Clear the Decks: There’s Virtue Signaling To Be Done

I’m so old I remember when this sort of thing would have been considered obstruction of justice:

“It appears that Special Counsel Mueller’s team may have deleted federal records that could be key to better understanding their decision-making process as they pursued their investigation and wrote their report. Indeed, many officials apparently deleted the records after the DOJ Inspector General began his inquiry into how the Department mishandled Crossfire Hurricane.”

Now days that charge is only used to impeach Republican presidents.

I guess “wiping” electronic devices is just another manifestation of white liberal privilege.

“Wipe my server?”

“What, with a cloth or something?”

P.S. One of the phones wiped in the Mueller probe was that of Andrew Weismann, the lead prosecutor on the team. Apparently he “accidentally” wiped his phone…twice, thus ensuring the data was lost. Mr. Weismann you may recall, was also the lead prosecutor in the Enron and related Arthur Anderson cases, He was accused of prosecutorial misconduct in the Enron case  and prosecutorial overreach in the Arthur Anderson case. He was later rebuked by the Supreme Court in the AA case where the appeal resulted in an overturned ruling by a unanimous 9-0 decision. Too late to save the careers and livelihoods of the firm’s 85,000 employees. They were collateral damage, but for Weismann it remained another notch in his belt.

Now works on cell phones too!

Get some for all of your devices today so you too can wipe away all those calls, emails and texts that Big Tech hasn’t already taken care of for you that might call into question your true motives. Clear the way for your renewed virtue signaling with a vengeance.

Before. During. After. Never Forget.

BEFORE.

Sunset at Windows on the World restaurant atop the World Trade Center, 2001. Photograph by Konstantin Petrov

WTC viewed from New York Harbor

DURING.

INCOMING, #2

HORROR RAINS DOWN FIRE AT 9:03

NO. WHERE. TO. GO.

SHE’S COME UNDONE

AFTER.

How quickly the country forgots the importance of first responders who run towards disaster

We said we’d never forget but not only have people forgotten, they’re rewriting the script; now the only thing people are unwilling to forget is how racist our slave owning founders were. Children not yet born on 9-1-2001 won’t learn in school of the evil and hate in the hearts of our sworn foreign enemies as such talk is deemed racist and Islamophobic. Nor will they be taught about our domestic enemies as all that matters now is Black Lives Mattering. So they will learn that white silence is consent and if you chose not to comply with their lie you are a racist enjoying your white privilege and keeping systemic racism alive and well. Shame!

EVEN FURTHER AFTER…

This year the iconic twin towers of blue light commemorating the event and memorializing the victims will not be on display – because COOTIES! Too dangerous for the workers. Not too dangerous for the crew that painted the giant BLACK LIVES MATTER street mural in front of Trump Tower a few weeks back though. Because memorializing a Marxist organization that hates America is currently more important than remembering the victims of a terrorist attack by other people who also hate America.

Everything changed that day and unfortunately many people still don’t seem to get it so they don’t even know what to remember. But we will never forget.

Update: The Tunnels To Towers Foundation stepped in to ensure the ‘Towers of Lights’ tribute takes place this year.

Whenever You Discuss Certain Things With Animals You Get Insulted

Following the death of George Floyd we’ve had months of rioting, looting, thuggery and terrorism. In over a dozen cities around the country police chiefs have been fired, retired or resigned.

Look at all these racist police chiefs; shocking! Abolish the racist pigs!

And so the demands to defund police continue, only one problem: real “folks” are having none of it – not even Al Sharpton (“Latte Liberals” want to defund NYPD, “but people living on the ground need proper policing”). The only people going along with the shuck and jive of the BLM these days are the usual suspects: the useful idiots conditioned by years of public school indoctrination. They parrot whatever they’re told and honestly believe that social workers are better at violent conflict resolution than armed police. No wonder the chiefs are resigning: how can you even respond to such idiocy?

Now it should be noted that the people behind all this mayhem, the BLM and ANTIFA organizers and leaders,  don’t really want to get rid of all police just…these police. What the peeps behind this nefarious fraud want is Obama’s police force, you know, “the civilian national security force”  that will help us achieve the “national security objectives we’ve set,” whatever the hell those are.

Obama first floated that trial balloon in Denver on July 2, 2008. But he got out a little too far ahead of his handlers’ narrative and had to walk it back immediately by ‘splainin that he was referring to a “volunteer network like the Peace Corp.” Right.

That’s exactly what this sounds like:

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

And don’t think he gave up on the idea. On March 2, 2015 Obama unveiled his National Law Enforcement plan following the outrage machine’s orchestrated riots in Ferguson, MO and Staten Island, NY in 2014.

“We need to seize that opportunity… this is something that I’m going to stay very focused on in the months to come,” Obama said, as he touted a new interim report from his Task Force on 21st Century Policing.  – NYT

By all means, let’s get more ‘academics’ involved in policing

Obama also instructed his media allies to help federalize policing, and to sideline the critics of centralized policing rules. “I expect our friends in the media to really focus on what’s in this report and pay attention to it,” he instructed. – Daily Caller

What a shame; the media were quite prepared to do their part but Hillary, who was expected to implement this federal police force, lost….unexpectedly. Along with a host of other plans and policies to complete the transformation of America, federal police had to be put on hold. If only she had beat Trump; we wouldn’t have to endure this hellish summer. We’d already have that well trained, fully funded federal police force that could take over policing us in an even-handed, non-racist, non-biased manner.

Just like all every national police force ever assembled has.

It’s almost enough to make you weep.

Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better…

This isn’t going to sit well with the ‘Obama Is Our Savior and Trump Is The Devil’ club:

President Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for helping broker a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, according to a report. – NY Post

He was nominated, as the left-wing British rag the Independent points out, by “Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a right-wing member of the Norwegian parliament.” I’ll bet the Independent failed to mention the political affiliation of the member of the Norwegian parliament who nominated our former president for that honor back in 2009. The Great Reader who was nominated before he did anything and had been in office, as President Trump likes to point out, “for about 15 minutes.”

And while Obama did in fact win the Nobel Peace Prize during his first year in office, let the record reflect that he was more interventionist than George W. Bush. He waged serial military campaigns from Somalia and Yemen to Iraq and Syria and still failed to wipe out ISIS. And lest anyone forget, the holder of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize also initiated multiple “targeted killing” drone strikes.

Let’s be clear: in an increasingly superficial world it was Obama’s ability to read from a telepromptor (TOTUS) that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize as well as his reputation as an awesome orator. People tend to forget that there is a world of difference between talk and action, and between being a great orator and a great leader. Obama mastered the requirements of orator and play-acted his way through leadership. He could have been a great actor had he not aspired to a much more important type of celebrity – although his primary job skill remained the ability to read other people’s words effectively.

Reading was indeed Obama’s superpower: not reason or work ethic, but reading. It sure wasn’t his writing ability, as Jack Cashill delightfully pointed out at AT years ago:

“Obama was prompted to write by an earlier letter from a Mr. Jim Chen that criticized Harvard Law Review's affirmative action policies.  Specifically, Chen had argued that affirmative action stigmatized its presumed beneficiaries.

The response is classic Obama: patronizing, dishonest, syntactically muddled, and grammatically challenged.  In the very first sentence Obama leads with his signature failing, one on full display in his earlier published work: his inability to make subject and predicate agree.

"Since the merits of the Law Review's selection policy has been the subject of commentary for the last three issues," wrote Obama, "I'd like to take the time to clarify exactly how our selection process works."

…Were there such a thing as a literary Darwin Award, Obama could have won it on this one sentence alone.  He had vindicated Chen in his first ten words.”

And so it came to pass that the man who was overpraised his entire life received an unearned Nobel Prize.

Should a miracle happen and the Nobel committee actually award this year’s Peace Prize to President Trump you can be assured that Obama will be the first to criticize its bestowal on a man unworthy of the honor. That’s the way the script is written.

I’ll go with reality; and a real star. 

Trump to Obama, 2020: “Anything you can do I can do better…”

Shoot All Extremists

“This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.” – Alfred Bestor, The Stars My Destination, 1957

And now summer begins to wind down. It will tumble itself into a splash of autumn crispness and color before completely upending itself in a pile of snow.

Unless of course you live along the front range of the Rockies and upper plains. In that case winter will arrive today unannounced, unwelcome and…unexpectedly just days after record-breaking heat.

Meanwhile BLM and ANTIFA continue their aggressive ideological mobbing of people dining outdoors in what is perhaps summer’s last hurrah.

BLM thug lady harasses elderly couple and steals their drink in Pittsburg

The mobbings serve as a reminder of what a truly thin line there is between civilization and savagery.

ANTIFA’s thin-black-bloc-line in Portland

Back in the ‘60s there was a jokey bumper sticker that read “Shoot All Extremists.” It wouldn’t even raise a smile today, as the Left thinks we are the fascists.

It is an age of extremes for sure, and nobody’s lovin’ it.

Labor Day, 2020

And just like that, here we are, Labor Day: the unofficial end of summer. Warms days are too precious now to waste the last holiday of the season on fractious politics so I opt instead for stories and recipes. What are you cooking/picking up/bringing to the Labor Day celebration? We’re doing souvlaki.

I first had souvlaki in 1970, the first year of what would become the annual Festival of the Arts in my hometown of Grand Rapids, MI. At the time it was colloquially known as “the Calder Festival,” named after the giant red/orange sculpture – La Grande Vitesse – by Alexander Calder that had been planted on a giant concrete plaza in downtown GR the previous year, and home to the festival.

43 feet tall, 54 feet long, 30 feet wide, and weighing in at 42 tons La Grande Vitesse  - literally ‘the Great Swiftness’ – can also be translated as ‘Grand Rapids.’

In addition to it’s size and color the sculpture’s claim to fame was as the first public art funded in part by the nascent National Endowment for the Arts. Public sentiment - then as now - towards both the public expenditure and the sculpture itself ran the gamut from “awesome” to “monstrous.” Yet there it was on the newly constructed Vandenberg plaza: surrounded by the equally new buildings of governance and commerce erected following the city’s frenzied spate of “urban renewal” fueled by federal funds. The program mostly consisted of knocking down old buildings such as the original City Hall and replacing them with non-descript glass boxes.

Ah yes, progress. The shadow in the last frame is of the Calder on the rather stark plaza.

But I digress, the first Arts Festival was funded by $15,000 raised by the Junior League and other artsy-fartsy types around town. It featured art hung on the exterior walls of the new City Hall, 5 food booths and 2 portable stages for music. The Festival was operated entirely by volunteers and 7000 people attended that first year, no streets were closed and the organizing committee spent only $12,000 of the $15,000 they raised (well done!). The following year food booths doubled to 10 and attendance more than quadrupled to 30,000 and “Festival” was on its way to becoming a GR institution.

One of the earliest food booths sold souvlaki. It might have been run by members of St. Nickolas Greek Orthodox church, but my memory is not that clear. My food memory on the other hand is clear as day: the aroma of succulent pork cubes, garlic and lemon roasted over a red hot charcoal fire, the taste of juicy pig with a fresh, soft, pita bread wrapped around it: simple ecstasy. And pretty exotic fare in an era where “ethnic” dining consisted of pizza, egg foo young and tacos.

So for no particular reason other than I found a small pork shoulder roast in the freezer we’re celebrating Labor Day here at Casa MOTUS by grilling up some Greek pork souvlaki. I don’t recall the original Calder Festival version coming with tzatziki, but here in our Detroit environs, home to a large Greek diaspora, we serve lots of things with tzatziki. So if you’re in the neighborhood, follow the aroma of the smoke: I’ll have plenty.

Grilled Pork Shoulder Souvlaki

The Pork

Ingredients:

Pork

1 1/2 lbs pork shoulder 1 pound pork shoulder, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1-2 tbs fresh, minced oregano

2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Tzatziki Sauce

1 cup grated cucumber

2 cups plain Greek yogurt

2 tbs olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

2-3 cloves garlic, grated or finely minced

2 tbs minced fresh dill weed

1 tsp kosher salt

Toppings/Additions (all optional)

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

2-3 sliced tomatoes

shredded lettuce

1/2 cup thinly sliced cucumbers

pita bread, or any kind of flat bread

The Flat Bread

Instructions

Pork Souvlaki

1. Trim the pork shoulder of excess fat. Cut the trimmed meat into 3/4 inch cubes.

2. Place the cubes into a sealable bag.

3. Mix together the olive oil, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Pour the marinade into the bag with the pork and seal the bag.

4. Refrigerate it and let it marinate for 2 - 8 hours.

5. If using wooden skewers, begin soaking them 1 hour before you are going to use them.

6. Heat a grill on high.

7. Thread the pork onto skewers, don’t pack them too tightly for even cooking

8. Grill on high, turning occasionally, until the outside is browned and crispy and the inside is just a little pink, about 10 -12 minutes.

9. Serve immediately on pita bread with tzatziki sauce, lemon wedges and any toppings you want.

Tzatziki Sauce

The Tzatziki

1. Wrap the grated cucumber in a paper towel or some cheesecloth and squeeze it dry.

2. Combine the cucumber, yogurt, garlic, olive oil, and salt in a bowl and mix together.

3. Transfer the sauce to a serving bowl and either use immediately or refrigerate until you are ready to eat.

4. Tzatziki sauce can be made up to 2 days ahead.  

In the 50 years since that first Calder Festival the city and the country have embraced all forms of ethnic cuisine. Souvlaki is as American as hot dogs now. So too has the Grand Rapidian public embraced the Calder sculpture. Initially considered an eyesore by a majority – and in fairness, still held in contempt by some – it has been adopted as a beloved and iconic symbol of the city.

The Calder and the New City Hall, 1969

That’s progress for you. So thanks, Progressives, for always showing us the Way Forward!

P.S. Grand Rapids Arts Festival was cancelled for 2020, due to cooties

“Good Meetings Always Turn Into Riots”

Last night marked the 100th consecutive night of lawless rioting in Portland.

“Only if you promise not to use it in the house.”

It’s tough to control riots when the police have their hands tied.

Which is precisely why police “resources” have been preempted

Meanwhile in Detroit on Friday the Hon. Laurie J. Michelson, United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan followed in the footsteps of judges in other jurisdictions, (Seattle, Portland, Chicago) and issued a temporary restraining order that enjoined the Detroit Police Force from:

• Using striking weapons (including, but not limited to, batons and shields), chemical agents (including, but not limited to, tear gas and pepper spray), or rubber bullets against any individual peacefully engaging in protest or demonstrations who does not pose a physical threat to the safety of the public or police;
• Deploying chemical agents or a sound cannon against persons peacefully engaging in protest or demonstrations without an audible warning and a reasonable amount of time to disperse;
• Placing in a chokehold or ramming with a vehicle any individual attending a demonstration;
• Tightening the zip ties or handcuffs placed on any individual to the point that the restraints cause physical injury, including loss of circulation or change in color;
• Arresting any demonstrators en masse without probable cause.

Sorry, that qualifies as a “striking weapon.” Unless it’s wielded by a “peaceful protestor.”

Hmm, that seems to leave the police with only water canons, and…bullets.

That doesn’t seem quite right. Thankfully Detroit’s police chief, James Craig, is more thoughtful and level-headed than I. He said that since the judge's order bars action against “peaceful protesters,” his officers needn't change what they've already been doing.

"The judge’s order is no different than what we’ve always done," Craig said. "Every time we've had to use less-than-lethal force, it's been to address violence by protesters, resisting arrest, or when they've tried to take over an intersection in violation of the law. Technically, nothing has changed."

I tend to agree but when I hear a crowd chanting “Every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground” I assume they are inciting violence have malevolence in their heart and are hell-bent on being anything but peaceful. Especially when they come armed with rocks, bricks, railroad spikes, and frozen water bottles.

Chief Craig has no intent of letting the thugs take over his city:

"When they try to take over an area like they did in Seattle, that's not going to happen," Craig said, referring to authorities in Seattle who allowed protesters to occupy several blocks for about two weeks until clearing the area in late June. 

Unfortunately so do most “peaceful protests” these days.