The Week in Review
It was a glorious two years, but now I can't call the toddlers in my neighborhood "fag retards" anymore.
"Pronouns are going back into bios, and everyone who has an odd-numbered birthday needs to report for their gender reassignment on Monday." Nellie Bowles
One ardent Trump hater on the right noted: The wars won't stop and now we have woke again. W-squared.
Doesn't everyone understand Trump himself killed MAGA? Trump was gonna slash up the Establishment like Zorro. He didn't. Didn't even try on the most important fronts, his sword more flaccid than plastic on a hot stove.
So the folks who rallied to him in 2024 stayed home in 2026. Why take an hour of your day to get kicked in the scrotum when you can get kicked in the scrotum from the comfort of your own family room?
That's all the elections have become: Which side is more fed up with the Establishment? Its base rallies to vote, thinking it'll make a difference. See-saw, with the Establishment putting a fat man on one side until all the skinny dolts from one pole of the spectrum pile on the other side, then the fat man rolling off and letting those dolts crash and look stupid as hell. Then the fat man goes to the other side and watches the dolts from the other pole of the spectrum pile on. And on and on.
It won't stop until the skinny dolts (me, last Tuesday) stop playing the game. I don't know what happens at that point, but the game as currently played is pointless, unless, like me, you want to be able to use politically-incorrect slurs and tell jokes that the zombie left doesn't like.
Trump's betrayal, quite frankly, was so stark, I think it was a good thing not to vote on Tuesday. That wasn't my position last Tuesday (those sons-of-bitches get me every time), but in retrospect? Those who didn't vote sent the strongest message to the Establishment.
Nellie Bowles
It was a Moderate Wave
M-o-d-e-r-a-t-e is how you spell "Establishment"
Joe Klein says the Democrats rocked the I-35 corridor that runs through the guts of America, and, contrary to what the sensationalist press tells us, it was an extremely moderate revolution:
These developments overwhelmed any self-satisfied ripples made by the democratic socialists; it was a moderate stampede. Abdul El-Sayed will be marginalized by Chuck Schumer, who doesn’t like people who don’t like Israel. If Hakeem Jeffries is as clever as I think he is, he won’t allow the party’s left wing to mitigate the message from I-35. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are a splinter of a failed atavistic wing of the party; they’ll be obnoxious, but I-35 Democrats should not be afraid to tell them to just shut up . . .
Translation: Don't worry, folks. Nothing is going to change. Israel will still exert out-sized influence in our foreign affairs.
I really dig The Free Press and its vaguely libertarian leanings, but man, it's so relentlessly pro-Israel, it kinda bums me out.
Oh well. I'll just call it "big tent libertarianism."
Joe Klein
Even the Mexicans Turned Against Trump
Hispanics were the feel-good story of the Trump years. Mexicans tend to be Catholic, hard-working, and more politically-incorrect in their humor than Nick Fuentes after a few tequilas. Such folks liked Trump's irreverence and iconoclasm and came over to the right. But they just went back.
The progress the GOP made with Hispanic voters over the past decade is mostly gone, and whatever is left is on probation. After shifting more than 20 points toward Republicans in 2024, they swung 27 to the left last night. It was the largest shift of any demographic group. Nationally the GOP kept some of what it gained. D+27 is still 10 points better than 2016 or 2018. In Texas, Republicans are back in the wilderness.
The Jewish Thing Puzzles Me, Too, but Come On, Folks
There's something wrong about our connection to Israel. I honestly don't know how any sane person can think otherwise after both parties gave Netanyahu standing ovations at the height of the bitter 2024 presidential election. It resembled Stalin addressing the Supreme Soviet (though, fairly, about 50 members of Congress boycotted the speech).
And then I'm reminded George Soros is Jewish, as are a disproportionate number of influential radicals and socialists and communists over the past 150 years. I often find myself sitting in my Lazy-boy, staring at the ceiling, cramming down evil thoughts by repeating pro-Jewish mantras: "Seinfeld is hilarious/Seinfeld is hilarious," "Rothbard/von Mises/Rothbard/von Mises," "Sammy Davis/Sammy Davis."
I'm also not downloading The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to my Scribe, and I sure as heck am not looking for another Kristallnacht.
Anti-Israel activists in Philadelphia are organizing a November 8 bicycle boycott rally through Rittenhouse Square targeting at least six Jewish- and Israeli-owned businesses, including Israeli restaurants Dizengoff, Goldie, and K’Far Café, sandwich shop Huda, a Jewish deli, Schlesinger’s, and Mac Mart, a macaroni and cheese shop. Flyers declare that “these Zionist establishments must go,” and the organizers wrote that they need to “show these Zionist business owners that we see them for the disgusting humans they are.” . . . The rally is scheduled for the eve of Kristallnacht’s anniversary.
I understand the anger, I really do, but this shit's gotta be stomped out.
Russell Brand Found Guilty
Alexander Lorman kicks Brand in the behind as he walks into his cell.
Alexander Larman
A truly appalling man has been found guilty of heinous crimes, and everyone who cares about right being done should breathe a sigh of relief that the reckoning has arrived at last.
I really liked Brand's podcast. I quit listening to it year a long time ago, but it was simply attentional drift on my part. I have no idea if Lorman is correct about Brand, but Brand's monologues and interviews were witty and insightful. A brilliant man who did his homework. All a farce to appeal to folks like me? Apparently not: Lorman said Brand appealed to the young, credulous, and female. At best, I'm only one of those (unless it's Friday night and I'm feelin' randy after a few drinks).
It's a truly puzzling juxtaposition: a Christian, well-read monster. But it's recurred often. Another Brit, Eric Gill, comes to mind, but the examples are countless.
British prison is no vacation. I was fairly appalled by Taki's description of his ordeal, and I guess Stacy Keach (played hard-nosed detective Mike Hammer on TV, but was very gentle in real life) had a pretty terrible time in gaol. Maybe things have gotten better.
Let's hope so.
Brand made a lot of people laugh, and that's worth something. Apparently, not nearly enough, but something.
Brand Postscript
John Sturgis at The Spectator piled onto the anti-Brandwagon, albeit with more humor (even bringing back the great word "priapic") and less harshness.
Brand in his noughties pomp reveled in his swordsman reputation, speaking and writing about it freely countless times. His sexual prowess was always performative. He even won awards for it: he was the tabloid Sun’s “Shagger of the Year” three times in a row.