Author: Mark Noonan

Out and About on a Tuesday

Mark Noonan48 Comments

Just to be clear about our Progressives, a reminder from Instapundit:

Lefties are a minority that relies on punishing speakers to ensure that the majority doesn’t realize just how big a majority it is. That’s why they hate free speech, and especially anonymous free speech. It’s why many campus groups demand that universities block Yik Yak.

Remember: They’re not well-meaning people who are just a bit overzealous. They’re horrible, nasty, awful people who want everyone who disagrees with them to be silenced and afraid. Keep this in mind, and respond with the appropriate level of respect and politesse.

The other day on Facebook I saw a picture I’ve seen before – a teacher before a blackboard, and the comment on it is about why Finnish kids do so much better than American kids. The answer, per the picture, is that Finnish teachers are paid as well as doctors and there is no mandatory testing. I did a quite check and found that Finnish doctors actually make quite a bit more than Finnish teachers and, indeed, American teachers make quite a bit more than Finnish teachers (and, it seem, American teachers make more than at least some Finnish doctors). As an example of Progressive lies this is pretty mundane stuff – just make things up with make out that allegedly socialist, foreign nations do it better than we and then demand the United States become socialist. But that is not primarily what struck me – what got to me was the condemnation of testing. If we don’t test, how in the heck are we to know if the kids are learning anything? And if the tests aren’t standardized, then how will we know how this year’s class is doing in relation to last year’s? I tried to remember back when testing became the wrong thing to do – and I seem to recall it happening right around the time it was noticed that American kids do dismally bad on tests. That is public education in a nutshell: if it ain’t working, change the standards so that you can pretend it is.

Seems that recently reviewed e mails show that (a) the State Department knew full well that Hillary was using a private server; (b) Hillary’s aide Huma also knew, and pushed back against a State request to set up an official e mail account for Hillary. Ask yourself: why would a government official not want to use official channels? If you can think of an honest reason for doing so, I’m all ears.

In related news, Hillary now says that no one should be too big to jail.

China put out some economic numbers which are allegedly what everyone expected, so Asian markets are up and Dow futures are positive. Whistling past the graveyard appears to be a requirement for being an investor…

The Progs are all in a snit over the Oscars. Let me just put this on my list of things to care about…number 12,549…

The Establishment hates Ted Cruz so much they may start backing Donald Trump. If this gets widely known, it’ll help Cruz.

A Trump/Kasich ticket is suggested. I don’t know what to even think about that…

So, How’s That Whole Economy Thing Working Out?

Mark Noonan12 Comments

I think we’ve all wondered just how long an economy built on fake money and debt can keep going – we may be about to find out.

Forget about the stock market slide for a bit – at any rate, it might shoot up 500 points tomorrow on a rumor that the Chinese central bank is going to print up 67 trillion-zillion Yuan. But there are some things which make you wonder about how things are going:

Walmart is going to close 269 stores. Of course, they also plan to open some stores – but it will be a net reduction in Walmart locations in 2016.

Conveniently after the market closed, the Fed estimated 4th quarter 2015 growth at a mere 0.6%.

Empire State manufacturing drops to a low not seen since 2009.

GM/Ford credit risk is pretty high.

Corporate earnings are not exactly what you’d like them to be.

Sports Authority decided they’d rather not pay their debts right now. The energy isn’t right, I guess…

And, a house which has sat empty in San Francisco since 2000 and has holes in the roof and fire damage is listed for $600,000.00.

If all of this – and there is plenty more out there – doesn’t give you a whiff of 2008, then I don’t know what will.

To be sure, I’m ready for some magical trick of debt and fake money to pull us through at least until the day after Election Day. The Powers That Be have managed to keep this ball in the air for seven years and I’m not at all certain they don’t have more in their bag of trickery (though getting unemployment down to 5% by magically removing people from the labor force appears to have gone as far as it can…to get it to 4.5% would take some really interesting “calculations”). But the fundamental problems remain:

1. We have far more debt – personal and government – than we can repay at the moment. This is because

2. We don’t make, mine and grow nearly enough to pay for our debts and current operating expenses and

3. Far too many people are out of the productive economy for the productive economy to support.

Eventually, it all goes smash. Whether it happens this year or next or in 2019 or what have you is immaterial – it will go smash unless and until we radically alter how we do business. We need to balance the budget (it could be done in under five years from any day we say, “go” on); we need to remove the taxes and regulations which prevent full exploitation of America’s vast resources; we need to make welfare far more inconvenient than working (and thus force people back into the productive economy if they are in any way capable of participating). All of these things are currently impossible – because the political class in power doesn’t want to do it. And they don’t want to do it because doing it would remove the need for, precisely, the political class in power (ie, politicians who “solve” problems and “do the business of the American people”). Will 2016 usher in a different sort of political class? Probably not – even electing someone like Ted Cruz would only be a step in the right direction…but unless someone is really willing to go to the mat (like Scott Walker did in Wisconsin) to take on the deep, structural reforms, all we’ll be doing is, at best, delaying the day of reckoning.

SOTU/Iranian Hostage Crisis Open Thread

Mark Noonan42 Comments

Wonder if this will put a damper on Obama claiming success in the Iran deal during the State of the Union?

Iranian military forces seized two U.S. Navy boats Tuesday and are holding them in custody on Iran’s Farsi Island in the middle of the Persian Gulf, senior U.S. officials told NBC News.

Officials said it’s unclear whether the 10 American sailors who were aboard one of the small riverine boats had strayed into Iranian territorial waters before they were captured.

The officials said the Americans were on a training mission around noon ET when their boat experienced mechanical difficulty and drifted into Iranian-claimed waters and were seized by Iranian Coast guard.

Iran is claiming they were in Iran’s waters – naturally, our government is appearing to go along with this claim. Even if true, the proper response from a civilized power is to just warn them off, not seize them. This could, of course, just be one of those things that happen – but it could also be Iran seeing just how far they can go. They are already routinely insulting us and challenging us and seeing that Obama is willing to put up with anything rather than put his “legacy” deal with Iran in jeopardy. This just might be more in that game – and if it is, then expect some very aggressive Iranian action in the area soon…if we back down on this, Iran’s government will pretty much know for certain that Obama will not, under any circumstances, take on Iran.

Perhaps Obama should set up an empty chair for our national honor…

Why is the Left so Vicious?

Mark Noonan11 Comments

David Gelernter offers up one explanation:

…Where does the asymmetry come from? American conservatives tend to be Christians or Jews. Liberals tend to be atheists or agnostics. (Yes, there are exceptions—to nearly everything, always; but that doesn’t mean we can stop thinking.) Almost all human beings need religion, as subway-riders need overhead grab bars. The religious impulse strikes conservatives and liberals alike. But conservatives usually practice the religion of their parents and ancestors; liberals have mostly shed their Judaism or Christianity, and politics fills the obvious spiritual gap. You might make football, rock music, or hard science your chosen faith. Some people do. But politics, with its underlying principles and striking public ceremonies, is the obvious religion substitute.

Hence the gross asymmetry of modern politics. For most conservatives, politics is just politics. For most liberals, politics is their faith, in default of any other; it is the basis of their moral life…

Makes sense – so, when we attack their idea of government, we are attacking what they hold to be sacred…and they will come after us heretics.

Out and About on a Thursday

Mark Noonan28 Comments

So, how are your 401k’s doing lately? Read that this latest slump is because of China covertly devaluing their currency…and the word is that China plans a bit more of this. Ain’t it grand that we got our economy so tightly wrapped around China? Woohoo! Let’s have more of this – nothing like trading with nations which have no freedom…always works best…

Trump has proposed a 45% tariff on Chinese goods – probably to make him more the Populist Hero. I’ve long advocating abandoning all economic ties with China. Has nothing to do with economics, per se; has everything to do with what I wrote above. Trading with tyrants only makes things bad for everyone.

Biden laments his lost opportunity to run for President – if Bernie wins in New Hampshire, expect a late entrant in the Democrat contest.

Senator McCain acts like Senator McCain – going a bit birther on Ted Cruz. No matter what, no one can take away his heroic effort while imprisoned by communist barbarians…but outside of that, his whole career has been a mistake.

Keep in mind that CNN often allows Democrat plants in town halls. Maybe we should make it that various forms of media count as in-kind donations…sure, it would hurt us a bit, but it would utterly wreck the Democrat’s finances if they had to pay for the reporting of the MSM…

Could well be that Hillary loses the War on Women. Sure, most Millenials have only a hazy notion of what Bill was up to in the 90’s…but they are likely to be unforgiving of it because Bill acted the way Millenials have been told is very wrong.

The Prime Minister of Slovakia has decided to become the next object of leftwing hate…he’s shutting off the flow of “refugees”.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that the same Obama Administration which doesn’t trust the people with guns managed to accidentally (?) ship a hellfire missile to Cuba in 2014…

Beginning of Year Open Thread

Mark Noonan28 Comments

Had a post up for half an hour – didn’t like the total flow of it. It’ll be back up later, if you saw it. Meanwhile, how about an open thread like I promised?

We’re only 24 days until we reach Gore’s proclaimed point of no return on global warming climate change. Ah, Earth – we hardly knew ye.

The Saudi’s executed a Shia cleric and some rumbles of rebellion among Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority are being heard. Just to let you know – the Shia’s in Saudi Arabia live where a huge amount of Saudi Arabia’s oil is. This could get messy.

Obama, entering his last year in office, seems determined to boost gun sales, again. Anyone check to see if he’s a major stockholder in gun firms?

Gary Kasparov wonders whither America?

Rhambo took his vacation in Cuba – probably getting a few pointers on how to maintain one-party control.

End of Year Open Thread

Mark Noonan34 Comments

I’ll get real original on January First and have a “Beginning of Year Open Thread”.

David Thompson fell upon his sword for us and gathered a selection of just how lunatic the left has become in 2015. A sample:

…In May, we witnessed the intellectual heft of the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, including her belief that obesity isn’t chiefly a matter of inactivity and overeating but instead has a more pernicious cause, i.e., a lack of socialism: “It is inequality and disrespect,” we learned, “that makes people fat.” Though chunkier readers should note that waiting for a socialist revolution probably isn’t the best way to lose those extra pounds. We also pondered the deep ruminations of Marxist philosopher Adam Swift, who insists that reading to your children causes “unfair disadvantage” to the children of parents who are negligent and stupid, and should therefore induce feelings of guilt and discomfort. To our Marxist intellectual, being a competent, caring parent is something to atone for, being as it is an act of class oppression…

I fear they will get even sillier in 2016.

Food stamp usage is at record levels and because of this, the Obama Administration thinks we should expand the program even more. No explanation how this expansion works Administration talking points about how great the economy is doing. The Administration cooked up a report which proves that food stamps are just fabulous for those using them. Mostly, though, they are fabulous for our liberal Ruling Class – the more people dependent upon them for their daily bread, the more likely liberals will win elections. Its funny how that works – control their food, control them.

Ruth Marcus realizes that a Trump vs Hillary battle won’t necessarily go the way the Democrats think:

…Bill Clinton has a penchant for something. He had a successful presidency — with an ugly blot. “Sexism” isn’t the precise word for his predatory behavior toward women or his inexcusable relationship with a 22-year-old intern. Yet in the larger scheme of things, Bill Clinton’s conduct toward women is far worse than any of the offensive things that Trump has said.

Trump has smeared women because of their looks. Clinton has preyed on them, and in a workplace setting where he was by far the superior. That is uncomfortable for Clinton supporters but it is unavoidably true…

No GOPer has ever had the guts to really call out the Clinton’s on their nauseating behavior – personally and professionally. I do think that Trump would not hold back. And if Cruz or Rubio stop the Trump Express, I hope they understand that attacking the Clinton’s will be a vital part of a winning campaign.

It appears that 10,000 unaccompanied minors have illegally cross the US border in the past couple months. No one in our Ruling Class seems to care that this is highly dangerous for these kids…

Jerry Lewis – who is still alive – praises Trump and hammers Obama.

The kook left gotta kook left – already spinning conspiracy theories about how we’re going to steal the 2016 election.

The Left is Fighting for Total Victory. Are We?

Mark Noonan10 Comments

Over at NRO a very good run-down on the D’Souza case and how it changed his views of the left:

…The principal evolution in the author’s thinking involves seeing his political adversaries as, yes, enemies. And as criminals. As a conservative intellectual, D’Souza had assessed progressives as true believers in an utterly flawed ideology. He was a forceful advocate of the conservative counter-case: liberty, limited government, human fallibility, the wisdom undergirding our traditions. Yet implicit in his arguments was the sense of engagement in a real battle of ideas against a bona fide political opponent.

After his harrowing adventure — first, in the crosshairs of a corrupt executive branch that knows that the administration of governmental processes can ruin even the most innocent of men, never mind one who has actually committed an infraction; then, in the company of lifetime criminals whose lives are mainly about taking what is not rightfully theirs — D’Souza has changed. Progressives, he now perceives, are engaged in a massive scheme to “steal America,” meaning all of its wealth and traditions. Their ideas and the foibles of their interest-group politics are often incoherent because they are not actually meant to cohere. They are, instead, a Machiavellian ploy, a pretense to morality (because the public expects it) that camouflages the remorseless acquisition of power needed to rob the public blind…

And the reason they must rob us blind (of our property, our liberty and our beliefs) is because if they don’t, they can’t control us. If you’re sitting there in absolute security for you property, liberty and belief, just what would you care that the Progs out there want “safe spaces”? But you will be made to care – and the method of doing this is to take away what you have and leave you naked in the public square…forced by that circumstance to knuckle under to the dictates of the left.

The left doesn’t want just a few things – it wants everything. Nothing is to be left out of their totalitarian world – we’ll all have to do as we’re told. Unless, that is, we start to fight them – and defeat them. This would actually be quite easy, as the left has only minimal real support among the American people. Maybe 10 to 15 percent of Americans are really on board with the leftwing worldview. The rest of their supporters are brought in by the false impression that leftists care about people, or fear of crossing the left. A genuine fight against these people means we win – but that means, first and foremost, that we have to stop thinking Progressives as people who just have a different idea of how to arrive at a common goal. Their goals are not ours. Not even a little bit. And the Progressives don’t want us as partners, anyways. They want us out of the way – sure, they’ll smile and go along if we help them advance their goals, but when push comes to shove, they’ll show their teeth and they’ll never give up an iota of their desires in the spirit of compromise. For the Progressives, compromise means they get part of what they want right away, the rest of it next year.

As we head into 2016 and beyond, it is worthwhile to keep this in mind. We don’t have to get nasty like the left, but we do have to be firm. Unbending, actually. I doubt much that the current crop of GOP leadership is capable of this – but over time I do think we can get leadership which does. I certainly hope we can – because I’d hate for us to lose the United States by simply refusing to fight for her.

Merry Christmas!

Mark Noonan4 Comments

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” – Luke 2:1-14

Trump the Politician

Mark Noonan13 Comments

I noted yesterday that Trump appears to have trademarked “Make America Great Again” as early as 2012 – right after Romney lost. This indicates to me that Trump’s decision to run for President wasn’t some seat-of-the-pants decision and would also indicate that what he’s saying on the stump is not just whatever pops into his head at the moment but is, instead, a careful script designed to get Trump to where he wishes to be. As an aside, that slogan isn’t brand new – it was used before. By Reagan, in 1980. Reagan, for those old enough to remember, won by bringing over to the GOP large numbers of people who had been voting Democrat.

Almost all polling so far shows that Hillary would beat Trump. Some Trumpsters try to argue against the polls, but no serious person is going to dispute a trend which has something like 10 out of 11 national polls showing Hillary ahead. Bottom line, this is pretty much a fact – if the election were held today, Hillary would beat Trump (do keep in mind that the GOP establishment keeps hyping this fact because they want to scare GOP voters away from Trump…as if “electability” is something which can be known prior to election day). But the election isn’t going to be held today; it will be held at bit less than 11 months from now. Trump when he entered the GOP primary was a bizarre candidate no one in the GOP took seriously – and then over the past 5 months, Trump hammered on his themes and now is securely in first place for the GOP nomination. It takes no great stretch of the imagination to understand that if Trump is following a plan (and he probably is), then he’s also got a plan for what to do against Hillary – and I think that the past couple days as Trump has started to open fire on Hillary are the start of his beat-Hillary plan. Trump managed to clear the field of two stellar GOP governors (Jindal and Walker), and has forced the Establishment candidates (Buch, Kasich and Christie) into also-ran status. That is not a bad bit of politicking, if you ask me. In fact, what he’s done is about the most astonishing political effort I’ve seen in all my life…and that includes Reagan’s masterful plan for 1980. Polls show Hillary ahead – but the man who has done what Trump has done in the GOP primary is probably going to do pretty well against Hillary.

Trump still has to win the primary, of course. Not a single vote has been cast and Cruz is leading in Iowa. A win there for Cruz could propel him to a decent showing in New Hampshire which would, in turn, allow him to do well in South Carolina. Cruz wins Iowa and South Carolin and that would put a massive hole in Trump’s prospects. Other things could also come up. But Trump isn’t going to lose because he says something – he’s winning because of what he says. Our leaders don’t feel we’re in a crisis because wealth and power have sealed them off from the reality of the United States and the world – but millions of Americans are feeling the heat; they don’t like it; they want it fixed…and only Trump is speaking to them as if there is a crisis. If Cruz or Rubio want to be the nominee, then over the next two to three weeks, they are going to have to let the voters know that they are on their side. Trump is perceived as on their side because he attacks, relentlessly, all those persons and institutions the American people believe are ranged against them: the political class; the corporate class; the media class. No one will beat Trump except by convincing people that they, too, are fighting the enemy – and fighting them tooth and nail, with no apologies.

But if no one steps up to beat Trump at his own game, then Trump will almost certainly be the nominee. If Trump does win the nomination, what does he do against Hillary? Anything he wants. Trump, one way or another, figured out that what the people want is a leader who will go for the jugular. Don’t hold back. If the other guy lies, call him/her a liar. If the other guy says or does something stupid, call it stupid. If the other guy is awash in corruption, point that out. If the other guy is weak and wishy-washy, say just that. Don’t try to snow the people – don’t try to rise above and be polite. Don’t, that is, sit there worrying about what the establishment is going to think – care about what the people care about.

Hillary is a bundle of corruption and dishonesty – there’s nothing in her background which cannot be successfully attacked. Think about this: probably 75% of the American people are unfamiliar with the events surrounding the Clinton’s “charity” organization. We know that someone like, say, Jeb would never attack that aspect of Hillary. Trump, I believe, will. Why not? What’s to stop him? The only reason Jeb wouldn’t is because he’d feel it rude to do so…but Trump, I’ll bet, doesn’t believe it rude. And, truth be told, it wouldn’t be rude – it would be completely acceptable and, indeed, a service to the nation to bring before the American people just what the Clintons have been up to. Let Hillary try to explain it all away – the millions of dollars in donations from unsavory, foreign donors. And that is just one relatively small aspect of the whole Clinton mess. A candidate willing to relentlessly hammer on Clinton’s weaknesses will force the nation to pay attention to those weaknesses and take them into consideration when it is time to decide whom to vote for. Trump is a rich man and the son of a rich man – but Clinton has gotten rich, quite recently, by parlaying access to herself into a plush lifestyle. No matter what slick deals might be discovered in Trump’s background, none of them will quite have the stench of Clinton garnering donations to her “foundation” from Arab oil princes and Russian mobsters-turned-businessmen.

Of course, even with those sort of attacks, it could be that Clinton emerges victorious. She will have the MSM as much in the tank for her as they are for Obama. But, I wonder: will that work? An interesting article over at the Washington Post indicates that when people are allowed to back Trump without everyone knowing about it, plenty of people do just that. Trump is speaking out loud what is on a lot of minds…and minds which are afraid to speak for fear of losing jobs or social standing. What I find most remarkable about the Trumpsters I come across is just how many of them simply shouldn’t be. The most recent Trump convert I’ve come across is an older guy I know – not at all a political person, generally patriotic, Army veteran…voted once for Obama. Moderate in his views. But here he is – think I’ll vote Trump. This goes along with the youngsters, African-Americans and single moms who are also trending towards Trump. Why? Because things are loused up – and I mean really badly. People know things are loused up. Who is acknowledging this? Only Trump.

Of course, I could be wrong. Trump could just be an accident. Decided to run, made his outrageous statement and here we are…and if he does win the nomination, he goes down to flaming defeat next November. I acknowledge this could be the case. I also acknowledge that I haven’t the foggiest notion of what he’d really do, supposing he won. Trump will not get my vote in the primary. I just don’t know enough of his actual plans to cast my vote that way – but I do know that in the general he is almost certain to face a Hillary Clinton who definitely would be an utter disaster as President. In that case, I’ve got no choice – I’d have to vote Trump. But I’m starting to suspect that we’re seeing unfold before us a very carefully crafted plan by a man who, turns out, is a masterful politician – and unless someone comes up with a counter-plan, then Trump will be around for a long while to come…