Scared of their own shadows, yet they rule over us.
How is it possible such lily-livered wimps like these are somehow still in the ascendency, control all our institutions and are taking over this country and others? It seems to Bickerstaff a small squad armed with squirt guns could force the throwing up their hands in surrender with but one or two discharges. Of course, the answer to the question above is we surrendered to them long ago.
Maybe, one fine day, we’ll withdraw that surrender.
Welcome to Chuck E Cheese.
The only difference between children and grownups here is size and age. Behaviorally, they’re identical.
Two points of view for the price of one, both held by your Tatler.
From the estimable John Solomon:
Long before it professed no prior knowledge of the raid on Donald Trump’s estate, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate the criminal probe into alleged mishandling of documents, allowing the FBI to review evidence retrieved from Mar-a-Lago this spring and eliminating the 45th president’s claims to executive privilege, according to contemporaneous government documents reviewed by Just the News.
…
‘The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported ‘protective assertion of executive privilege,'” Wall wrote. ‘… I have therefore decided not to honor the former President’s ‘protective’ claim of privilege.’
Your correspondent holds two points of view regarding the above and what it portends for this country, but not at the same time of course (only modern liberals are capable of that). Which view he favors depends on a variety of factors, one of them quite possibly being the availability of a decent single-malt.
Bickerstaff the pessimist favors this interpretation: the left, having succeeded in its long march through the world’s institutions (even the Holy Catholic Church, or at least the Vatican with our Biden-like Pope) is on the cusp instituting a totalitarian socialist regime in the United States and eventually the world. That being the case, those opposed will have no choice but, essentially, going underground, exercising great caution whenever venturing out in public, paying heed to watch every action and word, lest they be reported to the authorities, rounded up, and disappeared.
Anticipating its seemingly inevitable paradise, the left has thrown caution to the wind, and (mixing metaphors) is rubbing their upcoming victory in the faces of the rest of us, as the recent raid on Donald Trump’s house in Mar-a-Lago illustrates nicely.
Meanwhile, Bickerstaff the optimist, assisted perhaps by a few sips of Glenfarclas (neat, with a splash), has a much different take. Rather than riding the road to victory, the left has realized time is running out for them. Despite wresting control of the schools and universities, the armed forces, cultural institutions and even a good percentage of corporate boards of directors, there is one enormous institution of which the left has not only failed to achieve total control, but day by day lessens, the American public.
The general opinion of pollsters is Americans roughly number 40-percent for each major party, Democrat and Republican, ten-percent, independent and ten-percent apathetic or braindead. Your Tatler (the optimistic one, that is) however suspects those percentages do not tell the whole tale.
According to Forbes,
More Americans still identified as Democrats or said they lean Democratic than as Republicans on average in 2021—with 46% versus 43%—though that’s slightly closer than in 2020, when 48% were Democrats and 43% were Republicans.
But (italics added):
While more Gallup respondents leaned Democratic than Republican on average in 2021, a larger share of respondents also categorized their views as “conservative” rather than “liberal.” A 37% plurality of Americans said they held “moderate” views in 2021, but 36% said they’re either conservative or “very conservative,” while 24% were liberal or “very liberal.” Those numbers are similar to 2020, when Democrats also had an advantage in party affiliation.
And keep in mind this Forbes piece was published back January and there have been more than a few events reflecting poorly on the hapless Biden Administration. Thus it could be the Democrat-liberal-left, realizing Americans are deserting them daily, are panicking that this fall’s elections could be the beginning of the end for them. Hence they are engaging in wild stunts–something, anything–to stop their nemesis Donald Trump from running again, whose winning back the presidency would pretty much consign the Dems to the back bench for a long, long time.
Even if the left is finally beaten back at the polls though, it is still an open question whether or not our institutions can be rescued. They may be too far gone to be saved, which brings to mind that famous quote (though possibly spurious, it’s source was Peter Arnett) from an army officer during the Viet Nam war: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” Something akin to that may be necessary for a good number of our country’s institutions, but will only occur if the left, like that late town in Viet Nam, itself is politically destroyed.
This is for you.
When reality intrudes on ideology.
An old adage goes a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged. That of course was a long time ago when there were still liberals with reasoning faculties. No longer. Today, modern liberals are able to skillfully juggle their ideology verses reality without the slightest stress of conflict. When confronted with an ugly truth they simply engages in diversion, never mind their being caught in a logical falsehood.
A fine example of the above is now occuring, which Professor Charles Lipson of the University of Chicago (are conservatives still allowed there?) succinctly gives us the particulars.
It was free—and meaningless—for progressive churches to post banners calling themselves “nuclear free zones” during the Reagan era. Their dwindling congregations loved it. It was free, after George Floyd‘s murder, to post woke catechism signs on your front lawn, proclaiming “In this house, we believe: Black Lives Matter, women’s rights are human rights, no human is illegal” and so on. Maybe the neighbors gave you high-fives. And for years it has been free for deep-blue cities to proclaim themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants. That’s changing now that voters want some sanctuary for themselves.
Changes like this happen when voters realize the old virtue signals actually entail serious costs—and that they will have to pay them. That is exactly what’s happening in New York City and Washington D.C. now that Texas governor Greg Abbott is sending those cities a few busloads of illegal immigrants from his state.
These progressive bastions were silent when the Biden administration flew planeloads of illegal immigrants to suburban airports in the middle of the night. TV coverage was prohibited, and the arrivals were secretly dispersed. Abbott’s buses, by contrast, arrive downtown greeted by local TV crews. Now you can hear the politicians screech.
Indeed you can, but instead of taking a good hard look at their ideologies concerning “sanctuary cities” i. e., where illegal immigrants may tread without fear, and open borders, whence they come, the leaders of these cities resort to a time-honored tactic: demanding tax payers, via the federal government, shovel more money their way to pay for a polyglot of programs, regardless their efficacy, to help cope with the myriad problems illegals bring with them.
Professor Lipson concludes,
The question now is whether those Democratic lawmakers will finally direct their wrath at the president, and whether Biden will duck and cover or respond with more effective policies. The costs are rising, the political damage is intensifying, and Greg Abbott keeps trying to get their attention.
This writer believes Lipson’s question has already been answered. The leaders of Democrat cities have had decades to glean the results of their ideologies. Few, if any, have have had a change of heart or brain. Despite their cities crumbling before their eyes, they continue clinging to and spouting the usual dogmas of liberalism. They did not learn a thing nearly half-a-century ago from the lessons of the southern Bronx viz rent-control
and it is unlikely they will learn anything today allowing illegals, bringing crime, gangs, and drugs, into their cities. If our Democrat-liberals continue on their present course of policide, this writer thinks it not unreasonable to suggest whole cities controlled by them will eventually end up looking like the above or even the city below in 1945.
Remember, when it comes to climate change, it’s the science.
Nancy Pelosi, on the $369 billion climate change bill just passed by Congress: “Mother Earth gets angry from time to time, & this legislation will help us address all of that.”
One of the ways Pelosi and Congress intend mollifying our infuriated Earth Mother is by providing a $7500 tax credit to the upper-class (they’re the only ones who can afford the things) buying new electric cars and, in a touching display of compassion for the poorish, a $4000 credit to the upper-middle class buying used ones.
You see, everyone knows electric cars are “clean,” producing no hydrocarbons when in use. The same goes for electricity itself, but only when generated by nuclear power of course–oh wait . . . Ah well, there’s always natural gas, vastly cleaner-burning than oil or coal–oh wait . . .
Perhaps this clean car will calm our Earth Mother down.
Unfortunately, the energy production method required keeping clean cars like the above powered is considered by environentalists far and away the dirtiest of them all, thus the most despised of them all.
Has the Atlantic Monthly hit bottom, or is there still a way to go?
A peculiar thing about the radical left: the more of our institutions they subsume, the angrier they get, and the angrier they get, the more incoherent and irrational they become. A case in point is a piece that just appeared in the dreary pages of the once respected and august Atlantic Monthly, bearing the provactive headline: How Extremist Gun Culture Is Trying to Co-Opt the Rosary. In case that isn’t enough to grab the reader’s attention, a subheading then asks (rhetorically, you might suppose, but guess again): Why are sacramental beads suddenly showing up next to AR-15s online?
The author is one Daniel Panneton, who, the Atlantic’s blurb states, is a “writer based in Toronto, Canada,” no other credentials given. His essay certainly starts off with a bang (if you’ll pardon the expression).
Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or “rad trad”) Catholics. On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.
Gee whiz! That’s quite a mouthful, but hold on. Mr Panneton is only getting started.
Their social-media pages are saturated with images of rosaries draped over firearms, warriors in prayer, Deus Vult (“God wills it”) crusader memes, and exhortations for men to rise up and become Church Militants.Influencers on platforms such as Instagram share posts referencing “everyday carry” and “gat check” (gat is slang for “firearm”) that include soldiers’ “battle beads,” handguns, and assault rifles. One artist posts illustrations of his favorite Catholic saints, clergy, and influencers toting AR-15-style rifles labeled sanctum rosarium alongside violently homophobic screeds that are celebrated by social-media accounts with thousands of followers.
Wow and gee whiz! Wouldn’t you, just for curiosity’s sake, like to catch a glimpse of a few of those images “saturating” social media pages? Sadly, you cannot. Mr Panneton chooses not to provide a single link, reference, or name that might assist ghouls like Bickerstaff to feast theirs eyes upon the gruesome images. Strange, that, but perhaps he does so out of concern for the faint of heart or the fairer sex. And speaking of the fairer sex, note this oddly worded claim.
Many radical-traditional Catholic men maintain the hard-line position that other forms of Christianity are heretical, and hold that Catholics alone adhere to the one true Church.
Really, Mr Panneton, only the men? Speaking as a so-called “radical-traditionalist” (a pejorative, by the way, used only by such progressive Catholic organs as Commonweal or National Catholic Reporter), Bickerstaff knows plenty of women who maintain that “hard-line” position. Perhaps you regard them as being of the weaker sex and don’t consider them a threat?
On and on this silly rant goes, jam-packed with accusations with little documentation to support them, only links to pieces in a litany of leftist publications expressing the exact same opinions as Mr Panneton’s, but dating before his regurgitating them in the Atlantic.
…
How sad the Atlantic Monthly, a 165 year-old American journal that’s so much a part of this country’s history, whose contributors in the past included, picking a few at random, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sarah Orne Jewett, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Harriet Beecher Stowe, has sunken to the point where it publishes such insubstantial fluff submitted by lightweights like Daniel Panneton.
—19th-Century Tuscan proverb.
The translation of the headline, ironically enough, is: “Translator, traitor,” the gist of it being no translation is completely faithful to the text of the original. Of course, there are exceptions to that, as in the case below, where the translation is far more faithful than the speaker might have prefered.
A tribute to a vanished (or vanquished?) species.
Martha Christoph writing in Taki’s Magazine:
Oh, WASP, whither goest thy sting? What happened to the ice blue bloodlines you once kept so sangfroided? The consciousness of class you kept so well bonded? Whither the intolerance, the discipline, the frugality that knew luxury and the luxury that rejected ostentation? Genteel hypocrisies more than compensated for by the patrician sense of public service? How I loathe the persistent conviction I have that the principles that made this country great are now those at the very root of its decline: liberty, individualism, self-invention, the spirit of innovation, the practice of benevolent acceptance, your tired/your poor, etc., etc. In reflecting upon this decline, my conclusion is that such subversion, such a perversion of ideals, has come about by way of cultural erosion, specifically that belonging wholly and totally to the Anglo-American tradition. Let’s be honest. When we wail about “the America we’ve lost,” what we mean is the country that was predominantly Anglo-Saxon in foundation, structure, tone, and tint such that hardworking continental degenerates like my own family would be able to flourish in its soil, and if not “easily” then certainly to a far greater extent than anywhere else. I am convinced that the quiet desperation that is overwhelming the rational portion of this country’s population is not, at the source, political, economic, or ideological in nature, but cultural: that of closet Anglophiles longing for the Anglotopia of a dimming Anglomondo that once burned brazenly and beautifully
This at once a sad and witty piece, written from the perspective of an outsider looking in, is well worth reading in full.
The author however does make one error of omission, the large part the now enfeebled and nearly-late Episcopal Church played in this vanished world, that in many ways was the glue holding Anglo society together, but that is understandable; it must be difficult if you weren’t there to believe, once upon a time, those exquisite and stately gothic edifices dotting the best neighborhoods in this country were once filled to overflowing Sunday mornings.
It’s a chicken-or the-egg puzzler, which came first, the decline of the Episcopal Church or WASP society. It seems probable to Bickerstaff though, as the Episcopal Church became increasingly enslaved to secular humanism (now complete, save for a few outlier parishes), its patrician members, sitting through week after week of leftist harangues from young radicals in the pulpit, while at the same time the gospel, forgiveness and salvation were de-emphasized, began to stay home Sunday mornings and eventually quit the Church altogether, taking their children and money with them.
With the Episcopal Church becoming unglued, it doesn’t require a great stretch to believe Anglo-American society itself became unglued. From there, as the patrician song writer put it so ably years earlier, with bold prophecy,
The world has gone mad today
And good’s bad today,
And black’s white today,
And day’s night today,
And that gent today
You gave a cent today
Once had several chateaux.When folks who still can ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilts and Whitneys
Lack baby clo’es,
Anything goes.
[This post has been deleted.]
THE TAOS TATLER. 