From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

Sights and sounds - signifying almost nothing.
I liked the line,
"rCLNo KingsrCY rally, an official bleat of displeasure rCo brought
to you by the Democratic Partyrao rCo against the course of the
second Trump administration."
"bleat" - as in the sound of a sheep being pushed along.
And I also liked the CBS = "organizational bias rCo of course CBS would
never have aired the unedited interview rCo but it could not successfully conceal Kamala HarrisrCOs incompetence. You canrCOt edit around that."

from https://www.nationalreview.com/carnival-of-fools/the-activist-and-leisure-class-whines-and-dines-for-no-kings-day/

The Activist and Leisure Class Whines and Dines for rCyNo KingsrCO Day

A large inflatable effigy of President Donald Trump displayed during a
"No Kings" protest in Chicago, Ill., October 18, 2025.(Jim
Vondruska/Reuters)

By Jeffrey Blehar
October 21, 2025 6:30 AM
513 Comments
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Greetings and welcome to this 59th edition of the Carnival of Fools.
ItrCOs going to be a strange performance this week, like one of those
Grateful Dead shows where the band drank from the wrong watercooler
before starting off with the first set. So first werCOll play the hits
that you want to hear, then IrCOm going to play one for myself.

The rCyNo KingsrCO Rally Stirs the Mush

This weekend, on a cold autumn Saturday, my city returned once again to
its protest roots, as throngs of suburbanites and team-sport fanatics
flocked like lemmings to ChicagorCOs Grant Park. No, it wasnrCOt 1968 all
over again (and the Cubs got bounced from the playoffs a while ago). It
was for a nationwide rCLNo KingsrCY rally, an official bleat of displeasure rCo brought to you by the Democratic Partyrao rCo against the course of the second Trump administration.

Readers, let me assure you that absolutely nothing of importance
whatsoever happened on this day. While turnout was fairly respectable,
it was by no means overwhelming. The biggest whiteout Chicago has seen
in the 21st century remains either the Polar Vortex of 2014 or the World Series victory celebration in November 2016 rCo and I really must
emphasize the mayonnaise-like nature of it all, because that was my overwhelming demographic impression of rCLNo KingsrCY: the same mix of
earnest youths, activists, and gray-haired suburbanites as my local
farmersrCO market, only on a larger scale.

Unlike the last time a major protest stumbled into my toddlinrCO town, I
chose not to head down to the demonstration to get my fair share of
abuse. I used the weather as an excuse this time rCo it was miserable on Saturday morning in Chicago, and even more miserable that night, but serendipitously cleared up for the midday span of time the rally was
held rCo but in truth I just couldnrCOt see the purpose of it; it felt like trying to hype yourself to attend a WNBA game.

My instinct was proven right when I met the rally-goers later that
afternoon and learned everything I needed to know about them. How?
Because vast, clotting flocks of them poured like teeming hordes of
vermin into the West Loop (my adjacent Chicago neighborhood) and
devoured our food infrastructure. Legally and politely, that is. And
while wearing some of the most embarrassing Boomer mom T-shirts I have
seen since the rCLpink pussyhatsrCY brigade of the 2017 WomenrCOs March.

And thatrCOs what, by all accounts, rCLNo KingsrCY day was across America: for locals, an inconvenient surge of upscale suburban tourists stealing our carryout slots on Uber Eats. Aside from that, it was a minor traffic
hazard. It beats rioting, and that is worth noting. It was also
impossible not to note rCo and I went back to confirm this by checking
drone footage and photos of the Grant Park rally rCo how mightily white
this rally was, in a city that is only 36 percent white itself.

What does that tell me, in a city where turnout for the mayoral election
that sent Brandon Johnson to enduring infamy was under 35 percent? It
tells me only that the engaged are as engaged as they ever were, but
there has been no real breakthrough yet. Working men are not in the
streets, to use the common turn of the phrase; this is the activist and leisure class, in highest dudgeon, declaring their discontent and then decamping to Randolph Street to enjoy the newest taquer|!a.

I donrCOt discount the energy of those who turned out to rally: Opposition
to Trump is real, and it is laser-focused among the educated class, specifically among women. It would be foolhardy to mock or laugh at the reality of these peoplerCOs discontent, even if you disagree with the underlying reasons for it (and I do not in all circumstances). At the
end of the day, these are the people who are going to vote in the
midterms. Will TrumprCOs more casual supporters? 2018 certainly told us
one tale. We shall see about 2026.

CBS News Reports: No Problems Here!

As you have no doubt already heard, big changes are afoot at CBS, which
has recently been purchased in a merger with anonymous tech conglomerate Skydance by Silicon Valley nepo-baby David Ellison, son of Oracle
founder (and Trump ally) Larry Ellison. With Ellison comes the
imperative for a change of direction at CBS News rCo and as part of the turnover, he has acquired Bari WeissrCOs Free Press outlet along with the talents of Weiss herself.

ItrCOs quite the journey for Weiss, a woman whose initial fame derived
from being hounded out of the New York Times for insufficient wokeness.
The downstream result of that was the Free Press, a Substack blog that
quickly mushroomed into its own dissident-left traffic phenomenon during
the Biden era. Now, perhaps inevitably in an age of media decay and
tumult, it has been resorbed into the mainstream media, this time on
more advantageous terms.

Good luck, Bari! The strange thing about Weiss, as any conservative or Republican will tell you, is that she is not one of us. I donrCOt know
Weiss myself rCo our paths have never crossed in person or online rCo but I can tell you that IrCOve read and seen enough of her work to know exactly
who she reminds me of: my normie liberal friends from back in the rCO90s
and rCO00s, whom I got along with just fine. Contrast that with the
mainstream media rCo as best embodied by the New York Times, the voice of Establishment Journalism rCo which is now breathlessly reporting on her
each and every move as if she is Attila the Hun parked on the outskirts
of Rome, pondering whether to take the city or turn back. (rCLLo! A holy embassy from 60 Minutes requests an audience for pleading!rCY)

Meanwhile, all of us on the actual right are sitting here with mild bemusement, suppressing chuckles as CBS News internally seeks to eject
Weiss like a committed alcoholicrCOs poisoned antibodies might heroically rally to reject a healthy liver transplant. (rCLWe had to kill the patient
in order to save him.rCY) Forgive me that analogy, but it is grotesquely
apt rCo for you see, CBS News evidently doesnrCOt have a bias problem, it
can quit anytime it wants:

Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, surprised senior staff
at the venerable news program rCL60 MinutesrCY during a meeting on Tuesday when she asked a provocative question:

Why does the country think yourCOre biased?

The inquiry was met with stunned awkwardness, according to three people
who recounted details from the private session in Midtown Manhattan. The
staff of rCL60 Minutes,rCY the nationrCOs most-watched news program, view their coverage as firmly nonpartisan and reject criticism from President
Trump and his allies who argue that it has a liberal slant.

IrCOm thrilled to find that 60 MinutesrCO staff views itself as rCLfirmly nonpartisan,rCY because it brings back memories of how a college friend of mine once claimed he was rCLfirmly heterosexualrCY back when he was recommending Lords of Acid to me in 1999. What can I say? Entire
industries are now apparently in denial about their true nature these
days, and this includes CBS News rCo an organization I would describe as rCLbesiegedrCY were not almost all the sabotage coming from inside the building.

What do you remember about CBS News in recent years? You might mention
Kamala HarrisrCOs bumbling interview during the 2024 campaign season, but hererCOs the thing about that: It revealed organizational bias rCo of course CBS would never have aired the unedited interview rCo but it could not successfully conceal Kamala HarrisrCOs incompetence. You canrCOt edit around that.

Meanwhile, I remember Dan Rather. I remember the forged documents Rather
ran on 60 Minutes about George W. BushrCOs service in the Texas Air
National Guard in the run-up to the 2004 election, with rCo as he has confessed stupidly and often since rCo the explicit motive of swaying its outcome. Others can name their CBS News disgrace of choice, but I rCo
young enough to be properly cynical, yet old enough to retain hold of
the Ancient Lore rCo know that CBS News broke trust with the mainstream of America decades ago, and never even bothered to repair the breach. They
simply moved on, hoping viewers would forget. They did not, and they themselves have moved on.

Godspeed, Bari. You have your work cut out for you.

Why Not to Leave the GOP

A brief notice about people who got into this game for the wrong
reasons. Yesterday, The Bulwark published a piece from a former
Republican flack with a predictably readership-pleasing headline: rCLMy
Last Day as an Accomplice of the Republican Party.rCY (It was a typical
theme for The Bulwark, whose audience and political aim I will not
pretend to understand or respect.)

And you know what? I wouldnrCOt necessarily be unsympathetic to a piece pitched from this angle, were it directed properly. Nobody will ever
mistake me for a party-line partisan rCo my sole bigotry is in favor of conservative principle rCo and as someone who has passed up three straight chances to cast a presidential ballot for Donald Trump, IrCOve developed
my rhetorical posture into titanium-flexible ironic detachment simply
because in 2025 one bends unless one intends to break. In other words, I
am presumably the target audience for such a piece.

Except IrCOm not. This piece isnrCOt written by or for disaffected conservatives, itrCOs written for . . . well, the sorts of people who keep
The Bulwark in business:

WHAT FINALLY BROKE ME out of my comfortable cocoon had nothing to do
with Trump or his grip on the Republican party. Rather, it was the
rightward lurch of the Supreme Court and the lengths to which the right
was willing to go to undermine established legal precedents and access
to reproductive rights.

When I was younger, I was staunchly pro-life. But as I got older, I grew
to realize this wasnrCOt the black-and-white issue I had previously
believed it was. While I slowly became pro-choice, I still didnrCOt
consider it a personal priority when I voted. In fact, I failed to fully process the ramifications of the Supreme CourtrCOs decision to overturn
Roe v. Wade.

IrCOm sorry, but for all the reasons to abandon the GOP rCo boy, could I rattle off a few! rCo the least principled one of all is to claim the
Supreme Court, and abortion politics, as your breaking point. To say so
merely means that you presumed to work professionally to elect
Republican politicians while rejecting conservative values, as well as
the partyrCOs official platform, for half a century. Congratulations on
your confession of naked careerism.

Now is not the time to explain how much the issue of life means to many
of us conservatives. If you think you can persuade the sorts of
activists who drove the GOP to victory rCo in the judiciary as much as anywhere else rCo that their lifelong cause was somehow errantly
conceived, then good luck to you; you will have better luck convincing
your grandmother to stop attending Sunday Mass. But one way or another,
the overturning of Roe v. Wade has been a conservative goal for decades.
Life has not suddenly become cheaper over the past eight years. Did the authorrCOs convictions?

What this tells me is that there exists an entire class of people, now
frozen out of the modern Republican Party power structure, who have
nothing left for themselves but to lament their former status rCo because
all they ever really believed in was their status, and the rest was mere fashionable affect. It is incredibly easy to level just criticism
against Donald Trump and his putrefying effect on our political culture without forfeiting the reasons one was conservative to begin with. But
some people feel differently.

Whatever the horrible results of the Trumpist purge of the professional
GOP rCo of the decent, of the honest and true rCo it has at least revealed
the difference between Republicans who criticize Trump because they are conservatives and those who criticize Trump because they would now not
get paid for their work otherwise. Some people really do conceive of
their professional political lives in terms of wanting a nice job as the comfortably decent, losing opposition.

People like this are the reason people like me are now suffering through people like Trump. I blame them nearly as much as MAGArCOs myrmidons and consider them two sides of an equally useless coin.

Until next week.





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