Birthday Greetings

Happy Birthday, Mr. President ... born on Flag Day. Welcome to your 80s. I'm a few years older than you and what lies ahead won't be the most fun you've ever had. 

Various bits and bobs around your carcass will begin reminding you of all the years you've enjoyed. Some will hurt, some won't work as well as they did, others will surprise you by soldiering on without a hitch.

Mental acuity can go on undiminished, and what you are doing - using your mind basically non-stop - is probably the best thing you can do to stay sharp.

Stylistically, we couldn't be more different. OTOH, I support nearly all of the many programmatic things you've accomplished. 

You've got maybe another 30 months in office. Hang in there and keep punching. We've got your back.

Profiling DSA

Bonchie who writes for Red State, tweets a comment I'd share with you.

When you realize DSA members are just a bunch of people who failed at everything, refused to get real jobs, and then decided leeching off taxpayers was the next best thing, their entire ideology starts to make more sense.

DSA = Democratic Socialists of America. It is a way to make a living playing on the guilt felt by the undeserving well-off who are burdened with suicidal empathy. 

Deportation Rap

Power Line's John Hinderaker has a video from somewhere in Britain, of a young woman rapping "deport, deport, deport the effing lot." It is very much NSFW, not for your maiden aunt's ears. 

It is the voice of working class Brits, on the subject of third world immigration. They have to put up with the immigrants' very unBritish ways, and sexual misbehaviors. The elite have little contact.

Starmer's government had better walk very carefully, they're on thin ice.

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Images courtesy of Sarah Hoyt's Meme and Let Die.

Agreement with Iran?

We are told Iran and the US are close to a memorandum of understanding, heading for an agreement. I will believe it when both sides agree it has happened, I'm not holding my breath.

I will consider it good deal as long as both sides meet their obligations under its terms, a period that may be measured in mere minutes, or may be longer. 

Do you sense I have essentially zero trust in Iran to keep agreements? You are correct. Their track record sucks. 

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A successful deal is one that benefits both parties. If Iran were an ordinary country, a cessation of hostilities, sanctions and blockade would be a good deal for them. But it's not ordinary.

The IRGC is instead a jihadist religious movement whose goal is a world living under Sharia law and honoring the Prophet. This treaty will be a giant step backwards, away from their avowed goal, a really bad deal from their perspective, I believe. 

Hating Harder

Kurt Schlichter writes bitterly funny political and social commentary that is often quotable, including this posted at Instapundit by Stephen Green.

The answer to the problem of Third World barbarians murdering UK subjects is apparently for the ruling class to hate UK subjects even harder.

It is bitterly hateful when the untermenchen protest your leadership performance, especially when you finally accept the fault is yours. They will insist on rubbing your nose in the mess.

Friday Meme Fest

Images courtesy of Politico's

The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics'

Cartoons of the Week.

Daunting Numbers

An article at Revolver cites stunning statistics, quoted here.

People with felony convictions account for 8 % of all adults and 33 % of the African American adult male population.
Share of black males who will murder someone during their lifetime: 1 in 22.

The article cites this report as their source. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.

Two Analogies

Finally someone has written what I’ve been thinking about the regime in Iran. Namely, that it is less a nation than the headquarters of a movement which, of necessity, operates a nation about which it isn’t especially sentimental.

In this it resembles the Soviet Union when it was the headquarters of the would-be ‘worldwide’ Communist movement. For now, the reach of the theocratic gang in Iran is less global.

If the US has been talking to the folks who run the country of Iran, trying to reach a deal, the effort has been pointless. An approximate bureaucratic analogy would be talking to the building manager when trying to cut a deal committing the entire corporation. 

The real power lies elsewhere, in the mission-driven ideological side of the house. No wonder the supposed president of Iran offered his resignation to the top Ayatollah, he is just a flunky with no power to make decisions or deals for the ideologues in charge.

Many of the IRGC ideologues would, if necessary, offer up Iran as a martyr for the cause. In their minds the cause is so much bigger than simply Iran. The cause encompasses the whole Middle East, for starters, with the world to follow.

The appropriate biological analogy would be cancer. You can’t reason with metastatic cancer. It will not become healthy tissue. Your four choices: ignore it and die, or fight it off until you (a) die of some other cause, (b) kill it or (c) it kills you. Right now the Rx for Iran is more kinetic ‘chemotherapy.’

I fully expect any treaty signed with Iran will be worthless, and I'd like to be proven wrong.

It's About Time

Trump has resumed bombing Iran. Better late than never. 

Whichever party to a negotiation wants a deal more is the weaker party. It has seemed Trump wanted a deal more than the Iranians. 

The way to reverse that is to increase Iran's discomfort level. Destroying the power generation system for Tehran would be a good start.

Getting the Voter Lists

The US Postal Service is proposing a new regulation requiring states to turn over to them the lists of people asking for absentee ballots and all voters in states (e.g. CA) which mail ballots to all voters. States which refuse to do so would find the USPS will not deliver ballots in them. 

I like it, and I have skin in the game. The DrsC need absentee ballots for the November election, though not for the August primary when we vote in person.

Democrats will go crazy ... again ... as usual. SCOTUS will have to decide its legality. 

The second Trump administration has been particularly adept at finding ways to act w/o Congressional approval. That is, turning the "administrative state" against itself.

Wednesday Whimsy

Babylon Bee image courtesy of Ed Driscoll,

posting at Instapundit.

Support for Deporting Illegals Up

The Center for Immigration Studies is out with the results of the latest Harvard/Harris Poll regarding attitudes toward illegal immigration. Some upbeat findings:

Some 80 percent of voters polled support “deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes”, up five points from April.

The rise compared to April crosses party lines.

Then there’s “deporting all immigrants who are here illegally.”(snip) A solid majority, 56 percent, of the voters polled by Harvard/Harris in late May support such a “mass deportation” plan, including 77 percent of GOP voters, 53 percent of Independents, and well more than a third (37 percent) of Democrats.

What do you guess the politicians' reactions to these numbers will be? Is there a snowflake's chance in hell Democrat pols will listen? The odds are zero, zip, nada.

A Guilty Verdict

In Collin County, TX, a jury has found Karmelo Anthony guilty of fatally stabbing unarmed Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet. A Fox News story has details. 

Anthony is black, Metcalf was white, both were students. Anthony admitted the stabbing, claiming self-defense. Several black witnesses spoke for the prosecution. I hope this verdict will not stir civil unrest.

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Collin County is adjacent to Dallas County, to the northeast. Post-retirement, the DrsC lived there for a year, before either Anthony or Metcalf were born. We were visiting on the faculty of what is now East Texas A&M University. It was a pleasant year.

City of Angels? No Longer

Author Walter Kirn posts the following on X.

A lot of people don't want to confront the implications of what they just saw happen in LA, even those who are appalled by it. They want an out, just so they can go on, not be terrified, feel a tiny tiny bit in control still. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Indeed it will. Hat tip to Stephen Green posting at Instapundit for the link. 

Minnesota Malfeasance

Image courtesy of today's Lucianne.com

Dangerous Ideologies

SecWar Pete Hegseth, in Normandy honoring the D Day landings, takes a shot at European leaders' weakness. NBC News has his words.

Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies. Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion?

A good question, Europe is committing cultural suicide.  Breath-holding while awaiting a sensible answer is not wise.

Looks Not Deceiving

Here are two headlines listed together in one Instapundit post, links in original:

Bill Maher says artists quitting America 250 concert makes it look like Dems ‘don’t love America.'

Only 36% of Democrats say they’re “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, according to a new Gallup poll.

Presuming Gallup is correct, the looks are not deceiving. Most Democrats don't love America. Similarly, we who love America don't think much of Democrats.

Light Bulb

I posted this with Saturday Snark and, reading back over it, had an insight to share with you. The notion that no one much cares about "liberal white women" may explain why they are so angry and troubled. Human affection is what's missing in their lives, cats are poor substitutes.

Sunday Memes

Images courtesy of Sarah Hoyt's Take on Memes! a-ha!

Image courtesy of Ed Driscoll, 

posting at Instapundit