Open Thread

Still no major movement into Gaza and now we’re providing aid for Hamas. But don’t worry, Pudding Brain’s people say that if Hamas tries to steal the aid, they’ll condemn it. This is not looking good.

On the other hand, the IDF is still talking victory – that they will totally destroy Hamas in Gaza. Can’t see how they do that while allowing us to feed Hamas…but I can only assume they at least think they’ve got a plan that’ll work. We’re going to find out.

Pudding Brain went to Israel and it was just so entirely humiliating…this aged, senile crook out there to provide cover for aids who are desperately trying to get Israel to surrender to Hamas. We are a very pathetic nation right now. The pissant King of Jordan refused to even meet with Biden. I’m sure the Israelis didn’t want to…but as he’s the guy signing the checks, they had to put up with it. While Israel has built a robust domestic arms industry, there are still come crucial elements which come from us so I guess Israel still feels over a barrel.

For future reference on Israel’s part, I’d buy about 100 Panzerhaubitze 2000 from the Krauts (given the past, the Germans would likely do an easy-payment deal); its a 155mm self propelled howitzer which has an effective range of 67 kilometers. This means, depending on where positioned on Israeli-controlled territory, it can hit anywhere in Gaza or the West bank and very deep into Lebanon and Jordan, as well. Get about a million rounds of ammo for it (the stuff keeps forever) and anytime anyone in range causes trouble, just level an area with cannon fire. 155 mm is very common and no matter what is going on, you’d be able to replenish ammunition from some source. One thing the IDF has always had a lack of is tube artillery; when fighting conventional forces, that isn’t much of a handicap but when confronting dug in irregular forces like Hamas, it is just what the doctor ordered.

The GOP still can’t come up with a Speaker. The battle is between those who want a MAGA purist and those who want a conventional GOPer who can be relied upon to fully fund Democrat priorities. To me the easy deal is to agree to the RINO with a proviso that any funding bill will, once it gets to the floor, be stripped down to its components for an up or down vote. For instance, Pudding Brain wants us to cobble together a bill for Ukraine, Israel and border security. Fine. But once it comes time for a vote, it is broken up into 3 separate bills. This doesn’t mean all of it fails…but it does mean there will have to be some real horse trading…like in return for Ukraine aid, we get, say, funding to Texas for building a border wall (if we give the money to Biden, his people either won’t spend it or will buy something ineffective). On and on like that.

This battle over the Speakership is causing all sorts of heartache…in government and the pundit class. Most Americans are probably only vaguely aware of it and don’t care one way or the other. This will not hurt GOP prospects for 2024 unless something really ridiculous happens, like some RINOs joining Democrats to make Jeffries Speaker. I really do discount this – though the rumor does abound. Any GOPer voting for such a thing has got to know the career ends with that vote. There will be a successful primary challenge.

Meanwhile, GOP prospects brighten by the day – some recent polling shows any of Trump, DeSantis or Haley beating Biden (keeping in mind that anything less than Biden +5 in the popular vote likely means a GOP victory). This is not because the GOP is any good – it isn’t, and we just about universally despise it, as a thing – but because Biden is just so very bad. There have been rumors of Democrats trying to ditch Biden but I don’t think it’ll happen. Though Obama and Clinton people are all over the Democrat establishment, they generally don’t like each other and getting them to agree to an alternative is going to be hard (especially as Clinton’s people would probably want Clinton to be the alternative); if they don’t come together, then the Biden people hold sway…and as they only survive in power as long as Joe does, they simply will not let it go. Unless Biden dies, he’s the guy. And there may come a point when the Democrat powers that be just let it alone – knowing that Joe is a goner. Trump if he gets back in is only for one term; if its DeSantis they figure they can still win Congress in 2026 and do to him in 2028 what they did to Trump in 2020.

As the Gaza war has gone on we’ve been treated to some MSM lies astonishing in their scope and, indeed, arrogance. Some people are pretending to be shocked about this. They also pretend to be shocked when the corruption of our government is revealed. Everyone knows. It isn’t a surprise. The MSM lies, it lies all the time and about everything. So, too, the government. But here’s why a lot of people pretend it is all shocking: they know what it means to admit that our government and media are just liars. It means we can’t allow either to go on as is.

I’ve been pointing out for a while that the First Amendment cannot sanely be construed to protect lying. That our Founders knew we would have liars does not mean they were trying to secure a right to lie. They were trying to secure a right to tell the truth – what we Catholics called rightly ordered freedom: The freedom to do what is right. While we all can do evil, we are not being free when we do so…we are, in fact, enslaving ourselves when we do wrong. What I’m saying is that we, the people, can enact laws punishing lies. We can make anyone who publicly utters a lie pay for it – in civil or criminal court, or both. And we are going to have to do this – because the MSM cannot at this point correct itself. It is, as it were, determined to lie at this point. In a sense, they’ve told so many lies that they are committed to lying. Not really, of course; anyone can repent. But in their minds to admit that they’ve been lying for years is too humiliating. So, they’ll just double and triple down on the lies. But we can’t have a Republic if liars are allow to lie with impunity…so we will have to stop them.

The other thing I’ve been yammering on about is the need to end government secrecy. It really does have to go, and in its entirety. Whatever tiny advantage we gain against foreign adversaries by having secrets is vastly outweighed by government’s ability to hide corruption and incompetence under a veil of secrecy. For us to have a Republic we must know what the government is doing as it does it. Only thus can we judge if our agencies of government are working in our interest. We must enact laws requiring the government to do everything out in the open. No secrets. Ever.

84 thoughts on “Open Thread

  1. Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 21, 2023 / 8:47 am

    But we can’t have a Republic if liars are allow to lie with impunity

    And especially while they’re telling the rest of what to do, think, and say.

    This Glenn Beck podcast interview with John Dodson, a retired ATF agent dovetails perfectly with your post. It’s nearly 90 minutes long, but the real meat is in the first half.

  2. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 21, 2023 / 9:05 am

    To me the easy deal is to agree to the RINO with a proviso that any funding bill will, once it gets to the floor, be stripped down to its components for an up or down vote.

    IIRC, this is exactly the proviso that Gaetz tried to get McCarthy to agree too, in order to earn Gaetz’s vote last January. McCarthy did not live up to that deal and instead waited until after the August recess to bring to the floor another pork filled CR. Deals are made all the time in DC, what doesn’t happen all the time in DC is accountability, and without accountability, you have people get away with lies.

    And speaking of lies, Democrats and the MSM have told so many lies over the last 7 years that now they have to lie to cover their previous lies. It is spiraling out of control. Climate change is one topic that has been lied about so many times, that now every weather event falls under the guise of climate change … it’s all encompassing. The dangers of white supremacy has been lied about so often that even a Hamas rally is now blamed on white oppression. The American government has been running such a sophisticated Psyop operation since 2020, that mass psychosis is setting in. Case in point, I had a back and forth with a twitter liberal the other day who insisted Trump was guilty of crimes, she wasn’t sure which crimes, but she said she “saw it with her own eyes” – that’s psychosis.

    • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 21, 2023 / 9:18 am

      Your Twitter experience is typical. I run into it all the time—the absolute conviction that Trump has been committing crimes as president, without a single example of anything even remotely close to a crime. The closest anyone has gotten has been the fact that foreign dignitaries like to stay at Trump hotels.

      • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 21, 2023 / 9:38 am

        All of the baseless allegations that John Kelly made about Trump a week or two ago didn’t even survive one news cycle. All they did, at least among the former military I know, is tarnish Kelly’s military service to this country.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster October 21, 2023 / 9:40 am

        I honestly think Trump broke a lot of brains out there, and why? I have no idea, but it is a psychosis.

  3. Amazona's avatar Amazona October 21, 2023 / 9:11 am

    I just don’t know how to make lying illegal without having a Ministry of Truth. And I support some strategic lying, like the efforts to mislead the Germans about the landing spot for D-Day.

    • Mark Noonan's avatar Mark Noonan October 21, 2023 / 3:19 pm

      There is, of course, a valid use for deception in war – but other than active military operations, I can’t see a need for secrecy beyond weapons development.

      Now, as to lying: I think if I could do it, I’d make it mostly a civil matter. Imagine this:

      The People of Israel vs MSNBC, et al: a class action lawsuit against all the major news outlets who ran with the hospital bombing story. Entirely defamed every Israeli.

      Our problem right now is the absurd Sullivan ruling: it was basically a license to lie as it established the ridiculous standard that damages are only recoverable by public figures if actual malice is shown. To me, the lie is sufficient – if anyone says anything untruthful about anyone for any reason, that is damage and the victim should be able to recover damages. There is a 100% foolproof method for everyone on God’s Earth to never run afoul of this: don’t lie. Ever. If you aren’t 100% certain it is true, don’t say it. Had we such a thing this past couple weeks then the MSM headlines would have read:

      “Explosion at Gaza Hospital: Hamas claims Israeli strike”

      Absolutely true report but that isn’t:

      “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital”

      Which was a complete lie. It was just what Hamas said and the MSM – all of it – simply went with the Hamas press release. Within a couple hours the word was out that it was almost certainly a Hamas rocket misfire and while the initial reports blared 500 dead, it looks like the actual death toll might be less than 50…still bad, but not 500 and not the result of Israeli action. Israel had zero to do with it.

      Now, in my world, Israel would now sue all the MSM outfits that ran the Hamas press release…and in that world, it wouldn’t matter that it was a lie given to them by Hamas: they were responsible for repeating it. They could have noted it was just a Hamas claim. Easy. They chose not to. The ran the headlines as if the Hamas press release was established fact.

      So, let’s now get a one hundred billion dollar judgement.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 21, 2023 / 4:23 pm

        Back up a little and consider how such a law would have affected the entire perception of the Covid panic.

      • Jeremiah's avatar Jeremiah October 21, 2023 / 8:31 pm

        Within a couple hours the word was out that it was almost certainly a Hamas rocket misfire

        Yes, Hamas has fired hundreds of faulty rockets, that are killing their own people.

  4. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 21, 2023 / 9:25 am

    And another famous lie … “there is no direct evidence”. Well other than the recently revealed $200,000 check James gave to Joe shortly after receiving his largesse, we find out this …

    DailyMail.com can reveal that Joe Biden bought his six-bedroom Rehoboth Beach house in June 2017 for $2,744,001 cash. The transaction was within weeks of a questionable text that Hunter Biden sent to a Chinese associate demanding to seal a deal worth $10million a year. ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,’ Hunter wrote on WhatsApp.

  5. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 21, 2023 / 9:38 am

    I like this idea … Donalds would be a great choice, and we can use the race angle to shame RINO’s into voting for him. Hey, what’s good for the goose … right?

    Florida Congressman Byron Donalds announces he will run to become the first African American House Speaker in history as Republicans scramble to find a nominee after dumping Jim Jordan

    • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 21, 2023 / 9:55 am

      And it wouldn’t be just checking the race box because Byron Donalds is a really good guy whose intelligence and ability to articulate ideas transcends race. I’d vote for him for Speaker.

      • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 23, 2023 / 10:24 am

        Let’s get your facts straight, Fielding. I know that’s difficult in your case when you’re having an orgasm posting a slimy little gotcha at B4V. Byron Donalds was arrested as a teenager in 1997 for possession of marijuana, paid a $150 fine and received pre-trial diversion. He was arrested for receiving bribes in 2000, pleaded no contest and served two years probation. His record was expunged and sealed, and a subsequent Florida Department of Ethics investigation when he got into politics a decade and a half later was dismissed. He said this about his past:

        “I’ve never been proud of the mistakes I’ve made when I was a young kid. It was 20 years ago. I’ve changed my life and moved on.”

        I share Amazona’s belief in redemption. Had I not accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at the same age as Donalds when he committed his infractions, I would have undoubtedly ended up in prison.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 23, 2023 / 11:41 am

        A “no contest” plea and the mildest possible sentence usually indicate that the evidence was weak and/or the “crime” was trivial and there is no confidence in conviction, along with a pragmatic decision by the defendant to take a symbolic plea to just make it all go away and stop the financial drain.

        And, not to get into a quibble about “whataboutism” because these guys live to bicker and quibble, whatever Donalds did or did not do was not in any way related to violating a trust placed in him by people who voted for him, or endangered our national security (ie: sleeping with a Chinese spy while having access to top secret intelligence through a position on a powerful committee) or abuse of power by selling access given to him by voters.

        He did something dumb in his private life, as a foolish young man, he admitted to it, he made restitution, he served what the state thought was an appropriate penalty and he moved on to become a successful man. I can’t think of a Democrat who can say the same.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster October 23, 2023 / 11:42 am

        I support fallen and repentant men more than any others. They are the ones who should lead us.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 23, 2023 / 2:29 pm

        It looks like one of the Double Ts confirmed my observation that all they do is snipe, snarl and attack. And, of course, whine when their personality disorders disqualify them from participating in a blog that finds them distasteful.

  6. Amazona's avatar Amazona October 21, 2023 / 9:53 am

    How do Democrat presidents deal with tyrants and threats to world peace and security? How do they protect liberty?

    Some ask Doctor Mommy for more pudding, some have orgies, but the overall pattern is one of indifference to decency and honor and the lives of the innocent, and the Complicit Agenda Media scramble to rewrite history and invent fables of noble and courageous action.

    Nero Fiddled, JFK Trysted—The Cuban Missile Crisis

    • Cluster's avatar Cluster October 21, 2023 / 10:17 am

      This is right up my “conspiracy minded” alley lol. I’ll give this a read when I have time

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 21, 2023 / 12:20 pm

        I figured the “orgy” part would get your attention 😉

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster October 22, 2023 / 9:34 am

        Well of course that piqued my interest lol. Short but good article. I thought it was interesting that they saw it as just a refugee problem in the beginning and tried to dismiss it. In the book Killing Kennedy, there’s a story where JFK was campaigning in California and wanted to stay at Frank Sinatra’s house but he was advised that Sinatra was too close to the mob, and considering Bobby Kennedy was actively investigating organized crime, it wouldn’t be a good look. So instead JFK, stayed at Bing Crosby’s house where later that night, there was a knock on the door and in walked Marilyn Monroe who spent the night with the President. Upon learning that, the staunchly religious Bing Crosby, was furious.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 10:14 am

        A lot of stuff has come out about Kennedy. It’s easy to look at the info for and against and pick a side, but it’s always more complicated than that.

        The PT 109 story is a good example. One version has him being a hero, the other a feckless arrogant hot-dogger whose boat only got rammed because he violated his orders and went out into a channel looking for action instead of staying where he was supposed to. So the bad side is he lost a boat, nearly lost crew members and hurt his back because of his arrogance, and the other is that once he did this he acted heroically.

        Ditto for the Bay of Pigs. He is loathed by Cubans because they sent in volunteers to try to take back the country from Castro, with promises from the US for help in planning, execution and protection, and then the US cut them off at the knees—demanded a different horrible landing site that allowed Russian tanks to approach the beach to shell the Cubans and refusing to provide air cover. American military pilots refused to return to base until they were out of fuel, furious and frustrated because they could not fire on the Russians but circling overhead to try to at least provide symbolic support to the Cubans being savaged on the ground. So one version is that he courageously avoided a war by not engaging Russia and the other is that he cravenly betrayed the Cubans who counted on him keeping his word.

        Supposedly Kennedy and Khrushchev had begun a secret communication about both of them striving for a way to have peace between the two nations, with secret squirrel stuff like a handwritten letter from Khrushchev being delivered to Kennedy in the folds of a newspaper, and this effort to do an end run around US intelligence services led to Kennedy’s assassination.

        But he was a pig, sexually. He routinely had orgies in the White House pool with watchers to warn him when Jackie was returning so they could clear out the bimbos and clean the place up a little.

    • jdge's avatar jdge1 October 21, 2023 / 8:23 pm

      How funny… and accurate.

  7. Amazona's avatar Amazona October 21, 2023 / 9:34 pm

  8. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 22, 2023 / 10:35 am

    I’m just wondering if Biden still thinks Trump voters are Americas biggest threat?

    40-year-old Samantha Woll, the president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue, was stabbed to death outside of her Detroit home on Saturday afternoon. Police were called to Woll’s home on Saturday morning and followed a trail of blood that led to her body.

    This country is more volatile now than ever before in my life time. All thanks to Biden voters. Be sure to thank one of them today

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/10/why-is-rashida-tlaib-silent-after-dem-activist/

  9. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 22, 2023 / 10:46 am

    Last week, when pressed about the world wars breaking out under his watch, Biden muttered “there’s nothing that the United States can’t do” which IMO, is dangerous thinking, and the type of thinking that has led this country into pointless, destructive wars and $31 trillion in debt.

    America has to lose the notion that we are invincible, or risk losing our entire country. There are limitations to everything and those who understand those limitations, thrive, those who don’t, fail.

    • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 11:33 am

      I think Joe was right on this, but he stopped too soon. That thought has to be filled out. “There’s nothing the United States can’t do when it is governed according to its Constitution and the rule of law, when personal responsibility is respected and expected, when the nation stands for liberty and when it understands its role in the world.”

      It’s the veering off from our intended form of government and our acceptance of the infiltration of Leftist dogma that have weakened us and made us impotent.

  10. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 22, 2023 / 10:57 am

    Good article, and my sentiments exactly

    These people have shown you who they are. Believe them. Do not hire them, do not say hello to them, or engage at all … the progressive leftist Democrats are marching in the goose step with Hamas, but their hearts lie with anyone who hates Americans … the Americans out in the streets hate America. They are the tumors of the metastasized cancer that is the political left in this country. They’re showing you who they are; believe them.

    https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2023/10/22/democrats-are-showing-you-who-they-are-believe-them-n2630184

    • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 11:29 am

      Do they “Support Palestine”? No, they support killing babies in their cribs, burning toddlers alive and raping women so violently their pelvises break. Call it like it is. Don’t let them hide behind the platitude of merely “supporting” an imaginary victim class.

      Do they “support” the various moral platitudes of the American Left, such as “equity” and “anti-racism” ? No, they support the consolidation of power in the hands of a few elites and the imposition of their will on the rest of the nation. Call it like it is. Don’t let them hide behind the pseudo-political evasiveness of shallow, superficial mumblings about fairness and inclusiveness and diversity.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster October 22, 2023 / 12:15 pm

        The stupidity is real

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 1:06 pm

        I’ve been harping for years now on the superficiality of allegiance to the Left, based as it is on shallow emotional reactions to various claims and baits put out by the Left to lure the unthinking into the illusion of having and standing behind actual political principles. (Naturally, none of them have ever been able to describe these political principles, or define them.)

        Once the Left firmly established the Us/Them paradigm, with the “Us” meaning morally superior supporters of the Left and the “Them” being, automatically, the diametric opposite of morally superior, all that has been needed has been to fill in a blank on the “Us” page depending on the “victim” flavor of the month and the obedient little puppets get out their magic markers and sign boards and go to work.

        This week the Victim of the Week is the imaginary construct of “the Palestinian people” and in the simple minded view of the average Leftist that means that anyone not squealing support for this “cause” is, by definition, evil. While some of the more rabid proponents of the Left admit to glee at the prospect of toddlers herded into a room which is then set ablaze, burning them alive, most just cling to the thin veneer of “supporting” a general platitude of siding with allegedly oppressed people.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 1:36 pm

        Remember when I challenged Lefty trolls to explain and define their political philosophies? And their confusion and utter bafflement when platitudes like “well, I like, you know, believe that, you know, like people should be more FAIR” did not qualify as political thought. Because to them this WAS “politics”.

        Politics as an analysis of the best blueprint for governing the nation? HUH? Nah, Dems don’t DO analysis. Dems do feelz.

        Ask a Dem why he believes the nation is best run by consolidating power in the hands of a few and then letting them dictate to us how we can live our lives and you get a blank look. Or maybe “But I don’t believe that”. Then why did you vote for Democrats?

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster October 22, 2023 / 2:09 pm

        Blame our dumbed down education system and politicized teacher unions

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 5:30 pm

        Exactly. Gen X is in the right age group to be “educated” by the first or second group of college graduates to have been immersed in the Leftist claptrap of the 60s, born around 1966 just as the newly minted Marxists were going off to college, where they would emerge a few years later just in time to twist the malleable minds of children and the gullible minds of college kids.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster October 22, 2023 / 2:10 pm

        Identical to their cartoonish view of Che Guevara and his violence

      • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 22, 2023 / 2:14 pm

        Remember when I challenged Lefty trolls to explain and define their political philosophies?

        In all fairness, I believe that Forty has stated, repeatedly, that he is for a constitutional representative republic governed by the rule of law, (and maybe world peace) or something to that effect. When you say something multiple times you MUST believe it – right?

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 2:59 pm

        Forty may have made such a claim, but without supporting data it is just a convenient platitude. I tend to look at his consistent attacks on any policy or any person representing Constitutional governance (that is, conservative) as an indication of an alternative political position. Not a political PHILOSOPHY, as that would require analysis of the different models of governance and a commitment to one of them based on an objective belief that it would provide the best form of government, but a POSITION, which is usually just an emotional reaction to something.

        Put another way, as someone in the mid-40s to mid-50s age range forty isn’t quite comfortable coming out and saying he rejects the Constitution and the rule of law, but emotionally he is drawn to the cheap thrills of vandalizing every conservative thought, policy or identity he comes across. So if pushed into a corner he will claim to be “for” a constitutional representative republic governed by the rule of law because to say anything else would mean being challenged to produce his preferred alternative.

        So he plays the game of sitting back till someone takes a position and then lurches out of the shadows to sneer at it, or at the poster, or paste some Leftist nonsense that is supposed to prove it wrong, and thinks this makes him an actual participant in political discourse. And he squirms out of any real specific commitment to any real specific structure of government.

  11. Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 1:30 pm

    • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 22, 2023 / 1:30 pm

  12. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 23, 2023 / 10:39 am

    We have spoken of Thomas Sowell quite a bit, and here is just more of his brilliance. I have often said that human nature never changes so put me in the “constrained vision” camp

    Those with “unconstrained vision” think that humans are malleable and can be perfected. They believe that social ills and evils can be overcome through collective action that encourages humans to behave better. To subscribers of this view, poverty, crime, inequality, and war are not inevitable. Rather, they are puzzles that can be solved. We need only to say the right things, enact the right policies, and spend enough money, and we will suffer these social ills no more. This worldview is the foundation of the progressive mindset.

    By contrast, those who see the world through a “constrained vision” lens believe that human nature is a universal constant. No amount of social engineering can change the sober reality of human self-interest, or the fact that human empathy and social resources are necessarily scarce. People who see things this way believe that most political and social problems will never be “solved”; they can only be managed. This approach is the bedrock of the conservative worldview.

    https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefp.com%2Fp%2Fthe-day-the-delusions-died-konstantin-kisin

    • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 23, 2023 / 10:48 am

      I never really understood why people see the world through different lenses until I read Sowell’s Conflict of Visions.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 23, 2023 / 4:05 pm

        I agree. It was interesting to think about the possibility that some people are attracted to authoritarian government because they believe that man can be perfected so it is possible for one man, or a few elites, to be trusted with vast power and authority over others. This is the group that also rejects process to enact change, because of its belief that these very special people should simply be allowed to impose changes as they see fit.

        The other perception of mankind is that it can never be perfected and therefore power and authority must be spread as thinly as possible, among as many as possible, to mitigate as much as possible the inclination to abuse power. Therefore, the difference between wanting a powerful Central Authority vested in the federal government vs the belief that power and authority must be distributed among the states or the people.

        This helped me understand the conflict, for example, between those who think the Constitution should only be amended through the process defined within it, to slow the process down and spread the authority among as many as possible without making it impossible to achieve any change at all, and those who have such faith in their leaders that they think these leaders should be able to decide which parts of the Constitution must be followed and which can be ignored or altered.

        I started with political philosophy and worked backward to personality, whereas Sowell started with personality to explain how and why people end up where they do on the political spectrum.

      • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 23, 2023 / 4:17 pm

        This helped me understand the conflict, for example, between those who think the Constitution should only be amended through the process defined within it, to slow the process down and spread the authority among as many as possible without making it impossible to achieve any change at all, and those who have such faith in their leaders that they think these leaders should be able to decide which parts of the Constitution must be followed and which can be ignored or altered.

        It also explains how people in the latter group can claim with a straight face that they believe in the Constitution. Reminds me of a quote from the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:

        “What is a moderate interpretation of the Constitution – half way between what it says and what you want it to say?”

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 23, 2023 / 8:53 pm

        That’s pretty much my perspective of “moderates”—kinda this, kinda that, can’t commit to anything. And this is held up to us an ideal.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 24, 2023 / 9:10 am

        It’s like the pejorative “far right”, What does that mean?

        In purely political terms, I guess it would mean really REALLY REALLY believing we have to be governed by our Constitution.

        Of course, true political calculations play a minimal role in what is called “politics” these days, so definitions are as fluid as gender to the Left. Once the Left attributed certain cultural characteristics to “the Right” then they could invent a whole spectrum of “Right” to cover anything negative they wanted to imply or state.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster October 23, 2023 / 5:13 pm

        Forty, you just don’t realize how much of a clown you are, do you? You are proof propaganda works.

  13. Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 23, 2023 / 12:07 pm

    The push to get Americans to buy expensive electric vehicles has hit another speed bump.

  14. jdge's avatar jdge1 October 24, 2023 / 12:38 am

    NYC Home Invasion Proof That Ten Rounds Isn’t Always Enough

    After reading this article where a federal district court declared, California’s ban on “large capacity” magazines violates the Second Amendment, I wondered how that would affect similar laws in other states outside that district, particularly in NY (where I live) which also has an identical magazine capacity limit. This is what I found;

    Regardless of jurisdiction within the US, the courts have no power to compel repeal of a statute, which is a political process.

    If a federal district court rules a city or state law unconstitutional, state courts do not have to obey that ruling. Even if a federal circuit court and a lower state court so rule, it has to go to a court of final appeal. Once the state Supreme Court or US Supreme Court agrees, the question is resolved.”

    What the ..?? If I read that correctly, unconstitutional state laws & regulations can stand until or unless; 1.) Their respective state government changes or repeals the law (not likely if they were the ones who created the law to begin with), or 2.) State Supreme Court also agrees with the federal courts, or 3.) The US Supreme Court rules on it. Why bother having federal district & appeals courts? Doesn’t that setup render them little more than arbitrators who can be ignored?

    • Amazona's avatar Amazona October 24, 2023 / 9:06 am

      That’s how it looks to me.

  15. jdge's avatar jdge1 October 24, 2023 / 9:55 am

    Never Enough: New York Lawmaker Wants Background Checks for 3D Printers

    Leftist strive to limit or eliminate near every freedom they can impost mandates on. They abhor the thought of people doing anything without leftist approval and control and will grasp at any reason, real or imagined, to sell it to the masses.

  16. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 24, 2023 / 10:31 am

    So threatening a democracy is a misdemeanor? Who knew?

  17. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 24, 2023 / 10:55 am

    First Canada legalizes drugs, then they legalize assisted suicide for drug addicts … Leftists care about people, honest, they really do. They’re inclusive !!!!

    When Canada expands doctor-assisted suicide — or medical assistance in dying (MAID) — next year to people whose sole condition is that they struggle from severe mental illness, it is looking increasingly likely that the government will also allow people who are addicted to drugs to qualify as well. Many have described this latest dystopian move in Canada’s increasingly expanding MAID regime as eugenics.

  18. Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook October 24, 2023 / 11:00 am

    A while back I came up with the following short, concise definition of “Woke:”

    Mindless attention to and zealous
    support of anything related to social,
    economic, racial and environmental
    justice.

    Robert Malone expands on that in this morning’s Substack post, examining numerous aspects of how wokism affects our culture.

  19. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 24, 2023 / 2:43 pm

    And don’t ever question elections again, they are transparent and fair, just ask a Democrat

    American voters have fallen victim to a hacking group that stole thousands of items and records from a voting registration agency based in Washington DC.

  20. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 24, 2023 / 2:51 pm

    One other new fact, the Democrats DEI programs are for everyone now except whites, Asians, and Jews. Check back later for updates.

  21. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 24, 2023 / 5:07 pm

    Considering the out of control overseas wars directly caused by Joe Biden, possibly leading to WWIII, the rampant crime in this country, the unaffordable prices, the mass layoffs, the unaffordable mortgages, incitement to violence by Biden voters, and the invasion of the southern border, one has to have an entirely dormant and incurious mind to even be thinking about Trump. I never thought people could be so worthless.

  22. Cluster's avatar Cluster October 25, 2023 / 9:08 am

    Mark, I think we need to do an entire thread on American propaganda because it has reached an existential level. Teacher unions have successfully dumbed down our children’s education (Oregon recently eliminated math and reading as requirements to graduate), and the American “news” media propaganda is worse than 1930’s Germany. Combined, it has unleashed a weaponized and dangerous “brown shirt” for lack of a better term, but that’s exactly what they are. And we see the results in people like Forty and Fielding and of course 100% of the Democrats on Twitter.

    Considering the current state of domestic and world events, no normal, fully functioning brain would ever spend anytime thinking about a former President who challenged the outcome of an election from 3 years ago. In light of the real possibility of a civil and world war (the latter of which is already underway), the extreme high cost of living, the prospects of home ownership slipping away, the unending invasion of our southern border, forced vaccinations, and the sexual mutilation of our children, it is imperative that sane, rational, and emotionally strong people take control. And if the propagandized mob gets in the way, kill them. It is a time of reckoning and blood will be spilled. It’s either our blood or theirs.

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