The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

The two great evils of the 20th century have faired quite differently in current popular culture. Fascism has been discredited as a political philosophy, even though its most famous acolyte -- Adolph Hitler -- was in reality a socialist who used nationalism to attract the masses. Communism, otherwise known as "international socialism," has never been discredited among the bien-pensants in academia, labor, and the disaffected youth that provides the foot soldiers for the Democrat/progressive movement.

And that is a fantastic feat, because the death toll of communism in the 20th century is at the top of the list by a very wide margin. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and a host of lesser but still dedicated monsters conspired to murder more than 100,000,000 people.

Yet we romanticize communism, or its more civilized (bowdlerized) term: socialism. I watched "Oppenheimer" last night, and the ridiculousness of its presentation of communism was embarrassing. The fixation on the ultimate evil of atomic weapons and the arms race and the cold war was equally ridiculous, and carefully linked to the non-communists! I have written in the past that the atomic weapons used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 was the greatest humanitarian act in history. Their use saved possibly 1,000,000 Allied military lives and probably millions of Japanese, yet their use was presented as at best a murky ethical issue, and at worst the beginning of the end of humanity.

Antonio Gramsci's long march through our institutions is mostly complete, so the defense of communism and the vilification of freedom and free markets is embedded in our educational system. And of course the half-wits who become our "journalists" are particularly susceptible to the allure of the romantic version of communism, so the ranks of useful idiots in media are endemic.

But reality always intrudes upon the savagery and misery that is the ultimate result of every communist experiment. The Soviet Union fell in spite of 70 years of support from the West's left. China is a brutal regime frantically spinning to keep their economy from imploding (one child policy anyone?). Venezuela, Cuba, a bunch of African countries...all failing. And look to the North! Canada, in spite of abundant natural resources and a western work ethic has tumbled into the socialist sewer, courtesy of Castro's spawn, otherwise known as Justin Trudeau.

The evidence is clear that the grand experiment in perfecting Man has failed. All humanity got for it was misery, poverty, and death. All we have to do is teach history, and communism will be firmly planted in the dustbin of history. So why can't we do that?

Power. Communism is a tool to achieve power, not an end in itself. So discrediting it isn't enough...we must build a wall between the power inherent in government and its use for all but the most basic things. The founders of this great country understood that very well, but the desire for power among some overwhelmed even their prescience. They will never stop, so we cannot be complacent and assume that logic and reality will carry the day.

We had a great victory in November, and it may very well be an indication of a fundamental change in the American political and cultural psyche.

Now is the exactly perfect time to solidify those gains and build into our institutions a defense against the insanity that the Left uses to consolidate power. And to that end, the era of collegiality and accommodation and compromise is past. We see that attitude in Donald Trump's cabinet appointments, and we see it in his various pronouncements about Greenland and Panama and Gaza.

It is a return to American Exceptionalism, which is anathema to the communist experiment. And that is a very good thing!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 I'm on it

Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:00 AM (fwDg9)

2 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:00 AM (Zz0t1)

3 Empth!

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at December 26, 2024 11:00 AM (6K6Eu)

4 st

Posted by: RUReadingthis at December 26, 2024 11:01 AM (aQ25I)

5 th

Posted by: davidt at December 26, 2024 11:01 AM (i0F8b)

6 (snicker)

Like we're going to let that happen.

Posted by: GOPe at December 26, 2024 11:02 AM (0eaVi)

7
Avogadro's numberth!

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at December 26, 2024 11:02 AM (xG4kz)

8 Great essay CBD. Echoes of 1980.

Nooding duties completed. *salutes*

Posted by: San Franpsycho at December 26, 2024 11:02 AM (RIvkX)

9 On by governments mass murdering their own citizens look up Democide

Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:02 AM (fwDg9)

10 History's Greatest Monster is Karl Marx. There, I said it.

Posted by: Accomack at December 26, 2024 11:03 AM (GxmKP)

11 It is a return to American Exceptionalism, which is anathema to the communist experiment. And that is a very good thing!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM

"There's nothing exceptional about America."

- - - - Barack Hussein Owebama

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:03 AM (Zz0t1)

12 Speaking of mass Murderers, wonder if Fauci is sweating out the next 26 days?

Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:04 AM (fwDg9)

13 I have a great idea! Let's all wear nametags.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at December 26, 2024 11:04 AM (RIvkX)

14 Take back the Greenland Canal.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at December 26, 2024 11:04 AM (63Dwl)

15
"There's nothing exceptional about America."

- - - - Barack Hussein Owebama
-----------
Fuck that guy in particular.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at December 26, 2024 11:04 AM (6K6Eu)

16 Speaking of mass Murderers, wonder if Fauci is sweating out the next 26 days?
Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:04 AM (fwDg9)

He will flee to a non-extradition country, continue to collect his $400,000 taxpayer funded salary and live out his remaining years in the lap of luxury.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:05 AM (Zz0t1)

17 Certainly as a reader of military history, it is amazing how the Communists escaped blame, and the National Socialists got all fingers pointed at them.

Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:06 AM (fwDg9)

18 Willowed:

Is Fauci today's Mengele? RFKJ essentially says so:

https://tinyurl.com/3pe783yy

I would think it shouldn't be too hard to document a few cases with witnesses, if true.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 26, 2024 11:07 AM (Hbs7G)

19 One tool to help stop Socialism would be the elimination of the word "fairness." Too much Socialism sneaks in under that banner.

I'd ban the word "fair" unless you're rating a restaurant or talking about a place where kids can ride a carousel and pet goats.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 26, 2024 11:07 AM (WPL6O)

20 Is Fauci today's Mengele? RFKJ essentially says so:

https://tinyurl.com/3pe783yy

I would think it shouldn't be too hard to document a few cases with witnesses, if true.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 26, 2024 11:07 AM (Hbs7G)

If Fauci actually goes down, Bill Gates damn sure better be right behind him. That guy is just as evil.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:08 AM (Zz0t1)

21 The death tolls of Karl Marx and Mohammed are exceeded only by disease and natural causes.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 26, 2024 11:09 AM (WPL6O)

22
Speaking of mass Murderers, wonder if Fauci is sweating out the next 26 days?
Posted by: Skip

He has nothing to worry about. He's America's doctor!

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at December 26, 2024 11:09 AM (63Dwl)

23 The death tolls of Karl Marx and Mohammed are exceeded only by disease and natural causes.
Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 26, 2024 11:09 AM (WPL6O)

Big Pharma, laughing, spreads it's wings.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:09 AM (Zz0t1)

24 Here is another great irony of Fascism and Communism - communism now lives as a radical intellectual affectation, but no government in the world actually tries to follow its ideas. China, for example, finds it useful to pay lip service to the concept, but in fact they’ve gone back to a strong form of the same Imperial Government they’ve had for 2300 years, with Xi arguably having more personal power than all but 2 or 3 of the old Emperors throughout history.
Fascism, although publicly derided, is followed in a “lite” form by almost every globalist affiliated government in the world today - especially in Europe.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 26, 2024 11:10 AM (wyMQY)

25 The death tolls of Karl Marx and Mohammed are exceeded only by disease and natural causes.
Posted by: BeckoningChasm

Guess who just took over as the deadliest disease, knocking Covid out of #1?

That's right!
The friend of every wetback, tuberculosis!

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 11:11 AM (H9VzD)

26 He has nothing to worry about. He's America's doctor!
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr.

Eaten by hungry beagles and/or bitten by rabid bats. Fair.

Posted by: Little Rat Bastard at December 26, 2024 11:11 AM (G5+As)

27
I'd ban the word "fair" unless you're rating a restaurant or talking about a place where kids can ride a carousel and pet goats.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 26, 2024 11:07 AM

when the kids were small, my response to the "that's not fair!!" complaint was fair is a weather forecast

they all use the word "equitable" now

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 26, 2024 11:12 AM (tljrc)

28 17 Certainly as a reader of military history, it is amazing how the Communists escaped blame, and the National Socialists got all fingers pointed at them.
Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:06 AM (fwDg9)

We were right.

Posted by: The John Birch Society at December 26, 2024 11:12 AM (wyMQY)

29 Then those Gatherers and Sharers showed up.

Posted by: Barliman Butterbur at December 26, 2024 11:12 AM (i0F8b)

30 Good morning good people.

Posted by: Tonypete at December 26, 2024 11:13 AM (WXNFJ)

31 We were right.

Posted by: The John Birch Society at December 26, 2024 11:12 AM (wyMQY)

Yup. And they are a punch line now.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 26, 2024 11:14 AM (d9fT1)

32 "Their use saved possibly 1,000,000 Allied military lives and probably millions of Japanese, yet their use was presented as at best a murky ethical issue, and at worst the beginning of the end of humanity."

The emperor of Japan had made his mind up that they would not surrender no matter how many japanese civilians died. If we had not dropped the Nukes the invasion of the japanese home islands would have resulted in over 1 million Allied casualties and possibly as many as 20 million japanese civilian deaths.

The firebombing would have continued and been increased as the invasion grew closer. Entire cities would have been burned to the ground as the japanese literally had nothing left to stop around the clock bombing. There would have been B-29 bombers over every large city in Japan every day and night without let up.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at December 26, 2024 11:14 AM (Rcnd3)

33 Certainly as a reader of military history, it is amazing how the Communists escaped blame, and the National Socialists got all fingers pointed at them.
Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:06 AM (fwDg9)

Yep, that's a head-scratcher all right.

Posted by: Commies inside Western Gov'ts at December 26, 2024 11:14 AM (0eaVi)

34
- - - - Barack Hussein Owebama
-----------
Fuck that guy in particular.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar

__________

Talk about your worst presidents and this guy is win, place or show.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 11:14 AM (dxSpM)

35 Avogadro's numberth!
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot

* faints *

Posted by: the server hamsters at December 26, 2024 11:15 AM (DgGvY)

36
Hey what happened to the drone invasion story? 'Nation gripped by fear' and all that?

Posted by: Don Black. Message: Conquer Greenland! at December 26, 2024 11:15 AM (/7KEl)

37 when the kids were small, my response to the "that's not fair!!" complaint was fair is a weather forecast

they all use the word "equitable" now

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 26, 2024 11:12 AM (tljrc)

Heh! I'll write that down.

Posted by: BignJames at December 26, 2024 11:15 AM (Yj6Os)

38 Posted by: Tom Servo at December 26, 2024 11:10 AM (wyMQY
====

This is a very good point often clouded by our overuse of the labels.

For example, many people think the poor receive social benefits and financial support from the government in "communist" China when in fact they receive nothing.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at December 26, 2024 11:15 AM (RIvkX)

39 Dad joke #13,452.

Why does the Navy prefer recruits who can't swim?

They're more dedicated to defending the ship.

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 11:15 AM (H9VzD)

40
Fascism, although publicly derided, is followed in a “lite” form by almost every globalist affiliated government in the world today - especially in Europe.
Posted by: Tom Servo

Public/Private partnership.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at December 26, 2024 11:16 AM (63Dwl)

41 I downloaded the communist manifesto ages ago but never read it. Still my impression is that Marx was at best a mediocre writer. But human nature was very ready to go "yeah, those that have more should give some of theirs to me, and I should have as much nice stuff as the heir or the super smart person just because I show up for work."

Except the nature of socialism and the stupid "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" tends to encourage being a needy never do well and discourage developing one's abilities or even getting a job.

Posted by: PaleRider at December 26, 2024 11:16 AM (UKUm3)

42 Now is the exactly perfect time to solidify those gains and build into our institutions a defense against the insanity that the Left uses to consolidate power.
_____________

We already have it: federalism. Need the SC to step up and restore it in full. Let the west coast vote to go full commie as long as I don't have to pay for it or live by their rules.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at December 26, 2024 11:18 AM (Dm8we)

43 We were right.
Posted by: The John Birch Society

Tell me about it.

Posted by: Joe MaCarthy at December 26, 2024 11:18 AM (WXNFJ)

44 it is amazing how the Communists escaped blame,

cue SCTV what fits in Mother Russia sketch

Posted by: DaveA at December 26, 2024 11:18 AM (FhXTo)

45 Our tripartite government prevents some of the worst measures from being enacted while federalism keeps some of the same restricted to only certain geographical areas, but it also keeps healthy reform in check and restricted to just some states, not all. It’s the best system the founders could cobble together (after the failure of their first try). It has served us well, but will make it harder to set things right, thank God! (because it would be too easy to make things worse).

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at December 26, 2024 11:18 AM (VnnhK)

46 the ultimate result of every communist experiment. The Soviet Union ... China ... Venezuela ... Cuba ... a bunch of African countries .... Canada

As further support, you could also put every American Democrat-ruled large city down in the footnotes.

Posted by: t-bird at December 26, 2024 11:18 AM (yYWHi)

47 If we had not dropped the Nukes

The plan would have been GASSSSS

Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle at December 26, 2024 11:19 AM (FkCbE)

48 "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" tends to encourage being a needy never do well and discourage developing one's abilities or even getting a job.

Posted by: PaleRider at December 26, 2024 11:16 AM (UKUm3)

The Maynard G. Krebs school of socialism.

Posted by: BignJames at December 26, 2024 11:19 AM (Yj6Os)

49 Another example of the sheep frequently not knowing the difference between the wolf and the sheep dog,

Also I think to be able to return to the same level of exceptionalism we had in the past we need to stop the 'good enough' mindset that has been growing in the country. I think partly caused by third world immigration where that is the mind set.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at December 26, 2024 11:19 AM (D6PGr)

50
Certainly as a reader of military history, it is amazing how the Communists escaped blame, and the National Socialists got all fingers pointed at them.
Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:06 AM (fwDg9)

__________

The commies didn't go down in some firey storm, they just rotted out and disappeared. They re-emerged as oligarchs and strongmen to steal whatever remained. In the end, they never really believed in the creed they professed.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 11:19 AM (dxSpM)

51 "that's not fair!! My dad would say life not fair

Posted by: doug at December 26, 2024 11:19 AM (Hy+R4)

52 Fascism was created by an Uber Marxist and made it a nationalist movement.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at December 26, 2024 11:21 AM (D6PGr)

53 It also let's the Communists point finger at Trump and MAGA as Nationalists hence NAZIS forgetting the NAZIS Socialism

Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:21 AM (fwDg9)

54 A headstrong Chinese girl (Marlo Thomas) visiting the Cartwrights

?!!?

Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle at December 26, 2024 11:22 AM (FkCbE)

55 Even we couldn't make socialism work.

Posted by: The Germans at December 26, 2024 11:22 AM (dg+HA)

56 Well done CBD! I enjoyed reading that so much I read it twice.

Posted by: Diogenes at December 26, 2024 11:22 AM (W/lyH)

57 It's all about control.

The left would love nothing more than to have a pliable and dependent society to lord over. Dependent being the operative word.

The society we live in today is precariously teetering between dependency and self reliance.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at December 26, 2024 11:22 AM (Q4IgG)

58 Rich target environment:

https://tinyurl.com/ycx9xrtf

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 26, 2024 11:22 AM (Hbs7G)

59 Joseph Goebbels was a Marxist before he became a Nazi. It was the Jew hate that made him switch.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at December 26, 2024 11:22 AM (D6PGr)

60 Speaking of History's Greatest Monsters, I visited the Jimmy Carter Library this past Monday. The place had his quotes on the walls in the museum part of the library at the various exhibits. To call those quotes anodyne would be complimentary.

James Earl Carter embodies the truism "For evil to prevail all it takes is for good men to do nothing." In a way he was worse than Obama, Clinton and even Biden because he provided lubrication for so many awful things, some of which we contend with to this day.

Posted by: Minuteman at December 26, 2024 11:23 AM (LaNzR)

61
"Yet we romanticize communism, or its more civilized (bowdlerized) term: socialism."

Karl Marx used the terms communism and socialism interchangeably in his writings.

How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin.
And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
~Ronald Reagan

Posted by: Speller at December 26, 2024 11:23 AM (pSotA)

62 "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

The joke in Soviet Russia was that the Politburo had no abilities but, "Oy! So many needs!"

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 26, 2024 11:23 AM (WPL6O)

63 Joseph Goebbels was a Marxist before he became a Nazi. It was the Jew hate that made him switch.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth
__________

There's a quote, can't put my finger on it and it might be from Hitler, about the ease with which they gained converts from the communists.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at December 26, 2024 11:24 AM (Dm8we)

64 Posted by: San Franpsycho at December 26, 2024 11:02 AM (RIvkX)

Posted by: Diogenes at December 26, 2024 11:22 AM (W/lyH)

Thank you!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 26, 2024 11:25 AM (d9fT1)

65 Holiday Binge List !! currently on NF...or elsewhere
Golden Kamuy: returning Vtereans of the Russo-Japanees War duke it out on Hokkaido to find the missing gold,,sound familiar..excellent action series and solid History Buff stuff..
Orb:On the Movements of the Earth
another excellent time piece in 15th century Poland where astrologists are discovering the Earth is NOT the center of the Universe and the battle for truth with the RC Inquisition begins...excellent drama and Nowak ther Inquisitor would have made a nice addition to The Lives of Others....

Posted by: qmark at December 26, 2024 11:25 AM (+t9Oi)

66 Public/Private partnership.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at December 26, 2024 11:16 AM (63Dwl)

What's amazing is that I always thought this would mean government dominating privately owned concerns - but now I realize that (as in the case of big pharma) it's turned into private concerns dominating the government, at the expense of all others. It's morphing back into a slightly updated version of all of the bad old autacracies and oligarchies of the past, in a James Caan Rollerball world version. The Powers want to run things as suits them, and the people are just their cattle.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 26, 2024 11:26 AM (wyMQY)

67
There's a quote, can't put my finger on it and it might be from Hitler, about the ease with which they gained converts from the communists.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at December 26, 2024 11:24 AM (Dm8we)

_________

After 1933, the SA was swamped with applications from former communists. They were referred to as "beefsteaks": brown on the outside, red on the inside.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 11:27 AM (dxSpM)

68 kai bird the son of an arabist state department drone, wrote the source material, for the film, American Prometheus yes nearly 80 years later the naivete of the intelligentsia is a little enraging

Posted by: miguel cervantes at December 26, 2024 11:27 AM (dJR17)

69 Posted by: qmark at December 26, 2024 11:25 AM (+t9Oi)

astrologists?

Posted by: BignJames at December 26, 2024 11:28 AM (Yj6Os)

70 45 TLDR: it will take as long (or longer) to fix things as it did to them up.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at December 26, 2024 11:28 AM (VnnhK)

71 I have posted numerous times of our ability to recognize and prevail over issues throughout our history that could and would have resulted in the destruction of the most exceptional country on the planet, if not rectified, with an unbroken record of success. Been ridiculed, discounted and ignored from time to time in my belief, none of which has had the slightest effect.

What I saw in the election was one more example of my country. I fully understand this wasn't the ending, but perhaps the end of the beginning, with the rest of the task remaining. And am perfectly comfortable with the ultimate ending, total victory.

Posted by: IRONGRAMPA at December 26, 2024 11:29 AM (hKoQL)

72

Rachel Carson killed more people than Adolf Hitler...

Posted by: Just Sayin... at December 26, 2024 11:29 AM (VLH5c)

73 Regarding Communists and Cuba, I am doubtful that Vlad Putin has much interest in Cuba these days, other than as a bell to ring to make the dogs in DC salivate. The country is falling apart, and if Russia is providing any aid at all, it sure falls far short of what is needed.

The Soviet Russian supported Cuba big-time, because they were in the business of exporting revolution.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 26, 2024 11:31 AM (8zz6B)

74 12 Speaking of mass Murderers, wonder if Fauci is sweating out the next 26 days?

Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:04 AM (fwDg9)
----
How about the rest of his miserable life?

Posted by: Ciampino - go all the way at December 26, 2024 11:31 AM (i0xsb)

75 if not for Stalin knocking out the Social Democrats, the Nazis would not have getten a shot at the big ring, the joke about antifascism, that Jan Valtin nee Albert Krug had noted,

some people who had been naive like William Bullitt did catch a clue when he was posted to Moskva, so did many of the other riga school of Sovietolgists like Kennan

Posted by: miguel cervantes at December 26, 2024 11:31 AM (dJR17)

76 70 mess them up.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at December 26, 2024 11:31 AM (VnnhK)

77
What I saw in the election was one more example of my country. I fully understand this wasn't the ending, but perhaps the end of the beginning, with the rest of the task remaining. And am perfectly comfortable with the ultimate ending, total victory.
Posted by: IRONGRAMPA at December 26, 2024 11:29 AM (hKoQL)

__________

"The United States will always do the right thing after they've tried everything else." - Winston Churchill

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 11:31 AM (dxSpM)

78 Rachel Carson killed more people than Adolf Hitler...
Posted by: Just Sayin.
_____________

True. But the feds may have killed even more with their food pyramid.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at December 26, 2024 11:31 AM (Dm8we)

79 72> I will be using a different nic.

Posted by: just saying at December 26, 2024 11:32 AM (Uy/WF)

80 I thought Venezuela was using some of their oil money to prop up Cuba.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at December 26, 2024 11:34 AM (VnnhK)

81 I thought Venezuela was using some of their oil money to prop up Cuba.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at December 26, 2024 11:34 AM (VnnhK)

I miss Chavez the Hugo.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:34 AM (Zz0t1)

82 Now is the exactly perfect time to solidify those gains and build into our institutions a defense against the insanity that the Left uses to consolidate power.

It's a bit early for New Year's resolutions, but I like this one.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 26, 2024 11:35 AM (xCA6C)

83 Well a pardon would make him breath easier

Posted by: Skip at December 26, 2024 11:35 AM (fwDg9)

84 80 I thought Venezuela was using some of their oil money to prop up Cuba.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at December 26, 2024 11:34 AM (VnnhK)

It ran out. Venezuela never invested any money into keeping it's oil production going, and they chased Chevron and all the other western companies out of the country. So their oil production is going the way of Cuba's sugar production.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 26, 2024 11:35 AM (wyMQY)

85 The only reason Hitler and the Nazis didn't like Stalin and the Soviets is that they were competing for the same followers.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at December 26, 2024 11:35 AM (dgnIS)

86 yes they get sugar and cuba get's oil but most of its managerial sector can't get the power grid to work

Posted by: miguel cervantes at December 26, 2024 11:35 AM (dJR17)

87 >>>And of course the half-wits who become our "journalists" are particularly susceptible to the allure of the romantic version of communism ...

... as are 20-something political interns.

Posted by: m at December 26, 2024 11:36 AM (VnUSN)

88 I'm having a hard time thinking of anything with a vaster delta than communism between reality and how it's described. Come for the equality and brotherhood of man. Stay for the firing squads, starvation, and rapes. More flowery words have been written in support of what amounts to a death cult than anything else I can think of.

Posted by: Elric The Blade at December 26, 2024 11:36 AM (iFTx/)

89 Dan Ackroyd and Jim Belushi in fedoras, taking the stage from a legend like Cab Calaway, would have been my cue to leave the theatre.

I may have mentioned here on the HQ that I've seen many little acts open for big acts, and I can tell you that it doesn't go that way.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at December 26, 2024 11:36 AM (lhenN)

90 Rachel Carson killed more people than Adolf Hitler...

Had it not been for the Media, which promoted her book far and wide as the condemnation of civilization they wanted, her impact would have been the same as Lyndon LaRouche.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 26, 2024 11:36 AM (WPL6O)

91 The only reason Hitler and the Nazis didn't like Stalin and the Soviets is that they were competing for the same followers.
Posted by: Thomas Paine
___________

I'm not sure Hitler didn't like, or at least admire, Stalin. He praised him repeatedly, pretty much up to the end.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at December 26, 2024 11:37 AM (Dm8we)

92 It ran out. Venezuela never invested any money into keeping it's oil production going, and they chased Chevron and all the other western companies out of the country. So their oil production is going the way of Cuba's sugar production.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
--Milton Friedman.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 26, 2024 11:37 AM (xCA6C)

93 I thought Venezuela was using some of their oil money to prop up Cuba.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at December 26, 2024 11:34 AM (VnnhK)

Venezuela got the Cuban Disease, and their oil production has fallen off a cliff.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 26, 2024 11:38 AM (8zz6B)

94
Communism

Always the same promises
Always the same catastrophes
Always the same excuses
Always the same scapegoats

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 11:38 AM (dxSpM)

95 venezuela purged most of their managerial class or drove them into exile, Rosneft invested a pretty penny, but Sechin is kind of a dumb version of the Siloviki so it hasn't gone well

Posted by: miguel cervantes at December 26, 2024 11:38 AM (dJR17)

96 headstrong Chinese girl (Marlo Thomas) visiting the Cartwrights

"A Pink Cloud Comes from Old Cathay" April 1964

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at December 26, 2024 11:39 AM (zdLoL)

97 We are going to have to do a forced march through the institutions to undo the damage done.

Posted by: NR Pax at December 26, 2024 11:39 AM (lXCUP)

98 The Powers want to run things as suits them, and the people are just their cattle.
Posted by: Tom Servo at December 26, 2024 11:26 AM (wyMQY)

The concept of the elite is a hard one to argue against. People can be divided into categories, and with the right (wrong) perspective, it's possible for people who have accomplished much, in one realm or another, to look at the suckers and losers, and wonder... "why do they exist?"

So while many don't want to even acknowledge the question, there are many in the elite class who have an answer: "They shouldn't." Or if they must, they should be turned into something that we waste fewer (scarce) resources on.

And here we are.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 11:39 AM (M6rkE)

99 Dan Ackroyd and Jim Belushi in fedoras

We may have found your problem.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at December 26, 2024 11:41 AM (zdLoL)

100 Communism

Always the same promises
Always the same catastrophes
Always the same excuses
Always the same scapegoats
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

Real communism has never been tried!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Peppermint Mocha! at December 26, 2024 11:41 AM (L/fGl)

101 I hope that you are all celebrating Kwanzaa, as I have since childhood!

Posted by: Drunken Kamala Harris! at December 26, 2024 11:42 AM (uxCna)

102 Nazism was still largely ethnically based, over class based, hence they earned the loyalty of the Harzberg magnates when they jettisoned nationalization

the ruling class in Venezuela, headed by Cabello, one of chavez's musketeers, expanded into the regional economy with the Sun Cartel, somewhat similar to Maher Assad and the Captagon trade,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at December 26, 2024 11:42 AM (dJR17)

103 Dan Ackroyd and Jim Belushi in fedoras, taking the stage from a legend like Cab Calaway, would have been my cue to leave the theatre.

I may have mentioned here on the HQ that I've seen many little acts open for big acts, and I can tell you that it doesn't go that way.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at December 26, 2024 11:36 AM (lhenN)

Quite the contrary. Blues Brothers was a huge opportunity for some of those under-appreciated performers to get their stuff out to a new audience, and make some serious money in their retirement years.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 26, 2024 11:42 AM (8zz6B)

104 Fun fact: Eva Braun dated both Hitler and Stalin.

Hitler: Eva told me she wanted to be dorked in the squeakhole but she kept Stalin!

Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle at December 26, 2024 11:42 AM (FkCbE)

105 I hope that you are all celebrating Kwanzaa, as I have since childhood!
Posted by: Drunken Kamala Harris! at December 26, 2024 11:42 AM (uxCna)

"Dis bish be cray."

= = = = = Kamala's Mom

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:42 AM (Zz0t1)

106 American exceptionalism came about when there were tangible results. Building, manufacturing, winning a World War and going to the moon.
Despite all the technology we produce very little that displays exceptionalism.

Posted by: Ben Had at December 26, 2024 11:43 AM (XTmTf)

107 Had it not been for the Media, which promoted her book far and wide as the condemnation of civilization they wanted, her impact would have been the same as Lyndon LaRouche.
Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 26, 2024 11:36 AM (WPL6O)

Well sure. If corporate media didn't constantly promote Taylor Swift, she'd be singing in a bar somewhere. Or waitressing in one.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 11:44 AM (M6rkE)

108 72

Rachel Carson killed more people than Adolf Hitler...

Posted by: Just Sayin... at December 26, 2024 11:29 AM (VLH5c)
----
Bitch had to know that the eggshell data was bogus.
I was an undergrad at the time (Chemistry & Biology) and even to my inexperienced mind it looked suspicious.

Posted by: Ciampino - trouble with data at December 26, 2024 11:44 AM (i0xsb)

109 The Soviet Russian supported Cuba big-time, because they were in the business of exporting revolution.

Cuba was important from a propaganda standpoint, because it was the sexy, Third World form of Communism, as opposed to the grey, bureaucratic form of Communism in the USSR and satellites.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at December 26, 2024 11:44 AM (uxCna)

110 That bird strike that caused an airliner to crash had a lot of similarities to anti-aircraft missle strike.

https://is.gd/9GhYWQ

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Peppermint Mocha! at December 26, 2024 11:45 AM (L/fGl)

111 Fun fact: Eva Braun dated both Hitler and Stalin.

Hitler: Eva told me she wanted to be dorked in the squeakhole but she kept Stalin!
Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle at December 26, 2024 11:42 AM (FkCbE)
-

I heard the opposite. Hitler told Eva "let's not Russian to this."

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 26, 2024 11:45 AM (Hbs7G)

112 Funny tweet I saw:

"If we had communism, I would be building gardens, teaching classes on my farm, creating organizing spaces, and cultivating resources for my community. So basically what I'm planning to do anyway but without having to fight capitalism."

Reply:

"YOUR farm?"

Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - Now Evaluating the Best Wagshambas of 2024 at December 26, 2024 11:45 AM (sMwSS)

113 Despite all the technology we produce very little that displays exceptionalism.
Posted by: Ben Had at December 26, 2024 11:43 AM (XTmTf)

We came up with dick pills.

But that was basically an accident.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 11:45 AM (M6rkE)

114
Despite all the technology we produce very little that displays exceptionalism.
Posted by: Ben Had at December 26, 2024 11:43 AM (XTmTf)

__________

Nonsense. We hold in our hands small devices that can tap into the wealth of the world's knowledge snf use them to watch TikTok videos.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 11:46 AM (dxSpM)

115
The concept of the elite is a hard one to argue against. People can be divided into categories, and with the right (wrong) perspective, it's possible for people who have accomplished much, in one realm or another, to look at the suckers and losers, and wonder... "why do they exist?"

So while many don't want to even acknowledge the question, there are many in the elite class who have an answer: "They shouldn't." Or if they must, they should be turned into something that we waste fewer (scarce) resources on.

And here we are.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 11:39 AM (M6rkE)

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 26, 2024 11:46 AM (wyMQY)

116 104
Good one!

Posted by: Ciampino - trouble with data at December 26, 2024 11:46 AM (i0xsb)

117 Venezuela never invested any money into keeping it's oil production going, and they chased Chevron and all the other western companies out of the country. So their oil production is going the way of Cuba's sugar production.

Posted by: Tom Servo

Now Mexico's marxist president is sending oil to Cuba, but only about a quarter of what Venezuela did.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at December 26, 2024 11:46 AM (YgJcx)

118 Hear, hear! Nice Rant.

But remember, and it's just limited to some of the citizenship -

277. Screw Ireland. And the Irish.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh
-----
Reportedly, roughly 10% of the citizenship of the USA claims to be, or are descendants of, and a high percentage are easily influenced by the Clintons, Obamas, Bidens, etc.

PS - Mostly Irish, not one to stay in line. 😉

Posted by: L - Rooster one day, feather duster the next at December 26, 2024 11:47 AM (NFX2v)

119 Every high school should be required to assign The Black Book of Communism as mandatory reading.

Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 11:47 AM (v6JzV)

120
Credentials are handed out by universities, and the universities are in the total control of Marxists.

It will take a lot to sort that out.

Posted by: Auspex at December 26, 2024 11:47 AM (q5rNo)

121 That bird strike that caused an airliner to crash had a lot of similarities to anti-aircraft missle strike.

https://is.gd/9GhYWQ
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

Precisely.
Posted by: Big Bird Drone Corporation

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 11:47 AM (H9VzD)

122 112 Funny tweet I saw:

"If we had communism, I would be building gardens, teaching classes on my farm, creating organizing spaces, and cultivating resources for my community. So basically what I'm planning to do anyway but without having to fight capitalism."

Reply:

"YOUR farm?"
Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - Now Evaluating the Best Wagshambas of 2024 at December 26, 2024 11:45 AM (sMwSS)

Nice.

Posted by: m at December 26, 2024 11:47 AM (VnUSN)

123 Had it not been for the Media, which promoted her book far and wide as the condemnation of civilization they wanted, her impact would have been the same as Lyndon LaRouche.
Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 26, 2024 11:36 AM (WPL6O)

Had the discussion over the holiday. Spencer Rattler, 3rd string QB for the Saints is a product of the media overhyping a very little talent for some unknown reason. He was ran out of OU on a rail, was VERY mediocre at best at South Carolina, yet was a Heisman candidate every year and actually got drafted by an NFL team.

I'm fully aware that 3rd string QB's aren't incredibly talented and rarely see the field, but that guy should've never been drafted due to his actual performance in the college game. But the media hyped him up so much, he went to SC billed as the "best pure passer the SEC has ever seen."

WTF?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:47 AM (Zz0t1)

124 Talk about your worst presidents and this guy is win, place or show.

Obama would be behind Wilson and LBJ on my list. So, “show”.

Posted by: Ian S. at December 26, 2024 11:48 AM (QZThv)

125 The bomb, in addition to turning Japan into Stalingrad with mass sfarvation and momasans eating their babies, it headed off the Soviets from invading, dividing and enslaving half the island indefinitely.

Posted by: Field Marshal Zhukov at December 26, 2024 11:48 AM (wBaIH)

126 A penny saved is a penny earned.

Biden Removes $10 Million Dollar Bounty on Terrorist Abu Mohammed Al-Jokani

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Peppermint Mocha! at December 26, 2024 11:48 AM (L/fGl)

127 Credentials are handed out by universities, and the universities are in the total control of Marxists.

It will take a lot to sort that out.
Posted by: Auspex

Easiest way? Require results. Fire them when they can't produce.

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 11:48 AM (H9VzD)

128 106 American exceptionalism came about when there were tangible results. Building, manufacturing, winning a World War and going to the moon. Despite all the technology we produce very little that displays exceptionalism.

OTOH: The Musk-Led Manufacturing Revolution Nobody Is Talking About

https://is.gd/duDGwu

Posted by: Archimedes at December 26, 2024 11:48 AM (xCA6C)

129 Quite the contrary. Blues Brothers was a huge opportunity for some of those under-appreciated performers to get their stuff out to a new audience, and make some serious money in their retirement years.

And Landis had to fight the studio over that - the studio wanted him to use contemporary R&B acts (like Boyz II Men), and Landis insisted on using classic blues people, several of whom weren't getting a lot of work by the late '70s.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at December 26, 2024 11:49 AM (uxCna)

130 —that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Posted by: Tom Servo at December 26, 2024 11:46 AM (wyMQY)

Who said that? Was it Stalin or Hitler?

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 11:49 AM (M6rkE)

131 Talk about your worst presidents and this guy is win, place or show.

Obama would be behind Wilson and LBJ on my list. So, “show”.
Posted by: Ian S.

Carter is worst. Until another president comes along and cedes territory.

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 11:49 AM (H9VzD)

132 And Landis had to fight the studio over that - the studio wanted him to use contemporary R&B acts (like Boyz II Men), and Landis insisted on using classic blues people, several of whom weren't getting a lot of work by the late '70s.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at December 26, 2024 11:49 AM (uxCna)

And that's one of the main things that makes that movie so memorable - like Aretha's R E S P E C T number. It would just be another forgotten SNL movie without those pieces.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 26, 2024 11:50 AM (wyMQY)

133 Carter is worst. Until another president comes along and cedes territory.
Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 11:49 AM (H9VzD)

"MY BUTT'S BEEN WIPED!"

- - - - - Joe Biden

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:51 AM (Zz0t1)

134 Carter is worst. Until another president comes along and cedes territory.

What did Carter do that was worse than paying women to have fatherless kids?

Posted by: Ian S. at December 26, 2024 11:51 AM (QZThv)

135
"it headed off the Soviets from invading, dividing and enslaving half the island indefinitely."

The Russians never had the naval ability to make such a scenario possible.
They couldn't have supported it

Posted by: Speller at December 26, 2024 11:51 AM (pSotA)

136 112 So basically what I'm planning to do anyway but without having to fight capitalism."

I remember when that series came out. The question is "When communism takes over America, what will you be doing?"

Someone should have asked her that if she already had a farm, why wasn't she teaching? What was it about capitalism that was stopping her?

Posted by: NR Pax at December 26, 2024 11:52 AM (lXCUP)

137 I'm not sure Hitler didn't like, or at least admire, Stalin. He praised him repeatedly, pretty much up to the end.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba

My Russian class at DLI went to hear talk given by Stalin's interpreter, who had just put out his memoirs.

During the question period afterwards, someone (I think it may even have been yours truly), asked him how Hitler and Stalin really felt about each other.

His answer was "Oni obozhalis' drug druga." "They adored each other."

Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 11:52 AM (v6JzV)

138 Archimedes, Musk the Innovator.

Posted by: Ben Had at December 26, 2024 11:52 AM (XTmTf)

139 113 Despite all the technology we produce very little that displays exceptionalism.
Posted by: Ben Had at December 26, 2024 11:43 AM (XTmTf)

We came up with dick pills.

But that was basically an accident.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 11:45 AM (M6rkE)
----
The blue pill was from the UK if I remember correctly.

Posted by: Ciampino - trouble with the thing that goes up at December 26, 2024 11:54 AM (i0xsb)

140 Even a broken clock finds an acorn twice a day.

CNN's Jennings: Democrats Are the Party of Uncommon Nonsense

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Peppermint Mocha! at December 26, 2024 11:55 AM (L/fGl)

141 I watched "Oppenheimer" last night, and the ridiculousness of its presentation of communism was embarrassing.

--------------

I read the book upon which the film was based -- "American Prometheus", a great read & time-capsule that was researched & written by two authors over a 25-year period -- and was fascinated by the following observation & claim (the result of the Great Depression falsely being blamed on the "evils of capitalism"

"The Depression had caused many Americans to reconsider their political outlook. Nowhere was this truer than in California. In 1930, three out of every four California voters were registered Republicans; eight years later, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a margin of two to one. In 1934, the muckraking writer Upton Sinclair nearly won the governorship with his radical platform to End Poverty in California (EPIC)."

Posted by: ShainS -- President-Elect Musk will appoint Vivek to Speaker Of The House! at December 26, 2024 11:55 AM (z3WOQ)

142 138 Archimedes, Musk the Innovator.

Some day he'll be mentioned in the same breath as Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller. If he keeps going at the pace he is now, it'll be DaVinci and Newton.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 26, 2024 11:56 AM (xCA6C)

143 I remember when that series came out. The question is "When communism takes over America, what will you be doing?"

Someone should have asked her that if she already had a farm, why wasn't she teaching? What was it about capitalism that was stopping her?
Posted by: NR Pax at December 26, 2024 11:52 AM (lXCUP)

No doubt she figured that under Communism, students would be obliged to come to her farm to be re-educated. Because she's elite, yannow.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 26, 2024 11:56 AM (8zz6B)

144 I'm fully aware that 3rd string QB's aren't incredibly talented and rarely see the field, but that guy should've never been drafted due to his actual performance in the college game. But the media hyped him up so much, he went to SC billed as the "best pure passer the SEC has ever seen."

WTF?
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:47 AM (Zz0t1)

I watched that game (stuck around relatives). I thought "well there's another one."

Meaning, one of those running QB's teams are enamored with these days. Few of them have the talent to play that style. But they're going to get drafted, and sometimes it seems it's based on skin color.

Funny enough, after the game was out of hand, GB put in their backup QB... and yep. There's another one.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 11:56 AM (43ETV)

145 Capitalism is the greatest economic theory known to man.

It's corruption and greed that ruin it. Just like everything else.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:57 AM (Zz0t1)

146 Someone should have asked her that if she already had a farm, why wasn't she teaching? What was it about capitalism that was stopping her

**********************

She strikes me as one who would claim birth control is not accessible despite being $8 a month because she would still have to pay for it rather than get it free

that darn capitalism

Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - Now Evaluating the Best Wagshambas of 2024 at December 26, 2024 11:57 AM (sMwSS)

147 Just based on the casualty numbers from the Battle of Okinawa, Hiroshima and Nagasaki undoubtedly save the lives of 1 million American and British servicemen, 2 million Japanese soldiers and airmen, and 2 to 5 million Japanese civilians.

73 million human beings died in World War 2, which lasted for 2,192 days, which averages to 33,303 deaths per day. Which means the total casualties from the two atomic bombings was about a week and a half worth of casualties in the big picture.

No wonder the great Paul Fussell wrote so compellingly in favor of their use in his essay "Thank God For The Atom Bomb."

Posted by: Sharkman at December 26, 2024 11:57 AM (4mDu5)

148 Communism is murderous and evil, but "free markets" can also go wrong. Our greatest threat may be the globalists that are engineering much of our current demise.

"Free Markets" done right motivate the individual to work hard and succeed. But now we have the too big to fail/jails that bought government to gain advantages, down to even persecuting Musk (and Trump) for supporting the wrong candidate.

That is not "free markets done right", but that massive cash flow from stock manipulations and "gaming" has given us Soros and a host of other leftist billionaires, that conspire together outside our government in various groups (IMF, WEF, etc.) and Foundations.

The "passive bid" of free market workers across the America (those that trust government will make sure markets give them their 15% if they just feed their savings into the market machine) has twisted a lot of the invisible hand to the point we have trillions in market bubble, and an unknown future since that helped fund "infinite debt".

In one sense that is the "next time we'll do free markets right" side of free markets, but it has still been much better than the raw power of communism in its various forms ... I think.

Posted by: illiniwek at December 26, 2024 11:58 AM (Cus5s)

149 It's corruption and greed that ruin it. Just like everything else.
Posted by: Sponge

Satan is the reason why we can't have nice things.

Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 11:58 AM (v6JzV)

150 The evidence is clear that the grand experiment in perfecting Man has failed. All humanity got for it was misery, poverty, and death.
Marxism tries to remove the concept of man as sinful. In trying to make Man God, it eschews Original Sin.

So, when reality intrudes - as it always does - when you "perfect" Man, you just get a more perfect sinner. Naturally, you get more misery, poverty, and death.

Appropriately for Christmas, there is only one way of perfecting Man, and that is through Jesus the Christ. And it's not an improvement easily measured in better people, though Christians do become better people as God works in their life. The perfection is in the covering of our sins by the sacrifice of Jesus, redeeming us in the eyes of God.

But, Marx was an anti-Christian, and it shows in his works. And in their fruits.

Posted by: GWB at December 26, 2024 11:58 AM (WlvCt)

151 What did Carter do that was worse than paying women to have fatherless kids?
Posted by: Ian S.

Have up the Panama Canal.

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 11:58 AM (H9VzD)

152 The blue pill was from the UK if I remember correctly.
Posted by: Ciampino - trouble with the thing that goes up at December 26, 2024 11:54 AM (i0xsb)

There goes that theory then.

We don't do anything right. The Colonel's secret recipe, maybe.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 11:59 AM (43ETV)

153 And that's one of the main things that makes that movie so memorable - like Aretha's R E S P E C T number. It would just be another forgotten SNL movie without those pieces.

It was also a love letter to late 1970s Chicago.

Since I lived in Chicago in the late 1970s, I approve.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at December 26, 2024 12:00 PM (uxCna)

154 they were very resentful of the campaign against sinclair, who was a useful idiot, it was even part of the netflix series, mank about the collaborator with wells,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at December 26, 2024 12:00 PM (dJR17)

155 But, Marx was an anti-Christian, and it shows in his works. And in their fruits.
Posted by: GWB

He was also a huge Jew-hater. Hitler supposedly read Marx, and got a lot of his anti-Jewish notions from him.

Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 12:00 PM (v6JzV)

156
In 1934, the muckraking writer Upton Sinclair nearly won the governorship with his radical platform to End Poverty in California (EPIC)."
Posted by: ShainS -- President-Elect Musk will appoint Vivek to Speaker Of The House!

______

"Nearly won"? Merriam beat Sinclair by 13 percentage points.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 12:00 PM (dxSpM)

157 Land of the free, home of the brave.

It’s Official: Alec Baldwin Gets off Scot-Free in “Rust” Shooting After Appeal Is Withdrawn

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Peppermint Mocha! at December 26, 2024 12:01 PM (L/fGl)

158 CNN journalists who spoke anonymously to The Washington Post this week said they believe they are losing viewers because the network hasn't been hard enough on Trump.

lol

Yeah, that's it.

Posted by: one hour sober at December 26, 2024 12:01 PM (Y1sOo)

159
Satan is the reason why we can't have nice things.
Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 11:58 AM (v6JzV)

But following him seems to yield nice results in the here and now, as long as you don't mind the afterlife part while here.

I know quite a few greedy assholes living it up while I mire in mediocrity and pain. Evil wins, a lot.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 12:01 PM (Zz0t1)

160 We don't do anything right. The Colonel's secret recipe, maybe.
Posted by: BurtTC

Cathy Ireland.

Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 12:01 PM (v6JzV)

161
It’s Official: Alec Baldwin Gets off Scot-Free in “Rust” Shooting After Appeal Is Withdrawn
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Peppermint Mocha! at December 26, 2024 12:01 PM (L/fGl)

I want to go on the new Match Game with him as host just so I can say, in the middle of a round, "Don't shoot" as I raise my hands.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 12:02 PM (Zz0t1)

162 103
'Blues Brothers was a huge opportunity for some of those under-appreciated performers'

Yeah. Practically the whole point of the movie was to appreciate black blues & rock performers. Aykroyd and Belushi weren't trying to overshadow them. they were amplifying them.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at December 26, 2024 12:02 PM (3wi/L)

163 Capitalism is the greatest economic theory known to man.

It's corruption and greed that ruin it. Just like everything else.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 11:57 AM (Zz0t1)

It's been said communism is like the nukular family. I do things for you, because I love you.

Capitalism, when done right, doesn't require me to give two shits about you. If you have what I want, and I have what you want, we exchange them.

Scrooge was more right than Fezziwig.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 12:03 PM (akqX4)

164 Imagine, for a minute, that the atomic bomb did not exist in 1945. Why would an invasion of the Japanese home islands be absolutely necessary? Establish and maintain air superiority over the islands, control the seas around them, and continue with regular bombing raids, and simply wear them down, and starve them out.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 26, 2024 12:03 PM (8zz6B)

165 CNN journalists who spoke anonymously to The Washington Post this week said they believe they are losing viewers because the network hasn't been hard enough on Trump.

lol

Yeah, that's it.

I, for one, hope they ramp up their anti-Trump efforts. Come on, guys, let's see some commitment!

Posted by: Archimedes at December 26, 2024 12:03 PM (xCA6C)

166 OT, but does anyone here remember the name of the American-born grande horizontale whose portrait was featured on the Art Thread last week?

Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 12:04 PM (v6JzV)

167 No wonder the great Paul Fussell wrote so compellingly in favor of their use in his essay "Thank God For The Atom Bomb."
Posted by: Sharkman at December 26, 2024 11:57 AM (4mDu5)

You asked for it.........

https://youtu.be/V4kzCBQg-qQ

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at December 26, 2024 12:04 PM (Zz0t1)

168 All forms of Marxism are highly-addictive, bottom-self intoxicants for losers.

Losers who have failed at every game in life but salve their ego by imagining they'll be made winners by the elimination of the competition.

Attempting to explain that their plans always require the wholesale extermination of millions is as useful as telling a crackhead to stop smoking free crack.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at December 26, 2024 12:04 PM (MC8h6)

169 Scrooge was more right than Fezziwig.
Posted by: BurtTC

Fezziwig threw better parties, though.

Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 12:05 PM (v6JzV)

170 Imagine, for a minute, that the atomic bomb did not exist in 1945. Why would an invasion of the Japanese home islands be absolutely necessary? Establish and maintain air superiority over the islands, control the seas around them, and continue with regular bombing raids, and simply wear them down, and starve them out.

For one thing, tens of thousands were dying daily in the occupied territories and the home islands. Thus, any delay in ending the war would have resulted in enormous additional deaths.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 26, 2024 12:05 PM (xCA6C)

171
Establish and maintain air superiority over the islands, control the seas around them, and continue with regular bombing raids, and simply wear them down, and starve them out.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 26, 2024 12:03 PM (8zz6B)

_________

How many Japanese die? How many people in Japanese-occupied territory? How many prisoners of war? The US Navy took a terrific beating off Okinawa. Subduing Japan would have been far worse.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 12:05 PM (dxSpM)

172 Death Cult.

Posted by: Eromero at December 26, 2024 12:06 PM (jgmnb)

173 CNN journalists who spoke anonymously to The Washington Post this week said they believe they are losing viewers because the network hasn't been hard enough on Trump.
-----
M ake
A sylums
G reat
A gain

There are a lot of people out there that should be committed. It's not like they're going to "just get better" on their own.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at December 26, 2024 12:06 PM (Q4IgG)

174 Imagine, for a minute, that the atomic bomb did not exist in 1945. Why would an invasion of the Japanese home islands be absolutely necessary? Establish and maintain air superiority over the islands, control the seas around them, and continue with regular bombing raids, and simply wear them down, and starve them out.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon

After four years of war, the home front was getting tired of it all.

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 12:06 PM (H9VzD)

175 164 Imagine, for a minute, that the atomic bomb did not exist in 1945. Why would an invasion of the Japanese home islands be absolutely necessary? Establish and maintain air superiority over the islands, control the seas around them, and continue with regular bombing raids, and simply wear them down, and starve them out.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 26, 2024 12:03 PM (8zz6B)

There was no reason to invade, as you have pointed out. We just wanted the whole matter finished.

Posted by: tubal at December 26, 2024 12:06 PM (PCK5/)

176 The only way CNN could get worse would be for Stelter to do all of his reports wearing a negligee

Posted by: Smell the Glove at December 26, 2024 12:07 PM (URPU1)

177 Cathy Ireland.
Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 12:01 PM (v6JzV)

If the photos I'm seeing online are up to date, I'd have to say you are right.

Sadly, she's been married to the same man since 1988.

So it doesn't help me any.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 12:07 PM (wpZtv)

178 114
Nonsense. We hold in our hands small devices that can tap into the wealth of the world's knowledge snf use them to watch TikTok videos.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 11:46 AM (dxSpM)
----
Most importantly, Cat TikTok videos.

Posted by: Ciampino - trouble with the thing that goes up? at December 26, 2024 12:08 PM (i0xsb)

179 >What did Carter do that was worse than paying women to have fatherless kids?
Posted by: Ian S.

he endorsed the Islamic Revolution in Iran

Posted by: relay at December 26, 2024 12:08 PM (/7KEl)

180 >Quite the contrary. Blues Brothers was a huge opportunity for some of those under-appreciated performers to get their stuff out to a new audience, and make some serious money in their retirement years.

>And Landis had to fight the studio over that - the studio wanted him to use contemporary R&B acts (like Boyz II Men), and Landis insisted on using classic blues people, several of whom weren't getting a lot of work by the late '70s.

I'm going to invent a time machine just so I can erase "Easy Listening" sappy love songs.

The same way there were many great movies that were almost made (EG Orson Welles would have been Baron Harkonnen) you hear stories about disasters averted.

Studio suits would have cast Nick Cage and Sean Connery as Aragorn and Gandalf. I love those actors but just no.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at December 26, 2024 12:08 PM (lhenN)

181 People conflate Capitalism with Free Enterprise.

Posted by: davidt at December 26, 2024 12:08 PM (i0F8b)

182 Looks appreciation lots conditionally to trump voters am already regretting their votes. It that more than thing currently, and grow. Vice president harris will definitely won conditionally the to election were hold again

Posted by: Sid at December 26, 2024 12:08 PM (dMxnx)

183 IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE HE COUNTS TO THREE.

Steelers Legend Ben Roethlisberger Rips NFL for Christmas Games, Making Teams Play 3 Times in 11 Days: “It’s Miserable”

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Peppermint Mocha! at December 26, 2024 12:08 PM (L/fGl)

184 New thread up

Posted by: Ann at December 26, 2024 12:08 PM (4neFu)

185 168 All forms of Marxism are highly-addictive, bottom-self intoxicants for losers.

I have a cousin who said to me that he supported Socialism and if it came to this country, would I go after him?

He was not ready for my answer: "If that happens here, you and your kind are no longer human and I will kill you with a smile on my face and a song in my heart."

So if you're curious as to why I don't show up to the Thanksgiving gathering any more, that's one example.

Posted by: NR Pax at December 26, 2024 12:09 PM (lXCUP)

186 If the photos I'm seeing online are up to date, I'd have to say you are right.

Sadly, she's been married to the same man since 1988.

So it doesn't help me any.
Posted by: BurtTC

She's also a big anti-abortion advocate. She was one of those leading the fight against that awful abortion referendum that passed in California.

And she has aged very nicely.

Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 12:09 PM (v6JzV)

187 Sadly, she's been married to the same man since 1988.

So it doesn't help me any.
Posted by: BurtTC
__________

She did a movie, ended up on MST3k. Can't remember the name.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at December 26, 2024 12:09 PM (Dm8we)

188 I’m late to this thread but you mentioned Canada and Trudeau CBD…. Trump is cracking me up he keeps referencing Canada as a state and Trudeau as governor… he also urged Wayne Gretzky to run for guv of Canada…. He’s hilarious

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 26, 2024 12:09 PM (t3Itw)

189 For one thing, tens of thousands were dying daily in the occupied territories and the home islands. Thus, any delay in ending the war would have resulted in enormous additional deaths.
Posted by: Archimedes at December 26, 2024 12:05 PM (xCA6C)

Thing is, we are often presented a false dichotomy: use the A-bomb vs. massive, and hugely costly invasion of the Home Islands. I'm suggesting that a third option, containment, was on the table, but neglected. Obviously, use of the a-bomb was the best option, and I support it, but it was not the only alternative to an invasion.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 26, 2024 12:10 PM (8zz6B)

190 164 Imagine, for a minute, that the atomic bomb did not exist in 1945. Why would an invasion of the Japanese home islands be absolutely necessary? Establish and maintain air superiority over the islands, control the seas around them, and continue with regular bombing raids, and simply wear them down, and starve them out.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon
____

And 1mm(?) dead civilians from bombings and starvation (and dead POWs and US airmen). There are probably estimates on how many German and other civilians died from Allied bombing to get an approximation for Japan. Who knows, maybe the Emporer and the military junta would have capitulated. Hard to say, but probably more than likely many fewer casualties with the a-bomb.

Posted by: WEF at December 26, 2024 12:10 PM (fs1hN)

191 /off gobalist sock

Posted by: Chuck Martel at December 26, 2024 12:11 PM (fs1hN)

192 I got halfway through the Tim Curry reading of A Christmas Carol, and will finish the rest today.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at December 26, 2024 12:11 PM (lhenN)

193 >>>Fascism has been discredited as a political philosophy

Fascism has only been discredited by name. The philosophy behind it, aka Corporatism, is alive and well. The use of powerful corporations by the government to facilitate their reign is prevalent throughout the West, including in the USA.

Posted by: No Name Today at December 26, 2024 12:11 PM (vlXMQ)

194 Scrooge was more right than Fezziwig.
Posted by: BurtTC

Fezziwig threw better parties, though.
Posted by: Bulg at December 26, 2024 12:05 PM (v6JzV)

If you work for a company that throws Christmas parties, and you getting to bang Carol from Accounting means you'll work harder after the holidays, then that just means Carol from Accounting is part of your salary. Or a "fringe benefit," if you want to call it that, but it's still compensation for your labor.

Now, if that's part of ol' Fezziwig's thought process, then I'd call that Scroogian, but really, I don't think Fezziwig knows about Carol from Accounting.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 26, 2024 12:12 PM (wpZtv)

195 Looks like lots if Trump voters are already regretting their votes. It's a big thing now, and growing. Vice President Harris would definitely win if the election was held again.

*****************

People are already saying we need to bring back asylums, you don't have to keep selling it

Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - Now Evaluating the Best Wagshambas of 2024 at December 26, 2024 12:13 PM (sMwSS)

196
I'm suggesting that a third option, containment, was on the table, but neglected.

__________

Containment might have been an alternative if we didn't have the atomic bomb. But we had it and if we had it we were going to use it. Nobody at the time quibbled about that.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 26, 2024 12:15 PM (dxSpM)

197 The Christmas Spirit is alive and well.

Christmas family dispute leads to 3 shot, 1 stabbed at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport: police

https://tinyurl.com/bddjnhv8

Posted by: Ciampino - I'm going to guess Hispanics at December 26, 2024 12:16 PM (i0xsb)

198 197 I did not know Sky Harbor had a 24/7 Waffle House.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at December 26, 2024 12:17 PM (gm9Sb)

199 Now, if that's part of ol' Fezziwig's thought process, then I'd call that Scroogian, but really, I don't think Fezziwig knows about Carol from Accounting.
Posted by: BurtTC

He might not know Carol, but I'll be he knows Carl from Accounting. IYKWIMAIKTYD.

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 12:18 PM (H9VzD)

200 193 >>>Fascism has been discredited as a political philosophy

Fascism has only been discredited by name. The philosophy behind it, aka Corporatism, is alive and well. The use of powerful corporations by the government to facilitate their reign is prevalent throughout the West, including in the USA.

Posted by: No Name Today at December 26, 2024 12:11 PM (vlXMQ)
----
Benito would concur.

Posted by: Ciampino - The Mussolini swagger at December 26, 2024 12:18 PM (i0xsb)

201 The Christmas Spirit is alive and well.

Christmas family dispute leads to 3 shot, 1 stabbed at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport: police

https://tinyurl.com/bddjnhv8

Posted by: Ciampino

We had two or three separate incidents across N Texas yesterday and Tuesday.

Posted by: rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices at December 26, 2024 12:20 PM (H9VzD)

202 197
'Christmas family dispute leads to 3 shot, 1 stabbed at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport: police'

No identities revealed by the police.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at December 26, 2024 12:24 PM (3wi/L)

203 Thing is, we are often presented a false dichotomy: use the A-bomb vs. massive, and hugely costly invasion of the Home Islands. I'm suggesting that a third option, containment, was on the table, but neglected. Obviously, use of the a-bomb was the best option, and I support it, but it was not the only alternative to an invasion.

Ah, I did not understand your point. Thanks.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 26, 2024 12:25 PM (xCA6C)

204 I agree with your essay, but I would add that we're fighting man's sinful nature. Without God, we're always looking out for #1, one way or another, even when we're 'nice people.'

John Adams warned us: "... Should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation [that is, hypocrisy] towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation while it is practicing iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world; because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.

'Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Posted by: Beverly at December 26, 2024 12:34 PM (Epeb0)

205 Footnote: the Communists and 'fellow travelers' in the Free World ONLY turned against the National Socialists when Hitler broke the Hitler-Stalin Pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop) and attacked the Soviet Union in the second year of WWII.

Up to that point, they were pumping out propaganda urging Americans to stay OUT of the war, because of the dirty deal Stalin made with Hitler to carve up Poland between them. See, e.g., Dalton Trumbo's book "Johnny Got His Gun." (The bastard Trumbo was a committed Stalinist to the end of his days.) But as soon as Hitler attacked the USSR, US Communists were ordered to do a 180 and feign being American patriots, to get us into the war on the Soviet side.

Posted by: Beverly at December 26, 2024 12:39 PM (Epeb0)

206 Mussolini was a Communist before he decided that the most practical way to create and sustain a leftwing dictatorship was via 'fascism': he saw that corporate titans, if brought onboard, would help sustain the dictatorship rather than bucking it. 'You can keep Fiat and your millions; just do as I, Il Duce, say.'

Posted by: Beverly at December 26, 2024 12:47 PM (Epeb0)

207 People in high places peddling communism want both power and a low world population.
Communism provides them a path for both.

Posted by: Bess Manners at December 26, 2024 01:25 PM (nyKwI)

208 I also hated Oppy. A big, bloviated, self-loathing mess.

Posted by: PJ at December 26, 2024 02:58 PM (RRCAT)

209 I am tired of people endlessly extolling the Founding Fathers and their belief in small government. The Constitution was a brilliant political act. BUT the FF knew nothing about self-governance which is the key to limiting government. They weren’t bad men, just ignorant. Our new government modeled the British form almost down to the penny. We need a new Constitution, V2, to undo the harm caused by V1. Ask yourself, where are the Checks and Balances Madison wrote about? You won’t find them in the Constitution. It’s all lies and dishonesty from our “scholars”, politicians, judges, lawyers, et al.

Posted by: JackWayne at December 26, 2024 03:12 PM (e+cRb)

210 Hitler's first name was "Adolf", not "Adolph".

Posted by: The Old Sarge at December 27, 2024 09:56 AM (uKwL7)

Processing 0.03, elapsed 0.0402 seconds.
14 queries taking 0.0109 seconds, 218 records returned.
Page size 128 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.