Month: November 2014

Progressive agitators summon a mini-Mob in San Francisco. #ferguson

Not to be impolite about this, but one thing is absolutely certain about these violent San Francisco protesters (all bolding mine):

Shopkeepers lowered metal gates to protect their entries while shoppers with children dashed inside the giant Macy’s store and cowered behind locked doors. Some protesters broke shop windows and screamed at police, while others threw objects including bottles at officers.

Several families ran from the protest area while hundreds crowded behind police lines at Union Square’s ice rink. An activist spray painted “F T P” (F—The Police) on an Apple Store, watched by dozens of wide-eyed shoppers huddled inside.

…not a one of ’em vote Republican.  Most would, in fact, chew off their own legs before voting Republican. I would not care to bet any money that none of them would be opposed to putting people like me in a Stalin-era work camp.  Or people like you. Continue reading Progressive agitators summon a mini-Mob in San Francisco. #ferguson

‘Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever’ is, I think, fallout from the Second Seal.

To quote Eric Flint: who ordered this?

This is apparently real, and coming to you via Lifetime. …Of course it is. God help us all, it’ll probably become iconic for the current generation.

In the mail: Horror on the Orient Express.

Dear God but this thing is heavy.

horror-orient-express

This is the rather delayed Kickstarter project; and it is, indeed, huge. To the point where I might use it to press flowers.  Gorgeous as all get-out, of course: those of you who were unfortunate enough not to Kickstart it can pick up a copy next week. For more and minus some goodies, but what the heck. This is your CoC campaign for the next year, seriously.
Continue reading In the mail: Horror on the Orient Express.

Maryland AAG Karen Straughn’s embarrassing urban legend credulousness.

I think that you have to look on the bright side when it comes to situations like these… OK, the text is hard to excerpt. Basically, Maryland Assistant Attorney General (Consumer Protection) Karen Straughn is going around telling people to watch out for carjackers who strike via putting $100 bills under windshield wipers, despite the fact that she knows that it’s not actually happening (it’s an urban legend).  Reason waxed sarcastically wroth; most wondrously sarcastically wroth over this, and understandably so.  Because of AAG Straughn, something like this is ever so slightly more likely to happen, and never mind that the basic idea is absurd; copycats are not always fueled by – ha! – reason.

But here’s the bright side. New Attorney General (Democrat, sure) – and, hey, new Governor (Republican*).  Maybe we can actually get AAG Straughn back into the private sector.  Which sounds crazy, but then: so did electing a Republican governor of Maryland. When greater miracles have transpired, surely a lesser one is possible**…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*…I KNOW, RIGHT?

**You may be feeling a strange sensation right now; an emotional state best described as the lack of the awareness that the worst possible result for a particular situation will of course also be the inevitable result.  Our researchers here at the VRWC have tentatively named this emotional state as ‘hope:’ to the best of our knowledge, it has no lasting long-term ill effects.

Actually, 2014 was pure death for political dynasties.

I was going to snark on this, but on reflection I thought that I should instead note:

  • Mark Pryor, son of Gov./Sen. David Pryor.
  • Mark Udall, son of Rep. Morris Udall.
  • Mark Begich, son of Rep. Nick Begich.
  • Michelle Nunn, daughter of Sen. Sam Nunn.
  • Alison Lundergan Grimes, daughter of KY Dem Chairman Jerry Lundergan.
  • Mary Landrieu, daughter of Mayor/HUD Secretary Moon Landrieu.
  • Jason Carter, grandson of President Jimmy Carter.
  • Gary King, son of Gov. Bruce King.
  • Vincent Shaheen, nephew of SC Speaker Robert Shaheen.

…those are the ones that just leaped out at me (OK, OK, I went through the Senate/gubernatorial lists).  At any rate: this was a bad year to be a member of a political dynasty.  Well, if you were a Democrat, at least: I didn’t check the Republicans, mostly because I didn’t see much point to it. Either the Republican dynasty scions also lost, which would have proved my point further or they happened to win, which would have heaped more coals on the heads of the Democrats who failed their Houses.  Good news either way, in other words.

So, hey, let’s go with 2016. I figure that Jeb Bush won’t win the nomination, so no skin off of my nose, hey?

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines)

Moe Lane

Quote of the Day, Democrats Of Days Past Are More Interesting Than Today’s edition.

It says something about the general, blessed uselessness of the Democratic caucus right now that this paragraph os what leaped out at me:

…what was probably the most dramatic leadership vote in the Democratic caucus, the contest for majority leader in 1976, 38 years ago. The winner was Texas’ Jim Wright, who would go on to become speaker after Tip O’Neill retired 10 years later. The loser was California’s Phil Burton. The vote was 148-147. Burton spent the rest of his life — he died suddenly in 1983, at 56 — trying to track down those who had committed to him but cast their secret ballot for Wright.

That sounds like the backstory for a pretty good political thriller. Or maybe a television episode.  God knows that nothing that House Democrats are doing right now qualifies…

Moe Lane

PS: Did they ever find out who did wrong by Burton?

Barack Obama cannot, in any way, be said to have white working class support.

Gallup is being a bit, ah, antiseptic on this story: “President Barack Obama’s job approval rating among white non-college graduates is at 27% so far in 2014, 14 percentage points lower than among white college graduates. This is the largest yearly gap between these two groups since Obama took office.”  I say ‘antiseptic’ because it should be spelled out more that Obama’s popularity with college educated white voters dropped remarkably in 2010, and has been slowly degrading ever since; but at the same time Obama’s support among working class whites not only dropped similarly in 2010, it did so again after 2012. In other words, Obama seems to have found a floor when it comes to white college graduate voters; white working class ones, not so much.

I mention all of this solely for one reason: in the run-up to 2016 you are going to hear a lot of college educated white Democratic activists solemnly inform you that [INSERT DEMOCRATIC PARTY CANDIDATE HERE] will be able to craft a populist message that will resonate with working class voters.  They are also going to inform you, just as solemnly, that Barack Obama will not be a drag on the ticket.  This is not a case where both of these things cannot be true; it is more a case that neither is true, but the former is slightly less unbelievable than the latter.  It will be interesting to see which Democratic pundits will be able to comprehend this.

[Text deleted]

Moe Lane (crosspost)