The small town of Yellville, Arkansas boasts two top-notch barbecue joints — Blacksheep BBQ, where we ate yesterday (and many times before); and Carolyn’s Razorback Ribs, which on November 1st suffered a kitchen fire that’ll keep it closed for three to six months.
Tomorrow there’s an online auction to ease the burden of expenses not covered by insurance.
While scrolling through my Facebook news feed last night, I was tickled to see who shared a link to the Razorback Ribs auction — Blacksheep BBQ.
If you’ve paid the slightest attention to what I post here, you know that Deb and I love both places. The two mom-and-pop restaurants are on the same side of the same road, separated by less than a half-mile, clearly competitors. Commercial interests, however, take a back seat to community ’round here. People pull together.
The BBQ competition will resume when Razorback opens its doors again. Until then, Blacksheep is pitching in to help make that happen.
I think it’s pretty cool.
A word now on elections in America. Polarizing though it may be, I want to address briefly the perception by many on the Right that the last few biennial general elections were somehow corrupt. It’s essential that we see this clearly before 2024, lest we lose our country forever.
I may as well start by lobbing The Big Grenade: Was the 2020 presidential election “stolen”?
The answer is no — no, it wasn’t. Not illegally, anyway.
Election laws are established at the state level and elections are administered locally (by counties, usually). Rules and processes vary, a proper product of federalism. (You don’t want the federal government running elections, believe me.) As in all things, political and cultural predisposition determines how it all works.
I say again, you don’t want the feds running our elections.
The wave of wokeness washing over America in the last decade has emboldened liberal states (and in some cases poisoned more conservative states) with things like online voting, no voter ID and voting as early as six weeks before Election Day.
And then there’s the scheme known as “ballot harvesting.” Obviously that’s just begging for corruption — especially in progressive pustules like Columbus, Detroit, Philadelphia and more — but it’s provided for in election law.
Object all you want but, irregularities notwithstanding, our elections aren’t stolen.
They’re rigged.
Our elections have been rigged to favor Democrats, and Republicans let that happen. They’re rigged to attract the lazy, the stupid and the entitled. Those who support The New Rules also will tell you that they’re a blow against “white supremacy,” reminding us that minority cultures don’t encourage things like precision, planning ahead or being on time.
The New Rules, in fact, infantilize races other than white. Nothing could be more overtly racist than that, but here we are.
Republicans, inexplicably, refuse to acknowledge that the rules have changed. Revving up their base for The Big Moment, they campaign and they exhort as if only Election Day matters, when in fact the outcome may have been decided long before then.
Republicans are the Redcoats. The nature of warfare changed, and conservatives act as if it hasn’t.
For Democrats, 2016 was a dress rehearsal — their rigged system produced the desired result, just in the wrong places. The 2018 mid-terms, benefitting from gains in the states, further encouraged the Left. We’ve seen what happened in 2020 and 2022.
It’s too late now to revert to a traditional American election system. It could change, were there enough courage, but it won’t. It is what it is.
I said a long time ago that “conservatives have to start fighting dirty.” I still believe that. It’s crucial to restoring America.
For now, though, I’d settle for Republicans putting a lid on their tired piss-and-moan act, banning the word “stolen” from campaign speeches and operating in the real world.
And now, Deb and I are off to Springfield for a night of great music. Will I talk about that tomorrow?
You can bet your stone-cold Country-lovin’ ass I will.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB
Early this morning, gray fox. See ’em both?