The Little Red Blog

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Unhuman

{A recent article by Nathan Robinson (at Current Affairs) called attention to a 2024 book (‘Unhumans’) by right-wing provocateurs Joshua Lisec and Jack Posobiec. ‘Unhumans’ is the kind of book you want to know about, but you don’t want to have to read—like, say, ‘Mein Kampf’. Alarmed by Robinson’s article, I took a (very) quick look at ‘Unhumans,’ and this is my reaction.}

According to the publisher’s blurb for Unhumans, America is in dire straits, and not the good kind with Mark Knopfler:

“The old rules are over. The old order is over. Accusations are evidence. Activism means bigotry and hate. Criminals are allowed to roam free. Citizens are locked up. An appetite for vengeance is unleashed—to deplatform, debank, destroy. This is the daily news, yet none of it’s new. Patterns from the past make sense of our present. They also foretell a terrifying future we might be condemned to endure.”

America in disarray! Cats and dogs living together! Litter boxes in the classrooms! 57 genders and nothing on! Mad Max on steroids! How did we get here and how can we escape? There must be some way out of here!

Let not your heart be troubled. Unhumans, by Joshua Lisec and Jack Posobiec, tells you everything you wanted to know about the menace that is communist revolutions, and about how to prevent them. After a rousing Preface by Steve Bannon (“Unhumans is a clarion call to every American citizen. Be aware. Understand this: The very survival of the American Republic is now on the shoulders of every American.”), Unhumans begins with this insightful quote:

“Communism is when ugly deformed freaks make it illegal to be normal then rob and/or kill all successful people out of petty resentment and cruelty. The ideology is all just window dressing.” (@MysteryGrove)

What follows might be termed a “Manichaean Manifesto”:

For as long as there have been beauty and truth, love and life, there have also been the ugly liars who hate and kill. This is the way of things in all things. There is light and there is dark. ¹ Always has been. Always will be. Civilization is the superstructure built on law and order that keeps the petty, the resentful, and the cruel away from the rest of us. Some societies have been better at this than others. Those who fail at repelling the repulsive fall to unhumanity—to a state of affairs in which human thriving is impossible and surviving improbable.

It doesn’t matter what you call these the people of anti-civilization. They will change their name, shape, and form as needed and for their own purposes in their unique time and place. For the last couple centuries, we’ve known them as communists. Socialists, with extra steps. And of course, leftists. Radicals and revolutionaries as well. A hundred years ago, Marxist-Leninists, then more recently, Cultural Marxists. Even as, without irony and not as a joke, “progressives.”

For the purposes of this book, we will call them the unhumans. This is a book about unhumans, and this is what they do: With power, unhumans undo civilization itself. They undo order. They undo the basic bonds of society that make communities and nations possible. They destroy the human rights of life, liberty, and property—and undo their own humanity in the process by fully embracing nihilism, cynicism, and envy.

“Unhuman”—isn’t that harsh? Yes, and it also happens to be correct. By becoming consumed by nihilism, unhumans oppose everything that makes up humanity. As they are opposed to humanity itself, they place themselves outside of the category completely, in an entirely new misery-driven subdivision, the unhuman. They specifically reject the human rights of others. So if and when they get their way, they will unhuman you, too. They convert, and that which they cannot convert, they destroy. And they will call this evil, good.

Rarely has the process of dehumanizing one’s enemies been so literal.

Unhumans will appeal to fans of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism and to devotees of the cinematic work of Dinesh D’Souza. Why is this vile nonsense worth our attention? Well, in this case, because it has been endorsed by our incoming Vice-President, J.D. Vance; because it bears the imprimatur of none other than Steve (“Stevie Three Shirts”) Bannon; because it is touted by cultural influencers like Tucker Carlson; and because its premises are accepted by Trump insiders like Michael Flynn and, worse, by Donald Trump Jr., the heir apparent. Each of those worthies was willing to provide words of praise for Unhumans; Bannon, as noted, even wrote a Preface for the volume. Here are samples of their enthusiasm:

“In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags. Today, they march through HR, college campuses, and courtrooms to wage lawfare against good, honest people. In Unhumans, Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec reveal their plans and show us what to do to fight back.” (J. D. Vance) 

“Jack Posobiec sees the big picture and isn’t afraid to describe it. He’s been punished for that, but it makes him one of the rare people worth listening to.” (Tucker Carlson)
 
“The far Left murdered 100 million people in the twentieth century and have repeatedly shown that they will stop at nothing to achieve their totalitarian goals. They have torn down countless societies using a sophisticated playbook of propaganda. The only way to stop them in the future is to use their own subversive playbook against them. Unhumans reveals that playbook and teaches us how to deploy it immediately to save the West.” (Donald Trump, Jr.)
 
“We are now living through an era of irregular warfare. This is a gray-zone communist revolution by new means. Unhumans exposes their battle plans and offers a fifth-generation warfare system to fight back and win.” (Michael T. Flynn)

“Unhumans” simply refers to those Homo sapiens who seek nothing but destruction of human society, borne of grievance and misery and nihilism. Unquestionably, we are in a period of this unhuman ascension. Unhumans is a clarion call to every American citizen. Be aware. The authors argue that it is humanity itself currently under threat. Understand this: The very survival of the American Republic is now on the shoulders of every American. (Stephen K. Bannon)

I do not believe that Donald Trump himself poses any long-term threat to American democracy; as Leviathans go, he is remarkably cartoonish. However, the human barnacles who have attached themselves to him are a different matter entirely; they are carriers of noxious ideologies laced with various shades of bigotry, and their ideas and agendas are enough to send shivers down the spine of any decent citizen. To cite only one example, Wikipedia notes that “On February 22, 2024, Jack Posobiec, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, welcomed the ‘end of democracy,’ adding that ‘We are here to overthrow it completely.’” Unhumans makes the case for doing so, offering George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Francisco Franco, and Augusto Pinochet as models of tough-minded statesmanship.  In the hands of people like Steve Bannon, J.D. Vance, and Donald Trump Jr., books like Unhumans could be used to justify an entire basket of deplorable policies.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

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Nathan Robinson (Current Affairs): Trumpworld’s Favorite Writer Says The Right Must Emulate Dictators in Battling Leftist 'Unhumans'

 Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec, Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them) Skyhorse Publishing, 2024

Jack Posobiec - Wikipedia

¹ There is up, and there is down. There is in, and there is out. There is intelligent, and there is Unhumans.

It's the End of the Week as We Know It

Rejoice: America has found its Voice, and it is the Voice of Kari Lake!

Some background on President-elect Trump’s newly appointed director for the Voice of America: the telegenic Kari Lake anchored KSAS-TV news in Phoenix, Arizona TV station for over twenty years, until contracting a severe case of MAGA fever. Fancying herself a political star in the making, Lake abandoned journalism in 2020 to become a MAGA favorite and a sycophant for Trump. After losing the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race to Katie Hobbs (a Democrat), Ms. Lake served as Governor of Arizona (in her own mind) until November 2024, when she lost her bid for the U.S. Senate against undocumented Democrat Ruben Gallego.

Kari Lake’s qualifications for being Voice of America’s voice include (and are not limited to) her stubborn promotion of the unfounded claim that Donald Trump won the 2020 election; she called for the imprisonment of all who claimed otherwise. Lake also dabbled in spreading COVID misinformation and opposing vaccinations.

For her support of Trump, her refusal to knuckle under, and her insistence on doing her own research, Lake (according to Wikipedia) was terrorized in 2022 by unidentified Antifa members:

On November 7, 2022, Lake's campaign stated that on November 6, a campaign staffer "opened an envelope delivered to our campaign office that contained suspicious white powder. It was one of two envelopes that were confiscated by law enforcement" for testing. On November 11, the Phoenix Police Department said that the Arizona state laboratory had tested the items turned over to them by Lake's campaign, and found "no substance" inside. ¹ After this revelation, Lake's campaign stated that there actually had been three envelopes, with the first envelope being opened by the staffer having "a white powdery substance along with a hateful letter", but that the staffer threw the first envelope away, and that the trash was emptied before police were informed, with police being handed the other two envelopes.

Having survived that attack, Lake—who has described herself as “a proud election-denying deplorable”—advised her supporters, “We are going to put on the armor of God. And maybe strap on a Glock on the side just in case." As Voice of America’s new spokesperson, Lake will be able to share with the world her (and Trump’s) various beliefs: that American elections are fraudulent (except when Republicans win), that American policies are designed to hasten the worldwide victory of Communism, that America’s schools are “grooming centers” run by pedophiles, that the DC establishment (“Deep State”) is controlled by America-hating Marxists, and that Vladimir Putin is a more reliable source of critical national security intelligence than the CIA. She will also put the world on notice that America is currently under invasion by rapists, murderers, inmates of Central American mental institutions, mules for drug cartels, descendants of Pancho Villa, the ghosts of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, the entire population of Haiti, and the Biden crime family with its “demonic agenda” (Ms. Lake’s words).

What could possibly go wrong?

(This has been another edition of What Fresh Hell?)

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Kari Lake - Wikipedia

¹ Ironically, “no substance” was also the voters’ verdict on Lake’s gubernatorial campaign.

Friday Thoughts: The Vertical Will Go Quite Deep

{It may or may not be a violation of HIPPA rules to publish this. It may also be unkind to air the rantings of the mentally disturbed, much less to mock them; consider this a kind of shock treatment applied to an individual obviously in need of psychiatric intervention.}

Stevie Three Shirts steps to an imaginary podium. He taps the non-existent microphone to make sure it’s working. His gleeful, contemptuous sneer is visible from space. Addressing no one in particular, he begins by dismissing the idea that Joe Biden can issue “preemptive pardons” to individuals who might otherwise be dragged through punitive investigations and litigation by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. (Mr. Three Shirts does not mention that he himself has been the recipient of a presidential pardon.) He asks no one in particular:

“What are they spending their time on, wait for it, preemptive - blanket preemptive pardons. What is a blanket preemptive pardon? I don't know. I'm not so sure it's constitutional. I'm sure the Supreme Court will have to decide.”

Three Shirts has come up with a motto for the incoming administration: “Investigate, Adjudicate, Incarcerate”. He seems, to be honest, a little manic:

We've so rattled these people. We've so rattled them, they know their crimes and they're so rattled because finally somebody in opposition to them is saying, hey, we're coming after you and we're not going to stop, we're not going to stop. We're going to be relentless. We're going to unearth your crimes. We're going to investigate, adjudicate, put you on trial, and then incarcerate.

He is so excited at the prospect that he can barely contain himself. He’s willing to name names:

You're going to go broke. You're going to spend all your money. You're going to be worried nonstop, am I going to prison? Andrew Weissman the entire crowd.

In his enthusiasm, Stevie Three Shirts descends into gibberish, or perhaps he’s speaking in tongues:

We're going to get all the connective tissues of the text messages, all of it. And the vast criminal conspiracy, not simply against President Trump, but what you did to the life movement, the parents movement. There's so much. It's a vertical that will go quite deep.

Three Shirts is the voice of the people, vox populi, and depending on what happens at his upcoming sentencing (he has been convicted of fraud for a “Build the Wall” scam), he plans to keep speaking out:

We broke you and now you're going to pay for what you did to the American people. This has nothing to do with President Trump. It has nothing to do with Steve Bannon. It's not vengeance, it's not retribution, it is justice and the administration of justice.

Stevie Three Shirts is sweating heavily. He realizes that no one has been listening. He has been talking to himself. He mutters “Flood the zone” and bends down to adjust his ankle monitor; straightening up, he yells “Fight, fight, fight!” while pumping his fist into the air. Then he slaps his right ear.

An orderly approaches him cautiously. “Mr. Three Shirts, sir?” he says. “It’s, um, time for your medication.” He leads Stevie Three Shirts over to the nurse’s station and watches carefully to make sure Stevie swallows the pills. “Maybe,” says the orderly, “we might lie down for a while?” Three Shirt heads down the hallway towards his room; he sees Peter Navarro coming towards him. As the two pass, they simultaneously shout, “Green Bay sweep!” and high-five each other.

The psychiatrist on duty wryly observes, “The country is in good hands,” and jots some notes down on a pad. He scans the updated list of patients on the unit: “Hegseth, Gabbard, Gaetz—no, wait, Gaetz has been discharged—Kennedy, Oz, Patel, Musk, Gorka, Bondi…” He turns to the nurse. “Who am I forgetting?” The nurse gestures to an orange blob of a man standing in a corner, frantically gesturing and dancing in place to the sounds of “YMCA”.

The doctor sighs. “Of course,” he says, “how could I have forgotten the guy they just put in charge of the asylum?”    

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Steve Bannon to political enemies: “We're going to unearth your crimes. We're going to investigate, adjudicate, put you on trial, and then incarcerate.” | Media Matters for America

Today in "What Fresh Hell?"

“Petty Kash”? "Kash on the barrelhead"? "It's time to Kash out"? Credit where credit is due: Donald Trump’s selection of Kash Patel to be the new director of the FBI is, like Trump himself, simultaneously unorthodox and incredibly astute.

Mr. Patel’s resume¹ speaks for itself; notably, he worked in the first Trump administration, where he made such an impression on then-Attorney General William Barr that “Barr later wrote in his memoir that Mr. Patel would have become deputy F.B.I. director only “over my dead body.” Barr realized that Mr. Patel’s talents would have been wasted in a subordinate role; Kash Patel was born for bigger and better things. Barr’s opinion was confirmed by then-CIA director Gina Haspel who, being told that Trump would appoint Patel as Haspel’s deputy director, “said she wouldn't stand for it, and that she would resign before allowing Patel to assume a position as her deputy.”

The fake media, of course, is doing its best to portray the choice as controversial:

President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that he wants to replace Christopher A. Wray, the FBI director, with Kash Patel, a critic of the bureau who has called for shutting down the agency’s Washington headquarters, firing its leadership and bringing the nation’s law enforcement agencies “to heel.”

Mr. Patel has been closely aligned with Mr. Trump’s belief that much of the nation’s law enforcement and national security establishment needs to be purged of bias and held accountable for what they see as unjustified investigations and prosecutions of Mr. Trump and his allies.

The President-elect was unstinting in his praise for himself Patel:

Mr. Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability and the Constitution,” Mr. Trump said in announcing his choice in a social media post. He called Mr. Patel “a brilliant lawyer, investigator and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American people.”

Mr. Patel has already publicly stated the agenda he will pursue:

During a December 2023 appearance on Steve Bannon’s "War Room" podcast, Patel concurred with Bannon's assertions that Donald Trump is "dead serious" about his intent to seek revenge against his political enemies should he be elected in 2024. Patel stated:"We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media ... we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections ... We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice, and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we're ‘tyrannical’. This is why we're ‘dictators,’ because we're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”

Patel’s devotion to the Constitution was never more in evidence than in an illustrated children’s book he wrote to keep youngsters from the clutches of the Deep State. Published in May 2022, The Plot Against the King was accompanied by this promotional blurb: “A key player in uncovering one of our nation’s biggest injustices tells the whole story—for kids! Kash Patel partners with Beacon of Freedom Publishing House, an imprint of BRAVE Books, to bring a fantastical retelling of Hillary’s horrible plot against Trump to the whole family. Full of fake heralds and keeper Komey’s spying slugs, this is a story of daring and danger. But never fear! Kash the Distinguished Discoverer will win the day.”

Courtesy of Amazon, here are the opening passages of Patel’s masterpiece:

“Once upon a time, in the Land of the Free, there lived a wizard called Kash the Distinguished Discoverer. Kash was known far and wide as the one person who could discover anything about anything. He found the Holy Grape, deep in the Enchanted Forest, and he discovered who had stolen the sleeping princess. The heralds, who spread important news across the land with their herald trumpets, had sung of Kash’s fame ever since he figured out that the Russionians were cheating in the jousting tournaments.

But all these quests had been easy for Kash, and as the sun rose and set over the Land of the Free, Kash found himself in grave danger, not of trolls and ogres, but of getting bored. That is, until the Choosing Day.

On Choosing Day the whole land gathered at the castle to choose the next ruler of the kingdom. The heralds had been announcing that Hillary Queenton would be queen. She says queenly things like ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ and ‘forsooth,’ and her last name is Queenton, after all.

But when the royal counter-uppers counted up the final votes, they realized the people had dared to choose the merchant Donald! The heralds and Hillary were horrified. Donald didn’t care what the heralds said about him, and he was determined to Make the Kingdom Great Again. Thus, King Donald moved into the castle, and everyone turned to head home.”

The online reviews of The Plot Against the King were mixed, to say the least:

“Michael”: This can’t be serious. I just don’t understand how an American can lose all that makes them American and worship a con-artist enough to believe a lie and even try to indoctrinate children with the lie. Maybe it’s written for Trump worshipping adults. It would be the correct reading level. Just terrible beyond belief.

“Meredith”: Horrible.

“Jaye”: Zero stars. Garbage book.

“Nick”: Each & every person that has given this book a negative review is a either a certifiably deranged, unhinged stooge or just a simple, easily brainwashed little sheep that also believes in unicorns, leprechauns & that there are more than TWO genders.

Patel has authored two sequels, most recently “The Return of the King,” which “is the final book in the Plot Against the King trilogy. This book continues the silly yet important journey of the MAGA King as he returns to take down Comma-la-la-la and reclaim his throne.”

If Kash Patel does not gain unanimous confirmation as director of the FBI, as well as a Pulitzer for children's literature, it will be further proof (as if any were needed) that the Deep State will have to be pried from the cold, dead fingers of Washington insiders by brave outsiders like the Distinguished Discoverer himself. My money is on Kash! 

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¹ Kash Patel - Wikipedia

Other sources:

Trump Says He Will Nominate Kash Patel to Run F.B.I. - The New York Times

Scoop: Gina Haspel threatened to resign over plan to install Kash Patel as CIA deputy

Saturday Lecture: Just Shut Up, Man

{Our lecturer today is the distinguished Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, a renowned psychologist, author, and online educator. His books have sold millions of copies; his lectures and podcasts attract large audiences to hear his views on topics such as mythology, psychology, and personal development. Now, before reading Dr. Peterson’s lecture, go clean your room!}

From the podcast Pints with Aquinas (Episode Date: May 14, 2024):

Let’s Screw the Poor

Well, the bloody greens though, nature worshipers, it's like, well, let's screw the poor. They don't need the wealth we have in the West. They don't get fossil fuels. It's inexcusable. 

Sacrificing Cattle

So, who's pushing the climate change agenda and why are they pushing it? Who's pushing it? Cynical anti-humanists possessed by the resentful spirit of Cain, socialists, communists, and people who worship nature. And I mean that in a very specific sense. I mean, look, the Irish government is planning to cull 200,000 cows. Why? To change the weather. This is where we're at. The nature worshipers sacrifice cattle to change the weather, right?  

What the Hell Is the Environment?

We're right back in pagan times. And they are definitely nature worshipers. It's like, you know this word, the environment. What the hell is that? The environment. You know, that's Gaia, that's the new female deity that we sacrifice children to. The environment. You have to save the environment. What the hell is the environment? What does that mean? 

In My Day

You know, I grew up in northern Alberta. What was the environment? You go out in the bush in the spring in northern Alberta? You'll run smack dab into the environment all right clouds of mosquitoes and blackflies. You'll be one miserable little primate no time flat. Isn't it beautiful? It's like it's a what would you call it an impressionist painting of the French countryside? Yeah? Yeah, I'm from Australia a lot of deadly animals, oh, yeah, yeah nature right nobody right? Nobody lives in Australia, right? Except on the coast, like clinging to the edge of the continent, because everything else is so formidable. 

Save the Bagels!

You know, Montreal and Canada, they were going to ban the wood-burning ovens that the, there's a Jewish community in Montreal that's very long-standing and they make excellent bagels. They're famous, like New York bagels, Montreal bagels are famous too, and they cook them in wood-burning ovens. They did the same thing in New York with the pizza ovens. You can't have a wood burning fireplace. It's like, these bloody nature worshipers, they'll take everything from you. 

Three Items of Clothing

Do you know what the C40 consortium is? They're a lot of fun. You can look them up. It's a consortium of municipalities, 40 of the biggest cities in the world. They've all signed on to this. So, what's their agenda? One short haul flight per person every three years, right?  95% reduction in private automobile ownership. You know this idea we're gonna have electric cars? Everyone knows the grid can't withstand that. So, what's the plan? You don't need a car, buddy. Yeah, stay where you are. You, ordinary person, you don't need a car. That's way too much. You're cluttering up the planet. No meat consumption. I'm in Europe right now. Everywhere we go, it feels like people are evangelizing veganism to us. Yeah, yeah. And finally, three items of clothing a year. That's their plan. C40, three items of clothing. 

Off the Charts

How much bloody clothing do you need? The planet's at stake, you know, and you need to drive? What makes you so special? What puts you above the rats and the weeds? Exactly. Stay home, watch porn, and get uber eats from the electric car and just shut up, man. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you get uber eats. What are you gonna get? You're roasted. You're roasted what? Soy. Soy. Yeah, so you can grow breasts as a man. Yeah, this is like the c40 Consortium it's so off the top, it's so off the charts.

It’s the Pareto Distribution, Stupid

There's a couple of things that really irritate me about the modern environmental movement. The fundamental anti-humanism and the nature worshiping is bad enough, but this is really what pisses me off. The lefties in principle are for the oppressed, for the poor. Yeah, in principle. So, what do you do? You restrict energy usage, and you raise energy prices like they have in Germany, okay? So who suffers? Well, obviously the poor now, how does that work? The economy is a pyramid. The people at the top have virtually everything; that's a Pareto distribution. That law that a few have, that's a fundamental law. It's not due to capitalism. It's way deeper than that. A few rivers have most of the water. A few of the blood vessels in your body have most of the blood. A few stars have most of the stellar mass. A few planets have most of the planetary mass. Like, it's an iron law of Distribution and it's related in some fundamental sense to the workings of entropy. So, a few people end up with most, and that can be a social problem. You have a pyramid, a few people at the top are hyper wealthy. But at the bottom you have a very large number of people who are barely hanging on, like, one crisis away from catastrophe. One percent employment decline is a five percent increase in psychiatric hospitalization, right? Because these people at the bottom, they're just barely on the margin. 

What’s the Agenda Here?

Yeah, crank up energy prices. That's the leftist solution. My observation with regard to that is alright, you bastards, when it when it comes down to it, you'll sacrifice the poor to facilitate your delusions of planetary messianism. That's your plan. It's like, are they pro- or anti-nuclear? Well, they're anti-nuclear. That’s interesting, because nuclear power, especially with the new technology, actually happens to be quite safe. The small reactors can't even melt down, plus they produce zero carbon dioxide. So, what's the agenda here? Is it like, human beings shouldn't exist or is it, we need to get rid of carbon dioxide? If you want to get rid of carbon dioxide, why shut down the nuclear power plants? Especially when you're making energy more expensive and that hurts the poor. There's something even more pathological about that, because when you make energy expensive, you make the environment worse, not better. Why? Well, poor people discount the future, so they live for the moment, and they'll burn up the future. That's what happens in the developing world, because people don't have the luxury to think more than past lunchtime. They don't have the wealth.

They Hate Humanity

If you bring people up to $5,000 a year GDP, they start being concerned about the environment. So, what's the solution? Drive energy costs down, eradicate poverty, everyone will become concerned with their children and grandchildren, they'll start taking local action with regard to the environment, everybody has enough, children have opportunity, and local activity that's devoted to environmental sustainability will spread. So what the hell is wrong with that as a vision? Well, it doesn't satisfy those who hate humanity. That's the answer to that. 

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Pints With Aquinas - Atheism, Climate Change, & Marriage Advice w/ Jordan Peterson Transcript and Discussion

Wednesday with Pascal: The Man Date!

{Pascal the existential Russian blue cat had planned to present today a brief meditation on Alasdair MacIntyre’s ‘Whose Justice? Which Rationality?’ However, that post will have to wait; instead, Pascal today reports excitedly on President-elect Donald Trump’s unprecedented, overwhelming, world-historic man date.}

“President Donald J. Trump won the 2024 presidential election with an historic mandate.” PRESIDENT TRUMP’S HISTORIC MANDATE | News | Donald J. Trump

Exciting news: Donald Trump has a man date! His man date is with a comely debutante named America, who is frantically wondering, based on some things she has heard about Trump, what might be in store for her. Will Trump try to grab America by her, um, “Deep State”? Will he take her furniture shopping? Charlie Kirk, a right-wing thought leader, recently spoke with former Trump speechwriter (he was fired in 2018) and budding matchmaker Darren Beattie.  Kirk asked Beattie what sort of man date America should expect:

CHARLIE KIRK (HOST): Darren, what is the mandate that the voters gave Donald Trump?

DARREN BEATTIE (GUEST): The mandate is to clean up our government and restore legitimacy to our government and set America — I keep saying, the stakes of this are not just a politically successful second term, which I fully expect. The stakes of this are much longer, much deeper, much more powerful. The stakes of this are if we do this right — and we need the right people to do it right — if we do this right, we're setting America up for success and freedom into the end of the century. This is setting America up, which was so close to the bottom of the trash heap. We've been brought so far down into the sewage pit by people like Biden, by people like Harris, by people like Merrick Garland, and I can go on and on and on, to the point that we're on a trajectory to being worse than a third world country because — it's like we don't even have some of the freedoms of third world countries. We have the squalor, but none of the freedom, worst of both worlds. That's where we were headed. This is a singular opportunity to set America aright, not just for this term, but for the remainder of the century and beyond. That's what's at stake.

Having been swept off her feet by Trump’s eloquence, charm, and detailed policy proposals, America will be set aright! She will be salvaged from the trash heap, lifted out of the sewage pit, and placed on the chopping block pedestal where she belongs! Goodbye squalor, hello freedom! Donald Trump knows how to treat a lady; just ask his wives, his porn-star pit stops, or whomever he met while cavorting with Jeffrey Epstein.

Rumor has it that the President-elect will begin his man date by taking America to dinner at the popular new bistro, Project 2025, followed by a gala concert featuring the nation’s most popular performers: Lee Greenwood, Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard. ¹ The evening will conclude with a patriotic rally at which Mike Pence and Taylor Swift will be hanged in Effigy. ²

Man dates like this don’t come along that often, so America should consider herself one lucky gal. She can play hard to get, she can be coy and flirtatious, she can try to remain chaste while being chased, but given what Trump is promising her, let’s face it: she’s going to be putting out for him for at least the next four years. If I were America, I would be sure to get a binding prenup.

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Charlie Kirk guest says "there will be Armageddon for any senator who does not step in line" with Trump's appointees | Media Matters for America

¹ Hegseth and Gabbard just announced that they will be joining Matt Gaetz and Robert Kennedy Jr. in a new band, “The Muskrats,” managed by Elon Musk! Their first single is about to drop: Muskrat Love

² “Effigy” is a small town in southern Indiana.

Deeper Forces at Play?

“You know something is happening, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” (Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man”)

We could all use a laugh right about now. Here’s some light-hearted banter to lift your spirits on Election Day 2024.

To understand the significance of the following, you should keep in mind that Steve Bannon was (briefly) manager of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, as well as (briefly) one of Trump’s White House advisors; also keep in mind that Tucker McNear Swanson Carlson has long been a prominent voice on America’s political Right. In other words, Bannon and Carlson are serious, respected, and influential people, on a par with the likes of Jordan Peterson and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

In a recent episode of his War Room podcast, Steve Bannon asked Tucker Carlson whether there might be “deeper forces at play” in the 2024 presidential contest:

“Is this more than just Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk and a bunch of guys running around, talking about in this material world, you know, politics and being Democrats and taking on the intelligence, legal, financial apparatus. Is there something deeper going on here?”

Tucker Carlson responded (eschewing, for the moment, his trademark high-pitched giggle):

“Politics is downstream from culture. Culture is downstream from the spiritual battle. So not only is the battle in the unseen world — not only is it part of what we're seeing, it is actually what we're seeing. We're seeing the physical manifestations of something that's been going on for eternity, this war between forces that we can't see but that has been ongoing and has been, in fact, described by every culture since the beginning. Every culture that we know about has described this battle, and, in fact, it's been the basis of every religion. It's certainly the basis of Christianity, which I think is true, by the way. Factually speaking, I think Christianity is true. But even if you don't, I think you can acknowledge that we're the only culture that hasn't been really absorbed in thinking and talking about this.”

Or, to quote Saint Paul (whom Carlson failed to cite), “Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Having clarified the spiritual stakes of the election, Carlson blamed secular modernity on Robert Oppenheimer, claiming that, on or around August 1945, human character changed:

Not since we dropped the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, the second one in August of 1945, and decided that we were gods and the god himself no longer existed — since then, we have been a secular society, and that's why we're now being destroyed in my view. But even if you don't buy any of that, you have to acknowledge that we're living in an anomalous time. This is the only period, these 80 years, where people haven't been daily discussing the spiritual battle around them. Every other culture has. And, in fact, the remote ones still do, and they're all right and we're wrong. And the big change in the moment that we're living in is people are awakening to this fact that we've been on this vacation from reality, a vacation from spiritual reality. And, of course, it's not just a part of what we're seeing, it's definitive.

By way of evidence, Carlson cited the well-established link between abortion and hurricanes:

People — and I have to say, and I'm sure I'll be attacked for saying this, but I really believe it. People are like, oh, well, we had another hurricane, must be global warming. No, it's probably abortion, actually. Just being honest. Like, you can't do that. You can't kill children on purpose knowing that you're doing that in exchange for power or freedom or happiness, whatever you think you're getting in return. You can't participate in human sacrifice without consequences. You just can't. Sorry. I'm sorry to say that. Trust me. I'm a secular person from La Jolla, California who was baptized in the Episcopal Church. And if I can see that, if it's obvious to me, then I think it's very obvious to a lot of people.”

The Republican strategy seems to be to make Democratic voters laugh so hard they don’t get around to casting their ballots. We'll see how that works out for them. 

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For neither the first time nor the last, I am indebted to Media Matters for its alert coverage:

On War Room, Tucker Carlson blames abortion for hurricanes | Media Matters for America

Wednesday with Pascal: Something Wicked Stupid This Way Comes

{Pascal the existential Russian blue cat had been working on a post for today when he was interrupted by a news bulletin about an invasion of ‘satanic interdimensional forces.’ That seemed important enough for Pascal to set aside what he had been working on.}

"Something is happening, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?" (Bob Dylan)

According to Alex Jones--distinguished commentator, detector of false-flag attacks, and living proof that you cannot go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public (although you can if the public sues you for libel)--“The devil's gonna operate through all the possessed people he's got. It's a program. If you're exposing these satanic interdimensional forces, the special operations of this interdimensional alien invasion, that's how they come through. Just think of them as aliens, and then, then you can sell all these people, because that's what they are from their perspective, but they're demons, they're interdimensional creatures.”

How, you may ask, does Alex Jones know about this demonic ‘program’? Don’t ask. If he told you, he would have to kill you. Maybe he already has.

Of course, Jones knows he will be ridiculed—"People are going to laugh at that till one attacks them”—but that will not dissuade him, much less silence him. “See,” he explains, “and I know the Bible that as you approach Revelations, the gates of hell are gonna be opened, the interdimensional gate, and only a small number of Satan's operatives were here before. The gates will be thrown open and we're going to have these things literally running around the streets.”

Could the “interdimensional gate” be the demonic portal that Roger Stone detected opening above the White House around the time of President Biden’s inauguration? ¹ I don’t see why not.

Other questions (so many questions, really) arise, to which Jones has ‘answers’: “Now, you ask, why would these creatures attack people that were doing God's work but didn't have God's protection? You'd think that would make them wake up and accept Jesus. They can't help it. If you're not protected, they want to destroy you. They — it's like a zombie wants brains. It's got to go after you. It's its mission.”

Jones’ syntax (among other things) seems confused here, but the bottom line is, demons are after you, it’s in their nature, they have no choice, it’s just what they do. Fish swim, birds fly, zombies eat brains, interdimensional demons want you to die.

Skeptics will scoff, as always, denying the plain evidence of their senses. They can tell you the time of day, perhaps, and they may know the times of the seasons, but they cannot read the signs of the times:

“You're like, well, that's fantastical. Have you looked at the stars at night? If you look at the sun, have you looked at the birds, have you looked at the wind? Have you not felt the energy, the good and the bad?”

What more proof could anyone want? You heard it first from Alex Jones: the fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no interdimensional gate and there are no demonic interdimensional creatures,’ but Alex Jones is no ordinary fool, no run-of-the-mill huckster, no small-time carnival barker, no Glenn Beck on steroids, and he stands between us and our imminent destruction.

Personally, I’ll take my chances with the demons.    

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Alex Jones warns of an "alien invasion" by "satanic interdimensional forces" | Media Matters for America

¹ “I think that a portal, a demonic portal, opened above the White House around the time that the Bidens moved in,” Stone said in an interview with conservative radio host Eric Metaxas." Roger Stone says he saw demon portal open over White House (audacy.com) 

Emerging from the Hellmouth, this hideous creature--oh, wait, it's Buffy!

This Week's Roundup

{This and that from here and there, as is my wont.}

Rest assured that, even though Rod Dreher up and moved to Hungary a few years ago, The American Conservative soldiers on. This week, Peter Tonguette, a contributing editor at TAC, accuses Barack Obama of being a “condescending totalitarian” on the basis of, well, this:

Obama said, on Tuesday night, that “a lot of Americans don’t believe that government can help.” As expressed in his remarks at the DNC, Obama regards it as within the government’s power and purview to get involved in housing, or, as he put it, to “build more units.” Obama said that Harris would work to “limit out-of-pocket costs” in health insurance. Most ominously, Obama said that Harris “won’t be focused on her problems, she’ll be focused on yours”—a scary prospect and perhaps the best-ever argument on behalf of libertarianism.

Tonguette is upholding the Ronald Reagan “government is the big bad wolf at your door” mantra. Is he not aware that the federal government has been “involved in housing” for at least the last seventy-five years? Does he not know that the Republican Party’s current nominee takes credit (deserved or not) for capping out-of-pocket insulin costs and for empowering Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies? How would Tonguette react if Obama had said, “Kamala Harris won’t be focused on your problems, she’ll be focused on her own”?

Lastly, I trust there is no need to explain what the word “condescending” means when applied to Barack Obama; right-wing dogs across America recognize that particular whistle when they hear it.

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Barack Obama Is Still a Condescending Totalitarian - The American Conservative

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At American Refugees, Roger Simon—who used to write genuinely entertaining mystery novels—explains Communism 2.0 and how that label fits the Democratic Party:

If we are to ask whether today’s Democrats are a communist party, we must first define the term ‘communist’ that has become rather different in our era, though no less ominous and, in my view, potentially more successful globally. Communism today is far from what Karl Marx envisioned sitting on his ample derriere in the library of the British Museum, not that his concept of the future was particularly accurate then. 

In today’s China, a good deal of Marxist rhetoric is employed for show or to keep the masses from getting untoward ideas, but communism itself, even more ironically, has evolved into the most advanced, autocratic and perverse form of capitalism yet devised—”one party only” capitalism, you might call it, with the obvious benefits of the market available exclusively to party members. Socialist economics might have its problems, but autocracy can really pay off.

In other words, and I hope I am neither misunderstanding nor oversimplifying Roger Simon’s analysis, “Communism” is now “autocratic capitalism” with a few verbal flourishes. Simon then implores Donald Trump to “take the opportunity to explain this transition to America, not just hurl insults.” I don’t know if Simon is aware of the hilarity of suggesting that Donald Trump could possibly “explain” anything to anyone.

Anyway, in conclusion: Democrats are communists if you redefine the word “communist” to mean something else entirely. And Roger Simon should go back to writing novels.

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Are the Democrats a Communist Party? (substack.com)

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George Weigel (at First Things) implores us to “turn our attention to a question of major—even transcendental—import: Are we in the Golden Age of Baseball? Or was that the 1920s–1930s? Perhaps the 1950s–1960s?” Keeping in mind that Weigel is almost as old as I am, it is no surprise that he leans towards the latter choice: “Willie [Mays], Mickey [Mantle], and the Duke [Snider]; Jackie Robinson; Ted Williams; Sandy Koufax; Frank and Brooks Robinson; Bob Gibson; Stan Musial; Hank Aaron; Ernie Banks; Roberto Clemente—the list goes on and on, buttressing the case that what some refer to as baseball’s “Silver Age” was really its Golden Age.” To his further credit, Weigel also takes a shot, in passing, at a recent change to the rules: “Today, the “ghost runner” at second base in the tenth inning contradicts baseball’s metaphysical and moral architecture.”  This comes long after the “designated hitter” atrocity (which Weigel does not mention) compromised the game’s integrity.

My only disagreement with Weigel is his complaint that ““Pride Night” at the ballpark is another corporate surrender to woke pressures and political correctness,” when it is in fact just another money-making ploy by management, no different than Ladies’ Night, Kids’ Night, Veterans’ Night, etc. If it makes Weigel any happier, the Baltimore Orioles recently hosted their very first Faith Night at the ballpark, in the course of which several highly paid athletes bravely risked getting canceled for speaking out publicly about God’s presence in their lives. So much for the “naked public square”!

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When Was Baseball’s Golden Age? | George Weigel | First Things

                                                Penalty: too many men on the field!

 

Wednesday with Pascal: Ripping Off the Red Mask!

{Pascal the existential Russian blue cat occasionally receives queries from readers on subjects that have piqued their interest. While habitually ignoring such queries, Pascal now and then deigns to respond. Just don’t expect it of him too often.}

“Dear Mister Pascal the Cat,

“How are you? Fine, I hope, and I am too, thank you for asking. Recently I heard Charlie Kirk say that ‘Kamala Harris wants to see the elimination of the United States of America.’ Kirk insists Harris and the Democrats are ‘communists who hate America and are going to do things to destroy the country.’ Is Kamala Harris really a communist? Where does Charlie Kirk get his information? (signed) A Very Concerned Swing Voter.”

Is Kamala (pronounced “Ka-ma-blah”) a Communist? She is a member of the Democrat Party, QED, she is a Communist. Why are we even discussing this? Every Democrat since 1932 has been a Communist. Democrat policies—Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, daycare, school lunch programs, Obamaphones—were all designed and endorsed by Karl Marx, the Fiend himself. For confirmation, let us turn to a Trusted Source—in this case, the once and future POTUS, Sir Trump. “Biden,” Sir Trump has explained, “together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists, tried to destroy American democracy. If the communists get away with this, it won’t stop with me.” ¹

They’re all Communists, Swing Voter. As Stephen Miller observes of Tim Walz, the Democrats’ pick for Vice-President, “This man—they call him Tampon Tim -- is a full-blown, radical left communist. He is left of Bernie Sanders. He is left of Rachel Maddow. He is left of Ilhan Omar. He is left of AOC.” Walz, says Miller, will introduce “socialist communist economic policies,” as he has already done in Minnesota (new state motto: Property Is Theft!). ²

Chiming in on the unmasking of Tim Walz is Rob Schmitt of Newsmax:

“Tim Walz is a communist who doesn't know anything about history. Tim Walz, the former high school history teacher, is the snake that turns your 15-year-old into a communist.” ³

Pierre Polievre is the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, and he, too, knows a Communist when he sees on, such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

The latest image shared by Poilievre depicts a cycle with a series of arrows in a circle, starting with “rob or kill the successful,” followed by “force the rest to work for free,” then “run out of food,” “starve to death,” “say it wasn’t ‘real’ communism,” and finally, “establish a new communist utopia.” ⁴

There are, of course, those who disagree. “Invoking Marx in relation to [liberals] is silly to say the least. It betrays a conservative childishness and a simplistic understanding of both liberalism and communism.” But they would say that, wouldn’t they? The first rule of Marxism is, we do not talk about Marxism. But that subterfuge no longer fools anyone. As the experts on communism at Hillsdale College point out, “Cultural Marxism is destroying American society. It has led to the rise of racial tensions, radical feminism, transgender ideology, open borders, fiscal irresponsibility, the unequal protection of the laws, and the loss of our basic rights. The effects of Marx’s ideas have already been seen in the histories of the Soviet Union and China. Yet Marxism remains popular among those who shape our cultural, academic, and political lives and in the popular movements pushing equity and diversity.”

Speaking of equity and diversity, let us return to Concerned Swing Voter’s question: is Kamala Harris a Communist? Is “DEI” an anagram for “Die”? Well, Elon Musk seems to think so: “Kamala Harris is quite literally a communist,” he recently X-ed. “She wants not merely equal opportunity, but equal outcomes.” ⁶ Elon, of course, is one of the world’s wealthiest men, and he therefore cannot afford to be mistaken about who is and who is not a communist, because communists will kill him (and eat him!) at the first opportunity.

Kamala Harris has actually said, in public, these remarkable words: “We have the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, and then to make the possible actually happen”. How much clearer could she be about her desire to fundamentally transform America, i.e., to turn it into an American Gulag? James Lindsay, who has selflessly made a career of exposing cultural Marxism, has plainly stated, “Kamala is a low-level Communist functionary, and I’m tired of being told we have to pretend she’s not.” ⁷

Make no mistake, Concerned Swing Voter: all these people who accuse Kamala and Tim Walz of being Communists cannot be lying, mistaken, deluded, or living in some bizarre right-wing thought bubble where anyone to the ideological left of Herbert Hoover is a Bolshevik—can they?

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¹ Retread scare: Trump and other Republicans evoke another era by calling Democrats ‘communists’ | PBS News

² On Newsmax, Stephen Miller says "Tim Walz's job is to be the Jack Kevorkian for America" | Media Matters for America

³ Newsmax host: "Tim Walz is the white guy with a white wife and white kids who hates white people" | Media Matters for America

⁴ Stop the Nonsense: Justin Trudeau Is No Marxist (jacobin.com)

⁵ Marxism, Socialism, and Communism | Hillsdale College Online Courses

⁶ Elon Musk on X: "Kamala is quite literally a communist. She wants not merely equal opportunity, but equal outcomes." / X

⁷ Harris says 'everybody needs to be woke' in unearthed clip spreading like wildfire on social media | Fox News