It’s Wednesday, February 10th, 2021…but before beginning, in honor of the great Thomas Sowell, we offer three random thoughts on the passing scene.

First, the recent headline regarding the apprehension of 11 Iranian nationals illegally entering the country at the Yuma border crossing featured in the February 8th edition of The Gouge brought to mind one of the cardinal sins The Donald committed as President, both prior to and after the election: Namely, his use of unverifiable claims versus vague, unchallengeable generalities.  To wit: 

Counterterrorism official contradicts Trump: No sign ISIS or ‘Sunni terrorist groups’ are in caravan

“For days, as migrants have traveled thousands of miles toward the US-Mexico border, President Donald Trump has warned of the dangerous people who make up their pack.

He’s tweeted that “[c]riminals and unknown Middle Easterners” are “mixed” in with the caravan, and, on Monday afternoon, doubled down on his claims, telling reporters on the South Lawn of the White House to “go into the middle” of the caravan and “search. You’re gonna find MS-13. You’re gonna find Middle Eastern.”

While the President insinuates terrorists have infiltrated the group that CNN crews have observed to include mostly mothers and their children, a senior counterterrorism official has also refuted the President’s claim. “While we acknowledge there are vulnerabilities at both our northern and southern border, we do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups (Not that the anonymous senior counterterrorism official would obfuscate the issue…wink, wink…but Iran, the greatest promoter of terror around the globe, isn’t Sunni, it’s Shi’ite!) are trying to infiltrate the southern US border,” a senior counterterrorism official told CNN…”

Sure, CNN, MSDNC and every minor cable network would spin anything Trump tweeted, but we’d still have used words to the effect no reasonable person wouldn’t be concerned such an unvetted, uncontrolled mass of humanity…

…might be used as a cover by those who mean us harm.

Same with The Steal: rather than claiming the voting was rigged and the election stolen (after all, that’s what the multiple lawsuits were filed to prove), we’d have emphasized our efforts were only to protect the integrity of the process, and to ensure every valid vote was counted, while any illegal ballots were disallowed.

Words The Donald would be wise to heed if he plans on running again (Heaven forbid!!!) in 2024.

Second, Kim Strassel had another excellent commentary at the Journal last Friday, suggesting the GOP’s first 2021 victory was preventing the ousting of Liz Cheney, which would have reinforced the Democrats’ nasty caricature of the Republican party.  We thought this cartoon from Rich Terrell accurately depicts how the good citizens of Wyoming can sort Cheney out sans the assistance of House Republicans:

Third, after watching this video, you’ll know how the Washington establishment felt…

…when Trump came to town.  And why they determined he had to leave, no matter what the cost…even if it undermined the very pillars of the Founders’ Republic…which it has.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

We kick off the mid-week edition courtesy of NRO, as Brittany Bernstein reports a…

WHO Team Finds It ‘Extremely Unlikely’ COVID-19 Virus Started in Lab

Yeah,…

No, extremely unlikely is the most unexciting candidate since James Buchanan underperforming in every previously-proven campaign metric, yet still receiving more votes than any other candidate in history.

On the other hand, what’s highly likely is the ChiComs developed the Wuhan virus in their Wuhan lab, where, through a chain of foreseeable failures, it was subsequently loosed upon the world by the flood of Chinese traveling back to their overseas abodes after celebrating the lunar new year in the mother country.  The only real question is whether the release was accidental or intentional.  Either way, there’s NO way the Chinese lapdogs running the WHO would ever place blame where it deservedly lies:

Next, in no particular order, we offer four items inquiring minds might find of interest:

(1). In light of the fact SCOTUS has agreed to consider lawsuits challenging the 2020 election at its February conference, it’s worth noting, as Matt Vadum writes at Epoch Times, Trump has won two-thirds of his election lawsuits where the merits were considered by the courts.

(2). Writing at Best of the Web, Jim Freeman explores whether the Time admission there was ‘practically a revolution’ in America’s voting process in 2020 was good for the country—or just for Biden.

(3). The Washington Free Beacon‘s Kevin Daley exposes Progressives’ two-tiered justice system as he recounts how a Biden DOJ pick opposed enforcing Civil Rights law against Blacks.

(4). Courtesy of the Washington Examiner, Naomi Lim records how a former Obama ethics chief torches Biden over plugging Hunter’s memoir.

As regards that last one, here’s the juice: Like disgraced Baltimore mayor (do Baltimore mayors come any other way?!?) Katherine Pugh’s $500,000 book deal with the University of Maryland Medical System, this is just another way supplicants can funnel money to the Big Guy and his family crime syndicate.  Not to mention, who, other than a federal prosecutor, would be remotely interested in Hunter recounting 51 years of failure, decadence and debauchery?!?

And in the EnvironMental Moment, courtesy today of Jeff Foutch, as The Global Warming Policy Forum informs us…

And so it begins: UK Government mulls emergency measures that would enable networks to switch off your electricity without warning or compensation

As Mr. Foutch noted, this only serves to emphasize the fact none of this is about the government controlling climate change, but rather all about the government controlling us!

In a related item courtesy of Speed, CBS is reporting a…

Paris court finds France guilty of failing to meet its own Paris climate accord commitments

“Four environmental groups are crying victory after France was found guilty of failing to meet climate change goals it committed to in a historic accord signed in and named after its own capital city. The Administrative Tribunal in Paris ruled Wednesday that France had fallen short of its promise to reduce greenhouse gases under commitments made in the 2015 Paris Agreement, and was “responsible for ecological damage.”

While the court declared the government guilty of inaction, it rejected a claim for damages by the four NGOs that brought the suit, ordering the government to pay just one symbolic euro to them instead. The tribunal also said it would decide within two months whether to recommend any measures for the government to resolve its failure to meet its own commitments…”

Rumors the court’s possible punishments include giving each French citizen the choice of (a) going without wine for seven straight days; (b) putting in a 40-hour work week; or, (c) being helpful and kind to foreign tourists for an entire summer remain unconfirmed.  Editor’s Note: The requirement to resist a foreign invasion for more than 24 hours was never considered a viable option.

Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:

Then there’s these selections from Ed Hickey…

…five more from the lovely Shannon…

…along with one each from George Lawlor…

…Brenda Berry…

…Balls Cotton…

…Howard…

…and last, but never least, a bit of self-deprecating Army humor from Major Jon:

Finally, we’ll call it a day with the Sports Section, as the Babylon Bee reports…

Fox News Analysts Declare Tampa Bay Super Bowl Winners Four Minutes Into First Quarter

Chris Wallace: as trustworthy as Bill Clinton or 46* overnighting in a women’s college dormitory…though the Groper likes ’em…

…a mite younger.

Blessedly for The Donald, he wasn’t available to make another misstep on a par with his 2020 congratulatory tweet to the Chiefs…

…though it’s highly unlikely he wouldn’t have properly placed Tampa Bay outside of Florida.  Then again…?!?

Magoo

Video of the Day

Pastor John MacArthur offers some words of warning 46* and every other Progressive politician…as well as some Republicans…would do well to heed.

Tales of The Darkside

Courtesy of the lovely Shannon, if Dimocratic campaign ads were subject to truth in advertising.

On the Brighter Side

Courtesy of Tom Bakke, a video showing the prelim to a TRULY Super Bowl. Strange how America wasn’t considered systemically racist until AFTER it had TWICE elected a half-Black Islamofascist as President.