It was pointed out on X today that if you take the Democrat-governed urban areas of Missouri out of the mix, the murder rate in six times less than in those cities. Do you realize what a remarkable thing that is? In fact, there are counties in Missouri which go years without a homicide. And this is why the gun rights people get angry about the whole debate – another person used words to the effect of “a couple black kids shot at a bunch of brown kids and this means me, a white man who doesn’t live there, has to have his rights violated?”. That was a very crucial observation to make. It illustrates the dual nature of America in 2024. A house divided.
Keep in mind that the murder rate is high in Democrat-run cities on purpose. I refuse to concede that anyone is that stupid: you know what will happen if you let criminals go or let them off lightly. They’ll just go and commit more crimes. I don’t care how many studies you have or supposed arguments that this will lower crime, you know it won’t. It can’t. The person who commits a robbery, rape or murder isn’t a petty criminal just starting out on the life of crime – but the time you’re sticking a gun in a store clerk’s face, dragging a girl into an alley or ending a human life, you are a hardened criminal. And it doesn’t really matter how young the criminal is. You can become a hardened brute very young. Heck, Hitler did it with his people in just a few years with his Hitler Youth savages committing heinous war crimes at the age of 16 in some cases. However the person got to the store clerk, girl or person about to die, by the time they got there the only way to stop them is with force – and with lengthy incarceration if caught.
And everyone knows this.
But they let them out – if they even bother going after them. One of the dirty secrets of American policing is how badly policed most minority neighborhoods are. Huge amounts of crime in such areas go entirely unreported and only the worst aspects of it show up in the records. And as I said, it is desired. All of those who run Democrat cities are infused with Marxist-Leninist thought. It started to come here in the 1930s with German commie refugees (ie, cowards who wouldn’t stand up to Hitler) and it has just entrenched itself ever more deeply. By now, most of them don’t even know they are just aping Lenin’s “who, whom?” and “loot the looters”. But it is what they are doing; their belief is that crime is the result of the system and those who benefit from the system must be punished by crime until they abandon the system.
But then, also, today Trump was ruled guilty by a fraud masquerading as a judge. Guilty of what? of nothing. He borrowed money with the consent of the lender and then paid it back on time with interest. They say it was a crime – they say the assets used to back the loans were inflated. Not according to Trump or the banks – not, that is, according to the people involved. But according to a “judge” Trump is guilty of fraud. The same system which lets rapists and murderers walk is throwing the book at Trump. And pro-life protestors. And J6 defendants. And whistle blowers.
Why? Because it is, once again, not about justice or law: it is about punishing political offenders. You are to have rapists wander your streets because you are guilty of the political offenses of being middle class/white/Christian/Republican. Trump is being charged on the political grounds that he threatens the dominance of the Left. The rapist and the murderer does not threaten the political dominance of the Left (and the Ruling Class is confident that private security will keep them safe). This is all very obvious by now. And yet plenty don’t see it.
Also today we learned that some Russian dissident got offed in prison and we’re all supposed to be horrified by it. Honestly, I had never hard of the guy. Some people I know have claimed some knowledge but, lets face it, he’s only news because they want another $60 billion for Ukraine so stoking emotions about his death is politically useful at the moment. But in light of this – and Tucker Carlson having some nice things to say about Russia – we’re being told that to question American moral superiority over Putin’s Russia is tantamount to treason. Really? Yes, I get it that the Moscow metro system is a showpiece in no way reflective of how Russian life is. But the rat, crime and drug addict infested New York metro system is entirely reflective of how American life is in the cities. Maybe Russia does suck, but why can’t we – supposedly free and responsible people – at least have a subway system where people aren’t urinating on the cars? Not having human feces in public places – and people smoking crack on the train – doesn’t seem like an unreasonable ask. To me, it is kinda basic decency. The glittering art of the Moscow train station is obvious a front…but there are no human feces there. So, plus one for Russia.
We’re not actually free if there are bums wandering our streets in a drug-induced haze. They’re dangerous…and so we avoid the areas they congregate and we hope they don’t find their way to our immediate neighborhood. We’re not free if the crime rate is high; we have to lock our doors, perhaps arm ourselves, and pray that the criminals will pass us by because even if armed we don’t want to actually shoot someone. Sure, they aren’t free in Russia. In fact, there are hardly any free places left in the world – with rural America being the freest, but even there year by year it is less. And it gets less and less because an overpowering government sticks its nose in more and more…while also allowing criminals to wander freely, and persecuting anyone who steps out of line.
Another person said they are much freer in America than anyone in Russia is. Perhaps. But only marginally. And even with that, it is only because the government hasn’t got around to you yet. Think about it – if you were to be arrested as a white supremacist terrorist tomorrow, how confident are you that you could beat the rap? How long would it take? Think about your friends and family: how many would really stick by you knowing that doing so places them on the radar and at risk of arrest, themselves? The government can instantly ruin the life of any American citizen – and count on the MSM to take the government’s side, as long as the person arrested has been identified as an enemy of the Ruling Class. The Constitution won’t show up to help you – it is just a piece of paper. It only has power as long as people abide by it. That you could, by effort, get out of such an injustice doesn’t really mean anything – in that case, the process was the punishment. But in a nation really obeying the US Constitution, you’d have no fear of it even happening except by some bizarre mistake. Now we all know it can happen – and know that the only reason it hasn’t happened is that the Ruling Class is still a bit afraid of us…and, of course, we are armed. In the UK and Australia they are sending people to jail for trivial offenses…all of this, naturally, occurring after gun confiscation for your own good, dammit.
This is why we must steel ourselves to harsh actions. We don’t need a court ruling in our favor ten years after the violation…we need to start sending Leftist Ruling Class foot soldiers to jail. These corrupt and political judges, police officers, DA’s, NGOs etc all need to start seeing the inside of cells. For a long time. It is the only way we can possibly stop them short of violence.
These people – those who are persecuting people like Trump and pro-lifers – are not Americans. They are aliens. They are enemies. I don’t care if they have Mayflower ancestors…somewhere along the line they broke the mystic chains of memory and became anti-American. Out to destroy America and the Americans. It is either stop them, or they stop us.
Blogs For Victory 
Jeff Childers pulls no punches, whether talking about vaxx damage or Trump persection. He has a summary of the Fani Willis spectacle:
There was a clip of Nathan Wade doing a great Joe Biden imitation as he totally froze in response (non-response) to a question about whether or not he had ever rented a cabin. I was watching this guy and thinking “OK, we’re definitely looking at an Affirmative Action law school grad here”.
In addition to her ignorance of the law and of geography as well as the English language (starting to get all defensive when asked about her “horde” of cash, not being familiar with the word) she made such a great impression that there was a flurry of commentary insisting that she had her dress on backward (no doubt prompted by the fact that it fit her so badly and looked so…..Dr. Jill-ish) and she even had her American flag pin pinned on sideways.
Maybe that, too, is just a “black thing”.
Her father was embarrassing. American blacks are the most racist, entitled people in the world, and that’s all because Democrats have used them as political footballs since 1968, and most of them are too stupid to figure that out.
Fani and Nathan are REALLY not going to like the CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) that her party is pushing for.
“But then, also, today Trump was ruled guilty by a fraud masquerading as a judge. Guilty of what? of nothing.”
Actually this is what he was guilty of.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/f203be39-020c-4f82-a423-96aa20c08e3a.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_3
From the court documents:
The problem is there is NO Complainant. This case would be like the local DA indicting you for robbing a bank simply because you had an account there when the bank was robbed. No bank or financial institution ever claimed or lodged a complaint that the Trump organization defrauded them. This prosecution is utterly and totally political, and that’s what the Supreme Court will find when it inevitably rules on it.
Casper is so void of original thought, he simply posts the States charging document lol. Casper is someone who would have turned Anne Frank in within the first few hours.
And the judge claimed Mar A Lago is only worth $18 million. That’s an easily provable false statement just based on comps in the area. Should HE be prosecuted?
Excellent point.
Yet none of this legalese addresses the right of a person to state what he believes to be the value of his property. None of it addresses the back-and-forth of any negotiation regarding valuation.
At the very most, in an extremely distorted and expanded definition, Trump MIGHT have been found guilty of ATTEMPTED fraud, if the argument were to be that he TRIED TO FOOL the banks by producing FRAUDULENT estimates of the values of his properties. (Sorry about the yelling/caps but these are words that have to be emphasized.) But even this would have to totally dismiss the usual process of loan application and approval.
Casper is just plain stupid, so eagerly gullible it would be funny if it were not so pathetic. The judge, however, is a corrupt political hack.
I know the Left hates definitions—they are so restrictive, you know, when they need to use a word and the actual meaning has nothing to do with their intent. But as long as they have corrupt judges and mentally feeble meat puppets like Casper willing to accept what they say, they just keep on redefining words.
Cornell Law School is hardly a bastion of politically conservative thought, so an article from that school on fraud ought to carry a little weight: emphasis mine to point out salient facts ignored by the howling mob of anti-Trump hysterics
In civil litigation, allegations of fraud might be based on a misrepresentation of fact that was either intentional or negligent. For a statement to be an intentional misrepresentation, the person who made it must either have known the statement was false or been reckless as to its truth. The speaker must have also intended that the person to whom the statement was made would rely on it. (In an application for a loan, there is no expectation that the lender will rely on the information provided. Rather, it is accepted and expected that the lender will exercise his own due diligence to confirm or contradict the information provided.) The hearer must then have reasonably relied on the promise and also been harmed because of that reliance. (In the cases presented, the “hearer”, or prospective lender, not only did not rely on the information but suffered no harm. In fact, the lenders profited.)
A claim for fraud based on a negligent misrepresentation differs in that the speaker of the false statement may have actually believed it to be true; however, the speaker lacked reasonable grounds for that belief. (In these cases, the “speaker” (Trump) not only believed his statements to be true, he had reasonable grounds for his belief)
A promise that goes unfulfilled may give rise to a claim for fraud only under particular circumstances (Here we need to stop to consider that no promise made on the grounds of the stated values of the properties went UNFULFILLED. On the contrary, every such contract was fully executed, according to its terms, and the lenders profited from their participation.) For example, in California law, a false promise is only fraudulent if the promisor intended both not to perform on the promise and also that that the promisee would rely on the promise; and, the promisee must have reasonably relied on the promise and been harmed as a result of that reasonable reliance. (While these allegations were not made under California law, the premises set out are still sound. ) a false promise is only fraudulent if the promisor intended both not to perform on the promise and also that that the promisee would rely on the promise; and, the promisee must have reasonably relied on the promise and been harmed as a result of that reasonable reliance. When the promise was made as part of a contract, most states forbid a plaintiff from recovering under both contract law and tort law.
(Again, words matter. Here the important words are both not to perform on the promise and also that that the promisee would rely on the promise; and, the promisee must have reasonably relied on the promise and been harmed as a result of that reasonable reliance. BOTH, AND, AND, AND. These are crucial words in law.)
Lastly, opinions are not usually actionable as fraud except under very specific circumstances defined by either the common law or statutes in each state. (What are the common law and/or statutes in New York regarding opinions?) In California, for example, a jury may be instructed that an opinion can be considered a representation of fact if it is proven that the speaker “claimed to have special knowledge of the subject matter” that the listener did not have; OR that the representation was made “not in a casual expression of belief, but in a way that declared the matter to be true;” OR if the speaker was in a position of “trust and confidence” over the listener; OR if the listener “had some other special reason to expect” the speaker to be reliable. (In law, the existence of the word “OR” indicates that only one of these conditions must be present, not all of them.) Once the jury decides that an opinion qualified as a misrepresentation of fact under the circumstances, the plaintiff must still demonstrate all of the other elements of an intentional or negligent misrepresentation already described, such as reasonable reliance and resulting harm. ALL OTHER ELEMENTS.
By the most basic and accepted concepts of law, Trump did not commit fraud. He had reasonable grounds for belief in his representation of the values he stated, he did not expect the prospective lenders to rely solely on what he told them, they did not rely solely on what he told them but made independent and educated decisions on what to accept as accurate valuations, the resulting contracts were fully executed and the lenders profited from them.
This is real life. This is how real, normal, people do business, on large scales or small. Three days ago I talked with a man who is interested in buying a property from me. I told him what I think it is worth. He said that was a higher amount than he had expected. I told him to do his own market research and get back to me. By the “standards” (to use that word very loosely) in New York State I would be guilty of fraud if he accepts my valuation and agrees to pay that for the property.
All of this is so far over Casper’s head it isn’t even worth explaining it to him.
Think about it – if you were to be arrested as a white supremacist terrorist tomorrow … It is either stop them, or they stop us.
I agree with you Mark 100% but I am awe struck at the tone and the content of our conversations anymore. We have all been here for a long time and remember around 2005 we were discussing disagreements like tax policy, foreign diplomacy (winning hearts and minds), welfare entitlements, etc. NOW?? Now we’re talking basic survival and what we will do if the State is turned against us. That’s one hell of a slide downward, and yet here is our resident fascist Casper, parroting the authoritarian charges and being completely oblivious to the draconian nature of all of it.
America is on the precipice because of people like Casper, who blindly support communism if it means he gets to hang out with the cool kids. Yesterday, Biden arrested the FBI informant who wrote the 1023 exposing Hunter’s corruption. This was a guy who had exemplary work at the FBI for over a decade, and despite the fact that there is a lot of corroborating evidence including money wires, etc., he was arrested. Removed from the playing field. And the media doesn’t bat an eye.
I feel sorry for America because it’s almost over with. If Biden steals another election, it’s done. America can not survive another 4 years of Deep State rule, unfettered illegal immigration, and an out of control justice system. Our only hope id to elect Trump and demand that he obliterate the Deep State, short of that … violence will be the only other way out. I promise you this … if Biden is installed again, I am permanently moving to Mexico. Mexicans are a hell of lot nicer, more Faith based, and much more intelligent than your average American Democrat.
if Biden is installed again, I am permanently moving to Mexico.
I think if Biden is re-elected a LOT of people will move, maybe not to Mexico, but certainly to states where they can live their lives and raise their children as they see fit without fear of persecution. One of the unintended consequences of the Covid lockdowns is that a great many people learned that they can work from anywhere. We may not technically have a national divorce, but lots of Americans are going to relocate to areas where they feel safe. I mentioned to Amazona the other day in an email exchange that one of my fears, given that Indiana has had a number of mild winters and summers in recent years, that illegals and the homeless will discover that it’s a pretty nice place to live.
Another unintended consequence of ideological differences becoming a consideration for deciding where to live, is that things that Liberals don’t like, (like farms, factories, oil and gas drilling, etc.) will mostly be in red areas. Blue areas will largely have financial institutions and law firms. Guess which side wins that battle.
Thankfully, I am in my mid 60’s and lived most of my life away from ignorant people like Casper. I worry about my grandkids though. I know we talk about avoiding violence, but honestly, violence is already here. We either engage in it, or we don’t. I will engage if called.
Savage. Think God for humor, of which Democrats have none …
https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1758733505360478468?s=20
Pretty funny compilation. You’re right – there must be some component of the Liberal mind that short circuits their sense of humor.
That’s brilliant.
All inner city Democrats need to STFU and get use to your new reality. YOU VOTED FOR THIS …
Furious NYC residents confront mayor Eric Adams over plans to move migrants into their luxury building with pool and rooftop running track after spotting bunk beds being discreetly delivered
This is the most Orwellian things I have ever seen. A mentally retarded white man, who thinks he is a woman, concerning himself over the mental health of black people. I don’t even have any words for this. And why this isn’t laughed at, and called out for the absurdity it is, is beyond me.
Trans health secretary Rachel Levine claims climate change ‘disproportionately effects’ mental and physical wellbeing of black Americans
A ruling by Engoron cited the $18 million figure, but he attributed it to the 2011 value determined by the Palm Beach County property appraiser. The current property appraiser valued=s it at around 33 million.
No Cluster, I didn’t post the charging document. I posted the Judge’s decision.
Even the most ignorant know that the “appraisal” of the county appraiser is not related to the market value of the property. This was pointed out to the judge in testimony but he ignored it because he had already decided on his decision and facts had nothing to do with it.
My county appraisal is a fraction of the market value of my property. Anyone with even the slightest experience in property appraisals understands this. Poor Casper, so deluded he persists in digging himself in deeper and deeper.
Just pointing out that Engoron didn’t make the appraisal. That said, there is a preponderance of evidence that Trump lied about the value of his properties to get better interest rates. That is what the court found.
This just shows that neither you nor that “judge” have the faintest notion of how underwriting works. It isn’t like that:
Trump said, “I’d like to borrow money and here’s my collateral which I value at X. Here is my credit history and, given who I am, some docs relating to my cash flow.”
Bank: “We have assessed your overall credit rating and the value of the collateral and we believe this loan is good: here’s your money.”
Trump then paid the money back, with interest and on time.
You and the “judge”, as third parties, have no frame of reference to come in at a later date and say both the borrower and the lender got it wrong on the assets. It just can’t work that way – asset values can change and when an underwriter looks at the deal a host of factors are fed into the decision making process of which asset value – if it is a secured loan – plays only one role, usually very small. Far more important from an underwriting standpoint is the assessment of the borrower’s ability, stability and intent.
Ability to pay,
Financial stability.
Intent to repay.
They would be asking: can Trump pay?
Does his history show that he does pay?
Given what we know right now, does he have an intent to repay?
If the answer to those questions is “yes”, then the loan will be given.
The bank doesn’t want the assets; the bank wants the interest. The assets are there to make sure the bank doesn’t lose everything if the deal goes belly up – because any deal can, for reasons entirely outside of anyone’s control.
Finally, assets have zero to do with interest rates; they are based upon the Prime Rate and then added to for both bank profit margin and to account for the risk of the loan – ie, the risk that it won’t be repaid. Assets play no role in determining the interest rate because, one again, the bank doesn’t want the assets.
I’ll make it simple for you, Casper.
A Cadillac Escalade, basic, runs about $82,000.00. That is the asset value of the car you want to finance.
Once you drive that car off the lot, the value of your asset will drop significantly; thousands of dollars.
What role, then, did the asset play in determining your interest rate?
None. It can’t. Your interest rate is based upon the risk of the loan – if you have stupendously good credit, the dealership is basically going to eat some profit because they want to move the car. This is where you get the 2.9% APR deals and such. But as you start to have blemishes on your credit history – late payments, high debt loads, public records, etc – your APR will get higher and higher.
it is the SAME F***ING CAR. It is worth the same amount. And yet Judy is getting 2.9% and Jane is getting 8.9%. Why? Because of their credit rating…not their assets.
Exactly. It all comes down to risk assessment.
You list several criteria taken into account by a lender. I will add another: If the borrower defaults, can the lender recoup its losses by liquidating the collateral?
The banks in question understand this question, which is really at the heart of it all, and they all answered “Yes, we are confident that we could, if we had to”. This calculation is not based on what the prospective borrower says, it is based on independent expert evaluation of the collateral by the lender’s own team of appraisers and market analysts.
Another thing that people with experience in real estate understand is that market value fluctuates. So deciding on the expected market value of a property is much like picking a stock—-do you think it will go up, or down? Will it retain its value, or lose value? What factors influence these predictions?
In the case of Mar-A-Lago, these factors included how much of the vacant land around the actual resort building could, if desired, be divided and sold as building lots. A simple search of comps in the area for waterfront and/or golf course frontage building lots gives a projected possible value of this land if used in this way–what is usually referred to as the “highest and best use”. Other factors in this case would include the historical revenue stream of the resort itself and the likelihood of this continuing, supporting the projected value of the resort. Then there are the intangibles—-does the seller feel pressured to sell quickly and so be inclined to accept a lower offer, or can he sit back and wait till his high asking price is met? Is the potential market for this resort and its amenities, and/or vacant building lots, affected to any great degree by economic fluctuations? If your clientele consists mostly of very wealthy people whose disposable income is not going to be severely affected by a bad economy, your projected revenue stream is stable. If the people buying vacant building lots near you are wealthy enough to be relatively unaffected by economic ups and downs, the value of those lots is not likely to substantially diminish.
County bureaucrats don’t take these things into consideration when they “appraise” a property. They can’t. They would be legally liable for all sorts of damages and claims if they allowed these kinds of interpretations of markets to influence their decisions. They go by zip code and square footage, for the most part. Simple-minded aged failed middle school teachers don’t take things like this into consideration because calculations like this are so far above their comprehension they have to depend on the most basic, cartoon-level, figures fed to them by their chosen masters.
But judges, trusted with the responsibility to administer the law fairly, should be able and willing to understand concepts like this. Honest and ethical judges do. This one did not.
No, you are just pointing out that you think it is fine for an openly biased judge to use a metric never used otherwise to determine market value of a property, if doing that advances his political agenda.
It’s not as if this judge had somehow managed to get to his advanced age without ever dealing with property taxes, county assessments and so on and then had this 18 million dollar figure presented to him without any conflicting evidence or testimony to show that it was not relevant to the actual market value. No, while he may have managed to remain ignorant of basic real estate and taxation issues he heard extensive testimony from real experts about the inapplicability of county appraisals to market value, and he chose to dismiss it all because it did not advance his agenda.
And your effort to defend the judge fails to take into account the fact—-FACT—–that no lender was expected to take Trump’s figures at face value, no lender actually did take Trump’s figures at face value, and that everyone involved—-Trump and lenders—-understood the process. That is, the borrower says “This is what I think the property would bring in if sold” and then the lender says “I’ll investigate your claim before accepting it”. The entire shameful charade is based on the concept that the poor lenders, helpless to make their own educated decisions, deprived of experts in real estate evaluation, unskilled in their profession, made rash decisions on interest rates depending wholly on what they were told by a prospective borrower.
That is, that the negotiations between Trump and lenders took place outside the boundaries of reality, far far away from any factual processes in play at the time and unaffected by the usual business practices of borrowing and lending.
I can easily understand your personal confusion, having many many years of witnessing the odd ways your mind processes information. But you are just an aged failed middle school teacher from a small city in the middle of the country, with a remarkably skewed concept of his own intellectual ability. A judge, however, should be held to a higher standard. This judge is, which is why he is so despised and ridiculed for his blatant, shameless, violation of every principle of jurisprudence.
Interest rates have nothing to do with value.
“I can easily understand your personal confusion, having many many years of witnessing the odd ways your mind processes information. But you are just an aged failed middle school teacher from a small city in the middle of the country, with a remarkably skewed concept of his own intellectual ability. “
You are correct that I have a different way of looking at things and I am getting up there in years. That said, I am still in contact with hundreds of former students on social media and apparently most think I made their lives a little better. I also continue to do classroom presentations in several states on several subjects. I also live well.
I truly hope all of the members of this blog are doing well. I also am looking forward to the next few months as I feel things are moving in a good direction.
I agree, you probably did have a good impact on the marginalized students you focused on, making them feel important and included. You spend hours with them, playing games like lip syncing, and sitting with them at lunch. There is no doubt that these kids needed and benefited by this attention. This does not cancel out any damage you did by teaching false interpretations of the Constitution, as the example of your distorted thinking you gave us years ago. You were the Lefty in the faculty, which is one thing, but you never openly (as far as I know) defined and supported the political philosophies of the Left, merely supported it by undermining support for our Constitution. There is no way to know how much damage you did merely by convincing impressionable young minds that, to use one example of yours, to support the Constitution as it is written means supporting slavery and denying women the vote.
Even now you misstate the Constitution, and when called out on it merely smugly say you have read it and understand it, even in the face of your strange conclusions about what it says or means. Hopefully your “classroom presentations” are not to young students, and do not include your ignorance of the concepts and documents that made this country great.
You also fall back on smarmy efforts to appear genial and …nice……while regurgitating Leftist lies. There are reasons you are not respected here.
Putin has political prisoners. And so does Joe Biden. There is no difference.
Last night I watched The Courier, and thought at the time that the treatment of the British man arrested in Moscow in the 60s for helping smuggle Soviet information to the West had a lot in common with today’s political prisoners.
This I support 100%. It’s time MAGA punish DEI Democrats who hate us. Don’t deliver to them, don’t speak with them, don’t do anything for them.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/02/breaking-report-truckers-plan-stop-shipments-nyc-response/
A few years ago Glenn Beck was talking about wanting to get some message out there but not being able to afford to do it, and an independent trucker called in and said, to paraphrase, “There are tens of thousands of independent trucks driving what are essentially 53-foot-long billboards. Get your message onto those trailers and it will go across the country.”
If someone were to organize a campaign with two or three succinct messages about the danger to the nation of a corrupt judiciary and the use of government agencies to control elections and silence or intimidate opposition, I would donate to it. I think a lot of us would. The infrastructure is there—the trucker associations, the companies that make the vinyl wraps now used instead of paint to put logos on vehicles, and now a rising sentiment against the abuses of power we are seeing now.
I always wanted to see a 10th Amendment movement, with thousands of trucks featuring just the words of the amendment on their rear doors, so the American public would be faced with this concept and this element of our Constitution day in and day out. Now there are other messages we could put out there. Not a bunch of effing this and f*ing that, but some succinct and thought provoking quotes about the dangers of an out of control judiciary using its powers to silence political opposition.
Jeff Childers writes, today:
It’s easy to be defeatist and just shrug and say “Well, there just isn’t anything I can do” but as Childers points out, change can be effected by less than a majority. As I constantly point out, we have the message, we just lack the ability to get it out there. And, to be quite honest, we aren’t really very good at pinning down the message, being so easily distracted. It’s hard to avoid being distracted to focus on the most important points when there are so many flooding us with overload.
I think a step toward this is to start having less emotional, more analytical, political discussions. That is, instead of railing against things we already know are wrong, start organizing those complaints. Those of us old-timers who grew up diagramming sentences might have a better visual concept of this, but it comes down to placing every problem or issue into a category and then distilling each category down to its most basic element.
Just off the top of my head, I come up with two key elements. One is our inability to convey a coherent POLTICAL message, and one is poor representation of too many of our people. How many of our problems would be solved, or at least mitigated, by resolving either of these elements?
re: representation:
I believe, more and more as time goes on and I think about it more, that the best and most immediate resolution to many of our problems would be to increase representation. This could be done by decreasing the size of districts, thereby increasing the number of Representatives in Congress. But I truly believe that the best and most long-lasting solution would be to add ten states to the Union.
Not Puerto Rico. Let it go. It contributes nothing, it is not contiguous and aside from a military base, which could be negotiated separately, there is no reason to make it a state. So far it is a drain on the nation and this would not change if it were made a state. The District of Columbia is created by the Constitution.
But when we look at the map of the United States we see state after state totally controlled, politically, by a small urban area that overrides the wishes of the rest of the state. So I suggest going back to the long-held idea of dividing California into the three states that would provide the best representation of its diverse populations. Eastern Oregon and Washington do not feel represented by the coastal political powers, so carve out the eastern parts of those states and create a new state. That’s three new states right there. Eastern Colorado and Western Nebraska and Kansas do not feel that their urban centers accurately represent them, so carve out those parts of those states and make a new state there. Rural Illinois is not happy with being dominated by Chicago, so break it up. Ditto for New York State–stop letting NYC control the entire state.
I think we could easily come up with another four states that would benefit by breaking off their controlling urban areas and giving the outlying areas a bigger voice in their own government. (Texas is obviously a candidate for division, but I doubt that many of us are willing to die on that hill. :-) )
Been saying it for years! California and Texas into 4 States, NV, NY, IL, FL, VA, OR and WA into 2 States; 13 new ones. That gets us up to 126 Senators. Increase the House to 651 members (the British House of Commons has 650; so 651 is actually still a bit low – but we don’t want it to get unwieldy). Increase the Supreme Court to 15 members (only when we’re in control of the Senate and White House, it goes without saying) as this will allow us to break up several US District Court systems so that Red States don’t suffer under liberal Courts of Appeal).
The basic idea of America only works when power is divided and on the lowest level possible. An alternate proposal would be to make the largest cities into City-State (NY, Los Angeles, SF, etc); this is fair in that is allows these cities to have Senators and Representatives entirely in tune with their worldview but prevents them from imposing their worldview on the rest of the States and the nation as a whole.
I was thinking that eastern Oregon and Washington, having so much in common, could easily make a new state (which in my fantasy I call Olympia). Colorado is being destroyed by the Denver/Boulder corridor, so freeing at least the eastern half of the state from this and linking it with the agricultural areas of western Kansas and Nebraska would open up those states to better representation, as well. It would still leave Western Colorado at the mercy of the urban elites, but much of that area is either federal land or resort areas and the big historic ranches of NW Colorado are being bought up by out of state billionaires anyway. While Florida is spread out geographically it has only one large metropolitan area which doesn’t seem to completely dominate the state so I’m fine with Florida. Illinois, New York and Virginia definitely call for division. I know that Las Vegas (and to a lesser extent Reno) dominate Nevada but given the state’s relatively small total population I didn’t consider dividing it. It might just be sacrificed to the Urban Gods, like Los Angeles and Chicago, at least until populations change, union influence is eroded, or some such development.
I think adding states is a better and more Constitutionally defensible move than your city-state idea, though that is interesting and deserving of more discussion.
And, of course, while big changes are being made, I would also make oaths of office binding. Either than or get rid of them entirely as mere empty and meaningless symbols.
I think that these changes would put more control of the government back in the hands of the citizens, and also make it clear that government officers will be required to do their jobs or lose them.
Does this sound familiar? (from Robert Malone’s Sunday Strip)
I saw this, too, and immediately thought of posting it as it describes the tactics of a couple of our trolls, the relentless and insincere questions or requests for evidence under the guise of civility and a desire for genuine debate.
What has been funny has been the fluttering and feigned outrage at being called out for it when it has been called to a halt.
Another week of too many good ones to pick a favorite.
Excellent piece by Chris Bray at The Blaze this evening.
We’re now in the time of Orange Man Literally Hitler Mass Slaughter Civil War Insurrection Putin Putin Putin.
Too funny, in a pathetic way because it is such a perfect portrait of the average TDS hysteric
And here’s what the FBI has been up to
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/neo-nazis-march-nashville-leave-challenged-rcna139415
Has anyone gotten an insurance quote lately??? Be sure you’re sitting down. Joe Biden did that
I had my home and car insurance with Farmer’s Insurance for at least a decade, and my annual increases were usually in the 2-5% range until 3 years ago. My policy renews at the end of July. Starting in July, 2021 my annual increase was 20% for three straight years, (Nearly 73% in 3 years compounded) so Last July I started shopping around. I’ve been a member of USAA since the late 60s when I was on active duty in the navy. I have retirement funds with them, but hadn’t had auto and home insurance with them in several decades. They turned out to be about 25% less than Farmer’s, and I ended up switching. I never even got a call from the Farmer’s agent who I know personally.
Incidentally, the main reason car and home insurance has gone up to much is Bidinflation, ie., huge increases in the last 3 years in insurance-covered home and car repairs. Thanks, Robert, err. I mean Joe.
I’ve been with State Farm for 20 years, but now shopping around
Interesting article
After decades of ideological attacks on our gatekeeping institutions by globalists with no allegiance to this country, America’s sense of identity and purpose is dangerously close to dead.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/02/second-american-civil-war-is-starting/