August 11, 2025

IN MY INFORMED OPINION IT’S 90% FOREIGN INFLUENCES AND BOTS:  Is There a “Woke Right”? American Values Versus Wokeism.

Of course, the dunderheads we shall always have with us, but even so, I doubt there’s more than 10%. And some of those might be federal employees, even now.

Posted at 3:33 am by Sarah Hoyt

August 10, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

RIP: Bobby Whitlock, Derek and the Dominos founder, dies at 77.

Bobby Whitlock, the musician who co-founded Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton, has died, according to his manager. He was 77.

Whitlock died Sunday morning of cancer, manager Carol Kaye confirmed to CBS News. He was surrounded by his family in Texas, Kaye said.

The singer-songwriter was a keyboard player and vocalist for Derek and the Domino, the rock band best known for its 1971 album, “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.”

Whitlock was the second vocalist on numerous songs on the Layla album. In 2000, he told an interviewer that he wanted something akin to Sam and Dave’s call and response style-of singing:

That was my idea — that’s what I figured out how to — I was kind of a fire under Eric’s ass as far as it was, vocally, ’cause he wasn’t real secure with his vocals. His first album, as a matter of fact — we did the “Eric Clapton” album, with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends — but Delaney sang all the songs and Eric just came up back behind him and sang exactly what Delaney had sang. Delaney put everything, all the vocals down and Eric came back behind and just put ’em down, exactly like (sings softly): “I’m lovin’ you, lovin’ me, it’s all the same!” Eric was real insecure vocally. He’s more secure now, but he ain’t Otis Redding, but I mean, he’s a good singer. But I put a fire under his ass, and it was an option that I took, just to — our band was open — we didn’t want no chicks, and no horn players, we wanted a four-piece rock ‘n roll band, and we did it, and I chose to it like Sam and Dave. He’d (Eric) do a verse, I’d do a verse, we’d do one together, we’d do the things together, I was doing harmonies and all that, so that’s how that all came to light.

Arguably, Layla was Clapton’s finest moment as an artist, and he couldn’t have done it with Whitlock:

“Thorn Tree in the Garden,” which serves as a reflective acoustic coda for the album’s epic title song, is sung entirely by Whitlock:

Posted at 6:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

JOSH HAMMER: America Must Never Apologize for Dropping the Bombs on Japan.

Critics often portray Truman’s decision as an act of monstrous brutality — a flex of raw military might by a sadistic and trigger-happy superpower. But such characterizations, drenched in presentist moral narcissism, do a grave disservice to the reality on the ground and the countless lives Truman undoubtedly saved. They are also a grave disservice to the memory of all those killed by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Carlson and his fellow ultra-pacifists should visit Pearl Harbor and stand over the sunken USS Arizona, the final resting place of more than 900 sailors and marines. One can still see and smell the oil leaking from the ships, all these decades later; it is an extraordinary experience.

Shocking sensory intakes aside, the sober reality is that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no matter how morbid and macabre, were strategically and morally correct.

When Truman authorized the use of the atomic bombs, he faced a truly appalling alternative: a full-scale land invasion of Japan. Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, had projected American and Japanese casualties potentially reaching as high as a million lives each. The Imperial Japanese, steeped in a kamikaze warrior ethos, had proven time and again — at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and elsewhere — that they would fight to the last man, woman and child. Schoolchildren were being trained to attack American troops with sharpened bamboo sticks. Fighting to the death was not mere speculation; it was core Imperial Japanese doctrine.

If the A-bombs weren’t dropped, VDH notes that there was another horrific option available to the US, either in addition to a massed invasion of Japan, or instead of it.  Curtis LeMay was ready to firebomb many more Japanese cities with a combination of his fleet of B-29s and the bombers sitting idle in Europe after VE-Day. (Fast-forward to the 44:00 minute mark if this YouTube clip doesn’t automatically start there):

Posted at 5:56 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT’S (D)IFFERENT: NBC’s Kristen Welker Lets JB Pritzker Pontificate on Texas Redistricting, Unchallenged.

Yes, Kristen Welker asked a Democrat a facially uncomfortable question. Quick, give her a Pulitzer! What is most notable from this exchange is that which is missing therein. In order to find that, we are compelled to examine the (D)ifference between this question and similar questions asked of Republicans.

The slight twitch at the start of the question on Illinois’ map betrays a discomfort that Pritzker is never made to feel otherwise. This is so because Welker simply allows him to exhaust his talking point set pieces on Texas’ redistricting, without ever substantially pressing him on the issue or the hypocrisy of his outrage.

Welker does not interrupt Pritzker or cut him off mid-sentence in order to rebut his arguments or force him to respond to her specific framing of the question. There is no “to put a fine point on it” and pointing the pen at Pritzker. Both of these would’ve come the second a Republican had rebutted her follow-up with “what they’re saying I’m doing is a distraction.”

As Joe Concha tweets, “The fact that Welker should even receive praise for asking the most obvious question to Pritzker regarding his blatant hypocrisy around gerrymanding tells you the state of media today. Question is — how did Pritzker do so many interviews to this point without anyone seriously challenging him?”

UPDATE: Chicago Is So Gerrymandered Its Main Airport Is Parking Backlogged Planes in Two Different Congressional Districts.

Posted at 5:20 pm by Ed Driscoll

JD VANCE DROPS A RUSSIAGATE TRUTH BOMB:

Speaking with host Maria Bartiromo, Vance made it clear he wants accountability—but only where the law is truly broken. His remarks come amid growing evidence of serious abuses of power during the lead-up to and early days of the Trump administration.

“I absolutely want to see indictments, Maria. Look, of course, you’ve got to have the law follow the facts here. You don’t just indict people to indict people. You indict people because they broke the law,” Vance said. He acknowledged that legal standards must be upheld, but emphasized that the revelations brought forward by Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel in recent weeks leave little doubt about widespread misconduct.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE NOT-SO-FINAL COUNTDOWN: Must-See Flashback: CBS News Predicts Florida to Be UNDERWATER from Global Warming.

 

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE RETURN OF THE MOST EVIL POLITICAL ATTACK EVER: Dems in Full Freakout Mode Over ‘They/Them’ Ads.

CNN issued the ominous warning yesterday: “Republicans reprise anti-transgender ‘Kamala is for they/them’ ads for the midterms.”

Why, how dare those Republicans double-down on a successful political campaign! That’s not fair.

CNN, of course, is carrying the left’s water with both arms:

Trump allies spent tens of millions of dollars airing an ad highlighting 2024 Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ one-time commitment that detained immigrants would have access to treatment associated with gender transition as was required by federal law, including surgical care. The ad’s tagline mocked the pronouns used by non-binary individuals, saying “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”

Widely cited by strategists in both parties as having shaped the campaign, that ad is now being mimicked in North Carolina and another competitive Senate contest in Georgia. Trans and gender identity issues have also come up in this year’s race for Virginia governor.

There’s nothing in CNN’s article that’s a literal, outward lie. Trump’s allies really did spend millions on “they/them” political ads. It happened: We all saw it.

But their reporting is about as “truthful” as a PR pro’s creative writing.

It’s basic human psychology: When reality is too difficult to accept, we invent an alternative. What the heart wants, the heart gets.

The truth, of course, is that Donald Trump returned to the White House and won the popular vote for many reasons — and yes, among those reasons was backlash to the Pronoun Police. The trans debate was certainly part of it.

But it wasn’t the main part.

Every Super Bowl wrap-up focuses on endless video replays of the One Big Play that wins the game, rather than all of the planning and hard work beginning in training camp to get the team into position to both get to the Super Bowl and win it, so no wonder CNN would focus on the “They/Them” slogan. In this case though, it’s a reminder that no matter what, Democrats aren’t going to back away from their most toxic positions, lest they risk angering their base on social media:

Posted at 2:45 pm by Ed Driscoll