The Golden Ticket

 So I got my vaccine yesterday, amusingly enough at the Vikings headquarters in Eagan:

Purple pride

It was the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine, which requires only a single dose, so I will not have to return to the Vikings fortress. After 24 hours, the side effects have been minimal; a little bit of a runny nose and general fatigue, but I've been able to work and approach normal productivity. And if everything goes as it should, I will be able to say I'm fully vaccinated within a month. 

Most importantly, I have my card, which may shape up to be the most important document in my possession if the gubmint has anything to say about it:

As coronavirus vaccinations slowly release the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new question is emerging: Should countries and the private sector embrace the idea of a digital vaccine passport for travel, working and dining? Though proving you're vaccinated to travel isn't a new concept (some countries have required yellow fever vaccines for years), doing so for COVID-19 would be on a far grander scale than ever before.

This is a terrible idea, for all the obvious reasons. If your ability to travel, to conduct your life in a normal fashion, to have a life at all, are contingent on jumping through a hoop of Joe Biden's choosing, we're well and truly screwed. But why should I worry? Dobie Gray explained it to us way back in '65:

I'm in with the in crowd (Do-do-do)

I go where the in crowd goes (Do-do-do)

I'm in with the in crowd (Do-do-do)

And I know what the in crowd knows (Da-da-da-da)

It's worth noting I got my vaccine because I got the call from the State of Minnesota, after providing the grandees a lot of information that has nothing to do with my actual need for the vaccine. At this point, it's still a lottery and there are others I know who likely are at greater risk than I was, but they wait. But I have the card, the golden ticket. Does it make sense?

Dems own the world

 I haven't been writing much about politics, because I could see what was going to happen. And it has. The Dems have won (stolen, most likely, but it's a meaningless distinction) Georgia. And so by the narrowest of margins, they control Washington. 

But they will control Washington. And they will control America. And they will control you. As a practical matter, they already have for some time now. Donald Trump fought like hell, but he couldn't overcome the forces arrayed against him. 

I am certain the Dems will do horrible things. But as we have learned from their laboratories in California, once they take control, they will not cede it. Your rights as a citizen are whatever your betters decide they are. Now put on your fucking face mask and get to work.

Coming attractions

Cook! Where's my hassenpfeffer?

It does boggle my mind – we almost certainly will be installing a senile corruptocrat as president in less than two months. It’s easy to believe the Democratic Party engaged in massive voter fraud to put Joe Biden over the top. It’s awfully difficult to prove, though, especially when those who sit in judgment are desirous of the result that’s coming and might be implicated themselves were fraud demonstrated and word of that fraud reached the populace.

Having said that, our overlords have grown tired of dissent. We communicate with technology online, on platforms that are easy to manipulate; the proprietors of these platforms have shown they are more than willing to silence dissenters. Today, I can post such observations. Tomorrow, perhaps not.

We are in a dangerous place. 

This Masquerade

Our benevolent governor finally pulled the trigger on his latest power grab:

Gov. Tim Walz has issued an executive order mandating mask use for indoor public spaces.

The mandate will take effect early Saturday morning, and requires Minnesotans to wear masks in public indoor gathering areas like stores and restaurants, as well as while using public transportation.

Exemptions are in place for people with medical or mental health conditions that make it "unreasonable for the individual to maintain a face covering."

Children under the age of five are also exempt from the order, though masks are still encouraged for children between the ages of two and five. The order states that "those who are under two years old should never wear a face covering due to the risk of suffocation."

A few thoughts:

• The whole thing is unreasonable. But you knew that.
• We hear incessantly that the "science" says wearing a mask works. But we don't know, really. We're still in the middle of this experience and most of what's proffered as evidence are really assertions. I suspect there are scientists galore who are actually studying these mandates and we'll eventually get the truth about mask efficacy. But we don't have it yet. 
• I don't believe mask mandates are about thought control or whatnot, but I do know the news media are still awfully good at thought control. People are scared to death of COVID and while certain populations have reason to be cautious, most people who actually encounter the virus will not be at serious risk. Wearing a mask will make no real difference either way.
• I struggle with wearing a mask myself, but I doubt my discomfort would constitute a condition that would exempt me from the order. In my mask-wearing experience thus far, my glasses are constantly fogged and I become quite conscious of my breathing, which causes me a significant amount of anxiety. I don't know how my discomfort benefits others, but my social media feed is full of people who believe it does. And you cannot convince them otherwise. And, for that matter, complaining reveals your selfishness.
• You will note, as with all Walz depredations, there is no end date or sunset provision. Walz will require you to modify your behavior for as long as he chooses, whether his requirements are necessary or proper, and he does not need to provide you with a rationale. While I don't imagine he will mandate all Minnesotans wear a ball gag by October, you can't necessarily rule that out.
• I have mentioned it before, but it's worth saying again. When we finally get past all this, the real damage will be to our ability to be neighbors. Fear is corrosive as hell and the notion that your fear justifies the use of force against your neighbors to assuage your fear is poison, flat out. And any mandate is force.

By the way, if the masks don't work, this may be next:

It's for your own good, and we've heard quite enough from you anyway

What's worse than an out-of-control police department?

Armed social workers, that's what.

I'm all for making changes to policing, especially using cops as agents of revenue collection. But given the predilections of the therapeutic state, you'd soon see tyranny far more cruel than whatever we have now.

With all due respect

Given the way the George Floyd Revels essentially ignored all protocols, I would say Tim Walz can take his dials and place them in a location where the sun fails to reach.

Walz Between Church and State

Our overlords say no Church services with more than 10 people, even in a building as huge as the Cathedral. The bishops say "nuts":

The bishops’ decision to contravene a statewide executive order is the first made by U.S. bishops since the coronavirus pandemic began.

But Minnesota’s bishops said the state’s prohibitions on religious gatherings of more than 10 people does not respect the right to the free exercise of religion.

“It is now permissible for an unspecified number of people to go to shopping malls and enter stores, so long as no more than 50 percent of the occupancy capacity is reached. Big-box stores have hundreds of people inside at any one time, and the number of goods that are being handled and distributed in one store by many people—stock staff, customers, cashiers—is astounding. Workers are present for many hours per day, often in close proximity. There is no state mandate that customers wear masks in those malls or stores, wash their hands consistently, or follow any specific cleaning protocol,” the bishops wrote.

“In these circumstances, and given the well-researched protocols that we have proposed (and that are being followed successfully elsewhere in our nation) how can reason require us any longer to keep our faithful from the Eucharist?”

In response, Governor Walz said the following:

It's on. And it needs to be.

Just a reminder

No matter the emergency or the pretext, the moment a government determines that the life and livelihood or any citizen is "non-essential," tyranny has arrived. And tyranny does not cease until it is forced to cease.

Evers says, "Balls to ya, Bob Burns"

There is a price to pay for the various lockdowns. Back in my hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, Bob Burns is paying it:

Bob Burns enters his golf shop on a mobility scooter, his dog Hogan padding ahead of him. The door locks behind him. The lights are off. The parking lot is empty. There’s not a soul on the driving range. The police, in fact, have swung by a few times to make sure Burns is complying with Gov. Tony Evers’ order closing non-essential businesses, extended now to May 26.

Normally, April and May are busy months at Bob Burns Golf. People are itching to hit balls on the range, to get their clubs re-gripped, to purchase the newest equipment, to sign up for lessons.

This year, as we all know, is not normal. Burns owns a stand-alone driving range, one of thousands of businesses statewide shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic. Golf courses opened Friday and motorized carts are allowed starting Wednesday, but driving ranges must remain closed.

His competitors are also open:

Scheels, a huge sporting goods store in Appleton, is open. So are Menards and Walmart and Costco, all of which sell golf equipment.

But the police are checking the doors at Bob Burns Golf, just in case a golfer or two has sneaked onto the range to hit a few balls, not only socially distanced but practically isolated.

“Why pick on me?” Burns says, with more incredulity than anger in his voice. “Who does more for this community and golf? Why pick on me?”

There's more, lots more, at the link, including what Bob Burns has done for golf, in Appleton and beyond. Tony Evers doesn't care about any of that.

Tim Walz could decide to take a different path than Tony Evers. He will announce his decision shortly. There are businesses in Minnesota like the one Bob Burns runs in Wisconsin that will be out of business soon.

This Is Not America

At the moment, it is. Behold the efforts of local law enforcement in Brighton, Colorado:

While I share skepticism about the overall utility of social distancing, I have made a point of doing so; other than daily walks around the neighborhood and getting a morning cup of coffee at the gas station a few blocks away (which is more about keeping them in business than anything else), I have not been leaving my house much at all. But there are people who cheering this sort of behavior right now -- I see it on my social media feed every damned day.

When we begin the reckoning of this moment, we are going to need to demand answers about behavior like this. But more importantly, we need to consult a mirror to see why we were willing to use the Constitution as we would use a 48-roll jumbo pack of Kirkland toilet paper.

Separated at Birth/Putz Deluxe Edition

Separated at birth. First, smug fascist character from Animal House, Greg Marmalard:

Greg, honey, is it supposed to be this soft?

And Congressman Eric "We have nukes" Swalwell:

Legit

The Honorable Mr. Swalwell wants your guns and well, he's prepared to do whatever is necessary to get 'er done:

It's the only way to be sure

So talk to Swalwell. Or get nuked. Your choice, really. It is a dialogue, after all, although you may have trouble enunciating with his shoe on your throat.

Ballad of a shirtless man

From what I've been able to gather about the guy and his works, life is too short to spend much time listening to Alex Jones, so I haven't bothered with him. Based on what I see of him from social media, he seems to be an angry guy who likes (a) conspiracy theories, and (b) to be photographed without his shirt on, even though he appears to be pretty tubby. I will add that nearly every time I see something about him, it's because a lefty has called it to my attention.

But something is happening here, and you don't know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones?

All but one of the major content platforms have banned the American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as the companies raced to act in the wake of Apple’s decision to remove five podcasts by Jones and his Infowars website.

Facebook unpublished four pages run by Jones for “repeated violations of community standards”, the company said on Monday. YouTube terminated Jones’s account over him repeatedly appearing in videos despite being subject to a 90-day ban from the website, and Spotify removed the entirety of one of Jones’s podcasts for “hate content”.

Facebook’s removal of the pages – the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page – comes after the social network imposed a 30-day ban on Jones personally “for his role in posting violating content to these pages”.

Is there evidence that Jones has become a more effective propagandist? Has his following increased? If his stuff was okay before, why isn't it now?

This is dumb. If the argument is this guy is too dangerous to have his stuff out there for public consumption, banning him is the best way possible to ensure he'll get even a larger audience. We've known this since the Garden of Eden, which was also well known for shirtless dudes -- forbidden fruit is always going to have an audience. What does Alex Jones know that "they" don't want you to know? This is Conspiracy Theory 101.

It's not a First Amendment issue, because the government isn't stopping Jones from speaking. If you want that sort of thing, you need to check with Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Still, I'm not crazy about the trendline. As long as I'm free to continue ignoring Alex Jones, I'm free. Once we are told his nonsense cannot be considered in any context, we have a much larger problem than whatever he's talking about. Based on what I know, Alex Jones is a bad dude. It's always a bad idea to make a bad dude a martyr.

Albion the news that's fit to print

Can't talk about it in England. Likely no one in England will read these words, but in case someone from England does happen across this blog, I share the reportage of Ezra Levant:

On Friday, May 25, Tommy [Robinson] was reporting from outside the courthouse in Leeds, where an accused Muslim rape gang was on trial for repeatedly raping British girls as young as eleven years old. Tommy was broadcasting on Facebook, from his cell phone.  

Tommy was very careful:
He did not set foot on the court precinct.
He did not call the men “rapists”, but rather called them “accused rapists”.
In no way did he interfere with the trial, which was on its final day.
When Tommy mentioned the names of the accused rapists, he was reading from a BBC website — so the names were clearly public information, on the state broadcaster.
Tommy did nothing wrong.

But suddenly, seven police officers swarmed Tommy and threw him in the back of a police van.

They said he was causing a disturbance, which is absurd — he was by himself on the street, with only a cameraman and a friend.

But it got worse. Much worse.

Within hours, Tommy was summoned before the judge. Tommy’s long-time lawyer was not informed of this. Rather, the court appointed a lawyer who didn’t know Tommy and wasn’t an expert in the specialized law of contempt of court.

In a matter of minutes, Tommy was sent to prison — with a 13-month sentence. He is now in HM Prison Hull, a brutal facility near Leeds. 

You aren't allowed to talk about certain things in England any more. In the United States, we have a First Amendment. In England, there are hate speech laws. If the government hates your speech, you can be thrown into a police van without warning. Back to Levant:

The basic facts here — what Tommy was doing and what he didn’t do; the shocking speed with which he was imprisoned; the fact that his own lawyer was not notified; the fact that Tommy has not had a proper chance to meet with his lawyer — are banned in the UK.

Not just the underlying facts of the rape gang trial — but the whole incident involving Tommy.

The judge who sent Tommy to jail, made it illegal to report that he sent Tommy to jail.

Why did the judge keep his justice secret? 

Why? Because he rightly assumed he could get by with it. More at the link, including a fundraising appeal if you're so inclined.

Come and get me, copper

I suppose it's easy for me, with over 1,000 miles of the North American landmass and the North Atlantic separating me from its jurisdiction, but I suggest the Merseyside Police do something that's anatomically improbable:

Big Merseyside is watching you

If you click on the actual tweet and read the comments, you'll see this exchange, which sums the matter up pretty well:

Freedom of speech, just watch what you say

The world is full of Kierans, lying on their backs and thinking about the National Health Service. If you want to understand how completely lost the Brits truly are, recall their Olympic Tribute to the NHS at the opening of the London Games back in '12:

You might recall the composer of this Riefenstahlian ditty, Mike Oldfield, who is best known for composing the theme from "The Exorcist." I don't know that it's possible to exorcise what's taken root in England, but we'd better damned well understand that the world they inhabit, where parents of Alfie Evans are denied the ability to seek medical treatment for their child, a child the NHS would prefer to scrub off the books, is what many of our neighbors seek for us. And if you object in a public manner, the Merseyside Police are going to be monitoring you. And I have no doubt our neighborhoods have plenty of people who would happily sign up for such a world.

The heel of the boot is always closer to your throat than you know. And the North American landmass and an ocean aren't going to matter. The Merseyside Police may not be coming for you, but they have contemporaries.

A refreshing glass of juche

Apparently we're supposed to admire the North Korean cheerleaders:

It was about 10 minutes before puck drop in the much-anticipated unified Korea women’s hockey team debut, when the North Korean cheerleaders stole the show.

Kanye West blared on the arena speakers, and the cheer squad of young North Korean women decked out in matching red and white outfits decided it was time for their first routine.
They waved small unified Korean Peninsula flags, and swayed in unison and sung “ban gap seup nee da,” or nice to meet you.

The crowd was instantly transfixed.

“It felt like I was competing in my own country,” Jong Su Hyon, one of 12 North Koreans on the joint team’s roster, said of the atmosphere following Korea’s lopsided defeat to Switzerland.

Others love 'em:

North Korea’s cheerleaders seem to be enjoying the Winter Olympics more than the athletes. They’re having a ball if pictures taken of them at the event in Pyeongchang, South Korea, are anything to go by.

The latest images showed several members from to 200 strong team wearing masks as they cheered on the unified Korean hockey team. Around 75 North Korean cheerleaders dressed in matching red with white caps made noise during a preliminary game against Switzerland in Gangneung.

Some people thought it looked a bit weird but they seemed to be having fun so we can’t be too down on them. The story of the Winter Olympics so far has been the united front the two Korean countries have showed.

There's nothing united about the two Koreas, of course. Kim Jong Un would wipe out Seoul in a heartbeat if he weren't aware that he'd be wiped out himself in the next heartbeat. It's easier to send out the cheerleaders and pretend things aren't what they are:

Shake down the launch codes from the sky

You can find amusing examples of videos that poke fun of this sort of thing, like this one:

It's not really amusing, though. And we shouldn't be encouraging the North Koreans.

You know when they say, "Read the Whole Thing?"

Yes, you should read the whole thing in this case. It's a speech by Daniel Greenfield, given to a Tea Party group (yes, they still exist) in South Carolina. And while I wish Greenfield's take on things weren't true, it is. Excerpts:

But it’s not guns that make a civil war. It’s politics.

Guns are how a civil war ends. Politics is how it begins.

How do civil wars happen?

Two or more sides disagree on who runs the country. And they can’t settle the question through elections because they don’t even agree that elections are how you decide who’s in charge.

That’s the basic issue here. Who decides who runs the country? When you hate each other but accept the election results, you have a country. When you stop accepting election results, you have a countdown to a civil war.

Do you doubt this? Consider the evidence Greenfield presents:

Republicans can win an election, but they have a major flaw. They’re not leftists.

That’s what the leftist dictatorship looks like.

The left lost Congress. They lost the White House. So what did they do? They began trying to run the country through Federal judges and bureaucrats.

Every time that a Federal judge issues an order saying that the President of the United States can’t scratch his own back without his say so, that’s the civil war.

Our system of government is based on the constitution, but that’s not the system that runs this country.

The left’s system is that any part of government that it runs gets total and unlimited power over the country.

If it’s in the White House, then the president can do anything. And I mean anything. He can have his own amnesty for illegal aliens. He can fine you for not having health insurance. His power is unlimited.

He’s a dictator.

But when Republicans get into the White House, suddenly the President can’t do anything. He isn’t even allowed to undo the illegal alien amnesty that his predecessor illegally invented.

A Democrat in the White House has “discretion” to completely decide every aspect of immigration policy. A Republican doesn’t even have the “discretion” to reverse him.

That’s how the game is played. That’s how our country is run.

Do you doubt that? Consider the spectacle we've been treated to this weekend. The MSM reports that Trump wanted to fire Robert Mueller. It didn't happen, of course -- Mueller has been doing whatever the hell he wants for nearly a year. But because it's been reported that Trump considered getting rid of Mueller, and may have even given an order to do so before he was talked out of it, he's guilty of obstruction of justice. Just thinking about opposing the work of someone who, ultimately, serves at his pleasure, is prima facie evidence of a crime.

You want more? Greenfield has more:

There’s no consistent legal standard. Only a political one.

Under Obama, states weren’t allowed to enforce immigration laws. That was the job of the Federal government. And the states weren’t allowed to interfere with the job that the Feds weren’t doing.

Okay.

Now Trump comes into office and starts enforcing immigration laws again. And California announces it’s a sanctuary state and passes a law punishing businesses that cooperate with Federal immigration enforcement.

So what do we have here?

It’s illegal for states to enforce immigration law because that’s the province of the Federal government. But it’s legal for states to ban the Federal government from enforcing immigration law.

The only consistent pattern here is that the left decided to make it illegal to enforce immigration law.

It may do that sometimes under the guise of Federal power or states rights. But those are just fronts. The only consistent thing is that leftist policies are mandatory and opposing them is illegal.

Everything else is just a song and dance routine.

Our friend Gino lives in California, as does Greenfield. Gino has been making this same argument for a long time now. And there are even more examples than what I've shared here. But they are all at the link. So hit the link. And think long and hard about what Greenfield is saying and what it means.

Get Your Mind Right

Joel Kotkin, making an important point about the state of play:

America’s authoritarian shift did not start with Trump’s election, but has been brewing for years. In the Obama years, we lived under “pen and phone” rule by decree that largely disempowered both Congress and local control. The former president’s legacy to the progressive coalition — paused briefly when power unexpectedly went to the GOP — means continued Democratic support for agglomeration of power in the executive.

This form of executive dictatorship is now more likely to return to the White House in 2020. The notion of enlightened rule from above may have even been further justified by the very fact that what Time’s Joe Klein has called “a nation of dodos” voted for Trump in the first place. The hoi polloi can be appealed to and cajoled, it appears, but not really trusted.

If you aren't sure who the hoi polloi are, you're one of them. Back to Kotkin:

Unlike Trump, whose political methods are both offensive and self-defeating, the mandarins can count on support from most of the media, the non-profit world and the ascendant techie wing of the tech/media oligarchy, what Daniel Bell called “the priests of the machine.” Unlike the factionalized Republicans, the new mandarinate — entertainment, news media, law, software — share a strong commitment to a common progressive ideology.

More important still, the mandarins control most of the means of communication, particularly those that attract younger people. This will assist, as our secular pontiff, Jerry Brown, put it, efforts to successfully “brainwash” the masses. China’s recently anointed emperor, Xi Jinping, admired by Brown and many other American mandarins, may emerge as the new role model. That is, after Xi has shown how control of education and media can work on getting the masses to embrace “right thinking.”

What is true and proper is whatever our betters tell us is true and proper. Better get your mind right.

Lately one or two has fully paid their due

Back in 1980, when Mugabe first came to power, I was in high school. The album that I listened to incessantly that year was London Calling, by the Clash. One of the many great songs on that album was one called "Clampdown," which made reference to the spate of repressive regimes that were beginning to fall for various reasons.

In these days of evil Presidentes
Working for the clampdown
But lately one or two has fully paid their due
For working for the clampdown

That was 37 years ago. Now, news comes from one of the places that Mick Jones and Joe Strummer had in mind. Ha! Gitalong, gitalong:

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Residents along the streets of this capital city grappled with a new reality Wednesday after the military sidelined President Robert Mugabe, its leader for the past 37 years.

Once heralded for seizing power from British rule and the nation's white elites, the 93-year-old's tenure in recent years has been marked by human rights abuses and economic collapse in what was once one of the African continent's most promising and prosperous nations.

"Mugabe was president since I was born," said Kudakwashe Gore, 32, a mechanic. "He was spoiling his legacy by failing to pass on the baton."

Military forces detained Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state, and his wife, Grace Mugabe, 52, and placed them under house arrest early Wednesday after weeks of political tumult rocked the nation.

Not long before London Calling was recorded, Zimbabwe was known as Rhodesia and was an apartheid state similar to South Africa. The people in this nation never have been free; once Mugabe took over, courtesy of Jimmy Carter, he took over:

Mugabe wanted the government to himself, he told everyone who would listen that he would turn the country into a single party, Marxist state. The Carter administration knew this but refused to admit it in public. In public, he said that Mugabe was just the sweetest of guys. But American pressure eventually forced [Abel] Muzorewa to call for new elections in which the despot Mugabe was elected.

Muzorewa played the Kerensky role in this particularly morality play. A familiar formula -- one man, one vote, one time. There's more:

Robert Mugabe’s iron-fisted rule has subjected Zimbabwe to a reign of terror directed toward all of his people, both white and black.  Not long after taking power in 1980, he began his reign of terror by killing about 20,000 people belonging to a minority tribe, the Ndebele.  He uses rape as a political weapon against his opponents and critics.  Mugabe has been killing people ever since, perhaps as a tribute to Jimmy Carter:

 In 2005, Mugabe ordered a raid conducted on what the government termed “illegal shelters” in Harare, resulting in 10,000 urban poor being left homeless from “Operation Drive Out the Rubbish.” The authorities themselves had moved the poor inhabitants to the area in 1992, telling them not to build permanent homes and that their new homes were temporary, leading the inhabitants to build their own temporary shelters out of cardboard and wood. The UK’s Telegraph noted that Mugabe’s “latest palace”, in the style of a pagoda, was located a mile from the destroyed shelters. The UN released a report stating that the actions of Mugabe resulted in the loss of home or livelihood for more than 700,000 Zimbabweans and negatively affected 2.4 million more. (Source: Moore, Charles (6 March 2005).”Mugabe’s raids leave townships in tatters”.

It's not clear what will happen next, but Mugabe deserves more than being "sidelined," whatever that means.

Who is more likely to put a boot on your throat, if given the opportunity?

These people?

Deplorables

Or these people?

Is that a hardwood dowel, or are you just happy to see me?

Does it make a difference? I'm being told it does.

UPDATE: Apparently we have the wrong view of Antifa, so Andy Marlette sets us straight:

The dude with the dowel is really G. I. Joe

Make sure you have your mind right.

It's a coup

Call it what it is:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections, a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase, according to people familiar with the matter.

The grand jury, which began its work in recent weeks, signals that Mr. Mueller’s inquiry will likely continue for months. Mr. Mueller is investigating Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election and whether President Donald Trump’s campaign or associates colluded with the Kremlin as part of that effort.

A spokesman for Mr. Mueller, Joshua Stueve, declined to comment. Moscow has denied seeking to influence the election, and Mr. Trump has vigorously disputed allegations of collusion. The president has called Mr. Mueller’s inquiry a “witch hunt.”

It's not a witch hunt, Mr. President. It's a coup. How Trump responds in the coming days will determine his fate. The people trying to take Le Grand Orange down are talented, ruthless, and motivated. They don't care what Trump's supporters think about any of it, nor are they particularly concerned about the long-term ramifications of what they are doing. They just want to win and they assume they will.