"Kamala Harris has no flavor"

So says Rich Lowry, Editor-in-chief of the National Review, in "Kamala Harris Is Wafer Thin", 21/8/24. Absent permission to repost the entire article, we hope Mr Lowry won't mind us quoting these key passages.

It is appropriate that Kamala Harris is from the town of Oakland, Calif., of which it was famously said there was no there there. 

It is hard to think of another presidential nominee who has felt so utterly superficial — not as a campaign tactic, but as a reality. She has no flavor. 

She’s woke but doesn’t embrace being woke; her policies are socialistic although she’s not a self-declared socialist; she’s a tough law-and-order prosecutor, except when she’s not. 

She’s not a party institutionalist like Bob Dole, finally rewarded with his party’s nomination after decades of service, or a “maverick” like John McCain, who, after years being in the wilderness, finally won over his party (temporarily). 

Of course, she’s not a Bill Clinton, who rose from relative obscurity based on his unbelievable verbal acuity, charm, and shamelessness that could see him through any fix or scandal. 

No, Kamala Harris feels thin, fragile, and manufactured. The Democrats and their media allies have had the unity and discipline, so far, to pull off a feat that few would dare attempt: to topple a sitting president and create a political phenomenon out of the thinnest of reeds.

Back in the daze, Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau (no relation) used to depict President Bush  as an askterisk * with nothing behind it. 

Walt thinks that would be highly appropriate for the Cackler.

Note from Ed.: In fairness to Mr Lowry and the National Review, I should point out that the meme above did not accompany the article. And the photo below, taken at the DNC, isn't really to Mr Lowry's point, but is very à propos the whole Dumbocrat campaign. 

Do they take the American people for fools? [Errr... could be. Walt] 

32 days now without a press conference or unscripted interview. See "How Long Can Kamala Harris Avoid the Press?", The Free Press, 22/8/24.

More on the moronic pipe bombs

Apparently Walt is not the only one who thinks the allegedly explosive devices supposedly sent to ten leading anti-Trumpers may well be parts of a gigantic hoax. See "Who's behind the pipe bombs?", WWW 24/10/18 and "UPDATE on the pipe bombs hoax (???)", WWW 25/10/18.

Got this a few minutes ago from Blazing Cat Fur, a blog I recommend highly. What burns my ring is that there's no time, between now and the mid-terms, to prove that this is a colossal fraud (or not) and name and shame those responsible for it. As I wrote earlier this morning, the perps' timing is impeccable!

Further reading: "The Pipe-Bombs Story: Another Example of Why No One Trusts the Media", by Andrew J. McCarthy on the National Review website, 24/10/18. Keep in mind that NR is the last refuge of the Never Trumpers in the Republican Party. Even they have their doubts.

Trump quality extends even to his sentences!

Thanks to Agent 34 for this little gem. But before we dismiss the Donald from our thoughts -- as if we could -- let us consider the wise words of Scott Adams on Mr. Trump's successful use of "strategic ambiguity", in Scott Adams' Blog, 1/3/16. Some may laugh at the Donald's way of "speaking", but it seems to be working!

Still talking Trump -- how could we not? -- I was thinking about writing about how dismayed I am to see the Republicans' so-called "debates" turning into pure trash talk [No oxymorons, please! Ed.], the kind of thing you would hear before an NFL game or a pro wrestling show. [Notice, Ed., that I didn't say "wrestling match".] Is this what American politics has come to? Is this "quality" of discourse what we expect from the putative leaders of the most powerful nation in the world?

As Michelle Malkin pointed out in "The 2016 GOP Debate Debacle", having "moderators" from the lamestream media doesn't help. But the real problem is American society itself. According to Andrew McCarthy, writing in the National Review, "A sick society breeds gutter politics". That, Mr. McCarthy says, makes Donald Trump the symptom, not the cause, of the culture rot with which the Excited States of America is rife.

When a once mighty oak is rotten to the core, or rotting from the core, what can you do to save it? I regret not having an answer for this very serious question. Do you? To leave a comment, from the landing page just click on the headline, and a new window will open, complete with comments box -- yours to use.

Two jokes that even celebrities can't tell on American TV

Walt has lifted the following passage from "The Age of Intolerance", by Mark Steyn, writing in National Review Online.

Here are two jokes one can no longer tell on American television.... First, Bob Hope, touring the world in the year or so after the passage of the 1975 Consenting Adult Sex Bill: "I’ve just flown in from California, where they’ve made homosexuality legal. I thought I’d get out before they make it compulsory."

Second joke from the archives: Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra kept this one in the act for a quarter-century. On stage, Dino used to have a bit of business where he’d refill his tumbler and ask Frank, "How do you make a fruit cordial?" And Sinatra would respond, "I dunno. How do you make a fruit cordial?" And Dean would say, "Be nice to him."

Badabing, badaboom!

If you haven't already guessed why such jokes are now politically incorrect, read the article. Mark Steyn is currently at the top of Walt's list of must-read socio-political commentators, and it's high time I let you know where you can find him online.

I also want mention, for the second time in recent days, his excellent book After America (Regnery Publishing, 2011). It should be read immediately after Matt Taibbi's Griftopia (Spiegel & Grau, 2010), reviewed here last week. That's what I've been doing this weekend. I have the bad habit of dog-earing pages on which I find something that needed saying said well, [Hello! Remember me? Do you need some help this morning? Ed.] and about every third page of After America has been so treated.