Today I’ll start with my take on the DeSantis/Newsom debate, followed by some examples of leftists hilariously stomping on rakes in various contexts.
As regular readers know, although I vote Republican, I’m much more of a conservative than I am a Republican. That’s because as you may have noticed, Republicans seem to divide their time between occasionally doing the right thing – in a limp, mealy mouthed and querulous way – and surrendering to leftist elites and the MSM (but I repeat myself) faster than Vidkun Quisling when a Nazi armored column is rumored to be within 100 miles of Oslo.
(Quisling is the only Norwegian my wife has forbidden me to mention. So don’t tell her.)
As a conservative Floridian, I’m a big fan of Ron DeSantis, and I’m apparently one of the minority in the GOP who are still maintaining a faint hope that the miraculous could happen and he’d get the GOP nomination. I’m going to hold onto that hope until – as now appears almost certain – his campaign finally succumbs to the combined onslaught from leftists and Trump.
On that day, I’m going to spend a little time with some Knob Creek 9 bourbon and mourn the loss of the best opportunity for disciplined, consistently conservative governance from the White House in my lifetime. Then I’m going to get back up and start doing whatever I can to help persuade people to vote for Trump over Biden (or whoever will have replaced Biden on the Dem ticket by next November).
Having said all that, you’ll probably expect me to cheerlead for RDS with a bunch of talking points about how he DESTROYED Newsom!!!
And sure, he did destroy Newsom, in large part because Newsom is such an oily and unpleasant liar that he is eminently destroyable. And to the extent that RDS hammered Newsom last week, he advanced the cause of whichever GOP candidate may eventually face Newsom in a presidential election, whether in 2024 or later.
But I’m not a cheerleader for particular candidates as much as for principles, and I do my best to give you an honest bounce on what I think happened, regardless of my own preferences. And I saw some good and some bad out of DeSantis in the debate.
The bad mostly involved style. DeSantis is nowhere near the showman that Trump is, and he doesn’t have the charisma of a Reagan, or even of Bill Clinton (if you could stomach his falseness, which I couldn’t) or Obama (ditto). In his weakest moments he comes across as awkward and uncomfortable. And at a few points, he went after Newsom so relentlessly that he talked over him and became irritating. (A more natural debater would let Newsom spout a bunch of his BS, and then counter-punch. RDS always had the counter-punches, but often not the timing or style.)
Which leads me to the good: all of the substance, and a few moments of style. As he always does, DeSantis had the receipts, facts and stats, and he used them to beat Ken Doll like a rented mule. But in this instance that’s a pretty low bar, just because of RDS’ and Newsom’s records. DeSantis has been a great governor and produced great results; Newsom has been terrible, and produced terrible results.
DeSantis did a good job with the story of the guy he recently talked to who had fled California for Florida’s better governance… and that guy was Newsom’s father-in-law! And it was fun to watch Captain Brylcreem squirm when DeSantis held up the gay kiddie porn book that the leftists want in middle school libraries, and when he held up the poop-map of San Francisco.
So RDS played his cards well… but he was playing with a straight flush, so of course he won going away. Sadly for me, I can’t see this debate changing anything in the GOP primaries.
In other more heartening news, lefty elites continue to beclown themselves in ways that should bolster our chances next November.
One of the best things we have going for us is the infuriating way that MSM “journalists” keep upping the ante on their maddening racial gaslighting that repulses normal people. And I know you’ve heard about the latest example.
It’s the one in which the black sports “journalist” that nobody had ever heard of – his name is Carron (pronounced “Karen,” perfectly enough) – attacked the kid at the KC Chiefs game for wearing blackface. Of course the kid’s face was painted half black and half red, because those are KC’s colors.
When Carron/Karen got blasted for his idiocy, he doubled down on the dumb, saying that the kid’s two-toned face paint was even worse, since it meant he was attacking both Indians and blacks. Which is somehow more moronic than his initial claim.
But the extra-funny footnote is that the kid is actually part Indian. When I heard that, I figured that in these PC times, that probably means he’s a 16th or a 32nd Indian at most. But no, he’s got a grandpa who is an elder in some kind of Chumash council, and his dad is a member of the tribe, too.
But even if he had been only 1/32nd, that’s still many hundred times more Indian than Liz Warren, whose great-great-great-great grandpappy (Harrington Livingston the 3rd, fourth Earl of White-fordshire and second duke of White-ingham) raced down the gangplank from the Mayflower and briefly brushed against a startled Pequot. (Yes, I’m still beating this dead Liz Warren warhorse! Because #wemustneverstopmockingher!)
But the funniest self-own in this ridiculous story comes from some little-known sports podcaster named Dan Le Batard (he forgot the “s”), who whined that it’s NEVER acceptable to wear black and red paint on your face. Never, never, never!
And then… wait for it… a year-old picture surfaced of LeBa(s)tard dressed in a black and red outfit that looks like something you’d see the members of Quiet Riot wearing in 1983. And his face… keep waiting for it… is smeared with red and black face paint!
You cannot make up people as stupid as Carron/Karen and Dan Le Ba(s)tard.
Meanwhile at the White House, the National Christmas tree was put up last weekend, in preparation for Joe Biden’s attempted tree lighting several days later.
Annnnnddddd… God sent winds gusting to 35 mph on Tuesday, toppling the tree, in what has to be the best metaphor for the travails of the Brandon administration since Joey Gaffes shook hands with a ghost and then fell over a sandbag.
Tragically, the tree was lifted back in place, but only after we’d all gotten the clear message: God wants nothing to do with this administration.
Finally, I could not end this column without mentioning the second-best illustration of the Biden administration’s incompetence from the past week: Miguel Cardona’s mangling of the famous Reagan quote: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
Cardona was speaking at a meeting in Jackson hole, Wyoming – and boy, does this guy put the “ass” in Jackson Hole – when he illustrated how the feds are going to give “technical assistance” to schools. Quoth the Ed Sec, “I think it was President Reagan who said, ‘We’re from the government. We’re here to help.’”
When I first read that, I thought that it must have been a misquote. Even after I saw the transcript, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, because maybe he just had a momentary mental glitch, and mixed up Reagan’s quote.
So I looked for other times when he discussed Reagan, and was discomfited to find these examples: “Even Ronald Reagan, on a visit to Berlin, famously said, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, keep this wall standing. And maybe even reinforce it, with more barbed wire and armed guards.’” And “The Democrat party didn’t leave me, I left the Democrat party.’”
That was not encouraging. But I figured that an Education Secretary can’t be that addled, so I dove deeper into Cardona’s past, but found only more misinterpretations of historic speeches:
“In these trying times, I take inspiration from FDR, when he said, ‘The only things to fear are the dark, heights, and public speaking. Oh, and spiders. They’re so creepy! And don’t get me started on fanatical Japanese kamikaze attacks. Ooh, and also, fear itself.’”
Or
“Today, on MLK Day, I’m reminded of the great man’s words of hope for the future, and I quote, ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the content of their character, but by the intricate details of their racial and ethnic heritage, predominately the color of their skin.’”
Or
“Who can forget JFK’s timeless admonition: ‘Ask what your country can do for you. And don’t trouble yourself with what you can do for your country.’”
THIS is your Secretary of Education, people!
Have I mentioned the persistent physical reaction I got (it didn’t quite last for four hours, so I didn’t have to consult my physician) when new Argentine President Javier Milei held a running chainsaw over his head and promised to completely eliminate the Argentinian Department of Education?
We can learn a lot from that mutton-chopped weirdo/genius.
Hamas delenda est!
Martin Simpson 