Looks like a Bernie vs Trump race is shaping up – though the DNC may still figure out a way to knife Bernie at the convention. Be that as it may, we are heading into an election where the choices will be stark. A real “which way do you want to go?” election. It isn’t differences of mere emphasis or method – it is differences about what sort of America one wishes to exist…and visions of America which cannot, ultimately, tolerate the other vision. So, a lot is at stake.
Personally, I think Trump will win – barring the marvelous, all factors are working in his favor. A strong economy. No new wars and old wars winding down. Trump is now scandal-free because the most intense effort ever made in political history to tag him with scandal failed. People are now used to him as President and people have a natural disinclination to make huge changes while things are going well. Meanwhile, his opposition has staked out positions which vast numbers of Americans furious reject – what we’ll find out in November is precisely how many. It could be a lot – but, we learned in 2016 that anything is possible. If Bernie emerges victorious, we’ll know that we are the decided minority in our country and we’ll have to draw some stern conclusions from that. But worries and triumphs are for tomorrow, what I want to do here is lay out, in 2020, what I – Mark Edward Noonan – believes.
The basics remain the same as always: I subscribe 100% to the faith and morals teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. I diverge not an iota from official doctrine. I do, however, think that some changes are needed – more in form than substance – to reflect a greater understanding of how things work and how God’s will is to be applied in practical terms. But, that can be for another day: for this, it suffices to say that I view all matters through the prism of Catholicism, while understanding I live in a pluralist Republic.
1. Some people have so much money that they can buy massive amounts of influence. This wouldn’t be so bad if the purchasers of influence were a mixed bag of differing view, but they’re not. Nearly all of them are one version or another of Progressive who only disagree on minor details – nearly to a man, they despise the people, hate patriotism, think Christianity is evil and are working to consign concepts like private property and the family to the dustbin of history. They have been like this for more than a century – and it is time we start taking away their money as a means of taking away their ability to distort our political life. Bloomberg is turning out to be a disaster on the campaign trail but remember that he straight out bought second place in the Democrat primary for a while…and may yet purchase the Democrat nomination. I know conservatives reading this will get their backs up about how I’m advocating Socialism – but, I’m not. First off, I want the confiscated funds passed out to regular folks but, secondly and far more importantly, once we’ve got the money away from these creeps, hosts of Progressives simply disappear…do not underestimate the number of pundits and scientists and lawyers and advocates who are employed by these vastly wealthy people to sucker you into thinking their way. Find something you don’t like about America in 2020 and, rely on it, if you dig far enough back you’ll find a Progressive rich person who funded the group which got the ball rolling.
2. The post-war system of alliances has to go – it was a stupid idea to begin with and was set up to contain the United States. We haven’t won a war since 1945 because we are pre-committed to losing due to our alliances. Alliances should be temporary and only to serve a specific foreign policy goal.
3. Public education was a bad idea and it should be abolished. Provide funds for poor parents, if you like, but don’t set up school systems. And I mean no credentials for schools, at all; no regulations. Let people do whatever they want in this area. Let anyone who wants to teach, teach – and teach whatever they like. As attendance would be entirely voluntary, the presumption is that it would probably be fairly interesting and it’ll certainly work out better than the current system which passes out diplomas to functional illiterates. Right now it’d be better if the kids were hanging out on street corners…at least there they’d learn something.
4. The States need to be broken up – but Constitutional Convention, if necessary. In my view, no State should have more than 10 million or so inhabitants. Generally, once you get to that large a number of people you’re getting a situation where some large percentage is simply be rolled over by a majority who have different interests. But it isn’t entirely population that matters here: There are also economic and geographic considerations. What does Buffalo have in common with New York City? Bakersfield with San Francisco? Not much – but San Francisco and New York City essentially dictate to Buffalo and Bakersfield. That sort of thing has to come to an end – we’re supposed to be a Federal Republic…not a collection of tyrants lording it over minority populations.
5. The Experts ain’t. In other words – they aren’t Experts in anything, they just have credentials. Remember, for the most part, they are all coming out of the same education system which passes out diplomas to illiterates. It has all been dumbed down…even the elite education establishments have dropped various requirements over the years. Someone from Yale may be better educated than someone from Cal State Northridge…but only marginally so. Even in the hard sciences, there has been a drop off and we’re really just producing mechanics who have Masters degrees. The result of all this is that the people who are in charge – and who believe (often quite sincerely) that they have special insight – haven’t a clue what they’re doing. Time to turn them out…not necessarily fire them all, but start bringing in people who aren’t certified Experts. Imagine if the Department of Labor was headed up by a guy who owned a plumbing outfit in Akron and if it was staffed by a bunch of people who just came in from the private sector? On and on like that.
6. The military needs to be reformed. I doubt our ability to fight a first rate power at the moment. I think that decades of having officers promoted via checking off SJW boxes and having an army of lawyers second guess combat actions has degraded the warrior ethic in the military. If I could, I’d seriously cashier everyone above Lt. Colonel and give everyone in six months to get entirely in shape or get out. Then I’d insist on the most rigorous training exercises for all branches to weed out the dead wood. And I’d institute rigorous physical requirements for joining and no distinctions made based on sex…if the requirement is that a soldier be able to run a mile carrying 80 lbs, then every last soldier in the army will have to do it, or get out.
7. Trade is good – but it must be reciprocal. If we buy from them, they have to buy a roughly equal amount from us. The bottom line is that US economic policy should be geared towards meeting our needs by domestic production if at all possible. Only if we simply can’t make it here should we be looking outside for it…and even then, we should be seeking for ways to start getting it here.
Anyway, that’s where my mind is at on some major issues. Others can have different views, of course. But, I’m right.
Blogs For Victory 
Others can have different views, of course. But, I’m right.
Well, that’s it then.
Some people have so much money that they can buy massive amounts of influence. This wouldn’t be so bad if the purchasers of influence were a mixed bag of differing view, but they’re not. Nearly all of them are one version or another of Progressive who only disagree on minor details – nearly to a man, they despise the people, hate patriotism, think Christianity is evil and are working to consign concepts like private property and the family to the dustbin of history.
Ok, no one else seems to be weighing in, so I’ll give it a stab. I agree there is at least the perception that the majority of obscenely wealthy Americans use their money to further progressive causes. Not one of them has ever even attempted to infringe on any of my freedoms, whether it’s my freedom to speak my mind, to worship as I please, to own my own home, to drive what and where I want, and to eat what I want. I haven’t been prosecuted (or persecuted) for not using the right pronoun or being skeptical about man-made climate change. They might ALL want to, but they haven’t, and I don’t see a time when they will be able to because they will first have to disarm America. If they succeed in using their wealth to achieve enough political power to accomplish their goals, there will be a conflagration in this country the likes of which the world has never seen. And absent a complete political re-alignment by violent means, I don’t see any viable way to confiscate the wealth of those who would use it for evil. Just my opinion, though.
I think more precisely that if you established the means to confiscate the wealth of those who would ‘use it for evil’ then that confiscatory ability itself would be used for evil rather quickly. You don’t give government the upper hand in matters like that because there is no telling where they will subsequently put it. No matter how satisfying stripping Soros of his resources might seem to you, it can’t come remotely close to being worth the inevitable cost.
Very well said.
There’s an old saying that dovetails with your comment:
A government that is powerful enough to give you everything you want is also powerful enough to take away everything you have.
I disagree on your comment about public education, but I think it has to be locally administered, not from the federal level. I think we have to have schools, and we should make attendance mandatory till at least the age of 16.
I think the charter school movement has proved that many, if not most, parents not only want a good education for their children they have an idea of what the education should be, and it is not the pap produced by the federally-run education system. Sadly, it is leading us to a form of aristocracy in which the classes will be determined by the quality of education each person has gotten.
I would make all student loans go through the school involved, not through or underwritten by the government, and trade schools should be emphasized.
This is indirectly associated with Spook’s comments on wealth. Jefferson County, Colorado, is a huge and mostly affluent county, and a few years ago it elected a school board that was politically conservative with ideas on education that were more in line with most of the state’s charter schools—that is, teaching basics. In the next school board election tens of millions of outside money flowed into Jefferson County to help elect a strongly Progressive school board. So while the money of the wealthy may not be affecting me personally, at this moment, it is helping create a generation of Progressives who will continue to run the state (into the ground) just as its current Progressive legislature is doing. That is, enacting a Red Flag law, trying to shut down oil and gas production, signing Colorado up with the Popular Vote Compact and in general wreaking havoc on the state, The impact hasn’t been felt yet, but the laws are in place, and these people were backed in their elections by out of state money.
The new governor, Jared Polis, is one of those super-wealthy who used his own money to help finance his election, and he is a hard-core Progressive who has led the legislature to its flurry of radically Progressive legislation. It is true that things like the Red Flag law, and possibly the Popular Vote Compact, will be challenged in court but I am living in a state where the money of a vastly wealthy man is literally changing the state, and in ways that may impact me. I have the freedom to move back to Wyoming, but most don’t. I can’t count the number of times someone has wistfully said he wished he could leave, too, and the refrain is nearly word-for-word the same: “This is not my Colorado”. I think uber-wealthy Progressives have a lot to do with that.
I’m just not sure we can reform it – it is so entirely shot-through with Progressive twaddle that I can’t see a way out except by doing away with it.
Mark, your title reminded me of something I have been thinking of writing about—-things we believe that are not true. (Not referring to your own beliefs as outlined, however.) Then immediately after leaving the blog I ran into this, which refers to one of the things many people believe that is simply not true:
J. Christian Adams, “a former Justice Department lawyer who is now president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation,” said When Russians hacked the DNC [Democratic National Committee] and John Podesta’s emails, it was a way to [mine] political intelligence…
But it has been conclusively proven, and stated many many times by many many people in many many places that Russia did NOT, in fact, “hack the DNC”. As investigative journalist Michael Thau said here on this blog just 6 days ago, it was a fake DNC hack and his excellent articles explain this in detail.
https://aclearerpicture.net/2020/02/17/julian-assange-crowdstrike-and-the-russian-hack-that-wasnt/
So a (1) lawyer, who was (2) with the Justice Department and is now (3) president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation still doesn’t know the role Crowdstrike (AKA the DNC) played in this hoax. That’s depressing.
But, thanks to the Agenda Media, this is only part of what the nation “knows” that isn’t true. Isn’t even remotely true. Some glaring examples immediately come to mind, in addition to “The Russians hacked the DNC”:
Trayvon Martin was a sweet kid gunned down in cold blood by a racist out to shoot someone.
Matthew Shepherd was a sweet kid, confused by his own sexual impulses, who was brutally killed by homophobic rednecks because he clumsily flirted with one of them.
Donald Trump once bragged about grabbing a woman by the genitals
Donald Trump said some of the white supremacists in Charlottesville were “very fine people”
Every now and then something pops into my mind that can be added to the list.
Hands up, don’t shoot
good one
Too much here to pull out a quote or two:
https://www.redstate.com/stu-in-sd/2020/02/23/the-national-security-original-sin-clinton-style/
Confiscation of wealth is not a good idea IMHO. First of all, who decides what wealth is confiscated, how much, and who defines the “regular folks” who get it? Wealth is not a finite proposition, it’s infinite and created every day and this leads me to your education solution of which I agree with Amazona. We are only going to lift people out of poverty through education, period. Education is a must and should be mandated. You can redistribute wealth all you want but eventually it will all end up right back in the same hands because those are the people who know how to create revenue and manage money. Re: effective education which has to be at the State level, I would challenge states to create robust curriculums for their school systems and even encourage and incentivize achievement contests between districts to try and make learning fun and exciting. Our kids are being left behind in the world in core STEM subjects and we had better start paying attention to that.
I work with a young man who is in STEM classes in high school, who is amazingly bright and talented, who reads at about a fifth grade level if that and writes and spells worse than that. He just keeps getting promoted and now there is the illusion that he is in classes that are challenging but I have a feeling they are also watered down.
That’s the result of a ruling class that simply does not care about the people they govern. The powers to be have been watering down education for the last couple of decades in an effort to protect teachers and not offend the lower class. As a result our students are being reduced to the lowest common denominator and that’s by design. An unarmed and uneducated populace is easily governed.
Has anyone seen 8th grade final exams in the 1940’s and 50’s? They are college level exams. Today, not so much.
It isn’t about economics at this point – it is about the United States getting a series of Crassus-like actors in the political arena…fabulously wealthy people who are simply buying influence in the most literal sense. And almost all of them stand firmly against what Conservatism believes. The reason it gets passed off to regular folks is because we know that handing it to the government is an even worse disaster.
This is YUGE:
Federal appeals court has upheld the Trump administration changes that ban taxpayer-funded clinics in the Title X program from providing or referring for abortions. The ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned decisions issued by judges in Washington, Oregon, and California. The court had already allowed the administration’s changes to begin taking effect while the government had appealed those rulings.
So not only did the courts uphold pro life legislation did you notice which court it was? NINTH CIRCUIT, previously known as the most leftist court in the country but that has all changed. Trump and McConnell have changed the judiciary … a move that the liberal media has ignored but is a YUGE conservative victory. We are winning.
First, there has to be some mechanism forcing accountability for student success, or lack of. Schools need to get out of the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality for passing unprepared students. I’m guessing there are a myriad of reasons this happens such as, teacher’s evaluation is tied to pass/fail rate, teachers don’t want to deal with problem kids repeating their class, schools don’t want to deal with parents when their kid fails, lack of ability to discipline students, etc. I once complained to a friend who was a teacher asking why my kids couldn’t even go to the bathroom without having to navigate a maze of smoke (both tobacco and other substances)? Why aren’t they monitoring this and doing something about? This friend smiled and let me know now ridiculously his hands are tied. Any attempt to directly address this would get him in all kinds of trouble, not to mention become a target for retaliation by miffed students. The state (NY) has rigged the system stripping teachers and administration of ways to control problem situations, creating a cycle of decline. The system is so bizarre, a problem student has to get in major trouble before getting mandated home suspension, and then because of the laws dictating the school’s responsibility to teach the kid they are required to send a teacher to the student’s home to teach them. WTH?!? And how about the situation of a kindergartener getting suspended for kissing a girl or an elementary student kids getting suspended for making a gun gesture with his fingers. I’m guessing most of these are symptoms of a progressive education system where logic, discipline and accountable are near non-existent.
Politicians often pander to teachers unions who do not want charter schools in existence competing for their jobs and rather lavish perks. While I understand public employee jobs are political minefields and in need of some level of protection, public employee unions in general have become destructive on many levels. Teachers here in NY make substantive salaries on top of perks few people in the private sector have such as, top level health plans, generous retirement benefits, all kinds of holiday and vacation days including full summers off, to mention a few. That’s not to say teachers don’t have any problems. They often can’t even teach their class with disruptive students who are allowed to persist with little or no repercussion.
So why all of the problems? Political pandering and protectionism at the expense of the taxpayers and students. Political pandering and protectionism entrench people in positions making it near impossible to force accountability and remove dead weight. Things like unions, civil service, tenure are all in place to keep the wheels of control in the hands of the elites. Until this is disrupted and changed not much will change in government or education. One of the reasons Trump is despised so much by the left is, he’s working to dismantle their structure of control.
Excellent (though depressing) summary, jdge. And then you end it with:
One of the reasons Trump is despised so much by the left is, he’s working to dismantle their structure of control.
That leads me to something I have been thinking about for a while, which is the comment we hear all the time—-“The Left HATES Trump”.
Oh, they do, no question about it. But I think the highest levels of Leftist strategy don’t just hate Trump, they FEAR him, for the reason you gave. He is dismantling their structure of control. It is time to start identifying that structure and the tunnels of control burrowed into it by the Left. Some progress has been made, in the areas of federal agencies like the FBI and CIA, with revelations of Leftist control leading to abuses of power, but Trump is also working on other agencies.
Trump is like chemotherapy to the cancer that is Leftism. He not only understands what the Left has been doing, carefully inserting tendrils of authority in every agency and system in the country, he has been identifying those tendrils and removing them. And the Leftist leaders are frantic. If they complain about what Trump is doing, they will be admitting to their strategy, so all they can do is howl and rage against the aspects of Trump and his actions that will not reflect attention onto what they have been up to.
We tend to pay attention to the most visible aspects of Leftist activism—the howling mobs demanding abortion and infanticide and the whole “transgender” movement that ranges from men competing against women to mutilation of children and so on. What we seldom address are the underlying attacks on the very structures of our government, our culture and our society. Trump is ignoring the superficial antics designed to distract us and going straight to the heart of the structural attacks.
An example: He can’t do anything about the superficial aspects of transgenderism, but he CAN remove the support it has gotten from a corrupted judiciary. Without the legal rulings to shore it up and impose it on the public, the concept will depend on emotional appeals and will eventually die on the vine. He can’t do anything that requires Congressional action, as the rabidly partisan House will block any such effort, but he can look at regulations and policies that were enacted without Congressional action and remove them. Enacted by Executive Order = ended by Executive Order. He can’t necessarily fire embedded Leftist activists protected by Civil Service laws, but he can make their agencies less bloated by cutting funding, and less attractive to swamp dwellers by moving them out of the Beltway. (Moving the BLM to Grand Junction, Colorado, was sheer genius.)
I think it is time to stop with the refrain that the Left HATES Trump and move to a deeper truth—that the Left FEARS Trump. And explain why.
This clip from a little over a decade ago let the cat out of the bag as to what teacher’s unions are really about.
I am watching MSNBC obsess over the coronavirus and sounding the alarm as loudly as they can. The facts are that there are just 35 confirmed cases of the virus here in this country. 35 !!! To put that in perspective, an average of 61,000 people die annually from the common flu, an average of 1 million people die every year from car accidents, and in 2016 42,000 people died of opiod addiction.
But it’s the coronavirus that the media is concerned about. This should give everyone a good sense of how disconnected our media is from this country and from reality.
Not only that, but outside of China the mortality of the coronavirus is about 1%. The whole thing doesn’t pass the smell test.
Fear can drive a lot of demands and legislation. Politicians and the pharma industries know this.
Not to mention that the <a href= https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2020/02/25/dow-plunges-600-points-as-government-coronavirus-warnings-pummel-markets/ <a href= stock market often follows good / bad news.
If Jo Biden’s campaign wasn’t already toast, I think it is now.
Somebody who loves him needs to intervene. He has the early signs of dementia and it’s hard to watch.
No way. I love seeing leftist fall on their faces. Bowing out now at this early tenure would allow for a concentration of votes and monies that are best allowed to be spread far and wide. Let them wasted as much money and effort as possible before being stuck with their ultimate loser.