Posts Tagged ‘Kanye West’

LinkSwarm For March 17, 2023

Friday, March 17th, 2023

Another packed week with no time for a big LinkSwarm!

  • “Biden Family Members Paid by Chinese Firm with Ties to CCP.”

    A Chinese company based out of Hong Kong which paid at least $3 million to several members of the Biden family has since been revealed to have ties with the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

    According to the Daily Caller, State Energy HK Limited sent $3 million via wire transfer to Robinson Walker LLC, a company run by an associate of the Biden family named John Robinson Walker. The wire transfer took place in March of 2017, shortly after Joe Biden’s term as Vice President came to an end, according to a report released on Thursday by the House Oversight Committee.

    One of the direct subsidiaries of State Energy HK is State Energy Group International Assets Holdings Limited (SEIAH). At the time of the wire transfer, SEIAH’s chairman was Ren Qingxin, who previously worked for the CCP as a representative at a business organization.

    Shortly after the $3 million transfer, Ren was succeeded in his leadership position by Lei Donghui, who had been a member of the CCP since 2002, where he served as Secretary General of the International Engineering Business Bureau of China State Construction (CSC). CSC has since been designated by the Department of Defense as a “Communist China military company.”

    Subsequently, the $3 million sent to Robinson Walker was then transferred to four different members of the Biden family: Joe Biden’s son Hunter, brother James, daughter-in-law Hallie, and a fourth unidentified family member, the Oversight Committee reports. The transfers were sent in several transactions, both to the family members directly and to several of their companies, including Owasco PC, JBBSR Inc, and RSTP II, LLC.

    The previously-unknown involvement of Hallie – the widow of Biden’s elder son Beau, who later became Hunter’s girlfriend after Beau’s death – has proven to be one of the biggest bombshells yet in the GOP’s investigations into Biden family corruption.

  • Arrest Warrant Issued For President Putin By Hague-Based ICC.” Maybe ICC can hire Dog the Bounty Hunter…
  • Truth:

    (Hat tip: Not The Bee.)

  • DeSantis administration revokes Hyatt Regency Miami alcohol license after it hosted “A Drag Queen Christmas” in front of children.
  • Dutch Farmer’s Party poised to win 16 or 17 seats in parliament thanks to opposing that country’s mad global warming anti-meat mandates. “The Boer-Burger Beweging (BBB), or Farmer-Citizen Movement, is set to become the largest party in the country’s senate, winning more seats than Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s ruling conservative VVD party.”
  • Baltimore Democrats want to decriminalize murder for anyone under age 25. Evidently they’re jealous that New Orleans took their crown as murder capital…

  • Red Guards come to Maine. “Kristen Day said students affiliated with one of RSU 14’s Civil Rights Teams harassed her daughter. When her daughter refused to speak about her sexuality, two students affiliated with the club began to bully her and call her homophobic.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Oklahoma State Rep. Regina Goodwin: “‘DEI’ as in ‘deity.’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is god!”
  • Roy McGrath, the ex-Chief of Staff for former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, is evidently still on the run after an indictment on wire fraud charges. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Eric Weinstein on Joe Rogan about what really happened with Kayne West. He suggests that West’s Hitler comments were simply him trying to channel Thomas à Kempis.
  • Tiger Woods’ girlfriend is told to pack for a short vacation…at which point he locks her out of his mansion and said she’s not allowed to return. Cold. Also effective.

    Cue up the Bill Burr rant about “gold digging whores.”

  • The first rule of cemetery machete fight club is you don’t talk about cemetery machete fight club. The second rule is you don’t drive over the headstones.
  • Man lives in a tiny house in a dumpster in London. Sadly, his name’s not Oscar.
  • Cockatootle doo.
  • The Nightmare Before St. Patrick’s Day.
  • Kayne West Is Running For President. Instant Analysis: Democrats, You Did This To Yourselves

    Sunday, July 5th, 2020

    Billionaire rapper and occasional MAGA-hat wearer Kayne West has announced he’s running for President of the United States of America.

    Not in 2024, as he had previously threatened, but this year, against incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

    Let’s have some reaction gifs:

    Those are aimed not at West, but at the Democratic Party. Let’s discuss which is the dirtier trick:

    1. A billionaire rapper announcing he’s running for President and siphoning votes away from the Democratic nominee, or:
    2. Democrats trapping black Americans in 50+ years of inter-generational poverty, welfare dependency, failing schools, and high crime urban areas while milking them for votes every 2-4 years and then promoting widespread urban riots in order to rile them up enough to keep pulling the (D) lever?

    I’m going with “B.”

    You can practically hear Democrats screaming with outrage now. How dare he do this to us??? WE OWN THEIR VOTES AS OUR BIRTHRIGHT!!!!!

    Well, Democrats, it was your side that insisted on initiating widespread looting and violence in a desperate attempt to get blacks to vote for Biden. It’s your side that funds antifa and teaches the social justice warriors. It’s your side that teaches that America is irredeemable racist.

    Well, now you’ve got a black billionaire with a famous wife jumping into the ring. And another billionaire, Elon Musk, has announced he supports him.

    Could West win? I’m inclined to say “almost certainly not,” but it’s 2020, a year that’s already smashed so many rules of normalcy and convention wisdom, so who knows? Trump and Biden are both in their 70s and could both stroke out during a debate. Neither I nor anyone I know watched Keeping Up With The Kardashians, but enough people did to make Kanye’s wife Kim Kardashian a tabloid star. Plus there’s the question of who he picks as a running mate. The Rock?

    So far I’m unable to even locate a website for the Kanye West 2020 campaign, and he has yet to file with the federal Election Commission. Working on the assumption that he does run a serious race, but can’t win, how does West’s presence effect the Trump-Biden battle? He’s jumped into the race very late, and there are probably states legally out of play:

    Of those, North Carolina is the only where where the black population is large enough for West’s ballot presence to have an appreciable effect. But he could certainly have an effect on Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nevada, all save Minnesota (riot ground zero) swing states Trump won in 2016 Democrats were looking to take back. If the race turns out to be as close as it was in 2016, and West siphons enough votes away to ensure Trump keeps all the states he won, and maybe flip Minnesota to boot, then it’s Game Over for Democrats.

    It couldn’t happen to a nicer party…

    LinkSwarm for October 20, 2018

    Friday, October 19th, 2018

    Welcome to Friday’s LinkSwarm! I hope all my readers are dry and warm and well-away from any flooded riverbanks.

    Lots of Bobby Francis O’Rourke news this week. Pretty soon we won’t have him to kick around any longer…

  • A critic rethinks Trump:

    Like most Democrats, I reacted to the stunning 2016 election of Donald Trump with a combination of confusion and dread. After all, Hillary Clinton was the favorite and, to Democrats like me, a Trump victory seemed to portend certain economic disaster, nuclear war, and pretty much the end of America as we knew it.

    But now nearly two years into his administration, Trump has presided over a “winning streak” that includes a booming economy and stock market, an unemployment level at a nearly 50-year low, two Supreme Court appointments, no new foreign wars or domestic terrorist attacks emanating from abroad, a significant degree of progress on trade relations with Canada and Mexico, a “needed reset” on the China relationship, and the prospect of peace on the Korean Peninsula.

    Perhaps it is time that even his opponents reconsider Trump. Does Trump have a strategy that we can describe? Is Trump a return of Richard Nixon, of Ronald Reagan, or of something else entirely? After several months of watching the news without gaining any answers, I finally canceled my cable subscription and sought out other sources. I found some insights in unexpected places.

    Trump’s presidency marks a return to realpolitik and great power politics.

    Snip.

    A third insight was from the unlikeliest place: the critically acclaimed animated show, “Rick and Morty.” During Trump’s campaign, his supporters frequently talked about how funny the candidate was. This humor was lost on most of my left-leaning peers. But “Rick and Morty” showed me what I have may been missing. Here is a popular TV show about a mad scientist Rick, an amoral, sociopathic man who considers himself the smartest man in the universe and tells dirty jokes in front of his grandson Morty. The slapstick, low-brow, and nihilistic insults and dirty humor of “Rick and Morty” — much like Trump — resemble some of the comedic greats from the decades prior to the 1990s: “The Honeymooners,” “Benny Hill,” “Abbott and Costello,” “The Three Stooges,” and “I Love Lucy.” These comedic devices can be traced back hundreds of years to Asian and European theater, which used slapstick, puns, insults, and innuendo.

    Compare that oeuvre to the 1990s-2000s, during which comedy was more satirical, knowing, self-referential, meta, and smug. This idea is far from perfect, but examples of satire that use slapstick as well include “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” “South Park,” “Team America: World Police”, and Sacha Baron Cohen’s parodies. American society today seems to be witnessing a return of what columnist Noah Smith calls “goofy” humor and a decline of “knowingly sarcastic” humor. Even The New Yorker complained that the 2018 Emmys were too smug and later described Trump’s rallies unfavorably as a “vaudeville routine.” Perhaps our shift toward a reversion in history also means we are seeing a cultural reversion as well. Smugness has become politically tone deaf.

    Snip.

    The Trump Doctrine takes previous policy assumptions and turns them on their head. Trump’s “America First” approach is a reversion to the idea of realpolitik and great power competition. It is better suited to a moment in which American power is much less dominant. The president takes each state-to-state relationship on its own terms. That’s why he’s often antagonistic with allies and friendly with threatening dictators. The consequences of insulting friendly countries, such as Canada, might be hurt feelings in exchange for better trade terms, while souring relations with an antagonistic one, such as North Korea, could result in serious security threats. He pursues the optimal outcome in a utilitarian sense rather than follow previous rules about diplomatic etiquette. Trump keeps his enemies even closer than his friends, while previous presidents did the opposite. Niccolo Machiavelli might have been familiar with these tactics.

    Trump’s diplomatic method can be reduced to the four “B’s”: bullying, bargaining, burden-sharing, and bragging. He starts an interaction by bullying the subject — usually on Twitter, seeks a chance to sit down with the target to bargain as hard as possible toward what Trump may see as a more reciprocal relationship of burden-sharing, and then finally brags about whatever the results are. Trump treats all relationships as transactional, deploying tit-for-tat tactics toward achieving his goal of “reciprocity.” His message is that he wants to make America great again but does not spend much time lecturing or moralizing to foreigners. Finally, his use of insults, jokes, and slapstick, physical humor creates an image of honesty and authenticity with his supporters. Overall, these techniques and worldviews are becoming increasingly common around the world, including with the leaders of countries as diverse as Turkey, the Philippines, Russia, Israel, Mexico — and potentially Brazil.

    Trump described his realpolitik-with-no-sacred-cows approach during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September: “America’s policy of principled realism means we will not be held hostage to old dogmas, discredited ideologies, and so-called experts who have been proven wrong over the years, time and time again. This is true not only in matters of peace, but in matters of prosperity.”

    Overall, Trump’s approach represents a reversion to a style of statecraft that flips previous approaches. Technocracy, meritocracy, and bureaucratic approaches are giving way to establishing top-level personal rapport, trust, and loyalty. Free trade ideology is giving way to trade as a means to enrichment. Building institutions gives way to questioning the utility of each institution. Moral diplomacy gives way to talking to anyone who will bargain. Careful speeches give way to saying anything that gets results. Saving sacred cows gives way to killing them or threatening to do so. Open markets give way to using U.S. markets, military, and migration as bargaining chips. Every relationship is subject to maximum leverage of what is possible.

  • Why are Democrats so afraid of Kanye West?

    West is nothing if not independent. He doesn’t need the approval of the Democratic establishment or the usual suspects among the liberal Hollywood elite. He is untethered from the traditional liberal gatekeepers in the same way Trump was untethered from the Republican establishment as a presidential candidate. There is a reason that the Democrats and their allies in the media insult, marginalize, ridicule and try to “Uncle Tom” West. It is obvious they are afraid of him and the discussion he might start.

    (Hat tip: Ann Althouse.)

  • Remember the Democrats IT scandal? It was still never adequately explained.
  • “Beto O’Rourke Raised Record Breaking $38 Million in 3Q.” And he’s still losing. Just imagine if Democrats had used that money to protect endangered incumbent senators instead…
  • Nice takedown of Beto O’Rourke’s media-boosted campaign:

    O’Rourke’s “extraordinary political success” is illusionary. His national popularity is contingent on aesthetics and mass of coverage. It is merely that Beto looks and acts like the type of guy producers at most cable news networks and talk shows think—or more precisely, wish—a senator would look and act like. Unlike, say, Cruz (nearly two years older than Beto), who is always blathering about the Constitution or whatnot.

    It’s not as if O’Rourke is a special talent by any measure. His speeches and talking points are just as vacuous and predictable as those of any other middling politician. His positions on guns and abortion—and a multitude of other issues—are in lockstep with his party, not the state. O’Rourke has never offered any substantively impressive policy ideas. He’s not led on any notable issues in the House. He’s remarkably unremarkable.

    (Hat tip: Nick Short on Twitter.)

  • “Despite everyman image, O’Rourke is even wealthier than Cruz“:

    The son of a onetime Republican county judge and a longtime furniture store owner, the Democratic congressman from El Paso married into the family of one of his hometown’s most prominent developers and has assembled real estate investments worth millions.

    Congress is rife with rich people, but O’Rourke had a 2015 net worth of about $9 million, ranking 51st out of 435 House members, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. That’s more than double the $3.8 million worth of his Republican opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz, who ranked 41st of 100 senators.

  • Think Progress alum thinly disguised as a journalist does 50 Shades of Beto. Ick.
  • The hits keep coming:

  • Claire McCaskill gets money laundered through Planned Parenthood, in violation of several federal laws.

  • “County Dem Leader Forced To Resign For Posts Defending Cop And US Flag.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • “US Justice Department designates Hezbollah ‘transnational crime organisation.'” (Hat tip: Nick Short on Twitter.)
  • Brexit talks extended. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • The Jamal Khashoggi killing and media hypocrisy:

    The Russian government kills journalists, among others. I do not recall the Washington Post protesting on this basis the Obama administration’s “reset” of relations with Putin’s government or Obama’s promise to be more “flexible” with Russia after his reelection. Nor, as far as I remember, did the Post cite Russia’s murderous ways as a reason not to farm out to Putin enforcement of the “red line” against the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

    Cuba’s treatment of journalists and others has been atrocious. Yet, the mainstream media supported the Obama administration when it radically reset U.S. relations with Cuba without insisting on any change in the regime’s treatment of dissidents.

    What are the differences between Russia/Cuba and Saudi Arabia? I see two. First, Russia and Cuba are adversaries of America. Saudi Arabia is an ally.

    For the sane, this difference would, if anything, cut in favor of the Saudis. For the left, it cuts against them.

    Second, the Trump administration has very visibly allied itself with Saudi Arabia as a means of countering Iran and achieving other American objectives in the Middle East. Thus, the Khashoggi slaying provides the mainstream media with the opportunity to do what it does best — hammer President Trump.

    In my view, the Khashoggi slaying should not cause America substantially to alter its foreign policy. Our relatively close relationship with Saudi Arabia is predicated, as it should be, on mutual interests and mutual adversaries. Either the geo-political predicate justifies the relationship or it doesn’t.​

  • Support for gun control drops even further. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • President Trump ends small packet shipping from China resulting from a 144 year old treaty.
  • How liberals argue:

  • For some reason, liberal media mouthpieces decide to freak out about a 4Chan NPC meme from 2016.
  • What it was like to work on Google+.
  • Dead pimp expected to win election.
  • Even Elizabeth Warren’s “Indian” recipes are plagiarized.
  • Heh:

  • Heh II: Austin Commie Edition:

  • Florida man does it again. Not only is he a registered sex offender who hired a federal informant for a mad-bombing spree aimed at target stores, he did it all for…making money off shorting the stock?
  • Via Dwight comes this interesting look behind the making of the classic World War II bomber film Twelve O’Clock High.
  • Heh III: Heh Harder With a Vengence.

  • Scott Adams on Kanye West on Rich People and Skill Stacks

    Saturday, September 1st, 2018

    Scott Adams has an interesting periscope up on Kanye West talking about how black people need to “think more like rich people.”

    Some of the points Adams covers about how Kanye West exhibits “rich people thinking” (especially compared to #BlackLivesMatter):

  • Think in systems rather than goals
  • Talk to everyone (networking)
  • Develop your skill stack
  • Take logical risks
  • Learn from mistakes
  • Make alliances
  • Be generous (do favors without asking for immediate returns)
  • Lead with love
  • Concentrate on the now, not the past
  • He ends with a discussion of the basic skills people in the inner city need to learn to be successful: How to keep your own books, how to find mentors, how to get your first job, how to dress for your first job. Even a boot camp on how to talk to the police.

    More interesting than I expected it to be…

    LinkSwarm for May 4, 2018

    Friday, May 4th, 2018

    (Insert labored Star Wars reference here.)

  • “There’s a big ‘God gap’ between Republicans and Democrats — 70 percent of Republicans believe in the God of the Bible compared with 45 percent of Democrats — but there’s an even larger God gap within the Democratic party. Only 32 percent of white Democrats believe in the God of the Bible, compared with 61 percent of nonwhite Democrats — an almost 30-point gap.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • Black male approval for President Donald Trump doubles in one week. No wonder they’re terrified of Kanye West thinking for himself.
  • Republicans could pick up nine senate seats in November:

    Republicans have serious leads in West Virginia, where incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin trails by 14 points; North Dakota, where incumbent Democrat Heidi Heitkamp trails by 8; Indiana, where incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly trails by 5; Missouri, where incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill trails by 5; Montana, where incumbent Democrat Jon Tester trails by 5; Florida, where incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson is locked in a near-deadlock with Rick Scott; and Pennsylvania and Ohio, where incumbent Democrats Bill Casey and Sherrod Brown are leading by less than two points each, plus Virginia, where Tim Kaine leads by just 3 on the generic ballot.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • Believe it or not, this is not a parody tweet:

  • In the UK, seeking to keep your child alive can make you a criminal.
  • Bill Clinton Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski have been expelled from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “Forty years of tolerating a Hollywood director anally raping a 14-year old is enough!”
  • Tesla earnings show record revenues with record losses.” Remember my previous Tesla roundup: “The more cars it makes the more cash it burns.” At least they’re consistent…
  • Israel steals a ton of documentation that proved that Iran lied about the nuke deal. Duh. Everyone in the world except Obama’s moronic clutch of idiot weasel sycophants knew Iran was lying.
  • China’s low-fertility trend is no longer reversible.”
  • The multiple cascading policy cock-ups that cost students lives in the Parkland shooting. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
  • Via Ace, a nicely-done ad for Georgia Congressional candidate Brian Kemp:

  • “Mystery pooper at N.J. high school’s track turned out to be superintendent.” Maybe the school board should fire him over doing a shitty job…
  • Aubrey Plaza officially more famous than Joe Biden. Good.

    I’m just giving readers what they want…

  • Heh.
  • Nothing but Star Wars

  • Scott Adams on Kanye West and the Coming Golden Age

    Wednesday, April 25th, 2018

    This Scott Adams periscope is worth watching for his description of how President Donald Trump is breaking down our previous understanding of reality in North Korea, and a little bit on Kanye West.

    I think Adams is placing more weight on Kanye’s statements than is perhaps warranted. But if President Trump can indeed convince a significant fraction of black Americans to step away from the victimhood mentality that has plagued their community for half a century, the repercussions could be tremendous. Even doubling Republican votes among black voters might be enough to keep Democrats out of the White House for the foreseeable future (assuming illegal alien amnesty and tranny bathrooms aren’t already enough to do that).

    Update: Evidently this is no longer available on this Twitter embed, but you can still watch it here.

    LinkSwarm for November 18, 2016

    Friday, November 18th, 2016

    Here we are, a week after one of the biggest political upsets in American history, and the reverberations are still being felt. Democrats seem to be stuck in the anger and denial phases of the Kubler-Ross grieving cycle, and probably won’t get to bargaining until the 2017 legislative session opens with Republicans in charge of the White House, Senate, and House.

  • While liberals were losing their minds over Trump, India was losing its mind by banning all bills over $1.50. The idea is evidently to force Indians to accept a cashless society (in the name of “fighting corruption”), but it’s actually grinding India’s economy to a halt.
  • More on the Democratic Party wipeout: “Republicans are now in control of a record 67 (68 percent) of the 98 partisan state legislative chambers in the nation, more than twice the number (31) in which Democrats have a majority.”
  • Conservatives have a once in a lifetime opportunity at the state level. Including supermajorities in a number of states, a Democratic Party which has gerrymandered itself into oblivion, and almost enough states to call a constitutional convention.
  • Mark Steyn. “If you keep insisting that half your fellow citizens are haters, maybe you’re the hater.” Also this: “One third of the Democrats’ representation in the House now comes from just three states – New York, Massachusetts and California. That’s one reason why they’re calling for the abolition of the Electoral College.”
  • Pundits who predicted Donald Trump’s rise. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Iraqi forces continue push into Mosul, driving out Islamic State forces.
  • Trump to hold post-election tour rallies in swing states. 1. He’s closed the sale, and now he’s servicing the account. 2. You know Obama has to be kicking himself for not thinking of that.
  • An even more thorough debunking of that “Trump is super extra mega ultra racist TurboHitler!” nonsense. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
  • Liberal lawyer Alan Dershowitz defends Breitbart head/key Trump aide Steve Bannon from charges of antisemitism.
  • Tired of liberal tears over Trump’s victory? Of course not:

    (Note: You can skip the last 30 seconds of conservative cruise line ads.)

  • Actually draining the swamp? “Trump Team Announces Five-Year Lobbying Ban for Appointees.”
  • Nancy Pelosi draws a leadership challenge from Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • More from the Democratic Party’s genius candidate selection process. “If you could choose any state in America where you might want to run a shemale candidate for the United States States, Utah probably wouldn’t be your first choice, nor anywhere in the top 40.”
  • Could Trump break up the EU? Let’s hope so… (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
  • Threaten to kill random white people after Trump’s election? Expect to spend some time in involuntary committal for a mental assessment. Even if you’re a university professor.
  • Larry Coreia offers up A Handy Guide For Liberals Who Are Suddenly Interested In Gun Ownership.
  • Illinois tax hikes have lead to capital flight from the state.
  • ESPN admits that they have a problem with leftwing bias.
  • Not news: Man selling stolen firearms. News: Sheriff selling stolen firearms.
  • Rapper Kanye West says he would have voted for Trump…and will run for President in 2020. West is an idiot savant black nationalist car wreck married to Kim Kardashian, but after this year, would you really say he has no chance of being elected? (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

    I will say this for West: He knows where to steal his riffs:

    How many piece of Gnostic symbolism can you spot in that video?

  • Speaking of Gnostic, turns out that Pepe the Frog is actually an ancient Egyptian god summoned by the chaos magic of 4Chan. (And the post-election followup.)
  • Austin police Chief Art Acevedo to become Houston’s police chief. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Mother of the year candidate.
  • OK, I laughed.
  • Enjoy your weekend! Sometime next week I hope to tackle the DNC leadership race.