It’s Wednesday, July 24th, 2019…but before we begin, we present another example of life imitating art.

First, as previously featured in our On The Lighter Side video segment (accessible through link #4 immediately above), here’s the art:

And if your woman isn’t mad at you, don’t do anything to p*ss her off, a lesson life recently taught one unfortunate husband onboard an American Airlines flight about to leave Miami:

If Mamo’s gonna look at other women in the future, he best be wearin’ dark glasses.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

We lead off the mid-week edition with another bit of brilliance courtesy of American Greatness, as the incomparable Victor Davis Hanson asks and answers the question…

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

“Get along? Apparently no—at least until after 2020. Two examples summarize why.

“We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice,” said U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), one-quarter of “the squad” sowing havoc among Democrats in the House. “We don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice. We don’t need Muslims that don’t want to be a Muslim voice. We don’t need queers that don’t want to be a queer voice.” (No bigoted, identity politics there!!!)

Of the Republican Party, MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes said the other day: “It must be peacefully, nonviolently, politically destroyed with love, compassion and determination, but utterly confronted and destroyed. That is the only way to break the coalition apart… Not by prying off this or that interest. They are in too deep. They have shamed themselves too much. The heart of the thing must be ripped out. The darkness must be banished.”

In other words, the new progressive message is that we all must vote monolithically and predicated on our superficial appearance, religion, or sexual orientation. And the Trump base must be destroyed, though annihilated with “love” and “compassion.”

All are presently shocked that Donald Trump would dare suggest that if anyone did not like the United States, then perhaps he or she might, of their own volition, consider leaving the country.

Trump apparently was directing his ire exclusively at particular first-generation congresswomen and suggesting that their anti-American furor logically might lead such unhappy U.S. citizens to consider voluntary deportation. (You know…like so many Hollywood celebridiots promised after both Trump and Bush were elected.)

Perhaps no politician should ever advise American citizens with whom he disagrees to leave the country. But Trump did not suggest mandatory departures—in the manner that Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) had wanted Trump supporter and immigrant Sebastian Gorka deported.

Trump was not talking of some grand swap in the explicit fashion that NeverTrumpers have variously wished for the Trump Republican and/or white working-class base to be forcibly exported and replaced by Latin American border crossers.

So wrote Bret Stephens of the New York Times: “So-called real Americans are screwing up America. Maybe they should leave, so that we can replace them with new and better ones: newcomers who are more appreciative of what the United States has to offer, more ambitious for themselves and their children, and more willing to sacrifice for the future. In other words, just the kind of people we used to be—when ‘we’ had just come off the boat.”

Columnist Max Boot narrowed the theme somewhat by suggesting only Republican lawmakers and grandees should be deported and replaced. “If only we could keep the hard-working (though illegal) Latin American newcomers and deport the contemptible Republican cowards—that would truly enhance America’s greatness,” Boot wrote. That’s harsh. At least Chris Hayes only wishes to destroy the Trump base with love and compassion in his heart…”

So said, as it turns out, one of the Jihad Squad’s very own back in 2015:

But see, that’s different, because Trump’s a f*cking racist, along with anyone who remotely supports him, so the normal rules of decorum and decency…

…don’t apply!!!

Case in point: we were fortunate to have recently enjoyed an uncomfortable (high temperatures and humidity) yet enjoyable weekend with old friends on a boating trip to Cambridge, MD.  While tying up at the Hyatt resort, we noticed astern a vessel flying a “Trump 2020” flag from its rigging.

Later that afternoon, while enjoying a libation on the afterdeck, we overheard a loud exchange on the dock between two parties we couldn’t see.

Imagine our surprise when we learned the college-age daughter of a couple headed for dinner past the boat flying the Trump banner had flipped a double-bird to the vessel while screaming “F*ck you, f*ck you, f*ck you!!!”  As the owner and his two guests were then walking up the dock towards his boat, and the only people on board were their three wives, they were “curious” as to what had initiated the obscene tirade.  Rather than being offered a reasoned response, they were instead met with another foul fusillade of “F*ck you, you’re a racist!!!”, etc., etc., ad nauseam/ad infinitum.

We were also informed, upon seeing the “offensive” emblem while entering the anchorage, the overly-propagandized daughter had informed the harbor master they couldn’t tie up to the same dock as the rabid racist. 

Thus does this one incident prove two of our most enduring assertions: (1) the divide currently splintering America is spreading almost exclusively from…

…one side; and, (2) these people are utterly out of their minds with hatred.

Look, we lived through sixteen years under Clinton (Ruby Ridge, Waco and Monica) and Obama (Fast & Furious, Benghazi, Lois Lerner, “The Pohlice Acted Stupidly/If I Had a Son He’d Look Like Trayvon/Hands-Up-Don’t Shoot”), and we cannot recall a similar expressions of mindless vitriol aimed at anyone sporting a bumper sticker supporting either undeniably partisan President.

First, as Guy Benson notes at Townhall.com, The Left attacks anyone who doesn’t actively advocate for their amoral, anti-American agenda:

Daily Beast Tries, Fails to Attack MLB Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera for Supporting Israel, Not Hating Trump

“…Readers are informed that over the course of his career, Rivera kept his political beliefs private (this is painted as sinister secrecy), but now that he’s retired, his “far-right” leanings are coming to light.  And what do those views entail?  He’s a Christian who loves Israel:

Over the past three years, [Rivera has] served at the pleasure of a racist president, taken part in thinly veiled propaganda on behalf of a far-right government in Israel, and gotten chummy with outright bigots and apocalyptic loons. None of this will be inscribed on his Hall of Fame plaque. It should, even if much of the sports world would very much like to pretend none of it exists.

“It should” mar his legacy, this writer asserts.  It, in fact, should not.  If you’re wondering about the relevant details, Rivera “served at the pleasure” of President Trump by…participating in a nonpartisan listening session on combatting the opioid crisis.  The monster. He’s also spoken out about his ardent support of Israel, the only Jewish state on earth, a conviction informed by his Christian faith. The ‘far-right’ government mentioned is the Netanyahu government, which has ruled for years by…winning election after election. Israel is the only fully functioning liberal democracy in the region. Unlike its neighbors, it respects religious pluralism, protects women’s rights, and hosts gay pride parades. Yet it is framed the problem by its fanatical opponents, many (if not all!!!) of whom are anti-Semitic bigots…”

You know…actual, real racists!

Second, far from being satisfied with assaulting present-day opponents of its perverted policies, Progressives remain committed to rewriting history in the guise of their corrupt, contemporary political correctness.

Thus does the system which slaughtered the 2nd-most innocents ever earn accolades…

…at the expense of the country which freed more people in the history of the planet!!!

All of which sparked well-deserved scorn from Conservative cartoonists:

But hey, look at all the people who benefited from the Soviets putting the first woman, Asian and Negro into orbit.  Uh,…that would be NO ONE!!!

Here’s the juice: no, we can’t all just along.  Not when, as this link forwarded by George Lawlor details, one side consistently promotes propaganda as reporting.  Not when one side continually concocts claims of hate crimes and racism.  Not when one side plays by a set of rules totally different from those which they seek to impose on the other.  Not when one side steadily seeks to impose its views, morals and beliefs on the rest of the country.  Not when one side continually denigrates said country while promoting the very policies which created many if not most of its problems.

In other words, not simply “no”, but “HELL NO“…and for very good reason!!!

Next up, speaking of the “other side”, the editors at NRO suggest…

Why Iran Wants to Get Bombed

“Rarely has a foreign country seemed so eager to get bombed by the United States as Iran does right now.

In its latest provocation, Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. It wasn’t a subtle operation. Revolutionary Guard forces rappelled onto the tanker from a helicopter, and if you have any doubt, it was all captured on videotape.

The act raised the stakes in the regime’s confrontation with the West. After the last round, when the Iranians shot down a U.S. drone, President Trump ordered a retaliatory strike that he abruptly cancelled, citing his fears of disproportionate casualties. Our natural instinct would be to hit Iran hard for its depredations and to establish a deterrent against such attacks before they get worse. But in this case, Iran clearly wants to provoke a reaction, which suggests the administration’s more cautious, “rope-a-dope” approach may be the right one.

Skeptics doubted that the administration’s unilateral sanctions could truly bite after the nuclear deal opened Iran for business with Europe. They were wrong. The oil embargo and banking sanctions, imposed after Trump pulled out of the deal, have been cratering the Iranian economy. The regime’s aggressions are an attempt to find a way out of the economic punishment.

…It is quite possible that Iran considers its provocations a prelude to another nuclear negotiation. For his part, Trump continues to dangle the prospects of talks, even blessing diplomatic outreach by Senator Rand Paul. But the regime has a strong incentive to try to wait Trump out and hope the election of a pro-deal Democrat delivers what it wants without any more trouble. Perhaps the Iranians believe that Trump getting embroiled in a conflict advances that goal. Regardless, they obviously want to escape from the box that they are in, and Trump shouldn’t let them.“

All well and good…until British U.S. military forces catch the Iranians committing an act of war, and down their helicopters and destroy their surface assets…let alone until the truly Mad Mullahs finally acquire the workable nuclear weapon Progressives seem so eager for them to have.

Then all bets are off.  But if and when we’re forced into giving them what they want, we say…

…let’s do it right!

Which brings us to The Lighter Side:

Then there’s these memes sent in by Ed Hicky…

…this string from Balls Cotton…

…and this Coming Attraction forwarded by Jeff Foutch:

Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with three more sordid stories straight from the pages of The Crime Blotter, as we present the poster children for the death penalty:

Convicted murderer, 77, released from prison after being deemed too old to be a threat, fatally stabbed woman in front of her children

Teen rapper convicted of murder in Texas home invasion

Family of Chicago infant cut from mother’s womb billed $300G for his – and suspected killer’s – care by hospital

And we’d be happy to throw the switch on all four.

What is it Progressives constantly promote about a total ban on guns?  Oh, yeah: if it would save just one life…!!!

Magoo