’s not sustainable.”

Sources told The Pillar that a cash crunch could mean more resignations for CCHD personnel, and a tightened budget for CCHD grant recipients — with both personnel and grant allocations expected to be discussed by bishops during plenary meetings later this year....

It was a 'silent boycott,' as it didn't make news.  McCloud (and his henchmen at CCHD) were funding all sorts of anti-Catholic operations directly or indirectly, and that has been painstakingly documented for all to see.

Enough DID see and it is possible that the US Bishops will catch the drift, too. 

Oremus!

"Improving the Economy," Part 666

Yah, we used that number.  You'll see why.

Remember:  illegals will "improve the economy."  Our Betters told us that.  So did "news" organizations.  And Catholic Charities--along with the Lutherans and Jewish services--assist those illegals, too.

So it's settled science, see??

But then.....

MS-13 Satanists in Houston caught kidnapping and sacrificing young girls...

If you're surprised, you're stupid.

You're Running Out of Electricity. It's War.

 There are a few "electricity grids" in the country.  They were assembled to provide electricity to a State (e.g., Illinois) in case a major fault cut off power in that State.  In the case of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Minnesota might "roll" power to patch-fix the problem until the fault itself is corrected.

Yah, well, with the new Biden "no-coal" rule, you can fuggedabout thatBut you can get used to Third-World living after a while, right?

...The EPA released four final rules Thursday that would help to reduce the amount of pollution being produced from “fossil fuel-fired power plants.”

The EPA’s final regulations for coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants “limit the amount of carbon pollution covered sources can emit.”

“We’ve got the regional grid coordinators across the grids, PJM 13 states, MISO 15 states, CAISO, which is California, ERCOT, which is Texas, and now added North Carolina and Tennessee, 32 states now impacted by grid operators telling us that they’re running out of electricity,” Walsh said, adding that we are not “generating enough baseload constant duty electricity to support demand.”..

This is not just your TeeeVeee going off for a week or so.

This is your refrigerator, furnace fan, air conditioner, phone-charger.  It's also the coolers at the grocery store, the pumps which bring you water (and which often move your poop to a treatment plant), the pumps which bring gasoline and diesel into your tank at the gas station, the power for your office or plant job..........and when those all go off for a week or so, well........

But those windmills and sun-catchers will save the environment, you see--by eliminating more humans through water deprivation, food shortages, and freezing or baking.

Combined with the PfizerFauci kill-juice, there will be plenty of room for the invaders, and they're used to living in the Third World that the USA will soon become.

 By the way, disabling electric supply is a war tactic:

Russia launched a barrage of missiles against Ukraine overnight, in attacks that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure....

The ONLY difference is that here, your enemy is the Biden Administration. 

You Won't Have Grandchildren

Naomi Wolf's research team looked at the numbers from Canada.  Since they have socialized medicine, the numbers are a clean and totally representative set.

Fauci & Pfizer are making sure that there will be global de-population.

It is reasonable to assume that the US numbers are nearly congruent, but for some reason, CDC and NIH have not required survey data from providers.  Huh!

Anyhow, go to 15:00 or so on Bannon's War Room.  You will be flat-out shocked at what they found.

Saturday, April 27, 2024

There Were NO "Fake Electors"

 Search "Fake Electors" on the website of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Birdcage Liner, and you get a  dozen ++ hits.

The term is a lie, and the editor(s) of that propaganda-pushing crapola "newspaper" know it--but then, they wouldn't be serving their masters if they print the truth, would they?

Ask Van Jones of CNN.  Go ahead.  Ask him.

Know why CNN and Van Jones are suddenly telling the truth?  Because when Biden loses the '24 (and he will!) there will be DEMOCRAT "fake electors."

And if you're a betting man, place your bets on (D)-inspired riots and violence following the certification.

Doh.



Friday, April 26, 2024

MKE: City of Death From Speeding

 Here's a factoid which should make John Chisholm proud:

...Business litigation and personal injury lawyers with Heninger Garrison Davis released a study that used data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It found that between 2017-2021 more than 54 percent of fatal crashes in Milwaukee involved speeding. Out of 106 cities where at least 100 deadly collisions occurred, Milwaukee came out on top.

In another report, the Wisconsin Policy Forum found that from 2002 to 2022 the number of speeding-involved crash deaths in Milwaukee County grew from 15 to 47, a 213 percent increase. In all of the other counties that number dropped 55 percent....

What's Chisholm (and his henchmen) have to do with this?

It's what's called F.T.P.:  Failure To Prosecute.  Usually, homicide gets 25-to-life, but not in Chisholm's MKE.

 Best make sure your life insurance is paid up before you cross into the City of Death.

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Think Energy Is Expensive Now? HA!!

In Wisconsin, the price of electricity has gone up about 15% in the last few years, and our beloved utility wants another increase--to make it a nice, even, 25% by 2026. 

But that's assuming they'll have any energy to sell....

The Biden government on Thursday unveiled one of its most extreme environmental regulations yet, requiring coal-fired power plants to almost entirely eliminate their emissions or else face being shutdown. Under the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation, these power plants must decrease their pollutants by an ambitious 90 percent by 2039 — one year earlier than the originally proposed 2040. Representatives from the coal power industry have called the emissions benchmarks set by the EPA unrealistic....

That's a ridiculous target, but the plan is to eliminate reliable and cheap energy.  This does both.

The first 15% here in SE Wisconsin was to cover the cost of sun-catchers and windmills.  The next one will be to cover the cost of burying power lines.  Obviously, burying the power lines should have been the priority, but Our Betters in DC had other plans for you.  Specifically:  Not Reliable and Definitely Not Cheap.

And if you're silly enough to think that you can tighten up and swallow this one, don't forget that your municipal government is probably the single highest user of electricity in your area--so you'll be paying their increases, too.  And those groceries that are in coolers at the store?  How about those manufacturers with electric-driven machine tools, or welders?  Like to drink water brought to you by electric pumps?  All that first-world stuff?  Fuggedaboutit.

The Glorious Future is Here!!!

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Tammy Throws Her Mom Under the Bus

Tammy Baldwin runs ads wherein Tammy, the sweet, likeable girl talks about her mother's addiction and how Tammy couldn't get back in her house when coming home from school because her mom locked the door and was dead-out on the couch.

Then, having totally trashed her mother, Tammy lies about her "work" on the fentanyl problemTammy has not done one damn thing about closing the border which is a 22-lane expressway for drug runners; in fact, Tammy voted AGAINST every single Trump initiative regarding the border.

Sweet and likeable, Tammy.

After all, her mom's dead, so what's the big deal?  Tammy needs the votes and is happy to trash her mother to get them. 

Classy, Tammy.  Really classy.

Notorious Liar Talks "Terror in USA"

 Christopher Wray, known for his lying and evasions, is now chatting up "terror attacks" inside the USA.

Note well that Christopher Wray does not call out Bai-Den for his border-invasion policy allowing terrorists and Chinese Army members to enter the country wholesale.  Nope.  Not that.  Nope.  

Does he mention that Hezbollah is in Venezuela and has been for years, running their people into the US under Biden's watch?  Nope.  Not that.  Nope.

Sadly, Wray's credibility is so damn bad that one is forced to consider the possibility that he's talking about terrorism to justify a martial-law declaration, whether or not there is an attack (and whether it will be encouraged by FBI personnel or informants.  See Ray Epps, e.g.

After all, the Totalitarians are openly discussing imposing a "climate emergency" series of orders on the citizens, so what's wrong with adding a little "terror" to the mix?


Tuesday, April 23, 2024

What the Hell Is Trump Doing?

 As far as we're concerned, Trump is a standard 1960's Democrat.  He likes to spend money like crazy, put the negative balance on MasterCard, and get all touchy-feely with the Pink Class.  He's no JFK; he's more an LBJ.  

That accounts for his War-War thing, and that is a big error on his part.  Here's a chunk of Wauck's column quoting Arta Moeini:

...For 8 years, nothing Establishment media and politicians threw at him stuck, because this was coming from sources his supporters viewed as discredited and illegitimate. In fact, the attacks only added to his appeal.

I genuinely believe @realDonaldTrump has hugely miscalculated this time. By caving to the Establishment and the warmongering Lindsay Graham's of the world to send billions to foreign countries, he has showed himself to be a card-carrying member of the swamp rather than fighting it.

He has appeared weak and selling out on the two key issues that made him a real force: his 2016 stance against globalism & mass migration. The outrage I hear from the grassroot Right—especially the under 45s that (rightly or wrongly) saw him as a bulldozer against the old regime and its institutions—is really palpable and unprecedented. ...

It's not just the "under 45's," pal.

Trump was sucked in by Mike Pompeo who--as Tucker states (later in the Wauck column)--is probably a criminal for acts he took while running the CIA.  He's also War-War type.

What d'ya think Pompeo & Co. have on Trump?

Monday, April 22, 2024

The Senate "I Spy on YOU" Club

We all know that the Democrats must vote to spy on you because it's the only way they feel safe from you-know-what.

So do 30 Republicans!

John Barrasso of Wyoming, John Boozman of Arkansas, Katie Britt of Alabama, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, John Kennedy of Louisiana, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Marco Rubio of Florida, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, John Thune of South Dakota, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Todd Young of Indiana.

Keep those names in mind.

The Senate Liars' Club

As you might expect, Linnnnnnnnnnnndseeeeeeey!! is one.  Mark Warner is the other.  Lindsey is all in a tither because some people were talking about him on some random phone call, and Lindseeeeeey!! is worried because his mom isn't around to protect him from the eeeeeeeeevil Putin who will invade Aiken, S.C. after he finishes off Ukraine.

Warner, on the other hand, is simply making s**t up.  He knows it, too.  And he hopes that you're stupid enough to swallow his s**t.

But you're not.

Sunday, April 21, 2024

A Little Scripture for Speaker Johnson

The Bible-Man sitting in the Speaker's chair apparently has forgotten about a very important verse from Scripture.

Recall that Johnson promised not to send any more money to Ukraine (thence to the M-I-C, and thence to Congressional "re-election" funds.)  Remember that?  Remember that he promised money to enhance enforcement of the US border?  Remember that?

Yah, well, Johnson forgot

But we recall this verse:

"So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."  Rev. 3:16

Amazing how much of the Bible that Bible-Man doesn't know, eh?

C S Lewis on the Meaning of "Democracy"--for Satan

 Just below, we linked to a short essay by C S Lewis on corrupt officials.

Next, Lewis explains how Satan & Co. use the word "democracy."  This follows the horrible (to Screwtape & Co.) time period during which Christianity was gaining ground rapidly--roughly, the time period after the Civil War in America.  We pick up there:

...Hidden in the heart of this striving for Liberty there was also a deep hatred of personal freedom. That invaluable man Rousseau first revealed it. In his perfect democracy, only the state religion is permitted, slavery is restored, and the individual is told that he has really willed (though he didn't know it) whatever the Government tells him to do. From that starting point, via Hegel (another indispensable propagandist on our side), we easily contrived both the Nazi and the Communist state. Even in England we were pretty successful. I heard the other day that in that country a man could not, without a permit, cut down his own tree with his own axe, make it into planks with his own saw, and use the planks to build a toolshed in his own garden....

That was at the "institutional" level.  But for individuals, Screwtape had a different plan.

Democracy is the word with which you must lead them by the nose.The good work which our philological experts have already done in the corruption of human language makes it unnecessary to warn you that they should never be allowed to give this word a clear and definable meaning. They won't. It will never occur to them that democracy is properly the name of a political system, even a system of voting, and that this has only the most remote and tenuous connection with what you are trying to sell them. Nor of course must they ever be allowed to raise Aristotle's question: whether “democratic behaviour” means the behaviour that democracies like or the behaviour that will preserve a democracy. For if they did, it could hardly fail to occur to them that these need not be the same.

You are to use the word purely as an incantation; if you like, purely for its selling power. It is a name they venerate. And of course it is connected with the political ideal that men should be equally treated. You then make a stealthy transition in their minds from this political ideal to a factual belief that all men are equal. Especially the man you are working on. As a result you can use the word democracy to sanction in his thought the most degrading (and also the least enjoyable) of human feelings. You can get him to practise, not only without shame but with a positive glow of self-approval, conduct which, if unde-
fended by the magic word, would be universally derided. The feeling I mean is of course that which prompts a man to say
I'm as good as you.

Yes.  Exactly as the Trannies, pedophiles, and polyamorous perverts proclaim these days.

...The first and most obvious advantage is that you thus induce him to enthrone at the centre of his life a good, solid, resounding lie. I don't mean merely that his statement is false in fact, that he is no more equal to everyone he meets in kindness, honesty, and good sense than in height or waist measurement. I mean that he does not believe it himself. No man who says I'm as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did....

Screwtape mentions that this is really Envy.  He goes on:

...The delightful novelty of the present situation is that you can sanction it — make it respectable and even laudable — by the incantatory use of the word democratic. Under the influence of this incantation those who are in any or every way inferior can labour more wholeheartedly and successfully than ever before to pull down everyone else to their own level. But that is not all. Under the same influence, those who come, or could come, nearer to a full humanity, actually draw back from fear of being undemocratic. 

I am credibly informed that young humans now sometimes suppress an incipient taste for classical music or good literature because it might prevent their Being Like Folks; that people who would really wish to be — and are offered the Grace which would enable them to be — honest, chaste, or temperate refuse it. To accept might make them Different, might offend against the Way of Life, take them out of Togetherness, impair their Integration with the Group. They might (horror of horrors!) become individuals.

All is summed up in the prayer which a young female human is said to have uttered recently: “O God, make me a normal twentieth century girl!” Thanks to our labours, this will mean increasingly: “Make me a minx, a moron, and a parasite.”...

(Screwtape refers to those now called AWFLs.)

"Well," you say.  "So what"?

What I want to fix your attention  on is the vast, overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence — moral, cultural, social, or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how “democracy” (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods?

You remember how one of the Greek Dictators (they called them “tyrants” then) sent an envoy to another Dictator to ask his advice about the principles of government. The second Dictator led the envoy into a field of grain, and there he snicked off with his cane the top of every stalk that rose an inch or so above the general level. The moral was plain. Allow no preeminence among your subjects. Let no man live who is wiser or better or more famous or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level: all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals. Thus Tyrants could practise, in a sense, “democracy.” But now “democracy” can do the same work without any tyranny other than her own...

Can you say "equity"?

Next chapter:  Can You Say "Grade school"?

...The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be “undemocratic.” These differences between pupils — for they are obviously and nakedly individual differences — must be disguised. This can be done at various levels. At universities, examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks. Entrance examinations must be framed so that all, or nearly all, citizens can go to universities, whether they have any power (or wish) to profit by higher education or not. At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing things that children used to do in their spare time. Let, them, for example, make mud pies and call it modelling.

 

But all the time there must be no faintest hint that they are inferior to the children who are at work. Whatever nonsense they are engaged in must have — I believe the English already use the phrase — “parity of esteem.” An even more drastic scheme is not possible. Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma — Beelzebub, what a useful word! — by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Æschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. 

In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I'm as good as you has fully had its way....

Indeed.

H/T for this goes to Ace & Co.

 

C S Lewis on Biden

 C S Lewis wrote a short epilogue to his Screwtape Letters, in which he describes how Congressmen (and women) are corrupted.  Not hard to see Joe Biden here, even though Biden had only just learned how to copy test answers from his first-grade deskmate at the time this was written....

...There was a municipal authority with Graft sauce. But personally I could not detect in him the flavour of a really passionate and brutal avarice such as delighted one in the great tycoons of the last century. Was he not unmistakably a Little Man — a creature of the petty rake-off pocketed with a petty joke in private and denied with the stalest platitudes in his public utterances — a grubby little nonentity who had drifted into
corruption, only just realizing that he was corrupt, and chiefly because everyone else did it
...

"....a petty joke in private.....a grubby little nonentity....."

Yes, that's Joe.


Fake Lawsuit Against Hovde

The Desperate Democrat playbook:

...The New York Times reported Saturday morning that Sunwest, the bank where Hovde currently serves as CEO, was named as a co-defendant last month in a lawsuit alleging elder abuse, negligence, and wrongful death at a retirement home owned by the bank.

The suit itself alleges that negligence on the part of staff at a senior living facility acquired by Sunwest in 2021 accounted for the 2022 death of 94-year-old Betty Nottoli. Nottoli’s daughter, Patricia Chiuppi, filed the lawsuit....

That's what they want you to believe.  It's not true, of course.

... “The lawsuit fails to identify the circumstances surrounding the incident,” Voelkel said in a statement. “It admits that they are unknown.”

“Sunwest Bank was a member of an L.L.C. that came into ownership of the facility through a foreclosure. A third party unrelated to Sunwest and the L.L.C. managed the facility,” he added. “The lawsuit is meritless, which may be why
the filing attorney has not actually served Sunwest and has stopped communicating with the bank.”...

Make shit up.  Throw against wall.

It's what Democrats do, same as their "Wall Street Greed" ad featuring a bunch of ignorant Teamsters--who don't mention that their pensions disappeared because the Teamsters were "investing" in Mafia 'property development' schemes--where the money went directly into the pockets of the Mafiosi and certain Teamsters poohbahs.

Democrats never stop lying, whether directly or by omission.

Who was the Father of Lies?  Hmmmmmm.

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Talk About 'Projection'...

 News item from RedState:

Appearing on election lawyer Marc Elias' podcast "Democracy Docket" in an episode that dropped Friday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whined about her 2016 election loss and hurled baseless charges against former President Donald Trump, accusing him of wanting to be like Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and murder his enemies. ...

This from the inventor of Clintoncide.