The Dapper and Distinguished Robert Barnes, Esquire

Introduction: News of the Day

• EU seeks to ban gas cars by 2035.
• Amit Jain suspected leaker of Dobbs decision. An activist clerk for Sotomayor. Also, a Yalie.
• FBI asks for 66 years before releasing Seth Rich files.
• Florida bans sex change procedures for minors.
• Studies show no effect on excess Covid mortality from lockdown measures.
• Italy’s new government ends all vaccine mandates.
• Pelosi attacker story looks more like a quarrel with an invitee, not a burglary assault.
• Xi consolidates power in China.
• Biden wants everyone to know the economy is booming, and also we have 54 states.
• Ukraine attack in Black Sea leads Russia to revoke further grain exports.

Wisdom of the Day: “One of the reasons I am a conservative is that I do not believe that the word “cannot” should be removed from the dictionary.” Garry Wills.

Argument: A Reasoned Rant

• Recently, some American media referred to Putin’s latest speech as an attempt to reach out to conservatives in the West. Point in fact, it was more of an attempt to persuade the global south in a Russian orchestrated realignment of global power. But it did represent a chance to remember conservatism better befits tradition, history and custom than the ideology of the neocons who despite Putin for those very traits.
• What is conservatism if not to conserve? To me, conservatism favors tradition over radicalism but can often be revolutionary in its restoration of that tradition. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, MLK’s I Have a Dream, Huey Long’s promise to make the words of the Constitution read in the language it was written in – all often portrayed as revolutionary speeches, but all deeply conservative in their appeal. They all appeal to the past as the predicate for their actions, an argument from tradition not against it, and an extension of core customs and principles to simply a new circumstance or situation. All of that is fundamentally conservative in character – to conserve the better angels, the dream of our Declaration, the promise of liberty to all.
• What is not conservatism is utopianism, an idealism disconnected from our past, a romanticism rooted in unreal visions, a futuristic fantasy freed from tradition. A world without limits tends to be a radicalism without restraint, and the French Revolution was just one of many examples where that world ends up. Communist revolutions repeated the same.
• In that sense, Putin’s appeal to tradition, custom, and respect for original principles reanimated in a new global system of mutual respect, reflects conservatism indeed, even if couched in a revolutionary break from the utopian globalist vision of elite empowerment their empire would emulate. We would all be better off with a conservatism that actually tries to conserve the best of our principles, rooted in realism and reflected in our traditions.

The Evidence: A Curated Daily Library

1. Power Elite analysis. https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/rules-america-power-elite-analysis-deep-state-american-history/
2. Self-driving fails again.https://www.businesslend.com/business/ford-abandons-the-self-driving-road-to-nowhere/
3. Covid from a lab.https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/minority-report-pandemic-origins
4. The attack on truth.https://substack.com/inbox/post/81393500
5. Unmasking the SCOTUS leaker.https://substack.com/inbox/post/80829872
6. *Bonus: Halloween costume. https://mobile.twitter.com/uxcle/status/1581108989365874689

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