Welcome to the Monday episode of The Mark Steyn Show, in which Mark contrasts a brazen Democrat Party with a craven GOP and an unrestrained China with a locked-down west. There's also another flashback from The Hundred Years Ago Show, featuring the man with the hook, the man with the Nobel Peace Prize and the man who wants you to win one for the Gipper. And in an extended edition of Last Call Steyn remembers his fellow Rush guest-host, Walter Williams.
Click above to listen.
Mark will be back right here at SteynOnline with tonight's episode of Psmith, Journalist by P G Wodehouse this evening.
If you're a Mark Steyn Club member and you'd like to submit a question for Mark to address on his next show, please leave it in the comments below. Do stay on topic - and no URLS, please, as they wreak havoc with our page formatting.
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Hi Mark,
Would you consider including audio links to the various sections of the Show in case we want to re-listen to one or more sections? Thanks.
Steve, if you hit the download you can view it and slide the bar across to the section you want to replay. That's what I do.
Would you cite the recording information of the Harold Arlen song - As Long as I live. Where can I buy it and who done it?
Mark replies:
Hi, Peter. That was the 1940 Benny Goodman Sextet version - there are two takes and one or other is on many Goodman compilation albums, as well as on many Charlie Christian and Count Basie compilations.
Much Oblige, Mark. Your Music programs are great as are all the others.
So I decided to test Facebooks algorithm by posting this squib.
*****
Testing an algorithm.
My yacht club was supposed hold elections for the grand marshal of our annual Battleground Race up on Lake Michigan. I keep my boat at a marina in Wisconsin, even though I had her built in Pennsylvania. Our "election" is normally held on November 3, 2020. And many of our members don't like the voting irregularity of using a card game to choose the winner. We hold a bridge tournament in lieu of casting ballots, and the first person to win a game with a bid of 5-No-Trump or better, is made grand marshal. Since I consider this nonsense, and since I am a poker player, my form of protesting this fake election was to name my racing sailboat "Rigged Contest" and demand a recount every year.
********
Sure enough, Facebook's algorithm tagged it with a link to its version of truth about the 2020 election.
As Joe Biden has previous for strutting around outdoor buck (or is is butt?) naked I'm surprised at your scepticism. Mind you generally it has been Joe trying to get some lady to grab his tail so don't bring the dog into it.
I don't care if Loeffler debated while standing on her head. We need to win the Senate, not indulge the increasingly unhinged coalition of pro-BLM libertarians, Roy Mooreites, leftitarians, Marxists disguised as leftitarians, truthers, Q-Anon Specialists, and Koch open borders operatives -- plus the the giggling sleaze wing of our GOPe who are weaponizing these poor fools while hoarding blue paint all the better to switch sides the minute our razor-thin demographic Occam's razor swings a centimeter past midnight to the inevitable Democratic majority. Look at our immigration and voter registration numbers. And we have strict rules for registering.
The sane, sober, social conservatives, including TEA Party folk who don't have recurring guest spots on CNN, plus Eagle Forum, Concerned Women, Evangelicals, etc. and the 99.9999999% of conservative Catholics who don't believe there's a secret "second" floor in the Vatican where Georgia votes were electronically altered -- yes, this rumor is circulating -- are getting pretty cheesed by media helicoptering in and amplifying the loons.
Yes, we don't like Dominion; we don't like Dominion at all. There's little we can do about it before the January 5 Senate runoffs, and all the promises of exposure of "thousands of illegal votes" have not to date been backed up by evidence of any of these votes. I'll happily eat everyone's hat if I'm wrong, but the people discouraging others to not vote have produced not one concrete case yet and are not credible characters in conservative circles in our state.
Loeffler did the hard work to prove herself to conservatives in Georgia. So did Kemp, who upset the GOP apple cart by defeating a squish GOP golden boy, which fueled the feud that now threatens to blow up the Senate. Meanwhile, Raffensperger spent years in federal courts fighting to clean up our voting rolls in the face of Voting Rights Act restrictions while being called BabyHitlerSatan by the Left. Those on the Right who demonize him now should spend some time reviewing what he accomplished by enforcing Voter I.D. and cleaning the rolls of dead people, felons, etc.
Why would he put himself through all that just to steal the election for Democrats while being called BabyHitlerSatan by both sides?
Why is Texas suing Georgia?
Tina, I think "we" will not win the Senate. Our Senators have just waved through a Green Card and Citizenship bill for Big Tech - S.386.
Millions of Indians and Chinese are going to take STEM jobs that should go to Americans.
Senators' clients win the Senate, whether they are CCP, Big Tech or Defense Corporations.
As to motivation - why indeed would these politicians walk in lockstep with Soros, in denying Americans the President that they voted for? Money? Power? The "results" are proven to be impossible.
"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Wholeheartedly with you, T.
So, I take it you live in Georgia?! I'm one of those who have been critical of Kemp, precisely because he did clean up the voter rolls on his way to running for governor, but then demurred when his state was accused of fraud and employing the shady Dominion machines. why did they accept those in the first place if they are so concerned with election integrity. Many states wanted no part of them, as it seems they already had a bad reputation.
As for all the illegal votes, the way it was explained to me by another commenter is that it's extremely difficult to prove anything just by counting ballots as there is no way to trace the ballot to the voter or to ascertain how they voted. I opined that having 60,000 plus underage voters (if registration is so strict how did you end up with all these kids voting?) was a clear sign that something was wrong but apparently no one knows how they voted or for whom so it doesn't prove anything in regards to possibly altering the results of the election. It would take a forensic audit sanctioned by the courts to fully investigate it thoroughly and find these answers but no one seems to have guts, in GA or elsewhere, to allow that to happen.
While all I heard was bits and pieces today, Kate, sounds as if Texas is going to sue these other four states apparently for breach of contract. When the Republic of Texas joined the Union they had an agreement on certain matters and one was that they could choose the President. These four other states did not handle their elections fair and square and so the Great State of Texas will feel the negative repercussions of getting someone they didn't choose, a stinker spud and a stinkier turd, and has in effect opted to throwing down some penalty flags. (Good for Texas! Texas, I hear you calling me!)
I don't know.
With you, Fran.
Maybe Texans have got their hands on the Vatican Kraken! Or maybe it's just a lot more basic and boring than that.
"The states violated statutes enacted by their duly elected legislatures, thereby violating the Constitution. By ignoring both state and federal law, these states have not only tainted the integrity of their own citizens' vote, but of Texas and every other state that held lawful election. Their failure to abide by the rule of law casts a dark shadow of doubt over the outcome of the entire election. We now ask that the Supreme Court step in to correct this egregious error." (Texas AG, Ken Paxton.)
As I understand it, from listening to Rush this morning, Texas is suing four states that altered their voting law based on the covid situation. This change in law was implemented by a Governor or similar potentate, but it could only be done by the legislature. The argument is the vote was unconstitutional, because the body that changed the voting process did not have the jurisdiction to do so. Because a state is suing another state it goes straight to the USSC, but they may or may not hear it. My explanation comes with a couple of caveats....I was busy with chores while listening to Rush, and I am a Canadian.
"they may or may not hear it"
It's on the docket.
I hope they have success showing that 60K underaged people voted, also ineligible felons and people registered in two states or counties. I hope they have the evidence this time. If they do, it should be easy to produce. They would not need to show how these youths, etc. voted only produce a critical mass that did vote. This should be very simple if it is true.
Colin, you are right that S. 386 was an additional kick in the teeth. I'm furious but I'll still be supporting my two Senators because if we lose the Senate, we lose the courts, and it's game over. That's why, Kate, while I obviously support any sane effort to oppose voter fraud, I am concerned about the insidious efforts to convince conservatives to not participate in the Senate runoffs. that
S. 386 is what you get when you allow charlatans and jackals like the Kochs, AFP, Freedomworks, Club for Growth (but I repeat myself) to tell you they're leading your "citizen" activist movement and then lead you by the nose. If we behaved like other political pressure groups and focused on issues and bills, the GOP would be afraid to deliver such blows to us. But as they passed the bill, what were we doing at the literal ground zero for legal job-poaching immigration, Forsyth County, Georgia? Holding another rally. They're laughing their heads off as we bring our own bread and circuses to the execution.
Thanks for your reply. Republican voters are still angry at both the GOP for their betrayal and the Dems who stole the election. They view those like Kemp and the rest of the GOP establishment as quislings. And it's been nothing but bad news in regards to legal challenges for over a month now. Maybe this Texas lawsuit gives some hope, otherwise I feel the pain of the people in GA who voted for Trump and all looked well until the wee hours of the morning on Nov. 4th.
F., do you happen to know what remedy Texas is applying for? I haven't found anything sensible on what it would take to repair the breach, or what Texas would be free to do if the breach voids the contract, or what damages Texas might claim in that case. Those seem rather important, and while I think that much may be inferred from my difficulty in finding a sound explanation and evaluation (apart from my own shortcomings), I think it is important to know these things before taking a view. I hope that you'll be able to help.
On an entirely different subject, how's the emerging Swalwell Chinese spy/sex scandal? We haven't heard much about it in Australia, but the morsels we've been granted (none from the ABC) have looked tastier than ever the Profumo scandal did. It would be nice to nail this guy: as I recollect, he announced regularly that President Trump was a Russian agent. Not a tool; not a sympathiser; not an interested party. An agent. Codebooks and talking shoes. I had thought that America was such a litigious society and that he would get his come-uppance in court, but evidently not, so I may misremember his accusations. Anyway, fun and games.
I know that you and T. are aware of this, A., but for my money the legal challenge to the election result in Georgia is the one which, at my remove, seems most likely to succeed (or least likely to fail). I imagine that it is being widely watched with interest.
Not sure I can give you a good complete picture of what's going on. I turned on Rush today at the end of the show some woman asked him the same thing and even Rush said he didn't know what was going on. So I don't feel so bad. But I saw that on the Canada Free Press site today David Singer has a piece called "Texas takes on Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin." Let me know what you find out. I'm taking a class on Korach's Rebellion and what happened to all the tribes. I needed to take a mental break from post election news after Rudy came down with Covid. I worry it's getting nowhere and I felt very frustrated. I'm hoping for Divine intervention.
Swalwell is a Democrat. They're permitted to get away with espionage and selling secrets to our enemy. I did hear he was warned not to screw with foreign enemies. I think he probably agreed and that'll be the end of that. Funny how they didn't warn Donald Trump. See how this works?
Thanks, F. As far as I can make out at this point, Texas is asking for the contract to be enforced and not voided by the Supreme court. However, the nature of the enforcement applied for is unusual, at least in my experience: Texas wants time for further investigations in those states, the nature of which would be to establish whether the alleged breach has actually occurred. The argument isn't entirely direct on the face of it..
Texas is not claiming that the election was illegitimate, but rather that it was potentially illegitimate, The term "illegitimate" seems to refers to public opinion and not to the constitutional violations per se of departures from normal rules occasioned by the 'flu panic. The legal point is obvious: if the supreme court agrees that legitimacy is a matter of public opinion, then the crucial evidence will relate to the tenor of public opinion rather than the nature and scale of the departures from electoral rules. As far as I can tell, the Texas writ of complaint argues that it will be necessary to safeguard "legitimacy" - i.e. the public's confidence as to legitimacy - and to "restore public trust in the presidential election", the supreme court should, in its capacity as the only court empowered to so order under 3 U.S.C. §§ 5and 7, extend the 14 December deadline for the certification of presidential electors in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin to allow these investigations to be completed.
So really, it looks like a bit of a tangle to me. There doesn't seem to be an application for any specific remedy, but rather for time to investigate whether the writ of complaint has proper grounds. Personally, I'm sympathetic with that, but I cannot see that it cannot be counter-argued that further investigation of grounds for a writ so weak that they cannot be assessed without that investigation will not have the effect of safeguarding "legitimacy" (even when that is construed to relate primarily to the public's confidence as to legitimacy) and of restoring public trust in the presidential election. There are also quite difficult questions of the benchmarks to be invoked - the "how much is enough" conundrum. For instance, at what quantum should one deem it proven that public trust in the election has been unacceptably undermined, and at what quantum might it be deemed to have been restored?
I'm going to have to extend this one. I apologise in advance.
This is the second part of my last to F. I promise to keep it short.
I had intended to continue by acknowledging that of course I don't know all the in's and out's of American constitutional law and litigation, let alone the applicable precedents, so the complications of the writ as I understand it leave me in dire need of a more expert appreciation. I read Mr Singer's article, for which many thanks, and he seems to offer little more than I have summarised, and to avoid any assessment of the likelihood of legal success. He has that in common with every other journalist's report on the subject which I have yet been able to find. I suspect that journalists have not yet found a competent jurist ready to go out on a limb and pass comment, which suggests that the case is a tricky one and the legal ground at least partially unexplored. It will be interesting to see whether the supreme court decides actually to hear the case. I suspect that, if it does, it will be more on the basis of public domain evidence of malfeasance than allegations of illegitimacy as construed in the writ.
And of course I know much too little about the writ, too, so I really should not even have said that.
I'll certainly get back if I find anything more satisfactory to report. I fear that I've told nobody anything which wasn't already obvious. I'd be grateful for any light shed on the matter. Probably I need only to be patient. The passage of time will supply the requisite illumination, I'm sure.
Well, S,, you explained it a thousand times better than I ever could've, that's for sure. You have a way of leaving no word, I mean, stone uncovered. If I had your brain I definitely would've been a lawyer. You would be a killer in a courtroom as an attorney or judge.
Yes, that final thought is very much what I've actuality been thinking myself. We are all practicing great patience right now. Thank you for
illuminating my grasp of this case. If I could condense it to a few sentences I would call into Rush's show and pass along your explanation but I get the jitters on live radio in front of twenty million listeners.
F., you're much, much too kind. My summary was intended to acknowledge the limitations of my understanding and perhaps underscore some peculiarities in the situation as I (poorly) understand it. I guess the bottom line is that I'm not alone in being in the dark. Doesn't that happen often these days, though? It seems to me that we get so much information through the media, and so little insight. I knew how many crocodile-skin shoes and electronic tablets were in evidence at the last Davos conference long before I could scrape together the least inkling of what went on there. I don't know for sure whether journalists are hiding stuff (cf. "breaking" Hunter Biden scandal) or actually don't know much themselves and couldn't be bothered to find out before they go to press. I have my suspicions, though.
So we wait until light dawns.
They knew everything we knew and maybe a year earlier. They sat on it, obfuscated, lied, fed us disinformation, misinformation, you name it. We now live in a Soviet style state with a veneer if capitalism slowly wearing away. It's what they wanted all along. I just listened to the close of Rush. Another great woman Patriot called. Said a lot of things I had to nod along with. We raised our children one way, they came home from college and don't recognize anything of what they say or believe as what we taught them. It's almost worse than losing one's country. The two have been in the crosshairs of the Left for years. Just took me some time to wake up:(
Grim indeed, F.
On the other hand, parents are often the first things kids direct their rebellion at. Later, when they've got it out of their systems and they've lived a little, their parents' wisdom is often the first thing they fall back upon. If they get really lucky, they get the reconciling done while their parents are still alive.
My own children seem now able to abide me, as long as I don't remind them of what they did and said in the interim. Their expensive education made less of an impact in the long run than I'd feared. My life is dedicated to them anyway, and I rejoice in their love. Come to think of it, dedication of my paltry life to them may account for all the rebellion - bit like sweetened pumpkin with dinner. But then I'd have to account for my own rebellion. Or maybe it's exactly the same, now that I have come to think about it.
Take care.
That last part you wrote, S., I may hang on to mull over through these turbulent and vexing holidays. Thank you for your thoughts. You struck an honest chord that maybe I've just been fumbling over with no resolution.
:-)
Mark,
Question for the Mailbox: Down the road, if we survive, "they" will have to figure out how so many people could be in on the voter fraud process. To be a pessimist, I have to figure that "they" threatened people and their families personally to make it stick. I saw a "quote" that after the war, when Herman Goring was asked how the Nazis made the people accept the madness, he said that the only thing the government needs to turn people into slaves was fear. So I have to think, they are threatening people.
Thank you, Mark, for the window into the life of Walter Williams - a man who embodied the American Dream in partnership with his wonderful wife.
Prayers for the courageous Kathy Shaidle and her loved ones.
I believe the correct term is Shenaghanistan. After 19 years we have learned a lot form the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (IRoA) and we are putting it to good use.
Hmmm. I think their elections are somewhat cleaner, Walt.
Bad News: Ted Cruz wants to play Perry Mason.
Good news: Texas is suing to protect my vote in the federal election.
Perhaps the governor of Texas, Greg Abbot, will call up the Texas militia if we do not get justice from the Supremes.
You're pretty optimistic about elections in Afghanistan. But to be fair, it's difficult to run elections with the Taliban controlling 80% of the polling places.
Hope you won't mind my adding a thought, C., but for what it is worth, there is comfort. The legal actions currently in progress do not, in spite of protestations from the Democrats, suggest that democracy has failed. The safeguards are in place and are hard at work. Ignorant as I am, and far removed, I have yet to find a case which has been dismissed on grounds which do not make absolute sense to me or have seemed biased, and I do not anticipate that there will be many such dismissals. It eludes me why more people of my political bent do not take comfort in the operation of the system. (Actually, it could be that the people who seek to undermine confidence in the safeguard mechanisms anticipate an unsatisfactory outcome for reasons not related to the effectiveness of the safeguards. I prefer not to delve more deeply into that possibility, but am happy to exclude the ever-thoughtful MSC membership from my suspicions.)
That is not to say that there have been glaring problems with large-scale absentee/early voting, or that there have not been instances of cheating. It certainly isn't to say that every suspected irregularity should be investigated, nor that the legal challenges ought to be abandoned: that would be to advocate the removal of the very safeguards which provide comfort. And it is not to say that the Democrats aren't capable of orchestrating cheating or might not have done so.
It is simply to say that the system might be working fine, and that democracy might be safe. What the Democrats will do with it, well, that makes the blood run cold, but that was true before a single vote was cast.
So, broadly, it seems to me that this election has demonstrated a greater willingness by the American public to support the Republicans than to support President Trump* more than it has demonstrated a systemic failure in democracy. Systemic failure in the logistics of voting, particularly in early and absentee voting, well, that is another matter, and if these systemic failures go unrepaired then the potential for what are euphemistically described as shenanigans might well undermine confidence in democracy enough eventually to destroy it. Matters seem not to have gone that far, yet. Well, to me. Hope that you find comfort in that - should you want any.
(* and haven't we had a ball castigating the media on that score!)
I think the men take the women's fingers along to be dipped in ink after they have voted, Walt.
Still cleaner than a machine!
This is sweating the small stuff, Walt, but wouldn't it be Shenanighanistan? It's between Shagallyouvoterstan and Upyourballotstan?
The very best to Kathy! I really enjoy her Saturday articles.
Kathy - Klaatu Barrda Neck-Tie!
Communist China has learned to weaponize everything, from melamine, a useful plastic they used to "fortify" infant formula, to the handy microwave. There are disputed reports that they zapped Indian soldiers with a beam of radiation in their recent border fracas, leaving the subcontinentals weak and nauseated. India has denied this happened, and tech experts say microwaves would only (!) induce a burning sensation on the skin, not internal injuries. Yet the effects on the soldiers sound similar to the effects on the diplomats; almost as if the latter were test targets. America developed a microwave weapon for use in Afghanistan, but declined to put it into service. It's as if the Chinese motto of "rob, replicate, replace" crossbred with the slogan of the old TV sitcom Home Improvement, "more power".
There's been a lot of speculation about whether the next pandemic will merge with this one - possibly in the form of another viral strain that will wreak havoc over the coming "Dark Winter".
Too bad we never got to the bottom of this pandemic: a (purported) bioweapon that kills the old and overweight is a pretty lame excuse for a weapon, right? So why bother? The main thing is that people will learn a lesson the next time (whatever that means; just ask Bill Gates). Crazy talk!
Must disagree, Kate. As an old, fat man, I think that's the deadliest type of bioweapon there could be!
That being said, I think you've left out a group. Am I the only one to notice how many high ranking Republicans and Trump people have come down with Covid? Yet, I haven't heard of any important Dems who have.
Now you may say that's because Trump and his kind don't take the virus seriously and foolishly expose themselves to it out of ignorance of Science. The only problem with that is the almost daily stories about Dems breaking all the virus rules that Science gives us. Yet they don't seem to get Covid. Hmm....
(Note: When saying "Science", say it like Thomas Dolby does in the song "She Blinded Me With Science")
Mark, thank you for this beautiful and touching issue of The Mark Steyn Show. I remember Walter Williams very fondly from the frequent times he sat in for Rush. I was homeschooling my girls back then and when Walter would come on, I kept the radio nearby on low volume and I hung onto every word he said. He was the kind of professor I always wished I had had the good fortune to have for a class in college and hoped that my children would, too.
I was a bit of a troublemaker, too. I remember a professor
referred me to the counselor's office in college. I was a model student, I thought. What was this all about? I loved college and meeting new people. Okay, maybe more than studying at first. I'm sure had I had Walter Williams for Economics that first year everything would've all made perfect sense, because I really got Walter Williams when he spoke.
There was something very comforting and down to earth about his voice. I think it takes a highly intelligent person to take something complicated and explain things in a common sense sort of way that anyone, even me, a lowly part-time department store salesgirl would be better able to grasp. I mean exactly those unfamiliar economic concepts that always went over my head at eighteen. Walter Williams, I was one of your big fans and you will be sorely missed.
And Kathy Shaidle is a famous person now in our house. Kathy's name comes up every Saturday night she reviews another film. I'm recommitting my attention to you that you get through your health hurdles soon, Kathy. There's nothing worse feeling than when you're in the health pits but we who love you can pool our prayer resources together and help you.
Agree with all you said. Such a treat listening to the interview with Mr. Williams, and you're right. He talks like a real human, the kind that Mark Steyn said he wishes the Republicans could produce. I think they've gotten themselves twisted up in knots trying to say the right thing and it's not working...There's a real craving out there to hear someone speak the truth in a plain manner. And, yes, it can be done like Walter Williams said with honey not vinegar - even to the Chris Wallace's of the world.
Well, I like many of those Republicans. I mean even the "crap" ones that like to tell you they grew up picking vegetables on their daddy's farm have to beat out the likes of pencil neck shifty Schiff and Swalwell. And Maxine H2O! What a hatchet job! Why does my name
association game jump from trash to trash to trash? But I would ask them upper crust farm children if they had to pick veggies for ten hours at a stretch like the migrant workers. The others from California, saw right through them like cellophane. Traitors!! But I get what Mark is saying. And did I believe her for a minute about her sticky stocks sell off? Nooooo!
Oh, Chris Wallace, don't get me started. Poop head.
F., you're a tonic! And you're very gentle with the estimable Mr Wallace, father of a thousand sons, he who won no scholarship to attend the Toobin school of birth control, or, probably, any other scholarship.
I thought the same thing, too, S. I decided that Chris Wallace will have a run in with Karma as the rest of those hatchet jobs will. But he did a very touching tribute to his dog one Sunday Morning. I'll remember him for that.
Have you been paying attention to the cosmos? There's supposed to be a big cosmic event on 12-21-2020. "Twenty-twenty"!
Perfect vision!! Can you hear the Twilight Zone theme music playing yet? The word is the elites will get pushed into the outer realms and we who are paying attention will remain here. After a period of great confusion (this year of a Chicom deadly virus attack and failed election theft) there may be a sonic explosion or huge observable sky event.
We'll all be okay and it makes me think that I could possibly have a conversation with Walter Williams in person and that afterwards everything is going to fall into order and peace will reign, not only peace but also a great awareness around the world. Mark Steyn might even pick up new members from all of the under represented time zones. Stay tuned for 12-21 to find out more:)
Holding my breath, F.
praying for Kathy
A few thoughts:
Listening to that English woman plead with the caretaker is chilling, like a real-life Milgram experiment
RIP Walter Williams. It's interesting how he and Thomas Sowell lived in different places, (Philadelphia and Harlem, respectively), but had shared experiences that would be next to impossible now: working/commuting safely into the wee hours of the morning, sleeping on fire escapes during hot nights, getting a decent public education where teachers were not afraid to put those two in their place. Perhaps most noteworthy and indicative of our decline, they both mention how their families took pride in public housing, how there were certain standards needed to live there. I watched an Uncommon Knowledge interview with Sowell a few years back where he stated that, growing up, very few families in his building owned a television, and they would leave their doors unlocked so neighboring kids could come in and watch. Now, the poorest among us live in public housing, and statistically these poor families own two TV's, but "I bet they don't leave their doors unlocked."
It was tough to read the Ikiru review and not keep thinking about the author. We are praying for you Kathy!
It sounds like it would have been time to drive your Mini Cooper through the front door. Just to show Mom you care.
Very sorry to hear that Kathy is "going through the worst."
Those of us that have witnessed spouses "going through the worst" don't express our concerns fleetingly or disingenuously. We genuinely care about others like Kathy who suffer through the unrelenting ravages of cancer and cheer when we hear of those that beat the scourge. I will not speculate on the exact meaning of Mark's brief but touching words at the end of his podcast.
I had planned on asking brilliant Kathy, the pre-eminent scholar of Japanese films, if she enjoyed the song – "Sukiyaki". ""Ue o Muite Arukō" sung by Kyu Sakamoto. I had rediscovered one of my favorite songs in the past and wondered if Kathy disliked it but when she was not responding to the comments for her column, I suspected she was sidelined in some way.
Mark's reference to the "great hereafter" and the unification of Walter Williams with his "civilizing and humanizing" wife also hit home. That is a great compliment that anyone that has been blessed to share decades with the "perfect woman" or the "greatest wonder in the world" fully understands.
I've taken a scientific approach on most things but the concept of the hereafter is beyond science. My wife used to humorously complain that I was always reading her mind. For example, if we were on a brief diet together and she was given some pizza, cake or chocolates etc. at work she wouldn't mention it to me so I didn't get the urge. But then I would say to her, "I feel like a pizza; some cake; or a chocolate bar." Our minds were closely linked in many ways and I don't believe it has stopped.
I'm trying to convey my faith in an after life (not to vent my own feelings) and I could mention some extraordinary and inexplicable circumstances before during and after my wife died that have given me reasonable reasons to continue to maintain that belief.
God bless the soul of Walter Williams. He was a brilliant man. Thank you for posting the interview you did with him. What a treasure he was! The world needs more men like him.
It was agonizing listening to that poor woman crying out to see her mother. If there's any way for the residents of care homes in England to escape and set out on their own I wish they would. Prisoners in maximum security prisons in the U.S. seem to have more rights now than the elderly in 'care homes' in England.
Here in the U.S. the elderly and sick in nursing homes are also isolated, but my friend whose elderly mother is in one such home, and her brothers, has a lot of online access to her mom and the nursing staff and doctors caring for her. It may be that the existence of the NHS makes it more difficult for family members to have recourse when a "care giver" is incompetent and rude.
Imagine how quickly google, twitter and facebook and you tube would become obsolete if President Trump, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Steyn all left them and moved to Brave as a browser, and Parler and Bit Chute. (sigh!) It seems the plan is to keep using these leftist sites and complain when the people running them act like the fascists they are. Stop feeding the monster and it will starve to death.
God bless Kathy Shaidle with increased strength and healing. She is a beloved treasure.
The audio was so disturbing: a "cold, heartless, state barbarism" beyond what totalitarian regimes have been able to impose.
No one can doubt the wider "new normal" agenda anymore, especially with the architects openly celebrating it - including the double standards.
Yes, a thousand times, K. Well said. For clarity: I don't like the "new normal", I don't like its architects, and I don't like the celebrants. We are threatened by a new dark age.
The problem with the Republican Party, and our political system in general, is that it's impossible to ascend to office without being deemed acceptable by the governing class.
Why is Loeffler the Republican nominee for the Senate? Because she's a billionaire who will watch out for her fellow chamber of commerce types in office. She may throw a couple bones to the base from time to time, but in the end she's a reliable vote for cheap foreign labor and against any sort of antitrust litigation against our corporate betters.
What if, instead of running someone who drones on how he or she grew up on a farm, we actually ran someone who works as a farmer?
I re-watched the "Free Speech at Sea" panel which posted on SteynOnline on Nov. 2, 2018 because I wanted to refresh my memory of Kathy Shaidle explaining again about how to sabotage things with "sugar in the gas tank" and refusal to participate en masse in the leftists' nonsense on race training and everything else the left pushes -- two years after this panel met, we can add lockdowns and mask wearing to the list. I think of Kathy's answer about how her time on the left wasn't wasted because she learned their tactics. Fight fire with fire. (All this is at about the 1:07:00 timestamp).
Earlier in the presentation though, at about the 00:40:00 timestamp, we could also use Kathy's advice regarding how to talk to the radical left by asking, "What happened to you?" We might learn that the radical left is truly angry about a drunk mom or a pervy uncle, or is battling mental or drug issues, but that the radical left lashes out at society and at the right because it's easier than dealing with their own personal issues. We should better understand our leftist enemies to help ourselves.
01:21:00 the panel is great too regarding the Thought Police. Actually, whoever is interested, the entire panel's presentation is worth listening to. It's still on point today.
I am thinking about and praying for Kathy, her family, and friends. I wish them all well.
Interesting that you brought up this panel discussion. When I heard the latest about Kathy my first thought was to how she comes up with unique insights. The moment when she said, "what happened to you?" stood out to me when I watched it, because it was something that many other people might not have even thought of.
Prayers for Kathy and Arnie. God Bless.
Mark:
Your comments about Sen. Loeffler lead me to disagree with you which is always a perilous venture given the long line of corpses that unwisely decided to disagree with you in the past. I hope I haven't misunderstood your comments.
While I don't disagree with your characterization of Kelly in general, I think she was acting in a "safe and deliberative" way that fit the restrictive, robotic debate format that was moderated by opportunists that would love to destroy her career. If her performance, that caused you to belch, leads to a victory over her genuinely dangerous crackpot opponent then it will be a positive.
You stated that "fake bot" Kelly "is the antithesis of President Trump." But he has effusively endorsed her and Perdue. Why? Has he sold out?
No. He hasn't given up. No matter how squishy and craven the Senate will be, a majority GOP Senate is the only probable chance that freedom loving Americans will have to restrain the vengeful Democrats from enacting their most egregious policies.
President Trump has never shied away from controversy or stated the brutal reality of some issues like the dangers of illegal aliens entering the USA. He has sacrificed much for his country and been subjected to endless malicious lies and attacks. His supporters will and should give him what might be his last victory in Georgia.
Here are Trump's tweets about Loeffler:
@realDonaldTrump---"@KLoeffler has been an exceptional champion for Georgia workers and families...On January 5th, you must defeat Ossoff and Warnock and send @Perdue and KLoeffler back to the Senate... "If you don't vote. The socialists and the communists win...: We are gathered here to ensure that Perdue and Loeffler win. Trump ended his series of Tweets with "Great debate for Kelly!"
I haven't conceded defeat in the election fraud investigations but if the Senate, at least, can retain its majority and restrict the Dems from creating a one-party state and enacting other ruinous policies, there is still hope in 2022 and 2024. By then, IF Trump runs again in 2024 or someone like Governor DeSantis or Gov. Noem run instead and IF the 74 million Trump voters are still interested in fighting for a MAGA type return with even more disgruntled and awakened Americans on board there is a chance.
Mark;
I know I've overdone the verbosity today, but in case you haven't read it, Lee Smith wrote a great commentary on Trump and the Georgia election in the Epoch Times called---"Trump's Base to GOP Establishment: Where Have You Been?
I loved this quote--(Is the Senate), "the last line of defense against a progressive offensive, or a Maginot Line incapable of stopping a blitzkrieg directed by a surging oligarchy" I suspect the latter like you..
Thanks Mark. Losing Dr. Williams is like losing a family member for me. I was introduced to him 45 years ago by my mom who typed in the copy for the local conservative newspaper way back before real computers as we know them now. I have read him ever since. I will miss his wit and wisdom which is sorely lacking in this day and time. Rest In Peace sir.
Prayers and thoughts for Kathy, her family and everyone who knows and loves her.
I have a vague recollection that, while Hillary Clinton did not openly dispute the Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania results in 2016, Jill Stein, the Green candidate, put herself forward as a Clinton proxy, to demand re-counts. I had the impression that Stein was granted the re-counts, despite having no legitimate entitlement; she had no chance of turning a Trump win into a Stein one. Whatever Clinton thought about the lawsuits, money suddenly flooded the Greens' coffers - and it wasn't coming from Green voters.
This time, case after case has been dismissed on the basis that the plaintiffs have no standing in the case, although having one's legitimate vote cancelled out by someone else's illegal vote (or three or four illegal votes) seems to amount to a pretty substantial case to me. Are there legal double standards here?
I also seem to recall that the re-count in Michigan turned up "irregularities" (euphemism alert!) in Detroit so outrageous that they weren't considered worth investigating, or something like that. Well, like Max Shreck ("I'll drop her out a higher window"), the Democrats in Detroit were even more flagrant, this time, but the courts don't want to know. Is this a Vicar of Bray thing, where judges conclude that Biden/Harris are not going to go away and throw in their lot with the Nouvel RĂ©gime, which is actually the Ancient RĂ©gime, like Marshal Marmont sticking with Louis XVIII during the Hundred Days?
Ancien, not Ancient. I really hate Apple.
I haven't listened yet but just saw Kathy's husband's tweet and my heart is breaking. Kathy Shaidle is a Canadian treasure. There aren't many brave people left, and Kathy is brave. An absolute treasure.
I didn't see the tweet nor heard any specific updates but when I heard Mark at the end make those comments my heart sank because I knew things had taken a turn for the worse.
Walter Williams was a great man.
Thank you, Mark, for the wonderful interview with Walter Williams.
My two favorite stories concerning his wife:
"I'm buying her a tool kit so she can repair the appliances that she uses to cook my food."
[And the second, during a massive heat wave]
"I'm reducing my carbon footprint, so I turn the air conditioning off when I leave the house in the morning. And she's so glad when I call her about four in the afternoon and tell her that she can turn it back on."
The air con... too funny!!
Great show, again. What a privilege my membership of the MSC has been, especially in this terrible year.
I particularly enjoyed the interview with Prof. Williams. I had set out to read his book "South Africa's war on capitalism" filled with skepticism. One gets more than enough of fools pompously positing diagnoses, cures and judgements for huge and complex situations which they do not understand even as poorly as most of the people who live in those situations and hesitate to diagnose, prescribe or judge, even if only because huge, well-intended interventions so often prove counter-productive in those really complex contexts. Suffice it to say that my skepticism was soon disarmed.
A comparison is worthwhile, because there was a competing text seeking to make a case for free-enterprise liberal democracy as the solution to South Africa's manifold problems. It had been written by a corporate executive called Clem Sunter (who now makes a rich income using the Dole formula). That text was redolent of smugness, over-simplification and impracticality, in my view. He was a South African who had rather fewer excuses for those faults than Prof. Williams might have had, had his text possessed comparable faults which needed excuses. I don't say that Prof. Williams's text is definitive: South Africa is a political tar-baby and nobody emerges from a close encounter in pristine shape. It was a lot better than anything else in the same vein. I said the same thing of a much earlier socio-political text by R.W. Johnson, and I still think that neither author's principal texts on South Africa has yet been surpassed.
I'm not in the eulogy business, but I think that the world has lost a rather special bloke, and the boss-man did him the proper credit.
"Dole"??!! Please read "Gore". Apologies - my thoughts wander, it seems. Perhaps I need to say less and listen more.
Hey Mark
It's rather tiresome to keep using perverse meanings for of words. Shenanigans being one. What has happened would not be considered shenanigans. We need to continue to use specific language and not be lulled into using perverse meanings in describing events. Until Republicans cheat big and get caught there won't be any change. I was joking that we should have made a last minute ballot dump we knew they were going to.
Thank you for today's show Mark. In particular, with respect to the care homes, investors in China have been buying care homes in Canada. This was viewed as the Chinese gaining a disturbing foothold into the Canadian healthcare system (with government approval). Last December, it was reported that a third Chinese owned care home in British Columbia, was placed under government management due to concerns about the health and safety of residents. In Ontario and Quebec, the military was brought in to rescue overwhelmed care homes at the start of the pandemic. The military filed a report on the abuse, neglect and horrific conditions that they found in the care homes. Locking elderly people up in this fashion as a way of protecting them from covid is cruel and inhuman. Maybe while we all have our wits about us, we should be signing documents saying that if we end up in a care home during a pandemic, we want visitors, no matter what the risk. God help us if this is the new normal, a phrase I absolutely detest.
I've a Chinese friend in Beijing who briefly considered investing in a nursing home in China. One of his Chinese buddies told him it was a loser. This is because elderly Chinese refuse to spend money on themselves, hoping to pass this as a legacy to their children.
Thank you for this, particularly the Walter Williams interview.
Perhaps it's an American-English/English-English distinction, but I would have pronounced "Betelgeuse" in the same way as did Mark had I seen only the written name, but pretty well everyone else I have heard say it pronounces it as (roughly) "beetle juice". Not that I'm an authority on pronunciation, being someone who for years assumed "Aloysius" (as written), and "Al-oo-ish-us" (as heard) to have been two distinct names.
"Betelgeuse" is Arabic, via French, so the "g" should be soft. On the other hand, I believe that Egyptian Arabic has no such sound, so that the soft "g" of other dialects is hardened. That would be the equivalent of pronouncing "jet" as "get." I think you may have rumbled Mark as an Egyptian secret agent.
Another stellar installment of the Mark Steyn Show. Thank you Mark! Still shaking with anger after listening to the appalling audio of the poor woman in the UK who was attempting to advocate on behalf of her mother who was incarcerated in a British care facility.
On a lighter note, I do miss hearing the version of Nine Lives with the John Barry flair at the end of your shows. Would love to hear it again sometime soon.
Mark, the audio you played of "all Republican poll watchers need to leave" followed by the cheering in Detroit is an assault on all of us. Would you be able to provide a link to this? I want to send it to everyone I know.
Thanks,
Jamie
Yup. There had better have been a damn' good back-story to that cheering.
Meanwhile: swine. Chattering apes. Braying imbeciles. Thieves.
Want that in Latin?
Scott Adams made the observation (paraphrasing) that the massive fraud that took place is actually beside the point, given that evidence of the widespread, partisan blocking of scrutineers should be enough to invalidate any "democratic" election process.
We all saw the videos - of windows being obscured during the counting process - on Election Day Plus One. As Mark said, it's absolutely staggering to the rest of the free world that this is considered "normal" in the US... no sign of federal police/ independent public inquiry/ front-page every day media coverage etc.
PS. Go Texas!!!
etiam commodo
:D !!!
Mark. This case of an ailing old lady in a British care home, ,whose daughter is pointing out quite correctly, her mother's health ailments is truly appalling ( I've seen this on other podcast channels)and has made me really angry. Before retirement, I worked as a clinician and used to visit the elderly in care homes like this, whose condition was not too dissimilar as portrayed. I am sorry to have to say this, but the majority of care homes for the elderly in the UK (not all) are institutions of decay and death. If you are unlucky to end up in one having infirmity and mild dementia, you are guaranteed to deteriorate further. This is the second incident of something like this happening in this country. Remember the case of a daughter trying to remove her mother from a home, only to be arrested by the police! In the present case, the carers, manager, care home owner(s) need to be investigated , arrested and or sued as appropriate. Furthermore, the Johnson government is also culpable with it's absurd lockdown rules. A Nuremburg trial is appropriate for them.
The similarity between Walter William's childhood and Thomas Sowell's is striking. The melting pot and the benefits of freedom supported by a reasonably competent justice system will be greatly missed by the latest generations who have been so thoroughly indoctrinated in social justice. I wasn't aware of your interview with Walter. Is it a full hour or is the segment you presented pretty much it? Walter was quite proud of the verdict from his court martial. I doubt that there have been any similar affirmations of justice in those few who were exposed in the last two decades to the full fury of federal justice. This is sad, because you can see that this was a turning point for Walter, a moment when he saw that America could be a force for good.
The Walter Williams interview was a delight. I am one of the many who loved his guest hosting stints on Rush. His economic analysis of things was always brilliantly simple and understandable. But I think I may have found his comments on Constitutional government even more clear-eyed and trenchant. I have commented on his golf shoes story elsewhere. He knew the oppressive cultural narrative was that Christian conservative men were supposedly the very definition of tyrannical, mysogynistic, and unjust patriarchy. I loved that he couldn't resist mocking this lying, jaundiced perversity with his in-your-face faux-chauvinistic humor. This was way funnier, truer, and more insightful than anything on SNL. I know their are many younger black conservatives carrying on his fight, but I don't know if there is anyone who can fully wear Walter's mantle. He was the essence of a great teacher and an engaging, irreplaceable personality.
Like many of you, I'm sure, I first heard of Kathy Shaidle years ago through Mark's frequent links to her blog, Relapsed Catholic, as was, then Five Feet of Fury. My interests and hers had little in common, but I knew a Great Mind when I saw one. Her takes could be venomous (standing headline for criminality in the new South Africa: "Aparthied: Was it Really so Bad?"), but if I ever disagreed with her, I don't remember and was doubtless wrong. I was a blogger myself back then, and reached out to her from time to time. The fire-breathing dragon lady was a pussycat: warm, funny, generous. Mark, Kathy, and Laura are proof enough for me of the old adage I'm coining now: if you want something done right, get a Canadian to do it.
My favorite Kathy Shaidle barb is her remark about Justin Trudeau: "Where's an avalanche when you need one?" (You probably have to be Canadian, and have endured a lifetime of slobbering press coverage of the Trudeau pack to get that one.)
Not that she hasn't written other quotable things - probably the one that I reuse the most is "When we say 'we don't know what we'd do under the same circumstances,' we make cowardice the default position."
May I add..." somewhere over the rainbow, there is a bucket of water." But I'm saving that for Michigan...or Arizona, or...
The Civil Rights Act, the War on Poverty, and the Great Society wound up as eventual realities rather than just unintended consequences. Add the War on Drugs and now CCP-Covid-19 War. We can sure start wars but can't finish them.
Wars without end become the new normal just like COVID. We get used to shuffling our feet through airport terminals after 9/11 and now we'll get used to being socially distant and wearing masks in this era. Every failed war as you mentioned is met with a means of managing but never solving. But they all have the same endgame: We can't win the war but give us your money anyway so we can spread the word about the fight that will never end.
You can live in the southern tip of the Western Rockies to get it.
The Kathy Shaidle quote that changed my life was, "you're too stupid to tell me what to think"!
Cootie Williams, Charlie Christian and the King of Swing send the great Walter Williams home to be reunited with his bride. Magnificent.
Thank you, Mark.
Have we edged to that quaint African saying about elections? "One man , one vote, one time" (Unless you are in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Atlanta where it's one person, one stack of duplicated ballots run through the machine multiple times)
As for free speech... I turn to Africa one more time: ""There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech." Kudos to Idi Amin.. a man before this time.
Finally: "I am the last President of the United States".... James Buchanan on the eve of Lincoln's swearing-in. I think Donald Trump is in a better position to say that.
Great and relevant quotes all! You could add Stalin's to that list: "It doesn't matter how many people vote, only who counts them".
Stephen Kotkin has two of his planned three-volume set of books on Stalin in print. I have read the second which covers his solidification of power up to the German invasion. Forget Louis XIV, Stalin was the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union was Stalin. He created it. He was a master at political power and he knew what it took to put a whole nation under his thumb. Mao has taken over as the titular head of Marxism especially here and now in the USA. BLM etc. Why not? Mao murdered more than Stalin. That's the true yardstick of power for the Left.
Well put, R.
"Count every vote", as Joe says. (Three times, if necessary.)