Crude is the New Blue

For John, BLUF:  Can't win.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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‘She was ASKING for it.’  The Daily Beast journo blames Sarah Sanders for making Michelle Wolf BULLY her

From Twitchy, by Sam J, 29 April 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

As Twitchy reported, Michelle Wolf said some pretty horrible and unfunny things about Sarah Sanders at the lame White House Correspondent’s Dinner last night and from we can tell from her equally lame tweets when people called her out, she’s not overly sorry she bullied Trump’s press secretary.

Liberals, right?

Welp, seems The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern had someone else in mind to blame for the way Wolf treated Sanders:

Marlow Stern
‏ @MarlowNYC
The White House purposely sent Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway to the #WHCD to then feign outrage at the jokes made at their expense, so... don't fall for it
9:56 PM - 28 Apr 2018

Ever been at a T-Intersection, where both the left and right streets were One Way, toward you?  I think that is where Sarah Huckabee Sanders is, vis-a-via the White House Correspondents.

God Bless you, Sarah.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Entering Uncharted Territory

For John, BLUF:  If Donald Trump's election cannot be allowed to stand, then there are only a small number of paths left if he can't be eased out of office via impeachment.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Revolution and Worse to Come

Here is the sub-headline:

When legal bloodhounds and baying critics fail to take out Trump, what’s next? The Resistance wants Trump’s head — on the chopping block.

From National Review, by Professor Victor Davis Hanson, 24 April 2018.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

n the domestic and foreign fronts, the Trump administration has prompted economic growth and restored U.S. deterrence.  Polls show increased consumer confidence, and in some, Trump himself has gained ground.  Yet good news is bad news to the Resistance and its strange continued efforts to stop an elected president in a way it failed to do in the 2016 election.

Indeed, the aim of the so-called Resistance to Donald J. Trump is ending Trump’s presidency by any means necessary before the 2020 election.  Or, barring that, it seeks to so delegitimize him that he becomes presidentially impotent.  It has been only 16 months since Trump took office and, in the spirit of revolutionary fervor, almost everything has been tried to derail him.  Now we are entering uncharted territory — at a time when otherwise the country is improving and the legal exposure of Trump’s opponents increases daily.

I think this is a pretty fair description of the situation, and the Resistance.

Then we get a recap of recent history

First came the failed lawsuits after the election alleging voting-machine tampering.  Then there was the doomed celebrity effort to convince some state electors not to follow their constitutional duty and to deny Trump the presidency — a gambit that, had it worked, would have wrecked the Constitution.  Then came the pathetic congressional boycott of the inauguration and the shrill nationwide protests against the president.

Next was the sad effort to introduce articles of impeachment.  After that came weird attempts to cite Trump for violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.  That puerile con was followed by plans to declare him deranged and mentally unfit so that he could be removed under the 25th Amendment.  From time to time, Obama holdovers in the DOJ, National Security Council, and FBI sought to leak information, or they refused to carry out presidential orders.

As the Resistance goes from one ploy to the next, it ignores its string of failed prior efforts, forgetting everything and learning nothing.  State nullification is no longer neo-Confederate but an any-means-necessary progressive tool.  Suing the government weekly is proof of revolutionary fides, not a waste of California’s taxpayer dollars.

The event that really stands out for me is Acting Attorney General Sally Yates refusing to implement a Presidential Order with regard to Immigration.  Sure, every subordinate owes the boss a "But, Sir".  However, it didn't appear, from the news reports, that Ms Yates asked to meet with the President to put her position to him one-on-one.  And, she didn't tender her resignation, which would have been the honorable thing to do when one feels there is an ethical or legal impediment to executing the order.  No, she just told President Trump to pound sand.  Not very professional  Does she feel the Department of Justice is independent of the Executive Branch?  Where did she go to law school?  .

Here is how Professor Hanson wraps it up:

The danger to the country this time around is that the Left has so destroyed the old protocols of the opposition party that it will be hard to resurrect them when progressives return to power.

We are entering revolutionary times.  The law is no longer equally applied. The media are the ministry of truth.  The Democratic party is a revolutionary force.  And it is all getting scary.

From this article I take it that the author thinks if Special Counsel Mueller strikes out, in the end, and especially if the Boston Globe touted Blue Tsunami doesn’t happen in November, that the Progressives/Never Trumpers only have revolutionary violence remaining.  The Author alludes to the French Revolution and the Committee of Public Safety.  That would not be good.  That would not be good because what comes next is Madame La Guillotine, or some suitable substitute.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Montana Rep Race Larger Question

For John, BLUF:  There seems to be a belief within the "Resistance" that at some point the American People will wake up go Democrat.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Liberals Wanted a Fight in Montana. Democratic Leaders Saw a Lost Cause.

It is The Old Gray Lady, 26 May 2017, by Reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

Here is the lede plus four:

BOZEMAN, Mont. — The Democratic defeat in a hard-fought special House election in Montana on Thursday highlighted the practical limitations on liberal opposition to President Trump and exposed a deepening rift between cautious party leaders, who want to pick their shots in battling for control of Congress in 2018, and more militant grass-roots activists who want to fight the Republicans everywhere.

Rob Quist, the Democratic nominee in Montana, staked his campaign on the Republican health care bill, but he still lost by six percentage points, even after his Republican opponent for the state’s lone House seat, Greg Gianforte, was charged with assaulting a reporter on the eve of the election.

The margin in this race was relatively small in a state that Mr. Trump carried by more than 20 percentage points last year.  But Mr. Quist’s defeat disappointed grass-roots Democrats who financed nearly his entire campaign while the national party declined to spend heavily on what it considered, from the outset, an all-but-lost cause in daunting political territory.

This tension — between party leaders who will not compete for seats they think they cannot win and an energized base loath to concede any contests to Republicans — risks demoralizing activists who keep getting their hopes up.  It also points to a painful reality for Democrats:  Despite the boiling fury on the left, the resistance toward Mr. Trump has yet to translate into a major electoral victory.

First let us deal with the lede.  It is a one sentence paragraph.  A sentence of 58 words.  Based on the admonitions I received on Staff Course, that should have been three sentences.  The theory being that no sentence should be more than 20 words.  Only the most skillful writers, the James Joyce's and William Faulkner's of the world, should write sentences of more than 20 words.

Living where I do in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts I have some sympathy for the Democratic Party Activists.  National and State Committees that will not spend money, or cannot, are just frustrating creatures to deal with.  Down at the grass roots we always believe that this time the voters will see the light, if only we spend enough on advertising.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

Blue Laws in France

For John, BLUF:  No shopping at Home Depot in Paris on Sunday.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"French stores rebel against Sunday trading ban in bitter row", or so Reporter Katia Dolmadjian, of Agence France-Presse, tells us:

Paris — Braving a court ban, 14 home improvement stores in France opened to the public Sunday in an increasingly bitter tug of war with the government over a law prohibiting trading on the traditional day of rest.

The move comes amid intense debate over France's labour practices.  The government is seeking to continue a long tradition ruling out Sunday and late-night work, but at a time of record high unemployment, many employees regard the ban as antiquated.

Last week, both Leroy Merlin and Castorama, two home improvement chains, were ordered by a court to stop opening their stores in the Paris area on Sundays or face a fine of 120,000 euros ($162,000) per shop and per day.

But on Sunday, they opened anyway amid anger among employees and customers.

I wonder what the Paris License Commission is thinking?

Regards  —  Cliff