Trumpism corrupts, Kurt Schlichter edition. I hope Jonathan V. Last will forgive me, but I’d like to add another case to the “Trumpism Corrupts” dossier. It’s Townhall.com’s Kurt Schlichter. A former Army colonel and a trial lawyer who was a little-known writer in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Schlichter is now a bomb thrower and traffic factory for Townhall.com.
Before he died, Andrew Breitbart brought Schlichter into the fold at Big Hollywood, one in a series of sites that would later become Breitbart (now under new management). Over time, Schlichter’s writing got more grating and cringeworthy as he achieved more notoriety, which is sadly often the case in conservative punditry. Schlichter’s schtick is being a jerk and “liberal tears” as Frances Martel observes in a review of his book I Am a Conservative: “Of course, anyone who considers the book’s inherent snot-nosed apathy for readers’ feelings a detriment fails to see the point Schlichter makes in the first line of the book: he doesn’t care that you think he’s obnoxious, he would really rather you keep quiet and fetch him his latte, please.”
Schlichter, in a 2010 New Yorker story, discussed the issue of Breitbart commenters (typically pretty vile) with The Last Ship (TNT) actor Adam Baldwin: “When the subject of commenters came up, they chuckled. “It’s a release for a lot of nuts hiding out in the basement,” Baldwin said, genially. “So long as they are not on the roof with a rifle,” Schlichter added.” Now, Schlichter is writing military coup fan fiction at Townhall.com, theorizing how the deep state might remove Donald Trump from office. Nuts in basements with rifles love this kind of stuff.
Incidentally, Schlichter is somewhat of a convert to the defense of Trump. In his burgeoning television career in 2015 he compared Donald Trump to “that hot chick you’re dating … [who’s] also completely crazy.” He said Trump is “sexy, he likes to party … he gives it to the RINOs good and hard.” Which is why this comment by him on Twitter on Wednesday was interesting: “Anybody got a reason I should care about the Trump debt celing move besides Paul Ryan is sad? #caring [unicorn emoji].”
Marcus Hawkins put together a fun little compilation of Schlichter’s earlier thoughts on the subject of the debt ceiling. Here’s my favorite, from 2011: “I am a Conservative: Hey #GOP losers, you fold on the debt ceiling and we will end your careers. And we know you at least care about those.”
Perhaps he’s blinded by his hatred of the GOP establishment, or, more likely, Trumpism corrupts.
Speaking of establishment haters, Steve Bannon is going to be on 60 Minutes! Are you excited? And some of the teaser material is, in typical Bannon style, scintillating: “To come to grips with the problems in the [Catholic] church, they need illegal aliens. They need illegal aliens to fill the churches. It’s obvious on the face of it. … They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration.” Bannon, of course, is a cynic, but this logic makes little sense. As Andrew Johnson observes: “Wouldn’t church attendance just decrease in home countries then?” But let’s say you buy into Bannon’s logic that the church just wants to increase its coffers by importing illegal immigrants to churches in a vastly wealthier economy. If unlimited immigration is an economic benefit for a church, why wouldn’t it be beneficial for, say, a country? Hmm.
PETA is shameless. It’s an old post, but it deserves criticism. This graphic is disgusting:
“More research is needed, but …” PETA uses a study of 20 children (20!) to show that “many autistic kids improve dramatically when put on a diet free of ‘dairy’ products. In fact, a “major reduction in autistic behavior!” Really! It gets worse: “testimonials show that many people with this condition may be able to find relief with a simple dietary change—removing milk from their diet. The Internet contains numerous heart-wrenching stories from parents of kids who had suffered the worst effects of autism for years before dairy “products” were eliminated from their children’s diets.” Yes, the Internet contains numerous heart-wrenching stories, that doesn’t make them true or scientifically sound. PETA should stop preying on the emotions of parents of children with a disorder with no cure just to hawk their Vegetarian Starter Kit. If one wanted to waste PETA’s money, they could sign up for a kit. Or, as the economist Tyler Cowen suggests, send them a $20 donation. Sound crazy? PETA will waste far more than $20 trying to get you to donate again. But you didn’t hear that from me.
Roger Goodell throws pick-six after winning TWS Press Release Lottery. Maybe it’s a curse! Yesterday we graciously gave free publicity to the money grubbers at the NFL, specifically Dear Leader Roger Goodell. That’s like a half-the-distance-to-the-goal penalty! What does he do on the next play? When asked about Colin Kaepernick on Fox Sports One, Goodell threw this wounded duck into good coverage:
The Debbie Wasserman Schultz IT story is getting weird. Former Washington Examiner colleague Luke Rosiak has this exclusive report at the Daily Caller: “Police Report Indicates Wasserman Schultz IT Aide Planted Computer For Investigators To Find.” This is a very complicated case, dear reader. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you’s. I couldn’t do it justice in such little space, so I encourage you go to to Luke’s bio page and read the older stuff first. Here’s a little sampler of the latest weirdness: “The circumstances of the laptop’s appearance described in the police report suggest Wasserman Schultz was trying to keep the police from reviewing a laptop that Awan himself may have wanted them to find. The former phone booth room where police found the items is small, and there was no obvious reason to enter it.”
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