Wednesday roundup

Yay! Hyde-Smith gets elected to the Senate seat in Mississippi in that state's runoff.

The leftist media take commentary on Melania Trump's White House Christmas decorations beyond snark into the realm of cruelty:

Vice even declared that Melania's decor resembles a "circle of hell Dante could never have dreamed up."

"It's 2018: It's well-established that we live in hell. It only makes sense that the first lady's Christmas decorations would match the bleakness of the Trump era," said Vice.

Vanity Fair said Melania Trump's Christmas decor seem to always have "a touch of menace to them."

"It wouldn’t be a Trump White House Christmas without, again, a menacing touch to what is otherwise a lavishly and beautifully wrought winter wonderland," said VF. "This year, crimson red trees dotted a long hallway, dyed with what I assume is liberal blood a-boiling."

Both Slate and The Cut made similar denunciations of varying cruelty. A Funny or Die video spoof also mocked Melania’s accent and suggested the trees were dipped in blood.

Caleb Howe at PJ Media has exactly the spot-on take on Mia Love's concession speech. It was indeed a ringing espousal of the task before actual conservatives in late 2018:

This was a great, conservative speech and told the true story of her campaign and her time in office. The remarks about Trump will make the biggest splash, so we'll start there. But there is so much more, after that.

“When President Trump took a jab at me because he thought the race was over," said Rep. Love, "I was somewhat surprised at first."

In a way, no one should have been surprised, but even so, some of us were taken aback by the pettiness and vainglory in Trump's comments. Incrementally, he gets worse and worse, and more and more open about his demand for... not loyalty, but lickspittle devotion. You can only half-blame him. After all, it's the devoted lickspittles all around him and on Fox that make him feel so comfortable with his base desires.

But here's the core of what she is about as a public figure, an American, and a human being:

. . . it's about the achievements of the beliefs and policies for which the party once stood and should again. The second part begins with four pretty important words for context: I am a Republican.

"I am a Republican. I know conservative policies work. They lift everyone. They lift the poor, the young, the vulnerable, the black, and an the white. Our conservative policies save our young, and unborn children. When the pundits tell us that we're out of luck, the deck is stacked against us, we say no. No way. Not in this country. Because under conservative policies the deck is not stacked against us and we all have a chance. Conservative policies make it so that no one in this country is predestined to be poor. I know because I've lived them. I've put them into action. I've promoted them throughout our state and across our country. The problem is not the policy. It is that we are never taken into hearts and into homes."

And she offers this reassurance:

"The good news is, I'm not going away. But now, I am unleashed. I am un-tethered, and I am unshackled, and I can say exactly what's on my mind," said Love. Then she took questions from the press.

[Can we also take a second to point out what a di*k question the very first reporter asked? Why couldn't you speak your mind before? Because, right, this is the first time we've ever encountered a politician and we need this di*k reporter to flesh out the idea that politicians carefully plan what they say so they aren't ripped apart by [checks notes] oh right, DI*K REPORTERS. Anyway, aside over.]

It was an excellent speech and, the reason is that she puts into words what is so hard to make people on the MAGA right and the media left understand. That you can believe, understand, and know that the core principles and ideas behind what makes a Republican are not only sound, but beneficial. That there are those who look at the same ills and evils in this world that every do-gooder, virtue signaler, busybody, and SJW see, and hate those evils and ills with equal passion and compassion, but believe (know) that the way to address them and make them better is our way. Not the SJW way or the Democrat way or the bureaucrat way. She gave a validation to the idea that you can be true to that understanding and right ideas, no matter who is wearing the big red hat.

Truth remains true. 

Yesterday, I saw a vomit-inducing tweet from the vomit-inducing Laura Ingraham that said that "all the cool people are praising this highly rehearsed speech," and then asserted that Love deserved to lose. This is what Howe means by lickspittles.

Two great pieces at NRO this morning.

One is an editorial on GM's latest moves:

This is a politically embarrassing development for President Trump, who has sold himself as the tribune of American manufacturing and industrial concerns, who boasts — and no doubt genuinely believes — that the success or failure of these businesses vis-á-vis foreign competitors is only a matter of negotiating deals and being “tough.” Much progress has been made in the past two years — more than Trump’s critics expected — which have seen critical reforms in the tax code and a measure of regulatory relief. But the underlying economic realities cannot be negotiated away. And while political leaders should encourage a thriving and dynamic labor market — and the job-creation and wage growth that goes with it — jobs are not a social program. Jobs are a means, not an end, and jobs dedicated to producing products that consumers do not want are jobs that are not going to last and never were. 

GM’s business is putting dividends in the pockets of its shareholders. And while it is easy (and all too common) to overstate the president’s role in the economy at large, seeing to the continuing reforms that will help to drive economic growth, employment, and wages is President Trump’s job. GM isn’t asking for Trump’s advice, and he isn’t qualified to give it. Bluster isn’t going to see a single GM worker to his next job nor change the fact that Toyota builds cars that consumers want while GM doesn’t.

The other is Jonah Goldberg's piece on how Max Boot has made a conscious decision to become a silly goose. 

Russia is sending a fresh supply of S-400 surface-to-air missiles to Crimea. This one bears close watching, folks.