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Plus ça change? Just 38 1/3 years ago, P.J. O'Rourke wrote...

July of 1988 found one of Walt's favourite writers on the American scene in Atlanta, covering the Democratic convention for Rolling Stone. He was listening to Jesse Jackson harangue the honkies, and wrote down these thoughts, which I think can be applied to the Democractic Party [to both parties! Ed.] today.

Listening to Jesse Jackson, something hit me. It wasn't even a good patch of Jackson oratory. He was just yammering on. 

"So many guided missiles and so much unguided leadership... This night we choose not a false sense of independence... Tonight we choose interdependence..." 

I don't even like the guy but all of a sudden I misted up. My nose began to run with patriotic sniffles. Maybe I'd got it all wrong about these hairball conventions. Maybe, as vapid and puerile as American politics are, there's something wonderful about them, after all.

I mean, here was this firebrand, this radical, this leader of an alienated and angry minority. And was he in jail? Was he in exile? Was he dead? No, he was being absorbed whole -- supporters and all -- into the Democratic party, the largest political organization in the US.

It's sort of heartwarming. America can co-opt anything, make anything insipid. No politician is too weird to withstand our national blandness. Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah.

So what if I don't agree with the Democrats? What's to disagree with? They believe everything, and so do the Republicans. And neither of them stand for anything they believe in anyway. And you know something? It works.

Maybe our Disney World mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those sneaky little European countries, filled with Commies and Nazis and creepy-looking Greens. Why not have political conventions without politics to nominate leaders who are out in front of nobody?

Maybe the American political system isn't like a Mexican Christmas fiesta, with something inside the piñata filled with full employment, low interest rates, comprehensive medical benefits, free day care, a balanced budget and other goodies.

Maybe it's more like a Big Mac. It's mushy and tasteless and made out of disgusting parts of things. But when you come right down to it, everybody wants one

Anyone can be co-opted. Anyone can be swallowed whole by the system. Now that Abdul Ed-Sayed is the Senator-elect from Michigan, just watch how quickly he backs away from the Muslim Brotherhood, Sharia Law and the rest of the Islamist BS that got him elected by fellow Muslims from Dearborn. He is now changing into his President of Arab America suit. Walt predicts that two years from now he'll lose the "Arab" part. Lifetime pct .987.

VIDEO: Carey Price, on being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame

Our National Sports (as long as its hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, was present (in spirit anyway) at the ceremony in Toronto in which new members were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Most prominent among the inductees, in our opinion, was Carey Price, who in our opinion was the Greatest Goaltender of Our Time. 

Price stood tall between the pipes for the Montréal Canadiens for 15 seasons, good and bad, and won just about every award that a goalie could win. His NHL résumé is headlined by his dominant 2014–15 campaign, where he captured the Hart Memorial (MVP), Vezina (Best Goaltender), Ted Lindsay (Most Outstanding Player by NHLPA), and William M. Jennings (fewest goals against, shared with Corey Crawford) trophies. 

He later earned the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance and dedication in 2022. Additionally, he earned selections to the NHL First All-Star Team (2015), Second All-Star Team (2008), All-Rookie Team (2008), and seven NHL All-Star Games.

The one trophy that eluded Carey Price -- and did so not through any fault of his but the sometime deficiencies of the team in front of him -- was the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the National Hockey League chapionship. 

During their most recent deep playoff run in 2021, the Habs won the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, the traditional Westsern Conference trophy, for the first and only time in franchise history, because normally les Glorieux play in the East.

However, there was a divisional realignment during the Covid-impacted 2020–21 season, and the NHL replaced the traditional Conference Finals with the Stanley Cup Semifinals. The Eastern-based Canadiens were matched up against the Western-based Vegas Golden Knights and won the series, only to lose the Stanley Cup final series to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Here is what the usually taciturm Carey Price had to say at the Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

 

This weekend, Carey Price opened up about a subject on which he usually maintained radio silence -- his indigenous roots. The opening words of most Hall of Fame plaques mention the team or teams the player played for. But Priceès plaque begins: "A member of the Ulkatcho First Nation in [British Columbia]>

He was asked several times about his indigenous roots, and every time, he gave a similar answer: "l just think it's important that you be proud of yourself and your heritage and to have goals and give everything you have to achieve them." 

Price’s pride in his indigenous heritage and his inspiration of First Nations communities everywhere remain one of the biggest impacts he made over his hockey career. When he accepted his Hall of Fame ring, he was interviewed on stage by TSN's Glenn Schiller, who asked how he wants to be remembered by Montreal fans. 

He responded, "I think just being a pretty down-to-earth person. I always tried to have positive interactions with fans throughout my career, and I obviously appreciated the support. At the end of the day, I'm a human like everyone else."

That was Carey Price's  way of acknowledging his imperfections, a reference to his alcoholism, a problem for many indigenous people which he very publicly decided to fight toward the end of his career. 

On that point, he said, "Well, I just think hockey players are idolized. Like, I looked up to hockey players when I was a kid, but I think the most important thing to me to look up to is that I’m not a perfect person. I have faults and I've made mistakes and I've been able to learn from those mistakes and regroup and try and make myself better.'

Price has never wanted to be portrayed as a hero for overcoming his alcohol addiction. But he did want to set an example by asking for help. His answer on how he wants to be remembered in Montreal cemented that.

VIDEO: RFK Jr tells Dave Rubin the plain truth about Islamic culture

In this video, Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report shares clips of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shocking a crowd with some brutal truths about Islamic history and why modern-day Muslim countries have not been able to compete with the world in the hard sciences.

Thanks and a tip of the biretta to Agent 5 who sent us the link. Good to know you're still with us!

The Blue Wave: 1 picture = 1000 words

Don't blame me! [or Ed.! Ed.]

VIDEO: "A 'lame duck' president can do pretty much what he wants"

With Democrats sweeping the House and Senate in the midterms, the question on many minds is: Can "lame duck" President Trump pursue his MAGA agenda now, or are his hands tied?

In this video, American Thought Leaders host is Jan Jekielek, a senior editor at The Epoch Times, sits down with our old friend Victor Davis Hanson to get his take on the results and what they mean for the Trump administration, the MAGA movement, and the 2028 elections.

 

Circle the calendar! Jon Stewart is right about what Dems must do

Reminds you of Animal Farm, doesn't it? The Social Democratic/Democratic Socialist Revolution is less than 72 hours old, and already the pigs are fighting over who should be leader. 

By tradition, Senator Chuck "Charles" Schumer (D-NY) should become Senate Majority Leader. Walt would love to be a fly on the wall when he tries to persuade Senator Abdul Mohammed El-Sayed (D-MI) to vote to restore aid to Israel. 

But is it going to happen? Might the Dimocrats smarten up and not go back to the future?

Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show (Yes, it's still on Comedy Central), pleaded with the Dems on his The Weekly Show podcast to avoid going down the same rabbit hole again.

Doubling down on past remarks to avoid another impeachment fiasco, he said, "Job one of this opportunity is to tear down the obstacles and old way of thinking that got us into this mess. Someone has to meet this moment and they have got to show -- and this moment is not, 'oh, we get to impeach everybody,' like fuck that. Like, you have an opportunity to actually govern. Do it. Take it."

America's Most Important JewTM said that Democrats could, in effect, govern the country if they remove seniority from leadership. "One of the first things you need to do," he said, "is remove that system of seniority from Democratic politics. It is a bullshit system and it needs to go. 

"And they're already like, 'Chuck Schumer deserves a lot of credit for putting together this…' Chuck Schumer fought tooth and nail against half of these fucking people! And even if he didn't, he does not understand the urgency of the moment and what the future demands. I truly believe that."

Mr Stewart previously cautioned his party against pursuing an impeachment of the President Trump, warning that it would just become a theatrical showdown with little substance or results. "We've already shown there's no accountability. What I want to see is a full government effort on rebalancing this economy. 

"This is about triage and the corruption of that family -- fucking let them drain us like they think they’re gonna drain us. Wall it off so it doesn’t infect the rest of the economy and spend a total government effort at rebalancing labor versus capital with real ideas

"I don’t want to see a fucking five-act performative play of House hearings. I just don’t want to see it. I don’t want to see everybody having the opportunity to pantomime accountability because you know they’re actually not going to bring it."

While Mr Stewart said he welcomed investigations, he added that he believed that the Donald would "run out the clock.... You want to do some investigations into some shit, that's great, but on the triage list of what's wrong in this country, it is, I'm sorry, sir, you're gonna have to stay in the waiting room because this guy just got shot and it sounds to me like you just have a sore throat. Do the shit that is actually killing people right now!"

Sounds to Walt as if Jon Stewart is finally getting over a severe case of TDS. But will Senator Chuck and the rest of the Dimocratic leadership take whatever medicine is helping Mr Stewart. Walt doubts it. Lifetime pct .987.

Note from Ed.: The source for the quotes is Breitbart News, 6/11/26.