Matt Taibbi stands up for free speech at "Rescue the Republic"

"...every American has a little bit of asshole in him. William Blake said, 'Always be ready to speak your mind and a base man will avoid you.' Some struggle with this concept. Americans are born knowing it.... Propaganda is...always someone trying to make you feel bad for their weakness, their mistakes. Don’t be ground down by it. Stand up straight and give it back."

Matt Taibbi, speaking at Rescue the Republic, 29/9/24.

How I wish I'd been there! Rescue the Republic was a one-day celebration of freedom, organized by jointheresistance.org, yesterday in Washington DC. The event featured an all-star cast of musical artists, comedians, and thought leaders, including Dr Jordan Peterson, Tulsi Gabbard, Russell Brand, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Matt Taibbi.

Yes, it's the same Matt Taibbi who wrote Smells Like Dead Elephants and several other good books of social and political commentary. He used to be a raging liberal. In recent times, he has had his eyes opened and now subscribes to the Rescue the Republic credo, which you'll see below. Click here to read the complete transcript of Mr Taibbi's speech. 

In the promotional material for Rescue the Republic, the organizers say, "Let’s come together to celebrate the essence of what makes America and the West so special." Walt says AMEN. Wish I'd been there....

European Right on the rise! Freedom Party wins Austrian election

More good news from central Europe, this time from Austria. Kronen Zeitung reports that the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) has topped the polls in this weekend's election for the National Council, winning an estimated 29.2% of the total vote. 

The populist party (labelled "far right" by the lickspittle media, of course) led by former interior minister Herbert Kickl bested the governing neo-liberal Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) led by Chancellor Karl Nehammer at 26%, and the left-wing opposition Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) at 21%. The farther-left New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) got 9% and eco-wienie Green Alternative (GRÜNE) brang up the rear with 8%.

The win for FPÖ) echos strong showings for the like-minded [and right-minded. Ed.] Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) in elections in the German states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. See "Good news from Occupied Germany" WWW 31/8/24, and "More good news for Germany, but what about the USA and Canada?", WWW 10/9/24.

From this side of the Atlantic, it looks like yet another defeat for the socialists, Euro-wienies, one-worlders and their fellow travellers. Issues such as mass migration, the economic downturn throughout the EU, and growing opposition to support for the war in Ukraine propelled the Freedom Party to victory.

The results mark the first time in the Second Republic of Austria, and the first time since the Freedom Party was founded in 1956, that the FPÖ came out on top of a national election. Herr Kickl, who stridently opposed coronavirus lockdown diktats and serves as a leading critic of the open borders agenda, called for a "Fortress Austria" -- an immediate halt to the acceptance of asylum-seekers and bogus refueees -- and backed "remigration" policies of encouraging foreigners to return to their homelands.

Herbert Kickl said after his victory that his party is ready to govern and that it will not back away from its positions. "My big thanks go to the citizens," he said. "It was not easy to go against this political system. The voters have delivered a powerful message."

Meanwhile, in America and Canada, who dares to campaign on an platform which is honestly and openly against mass immigration? Anyone? Answer comes there none. 

VIDEO: "Credo" - this is what Catholics believe

A man who claims to be the Pope has been quoted as saying that all religions lead to God. He believes in Drawing All Faiths Together (DAFT) into his Church of the New World Order. This is the heresy of syncretism. It is not what Catholics believe. 

Here is the Credo (Creed) as sung (in English) by the faithful at the Ukrainian-Greco Catholic Church of Saint Elias the Prophet in Brampton ON in November of 2022.

In response to the heretical statement of the man mentioned above, Most Rev. Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, has written this Profession of Faith, read at the Catholic Identity Conference 2024, at Pittsburgh PA, today.

Profession of Faith in Jesus Christ and His Church
as the only path to God and to eternal salvation 

We unshakably believe and profess what the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Church has continuously and infallibly taught since the time of the Apostles, namely, 

That faith in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God and only Savior of mankind, is the only religion willed by God.

After the institution of the new and everlasting Covenant in Jesus Christ, no one may be saved by adherence to the teachings and practices of non-Christian religions. Because “the prayer, which is directed to God, must be linked with Christ, the Lord of all people, the one Mediator (1 Tm 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24) through whom alone we have access to God (Rom 5:2; Eph 2:18; 3:12).” (General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, n. 6)

We firmly believe that “there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), except the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead (cf. Acts 4:10).

We believe that it is “contrary to the Catholic faith to consider the Church as one way of salvation alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her, even if these are said to be converging with the Church toward the eschatological kingdom of God” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus, 21).

We furthermore hold that Divine Revelation, faithfully transmitted by the Church’s perennial Magisterium, forbids affirming:

That all religions are paths to God,

That the diversity of religious identities is a gift of God, and

That the diversity of religions is an expression of the wise will of God the Creator. 

We hold, therefore, that Christians are not simply “travelling companions” along with adherents of false religions — which God forbids.

We fervently implore the help of Divine grace for all those churchmen today who, by their words and deeds, contradict the Divinely revealed truth about Jesus Christ and His Church as the only path by which men can reach God and eternal salvation. With the help of divine grace, may these churchmen be enabled to offer a public retraction, required for the good of their own soul and the souls of others. For “not accepting Christ is the greatest danger for the world!” (St. Hilary of Poitiers, In Matth. 18).

By the prayers, tears and sacrifices of all the true sons and daughters of the Church, and especially of the “little ones” in the Church, may the Shepherds of the Church, and first and foremost Pope Francis, receive the grace to emulate the Apostles, countless Martyrs, numerous Holy Roman Pontiffs and a multitude of Saints, especially St. Francis of Assisi, who “was a Catholic and an entirely apostolic man, who set about personally and commanded his disciples to occupy themselves before everything else with the conversion of the heathen to the Faith and Law of Christ.” (Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Rite Expiatis, 37)

We believe and, with God’s grace, are ready to give our lives for this Divine truth pronounced by Jesus Christ: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). 

+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana,

with the Participants of the Catholic Identity Conference 2024, Pittsburgh, September 29, A.D. 2024

VIDEO: The Veep Thoughts of Kamala Harris

Any comment would be superfluous. [You don't know how long Walt has waited to be able to use that word. Ed.]

Greta Thunberg, TIME's person of the year

Saw this really vicious meme today and have to pass it along. [Notice Walt didn't say "share"! Ed.]

It's true that the BLMers and envirowienies don't get along very well. I love it when the lefties fight amongst themselves.

Note to censors: I really don't know where this came from. It was posted by an Indian (turban, not feathers) on a social media site, and forwarded by an anonymous reader.

VIDEO: Bill Reilly reviews the View's love-fest with Senile Joe

I am told that President Brandon re-emerged from the basement this morning and appeared on The View. I couldn't watch it, as the harpies of that alleged entertainment programme make me physically ill. Bill O'Reilly watched it though, and has posted these thoughts about the hour-long love-fest.

How does ABC get away with their constant stream of anti-Trump BS? What happened to the principle of equal time? Does the Federal Communications Commission even exist any more? Oh. Yeah. Federal! That explains it.

Poor Len Canayen looks at the Habs' chances in the coming season

Ed. here. The results in the Montréal Canadiensè first two NHL pre-season games have roused our National Sports (read: Hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, from his off-season torpor, so it's over to him for his thoughts on the outlook for the 2024-25 season.

Tank youse, Hed. To be `onest, I'm not awake yet. The Canadiens' goaltending team pitched deux jeux blancs -- two shutouts -- in two nights, as la Sainte Flannelle beat Philthydelphia 5-0 on Monday night, and Jersey 3-0 last night. It must be a dream!

I just hope I don't have a rude awakening when the regular season starts in a couple of weeks. A lot of changes were made over the summer, and dreams of the Stanley Cup, or at least getting into the playoffs, fill the heads of all Habs fans.

And rightly so. The Canadiens have nailed every step of their rebuild, from the front office and head coaching hires to the draft selections and everything in between. They head into the 2024-26 season not only to put an exciting produce on the ice, but to take a big leap upward in the standings. Here are the players, old and new, to watch.

Let's start with the goaltending situation, which I worry is the big IF in my prediction of a playoff finish. Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau are expected to share the duties with Montembault getting the lion's share. But is he up to being king of the jungle? He certainly looked like it last night, stopping all 11 shots he faced over the 31:28 he played. 

Primeau did equally well on Monday, but to my mind is still the perennial backup, not that there's anything wrong with that. Waiting in Laval will be Jakub Dobes and Connor Hughes, both of whom stood tall (6'4") in their debuts. If the save percentage of either Montembeault or Primeau slips below .900, Dobes or Hughes look capable of stepping up. If we can judge by just two pre-season games, Habs goaltending looks like being better than expected.

All four Montréal goalies are going to need more help than they got from last season's inconsistent defence. For some reason, GM Kent Hughes traded Jonathan Kovacevic to New Jersey, but kep the risky Justin Barron, who last year seemed unaware that his job was to defend, not carry the puck into the opposition's corner. Fortunately the Habs have exciting rookies to shore up the blueline.

Lane Hutson, the controversial Logan Mailloux, David Reinbacher and William Trudeau [no relation. Ed.] all look ready for the Big Team. Trudeau looks like a good playmaker, with two assists last night. But not all of them are going to start with the A-team. Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble, Kayden Guhle,  David Savard, and Mike Matheson (such a fine skater!) all have positions nailed down so that leaves just two spots to fill, out of the four above-mentioned. Looks to me like defence is not going to be the Habs' problem this year.

Their problem will be to get more scoring. There were way too many one-goal games last year, and you're never going to make the playoffs scoring 2.34 goals per game. The first line is set. Cole Caufield, Captain Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slavkovsky (all under 24!) developed great chemistry last year, and the improvement in Slavkovsky's confidence level and play was great to see. If they can keep it up this year -- and stay healtrhy too -- they'll be one of the NHL's top forward lines.

It's the next line that looks questionable. So far, Kirby Dach has been centring Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine, acquired from Columbis over the summer.  But both Dach and Newhook are natural centres -- playmakers, not scorers. Laine is supposed to be the hotshot scorer, but I see him as a rehabilitation project. He missed most of last season because of an injury and then some sort of substance abuse problem. He played over 16 minutes in the game against Philly and took five shots, none of which went in. If he can stay healthy, and off the sauce (or whatever it was), he might once again become a feared sniper. But I said "might".

There are lots of players, young and old, to make up the bottom six. Michael Pezzetta had 2 goals last night, and every team needs a gritty guy like that. Brendan Gallagher is back. He won't do much on the ice, but he'll try his best and remains an inspiration to the others. Likewise Joel Armia, invaluable on the PK.  

There's a long list of newcomers, all of whom may, with time and good coaching, rise to the top. Noted in the two pre-season games were: LW Florian Xhekaj (Arber's little brother); RW Joshua Roy, who played a couple of games late last year; C Owen Beck, very talented but only 20, needs seasoning; and LW Luke Tuch, whose name alone will give the play-by-play guys a headache.

Without going through the rest of the roster, I'll just say that there are a lot of good prospects there, including an abundance of centres and a strong contingent of gars de chez nous. Les Glorieux are  playing in the toughest division of the NHL, but I predict, with confidence, that they will have a winning season, with over 95 points, which should be just enough to get them into the playoffs. Lifetime percentage .989.