Tag: Americana

Trump as tribal leader

Rod Dreher notes with alarm and chagrin the rise of a white tribal identity:

Yes, Trump’s rise, and his rise as a white identity candidate, is frightening. But he didn’t come from nowhere, nor is he solely the creation of conservatism (indeed, he’s barely a conservative at all). I expect Hillary Clinton to use a lot of unity rhetoric this fall. But here’s the thing: if she wins, I fully expect her to govern as someone who treats my own tribe — conservative Christians — as the enemy. That does not mean I will vote for Trump, or will vote at all. I know conservative Christians who fear and loathe Trump so much that they’re going to vote for Hillary, a candidate they believe despises their kind, for the sake of the common good. I know Christians who despise Trump but who are voting for him, or withholding their vote, because they cannot cast a ballot for a candidate (Hillary) they are certain will name Supreme Court justices who will roll back religious liberty.

The point is that the nation is fractured and fracturing. Both political parties have benefited from the ideological divide they have created, and that historical circumstances have created. What’s new about Trump is that for the first time, many whites are seeing themselves the way Democrats and the liberal media have encouraged blacks, Hispanics, and gays to see themselves: as a tribe.

This is significant, because it means the cuckservatives are beginning to figure out that their position is not merely a losing one, it is entirely untenable. We’ll know that full-blown tribal politics have become the new normal once even white SJWs like John Scalzi suddenly begin claiming that they were white nationalists all along.

Many of them already are, of course, there is a reason why Scalzi chooses to live in a lily-white Ohio town rather than among the various ethnics he professes to love so much. But for now, they still realize some value from pretending otherwise.

This is a very positive development for America, because America is, and always has been, a white Anglo nation. The fact that the political entity has been invaded and that political citizenship has been granted to anyone and everyone with a pulse merely means that the nation has submitted and been oppressed, it doesn’t mean that the nation has been changed in any material manner. Playing word games with definitions is the hallmark of those who stand irretrievably opposed to history, science, and reality, and they always wind up losing in the end.

Those who decry “Trumpism” have it entirely backwards. Trump is merely riding the wave of the rise of the birth of a generic white American identity, which like all such identities, is the result of external pressure rather than internal conviction. And that is why it does not matter what he says or does, because unlike so many of his predecessors on both sides of the political aisle, Donald Trump has aligned himself with the white American tribe.

It is long past time for white Americans to follow the lead of the blacks, the Jews, and the Asians, and allow themselves to be guided solely by the principle: is it good for the whites? Serve the nation, not the empire.

As for those who cry for the empire and fear it will be destroyed, yes, that is exactly what will happen. It is not longer fit for purpose. But it is a little late for tears, as its fate was settled in 1965.

America is not an idea

And Americans are not proposition people:

The concept of American Exceptionalism is one that on its face would seem to be a healthy one, which is what makes it so pernicious. In practice, American Exceptionalism is a favourite idea of the Glenn Beck crowd. Often what this belief comes down to is that the rules that apply to every country on the planet don’t apply to America, because there’s a piece of paper with ink on it in Washington that claims so.

America isn’t bound by blood like every other nation on the planet. Ethnicity and race may matter everywhere from England to China, but not in America. America, you see, is an exception to these rules, because America was a country created by ideas put forward by the founders. America is a proposition nation, they will tell you. Ideas built America.

This seems to me to be quite the concept! I wonder what it would look like to see Liberty and Equality running around Boston in 1750. How would the Declaration of Independence have managed to push further and further westward, trekking through miles of dense forest, weathering the rain and the snow and the hail, civilizing what was in in effect barren wilderness? What a sight it would be to see ideas clearing forest, laying down railroads, and building canals! I can’t say I have ever seen anything so incredible, but perhaps I would if I took a trip to the propositional nation to the south of me.

Yet, somehow, I doubt it. What mainstream conservatives have largely forgotten is that ideas can shape societies and peoples, but they don’t create them.

It would have been vastly preferable if the Founding Fathers had stuck to the original term – the Rights of Englishmen – rather than trying to make them sound universal for the purposes of rhetoric.

Just to give one example, those who don’t believe in the existence of a Creator God cannot possibly appeal to unalienable rights that stem from Him.

A predictable outcome

The Oregon Militia situation finally turned lethal:

“I want the world to know how my father was murdered today. His hands were in the air and he was shot in the face by the American authorities. Ammon Bundy reported there are 6 witnesses to this evil.”
Posted by Thara Tenney on Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Her testimony was echoed by another eyewitness, Victoria Sharp, who was in the car with Finicum when the group were pulled over by cops and federal agents. Sharp claims that Finicum put his hands out of the car window and asked the police to allow the women to leave the car.

“They shot at him, but they missed him,” said Sharp, adding that the group then attempted to drive away in the car but were shot at again by police.

“When we crashed and stopped for a second, he got out of the car, he had his hands in the air, he’s like ‘just shoot me then’….and they did, they shot him dead,” said Sharp.

“He was just walking, with his hands in the air, I swear to God, and they shot him dead and after he was down on the ground, shot him three more times,” said Sharp, adding that the vehicle was again “bombarded with bullets” as well as tear gas rounds.

Sharp says that the group tried to “find something white” so they could display it as a sign of surrender. She challenges news reports that only six shots were fired, asserting, “they shot at least 120 shots altogether.”

Sharp also claims that none of the individuals in the car pulled out a gun at any point and that the incident was an “ambush” with “FBI snipers in the trees” surrounding the vehicle.

Whatever. I have no idea what these people were thinking they were going to accomplish by occupying a wildlife refuge center, but I can testify, from my father’s experience, that no one is going to “wake up” and no one is going to be inspired to do anything as a result of it. They’re just going to be vilified, jailed, and forgotten.

It’s like a tragic parody. And notice that the moment the government took action, they tried to surrender. Never play or posture at violence. And never threaten violence unless you are fully prepared for your enemy to resort to it.

America is the New Carthage

Americans have long considered themselves a nation blessed by God, a New Rome, a city on a hill, but as is increasingly evident, it is now a nation upon which God has turned His back and is permitting to stew in the full fruits of its own evil. And the disgusting revelation that Planned Parenthood is not only murdering America’s children on an industrial scale, but harvesting them in much the same way the Nazis harvested their victims, is sufficient to prove that America is not the New Rome it once fancied itself, but rather, the New Carthage:

The undercover journalist who videotaped a Planned Parenthood senior medical officer talking about how to buy and sell fetal body parts derived from aborted babies says Planned Parenthood is lying in their response to his video.

Planned Parenthood said Tuesday that it does not make money from selling fetal body parts to companies like StemExpress, and any revenues received are related strictly to expenses.

David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress said the abortion provider is lying: “Planned Parenthood makes two key admissions in their statement today; first, that aborted fetal parts are harvested at their clinics, and second, that money is exchanged in connection with this.”

He also says Planned Parenthood is lying by insisting it gets “proper consent” from its patients,” and “Planned Parenthood does not make money off the body parts.”

It’s a little strange that the news Planned Parenthood is making an additional profit from the corpses of its victims should be so upsetting to Americans when so many of them are fine with the corporation profiting from the simple act of murder, but I suppose that shows the conscience of the nation is merely numbed, not entirely dead.

Matt Walsh put it well: “I want to thank everyone who defended Planned Parenthood today. I now know to never take any of your opinions seriously ever again.”

In any event, understand that America, like many an evil and decadent empire before it, is long overdue for a cleansing. Like it or not, the social conservatives were right, and the slippery slope they predicted, at which so many scoffed, appears to have been considerably understated.

The game of thought police

It’s going to be interesting to watch the various retailers and government officials who banned the Confederate flag scramble as people begin to hold them accountable for everything from Nazi regalia to the gay rainbow flag.

Online retail giant Amazon’s Monday decision to ban the sale of merchandise depicting the Confederate flag has many Americans scratching their heads, as a quick review of Amazon’s site reveals the company still sells Nazi flags.

This is insane. Now even Gone With the Wind is under attack. After all, how can Amazon possibly sell a book and movie that shamelessly glorifies the Confederacy? And what about The Dukes of Hazzard? I mean, the car is even named the General Lee!

One thing is clear. We now know what Round Two’s banner is going to be. All the SJWs have succeeded in doing is heating up the cultural war while taking one of the more potent historical symbols of the past and making it relevant to tomorrow’s rebels.

And this, of course, is why it is ALWAYS a huge mistake to give an SJW so much as a single inch.

“Tearing Down the Confederate Flag Is Just a Start”
– Nicolas Kristof, The New York Times

I expect it probably is a start of something. But not necessarily the start of what he thinks it is.

Snow day!

I don’t often miss Minnesota. But I have to admit, I did enjoy the excitement of looking outside, seeing a field of white where there used to be a street, and turning on the radio, listening to hear that school had been canceled that day. As a kid, there isn’t much better than an unexpected snow day.

King Log is now King Stork

Who would have dreamed, back in the 1980s, that patriotic American dissidents would be fleeing to Moscow in pursuit of safety:

Putin said Russia ruled out handing Snowden over to the United
States. Putin said that Snowden was “not a Russian agent” and that
Russian intelligence services weren’t working with him, according to
Reuters.  He said that Snowden should choose his final destination
and travel there, but also offered some compliments to the National
Security Agency leaker.  Putin said he considered Snowden to be a
rights activist, calling him a “new dissident,” according to The
Associated Press, and compared him to Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei
Sakharov.

Putin makes it possible for our generation to understand how historical strongmen became popular in their day.  In the meantime, he’s certainly winning the world’s favor by protecting the man who revealed just how pernicious the US empire has become.

Boomer Suicide

Reading this Washington Post headline just makes this Generation Xer feel like bursting into song:
 Boomer suicide (Just do it)
Boomer suicide, (they blew it)Boomer suicide (we knew it)Boomer suicide (yeah, do it)  Age and arrogance don’t mix
Your generation’s so over
We’ll read your last statement from your credit cardLife was so easy but you made it so hard
Feel the power of revenge Your children parked you all alone
Your future’s dark and your bills are biggerPut the gun in your mouth and we’ll pull the damn trigger
 Boomer suicide (dumb fuckers)Boomer suicide (thumbsuckers)Boomer suicide (old bastards)Boomer suicide (die faster)  “Baby boomers are killing themselves at an alarming rate, raising question: Why?  He is part of an alarming trend among baby boomers, whose suicide rates shot up precipitously between 1999 and 2010.”  Why?  The journalist obviously is not an American of Generation X. The generation that has had to put up with the vagaries of the Baby Boomers for literally its entire existence knows very well why they are killing themselves at an unusually high rate. It is because Baby Boomers are disproportionately inclined to be narcissistic, selfish, short-sighted, superficial bastards who don’t give a damn about anything except themselves, and they are psychologically incapable of grasping the basic concepts of mortality or graceful old age.
““We’ve been a pretty youth-oriented generation,” said Bob Knight,
professor of gerontology and psychology at the University of Southern
California, who is also a baby boomer. “We haven’t idealized growing up
and getting mature in the same way that other cohorts have.”  Even
as they become grandparents and deal with normal signs of getting old,
such as hearing and vision losses, many boomers are reluctant to accept
the realities of aging, Knight said.”
  You don’t say…. The realization that 65 is not, in fact, the new 18, and they really and truly are not cool anymore, is simply proving too much for them to bear.

Now, I wouldn’t want anyone to think Generation X is actually inclined to celebrate these rampant Boomer suicides.  It doesn’t fill us with glee to know they are offing themselves en masse, merely a modicum of appreciation for the first positive and non-selfish consequences their generation’s actions have ever produced.  Say what you will about them, but at least they are saving us an amount of effort.

In a world of wolves

There is a need for big dogs with sharp teeth to guard the sheep, especially the little lambs:

Rembrandt’s phone rang at 3:15p.m. on a Saturday. He was on his way home from his grandson’s karate tournament, about 5 miles from his Mesa home.

It was Sassy. A BACA kid was in trouble.

Her road name is Music, and she’s 10. She belonged to a BACA chapter in another state but is now living in Arizona with her grandmother. That makes her Sassy’s and Rembrandt’s kid now.

Her abuser is in jail, but his family members had tracked the girl down in Arizona and were banging on the grandmother’s front door, demanding that she turn the girl over to them, shouting up at the second-floor window where the child was huddled in her bedroom. Her grandmother called BACA and then dialed 911.

The bikers know the drill well. Rembrandt called those who live closest to him – Rock, Uno and Fat Daddy. He stopped to change out of his grandpa clothes – shorts, T-shirt and sandals – and put on his biker garb – jeans, boots, leather vest, holster and handgun.

The bikers carry weapons on stakeouts only when there is a threat against a child and they feel that as citizens they also could be threatened. Otherwise, Rembrandt says, they do not wear weapons around children. He says most of the bikers are licensed to carry concealed weapons.

Rembrandt stuffed water bottles into his saddle bags and jumped on his 2000 purple-and-orange Indian Chief.

By 3:40 p.m., the four men were on their way to Music, the rumble of their bikes announcing their arrival. Music’s grandmother rushed outside when she heard them, hugging Rembrandt and giving him a piece of notebook paper with a description of the people and their license-plate number.

Sheriff’s deputies had been there, she said, and had escorted the people out of the neighborhood. But it is a public street, and law-enforcement officers just don’t have the manpower to stay for long. She feared that once the deputies left, the people would be back.

She was right. But when they did return later that evening, they saw something different: four big bikers, all wearing shades even in the dimming light, their motorcycles backed into the mouth of the driveway.

Rock had something resembling a cannon strapped to his leg; Rembrandt wore his gun on his hip.

To someone trying to mess with a little girl, a group of large, strong bikers sends a certain message, Rembrandt says. “It just has a different feel than a cop,” he says. More unpredictable, maybe.

“Cops are actually handcuffed by specific rules and laws that we are not. A cop has to work within a framework,” Rembrandt says. “You can flip off a cop. You don’t want to flip off Rock.” Just knowing that a biker doesn’t have to follow rules or honor boundaries can intimidate a person trying to make trouble.

That night, Music’s grandmother pitched a small tent in her granddaughter’s bedroom, right under the window, so the little girl could look out the window whenever she wanted to see the bikers at the end of the driveway.

Bikers guarded the house in shifts for the next 2 1/2 days. Some rode two hours from Tucson, kept watch for eight hours and then rode home again.

They talked in low voices, and once Music was asleep, the red embers of their cigarettes glowed in the dark.

Bikers Against Child Abuse is an example of the vast superiority of the libertarian model based on good people freely contributing their time and energy to other individuals in their community to the statist model of permitting a parasite class to forcibly extracting resources from everyone and pay itself to pretend to address the problem through government regulations and bureaucracy.

I thought I’d post this since it strikes me as the sort of activity that some of the Ilk might find to be fulfilling, assuming any of you are capable of passing the required background checks.  BACA seems to go in more for road bikes and handguns than crotch rockets and fully tricked-out .50 caliber rifles with 4th Gen scopes, though.

It’s a good cause. Sometimes, all that courage requires is the certain knowledge that somewhere out there, someone is looking out for you.

Molon labe, m————

Karl Denninger and his readers echo Leonidas:

“President Obama has said that his push to effectively delete the Second Amendment will face “significant resistance.”  It is time to show him and those in Congress how much resistance there is for any sort of additional gun bans and/or registration requirements in a peaceful and lawful manner.  Print copies of this and dispatch them to your Congresspeople, The White House, and staple them to telephone poles and other locations across the country.”

This image should be placed everywhere that will remind everyone Americans will never, ever, lay down their guns or accept any limits on their right to bear arms.  The politicians are hopelessly out of touch and they have no idea just how significant American resistance will be or they wouldn’t dream of even hinting at the subject.  I find it very hard to believe they will be foolish enough to declare war on the American people and attempt to forcibly disarm them, but if they do pursue that war, they damn sure are not going to win it.

No limits.  No restrictions.  No laws.  Nothing that infringes, even in the smallest and most seemingly sensible way, on the right to bear arms.  No compromise.