It’s Monday, April 26th, 2021…but before beginning, allow us to offer a few random thoughts on the passing scene:

#1. We LOVE this lady:

As the gentleman who tweeted the video observed, this should be every parent in America.  And to every elected official, bureaucrat and health apparatchik at every level of government who continue to ignore real science which bolsters this mother’s demand… 

#2. Though supposedly verified by four separate sources, we may never know whether Gavin Newsom truly was so worried about opposition to his unscientific and unnecessary lockdown measures he ordered a California Air National Guard F-15C on alert in March of 2020 for a “possible domestic mission“, raising concerns among Guard members the jet could be used to illegally disperse any massed protestors by buzzing the crowds.  We only hope and pray the pilot responded…

#3. As Dennis Prager headlined in a recent column, Whites aren’t hated for slavery as much as for founding both America AND Western civilization.  Thus, despite slavery having existed, indeed, having flourished for most of human history…until of course William Wilberforce, a WHITE man, pioneered the movement to abolish it…our children are taught the transatlantic trade in Black Africans was practically the only form of “the peculiar institution” ever to have existed.

At the same time, there’s no blame afforded the BLACK West Africans who sold their fellow BLACKS from different tribes into bondage, any credit given the over 350,000 WHITE Union soldiers who died to set them free, and little if any outcry against the largely Asian and Arab individuals who still practice involuntary servitude to this day…perhaps because those enslaved aren’t exclusively Black.

Here’s the juice: If one suggests The War Between the States was NOT fought primarily over states’ rights but rather to end slavery, then one is forced to concede WHITE Northerners died in droves NOT to preserve the Union,  but to free BLACK victims of chattel slavery.  Soooo…

#4. As Chris Muir observed in one of his recent offerings, by some metrics a ruling majority now believe a powerless minority is responsible for all the ills of our nation and the greater world.  Ringing any bells?  You know, like…

Hat tip to the inestimably talented Stilton Jarlsberg for the MAGA insertion.

…alarm bells?!?  George Santayana once famously observed, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  We’d suggest a more accurate adage: Those who WILL NOT remember the past CONDEMN OTHERS to repeat it.”  And those who never learned an accurate version of the past in the first place are the product of America’s contemporary system of education, from Kindergarten on through grad school!!!

Then there’s those who don’t remember anything:

#5. Though this should come as no real surprise given his nickname was “Slick Willy”, such a revelation does beg the question…

…how such photos could remain secret for so long.  You know, sorta like Obama’s scholastic transcripts and anything relating to Hunter?!?

Now, here’s The Gouge!

We lead off the Monday edition courtesy of American Greatness, as the great Victor Davis Hanson wonders…

How Much Ruin Do We Have Left?

Friends and enemies abroad are becoming variously shocked, disheartened—and gleeful—as the United States cannibalizes itself.

 

“Any nation’s well-being—as Americans know from their own illustrious history—hinges on only a few factors. Its prosperity, freedom, and stability depend on its constitutional and political stability. A secure currency and financial order are also essential, as is a strong military. Perhaps most important, however, is a first-rate, inductive educational system. Of course, nothing is possible without general social calm, often dependent on a reverence for the past, along with present secure borders. 

The ability to produce or easily acquire food, fuel, and key natural resources ensures a nation’s independence and autonomy.  

Unfortunately in the last few months all of those centuries-old reasons to be confident in American strength and resiliency have now been put into doubt. The challenge is not just enemies abroad such as China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran. Instead, the greater problem lies within us—as we erode the inherited and acquired strengths that made us singular, both materially and spiritually.  

We are now witnessing a concentrated effort to alter the constitutional order and centuries of custom and tradition. Only that way, the Left believes, can it retain its transient power given the unpopularity of most of its current agenda.

…Adam Smith said of successful societies that they have a lot of “ruin” in them. He meant that a dissolute, leisured, and ahistorical generation has to waste a lot of its generous inherited wealth before it runs out.

We are learning how much will soon be left of what our ancestors bequeathed. And the rest of the world is watching—some with glee, others with horror.“

And retaining power is what this IS all about.

Which is why it’s so important to observe, as Jim Geraghty does at Best of the Web, the impact of…

Democratic Control of Government and Unintended Consequences

 

“Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Wednesday morning: “While the verdict was being read in the Derek Chauvin trial, Columbus police shot and killed a sixteen-year-old girl. Her name was Ma’Khia Bryant. She should be alive right now.”

Valerie Jarrett, one of the most powerful women in the federal government for about eight years, declared, “a Black teenage girl named Ma’Khia Bryant was killed because a police officer immediately decided to shoot her multiple times in order to break up a knife fight. Demand accountability. Fight for justice.”

Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor and current UC Berkeley professor, added: “Just yesterday, shortly before the guilty verdict was announced, police killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant. Yet another young life stolen. In what world is this public safety?”

The ACLU of Ohio declared: “The systems that allowed George Floyd to be murdered remain FULLY intact. Moments after we celebrated a win for police accountability in Minneapolis, news broke that Columbus Police murdered a 15 year old Black girl.”

There is no indication that any of these people care that Ma’Khia Bryant was about to stab another teenage girl — as seen in the police body-cam footage and separate security-camera footage. As a neighbor who witnessed the incident described it, “Unfortunately, the cop had only seconds to respond. Once I saw the body cam video, I realized the young lady had a knife. It could have been worse. It could have been two people dead if he didn’t respond as fast as he did.”

Notice that the knee-jerk, uncorrected, and un-retracted denunciations of the Columbus Police above are not from random anonymous lunatics on Twitter. This is not nut-picking. This is a U.S. senator, a former top adviser to the president, a fairly widely read columnist of the left, and the state chapter of a major political-litigation group — all relatively mainstream Democrats and progressives with significant followings and prestige. And this isn’t even getting into how arguably the most famous professional athlete of our era posting a photo (since deleted) of the police officer and declaring, “You’re next.”

Once you’re demonizing a cop for intervening with deadly force when one teenage girl is about to stab another teenage girl, you are effectively attempting to abolish the police. (Though in the eyes of many, The New York Times included, this might not be a bad thing, because some neighborhoods are “over-policed.”)

…Just how do you think police forces will respond to this?

All around us, we’re starting to see consequences of reckless policy decisions, warnings unheeded, and objections dismissed.

• President Biden didn’t plan for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to have more than 172,000 “enforcement encounters” on the U.S.-Mexican border in March, but announcing he was undoing his predecessor’s “xenophobic” policies helped make it happen.
• President Biden didn’t set out to have the single-biggest one-month jump in the consumer price index in a decade, with food and energy costs leading the way. But maybe the federal government’s decision to pump so much borrowed money into the economy is indeed fueling inflation, as some economists warned.
• After word leaked that President Biden hoped to double capital-gains taxes for those making more than $1 million per year, markets tumbled fast yesterday, and analysts at Goldman Sachs calculate that if the market reaction to this potential capital-gains tax hike is like the last one, the rich will sell off about $178 billion in stocks.
• I’m not completely convinced that we’re seeing a dramatic decrease in vaccine demand yet, but if we are, maybe the decision to halt the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over eight cases of blood clots out of 7 million doses administered added to public wariness. Particularly if the FDA is going to say, after nearly a two-week halt, “Never mind, this vaccine is safe, just have doctors be on the lookout for blood clots.”

Actions have consequences, often including unintended consequences, which is why we should act carefully and deliberately, and pause to recalibrate often. You can consider that capital-C “Conservatism,” small-c conservatism, or just hard-learned life wisdom.“

ANYTHING other than admitting what is as plain as the…

Next, we offer nine items carefully culled to attract the attention of inquiring Conservative minds:

(1). Though as this forward from Jeff Foutch relates Alan Dershowitz believes “the judge made a terrible mistake by not sequestering the jury”, and the verdict “might” and “should be overturned on appeal“, the question remains whether there’s a judge or court anywhere in the country with the courage to correct it.  And that includes a majority of the nine wise men and women on the SCOTUS.

Meanwhile, evidently fearing an appeal may prove successful, the DOJ is considering charging Chauvin in connection with a 2017 incident in which he allegedly violently handled a 14-year-old boy and used his knee to hold the teenager down for almost 17 minutes.

For those interested, NRO‘s Andy McCarthy lends his usual insightful analysis in patiently and persuasively explaining why Chauvin’s trial was in no way, shape or form about racism, as well as summarizing everything the MSM DIDN’T tell you.

(2). Even two of the MSM’s most broken clocks are right on occasion, as both Don Lemon and Fredo Cuomo demonstrate by remaining adamant…at least for now…in the their defense of Nicholas Reardon, the Columbus police officer who shot Ma’Khia Bryant, the gentle giant who was simply engaging in a one-sided adolescent schoolyard-type knife attack.

BTW, the circumstances surrounding this encounter just keep getting curiouser and curiouser, as the man shown kicking the defenseless woman in the head is apparently 43 years old, and the foster mom has indicated the brawl began over her former foster children, who were at the home to celebrate the mom’s birthday, telling Ma’Khia to clean her room.

Regardless, we’re solidly with the lovely Shannon on this one:

As would the woman in France whose family wouldn’t be grieving today had security forces reacted with the alacrity of Nick Reardon.  So much for the utter lunacy knife attacks are somehow benign.  Oh, and LeBron…

…not to mention well ahead in the race for the…

Actually, all 50 of them, you pompous ass.

(3). Then again, like a clock without hands, an educated idiot is never right, as Paul Krugman demonstrates with the incredible claim the “rampaging mobs” that looted cities were GOP make-believe, while at the same time classifying Black Lies Matter as perhaps the “best-behaved protest movement in history“.

Yeah,…

Contributor Bill Meisen suggests Krugman may need to speak a little louder, as he doesn’t believe retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn, killed by one of those “best-behaved protesters in history” while protecting a pawn shop, can hear him.  As for us, The Left never ceases to amaze in its ability to deny things that undeniably did happen while fabricating fabulous fables…

…which didn’t.

(4). In what we find to be a related item, FOX is reporting the “FBI is warning local and other federal law enforcement to be on the lookout for potential increases in violence heading into the warmer months, as when more people are free to move about and socialize, crime of all different levels may certainly increase.”  Just so we’re clear on this, the…

…believes the criminal class has been anxiously awaiting their Wuhan virus vaccine before taking to the streets and violating social distancing guidelines rather than responding, as they already have been for the past year, to the decimation and demonizing of police across the country.

As Michael Barone observed:

(5). According to FOX, Dubya has expressed regret for suggesting on the Today show the entire Republican Party is “isolationist, protectionist and to a certain extent nativist” which he claimed was “not exactly my vision.”  No, George: like your idiot brother Jeb, you believe illegal immigration is an “act of love” that should be encouraged, not prevented.  Like the Kennedys, Clintons, Obamas and Bidens, we look forward to the day we don’t have to listen to anything a Bush has to say.  Okay, you can pretty much lump Pelosi, Schumer and most every other Dimocrat…and a number of Republicans…into that group as well. 

(6). Jim Freeman tells us in a new Mason-Dixon poll, Americans overwhelmingly reject 46*’s court-packing plan, with 77% Independents in opposition. Jim adds, “Mason-Dixon has a well-earned reputation for producing among the most accurate political polls. Its new survey, conducted from April 15-19, was commissioned by the First Liberty Institute, which has a reputation for advocating religious freedom. Senators who attempt to engineer radical changes in American governance are not likely to enjoy good reputations among voters.”

(7). Since we’re on the subject of bad ideas, the Journal‘s reporting a bipartisan group of House lawmakers have endorsed raising the gasoline tax to pay for infrastructure spending.  Gee, if only there were a way to lower the cost of oil and reduce prices at the pump so a gas tax wouldn’t have as much of an impact.  You know, that whole supply and demand thing.

(8). After reading this forward from George Lawlor, we realized we went into the wrong business.

(9). Oh,…and it’s now been 34 days since Kommielaa was designated as our border czar; and she’s yet to visit the border…more specifically, the SOUTHERN border…or even hold a press conference.  Where’s Maya…

…when we need her?

It just occurred to us Kommielaa’s chances of occupying the Oval Office are about the same as Bunny’s when it comes to getting a “cat”…

…as she has zero chance of winning her party’s nomination for President via the primary process, and thus, her only avenues are if 46* is declared non compos mentis or…

…dies in office.

Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:

Then there’s these from Balls Cotton…

…along with this little collection of Kommielaa-themed humor we assembled…

…as well as one each from Ed Hickey…

…and the lovely Shannon:

Finally, since we’re on the subject of hypocrites who’ll say or do anything for personal power and profit, here’s today’s installment of the Cause & Effect segment.  First, courtesy of The Boss, the cause, as FOX informs us how a…

MIT study challenges indoor social distancing, finds ‘no difference between 6 feet and 60 feet‘

 

Or three feet for that matter, as the study concludes the duration of time spent indoors has more effect on transmission than distance.  As for outside…

Now, for the effect, in which it appears even Faux Chi is beginning to realize the scamdemic has about run its course…

…as he yet again bows to actual science which he can’t obfuscate with his usual smokescreen of meaningless platitudes and pseudo-scientific jargon:

Another policy the doctor is conveniently ready to change based on ‘common sense’

 

“…What I believe you’re going to be hearing, what the country is going to be hearing soon, is updated guidelines from the CDC,” Fauci told ABC’s “This Week.” “The CDC is a science-based organization. They don’t want to make any guidelines unless they look at the data and the data backs it up.  But when you look around at the common sense situation, the risk is really low, especially if you’re vaccinated,” he said…”

“Science-based”: you know, like the whole lockdown concept which has NO BASIS IN SCIENCE, and which was never before necessary during any pandemic in history.  Sorry, but if common sense were colonic dynamite, the entire federal government could barely muster a combined fart.

Magoo

Video of the Day

Wow! If all sports analysts and announcers start making as much sense as Marcellus Wiley, we might just have to start watching everything but the NBA again…maybe.

Tales of The Darkside

And since Marcellus mentioned him, here’s the brilliant Thomas Sowell shining the cold, harsh light of the truth on the inequality myths purposefully and perpetually peddled by Progressives. As Junior so eloquently put it in Platoon, “Free yo’ mind, yo’ ass will follow!”

On the Lighter Side

Though in this video forwarded by James Nichols Bill Maher is right, he fails to point out what’s worse than Millennials believing this tripe are the miseducators who taught it to them and the politicians who encourage their fantasies, all of whom know better.