The Iowa caucuses are tonight and I don’t think I’ve ever been less interested in them. Sure, there was that period of time in my 20’s when I was having too much fun to care about anything but the fun, but even then I at least took a peek at the caucuses. But this year I just don’t care. I suspect that Trump will win them handily based on some polling which has rolled across the time line but it occurred to me just yesterday that the people who are pouring over the polls and arguing this, that and the other thing about what may happen are just like a used to be. But now I’m not.
And as I analyzed this realization it hit me: I’m supposed to care about the caucuses in one, small State as our nation falls apart? That if I somehow care about these caucuses and do my political junkie thing it will alter the fact that our government, our corporations, our education institutions and just huge swaths of every other facet of American culture is assuming that there are trans kids? That it is a self-evident truth that some people are born in the “wrong” body and need to be surgically and chemically altered to “correct” the “mistake” that Nature made?
And then the phrase “abortion is healthcare” came to mind and think about it: what they are saying is that pregnancy is a disease and it must be treated by abortion. And at least half – perhaps more – of my fellow citizens hear the phrase and nod along. Do you realize the level of ignorance and evil that has to be reached to accept “abortion is healthcare”? That you have to simply deny the biological facts of life and come to a conclusion that the normal, healthy activity of the human reproductive system is a bane?
And we can go on; there are many millions who wonder if we really should be controlling the border. Whether or not we should have an economy where we produce our own goods. We can slide into the climate cult where we’ll find people seriously saying we have to restrict agricultural production in order to lower the global temperature. Do you realize how stupid, ignorant and evil you have to be to think that reducing food supplies is a good idea? Right now people are working out ways to make sex robots which are so real you can’t tell they’re not human; and there are people – I’ve seen them! – arguing that for a man a sex robot is superior to a human female. My goodness, the levels of evil stupidity we are plumbing!
But wait: there’s more! We’re funding a war of attrition in Ukraine because somehow defending a Donbas packed with Russians from Russia is the most crucial thing in the world. But, meanwhile, Israel fights for her life against people who want to exterminate Jews and we’re tut-tutting about how Israel is fighting her battle. Hooray Ukraine if they can bomb a Russian city – damn those Israelis if they bomb a Palestinian city.
Huge crowds come out almost daily in our major cities to support Hamas, a group dedicated to genocide of the Jews…and in a really bizarre twist these crowds are demanding we stop an Israeli genocide of Arabs which isn’t happening! Do you realize the level of mindless ignorance it takes to get huge crowds out in support of genocidal rapist/murderers and to condemn the civilized? What in heck am I supposed to do with such people? Let them vote? Let them have an equal say along with me in how things are going to be? How can I possibly?
Ok, Mark; take a breath. God is in control. Relax.
So, what I will do come November is vote for the GOP. Not because they are any good but because they aren’t overtly evil, like the Democrats are. But I have no illusions: I’m not voting GOP in any expectation that the GOP will fix things. I’m voting for them as the merest stop-gap; an attempt to slow the roll of destruction as we work out on the local level what we’re going to do to save ourselves. Governor Abbott is actually leading the way here – sending the illegals to Blue States and using his National Guard to secure the border of Texas. Florida has made “woke” largely illegal. We need more and more of this, even if it provokes a permanent split in the nation. That is, we must protect ourselves…and if that drives such a wedge from those Americans determined upon national suicide, so be it.
Because we can’t proceed as if the Left (the Woke, the Progressives, the Democrats, the Communists, the Chamber of Commerce types: whatever you want to call them) is legitimate. They are equal parts insane, stupid and evil. What we must do is prevent them from having a say in our lives…and this means making laws on the local level, ignoring contrary federal court rulings and, if necessary, physically moving ourselves to parts of the country where insane stupidity doesn’t rule. We’re heading that way – and maybe towards national divorce. We’ll see about that: there is a chance the Left gets so crazy that their support dries up even in their strongholds. Not holding my breath on that, of course.
But now it is about survival. Can we preserve out of the wreck something sane and decent? We’re going to find out.
Blogs For Victory 
When major outlets like NBC News say out loud what the Left is planning if Trump is elected again, everyone needs to pay attention.
Gee, that sounds like telegraphing an intent to burn down cities, doesn’t it?
I have a feeling that the real change is more to expand the meaning of “insurrection” to include a much wider range of actions that fall far short of an effort to overthrow the government and/or assume its powers.
Of course, they are forgetting that “be careful what you wish for” rule, as it was the Left that had an official, public, movement to undermine the authority of Trump both as president and commander in chief, with the complicity of military officers and members of Congress as well as federal employees. An expanded definition of “insurrection” could and probably would apply to these kinds of efforts as well as the anarchist marchers with flags and signs about getting rid of the government. It might even be applied to people who advocate for a governing model that is antithetical to that demanded by the Constitution.
Now wouldn’t that be a kick in the butt?
“nonpartisan U.S. military” ? Really? Not in this country, not any more.
And I seriously doubt that Trump has been “putting forward a legal theory that a president would be free to do nearly anything with impunity — including assassinate political rivals — so long as Congress can’t muster the votes to impeach him and throw him out of office.” I’d need to see a verified quote from Trump before believing this.
There is a reason that NBC is also known as Nothing But Crap.
This sort of thing is why I want the Army reduced to 100,000 and the Marines to 10,000. I have revived the Founders skepticism of standing armies which flowed from ancestral memories of Cromwell and his New Model Army. We must also revive the State Militia as the primary military force of the United States – just as in the past, liable for federal service but under the control of the State governors who can refuse to send their militia if they feel the use is unconstitutional. I would add that the federal government should only be able to call on the militia during a declared state of war (not an “authorization to use military force”) and no more than 90 days during a federally declared state of emergency. We can keep a big fleet and air force because neither are particularly useful in oppressing the citizens (though we must have a care here: the Air Force maintains a large ground force ostensibly for base security – I would make the State militias responsible for base security; the Air Force only gets to have pilots and ground crews). Also, of course, it is much harder to improvise a Navy or Air Force…armies can be raised in months…fleets and air forces take years to build.
And I really want our Army and Marines back home…and organized in regiments which are in garrisons along our borders and coastlines. We don’t need an Army or Marine base in the interior, at all. No deployments to foreign soil except during a declared state of war.
Well, I finally figured out how to do a block quote. It’s part of the paragraph function. Thanks for all your help, Mark//sarc.
LOL – I’m sorry; didn’t know you were in a jam on that!
Just a simple heads up would have been nice, like, hey you all have probably noticed the new comment format. Here’s how it works. But I finally figured it out. As Amazona said, it fixed a problem we didn’t know we had. I still don’t know what “to choose a block” means, but apparently it’s not too important.
I’m really sorry I missed the problem…just jumping between too many things when I’m on here. I’ll pay closer attention going forward! Promise!
I’m just giving you a hard time. It’s all good.
History is full of horrific times. The Roman occupation and control of the Jewish people leading up to the time of Christ, and the Hebrew slavery in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs are just a few. History is strife with countless wars and atrocities initiated by some of the most horrific “leaders”; Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Nepoleon, Muhammed, Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Kim II Sung, Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, Leopold II, Mao Zendong and on and on… So how does this compare with what we’re dealing with today?
Jesus said he would return but that time was only known to the Father. I heard a something recently that I have absolutely no means to verify but, it was commented by a person who claimed to have had a near death experience; the Father told Jesus it was time for His return but He requested more time to save souls. It seems the claim of “The End is Near” has been spouted by generations of people, going back far before my lifetime. It’s hard to know just how ugly things are today is in comparison to previous history, but I’m sure we can all attest it’s in a continuous horrendous downfall. In this article by Archbishop Vigano spells it out: “This reason is Satan’s hatred: hatred of God, hatred of God’s Creation, and hatred of man, who is created in the Image and Likeness of God.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/vigano-davos-elite-satans-hatred/?utm_source=digest-catholic-2024-01-16&utm_medium=email
Identity politics and virtue signaling are consuming and destroying the Democrat Party so while it’s appropriate to be diligent and concerned about it, that party will soon collapse under it’s own absurdity. As of right now, that party is so factionalized that the separate “self interested” groups are tearing it apart. And at the core of all the factional wings, is ignorance and narcissism, two completely unsustainable characteristics. There is no “love of country” within that party, there is no self introspection, and there certainly is no Faith. Democrats have no positive accomplishments to boast about, so they focus their hatred and blame towards others, just like all narcissists do. Below is a statement from Rachel Maddow that I have read three times now, and still don’t completely understand it. It’s simply chock full of poll tested virtue and unsubstantiated accusations that have been pedaled for years now, and Americans are waking up to this. Stay the course, keep the Faith, and we can vanquish this extremely unAmerican progressive movement.
<i>Rachel Maddow: If we are worried about the rise of authoritarianism in this country, we are worried about potential rise of fascism in this country. If we’re worried about our democracy falling to an authoritarian and potentially fascist form of government, the leader who is trying to do that is part of that equation. But people wanting that correct is a much bigger part of that equation. And the american electorate is made up of two major parties. One of those parties has been flirting with extremism on the ultra right for a very long time. They’ve brought them in in a way that they haven’t been central to republican electoral politics ever before. And I know, because I’ve been studying this, but once you have radicalised one major party, so that those are the preferences of the people who adhere to your party, the leaders, interchangeable. And, yes, Trumpism is sometimes what we call it. MAGA movement is probably a better way to do it. But there is an authoritarian movement inside republican politics that isn’t being bamboozled by Trump.
I agree, this is gibberish. It Kamala-esque but sounds more erudite, because Rachel is very good at sounding smart while saying the stupidest things imaginable.
I follow her first two sentences, and as I live in the real world and not in the fever swamp it is clear to me that she is talking about the last three years in this country. If you remove the random word “correct” from the third sentence then this, too, makes sense, as it connects the electorate that helped put this regime in power with the Soviet-style abuses we have been seeing and living with.
And then she goes down the rabbit hole into the delusional “ultra right” fantasy. As in strictly political terms “the Right” only means allegiance to the nation and the belief that it has to be governed by its own Constitution, the concept of an “ultra right” entity can only mean people who are the most ardently and openly committed to these two principles. I’ll leave it up to the Left to explain why they feel this is dangerous, but I think it is pretty clear that it is dangerous only to the political model of Leftism.
As Rachel goes on, “once you have radicalised one major party, so that those are the preferences of the people who adhere to your party, the leaders, interchangeable”. She doesn’t/can’t actually name or describe those ominous “preferences” other than to vaguely imply they are somehow “authoritarian”. Is she saying the leaders of a party with such a strong ideological identity are basically “interchangeable”? Because I think that is the goal, or should be—that our leaders should not be chosen based on their personalities or appearances or ‘charisma’ but on how the fit into and advance the ideology of the party. She is just stringing words together trying to make it sound like a warning of something dire and nefarious but simply not saying anything at all.
And then, and this is the oddest thing about this disjointed rambling of incoherence, she explains that there is an authoritarian movement inside republican politics that isn’t being bamboozled by Trump.. Therefore, Trump is NOT the “authoritarian” that has her fretting, but it is, instead, a “movement inside republican politics” that is not only not connected to Trump but evidently does not find his positions or arguments convincing.
The single thing I can name that was even remotely “authoritarian” in the Trump presidency was his adoption of the Draconian measures advocated by the “experts” at the CDC and FDA when we were faced with what these experts assured us was such a threat to the people of the nation, and the world, that strong measures were required. And when these measures are compared to those that followed when the Left took over the White House, they were mild and benign by comparison as true authoritarianism started to stomp its way through American lives, putting its boot on the necks of American citizens in ways we had never expected to see in this country.
If there is any meaning at all that can be attached to this screed of Rachel’s, it is that the Left is panicky, and understands that their only chance is to dazzle its base with such a flood of intense yet incoherent verbiage that they create a compelling sense of impending doom without actually saying anything at all.
/they create a compelling sense of impending doom without actually saying anything at all.
Or without any evidence to support their claims, but that’s who Democrats have become. Their narcissism has them convinced they are right about everything, and their virtue signaling leads them to make some really stupid decisions. There is zero evidence to support any of their climate change/saving democracy/white supremacy claims … zero, yet they repeat it ad nauseam to brain wash their mouth breathing voters.
I just keep wondering how many of their old base are falling away as common sense intrudes on the wild-eyed narrative. Surely some of them have stopped to think that when Trump was president, when for two years he also had both houses of Congress, he never did a single thing they now claim he will do if he is president again.
I have spent a lot of time in Mexico over the years, including most of the last two weeks, and I have to say that I love the people, I love the culture, I LOVE the food, I love the climate, and most importantly, I love how politics is not immersed in everything. People down there simply live their lives and are kind and gracious to others. People there are Faith based, family oriented, and don’t judge others. It’s refreshing. Kind of like being in 1970’s America, before Democrats became radicalized. We loved it so much that we are now working with a real estate agent to find a place and will soon spend most of our time down there, as many other Americans have chosen to do. We found a Beach Church and the Pastor is from LA but has resided in Mexico for the last 20 years. And the services are surreal. First and foremost, Pastor Rick delivers a beautiful and relevant sermon but while you’re listening, you’re also overlooking the ocean with whales spouting and cresting, pelicans fishing, and waves crashing. I can not imagine a more beautiful way to spend the last chapter of our lives, and that’s exactly what we intend to do. And as I mentioned, we ran into a lot of ex pats living there, in fact I would venture to say that there may be just as many Americans in Mexico as there are Mexicans in America lol. Vive la Mexico.
Send me your new address and I’ll start packing………..
When you were MIA for the last couple of weeks, I kind of figured you were lounging around down south of the border. If I was your age, I’d give serious thought to joining you.
LOL, I will forward that address as soon as I have it … which maybe a year or two. There’s a lot of new construction coming available in 2025 and reasonably priced and I like the idea of buying new in Mexico to avoid as many problems as possible. The real estate agent told me that he has been hearing from a lot of Americans lately lol, no surprise. There is an art walk held every Thursday at the Plaza Mejir in San Jose del Cabo, which is just amazing, lots of bars and restaurants and some incredibly talented artists, anyway one of the vendors asked me if the economy in America was bad and I said that it was struggling. I was a little surprised he asked that question but then he added that in previous years, he could always count on the Americans for business but the last couple of years he said “no one buys anything” lol.
They are civilized people – Cartels, though!
There’s as much gang activity in America as there is in Mexico.
These days I suspect more – not the horrific violence (so far) but the Cartels have deeply penetrated the USA.
This does figure in Book IX: Home World which will be released later this year!
Yeah, but in America it’s just tribal savagery, while in Mexico it’s smart, organized and protected by the government.
There has been chatter about the possibility of Trump selecting Ramaswamy for his VP pick as he seems to check many of the boxes. I believe there is still a gray area of his citizenship qualifications to be a US president (both of his parents were immigrants) even though he had been attempting to win the republican nomination. Now that he has dropped out, I can vision a situation where the left would attempt an assassination on Trump (should he win the 2024 presidential election) if they were able to obtain control of the house leadership, and then declare Ramaswamy ineligible for the position of president, making the house leader next in line by default. No idea how this would ultimately play out but I don’t discount for a second that the left would attempt to steal the presidency (again) by any means necessary.
It’s not just that Ramaswamy’s parents are immigrants, it’s that they have never cared enough about this country to make a commitment to it and swear fealty to it, instead retaining their identity as Indians and their allegiance to their own country. That means that Ramasamy was not born to citizen parents—-the very definition of natural born citizen (ditto for Haley)—- and is still, technically, a natural born citizen of India.
I have been saying, ever since these two people started making noise about running for the presidency, that the Left was lying in wait for one of them to either get the nomination for president or at least for vice president, and then to lurch out of the shadows with a full-throated attack on whichever one it might be, to either disrupt the election and throw it into chaos, or to create a Constitutional crisis by pointing out we had someone on the brink of the presidency who is not eligible, or (as you say) somehow assume the presidency and then be disqualified. No matter how you look at it, this is a time bomb that will go off at some time, and I can guarantee if we don’t do something now it will go off at the worst time for us.
Having said that, I don’t think Ramaswamy is the Trojan Horse the Left wants. Look at the brief kerfluffle when Haley’s eligibility was challenged. Her defense was immediate, strident, and solely from Democrats, and from the most radical element of that party. The Left has not promoted Vivek because he is too articulate in his dissection of Leftist nonsense, while Haley is an obedient handmaiden for the Leftist element of the Republican Party as well as Democrats.
What I don’t understand is the reluctance of the Right to examine this issue, delve into it and get it resolved. I think we got so hyper-sensitized by the word “birther” that we shy away from the whole topic. And I understand, kind of. It’s a sensitive area, as it leads into examination of the true meaning and intent of the 14th Amendment and the wildly hysterical outrage we could expect if we got a ruling that no, the Amendment does NOT automatically convey American citizenship to anyone born here, just to those born here to parents who are not under the jurisdiction of any other nation. And the only demographic that has ever met that criterion has been that of slaves, who had no citizenship in any other country. The purpose of the Amendment was to find a way to grant citizenship to people who were born here, to generations of people born here, who through no fault of their own had no allegiance to any other land.
There would have to be, regarding the 14th Amendment, a SCOTUS ruling setting aside a couple of prior rulings and grandfathering in everyone born here up to the date of the ruling, I guess, but making it clear that merely being born on US soil would no longer convey citizenship. Linked to this would have to be a ruling that even those who can claim birthright citizenship are not natural born citizens. Personally, I would like all birthright citizens to be required to take an oath of allegiance to this country, as naturalized citizens have to do, officially renouncing the country that is their true birthright and choosing this one over any other. It would be tricky, and messy, and generate mass hysteria fed by the trouble-loving Left, but it has to be done.
Yep – and, of course, in the 1860’s a pregnant woman would only rarely travel and it took weeks or months to get to the USA so you simply didn’t have the thing of someone waltzing across the border a week before giving birth and then claiming that child is a citizen.
Now, I will say that we might have to think about someone who was born in the USA to persons who were legally resident and not, say, working for a foreign government or foreign corporation at the time. You’re right about the intent of the 14th…but things are a little screwy all over today and whatever the actions of, say, Vivek’s parents, he was born here and considers himself nothing but American. OTOH, I think of my childhood friend Rafael – born in the USA to Cubans who had fled Castro but eventually mom and dad did become citizens. At the time Rafael was born, I suspect they might have still been thinking they’d eventually get to go back to Cuba. So, another bit of gray area.
I will say that we might have to think about someone who was born in the USA to persons who were legally resident and not, say, working for a foreign government or foreign corporation at the time.
But they still owe their allegiance to their own country. People keep bringing up the legal status of the parents, which I think is totally irrelevant. The goal of the Founders was to have presidents brought up in citizen families with at the least a citizen father. You are talking about parents who have never declared allegiance to the United States, nor renounced their citizenship in any other country. It doesn’t matter that they are here legally—-they are still passing their own citizenship on to their children, who are natural born citizens of their native land no matter where they are born.
As for the14th Amendment, some argue that as long as those parents are in the United States they are under the jurisdiction of the United States. I think that is a foolish and specious argument. When a U.S. citizen visits a foreign country he is expected to obey the laws of that country. On a long trip he might visit half a dozen countries, and in each one be required to obey the laws of that country. But this is not the same as being “under the jurisdiction” of any of those countries. If he gets in trouble in any of them, he will turn to the U.S. Embassy, because no matter where he is he is still under the jurisdiction of the nation where he is a citizen. This is his national identity, this is his allegiance, and this is his country. By the same token, if a family from India is living legally in the United States and has legal issues, it turns to the Indian Embassy for help. If they are visiting Mexico, while living legally in the United States, and have a problem in Mexico, they don’t turn to the U.S. Embassy for help, they turn to the Indian Embassy.
Vivek might identify as an American, and because of decades of misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment he legally is, but he is not a natural born citizen. The longer a mistake is tolerated because fixing it would be complicated, the more complicated it becomes. The only thing I can think of is an expedited naturalization process for these people to ratify their citizenship.
Dr. Robert Malone has another great post, which I think relates to my observation that one of, if not THE, most powerful attractions of the Left is the conviction that this provides a shortcut to the Higher Moral Ground—-that, basically, being “FOR” something is adequate to claim moral superiority, without actually doing anything.
Writing in “Psychology Today”, Sandro Galea M.D. poses “The Challenge of Moral Grandstanding. When the wish to look good prevents us from truly doing good.”
Watching the various rallies for Palestine, I have always doubted that most of these people truly want Jews to die. I have always thought they were just looking for a way to feel relevant, part of something bigger and greater than they are, and got bamboozled into thinking that screeching for the “freedom of an entire people” would accomplish that. So this article resonated with me, because the term “moral grandstanding” is such a perfect description of it.
The age range of most of these people indicates that they are of the Participation Trophy generations, brought up by parents and grandparents from the 60s so quite imbued with the concept of the “visible moral gesture” being the same thing as being moral. A demagogue gives them a cause defined as “moral” and they are ready to go out and grandstand in glorious and of course highly publicized displays of their moral superiority. Because it’s so much easier than actually DOING anything moral but has the same emotional reward.
We talk about the Left being evil, and it is. But even though the outcome of Leftism is evil I don’t think most who support it are. I think that underneath the actions that create and enable evil is a core desire to be a good person. If you don’t want to be a good person you aren’t attracted to what will provide that sense of goodness, to a desire to occupy the Higher Moral Ground.
I’m not trying to excuse these people, because what they are responsible for is reprehensible and destroys lives. They have the responsibility to examine what they are told instead of blindly volunteering to be part of something based on flim-flam and deceit. But I don’t think we can effectively deal with them unless we understand how they have been manipulated, and understand that people are not going to willingly give up something that makes them feel moral and good. The most insidious skill of the Left is its ability to manipulate the minds and emotions of the easily led, and the most blatant example of this are the size and passion of its mobs.
Exactly: none of us has an excuse.
After WWII all the Germans were “I didn’t know”. Yeah, right. But supposing they didn’t know then we listen to Traudl Junge – one of Hitler’s private secretaries – who years afterwards understood that if she didn’t know it was because she didn’t want to know. These kids out there protesting for Palestine don’t want to know…they don’t want to examine. They just want the street cred, as it were, for participating.
They just want the street cred, as it were, for participating.
Exactly. They have grown up in a Participation Trophy world, in which performative virtue is the same as real virtue—that is, drift along until an authority figure presents you with something identified as a Moral Cause, then throw yourself into elaborate and energetic theatrical moral grandstanding. This provides not only street cred but shores up an internal self-identity as a virtuous person with the courage to take a stand.
All it takes is for the demagogues to phrase the topics in ways that appeal to this self-identity. So poisoning and dismembering sentient human beings for the convenience of women who couldn’t be bothered to prevent conception is recast as “reproductive freedom” and immediately becomes a magnet for performative virtue as it draws in people who find self-gratification in standing up for FREEDOM. They aren’t out there screeching that Israeli women should be gang-raped until their internal organs are ripped apart and then forced to parade in front of jeering crowds with blood gushing from between their legs—they are FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM.
But it doesn’t just come down to the shallowness of these people nearly as much as it does the success of creating and then promoting the narratives that feed their superficial concepts of moral actions. And this is the fatal defect of the Right—our narrative is fragmented because we can’t agree on it, and then ineffective because we lack the media presence to counter the overwhelming volume of the Left.
The prosecutions of Trump are going nowhere. He will be found guilty at the bench trial in NY but that will easily be overturned on appeal, primarily because the case is absurd and the prosecutors and judge are completely partisan. The Fani Willis case is imploding because of her zeal and stupidity, and the Supreme Court is soon to dismantle Jack Smith’s case. Trump will come out of this stronger than ever before …
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/17/supreme-court-case-trump-prosecution-00135852
He will be found guilty at the bench trial in NY but that will easily be overturned on appeal, primarily because the case is absurd and the prosecutors and judge are completely partisan
The fact that that hack judge pronounced Trump GUILTY before the trial could be a factor as well/sarc
And none of this matters because the goal of these prosecutions is not to have real convictions, though of course that would be a nice bonus if it were to happen. The goal is to cement in place the impression that Trump is an evil, nefarious criminal who should not be allowed near the seat of power. It’s all just theater.
Of course, the American Left lacks the foresight and patience of its patriarch, the International Left, so it has gone overboard and may have shot itself in the foot with its “if an indictment is good, then a dozen will be better” clumsy efforts. Sure, the dedicated Trump haters are buying into this, but the Left has forgotten how much it depends on all those “moderates” and “independents” who just mill around indecisively until something twangs an emotion, who are starting to see not just the injustice of these abuses of political power but how ominous they are.