Flotsam and Jetsam for 4/15/23

A much thinner edition than usual, as I spent most of yesterday rolling around on the couch. I feel much better today, 85% or so.

Beege Wellborn at Hat Hair contributes Irish POTATUS: He's walking! Yes, indeed, he's walking. RNC Research@RNCResearch, ""The fact that Hunter Biden now is in Ireland with his dad — it's not a coincidence," says @JoeConchaTV. "He's in China. He's in Ukraine. He's in Russia. He's in Ireland...for what services exactly does somebody like Hunter Biden provide?" Scott Johnson at Power Line calls it Biden’s malarkey tour. Joe Biden was born with a bit of the Blarney Stone up his ass. Vicky Taft at PJM, White House Insider Says He Can Prove 'Conspiracy' Between Joe, Hunter, and Ukraine. Paul Mirengoff at his substack reports Biden's nominee for Secretary of Labor is in trouble. As is typical of this administration, pretty much an in your face pick of exactly the wrong person for the job. Meanwhile, things are going swimmingly, as sundance reports Consumer Spending Drops Again in March – Significant Sales Drops in Dept Stores, Electronics and Home Improvement

Bob Hoge at Red State announces Mike Pompeo Announces He's Not Running for President in 2024, 'Personal Decision'. Sundance, Mike Pompeo Announces He Will Not Run for GOP Nomination in 2024. While infinitely better than the current resident of the White House, I never saw him as a viable candidate. Tom Jackson at Hat Hair VIP, Already too late for DeSantis? Puh-leeze.

Capt. Ed at Hat Hair, Hmmm: Billionaire Dem donor funding rape/defamation lawsuit against Trump. Am I supposed to be surprised or something? At the Victory Girls Letitia James Deposes Donald Trump. Still beating the dead horse about misvaluing properties. 

Sundance, The DNC and Marc Elias Disconnect.

Ace, Breaking: The FBI Lied About Its "Spy on Catholics" Document Only Being the Work of One Low-Level Employee. "Just one "low-level employee." Whose plan was approved by two "senior intelligence analysts." At Bacon's Rebellion, Richmond FBI Office Used Undercover Agents to Spy on Traditional Catholics. Mark Moore at NYPo, Biden’s DOJ recommends no jail time for abortion activist who vandalized church, assaulted worker. Compare and contrast with Mark Houck, whom the DOJ tried to convict for possible 11 year sentence for a minor scuffle outside an abortion clinic. 

“It is very clear that the Biden Justice Department has politicized and weaponized the FACE Act to go after pro-life Christians praying outside of abortion clinics like Mark Houck while turning a blind eye to violent felons terrorizing and badly damaging Catholic churches like Maeve Nota,” Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, ​a nonprofit that advocates for conservative justices, ​told Fox News Digital.

“The Biden Justice Department tried to put Houck in prison for 11 years for defending his son while recommending no jail time for Nota after this deranged trans terrorist badly damaged a Catholic church, fought with the police, assaulted a church employee, and scared the hell out of a little old lady praying,” Davis said.

Kira Davis at Red State,  Bud Light Twitter Account Face-Plants Into the Weekend, Gets Brutally Roasted on the Way Down: Bud Light@budlight "TGIF?" "Well, we know for certain a lot of folks at Anheuser-Busch are thanking God it is Friday so they can stop answering the phones for the weekend. Not everyone was happy to send them off into the weekend with good vibes, however." At NYPo, Anheuser-Busch CEO offers flat apology following Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney backlash “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Brendan Whitworth said in press release titled “Our Responsibility To America. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.” Twitchy, Anheuser-Busch CEO breaks company silence with statement that’s NOT expected to make things better. Matt Walsh@MattWalshBlog, "The statement won’t satisfy their conservative customers because there is no apology or acknowledgment of wrong. And it won’t satisfy the Left because it doesn’t affirm transgenderism and admits at least (without using the word) that the trans issue “divides people.” Sundance, Anheuser-Busch CEO Issues Statement Following Rebranding of Bud Light Backlash. "The way I read between the lines of this statement is that Mr. Brendan Whitworth was well aware of the branding effort and marketing plan.  He approved it.  CEO Whitworth cannot fire Budweiser Light Vice President of Marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, because Whitworth himself approved the marketing strategy.  That’s the way the weasel-words read to me."

NYPo, Ron DeSantis rips ‘fraud’ transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in Liberty University speech. Bill Kassel at Am Think thinks he knows How the Left Uses Transgenders. Anything to stir division and hatred. I always figured that necrophilia would be the next big thing on the left. The absolute definition of a victimless crime. 

John Sexton at Hat Hair finds NBC News: Nashville shooter's motive remains unclear

I’m starting to get the same feeling I had when the FBI couldn’t figure out why a left-wing nut with a list of Republican office holders in his pocket shot up a bunch of Republicans at a baseball field in 2017. The answer seemed obvious to most people but since there wasn’t a message saying “I’m going to kill Republicans” in the shooter’s handwriting the FBI was at a loss. And here we are again with the local police and the FBI looking over the Nashville shooter’s writings and unable to see a motive.

While local investigators said they are continuing to analyze the writings with assistance from the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia, some in the community said the writings must be made public without delay to help people understand the carnage and Hale’s state of mind.

I’m finding this hard to believe but obviously I haven’t seen the “manifesto” the shooter left behind. I will note that one of the people who has read all of Hale’s writings claimed they didn’t add up to much of a manifesto at all. He described them as more of a rambling diary.

Dave Strom at Hat Hair is amused that, Striking back, Consumers' Research now provides "woke alerts". "Useful tool or publicity stunt? Probably a bit of both. In either case, you have to give credit to Consumers’ Research for having a clever idea and executing it well."

The intent behind this initiative finds its root in a 2021 decision at the organization to launch a new initiative targeting woke corporations and pushing back against their dangerous ideas, which go far beyond the embrace of transgender ideology.

They target ESG and all woke ideologies in major corporations, and have made that a focus of their organization. This is a very good thing indeed because Leftism is eating out the core of the free market and harming consumer choice.

I was unaware of the organization because it has been overshadowed by the larger Consumer Reports, but it actually is nearly a century old. Its focus on political ideology may be recent, but its pedigree is substantial.

Perusing the website makes one thing very clear: woke politics has become a staple of modern corporate America. They report on the spread of wokeness in specific companies and provide the receipts. Their message is clear: the people who can change corporate behavior are the consumers who provide the resources to make it possible. If you want to win the culture war you need to put your money where your mouth is.

Conservatives tend to be horrible at doing that, while liberals are less so.