I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I saw that CO was jet-setting around the country, but I was lucky enough to be able to stay home at stately Simpson Manor here in the free state of Florida. Both of my daughters made it home, and both of Karen’s brothers and their significant others made it too, and a good time was had by all.
Because of the family coming to our house, I wasn’t able to make it up to Tennessee to see my mom and sister, but they had a restful holiday as well, and we’ll be up to see them soon. Mom continues to do well, so thanks again for all of your good wishes and prayers for her recovery.
By the way, when I heard that Chevy had a syrupy tear-jerker of a new Christmas ad out, I scoffed, seeing as how I’m as tough as a two-dollar steak, and those kind of manipulative things can’t pierce the emotional armor of my manly self-control.
Then I watched it, and it features a grandmother with Alzheimer’s being partially brought back to herself by a nostalgic ride in a 1972 Chevy Suburban around her old home town! (Watch the full 5:30 version online.) And after my recent experiences with mom, I ended up crying like Adam Kinzinger chopping onions as he watched his political career going up in flames.
Also, that commercial had a better storyline and acting than the last dozen woke Disney movie flops put together. And if you tell anyone outside of the CO family that I cried at a car commercial, I’ll call you a lying, dog-faced pony soldier! (Which will confuse them, because that makes absolutely no sense.)
I’ve posted a picture of mom and me from her birthday (maybe 5 years ago) at my own WordPress site (Martinsimpsonwriting.com). If you go there and check it out, you may wonder why mom is laughing like a loon in her party hat, and why she’s in a picture with Brad Pitt wearing his own stylish chapeau.
But no, that’s just me. And yes, I’m wearing a turkey hat, and a paint splattered shirt. (A look which less dashing and self-confident guys than me couldn’t pull off.)
I can offer no logical explanation, other than that’s how the Simpsons roll when we get together.
And when mom gets to the point that she can’t recognize me, I’m going to see if putting on that ridiculous hat will jog her memory. (I’ll put on some old George Jones songs and tell some of my dad’s old jokes, to help my chances.)
So in this post-Thanksgiving column, I’ve looked for stories featuring things to be thankful for. I’ll start with an easy one: the quality of this nation’s past leaders.
The Founders were a providential gathering of some of the finest thinkers and leaders any country was ever blessed with. (I love JFK’s quote calling a gathering of intellectuals at the White House “the greatest assembly of brain-power since Thomas Jefferson dined here alone.”) Less than a century later, two great Republican leaders – Lincoln and Grant – risked everything to correct the monumental sin of slavery that had been allowed to persist at our founding.
We’ve had some good (if not great) leaders in their wake. I’m thankful that Trump accomplished as much as he did in one term, and most of all that he saved us from a Hillary Clinton presidency (shudder!) And I’m thankful for having had Ronald Reagan as a president in my youth. In fact, in two months and ten days it will be Reagan’s birthday, and if he were still alive, he’d be 113 years old.
Coincidentally, this past Monday was Joe Biden’s birthday, and if he were still alive, he’d be 81 years old. RIP
(By the way, did you know that Joe Biden is actually older than Israel? Not the original one, from 3300 years ago, but the current state of Israel. I’m not making that up: our Cadaver in Chief is older than Israel!) (And also, rumor has it, dumber than a bag of hammers.)
I’m also thankful that 41 hostages (so far) have been released by the Hamas terrorists who kidnapped them. And although it’s grim to say, I’m grateful that the two sides in that conflict – and the supporters of both, in this country and abroad – have revealed their true nature so starkly over the weeks since 10/7.
In the huge pro-Israel rally on the Washington Mall, the people were orderly and cooperative, the pledge of allegiance was recited, lots of American flags were flown, and no cops or buildings were attacked. In the many pro-“Palestinian” rallies around the country, the norm was hate, violence, anti-Semitism and varied offenses against good order and good sense.
Even when the hostages and prisoners returned home in Israel, the differences were stark. In Israel, the Jews cried and laughed and welcomed their innocent hostages with loving embraces. In Gaza, the “Palestinians” welcomed their guilty, released criminals with joy and love, too. Unfortunately, the love mostly arose because of their recovered coreligionists’ renewed opportunities to pursue their culture’s highest aspirations: killing more Jews.
Those released wasted no time raising the terrorist banners of Hamas (which, according to Arab polling, more than three-quarters of them support) and giving fiery speeches calling for more slaughtered Jews. One such prisoner – a waste of oxygen called Roda Agamiya (46), an associate of Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades who had been in prison for stabbing an Israeli – shouted, “We are the sword of Muhammad Daf!”
Daf is a Hamas military leader, one who will hopefully soon have his beak shotgunned around to the side of his head by the IDF. (Yes, that was a rare “Muhammad Daf-fy Duck” joke. You’re welcome.)
The “Palestinians” even revealed themselves in the way they released their terrorized hostages. Hamas thugs made their beleaguered victims wave and try to smile for the cameras as they climbed into ambulances to be taken back to Israel. A small crowd of “Palestinian” “civilians” beat on at least one ambulance and taunted the Israeli hostages inside as they were driven out of the Hamas hellhole they’d been held in.
Again, that’s cold comfort. But I’m quite fond of One who said,”By their fruits ye shall know them,” and even when the fruits are bitter, we should be grateful that both the bitter and the sweet have been revealed to all who have eyes to see.
On the domestic political front – an arena where there hasn’t been a whole lot to be thankful for in recent years – there are signs of hope.
For example, for the first time since 1877 – just a year after Lizzie Warren’s ancestors defeated George Custer (#wemustneverstopmockingher) – Charleston (South Carolina’s largest city) has elected a GOP mayor. It was a razor-thin decision, but considering that the same city went big for Joey Gaffes three years ago, it’s a heartening sign.
And in a more important national story, Elon Musk has unleashed a huge lawsuit against lying leftist propaganda mill Media Matters. The details are complicated, but the big picture is simple, and familiar: MM rigged the tech to make it look like Twitter (I’m not calling it “X” until news stories can call it “X” without adding “formerly known as Twitter”) welcomed Nazi sympathizers.
Then they used those false smears to pressure a bunch of big, invertebrate companies to drop their advertising on Twitter, in an attempt to cripple their business and squelch the free speech of everyone to the right of Karl Marx (ignominy be upon him).
I hope Elon crushes them beneath his feet and bankrupts the whole rotten lot of them. Not just because I enjoy seeing malicious liars getting stomped. (But you can call me petty if you want: I do enjoy that!) But because it will be a much-delayed and much-needed shot across the bow of all of the tech bosses who have gotten used to controlling the public conversation in our country.
Finally, in more international good news, Javier Milei won a surprising victory to become Argentina’s new president. I didn’t know much about Argentine politics, and I know nothing about Milei, other than a few minutes of video I’ve seen, and that he’s got the wildest hair and muttonchops that I’ve seen since the early 1970s.
But I can tell by the way that the MSM has their collective dress over their collective empty head that I will probably love the guy.
They call him “far right” (translation: at least a little right of center), and an “anarcho-capitalist” (translation: not a socialist dope), and a “fiery populist” (translation: he doesn’t hate normal people). They’ve also called him “an Argentinian Trump,” which isn’t the insult that they think it is. (If he can manage to avoid calling his running mate and everyone in his cabinet bird brains, losers and idiots, I might be checking out home prices in Argentina if next November goes the wrong way!)
He’s waved a running chainsaw in the air above his head, to symbolize how he’s going to cut government spending, including listing entire departments that he’s planning to eliminate. (Be still my heart!) And even though those kind of promises usually come to nothing when the establishment digs in their heels, he might have a chance to do some of what he is promising.
Because inflation in Argentina has been running over 140% lately (You know what they call that here? That’s right: Bidenomics!), and the country has declared bankruptcy three times this century. (I just did a little research.)
And sure, the leftist geniuses who have been running the country for decades are going to try to convince the country that Milei doesn’t know what he’s doing. But with their track record, who would be stupid enough to believe them?
I mean besides Paul Krugman, Janet Yellin, AOC, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden’s ghost, Que Mala, Mayor Pete, the Democrat black caucus, the Democrat jihadi caucus, all of the Democrats in the Senate…
Hamas delenda est!
Martin Simpson 