Just like the Holiday Inn

Turns out that South Carolina is not like Pennsylvania or Arizona. Truckloads of ballots did not arrive in the middle of the night to enable Nikki Haley to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. [Did you make that up? Ed.]

The lickspittle media raced to be the first to declare a result, with ABC the winner, calling Trump the winner at approximately 7:00:09 EST. Here are the final numbers.

President Trump: 451,905 votes (59.8%), winning all 44 delegates to the GOP convention

Nikki Haley: 298,681 (39.5%), winning NO delegates

Ron DeSantis: 2951 votes (0.4%)

Vivek Ramaswamy: 728 votes (<0.1%). 

Walt's percentage of correct predictions (see yesterday's post): .990.

So... no surprises, then. Just like the Holiday Inn. Walt notes two things.

First... the Republican Party belongs to President Trump, whether the RINOs and never-Trumpers (Hello, David Frum) like it or not. Whatever demographic or regional divisions may have existed in the past have been largely swept away. As proof of this, I offer the prospect of Senator Tim Scott being offered the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket.

Second... the Dumbocrats must now be seriiously considering showing President Brandon the exit door, while there is still time [about a minute and a half. Ed.] to find another candidate for the presidensity.

Some Dems are putting on a brave face, saying Demented Joe is the only one who could beat the Orange Man, but the operative word there is "could"... not "will". If you're an independent voter and have to choose between two old white guys with health and legal issues, which one would you trust to pilot the ship of state through the stormy seas that lie ahead. [That's enough metaphors. Ed.]

That brings us back to "Waiting in the wings... or maybe just outside the window?", WWW 22/1/24. Mrs Barrack Hussein Obama would be a plausible candidate, but my guess is that she would only throw her do-rag in the ring once Brandon is tail-lights, and if Deep State has everything rigged so that she couldn't possibly lose.

Ms Haley vows to go on to Michigan and Super Tuesday. Whether or not she is able to find the support -- especially financial support -- necessary to do so doesn't matter. She was effectively cooked -- fried -- last night. After Super Tuesday is when the Democratic long knives will come out. Stay tuned.

To that point: "Democrats would have this election in the bag, if not for Joe Biden", by Colby Cosh, in the National Post, 25/1/24.

VIDEO: Walt predicts the outcome of the South Carolina primary

OK, so it's a Trump ad. Anyone who thinks this is wrong is welcome to put his/her money down. Contact Ed's Barbershop, Fort Mudge. Lifetime pct .989.

Easter in Brandon's America: more "racial injustice"

Easter weekend, when Christians celebrate the resurrection and the hope that it brings us of peace in this world and the next, has come and gone. In the Paranoid States of America, it seems, peace and harmony will have to wait for the life hereafter, as the weekend was marred by three separate mass shootings and many smaller instances of gun violence as communities across the country grapple with spikes in the murder rate.

Two teenage boys were killed and eight other people were wounded after gunfire erupted at a party in a short-term rental home in Pittsburgh early on Easter Sunday. Police were alerted to shots fired shortly after midnight, and arrived at a rental property where a party was allegedly being held. 

The cops found rifle and pistol casings and set up as many as eight crime scenes spanning a few blocks in the area. A spokesthingy told a local TV station, "The initial investigation reveals a large party was being held at the short-term rental property, with as many as 200 people in attendance, many of them underage."

According to the cops, at least 50 gunshots were fired in the home in question by multiple people who had been drawn into some sort of fight. A handful of partygoers were injured but not shot, suffering cuts and broken bones while jumping out of windows in a desperate attempt to get to safety.

First responders took several of the victims to a hospital, including two 17-year-old boys Pittsburgh boys, Matthew Steffy-Ross and Jaiden Brown,whom doctors later pronounced dead. Others who were shot but survived took their own rides to the hospital. No word, of course, as to the race or ethnicity of those involved, so let's not jump out of windows to any conclusions.

Meanwhile, also early on Sunday, gunfire which erupted at a nightclub in Hampton County, South Carolina, injured nine people. None of the wounds reported at Cara's Lounge, about 80 miles west of Charleston, were fatal, said officials, who had not immediately announced any arrests in that case.

A more serious "incident" occurred in South Carolina's capital on Saturday, when a gunfight inside a busy shopping mall left nine people, ranging in age from 15 to73, with bullet wounds. Five people were injured while attempting to flee to safety. 

Columbia Police Chief "Skippy" Holbrook told the meeja, "We don't believe this was random. We believe [those involved] they knew each other and something led to the gunfire." Investigators believe that at least three suspects displayed firearms inside the mall but are working to determine how many ofo them actually fired weapons. 

22-year-old Jewayne Price, was jailed following the shooting on accusations of... wait for it... unlawfully carrying a pistol. On Sunday afternoon, his bail was set at $25,000. Benjamin Crump is expected to arrive today, accompanied by "Rev" Al Sharpton, to post bail and demand justice for Jewayne.

That's Jewayne there, in the middle of the top row, along with some of his friends. The pic isn't from their high school yearbook, or from police files related to this weekend's shootout, but from a report of arrests made in the May 2018 shooting death of a 17-year-old in Richland County SC.

Amon Rice, 17, and another victim were found with gunshot wounds, after a dispute of some kind near Unity Missionary Baptist Church in Hopkins SC on 10 May 2018. A mother and her three children were arrested at the end of May. In June, the Richland County Sheriff's Department arrested 20-year-old Jordan Terrell Myer, 18-year-old Kenneth Roger Robinson Jr., 18-year-old Jewayne Marquise Price, 39-year-old Twana Ivery, and 18-year-old Thaiyeah Keisha Keel, in connection with the murder.

Jewayne Price was charged with accessory before the fact. Ed. couldn't find out if he was ever tried, but if he was convicted, he evidently didn't learn any lessons from his brush with the law. Perhaps the judge let him off lightly because of his being the victim of centuries of oppression, racial discrimination, yada yada yada, according to the Ketanji Brown Jackson Sentencing Guidelines.

Confederate flag to fly at SC statehouse today

Today, a group protesting the hasty and ultra-PC decision of South Carolina's governor to remove the Confederate battle flag from its place in front of the statehouse will unfurl the banner once again. Walt can't make it to Columbia but will be there in spirit!

The South Carolina Secessionist Party will fly the Confederate flag on a temporary pole for several hours, to mark the third anniversary of the removal of the honoured symbol of states' rights. The SCSP says it will go on doing so every July 10th, so that a year will not pass without the Glorious War of the Secession being memorialized.

The flag to be raised, shown in the picture at right, is not the Stars and Bars, as many people mistakenly think. It is a version of the battle flag of the Confederate armies, carried proudly by legion of young men who died for the cause. If you believe in the values these men died for, don't be afraid to display the flag on your cars or at your homes. The times they are a-changin', and (Walt hopes) the end of political correctness is in sight.

Reflections on South Carolina and Nevada

There were no upset winners in yesterday's Democratic caucus in Nevada or South Carolina's Republican primary. There were, however, a couple of losers.

One loser was apparent and expected. That would be JEB! All the Establishment money couldn't save him, nor could his little big brother's endorsement. See "Republican voters: WATCH 'Fahrenheit 9/11'!" (WWW 17/2/16) So now JEB! has bid us a tearful farewell. Or has he?! How come no putative candidates quit any more? Why do they just "suspend" their campaigns? Are we to believe that if some horrible accident should befall the Donald (just sayin'), JEB! will rise Lazarus-like from his crypt in Coral Gables?

If you think about it, the big loser in the Republican primary wasn't JEB!, but Ted Cruz. At one point last night he was deadlocked with Marco Rubio, with exactly the same number of votes. In the end, Mr. Rubio squeaked into a distant second place, finishing ahead of TrusTED by just over 1000 votes. Mr. Rubio thus becomes the "moderate" or Establishment alternative to Mr. Trump, leaving Mr. Cruz, errr, nowhere.

Not really a surprise, since he was never going to get many MOR [= Middle Of the Road. Ed.] GOP votes. They hate him. To beat the Donald or even come close, Ted had to get the Tea Party voters, not just the happy-clappy Protestant fundamentalists. Too bad for him that the Tea Partiers hate him too.

Before we leave the Republicans, take a look at the results map appearing in today's Washington Post. The only counties who went for Mr. Rubio were around the state capital and along the coast near Charleston. Mr. Trump swept the rest. Those who think that the media darling SC governor's tearing down of the Southern Cross represented the true feelings of South Carolinians should give their heads a shake!

As for Nevada, Hellery Clinton's cries of victory seemed to me more relief than exultation. CNNPolitics calls her win "decisive", but they would say that, wouldn't they. Walt doesn't call 5.5% decisive, especially when you consider that just a couple of weeks ago her margin was expected to be in the double digits. Entrance and exit polls showed that Madame Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college-educated voters, those with annual incomes over $100,000, moderates, voters aged 45 and older and non-white voters. Bernie Sanders did best with men, voters under 45 and those less affluent and educated.

The once and (she hopes) future First Lady captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important. BERNie, however, did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest. That an aged socialist Jew from New England should come as close as he did in a state like Nevada tells me that Hellerey is far from home and dry. Keep looking over your shoulder, dear. The footsteps behind you aren't just Bill's!

Know your Confederate flags

Yesterday the South Carolina state senate, by a vote of 37 to 3, read for the second time a bill to banish the Confederate battle flag from a Civil War memorial on the capitol grounds, and put it in a museum where (the "civil rights" nazis say) it belongs. The bill is to be read for a third and final time today. Then it will go to the state House of Representatives. Click here to read the Reuters report on the rather one-sided debate.

Walt was dismayed [yet again! Ed.], while watching this news on the idiot's lantern, to hear a reporter for a major network refer [yet again! Ed.] to the flag in question as "the Stars and Bars". It is not!!! Would all reporters, commentators, pundits and other members of the chattering classes please look closely at the images below!

The Stars and Bars, shown at the left end of the top row, was the first flag of the Confederate States of America, deliberately modelled on the Betsy Ross flag popularly believed -- although the point is debatable -- to have been the first flag of the United States of America. The seven stars in the canton represent the original seven states of the CSA. More stars were added as more states exercised their right to secede from the Union.

The square flag which flies at the SC Civil War memorial is the Confederate battle jack, more accurately the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. It's shown at the left end of the second row. The rectangular version, often called "the Southern Cross", was carried into battle by other units, along with a number of lesser-known unit flags, as shown.

The Confederate battle jack was (and still is) popular with the people of the South, and was incorporated into the second and third national flags of the confederacy. It still appears in the canton of the state flag of Mississippi, whose politically-incorrect legislature has so far shown no inclination to remove it. 

DON'T tear down this flag!

Walt is incensed -- putting it mildly -- by the increasingly strident demands of the usual suspects (including Mitt Romney and a starlet posing as Governor of South Carolina) to remove the Confederate battle flag from its position next to the SC state capitol. Their argument is that since the "Southern Cross" (as it is sometimes known) has been appropriated by some racists and social misfits, including the nutbar who murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston last week, the flag which the South has loved for a century and a half is no longer worthy of respect. They are wrong.

The Confederate battle flag was not intended to stand for racial supremacy, let alone slavery. THIS is what it stands for.

For over 150 years, the Confederate battle flag has been displayed throughout the Old South (and all over America) to honour the 260,000 Southerners who died in the War of the Secession fighting for the Cause in which they believed. That cause was not slavery, but the right of the people of the sovereign states to decide for themselves what form of society they wished to live in, and what form of government they wished to have.

Slavery only became an issue when Abraham Lincoln made it so, in his Emancipation Proclamation of 1 January 1863. He did this for political reasons, not because he was a believer in the equality of the races. Here, from "Abraham Lincoln Never Believed in Racial Equality", is a direct quote from a speech by "the Great Emancipator" at Springfield IL in 1858:

I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality ... I will add to this that I have never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman, or child who was in favor of producing a perfect equality, social and political, between negros and white men.

But the civil war -- regarded by blacks as a white man's war -- was going badly. In the North, anti-war sentiment was growing, enlistments were declining, and morale was bad. However, there was a strong abolitionist faction in Congress and in the upper strata of Northern society, and Lincoln felt that making the conflict about slavery, rather than about states' rights, would get the "progressive thinkers" more engaged. So, "Free the slaves!" became the new war cry -- "the battle cry of freedom".

And so it was that the Stars and Stripes was made to represent "freedom" and the Confederate flag slavery, a mischaracterization which is being revived in the heat of overreaction to the Charleston shootings. The deranged kid had a Confederate flag sewed to his backpack. So what? Many of the cops, white and black, who shoot innocent people, black and white, have the Star-spangled Banner sewed onto their uniforms. Does that make them evil racists or advocates of a return to slavery? [Well? Does it? Ed.]

And how about the Sandy Hook massacre? The Stars and Stripes was flying outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on the day Adam Lanza shot 26 adults and children. The same flag was flying -- and still flies -- at the CT state capitol in New Haven. Does anyone seriously suggest it was the sight of that flag that fuelled the killer's depravity? Ridiculous?! Certainly. Just as ridiculous as the notion that banning the display of the Confederate flag will somehow end race hatred in America.

Footnote and recommendation: For an even-handed commentary on the reasons for the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, Walt can think of no better reference than Ken Burns's superb TV mini-series, The Civil War, available as a boxed set  from Amazon and other sources.

Free candy! Ku Klux Klan recruiting in South Carolina

FOX Carolina brings us news from Seneca, South Carolina, where the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have staged a recruiting drive they call a "night ride".

A Seneca subdivision woke up Sunday morning to find bags of candy on their driveways with literature inviting readers to find out how to "Save our land, join the Klan."

When you call the number shown on the flyer (and on the website) -- (336) 432-0386 -- you get a voicemail message which starts with, "Be a man join the Klan! Illegal immigration is destroying America!" It goes on to discusses immigration concerns and ends with, "Always remember if it ain't white, it ain't right. White power!"

Robert Jones, the Imperial Klaliff of the sect, the Loyal White Knights, returned a call to FOX Carolina. Part of the conversation can be heard in the video report. Mr. Jones said that Klan chapters across the country drop literature overnight to attract new members. Their hotline, he added, has received around 20,000 calls, many from people are interested in joining the cause.

Mr. Jones said that his members don't target the homes of non-white or mixed couples for their night ride. "I mean, we can't tell who lives in a house, whether they're black, white, Mexican, gay, we can't tell that," he said. "And if you were to look at somebody's house like that, that means you'd be pretty much a racist."

He went on to say that the Loyal White Knights are not a hate group but a civil rights organization following the Bible. He said the Klan has always been strong throughout South Carolina and that this type of recruitment is nothing new. With more than 8,500 members, Jones said these days their focus is protesting against illegal immigration. His chapter is planning a public protest against illegal immigration in North Carolina on August 9th, with a cross-burning planned after dark.

As the silent majority of Americans wake up to the reality of Obama's "hope and change" agenda, don't be surprised to see more of this type of recruitment...and an increase in membership of organizations standing up for America!

DISCLAIMER! As a traditional Catholic -- a recusant -- Walt is forbidden to belong to the Ku Klux Klan or any other secret society. Moreover, Walt finds repugnant the anti-Catholicism -- implicit and explicit -- of the Klan. However, the things the Klan is saying about immigration and the destruction of American society very much need to be said. Mr. Jones and his colleagues are fortunate to be living in a country where their right to say things that are not politically correct is protected by the First Amendment. In Canada or elsewhere, they'd be hauled in front of a "human rights" tribunal...or worse. Thank God for freedom of speech! And God save the United States of America!

Paul to make third party run?

OK, so the Mormon candidate won New Hampshire. Hardly news. That Mr. Romney won both Iowa and New Hampshire, becoming the first ever non-incumbent Republican to do so, is news. It's beginning to look as if he has the GOP nomination locked up.

However... Even the lamestream media can't ignore the fact that Romney’s margin of victory was narrower than polls predicted on the weekend days ago. And, much to the pundits' consternation, Walt's choice, libertarian Congressman Ron Paul, showed startling strength, winning 23% of all votes cast. A better-than-expected second place showing. Much better than expected.

John Huntsman -- the latest conservative flash in the pan -- Rick Santorum and Not-so-New Gingrich finished down the track.

What does this mean? If I can find a rabid right-winger in the woods behind my cabin, I'll place an immodest wager on Romney to win the Republican nomination. Lifetime pct .982.

I'm also about ready to bet that Ron Paul, if he makes a respectable showing in South Carolina, will stand as presidential candidate for the Libertarian party, or some variant thereof with a new brand name. Like "Restore America Party". "RAP". That would be cool -- appealing to the college kids, who, by the way, turned out in NH in large numbers to vote for Ron.

Walt told you first!