The Chattering Class…less

The chattering class who thinks President Trump is a misogynist and believes his entire party has an ongoing War on Women,

seems to have no problem with their team mates mocking Sarah Huckabee Sanders for her looks.

“I feel like Sarah Huckabee Sanders left and right eye switched places or something,” comedian Akliah Hughes wrote on Twitter.

Why, I’m so old I remember when “little eye” was cool:

And the bullying from the anti-bully party of inclusion only gets worse from there: next, a gay writer for the Daily Beast assumes it was okay to call a girl names as long as she has an R after her name:

And since when, might I ask, has the Left had a problem with butch queens?

From there the tolerant Left goes right to the weight angle (known as body shaming when directed towards non-conservative women).

“Sarah Huckabee Sanders looks like every woman eating lobster on a cruise ship,” Family Guy writer Damien Fahey tweeted.

And you know who you’ll never see eating lobster on a public cruise ship? Lady M and Boo-rock; because with friends like David Geffen all you need do is have your personal assistant place a call and you’ll be cruising French Polynesia in private style, eating anything and as much of it as you’d like.

And it appears the entire family are foodies now that they no longer have to tell America how to eat. They’ve moved on from whole lobster to a trendier NYC style cuisine:

Barack and the girls came with an appetite that night too, ordering the restaurants famed veal parmigiana, crab cakes, a porterhouse for two, spicy rigatoni alla vodka, meatballs, lobster ravioli, and a bottle of Fenocchio Barbaresco.

And while the food, which is carefully crafted by co-chefs Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, is some of the best in the city, it does come at a bit of a cost.

The veal parmigiana is $55 and the porterhouse for two rings in at $195, though it does come with an incredible tableside presentation in addition to the perfectly grilled 60-day dry-aged cut from Pat LaFrieda.

But shoot, when you’ve just inked a $60 million joint book deal, are still head of the Resistance and a sex symbol I guess you can act, dress and eat what ever you’d like with impunity.

Could you imagine the hellfire and brimstone that would’ve rained down had a journalist or comedian made similar remarks about former First Lady Michelle Obama?  - Todd Starnes, Fox News

Why, the insane Left would probably stick pussy hats on their head and demand the President be impeached.

Or something.

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

47 Years of Racial Healing

I’ve decided to reread a Tom Wolfe book during my week away from fake news. But which one? He’s such a prolific writer and the choices span both genres and generations: Bonfire of the Vanities, The Right Stuff, From Bauhaus to Our House…since I just reread - and reported on - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test last year, during The Occupation, so that’s out:

Interestingly, what was “new” journalism then – injecting yourself into the story and relating the facts as you  fancifully see fit, is now just journalism. Once the purview of Fine Arts and English programs, non-fiction today has oozed its way into J-schools as “literary reportage” which helps explain situations like those examined in yesterday’s post. Most journalists are now writers of creative non-fiction – a genre that not too long ago would have been considered an oxymoron.

Although Bonfire of the Vanities was intended to be a set piece of the ‘80s, it has aged amazingly well; still admirably reflecting today’s glorification of all things non-western, non-white:

“How very American it was to assume that these unsmiling Chinese would be pleased if one showed a preference for their native implements...How very American it was to feel somehow guilty unless one struggled over rice noodles and lumps of meat with things that looked like enlarged knitting needles.” ― The Bonfire of the Vanities

And who couldn’t love a book that coined the term “social x-ray” for anorexic women-of-some-means? But I think for my week off I’ll go into the way-way back machine and tackle Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. It too has aged surprisingly well, tracing the roots of today’s liberal inanities through two essays, "These Radical Chic Evenings"  and "Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers." 

Both examine the intricate balance of black rage and white guilt. Part 1:

The first piece is set in the duplex on Park Avenue in Manhattan inhabited by conductor Leonard Bernstein, his wife the actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre, and their three children. Bernstein assembled many of his wealthy socialite friends to meet with representatives of the controversial Black Panthers and discuss ways to help their cause. The party was a typical affair for Bernstein, a longtime Democrat, who was known for hosting civil rights leaders at such parties.

The Bernsteins' usual staff of white South Americans served the party. Some of the Bernsteins' typical friends in the arts and guests in journalism (including Oscar-nominated director Otto Preminger and television reporter Barbara Walters) are labeled the "radical chic," as Wolfe characterizes them as pursuing radical ends for social reasons, partially because organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had become too mainstream. Wolfe's criticism is implicitly of the general phenomena of white guilt and armchair agitation becoming facets of high fashion. Wiki

Originally published in 1970 all you would have to do to update for today’s audience all you’d have to do is would be to change the names of the condescending do-gooders; all of the objects of Wolfe’s original ridicule have passed on, with the exception of the immortal Barbara Walters.

Part 2 is likewise still relevant today:

The second part of Wolfe's book is set at the Office of Economic Opportunity in San Francisco which was in charge of administering many of the anti-poverty programs of the time. Wolfe presents the office as corrupt, continually gamed by hustlers diverting cash into their own pockets. The essay centers on the irony of these failed programs fortifying not the diets but the resentment and contempt of the Black, Chicano, Filipino, Chinese, Indian, and Samoan communities of San Francisco.

Wolfe describes hapless bureaucrats (the Flak Catchers) whose function was reduced to taking abuse, or "mau-mauing" (in reference to the intimidation tactics employed in Kenya's anti-colonial Mau Mau Uprising) from intimidating young Blacks and Samoans, who are seen as reveling in the newfound vulnerability of "the Man". The flak-catchers smile pathetically, allowing their tormentors to indulge themselves in abuse; the process is seen as a farcical but useful expedient, condescending toward the resentment of these communities. He described one mau-mauer who would show up at the offices and hand over ice-picks, switch-blades and straight-razors that he said were taken from gangs, in exchange for payments from the program. As a result, much of the money of these programs was not reaching its intended recipients, rendering the programs largely ineffective. - Wiki

The only thing that hasn’t aged well is the cover of the original edition: 

Progressives have been so successful at their self-loathing load of bull crap that political correctness now deems the original cover art to be racist. Thank you Obama.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

I’ll Be On the Beach If You Need Me

Well, it’s official; my computer has a serious disease of the hardware and has to go to the hospital for a few weeks. Bear with me, as this may be painful. I’ve stopped using the alien computer that hates me because I’m white (one of Raj’s old models) and have regressed to my own old computer that has hated me from the day I took it out of the box for who knows why. Maybe it resented having to report on Michelle Obama day after day…after day. Believe me, I’m empathetic.

Anyway, it’s been asleep so long it didn’t even know that Obama and his consort had left the building, replaced by President Donald J. Trump and his lovely wife, Melania. So I’m giving it another chance although now I discover its battery is shot. We’ll see how it handles Making America Great Again before we negotiate on procuring a new power source. Also,  I’ve explained that the double tt’d “butt” – which is all this vintage computer knows - is history now that the Occupation is over (except on FLOTUS Fridays if we’re doing retrospectives)  but(t) we’ll see how well it does learning.

Learning makes my head hurt

So, I’m still in my politics-free zone. You’re free to comment on the lives and times in these United States. I’m staying on the beach a bit longer. I’ll be staying hydrated,

I’ll be trading my covfefe for iced tea

and avoiding Drudge like the plague it’s turned into.

I’ll be on the beach if you need me. But(t) then, why would you?

Lake Huron, on the sunrise side of the Mitten, yes it really is that clean

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

“Like Sands Through the Hourglass, So Are the Days of Our Lives.”

Our story today begins millennia ago, as the retreating glaciers (formed during the Ice Age) carved out the Great Lakes basin (during the earth’s last global warming period caused by carbon emissions).

Along with the magnificently clear waters of the Great Lakes this global warming phenomenon left huge deposits of quartz sand behind that over time gathered in massive sand dunes that are still here today, although they are ever shifting and changing. The largest of these dunes reside in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore…

where they rise 450 feet above the lake

Overlook at Pierce Stocking 9 Mile marker, Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore

And the sugar sand beaches they created aren’t too shabby either:

But today’s story is about sand dunes turned deadly. About 80 miles south of the Sleeping Bear Dunes are far more sinister dunes, they surround Silver Lake and spill into Lake Michigan. Operative word, “spill.”

Here’s where things turn ugly: the creeping sands of time are not just a metaphor in Meers, Michigan. Aided and abetted by the wind they actually do creep, lately at an increasing rate and they are swallowing whole cottages in their path.

This is all that’s left after it consumed a cottage in April:

Despite efforts to slow and reverse the trend,

the dune remains unsatiated; it now has its site on the cottage next door:

And it doesn’t look good. I’m sure somewhere Al Gore will be blaming this demise - as he has every other natural disaster since he invented the Internet – on man-caused global warming. But just like all of the other allegations, this is a natural phenomenon, against which we are quite utterly, completely helpless. It’s called change: constant, incremental and expected – but only for those of us who live in the real world. In the alternate universe of Al Gore’s global warmists, ‘Some Levels of the Earth System Have Crossed a Point of No Return’. I tell you what Al, you figure out how to stop the advance of this dune and then we’ll discuss your plan to change the climate, one cow fart at a time.

And while you’re at you may want to put together a plan on how to stop those approaching glaciers in case your global warming actually turns out to be global cooling. And keep in mind, in case of that eventuality you’re going to want to have as much carbon based fuel as you can get your greedy little paws on.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Sun, Sand and Beaches Trump Politics

Drama Queen linked this from Dystopic at The Declination last Saturday: I Need A Vacation

Of late, politics has been particularly nasty and overly repetitive. Russia! Russia! Russia! Trump tweeted something. Something was sexist, or racist, or some other thing…

All of this is too much. It’s headache-inducing. At one point, I could laugh at politics…

Today, the amusement has been sucked dry, and replaced with the constant bleating of sheep. It’s not funny anymore. Everything is identity politics. Everything. You can’t have a glass of milk without someone saying that milk is white, therefore racist. You can’t enjoy Chinese takeout without accusations of microaggressions…

Allow me to illustrate his point. Here’s Obama/Hillary superstar supporter Katy Perry auto-response to a trigger:

I’d say she’s a little trigger happy. And by the way, There (their, there) are only two ways to spell ‘yours’ by most English standards, unless ‘you’re’ including ‘yer’ in the count. But back to the Declination:

Most folks in the world just want to be left alone. And that is precisely what cannot be countenanced these days.

Well, to hell with that. I’m going to take a break from politics for at least a few days. Maybe I’ll write about whiskey, or technology, or Byzantine history. I don’t know.

But no politics.

I highly recommend other folks do the same from time-to-time. This level of politicization cannot be good for anybody.

Indeed, it cannot. Thanks Dystopic, don’t mind if I do. I think I’ll focus on sun, sand and beaches. Actually, I think I’ll hold that thought till tomorrow. Today I’m going to the beach. And wait for the sun to set.

Sunset on Lake Michigan at the Grand Haven lighthouse

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

FLOTUS Friday July 21

I’ve been having mega computer problems this week  - in that it refuses to connect/stay connected to any of our wireless networks, although every other device in the house is working just fine, so no, not a router issue. So…you will need to do the heavy lifting today as I am reporting from an alien computer that hates me because I’m white.

Melania, first year of the first term, totally managing the whole FLOTUS thing

Michelle, first year of the first term, totally rocking the whole, uh, whatever…

If anyone is aware of a fix for my hardware problem please advise. Otherwise I’m going to have to continue working with this alien computer until such time as mine either receives a proper H1B visa or is deported.

Carry on troops.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Do You Want Fries With Your Hamburger Problem?

Republicans clearly have problems in delivering the promises they were elected on.

But the Democrats have problems of their own. It’s what Josh Barrow (who I’d be willing to bet is a never-Trumper but I’m not interested enough to check) refers to as  the Left’s ‘hamburger problem.’

As I see it, Democrats' problem isn't that they're on the wrong side of policy issues. It's that they're too ready to bother too many ordinary people about too many of their personal choices, all the way down to the hamburgers they eat.

They don't always want to prohibit those choices. But they have become smug and condescending toward anyone who does not match the personal lifestyle choices of liberal elites. Why would the voters on the receiving end of that smug condescension trust such a movement to operate the government in their best interest?

Hamburgers are killing the polar bears!

Ed Driscoll cites Kyle Smith at NRO:

Progressives have a problem: They ladle unto every decision, even the most mundane and trifling one, an unattractive glop of gooey political significance. They can’t resist warning the rest of us that we’re abetting the destruction of the planet every time we, say, tuck into a Quarter Pounder.

Josh Barro is a recovering ex-Republican who is now a member of a niche political group: the non-crazy Democrats. He coined a cute phrase — “the hamburger problem” — to describe the relentless politicization of everything by progressives and Democrats. He writes, “Democrats’ problem isn’t that they’re on the wrong side of policy issues. It’s that they’re too ready to bother too many ordinary people about too many of their personal choices, all the way down to the hamburgers they eat.” He cites nonstop Democratic hectoring on, inter alia, the team name of the Washington Redskins, the way men sit on subway trains, and even some Americans’ choice not to abide by China’s one-child standard as the reasons why the party is today as electorally wobbly as Rocky Balboa in the 15th round. Yet the GOP’s success puzzles him still, because so many core Democratic cultural ideals (notably, gay marriage and marijuana decriminalization) poll more and more strongly.

When John Stuart Mill called the British conservatives “the stupidest party,” it stuck. Today the Democrats are the Annoying Party. The Left thinks Americans are picturing Mary Poppins when they talk about the nanny state; in truth, they’re thinking of Nurse Ratched. The prospect of a new set of nuisances being dreamed up and lashingly enforced by Hillary Clinton is what led voters to roll the dice with an Atlantic City grifter.

I ask you, is there anything worse than an an arrogant, smug schmuck who has absolutely zero reason for being arrogant and smug?

“Do you want fries with that order?”

And that’s what I call a ‘hamburger problem.’

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Change We Can Believe In

Two things:

1. REPEAL AND REPLACE! – Charlie Daniels style:

OK the congress and senate we have can't work together and have proven it.
solution- replace them all until we find people who can

— Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) July 18, 2017

2. He’s not just talking about the Republicans: POLL: 52 Percent Of Americans Think Democratic Party Just Stands Against Trump

REPEAL AND REPLACE CONGRESS! CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!