Saw a Tweet by Tom Nichols – you know, The Expert who deplores how we stupid people just don’t get it – bemoaning that America is being burned to the ground by people like Trump because the Elite never accepted them. Now, to be sure, there would be a bit to that – even when everyone officially loved Trump, he was considered a boor. A flashy, crude bull in the Ruling Class china shop. His family was rich, but still very nouveau; the Trump family started to pick up some money with Donald’s grandfather, but it was dad Fred Trump who got them rich. Basically, the Trump’s haven’t had their money long enough for it to have the stench of work removed.
Nichols isn’t rich – he does well enough, but he’s not one of the rich people who probably despised Trump all along. But while not rich, he is of the class. That is, the Ruling Class. He’s got his degrees and he’s got his positions in the Establishment and, dammit, he’s mad at us for not doing as we’re told – just as the upper class of New York City couldn’t stand Trump for not trying to be like them. But what got me thinking was how Nichols is claiming that Trump, et al are trying to burn it all down. In a flash it came to me what Nichols’ real problem is: he’s never once thought about things.
If you get an engineering or medical degree then, at the end of the day, you had to show you could do some engineering or medicine before you got it. There’s just no other way to do it. On the other hand, if your degree is in history or philosophy or such like, you don’t have to show the faintest thought about the subject: to get the degree, all you must do is repeat back what the professor told you. This doesn’t mean a person with a liberal arts degree can’t think, but it does mean that such a person doesn’t have to think in order to get the degree. And, these days with all the dumbing down, you can get all the way to doctorate without showing the least spark of original thought. My bet, actually, is that most degree programs in the so-called liberal arts these day are designed to discourage thought: they want people who regurgitate information but they don’t want anyone questioning the facts or drawing an unapproved conclusion from the facts as presented.
Man has no alternative, except between being influenced by thought that has been thought out and being influenced by thought that has not been thought out. — G.K. Chesterton
Chesterton there was discussing specifically why we study philosophy, which he admitted can be a bit of a bore. But do keep in mind that in Chesterton’s day, he was talking about the educated people in this matter. He wasn’t expecting the store clerk to take the time to learn Aristotle and Descartes. Be ok if he did, of course, but Chesterton knew that most common people don’t have the time nor inclination for such things. But society, as a whole, is going to be ruled by one or the other – thought that has been thought out, or thought that hasn’t been. It was and remains the duty of those who rule us – by fate, inheritance or transient political victory – to be those who have thought their thought out. Because if we are ruled by people who haven’t thought things out then you’ll get…well, you’ll get what we’ve got.
Over in New York, governor Hochul is in some trouble – may even get beaten on the 8th. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Even in a GOP wave year, New York – really New York City – is so reliably Democrat that the particular conditions wouldn’t matter. There would be so many Democrat votes that the Democrat will win. But there’s a problem and it is particular, especially, to New York City. Crime is rampant. Now, the MSM tries to tell us that because the murder rate is still lower than the peak about 30 years ago, this complaint about crime is just a GOP psy-op designed to fool people into voting for them. It is another example of the MSM’s willingness to say things not only divorced from reality, but from the reality the reporters know from personal experience. The regime propagandists of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia weren’t this compliant! The MSMers know. They live in NYC. They can see it with their own eyes: people waltzing into stores to rob/trash them. Goods in stores increasingly locked up to prevent wholesale looting. The feeling of being unsafe on the streets and the subways. Everyone in NYC feels it. They know it. And while the MSMers are going to loyally carry that water, the voters of NYC are under no such obligation. To be sure, if Hochul is booted on Tuesday it won’t be because NYC went red – but it could because a lot of Blue NYC just stayed home rather than ratify the homeless bum pissing on the curb outside.
And the problem in NYC stems from the imposition of certain policies: most notably the end of cash bail. If you haven’t paid attention to it, you should, because ending cash bail has become the mark of Leftist justice reform. They’ve put it on mute the past six months for political reasons but make no mistake about it: ending cash bail is something they are determined to do. The theory behind this is that cash bail unfairly burdens poor people who are disproportionately minority. This is absolutely true. I mean, no duh: the poor person, whether criminal or just some poor schmuck who got picked up, doesn’t have the money for bail nor for good lawyers who can get bail lowered or removed. Obviously, any system of bail is going to hit against the poor vastly more than against any rich person.
But the solution – ending cash bail – is obviously something which was not thought out. I can totally dig trying to find some way to lower the burden on the poor, but blanket removal of bail requirement was going to have that effect: petty criminals would feel invincible. They wouldn’t even have to spend the night in jail. And people of low moral character would be encouraged to start engaging in crime – especially theft – for that same reason: no real sanction. They can figure: how likely is my trial for stealing $500.00 worth of stuff from CVS even going to happen? And that is if they even bother making an arrest. After all, what cop is going to bother arresting someone – taking that risk and that extra work – just to see the guy walk out of the precinct before the cop has even written up the complaint?
On and on like that, all across the nation and in every aspect of our lives we are burdened by the results of policies imposed by people who are sure they are right, but clearly never thought about what they believe. Sowell has been writing about this for decades. I’ve read those books but only just now am I fully understanding what his main complaint was and is: nobody is thinking. It is all very mindless what goes on. All of our problems – our lack of industrial capacity, or lack of energy production, our food shortages, our crumbling infrastructure, our crime rate, our collapsing education system, our drug addiction, our homelessness, our open border…all if it, every last bit, the result of the ruthless imposition of policies nobody thought about. Nobody sat down and said, “so, what will happen if we do this? It was all just done.
And people like Tom Nichols want us to stick with that. And for a long while I thought that it was, perhaps, pettiness or some other normal, human emotion preventing his like from seeing that Trump really isn’t all that bad (I mean, my goodness, compared to Joe Biden!) and that some good things come from ruthless rejection of Liberal/Left certainties. But then you see that Tweet and you remember that people like him are all-in on fighting Putin over Ukraine and then it really hits you: they’ve never thought about one darned thing.
We have to defend Ukraine!
Why?
To save Democracy!
If Ukraine falls I’ll lose my right to vote in the USA?
Putin stooge!
No matter what what way you ask about it, you won’t get an actual answer. We’re backing up Ukraine – at the risk of WWIII – to save Ukraine from Russia, or NATO from Russia, or Democracy from Russia…and blah, blah, blah. But no explanation of how, say, changing the Russian flag over Donetsk for a Ukrainian flag will actually benefit us. We just have to do it! Russia is bad, don’t you know! Don’t you remember Reagan!
Yeah. As I recall what Reagan wanted was to stop the USSR from expanding outside the USSR via proxy wars and, of course, to get a real nuclear arms reduction treaty with them. He got that. How is that similar to stopping Russia from taking over ethnic Russian territory governed from Moscow prior to 1991?
You’ll never get an answer to that. Nor to why we would, say, defend Germany from Russia rather than Russia from Germany. I mean, on the whole, the Germans are working against us in foreign affairs. They are also major economic competitors who don’t have to pay for an army because we’re there for them. Any chance we should reassess this situation?
No! You Putin Nazi Puppet!
Note that I’m not saying that defending Ukraine is wrong – I’m merely saying that no thought is happening behind our efforts and any attempt at thought is immediately shouted down. And the shouts are led by the people who supposedly have the superior education and thus can think things out better than us.
Until we clear all these people out – not just the politicians but the corporate bosses, the bureaucrats, the generals and admirals, the professors – everyone in charge, we’re not going to fix this. I would seriously expect better results at, say, Defense if I randomly selected some sergeant and made him Chief of Staff. I’d have some confidence, that is, that our four star sergeant might think about things before he made a decision…you know, like what might be the long-term effects of lowering physical requirements so that girls can be in combat outfits. Same with everything – put a plumber in charge of Harvard’s Department of Philosophy and there’s just that chance he’d crack open some of the books and think about whether or not what they’re saying is worth any human being knowing. They really do all have to go. I don’t care what they do, but they must leave. Anyways, might be fun to watch them try to tackle a job which requires results. But, more importantly, once they’re gone, we might be able to openly think about what we want.
Blogs For Victory 
Until we clear all these people out – not just the politicians but the corporate bosses, the bureaucrats, the generals and admirals, the professors – everyone in charge, we’re not going to fix this.
There are only two ways that I see that happening: (1) we win such overwhelming majorities in government at all levels that we are able to defund them and prosecute those who have blatantly broken the law; or (2) we end up in some sort of violent civil war. Next Tuesday will go a long way toward determining if we can do it via option 1.
I think common sense is making a come back in America. If Zeldin wins NY, which we will know early, it will be a long and painful night for Democrats across the country. Praying we win OR too. Kari Lake will roll and carry Masters along with her.
I think common sense is making a come back in America.
And if there’s one thing that Leftists lack, it’s common sense. To tie into Mark’s assertion that they don’t think things through, it’s primarily because of the lack of common sense.
I confident that in my views you can see that I’ve thought about it. Nobody has to agree with them and everyone can say I thought wrong, but at least it can’t be said that I’m just taking my views unquestioning from on high. I used to think that at least all Right people did that – made the effort. But now I know with many of them who are now mindlessly parroting liberal talking points, all they were doing before was mindlessly parroting conservative talking points. I guess it allows them to make a living, but I couldn’t stand that: the unexamined life. Not only is it soulless, it isn’t any fun.
Would be nice! I’m confident about AZ, NV and GA. Feel good about PA. Hoping about NH and WA. New York? That would be the miracle of miracles…if we win that, then we’re going to see a complete beat down of Democrats even in the deepest blue States.
It’s. Lt just a lack of sense in democrats, but the reserve of active nonsense, ‘anti-sense” if you will. The willful pushing of the exact opposite of the truth and reality.
In case common sense does not win out, I usge you all to make sure your blades are sharp and your magazines are topped off. Being prepared never hurt anyone.
We saw what they did in response the killing of a violent thug and drug addict by a cop. I imagine what they’ll do in response to their side experiencing an electoral bloodbath will be exponentially worse. You’re right, preparation won’t hurt a bit.
With the caveat that the mobs – all of them – were rentals. If they don’t pay Antifa to come out and don’t get local law enforcement to back off, there won’t be riots. It’ll be a political calculation on the part of the Democrats – do they think they can scare the incoming GOP majority by riots?
So MSNBC was just bemoaning the political shift of Latinas and Latinos towards conservatism and here’s their reason for that – “the Church has radicalized the Hispanic population” LMAO. Speaking of not thinking things through.
Democrats have zero self awareness and are incapable of critical thought. They just do not want to accept the fact that there ideology might be wrong.
“Hey, Juan and Maria: guess what? We’re not going to be working on improving the schools your kids go to, but we are going to tell them that men can get pregnant. We still cool?”
“Pendejos.”
Dr. Malone had a cartoon with a woflish campaign poster with the caption “If I win I will eat you” and a guy saying to his friend “I’m voting for him because he’s not Trump”. It pretty much summed up that amazing, truly stunning, 81 gajillion votes Sleepy Joe got even eclipsing the votes gotten by The One We Had All Been Waiting For.
The Church has gone so far left people are leaving it, too. At least turning our backs on the hierarchy.
Meanwhile, early voting is definitely showing a red wave. Republicans 35% nationwide compared to on 45% Democrats. Of course that’s only with 40 million votes so far.
Not nearly enough – the ED vote is going to be even more R than the EV was D…and it will be a vastly larger number of votes. The guesstimate is that 45 million will end up voting early and about 75 million will vote ED. Do the match on a D+20 EV and an R+22 ED.
At this point I would much rather be four million votes ahead rather than four million behind. There is polling showing that far more Democrats are waiting to vote on Election Day than 2020 without the Covid restrictions. Could Republicans still win. Of course, but it’s looking less and less like a Red wave.
I see Smirky McSmirksmirk is back again, tittering about his precious polls, after being shut down repeatedly for parroting Hillary’s claim about red states having higher crime rates.
Evidently Hawaii is pretty boring if he has to keep sticking his snout under this tent and trying to get in
Well…other people are analyzing it and saying it looks more and more like a Red wave.
Guess what: nobody really knows. Could Democrats be waiting for ED? Sure. Could GOPers stay home on ED? Sure. But given that its the first mid-term and the economy sucks, what is more likely: that or Democrats who care have already voted and GOPers who don’t trust the system are waiting to storm the polls?
And the analyses I’m reading from the Left still holding out hope for the Democrats is…not quite right. And I mean on a structural sense. Today Ralston – who has been good at analyzing Nevada elections – came out with his predictions and, to make you happy, said that CCM will hold her Senate seat but, to make you unhappy, Sisolak will lose the governorship. And, of course, such a split ticket result is possible and it is hard to argue with Ralston’s track record…but as you read his piece, you can’t escape noticing that his vitriol about the GOP candidates is at a high level. He really hates them – and he doesn’t back up things like his projection of 8% going to “other” or “none of these candidates” in the Senate race. Doesn’t give a hint about how he decided Independents will go.
Now, could he still wind up right? Sure. But methinks he is willing to torch his reputation just to provide a bit of Hopium to Democrats…and the process started in 2016 as his calls started to get more favorable to Democrats than data indicated or results showed.
Your side is up against the wall, Casper – miracles do happen. Some times the Hail Mary pass works, but don’t ever bet on it.
My bet is that the average American voter is a hell of a lot smarter and more aware then the Democrat Party which has somehow become the astro turf party. MSNBC is invoking Jesus this morning, which exposes their desperation.
Remember when Democrats wanted to throw parents in prison?? Democrats will learn tomorrow exactly what America thinks of them and their condescending authoritarian ideology. And it won’t be good.
We don’t often mention this, mainly because there is so much shit to wade through with this moron as POTUS, but truth be known, Joe Biden and his family are the most corrupt first family to ever occupy the White House. The Clinton’s even take a back seat. And I hope this is all exposed with a GOP Congress
My dad’s speaking…you should come meet him.’ Hunter Biden’s ex business partner is set to blow whistle with explosive trove of never-before-seen messages, photos and recordings that could expose alleged criminal activity by the First Family
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11378223/Hunter-Bidens-ex-business-partner-set-testify-explosive-trove-documents.html
But Cluster, when you get to the caspers of the party, THEY. DON’T. CARE.
Sadly I think you’re right. How bad does life have to get before some of these entrenched Democrats realize that Americas ruling class has long abandoned making America great?
Democrats promise to end the filibuster and electoral college (which protect minorities) will effectively end America. Protecting those two issues is the most honorable thing Republicans can do.
I think it says a lot about the Left that they now openly come out against the concept of a Great America. It takes a special kind of stupid to say that the idea of making America great again is not acceptable.
You all know I am the blog word Nazi, but I think words, and their accurate descriptions and proper use, are vital to the very structure of civilization and our culture. I can’t say this started when I saw the Twilight Zone episode “Wordplay” but it did make a real impact on me. It’s about a man who suddenly finds he can’t communicate with people because they substitute words unlike those he knows for different things.
Later, when I started to study the Left, I could see how powerful this can be, as the Left merely redefined words to make them fit or support their agendas. We see it today, as people just grab any powerful word with negative connotations and apply it to whatever they want to convey as big, scary or dangerous. So we see words like “insurrection” and “traitor” and “fascist” tossed around. When we started to use the word “mob” to describe the brutality of their tactics, they merely redefined “mob” as a benign and even essential aspect of protest. Now abortion isn’t about ending a human life, it’s just a “choice”—though this depends on overlooking the fact that when two lives are involved each should be allowed to choose.
It’s also been funny to watch the sudden devotion to “democracy” and even, when they are getting more breathless, to “THE REPUBLIC” as they try to herd their sheeple into believing that free speech is dangerous. Mike Rosen, talk show host in Denver, used the term “semantic infiltration” to describe the success of the Left in getting their vocabulary accepted. So suddenly even conservatives were using the term “abortion RIGHTS” because it had been used so much it just seemed to be the right term, somehow.
We need to be vigilant when it comes to words—how they are defined, how they are used, and how they are abused.
Mika on MSNBC – “Democrats have a lot to brag about because of Joe Biden’s legislative wins”
I’ve never seen such a detachment from reality. It is bizarre.
Biden has thrown some political rivals in prison, has threatened to throw some parents in prison, has used the FBI to raid his political opponents home, has unleashed an invasion of the southern border, has dramatically increased crime in many cities, has depleted our oil reserves, has us on the verge of nuclear war, has sexualized American children both personally and politically, has increased the cost of living for every American, and has fired many federal workers and military personnel for not taking experimental drugs.
And people like Casper think these are “wins” for the Democrats. Just unbelievable.
You can’t really put “casper” and “think” into the same sentence and maintain credibility. He was a mediocre middle school teacher reviled by his more mature and sophisticated students, depending on the adulation he got from the marginal students by giving them lots and lots of attention and known to many of the parents as an idiot. But because some of the short bus kids would want to eat lunch with him, he thought he was a stud, a superstar, and he has taken that smugness into the rest of his life.
His version of “in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king” let him believe he was respected and competent, and now has him tucked snugly into the heart of one of the most Liberal states in the country, where he fits right in, and where he can preen in his wholly imagined intellectual superiority.
Remember, when I said he and Mazie Hirono were two of a kind he agreed with me—one of the few times he has shown actual self awareness. I think it’s funny that his self delusion has him convinced he can come here and school us on political reality—this, the man who couldn’t even school children on the Constitution.
If I could just drop Donald Trump into the Oval Office I would—I think he would go back to being a great president. But oh how I have been dreading the campaign, fearing another Jerry Springer debacle. I’ve been hoping that Trump had been thinking things over and decided to take a more disciplined, dignified, approach to campaigning this year.
But no. Ron DeSantis hasn’t even indicated an intent to run in 2024. I’ve had the feeling he would not want to get involved in a Trump mud wrestling contest and would be happy to have another four years of running Florida and then two years to run for the presidency. Yet Trump has had to call him names.
I’ve had it with Trump’s petty juvenile name calling. I never liked it, and it has worn even thinner over the years. I know some people have loved it, but to be blunt I also think a lot of his support also played in Idiocracy, cheering when someone got busted in the balls. I think it’s a mistake to play to that crowd—it’s not big enough to win on, and he’s just going to lose a lot of people who are tired of the infantile schtick.
Trump may not realize it, but he is teetering on the brink of Trump Fatigue building enough momentum to nudge him over the edge. And antics like going back to the barn to look for more snide comments about people might just be what it takes to finish him off. I think a lot of, if not most of, his appeal lay in the fact he was the only game in town. He was the only one with the chops to take on the howling mobs and the Deep State. But now there is someone else who can, and probably more coming up as we are seeing it can be done.
The remark about DeSantis was not cool and I hope someone close to him will convince him to dial it back a little. That being said, Trump has to run and win because he is the one who will clean out the Deep State and take the bullets doing it, which will pave the way for DeSantis/Lake ticket in 2028.
Common sense is making a come back …
A panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seemed to be channeling the lyrics of the musical Hamilton in noting that “Everything is legal in New Jersey.” The panel ruled against a transgender woman who brought a discrimination claim against a beauty pageant that allowed only “natural-born females” to compete.
So had a busy weekend and didn’t catch all the news and just heard this from Biden. Evidently he was campaigning in PA (I think) and promised to shut coal mines. And in NY he told an event attendee that no drilling will be allowed.
Never before have we had such an irresponsible President … but of course Biden is illegitimate. Trump won the 2020 election and life would be so much better if Democrats hadn’t stole it.
Another “sudden death”. This is really getting bad
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-11399631/Nascar-team-owner-Coy-Gibbs-heartbreaking-final-interview-paying-tribute-son-Ty.html
Correction, Trump will win again