Several regular commenters have alerted me that WordPress is making it difficult to post. I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know the platform is messing with its software again, fixing some problems while creating others.
I’m sorry. I’ll always post a comment for you if you get frustrated: just email me. (I will NOT post comments if you have been banned. You know who you are…)
1. No matter what the polls say now, Trump can screw it up: As night follows day, Donald Trump, flushed with cockiness over recent polls showing him clobbering Joe Biden if the two were to face off today in an election more than a year away, started shooting off his mouth and keyboard with extravagant claims and threats. Such as:
- On Truth Social: “They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its “Country Threatening Treason.” Their endless coverage of the now fully debunked SCAM known as Russia, Russia, Russia, and much else, is one big Campaign Contribution to the Radical Left Democrat Party. I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events. Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country!”
(Psst! The answer to “why” is “The First Amendment,” you idiot.)
- A spokesman for Trump posted a video on Twitter (you know, “X”) yesterday showing him at a gun shop in South Carolina and boasting that he had just bought a Glock pistol. This raises legal issues, since Trump is charged with several felonies. Then the fool who posted it took the video down,writing that “President Trump did not purchase or take possession of the firearm. He simply indicated that he wanted one.” Oh. As always, Trump has “the best people” working for him.
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Here’s a rant from Trump about Sen. Menendez two days ago: “Senate Democrats should all resign based on Senator Bob Menendez! They all knew what was going on, and the way he lived. Why doesn’t the FBI raid Senate Democrat’s homes like they illegally raided Mar-a-Lago, where nothing was done wrong based on the Presidential Records Act. Menendez is a ‘piker’ compared to some of those Election Stealing THUGS. Can you imagine how much Crooked Joe Biden has stolen, and what’s in some of his many homes? The FBI and ‘Justice’ notified him that they would be going in to look, ‘in a few weeks.’ In other words, get rid of the cash, gold, & documents, ASAP, before we get there. They didn’t give me any warning, they just showed up. Hunter lived with Crooked Joe in Delaware. It would be a ‘Treasure Hunt!’ Crooked’s coffers must be loaded up with cash. I wonder how much they got paid for Rigging the Election? Menendez is one of many, a small timer at that. EVERY DEMOCRAT SHOULD RESIGN FROM THE SENATE! Our Border’s are Broken, our Election’s are Rigged. MAGA!”
How Presidential.
- Also on his social-media network Truth Social, Trump wrote that Gen. Mark Milley’s phone call to reassure China in the aftermath of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, was “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”
2. Apparently there is a dearth of genuine racist incidents in the U.S. , so now we’re fulminating over a year-old incident in Ireland.
It is a horrible and cruel scene: at a GymSTART event in March 2022, a young girl, the only black in a line of white gymnasts, waits excitedly for her medal as they are being handed out, and the official skips over her, giving every other young gymnast a medal. Someone posted the video on “X,” and there was an immediate uproar, with four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles writing that when the video appeared, the girl’s parents contacted her.
Biles said she senta video message to the young gymnast. She began the video by saying, “I wanted to let you know that I saw how you were treated at your GymStart event recently. I was completely shocked and wanted to let you know that you deserve a medal just like all of the other girls.” “I know you’ve worked incredibly hard at the sport and I wanted to say I am rooting for you from here,” Biles continued.“Sending you my very best and know that there are so many of us here to support you.”
It was a nice and kind gesture. I would be more impressed with it if Biles wasn’t exploiting the situation for her own aggrandizement and publicity.
Gymnastics Ireland, the sport’s national governing body and host of the GymSTART event, responded to the controversy by issuing an official statement, revealing that it received a complaint “from the parents of one of our members” about the “alleged racist behaviour” after the March 2022 event. “Subsequently both parties agreed to enter mediation which was independently facilitated by Sports Disputes Solutions Ireland as per our policy/procedure which led to a resolution agreed by both parties in August 2023,” the statement said.
It took 17 months to “resolve” that episode? Wow. How hard is it to say, “We’re so sorry. That official has been fired”?
But no. the official “accepted fully” that her conduct was “not acceptable,” but “stressed that it had not been intentional,” the statement says. Oh, please. Here’s the video:
Gymnastics Ireland also said that the official ultimately presented the girl with a medal before she left the event, and the the organization requested the opportunity to apologize to the girl and her family in person. When this request was denied, it issued a written apology. The gymnast’s mother denies that the complaint has been settled, and says her daughter received a one-line written apology from the official addressed “to whom it concerns.”
Ethics Alarms 
When I saw a reference to Trump’s post about investigating the media, I immediately assumed it would show up on here at some point. I missed his other two foot bullets though.
I am still glad I voted for Gary Johnson in 2016, as the least bad option. It’s a pity the libertarian party can’t seem to nominate a more capable candidate, but he was running against the two worst candidates and should have actually had a shot. If it does end up Biden vs Trump again, I’ll take a drink and vote for a third party again.
Any commentary on the Canadian Parliament’s invitation of an old Ukrainian who joined one of Germany’s foreign recruited divisions to fight against Communists?
They’re being lambasted by people who have no concept of what happened to the people of the “bloodlands” between the Communist Russians and the Nazi Germans.
And in the same vein as the most recent German to be indicted because of WW2, now this guy is being trashed for what he did as a teenager when he chose to fight against the communists who had actively tried to starve his people to death because he figured, well the Germans might help me get rid of the Russians.
It’s important to remember that Stalin killed more people than Hitler ever could. The legacy of communism today is held in far higher regard than it possibly deserves, largely due to the prevalence of communist sympathizers (or just outright card-carrying members) in the West. See some of the NYT articles about Stalin if you want to know what I mean. It really makes you wonder how bad Soviet rule was in Ukraine that a lot of people chose the Nazis as the lesser evil.
However, Yaroslav Hunka was not just any Nazi recruit from Ukraine. He joined the 14th SS division. For those who don’t know, the SS divisions were the ones who were responsible for following up after the frontline troops and exterminating all of the undesirables. Hunka played a direct role in the Nazi genocide, far more than any concentration camp guard ever did. He deserves all of the scorn and then some.
As for the Canadian government, this is clearly a bias makes you stupid moment. Ukraine is the Current Thing, so let’s celebrate an old man who fought against the Russians in WWII. Except anyone with a brain knows who exactly the Russian opponent was in that war. And there are still actual Nazis in Ukraine, such as the Azov brigade. I don’t think they are waving swastikas around in 2023 to celebrate their ancestors joining the Germans out of convenience to oppose Soviet brutality.
1) The SS Units were bad. Specifically recruited for specifically heinous reasons. The war dragged on and Waffen-SS units were formed from foreign volunteers and conscripts. Still generally a bad motive. But it’s not so cut and dry as eventually these units were just more fodder for the German war machine and Waffen SS Units were increasingly just “foreign legion” for Germany.
Still not a great organization to join.
2) But no one, not one single thinking adult, should pretend like the eastern front was anything other than – “whoever kills communists is doing a good thing, and that includes nazis” AND “whoever kills nazis is doing a good thing, and that includes communists”. There is not going to be one single country between Russia and Germany that isn’t going to have that dichotomy in their “foundation myths”.
3) Our own founding heroes engaged in some morally abhorrent conduct. Guess what…still our heroes until the fools in cancel culture get their way. The same is going to go for any country that was brutalized by either or both of the leading totalitarian ideologies of the mid 1900s.
4) Do Ukrainians seem to have a comfort level with nazi symbolism I find discomforting? Sure. They seem oddly comfortable with Jewish people and other minorities in direct opposition to nazi ideology. So maybe the affinity has less to do with nazism and more to do with that murky history that includes hating the USSR (and understandably so). And sure, in all situations, there will be legitimate nazis who will hide amongst those ranks. But for supposed actual nazis, they sure seem awfully enthusiastic in support of their Jewish president.
5) And again, to the point of this being a teenager. Did the kid have other non-communist AND non-nazi organizations he could’ve joined that were generally in resistance movements? Sure – but even *those* organizations are vilified as being “too this” or “too that” in the modern day. Could he have been a martyr and opposed all evil despite the personal costs? Sure. But man, a lotta people sitting in their air conditioned living rooms watching the college football game on their big screen TVs are 100% certain they would never make such a dubious choice when facing what the Eastern Europeans faced at the time.
6) Should the Canadian parliament snub Ukraine because they are finding heroes from difficult times that may have been associated with bad things but were ultimately fighting for Ukraine? Not sure about that. The nazi enemy was defeated. Germany has, so far, shown itself to be better than it was on the world stage. The communist enemy was sort of defeated…but Russia has yet to join the table of friendship on the world stage. And in that context, the current birth of the Ukrainian nation, free of Russian dominance, is going to find heroes of people who…fought against Russian dominance.
#2 – will stand by this claim for eternity:
People who think that citizens, especially white citizens, of the United States have problems with racism, have never interacted with a single person outside of the United States in their life. You want real, unmitigated, unashamed racism? Leave the United States and get literally any person from another country comfortable enough to talk about, not just someone of a different race, but even someone from the next country over who ostensibly shares their race.
Absolutely, Michael. Anyone who says the United States needs to be more like Europe needs to go to Europe and see the tribalism there for themselves. Or maybe Africa to see actual tribalism in practice. Idiots.
(Below is a comment I am relaying from AM Golden, who has also been having trouble posting comments.)
As a socially-awkward teenage white girl in middle school who lacked confidence, I stood out occasionally by my good grades. An awards ceremony each semester was a moment in which I could walk across a stage to pick up a certificate or two as my name was called. Call it silly, but 14-year-old kids sometimes need that kind of validation.
I remember sitting through such a ceremony one semester, waiting, waiting, for my name to be called. It wasn’t. I was a little confused. I was sure I’d done well. My name wasn’t even called for the Honor Roll. As we began walking back to class, my counselor rushed up to me, handed me a certificate and hurriedly apologized, telling me they’d forgotten me.
They forgot me? My name was on the certificate. Did they not read names from the certificates? Did they transfer names from certificates to a master list to be read and just didn’t get mine on it? Did the counselor accidentally hold on to my certificate during the ceremony, rubbing it for good luck?
At least, I got an apology. But it didn’t feel good to be forgotten. I was used to that happening other places, but not at school. My moment to have my name spoken. My moment to be on stage. To be acknowledged. To be seen.
I was big enough to understand that mistakes happen, though, so I tried to shrug it off and be mature about it.
It happened again the next semester. That time, I didn’t even get an apology.
It takes a special kind of evil for someone to deliberately skip a child like that jerk did. Giving her the medal later when there was no one else around, when there were no cameras, took a moment from her that she won’t get back.
Not to excuse weaponizing the airwaves but. . .
Actually, the Feds regulate broadcast airwaves so the FCC can scrutinize without infringing on the 1st amendment. There are significant restrictions on what can be broadcast by licensees. This is limited to broadcast media only.
MSNBC and Fox are on cable so they are free to broadcast anything they want. I would say that the FEC look at rules regarding in kind contributions in order to avoid limits on contributions.