Homophobia? What Nobody Tells You About the "Hate Crime" of Leaving Skid Marks on Rainbow Crosswalks

When you think about it — and hardly more than for 15 seconds or so, if that long — then the charge that kids and adults alike leaving skid marks on rainbow crosswalks represents some kind of anti-gay homophobic hate crime turns out to be little more than nonsense.

Last Saturday (as mentioned a couple of days ago), Instapundit's Ed Driscoll linked to Powerline's memes in the Week in Pictures — while Sarah Hoyt did something similar by linking to… Sarah Hoyt's personal website.

With regards to Powerline, among this week's cartoons was the one at the very top of this page. The main message of the joke is quite serious: that the woke PC leftist drama queens go berserk over one type of "crime" — is it even a misdemeanor?! — while, conversely, being open to and understanding — certainly if the person belongs to the correct oppressed minority — to far worse types of crime, not excluding (attempted) murder.

But another, perhaps lesser, issue is that — again, when you think about it — the skid mark-leaving on rainbow crosswalks has nothing to do about homophobia or transphobia (or whatever other phobias you want to talk about) in the first place.

It is about kids, or teens, or tweens — and even adults (young or otherwise) — having fun. Who knows? Maybe a number of the skid mark-leavers have been gay themselves?

Leaving grayish skid marks upon gray asphalt is simply not as noticeable as upon parts of roads which are painted in vivid and brillant colors (is it okay we say flamboyant colors or is that also homophobic?) — and even, with the rainbow motif, in multi-colored stripes.

There are only bike riders and car drivers "ruining" the rainbow display and that, in dramatic fashion with their wheels; there don't seem to be many "far-right" pedestrians coming with paint or tar or anything to pour something over the display…

Whatever the colors' symbolism is supposed to represent is simply not of much interest — if any interest whatsoever — to these people and what matters to them, the excitement of leaving one's mark. 

If I am wrong, then by all means make your case in the comments…

But if Dennis Prager is to be believed,  LGBTQ+ 'Pride' Is Totalitarian:

The vast majority of Americans believe in tolerance of LGBTQ+ individuals but not in organizations expressing pride in them.

Why is this?

Because "Pride" is not about tolerance. "Pride" is totalitarian.

Tolerance is about behavior. "Pride" is about thought.

If the founder of Prager University is likewise wrong, feel free, again, to tell him/us so in the comments section…

Related: • The "Racism" Invective: How the Left's Mindset Works  

• Double Standards: How Can One Insist That Illegals and/or Anchor Babies Are U.S. Citizens If Indeed "We Live on Stolen Land"?!) 

 

Regarding the Islamic World's History of Slavery, a NYT Book Review Tries to Be Nice and Understanding

As The New York Times reviews Justin Marozzi's CAPTIVES AND COMPANIONS: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World, America's "paper of record" in no way resorts to the same kind of common depictions reserved for slavery in the United States as a country or region flagrantly condemnable (what am I saying? Damnable!) and abhorrent while ranting about the (ridiculous) concept of America's "original sin." 

No, it turns out that NYT reviewer Thomas Meaney wants to be tolerant, contextualize, and put things into perspective, condemning Western "myths" and "lazy generalizations" while drawing comparisons (or contrasts) with abominable Westerners such as George W Bush and Belgium's King Leopold II (his case can hardly be denied), not to mention… the patriarch Abraham. 

Nothing in his review about the generalized castration of the Muslims' male slaves or the fact that the Transatlantic slave trade pales in comparison to the fate of Africans forced to reach their Arab masters' regions, given that the "brutal" Middle Passage, however horrific, consisted, after all, of lying still in a ship (certainly, inhumanely, like sardines and in their own filth), which is still hardly comparable with the fate of Africans forced to spend weeks walking the entire way to their Arab destinations and that, indeed, across one of the hottest regions in the world, i.e., the Sahara desert (which, needless to say, allowed for more — for far more — deaths).

As it happens, the history about the Muslims' slavery in the Arab regions never seems to be condemned outright in the NYT's book review, but boils down to asking a simple question: How Should We View the Middle East’s Legacy of Slavery?

As … the British journalist Justin Marozzi … showcases the many types of enslaved people — eunuchs, harem women, mercenaries, unpaid laborers — who populated a region that stretches across modern-day Libya, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia, all the while demonstrating how the realities of bondage in these places differed from the more familiar chattel slavery of the West.

Until the late 19th century, slavery was a near universal institution, though it was practiced in so many varieties that the word could hardly encompass them all. Marozzi’s account begins in 632 with a “free-spirited woman” in the first caliphate who took a slave to bed, assuming it was her right as set forth in the Quran.

 … Marozzi refers to his scope of interest as the “Islamic world,” apparently because slavery, like so many other iniquities, was justified by the existence of rules found in religious codes. The Prophet Muhammad, like Abraham, was an untroubled owner of slaves, and “the legitimacy of the slavery, as pronounced upon by the Quran, is not up for debate,” Marozzi writes.

 … Most enslaved people over the span of the centuries were held in bondage for life, and treated inhumanely by their owners.

How significant was racism in the practice of slavery by Muslims? Marozzi suggests that the advent of racial prejudice in the Middle East might have preceded the rise of modern European racism by several centuries.

 … Marozzi … appears to know how easy it is to descend into lazy generalizations about Islamic culture, and, in doing so, to prop up Western self-regard. Nevertheless, Marozzi appears reluctant to wriggle free from some of the most robust myths of the Victorian age.

French Media Outlet: "Today, Donald Trump is the most rational and the most Cartesian national leader on the planet"

Regarding The War in Iran, Philippe Karsenty has been a guest on various media outlets, from BFMTV's debate shows — where the spokesman of le Comité Trump France says that "the degree of Israel's infiltration of Iran's secret services is quite impressive" — to Europe 1 — where Philippe Karsenty affirms that "today, Donald Trump is the most rational and the most Cartesian leader on the planet." (Merci à Sarah pour l'Instalien.)

   

No Pilot Left Behind: CSAR Details Explained — Code Sandy, Code King, & Code Jolly

Belgium's RTBF has an article explaining exactly how a CSAR operation, divided into three mission components, is carried out. It can be likened to Sarah Hoyt's link to Behind the Black's Robert Zimmerman post, where one Cap'n Steeve proceeds to give what is probably the best explanations of the history of the missions (and SERE) since Vietnam, as the 25-minute video is recounted by a former military pilot (and current civilian pilot) himself. (“Will you be worth the trip?”: If you can get to the end without tearing up — as the captain does — then you are more stoic than I am…) As for the RTBF link, it is in French, but do go there for plenty of dramatic photos and videos from Iran's Zagros mountain range.

 … Combat SAR (or CSAR), for Combat Search and Rescue … is a distinct mission within the art of warfare, for it seamlessly blends aviation, special forces, intelligence, air command, electronic warfare, and emergency medicine into a single, unified operation. …

Code Sandy

 … A legacy of the rescue missions of the Vietnam War, "Sandy" designates the escort and coordination aircraft that provide protection during recovery operations. Historically, this role was first filled by the A-1 Skyraider, and later—in the more recent tradition of the U.S. Air Force—most often by the A-10 Thunderbolt II, with F-15s and other MQ-9 drones also providing support. 

Their mission: to locate targets, keep the enemy at bay, coordinate the scene, conduct route reconnaissance, escort rescue helicopters, and—if necessary—deliver immediate fire support. U.S. Air Force manuals continue to explicitly associate the A-10 with "Sandy"-type missions and rescue escort duties. Sandy serves, in a sense, as both the sword and the forward-deployed "eye" of the mission. It does not perform the extraction itself, but rather makes that extraction possible—most notably by establishing the "Sandbox" security perimeter.

Code King

Thereafter comes the "King," referring to the HC-130J Combat King II—the aircraft specifically designed for personnel recovery missions (though the MC-130J Commando II may also be utilized). It serves as a command and control platform, extends the operational radius of the recovery force, and—most importantly—is capable of mid-air refueling for rescue helicopters; this capability is essential when an extraction must be executed over long distances, at night, at low altitudes, and without a second chance. The U.S. Air Force specifically defines it as a platform dedicated to personnel recovery missions, command and control, and helicopter refueling. King constitutes the logistical and tactical backbone of the operation; it is its central element.

Code Jolly

Finally, "Jolly" refers to the rescue helicopter itself. Today, the name is borne by the HH-60W Jolly Green II, the successor to the Pave Hawk. It is the aircraft designed to enter contested zones—by day or by night—to recover an isolated pilot or commando, pick up a rescue team, and make a rapid exit. The U.S. Air Force explicitly positions the HH-60W as its dedicated Combat Search and Rescue helicopter, engineered to recover isolated personnel in hostile or denied territory. To this end, it is equipped with a FLIR (Forward-Looking Infrared) system—an advanced thermal imaging system that enables the crew to detect and identify targets or individuals, even in total darkness, through smoke, or in adverse weather conditions.

Aboard the Jollys, one also finds the mission’s other—human—heart: the the Pararescuemen—the famous PJs—nicknamed Guardian Angels. Their role extends far beyond the image of a rescuer dangling from a hoist. The Guardian Angel structure is dedicated to Personnel Recovery across the entire spectrum of operations, and PJs are trained to conduct rescues under fire, stabilize the wounded, infiltrate, exfiltrate, survive, and improvise in degraded environments. It is they who transform a technical recovery into a safe return.

Over at The Telegraph, James Rothwell and Akhtar Makoii add that 

Experts say a rescue mission of this nature is likely to require 24 “pararescue” operatives and two Black Hawk helicopters, assisted by in-air refuelling aircraft to extend their reach over Iran.

US pararescue operatives receive training in combat medical care, evacuation, air-dive physiology, and additional skills to survive in chemical or nuclear environments.

On finding a casualty, they may need to provide him with medical treatment in place to ensure he survives the journey to safety.

“Harrowing and massively dangerous is an understatement,” one former pararescue commander told CBS News.

RTBF:

Lorsqu'un pilote américain tombe derrière les lignes ennemies, l’armée ne lance pas seulement un sauvetage, elle déclenche une mécanique complexe mêlant repérage, commandement aérien, hélicoptères de récupération, avions d’escorte et forces spécialisées. C’est ce que l’on appelle une mission CSAR, pour Combat Search and Rescue. L’opération menée pour récupérer le pilote tombé en Iran en a rappelé la logique implacable : aller chercher un homme isolé avant que l’ennemi ne mette la main dessus. 

Double Standards: How Can One Insist That Illegals and/or Anchor Babies Are U.S. Citizens If "We Live on Stolen Land"?!

If we are to be believe the "truthful" statement that it turns out that "we live on stolen land" — Why is it ever always and only about the USA? Why never about Canada? Why never about Mexico? How about South America? How about innumerable countries in Europe? And Asia? And the entire planet? — then how can one insist that it is unfair if illegal aliens are not rewarded with American documents and that it is unfair if anchor babies are not treated as de facto U.S. citizens? 

How on Earth does that make sense?! 

It is Saturday, so Instapundit's Ed Driscoll is linking to Powerline's memes in its Week in 

pictures — something you should also check out every week on Sarah Hoyt's personal website. (This week, check out the mirror on the wall and Schrödinger's cat while the blackest humor is found at the answer to the question, "Why Is It Easy to Stay Thin in Japan?"; Update: thanks for the Instalink.) 

 

The Road to Serfdom: No longer up to foreigners to assimilate to the French, but up to the French to assimilate to foreigners — Muslims in French Leftist Party Trying to Impose the Wearing of the Veil Inside the City Council

Making the Left's red-green alliance with Islam ever more obvious — as well as both movements' hatred of Western values and the country in which they live — France's Causeur magazine harkens back to an influential 20th century book to ask whether the country's paramount leftist party isn't voici the road to serfdom. Indeed, writes Benjamin Edgard in Chalon-sur-Saône: la République se vit à tête découverte,

Three centuries [after the publication of Persian Letters by Montesquieu in 1721], it is no longer up to foreigners to assimilate to the French, but up to the French to assimilate to foreigners.

Lamia Sabrina Sari and Damien Saley, two elected officials from the far-left La France Insoumise  (LFI) party, attempted to impose the wearing of the veil within Chalon-sur-Saône's city council.

It turns out that 

The aborted attempt by LFI elected officials to impose the wearing of the veil at the Chalon-sur-Saône city council is a mad continuation of their totalizing and deadly project to create a "New France." 

This is in 180º contrast to the Left's attitude towards Christianity, which was exemplified, as far back as the year 1900, by

the mayor of Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, Eugène Thomas, banning the wearing of the cassock throughout the entire city, “considering that the distinctive attire in which members of the clergy deck themselves out may serve to bolster their authority over a certain segment of society.” Five years later, during the parliamentary debates on the Law on Secularism [in 1905], a Radical-Socialist deputy, Charles Chabert, proposed an amendment to ban the wearing of the cassock in order to prevent disturbances to public order. 

The ban on wearing the veil falls within a context entirely different from that of the cassock. It no longer concerns the same religion, nor the same socio-cultural reality. Today, the issue involves entire foreign communities importing into France a different culture, different customs, different ways of life, and different ways of being.

 … "By severing the head of Louis XVI, the Revolution severed the heads of all fathers. There is no longer any family today; there are only individuals," warned Balzac in his novel Memoirs of Two Young Married Women. By atomizing society, isolating individuals, and multiplying contractual and commercial ties, the French revolutionary legacy fosters individualization and the dissolution of the social fabric. 

The Left's Poison

LFI thus takes a seat at the table of another civilization—Islam—leveraging the paradoxes of the Western individual to construct a new historical narrative, a new France. It invents a France that has never existed, much in the same way the Bolsheviks invented the proletariat in Russia to bring about their communist ideology. LFI attempts an improbable synthesis of two histories: Western history—marked by the invention of the individual—intertwined with a history of Eastern subjugation and submission. It then employs the battering ram of individualism to breach the ramparts of the French citadel and subject it to the dictates of Islam. In the name of the individual, the wearing of the veil is deemed legitimate; in the name of la liberté, Islam is granted every right within France.

 … Today, the instincts of every elected official within La France Insoumise yearns for an abstract France; a France pursuing a malignant destiny; a France engaged in self-destruction through moral self-loathing and the erosion of its own instincts—driven by a shame of being themselves, by a guilt over simply being French. La France Insoumise represents a France that views the foreigner as the salvation of the very idea of ​​France, rather than recognizing the greatness of its country within its own people. La France Insoumise does not love the French people; it does not love French reality; it is animated by a deep-seated resentment against everything that is concretely French. 

Self-Serving "Opinion" in France: Donald Trump’s (or Netanyahu’s) policies are dictated by emotion, say French VIPs, while Emmanuel Macron’s are grounded in reason

 

One certain brand of politics is dictated by nothing other than emotions, many French VIPs assert, while a certain other brand is grounded in reason. 

It is Trump’s brand (and Netanyahu’s) that — by the sheerest of chances — falls into the first category, whereas it is Macron’s brand that—here, too, by the strangest of coincidences — falls into the second.

 

That is what Philippe Karsenty et Pierre Lurçat are saying in a Causeur article entitled Anti-Americanism and the Denigration of Israel: A Familiar Tune…

Geopolitical analyst Dominique Moïsi has just published a book … with an evocative title : Le triangle des passions du monde (which is a sequel to his previous book, La géopolitique de l’émotion). In Moïsi’s work … an occasionally pedantic intellectual veneer struggles to conceal a simplistic thesis: that the politics of Donald Trump (or those of Netanyahu) are dictated by emotions, whereas those of Emmanuel Macron are grounded in reason.

 … This anti-American — and, by extension, anti-Israeli — "tune" reigns supreme today, virtually unchallenged across the entire French media landscape. "The America of Omaha Beach exists no more!" declares Moïsi at the Ouest France daily, imagining a “Donald Trump strolling along the beaches of Normandy [who] would have reacted with a mixture of cynicism, vulgarity, and brutality, asking: 'But why did we spill American blood for this decadent continent—with its obsolete principles—which betrays us at every opportunity?'"  In truth, this portrayal of a cynical and brutal Trump reveals just as much about the passions driving this French geopolitical analyst and his colleagues — at the Quai d’Orsay and within the mainstream media — as it does about the actual object of their detestation.

 … If … Donald Trump’s United States acts in accordance with its own interests, it is because states — as everyone knows — have nothing but interests… Yet this did not prevent Trump from taking the risk of jeopardizing the American economy in a determined attempt to bring down the Mullahs’ regime — whereas Emmanuel Macron made a point of reassuring the Mullahs as early as February 28th that he had been unaware of the Israeli-American operation… out of courage, no doubt.

 … Indeed, France ultimately came around, nolens volens, to Donald Trump’s point of view, albeit without explicitly admitting it, needless to say. 

 … Yet this convergence of interests will not stop geopolitical analysts from continuing to mock Trump’s "vulgarity" and "brutality," driven as they are by their anti-American fervor and their loathing for both America's President and Israel's Prime Minister. 

Myths of WWII: In fact, Churchill was "one of the most disliked and distrusted politicians of his age" while FDR was “a thoroughgoing Robespierre, a world revolutionary”

The title of a book review in The New York Times of a major history volume is called, teasingly and eye-openingly, Why the British Were Afraid of Winning World War II.

In “Advance Britannia,” Alan Allport shows the conflict from the perspective of England and its various colonies. As reviewed by Kevin Peraino (the author of “A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949”), Alan Allport's book shows how many instances of common knowledge about World War II turn out to be myths.

In the annals of finest-hour mythmaking, there are two abiding articles of faith: first, that the United Kingdom bravely fought on “alone” after the fall of France, and second, that the New World ultimately came to the rescue of the Old.

The British prime minister Winston Churchill is the primary author of this narrative. In his memoirs, he claimed that not until Pearl Harbor had he recognized that Britain would survive the Nazi onslaught. With the United States finally involved, “we had won the war,” Churchill wrote. “The Empire would live.” Fighting alongside the Americans, he wrote, had proved “the greatest joy.”

Alan Allport skillfully subverts both these myths in “Advance Britannia,” the second volume of his elegant and unsparing history of London’s role in World War II. As he shows, Washington’s involvement was not an unqualified boon. Churchill had wanted Franklin D. Roosevelt’s help in Europe — not in the Pacific. Since their meeting aboard the U.S.S. Augusta in the summer of 1941, the American president had been urging Churchill to abandon Britain’s “backward colonial policy.” Compared with the conservative Churchill, Allport writes, Roosevelt was “a thoroughgoing Robespierre, a world revolutionary.”

Churchill’s “small island,” as the prime minister liked to call it, also never truly fought alone: To help pay for the war, it ruthlessly exploited its worldwide empire of more than 13 million square miles and 491 million people. Britain’s haughty imperiousness, along with the financial strain it caused, left the colonies vulnerable

 … Roosevelt’s intentions were not entirely pure either. … Again and again Washington clashed with London over policy in Asia and the Mediterranean. … By the final years of the war, Allport observes, the so-called special relationship had morphed into one of “patron and client.”

 … [In ADVANCE BRITANNIA: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1942-1945, the sequel to In the first volume in the series, “Britain at Bay”], Allport … overturns one piece of conventional wisdom after another — quarrelsome, occasionally, to a fault. 

Regarding myths in the first book, writes Geoffrey Wheatcroft in his New York Times review of six years ago, 

Churchill’s ascent to power was as remarkable as it may have been providential, since in his 40 years in Parliament he had become one of the most disliked and distrusted politicians of his age. If he became an admired national leader it was “because he happened to fill a role that very badly needed filling at that moment.”

 … In fact, Franklin Roosevelt had met Churchill in 1918, and disliked him. He was now told by his ambassador in London, the horrible old corrupt anti-Semite and defeatist Joe Kennedy, that Churchill was useless and England was finished.

 … Allport calls Churchill “the most self-assertive, disputatious and dogmatic prime minister in history,” demonstrating that his military judgment before and during the war was often wildly wrong.

---

ADVANCE BRITANNIA: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1942-1945 | By Alan Allport | Knopf | 631 pp. | $40

The Shady Earnings of Innumerable Female VIPs on the Left

Wascally Orange Man Bad Is Wigging The Ewections!

Our ol' chum Damian Bennett has a lot to say (and quote) regarding the SAVE Act; America's Moon heritage; and, among various other subjects — and last but definitely not least — the shady earnings of innumerable female VIPs of the Left (from the Squad's members to BLM's founders).  

Don't Let Trump Steal YOUR Vote!

DEMAND 

Voter ID + Proof of citizenship

Paper ballot 

In-Person voting

Same-day result

Naughty Nat-ZEE Trump is up to his old tricks. Discombobulate him by SUPPORTING THE SAVE ACT! HAHAHA! You win by having him think he won! You are BRILLIANT! Resist by desist, win by give in; play to your strength, play dumb.

Remember, the fastest way to defeat Evil Orange Man Bad is to give him what he wants. Honest. Schumer attested.

Democrats Do Media Prep For November Losses:

Start here:

• Carville: GOP Will Use Supreme Court To Steal A Close Election September 22, 2020

Fast forward:

• Eric Holder: Authoritarian Trump Trying To ‘Rig’ Midterm Election August 3, 2025
• Carville: The Only Way To Save Democracy Is To Rig The System So Much That REPUBLICANS ALWAYS LOSE August 9, 2025
• [Gov. JB] Pritzker (IL-D): Trump’s Goal Is Use Military To Confiscate Ballot Boxes To Steal 2026 Elections October 11, 2025
• Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ): GOP Trying To ‘Rig The Election’ Instead Of Opening DHS* March 17, 2026
  * Chuck Schumer Admits Dems Held Up TSA [DHS] Funding And Now He's Upset Trump Took Away Their Leverage April 2, 2026
• Unreal: Pelosi Warns Dems That Midterm Elections Could Be Rigged:* ‘Be On Guard' April 2, 2026
  * But rigged by whom, Nancy?

Not one of these predictions will prove true, but the predictors will insist Democrat election losses are proof positive midterms were rigged, because who wouldn't vote Democrat? [Pause.] Bueller? Bueller?

Greetings Fellow Selenites

Respect YOUR Moon heritage. Demand YOUR Moon rights. "Few people understand this historical nuance, but the indigenous people of the Moon are the 'Americans', a scrappy minority tribe from planet earth that first arrived on this desolate rock in earth-year 1969. We must respect these original settlers and their right to the land."

HANDS OFF THE OUR MOON, Earthbound green-eyed underachievers and Euro-wankers. 

Bah-bah-but what about the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, of which the United States is a signatory, that declares space is the "province of all mankind" and must be used for the benefit of all countries. You might recognize the old formulary -- America does the heavy lifting and invests blood and treasure and more treasure, after which the world pulls up its tuffet at the dessert buffet. The OST is overdue for a re-think. 

Vacationing Citizen Of Everywhere, Ketanji Brown Jackson! (BONUS: Jasmine Crockett 'Accomplished Black Women Earners' Pageant)

So stupid it's not funny it hurts.

Justice Jackson's Birthright Citizenship Comments Were A Total Disaster April 2, 2026

KBJ: "I was thinking, you know … I, a U.S. citizen, am visiting Japan. And what it means is that, you know, if I steal someone's wallet in Japan, the Japanese authorities can arrest me and prosecute me. It's allegiance, meaning, can they control you as a matter of law?" She continued: "I can also rely on them if my wallet is stolen, to, you know, under Japanese law, go and prosecute the person who has stolen it." Then the kicker: "So there's this relationship based on — even though I'm a temporary traveler, I'm just on vacation in Japan, I'm still locally owing allegiance in that sense. Is that the right way to think about it?"

What Jackson described isn't allegiance in any constitutional, historical, or even pedestrian sense of the word. It's basic jurisdictional law - the notion that when you're in a foreign country, local law applies to you.

The bright spot here is that if you have ambitions to sit on SCOTUS but are unconversant with law, the Constitution, do not understand legal theory, are not capably disquisitive, have a difficult time with concepts and analogy, but like to talk a lot -- well, despair NOT! KBJ is proof anyone -- ANYONE (preferably with "a pulse, a vagina, and black" -- can be elevated to the highest court in the land. Q: How does this Big STOO-pid rise to high office? On the heavy froth of lower stoo-pid:

Jasmine Crockett Says Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘Continues To Flex Her Brilliance’ April 1, 2026

JC: "The meltdown over Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is truly something EVERYONE needs to pay attention to. You see, as the first & only black woman to ever serve on the court, she had to be 10 times better than most… She continues to flex her brilliance in oral arguments & many dissents. 

Please note that by the time a black woman ascends to a powerful position, she Definitely Earned It… if you have any questions… let’s talk about Senator, now Secretary Mullin… or please pull the resumes of some of the other justices before entering this chat… actually just don’t, it’s not a debate, these are FACTS (alternative facts = LIES)."

"Please note that by the time a black woman ascends to a powerful position, she Definitely Earned It", like the below accomplished black woman (pulse, check; vagina, check; black, check):

‘Dolton Dictator’ Tiffany Henyard Reportedly Facing Eviction Over Back Rent Amid Lavish Spending Habits September 29, 2024

Henyard, dubbed by residents as “the worst mayor in America,” and her boyfriend Kamal Woods owe more than $3,300 in rent on a home they have been renting in the 14600 block of South Harvard for the past three years, FOX32 Chicago reported, citing copies of an eviction notice filed against the couple in Cook County Court. ... Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot previously investigated Henyard for her spending habits in the Village of Dolton... Lightfoot’s investigation into the town’s financial situation revealed ...Dolton’s general fund balance was $5.61 million in 2022, but by May 2024 the balance had dropped to a deficit of $3.65 million. Lightfoot also disclosed that Henyard used the village credit card to make purchases at Amazon, Target, Walgreens, Wayfair and other retailers. One jaw-dropping statement revealed that the embattled mayor had dropped $33,000 on Jan. 5, 2023, on Amazon. Henyard most recently spent approximately $85,000 to throw a party that featured R&B singer Keke Wyatt and rapper J. Holiday last month. [Where is this accomplished black woman  today?]

Earned! Earned! Earned!

More earners! (pulse, check; vagina, check; black, check):

• BLM Co-founder Patrisse Cullors*: Filing Charity Transparency [IRS] Forms Is 'Triggering' April 13, 2022
  * Avowed Marxist.
  
• BLM’s Patrisse Cullors Denies Wrongdoing In Purchase Of $6M L.A. CompoundMay 9, 2022
  Recent disclosures that the foundation had paid $6 million for a Los Angeles compound in 2020 unleashed a torrent of criticism and social media chatter. The property in Studio City — including a home with six bedrooms and bathrooms, a swimming pool, a soundstage and office space — is meant to be both a meeting venue and a campus for Black artists. ... Cullors defended the purchase. ... Cullors said she had made mistakes and even some regrettable choices that haven’t fostered trust. She acknowledged she had used the BLM property twice for personal purposes.
• BLM Finances Under Fire: Only 33% Of Donations Given To Charities As Execs Paid Millions May 31, 2023
  The purchase of the California house [viz.supra] was separate from a 2021 transaction in which BLM transferred money to a Canadian nonprofit – run by the wife of BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors – to buy a $3 million house. 
• BLM-linked Activist Admits Conning Donors To Fund Her Lavish Lifestyle September 23, 2025
  Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, pleaded guilty Monday to 18 counts of fraud-related crimes that she committed with her late husband while operating their Violence in Boston (VIB) activists group, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.
• BLM OKC Co-founder Director Sheri Dickerson Faces Fraud, Money Laundering Charges After Allegedly Using Organization Funds For Personal Use January 2, 2026
  [A]ccused and charged for wire fraud and money laundering...[Dickerson] allegedly deposited $3M meant for BLM OKC into her own personal accounts. The reported spending included vacations, properties and a new car among other expenses.
• BLM Organizer Indicted For Fraud, Stole $250K From Victims March 17, 2026
  Tanzanika Ruffin, a criminal defense attorney in New Orleans, has been indicted for wire fraud...known for her involvement with the Black Lives Matter movement, is accused of swindling $250,000 from the family of her client, Kai Hansen. She allegedly fabricated a settlement agreement with the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, claiming the funds were essential to address criminal charges against Hansen.

Earned! Earned! Earned! So many earners!

So many accomplished black women earners! (pulse, check; vagina, check; black, check):

Florida Congresswoman Found Guilty of Ethics Violations March 27, 2026

[Florida Democratic congresswoman Sheila] Cherfilus-McCormick is accused of, essentially, laundering funds mistakenly paid by the state of Florida into a health agency her family owns and using that money to fund her own campaign for office.

Earned! Earned! Earned!

Oh, and another top earner (Check! Check! Check!):  

• DNC Finance Committee Member Blasts Harris Campaign Spending, 'Lining The Pockets Of Well-connected Dems' December 2, 2024
• Harris’s $1 Billion War Chest Can’t Buy A Winning Message October 16, 2024
  The Harris campaign has reportedly spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on advertising since early September, more than doubling such expenditures from the Trump campaign.
• Incredible: Kamala Harris Claims Her 2024 Campaign Was '3D Chess' That Outmaneuvered Trump November 11, 2024
• Kamala Harris Was The Most Qualified Person EVER To Run For President, Says ... Kamala Harris October 15, 2025
• From $1.5 Billion To $1.8 Million: That's How Much Harris' Campaign Had In The Bank On November 25 December 9, 2024
• Harris Camp Still Fundraising To Pay Off $20 Million In Debt November 30, 2024
• Kamala Lands $20 MILLION Book Deal And People Have Questions… December 19, 2025
• [Ahem.] Biden Suffers Humiliating Blow With Paltry Advance For His Memoirs July 24, 2025
  

  The former president, 82, sold his presidential memoir to Hachette Book Group for around $10 million, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The monetary figure is likely to be disappointing for the Bidens, given Barack and Michelle Obama inked a deal worth an estimated $65million for their memoirs.

Earned! Earned! Earned!

MORE earners! (Check! Check! Check!): 

• Maxine Waters Paid Her Daughter Over $70,000 In Campaign Funds This Year October 19, 2021
• Maxine Waters Pays Daughter Another $24,000 In Campaign Cash, Adding To $1.2M In Previous Payments April 15, 2022
• [Democrat Rep. Ayanna] Pressley Waves Away Questions After Wealth Explodes By MillionsFebruary 5, 2025
• Indictment Accuses NOLA [Democrat] Mayor Latoya Cantrell Of Fraud Scheme Using City Funds For Personal Relationship August 15, 2025

1. Alleged year-long fraud scheme: Prosecutors say Mayor LaToya Cantrell and former NOPD officer Jeffrey Vappie used public funds to cover salary, travel, and expenses for personal activities, often together at the Upper Pontalba apartment or on trips.
2. Over 15,000 WhatsApp messages: The indictment alleges Cantrell and Vappie exchanged more than 15,000 messages, pictures, and audio clips in eight months, including instructions to intimidate subordinates, delete evidence, and lie to investigators.
3. $70,000 in travel costs: Vappie allegedly accompanied Cantrell on at least 14 domestic and international trips, with city travel costs exceeding $70,000.
4. Pressure on NOPD leadership: Prosecutors claim Cantrell pressured then–Interim NOPD Superintendent Michelle Woodfork to halt an internal investigation into Vappie, and later reassigned him to her detail despite findings against him.
5. Obstruction and concealment: The indictment says both were warned their conduct was illegal, yet concealed records from a grand jury, falsely claimed use of disappearing messages before news broke, and manually deleted thousands of prior WhatsApp messages.

• Ilhan Omar’s Financial Disclosure Shows 1-year, 3,500% Increase In Net Worth, To Between $6M And 30M September 1, 2025
• How Ilhan Omar Went From Capitalist-hating Squad Activist To Marxist Millionaire Sporting Jimmy Choos September 6, 2025
  The self-proclaimed Marxist has been sporting sunglasses from luxury designers Jimmy Choo, Oliver Peoples, and Prada — worth up to $500 each — to lecture people on spreading the wealth. ... Adding to her image as a champagne socialist, part of Omar’s newfound fortune comes from her being part owner, alongside Mynett, of a California winery selling its signature eStCru blockchain Cabernet for $73 per bottle and cans of sparkling rosé for $20 each — available not at the government-run grocery store, but boutique markets along the West Coast.
• Ilhan Omar’s Hubby’s Elusive Winery Under Scrutiny From Feds February 7, 2025
  Omar claimed the wine biz was worth between $1 million and $5 million in her May 2025 financial disclosure, which covered the 2024 calendar year. ... By early 2024, eStCru reportedly only had $650 in the bank, according to court documents. In November 2024, the website went dark. When reached for comment, a company spokesperson said the winery is dead.... In her financial disclosure covering the previous year of 2023, when eStCru was at least alive, she only put its value between $15,000 and $50,000 — significantly lower.
• Fani Willis Allegations Raise Questions About Misuse Of Taxpayer Funds January 24, 2024
• Fani Willis Faces Another Investigation May 16, 2024
• Fani Willis Disqualified From Trump’s RICO Case By Georgia Court Of AppealsDecember 19, 2024
  Georgia Court of Appeals ruled she must be disqualified due to a conflict of interest stemming from her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case. The court found that the "significant appearance of impropriety" could not be resolved by Wade’s resignation alone and that Willis’s continued involvement undermined public confidence in the integrity of the proceedings.
• The Georgia Election Interference Case Against Trump And Others Has Been DroppedNovember 26, 2025
• The Fani Files: Four Big Revelations From New Evidence In Georgia's Failed Prosecution Of Trump March 1, 2026

1. Waiving of Executive Privilege: The Biden White House cleared the way for Willis’s team to interview former Trump administration officials by waiving claims of executive privilege, which traditionally protects communications within the executive branch.
2. Willis' office given $18 million in federal funding during the probe: The Biden Justice Department "invited" Willis to apply for a $2 million "sole-source" grant in 2022 while her investigation was accelerating. This was part of more than $18 million in federal funding her office received during her tenure.
3. Direct Coordination with the J6 Committee: Internal communications reveal Willis’s office collaborated extensively with the Democrat-led House Jan. 6 Committee, appearing to receive "oral summaries" of witness testimony and access to committee documents in Washington, D.C.
4. White House Meetings: Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade billed Fulton County for an "interview with DC/White House" in November 2022. Despite the billing, the county claimed Wade kept no records of what occurred during this interaction.

Earned! Earned! Earned!

Before the prog and karen blue meanies and race baiters/hustlers/grifters and the smear brigades cry 'RACIST!', please admit your nasty go-to smear does not change the "FACTS (alternative facts = LIES)". As Ms. Crockett attests, da facts am da facts.

Asshat Lawfare Rage On Parade

Just you wait, as the Democrats wish-cast themselves back in power, yeah -- just you wait.

• Eric Swalwell Vows Dems Will Go After Private Citizens Who Worked With Trump If They Regain Majority September 30, 2025
• Rep. Eric Swalwell’s $1.2 Million DC Home Target Of DOJ Mortgage Fraud Criminal Referral November 13, 2025
• Rep. Swalwell Can’t Run For Gov In California — Because He Doesn’t Live There: Court Filing January 18, 2026
• FBI Director Kash Patel Wants Documents On Democrat Eric Swalwell And Chinese Spy ‘Fang Fang’ Released March 29, 2026
• Lawyers For Rep. Swalwell Demand That FBI Director Halt Any Plan To Release Old Investigative File March 30, 2026
• Susan Rice To Corporate America: Resist Trump Or Face The Consequences February 20, 2026
• How The Susan Rice Snafu Cost Netflix On Home Stretch Of Warner Bros. Discovery DealFebruary 27, 2026
• Illinois Gov. Pritzker: Trump Officials Who ‘Broke The Law’ Must Be ‘Criminally Prosecuted’March 20, 2026
• [Philly DA Larry] Krasner To ICE: 'President Can't Pardon You — I'll Put You In Handcuffs' While Philly Crime Runs Free March 26, 2026
• James Carville Predicts Democrats Will Probe Trump’s ‘Stupid Jackass Kids And Their Spouses’ After Midterms April 2, 2026
  James Carville: “Let’s talk about [DJT] future, your post-November future. The Democrats are...going to start going after you. Then they’re going to start figuring out where all the money stolen is. Then they’re going to go after your stupid jackass kids and their spouses and all the other bulls–t that you see, and they’re going to investigate the s–t out of you.”
  Before the 2024 election, Carville warned that if Trump won, he would mass-arrest his critics in the media.
• 'It Has To Take A Toll On [Joe Biden]': Ex-Clinton Advisor James Carville Comes To Hunter Biden's Defense May 20, 2024
• James Carville Tells [Hunter] Biden To Shut Up And Go Away: ‘Nobody To Blame But Himself’ January 23, 2025

America's Herculean Efforts to Rescue a Downed U.S. Pilot in Iran Were Heralded in a WWII Joke from the 1940s

America's successful hunt for, and retrieval of, the pilot of a downed aircraft over Iran reminds me of a World-War-II era joke. 

As Short Mag Smile's Greater Lee describes the situation in 2026, 

a lot of foreigners who seem to not understand why we’d risk hundreds of lives, spend millions of dollars, and sacrifice several aircraft to rescue one guy. And the reason they don’t understand is also the reason people can’t be made American by a piece of paper. 

Meanwhile, the Armchair Admiral points out that 

It’s a testament to the U.S. military that no amount of equipment is more valuable than a single airman’s life 

Both quotes come from Ed Driscoll's outstanding Instapundit post, to which various contributors at the blog have contributed with ever-more details. Do read the whole thing™. 

But there is nothing new under the sun here: this was already the case during World War II, as the following joke emphasizes. The joke, which was apparently shared by both sides (allies and axis), and among all national groups and by all army soldiers, goes as follows:

A regiment of soldiers (whose nationality hardly matters) becomes aware that in a forest close by is a large group of unknown troops. To find out whether they are friends or foes, i.e., what nationality they are, they decide to open fire on the woods. This is how they find out who the unseen troops are:

If the unseen troops fire back with single rifle shots, they are British;

If the unseen troops fire back with machine gun fire, they are German;

If the troops rush out at you, screaming like berserk madmen, they are Russian;

If there is no response whatsoever, if nothing happens at all, there is only one conclusion: they are, they must be, American. 

That is, nothing happens for five to ten minutes, and then suddenly your entire area is struck by an intense, an extensive, and a devastating artillery barrage.

Indeed, among the other perspectives in the aforementioned Instapundit post is that of Freight Alley's Craig Fuller, who goes back over 80 years in time to point out that 

During World War II, … German observers noted that Americans fought differently from the Europeans. 

Rather than charging aggressively and risking heavy infantry casualties, U.S. forces relied on overwhelming firepower—staying at a distance and expending vast quantities of artillery with little hesitation. Thanks to unmatched industrial production and logistics, fresh supplies were always available. 

This approach allowed relatively smaller American units to wear down much larger and well-entrenched enemy forces. 

In contrast, German and other European doctrines often emphasized aggressive maneuver and were sometimes more willing to accept high casualties to achieve objectives or preserve key equipment. 

This material-heavy American style surprised many Germans, including Hitler, who had long dismissed U.S. soldiers as soft and lacking in fighting spirit. He believed soldiers were cheap and expendable; he discovered too late that Americans fought to conserve lives by expending machines and ammunition instead. 

It was one of many reasons for Germany’s defeat—perhaps the hardest for some foreigners to fully understand. Americans place a high value on the lives of our soldiers. Equipment and shells could always be replaced.  

Indeed, it turns out that the Germans were complaining that the ways that "die Amis" were fighting was totally unfair.

I’m noticing a lot of foreigners who seem to not understand why we’d risk hundreds of lives, spend millions of dollars, and sacrifice several aircraft to rescue one guy. And the reason they don’t understand is also the reason people can’t be made American by a piece of paper. https://t.co/mmRtDKQB56

— Lee (Greater) (@shortmagsmle) April 5, 2026

And how 'bout the Japanese? (Don't we all remember the video of the submarine picking up the young George H W Bush in a life raft in the September 1944?)