Wednesday Potpourri

First, well before the waters had crested Democratic political operatives were out shrieking that the Texas flood was Donald Trump’s fault. 

Some argued that it was the fault of the most recent Big, Beautiful Bill that Trump had just signed. Others blamed it on climate change.

For people who believe that everything is Trump’s fault, the flood was not just Biblical. It was a gift from Heaven, that is, God’s judgment.

One is not going to rehearse all of the arguments, but Chris Martz offers some cogent analysis:

Okay. Let’s talk some facts. The Camp Mystic flood disaster in Texas is very unfortunate, and I hope that all of the missing girls are found. The usual suspects are exploiting this tragedy to score political brownie points. 

Some left-wing activists are blaming this flood on “climate change,” others are blaming the deaths and missing persons on inadequate warning caused by low staffing at the National Weather Service (NWS) caused by Trump administration federal RIFs. 

First of all, staffing cuts played no part in this tragedy. The NWS issued a flood watch for Kerr County more than 12 hours ahead of the flood. They also issued a flash flood warning for Hunt and Ingraham THREE HOURS before the Guadalupe River began to climb. There was plenty of lead time with respect to the forecast and issuance of warnings. 

The flood was caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry becoming embedded into a broad mid-level trough over central Texas. These remnant lows are typically slow-moving and drop heavy rain over a large geographical area where the troposphere destabilizes. 

This particular one stayed quasi- (fairly) stationary, and caused massive flooding along the Guadalupe River, something that has happened many times before. In 1987, a flash flood on the same river killed 10 teenage campers from the Pot O Gold Christian Camp, with another 33 swept away who survived. 

Camp Mystic is built on a floodplain. It is on sediment that has been deposited by hundreds, if not thousands of floods over the last millennium. The event has nothing to do with climate change. 

And, the tragedy had nothing to do with DOGE cuts. If you are someone who has exploited this catastrophe because you just don’t like Trump, you need to take a serious look in the mirror. 

As for staffing, the National Weather Service had extra staff on duty at the time.

Second, as noted before, Zohran Mamdani, candidate for New York’s Mayor, is a gift that keeps on giving.

As does his father. 

Zohran Mamdani's father believes: 

The Allies and Nazis had the same goal 

Abraham Lincoln was Hitler's inspiration 

White people are the oppressors, America is the root of all evil 

BLM is the resistance Blah blah blah. Another wealthy leftist who hates America. Now we know who Zohran gets it from.

Not just a wealthy leftist. A Columbia University professor, too.

Third, on the Mamdani front, the candidate’s association with notable anti-Semites is certainly troubling:

Socialist New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani visited a controversial Brooklyn mosque to pray while on the campaign trail — just months after the imam had called for the destruction of Israel.

Mamdani posted a picture of himself speaking at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, alongside firebrand cleric Sheikh Muhammad Al-Barr, on his social media in January.

Fourth, and then there is this, the image of Mamdani ridiculing the Jewish holiday of Chanukkah. Via Newsmax:

A Jewish advocacy group harshly criticized democratic socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani over the weekend for posting a "sick" video mocking Hanukkah and "cosplaying Jews," the New York Post reported.

Mamdani shared a video on his X account last year from the Geeta Brothers Duet Group, which showed two men wearing wigs dancing behind a menorah, spinning dreidels, and celebrating with Punjabi-style music.

The pro-Jewish group Stop Antisemitism group wrote on X that "Zohran Mamdani posts Indian men cosplaying Jews, spinning dreidels and lighting the menorah." The post continued that "our holidays and traditions are sacred and not for your comedic pleasure @ZohranKMamdani — this is sick."

Fifth, the New York Post reports that some senior Palestinian officials are now interested in joining the Abraham Accords:

A group of five top Palestinian officials in the West Bank’s Hebron district said they are willing to leave the Palestinian Authority and join the Abraham Accords, recognizing the state of Israel.

The sheikhs penned a letter to Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat, expressing their desire to transform The West Bank’s largest district into an emirate that “recognize[s] the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari — one of the most influential leaders in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest region — urged Israel and President Trump, who oversaw the Abraham Accords in his first term, to back the plan for self-governance.

Sixth, meanwhile, back in Germany, migrant crime advances exponentially. Via Zero Hedge.

In the last 10 years, we’ve welcomed a lot of ill-behaved and criminal young men into our country for no discernible reason, and along the way we’ve had the dubious privilege of discovering whole new categories of crime. There is the hostile-immigrant-drives-his-car-into-a-crowd-of-unsuspecting-innocents crime, there is the hostile-immigrant-stabs-a-bunch-of-random-people crime, there is the immigrant-gang-collectively-rape-underage-girl-in-park crime, and there is the immigrants-at-swimming-pool-molest-or-assault-various-children crime.

The latter has been stealing the headlines since the latest (allegedly carbon dioxide-induced) ‘heatwave’ in Germany. Recent stories include this one about a 25 year-old man of undisclosed background (who is almost certainly a migrant, otherwise authorities would not be so secretive about his origins) exposing himself to a bunch of underage teenagers at a pool in Asperg (Baden-Württemberg). Or this one, about a 21 year-old Syrian at a pool in Schweinfurt (Bavaria) caught exposing himself to four boys. Or this one, about men of “dark complexion” who severely beat an 18 year-old and threw him down some stairs. Or this disturbing one, about two Syrians who groped and assaulted a 12 year-old girl at a pool in Hof (Bavaria), forcing her beneath the water repeatedly and leaving her with a bloody nose.

Stories like this often come in groups, and what set off the present cascade was a particularly grim incident from June 22nd in Gelnhausen (Hessen), in which a group of Syrian migrants aged 18 to 28 molested eight or nine underage girls at the local pool. When the girls first complained about what was happening, pool personnel sent them back into the water. After this incident became a nationwide story, the Mayor of Gelnhausen, Christian Litzinger (CDU) gave an interview in which he appeared to ascribe the crime to “high temperatures”, which can cause “tempers to flare up”.

Seventh, what would we do without experts? Consider the case of Argentina and the administration of their new libertarian president, Javier Milei:

Javier Milei has lowered Argentina’s monthly inflation rate from 26% to just 1.5% The economy grew 7.6% in Q2 YoY Never forget… the media and professional class labeled him a dangerous “far-right” lunatic because he wanted to cut spending.

Eighth, on the therapy front, there’s  relatively recent therapy that seems to be producing good results. 

Consider the case of one Miley Cyrus. She claims that EMDR cured her stage fright:

Miley Cyrus has performed for some of the world’s biggest audiences — but for years, she quietly battled stage fright behind the scenes.

In a recent interview, the pop icon revealed that a therapy called EMDR was instrumental in curbing her anxiety.

“Love it. Saved my life,” she told The New York Times in May. “I’ve never had stage fright again. Ever.”

In another recent interview with Vogue, Cyrus said that EMDR felt like watching a movie in her mind — vivid and emotional, but grounding.

What is EMDR?

EMDR — or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing — is an alternative therapy designed to help people process unresolved trauma and emotional pain….

“EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, often through eye movements, tapping or sound, to help the brain reprocess those upsetting memories,” added Campbell, who leads a team of EMDR professionals.

She elaborated, “On a neurological level, EMDR helps shift the memory from being stored in the emotional part of the brain (the amygdala) to the more logical, rational part (the prefrontal cortex).”

I have no personal experience with EMDR, but I have it on good authority that you can produce a similar effect by fly fishing. I think that the same would apply to golf. 

Los Angeles Is Dying

I found the thought intriguing. Apparently, Los Angeles is such a mess that it might not be ready to host the World Cup next year.

Natalie Jean Beisner reports on Twitter:

Karen Bass says the city is covered in graffiti—far more than just a few blocks. The vandalism is so extensive, she says the city won’t be ready to host the World Cup, and she’s calling all hands on deck—including non-city employees and the public—to clean up the graffiti. But LA city officials had it under control, right? They don’t need assistance, right? It’s all peaceful demonstrations, right?

One is naturally concerned about the current state of Los Angeles. What has progressive governance, on the state and local levels, done to a once-great city? In effect, according to Joel Kotkin, hosting the World Cup is the least of the city’s problems.

Happily, or, not so happily, Kotkin anatomizes of the city’s failure.

Rather than a model for the future, Los Angeles today offers a masterclass in urban dysfunction. Drive through the streets of the South Side or along Central Avenue – historically black LA’s main thoroughfare, now predominantly Hispanic – and the ambience increasingly resembles that of Mexico City or Mumbai: cracked pavements, dilapidated buildings, outdoor swap-meet markets and food stalls serving customers, much as one would see in the developing world.

Homeless encampments are scattered throughout the city. In a friend of my wife’s neighbourhood, close to where we once lived, homeless people loiter in supermarkets and eat in the aisles. Others harass shop owners and tap directly into the city’s power grid. Many workers, particularly immigrants (both legal and undocumented), earn very little.

Not a pretty picture.

Of course, this predates the current riots. No one reports on it because the Democrat leadership cannot blame an ongoing problem on Donald Trump.

Once a middle-class haven with a broad industrial base, LA now has the highest poverty rate in California – and among the worst nationwide. Failing schools, dilapidated parks and an exodus of residents and firms suggest the city’s long-term prospects could be bleak.

The demographics are telling:

Once known as ‘the city that grew’, LA has lost population since the early 2010s. By 2060, according to the state’s finance department, Los Angeles County will experience no growth – and could shed well over a million residents. The young – the lifeblood of any growing city – are already leaving, some 750,000 in the past decade alone. People may still come temporarily, but few stay to raise children. LA now has the second-lowest birth rate among the 53 largest US metropolitan areas, according to the American Community Survey. Younger Angelenos, according to one UCLA poll, are even more disillusioned than their elders.

Kotkin finds little cause for optimism:

This reflects a harsh reality: LA’s economy no longer delivers decent wages. Latino workers, once cost of living is considered, fare worse here than in most American cities. Home ownership rates for both Latinos and African Americans are among the lowest in the US. Neither the business community nor the political elite seems capable of reversing the trend.

Consider this:

In 1984, LA County boasted a strong and highly motivated business elite, with 12 Fortune 500 firms. Since then, the region has lost many of its oil and aerospace giants, along with its largest banks. Today, the Fortune 500 count stands at just seven – only one of them within city limits, on the outer edge of the San Fernando Valley.

Apparently, massive amounts of government spending have not improved conditions. People have thrown money at the problem, and cannot understand why things keep getting worse.

But, what about the business elites?

Few corporate leaders possess the cojones to address the reasons for LA’s precipitous economic decline. This is most apparent downtown, an area that has ‘benefited’ from vast transit developments, tax incentives and a new convention centre. Yet, despite billions spent, it remains strewn with encampments and sometimes fire-damaged buildings. The empty, never completed luxury high-rises there have become renowned among tourists for their elaborate graffiti.

Los Angeles has become dystopia. Within its boundaries there are utopian enclaves for the very wealthy, people who can wall themselves off from the lives of common proles.

The business elites, the high-priced lawyers and the many fixers, can nurture their LA idyll, living in secure, ultra-pricey places like Brentwood (home to Kamala Harris), the Hollywood Hills or out further in Malibu or Palm Springs. They have stood by as the city’s political culture has nurtured a criminal class, strengthened by unrestricted immigration and often feeble law enforcement.

And, of course, Kotkin blames the politicians:

While cities such as San Francisco, Houston and even New York shift back towards the political centre ground, Los Angeles in 2022 elected Mayor Karen Bass, a lifelong leftist who travelled to Castro’s Cuba as part of the Venceremos brigade. In 2016, upon Fidel’s death, she issued a praise-filled obituary to ‘El Comandante’. Her Castroite bona fides may have hurt her when she was briefly considered for Biden’s running mate – a position that went to Kamala Harris.

Crime is not just a problem today. Crime has always been a problem. As long as no one sees it, no one cares:

It is rare to hear a public voice push back against random violence. In the months leading up to the latest unrest, there were countless incidents including violent gangs of kids, vandalism and theft throughout the city, particularly downtown. Criminals are now so bold that they have started stripping copper wire from street lights, leaving some parts of LA in the dark. You don’t have to support Trump’s crude, draconian approach to want to see streets cleared of thugs, imported or otherwise. Yet the response of the city’s elites – political and corporate – seems to boil down to ‘party on, dude’.

So, Los Angeles joins the ranks of the failed cities. Or better, the cities that have been destroyed by leftist politics.

Saturday Miscellany

First, the media is abuzz. Elon threw a tantrum. The people who were trying to break up the Trump-Musk alliance are cheering from the sidelines. Republicans are less than impressed.

Newsmax reports:

The goodwill Elon Musk established with House Republicans is plummeting about as fast his relationship with President Donald Trump, and the GOP doesn't appear to be concerned the tech tycoon who donated millions to back the party in 2024 could work against them in the 2026 midterms.

Musk has been a fervent opponent of the reconciliation budget bill that narrowly passed the House last week and is being considered by the Senate because it adds too much to the federal deficit and doesn't cut enough spending. He also reportedly is angry that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act phases out by 2026 the tax credit of up to $7,500 given to buyers of electric vehicles, which could be crucial to the success of Musk's Tesla.

"I've had a lot of love and respect for you for what you've done for this country over the last several months, but you've lost your damn mind," Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, told reporters of Musk, The Hill reported Thursday. "You've lost your mind. Enough is enough. Stop this. I don't think it's healthy."

Whatever Elon thinks he is doing, it’s bad politics. And, dare we say, that it’s one man against the president of the United States. He cannot win.

In other terms, when you are playing a losing hand and making yourself look like a fool, it’s best to fold.

One cannot fail to notice that the guerrilla campaign to separate Musk from Donald Trump, has succeeded. Firebombing Tesla dealerships, keying cars on the street, talking trash about Musk himself-- has produced the result it was designed to produce. A rupture in the relationship between Musk and Trump. It shows people on the left that aligning themselves with Trump can be very costly.

Musk counts as one of the most successful entrepreneurs in human history. He still allowed himself to be manipulated by a band of maniacs.

Second, a few words about a leading conservative intellectual. That would be Jordan Peterson. From Luke Savage:

Jordan Peterson’s marketability has always been a bit surprising given his weirdness. He speaks exclusively in a glottal cadence that sounds like Kermit the Frog after a night of heavy drinking. He calls hostile interlocutors “bucko.” He breaks down in tears when discussing children’s cartoons and has occasionally been known to dress like the Joker. But these days, the reactionary right is miserably bereft of real intellectuals, and a decade or so ago, Peterson stepped into this void and was rewarded with global success.

That success, improbably, comes from a unique fusion of obscurantism and conservative pomposity. There’s a certain genre of left-coded writing, for example, that’s rightly derided for its convolution, even meaninglessness. Perhaps the most common hallmark of this style is the incessant bracketing of words in scare quotes, a tactic that often allows the author (or “author”) to assert ideas or concepts while remaining aloof and evasive about what it is they’re actually saying. Sometimes, there are random capitalizations as well, or particular sentences are italicized for no discernible reason. In this genre, everything—right down to the very act of writing itself—plays out in linguistic abstraction, and at a convenient remove from anything tangible or concrete.

Of course, a notable left-wing crank, by name of Nathan Robinson has already offered a devastating critique of Peterson. Robinson’s essay was called: “The Intellectual We Deserve.”

Aside from that, and in terms that matter to me, Peterson is a Jungian. I would not wish Jung’s pagan idolatry on anyone.

As for the larger question, where are all the serious conservative intellectuals, I could easily make some recommendations.

Third, in the realm of utter and complete stupidity we reserve a special place for groups like: Queers for Palestine. Those who concocted this group failed to understand that, under Sharia law, homosexuality is a capital offense, punishable by death.

Now, a New York lesbian organization has chosen to ban Zionists from its latest march. Nellie Bowles, a proud lesbian herself, offers this commentary:

Organizers of the New York Dyke March—the special lesbian event at New York Pride weekend—banned Zionists from participating. So now, to participate, you need to believe that the country of Israel should be disbanded and all Jews should be expelled from that land, and also be into home renovations and motorcycles. Right. Well. I’m fine, thanks for asking. See, every time I go for a walk, it’s a Dyke March. I don’t need a special flag. My Tevas say enough. My many children. My tactical clothing. It’s all that’s required.

Fourth, in the world of blood libels against Jews we find the BBC standing tall and proud. Rebecca Downs explains:

Over the weekend, as those in Gaza arrived to collect aid, the BBC was among those outlets sharing libelous claims that the IDF shot and killed those seeking such aid. Among those cited included the Red Cross, which has been negligent in helping the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023; the United Nations, which has been particularly harsh on Israel; and the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas. Although some corrections were put out on Monday, the same day that the Trump White House called out the outlet, that's far from the whole story, especially given the BBC's reaction.

Once it was called out for its bias, the BBC refused to retract what it called its “journalism.”

Fifth, as though he was not having enough trouble dealing with his wife, French president Emmanuel Macron has been criticizing Israel and calling for a two state solution. That is, for a new Palestinian state.

To which Ambassador Mike Huckabee responded:

The new US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has challenged France to match its advocacy for a Palestinian state by creating a new one on French soil. He suggested that France “carve off a piece of the Côte d’Azur,” also known as the French Riviera, for the establishment of such a state. This proposal has prompted an angry response from Paris.

Sixth, perhaps it is wishful thinking, but Zero Hedge reports that the trans movement is now breathing its last breath.

The shift in public sentiment by the end of 2024 was palpable. The western world was being force fed a steady diet of trans propaganda that bordered on worship. The public could not go anywhere without being inundated with LGBT flags and imagery.

For a minority that represents less than 1% of the global population, the level of funding and political power behind them has been astonishing.

The proclamation that trans people were a special and privileged class and their feelings had to be protected at all costs was simply too much. The campaigns to control American speech, indoctrinate American children in public schools and insert men into women's spaces inspired widespread anger.

Trump's order was important in changing the discourse on the transgender issue in political terms, but the grotesque societal stain left behind by a decade-long invasion of transgender ideology into American culture will take a bit more effort to wash out. Don't shine a black light on America's sheets, you won't be happy with what you find.

Seventh, one can only feel a certain amount of sympathy for Karine Jean-Pierre. She was the ultimate diversity hire. She was given a job she could not do and then was obliged to repeat the party line, ad nauseam.

Now that she has walked away from the Democratic Party, she has inspired gales of contempt.

Among the comments about her condition, one stands out. Megyn Kelly asked how dumb you have to be to be rejected for The View. It’s the right question at the right time in the right place.