Author: M. Noonan

Open Thread

M. Noonan34 Comments

The really cool thing about Trump is how he fires right back:

Nancy Pelosi’s District in California has rapidly become one of the worst anywhere in the U.S. when it come to the homeless & crime. It has gotten so bad, so fast – she has lost total control and, along with her equally incompetent governor, Gavin Newsom, it is a very sad sight!

When have we ever had not a GOP President, but any senior GOPer, at all, point out that Democrat run areas of the country are complete disasters? And then call out the Democrat leaders who have presided over the destruction? I can see the shape of Trump’s re-election campaign emerging. A few points I bet he’ll hit repeatedly:

1. Things are going well.
2. Democrat areas are lousy.
3. Its me or the insane Left.
4. It’ll be even better if I’m re-elected with a GOP Congress.

We’ll see how it turns out – but I’ve heard some people claim that impeachment is becoming a first rate disaster for the Democrats and that the RNC has seven times the money the DNC has.

Virginia Democrats by putting out massive effort managed to secure a narrow control over the entire Virginia government – and they are acting like they’ve gained absolute power, forever: they are proposing insane – and likely unconstitutional – gun grabs and threatening to use the National Guard to prevent Americans in Virginia from exercising their constitutional right to bear arms. There is growing fury in Virginia as people react to this – and just a chance the insanity will flip Virginia red next year. But, to me, that really isn’t the solution. The ultimate solution here is to break up Virginia into North and South Virginia…North VA being Richmond to the Potomac.

Heh: El Paso Man Comes Down from Insane Acid Trip where he Hallucinated he Ran for President

In 2019, we all became fascist. RSM explains.

Don Surber on the Democrats: A Leaderless Party With No Plan

The Trump economy is pretty darned good. Some are talking up that its weird that the economy is so good but Trump’s poll numbers are still no good. There’s a reason for that:

1. The polls are wrong.

Everything – and I mean everything – that the MSM is going to produce from now until election day is designed to harm Trump and help the Democrats. I don’t buy the excuse that they just missed certain things in Florida and Michigan in 2016. Remember, Hillary cancelled her fireworks display several days before the election. She knew she was beaten – and so, too, did everyone else who could see the raw data, and that means the pollsters and MSM bosses. They just kept churning out the BS because they didn’t know anything else to do. Telling the truth certainly wasn’t an option.

Can the Democrats win next year? Of course they can – eleven months is a very long time in politics and all sorts of things can happen. But sitting here on December 27th, 2019 I have to say that the guy sitting on sacks of campaign cash and able to draw gigantic, enthusiastic crowds and the drop of a hat is likely to be the winner.

Merry Christmas!

M. Noonan17 Comments

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.'”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.

John: 1:1-5; 9-14

Open Thread

M. Noonan15 Comments

Not quite sure how the impeachment thing plays out, now. There are polls which show support for it dropping, others showing that everyone wants Trump gone yesterday…OTOH, the RNC has seven times the money of the DNC. Democrat candidates still can’t draw flies while Trump gets massive, enthusiastic crowds at the drop of a hat.

The Democrat claim that they want a “fair” trial is garbage, of course. What they want is a long series of witnesses called for their side while no one is allowed to even mention Biden’s name. The purpose of Democrat getting witnesses is to have a daily drama – with carefully served up bits on the news – of “the walls are closing in on Trump”. The hope there is that it will eventually cause a break in Trump’s support – though they know that is highly unlikely. Failing that, they just want Trump tied up with impeachment while they sort out which loser gets to face him in November. I highly doubt that McConnell will accommodate the Democrats and even wets like Romney are going to be wary of doing anything which appears to give the Democrats anything.

The real action is now with Barr, anyway: what he does will determine the long-term affect of all this. If he winds up with some toothless report deploring “mistakes”, then he’s been a waste of time…if he brings indictments, then the whole thing could become a catastrophe for the Democrats. Lots of people are saying it is for sure one or the other – but no one actually knows; unlike the Mueller investigation, Barr’s troops are keeping things close to the vest. Which is right and proper…but irritating in we’d all like to know what’s coming.

Rep. Van Drew, who switched to the GOP, says he had to because he was essentially ordered to vote in favor of impeachment. The Democrats claim they didn’t whip votes for it, but I’m pretty confident they promised no money and possible primary challenges to anyone who didn’t toe the line. Van Drew is just trying to save his career, naturally: he’s in a Trump district and this is his chance to stay in office. But it still is astonishing that a person will switch to the minority party…this should have got a lot more play, but the MSM was clearly ordered by the DNC to ignore it.

Meanwhile, Trump and McConnell are remaking the courts – especially the infamous 9th Circuit. Now, before you pop the corks, remember that if the Democrats ever control the White House and Congress again, they will simply change the courts as necessary to either remove them from the equation or remake them as liberal. People forget that the number of Justices and the number of federal courts is set by Congress. They can expand the Supreme Court to 15 and the federal courts to any number they think convenient. They could make, say, a Conservative 9th in charge of Utah and Idaho and just make an entirely new one for CA, WA and OR. Also, the Democrats, back in that much power, wouldn’t have the least compunction against just ignoring the law. It is good that we’re changing the courts because this will allow us to prevail on the legal merits far more often than not…but we can’t go to sleep on this. We have to keep the liberals out of power.

Johnson won big in Britain and now he’s got a chance to remake British politics as much as Trump is remaking ours. The key for both the Tories and the GOP is to wed populism to conservatism…to make the right the party of the people. Brits, by and large, are far more liberal than Americans, of course, so its not a one for one comparison…but your basic Brit still does share many notions with your basic American. We like things fair and square; we like to have our opportunities and to keep our rewards; we like our own countries and don’t really care too much about foreign nations; we like to stand up to international bullies, but we aren’t interested in looking for crusades. We don’t have any problem with giving a poor person a hand, but we don’t like multigenerational welfare families – eventually, you gotta go to work; we’re very tolerant, but tolerance cuts both ways – we’ll tolerate the weirdos, but they have to tolerate us, too. If Trump and Johnson can pull it off, we might be in for a generation of center/right governance in both countries.

California is going after HAM radio operators – and it may just be another example of California’s government being stupid, but I wonder: is it really an effort to shut down a mode of communications the government has no control over? If your long term plan is to set up an oppressive regime – and that is the Left’s long term plan – then you can’t afford to leave the people with an unrestricted means of sharing news.

Open Thread

M. Noonan52 Comments

President Trump sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi about her Impeachment effort. Its a bit of a scorcher.

The climate change talks in Madrid are rated a failure and they’re blaming Trump for it. So, more winning!

The Far Side has returned.

FISA court condemns FBI abuses. My view: abolish FISA. A Republic cannot have secret police of any type. We really aren’t allowed to have secrets, folks: a Republic where the people are sovereign must do all its business in the Forum, not the Divan. This does have the weakness of our enemies always knowing what we’re doing, but it has the strength of our enemies always knowing what we’re doing.

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge – a battle which displayed astonishing American courage in battle, and the sort of command failure we’ve become used to…likely because the Bulge was the second time Ike was caught with his pants down (the first being at Kasserine) and his reward for failure was being made General of the Army and President of the United States. Another thing a Republic must be is merciless to it’s servants who fail. Allowing failure to go unpunished merely ensures you’ll get more failure. Every military commander, especially, must always have the sense of the guillotine behind him – because failure in that area means people, citizens of the Republic, are going to die needlessly.

The Left has their Sanctuary Cities for illegal immigrants – you know, where they ignore the plain law and allow people who aren’t supposed to be here to remain – but they don’t like the Sanctuary Cities for guns which are being created. Well, too bad: especially as the 2nd Amendment is American law while coddling illegals, isn’t.

Rebuild the West

M. Noonan16 Comments

Papa_George

What is the West? Been hearing a lot lately from Establishment types – especially Never Trumpers – about how Trump is destroying the West. I opined back at one of the nitwits that if his idea of the West is what we’ve got to save, then I want it to die.

That picture above is my Grandfather. George Childs Noonan, Sr. Born in 1896. Went to war – along with his seven brothers – in World War One. Because his country asked him to. And there was no way his country would ask him to fight except in a good cause and to do good for the world. Unlike about 115,000 of his comrades, he came home. So, too, did all of his brothers; though all had been wounded in the war to one degree or another (the family joke is this is why we’ve had nothing but bad luck…grandpa and his brothers used up the family allotment). My grandfather would be 123 and it is odd that a 55 year old man has a grandfather that old…but he married a little later than usual for men of his generation (1926; he was nearly 30 when he got hitched) and his son, my father, was even later to the marriage game (31 when he married my mom); so, this means a guy born in the 60’s has a grandpa born in the 19th century when most people my age have grandfathers born in the 1910’s and 20’s.

Because of the enormous age gap, I never really got to know my grandfather well. By the time I came along, he was pushing 70…and my earliest memories of him are when he was well past 75. He died in 1981 at 85 years old. Most of what I know I got second hand from my father, plus a bit from a fascinating bit of autobiography he tried in the 1960’s. The man clearly was a character. It was muted by the time I remember him, but in his day he was the life of the party. He knew all sorts of interesting people and tried all sorts of interesting things to make a living.

He was honest and he imparted that to his son, who gave it to his son: DO NOT LIE. I remember one time as a boy I broke that rule and lied directly to my grandmother and though it happened more than 40 years ago and she’s more than 30 years in her grave, I still feel a deep and abiding shame over it. Better to be a bank robber than be a liar. Speak the truth, or don’t speak at all. Keep the secrets: just because you found out something this doesn’t make it right for you to blab about it to every Tom, Dick and Harry out there. Be generous: it is better to have 10% of something than 100% of nothing. Treat everyone with respect – doesn’t matter if they are the sleaziest bum on the street, it won’t cost you to call him “sir” and treat him decently. Work hard. Don’t expect charity. Keep to your own business and only want what you earn. These are the lessons which were transmitted…and though they become attenuated in this modern age of clatter and buzz, gape and gloat, they still come home to me.

That was the West. That was what was worth preserving. That is what we lost – and its been replaced by something else, something I don’t like one bit. It might still fly the same banners and speak the same words, but it isn’t the same thing. We’re expected to lie – in fact, it is demanded that we lie. We’re supposed to envy anyone who has aught that we don’t have, and demand they give it over to us. We’re to treat people with contempt. We’ll send our young men and women off to murky wars with no clear idea of what is to come of it…and then do dirty, backroom deals with cretins that we’re supposed to be fighting.

No more of that for me: what I fight for is what my grandfather actually, in the flesh and with his blood, fought for. A West of truth, of decency, of hard work, of self reliance. What he shipped off to fight for in 1917 is long gone, but I now see my duty: to bring it back.

Are You F***ing Kidding Me IG Report Open Thread

M. Noonan36 Comments

Now that we’ve all had some time to digest the IG report as well as today’s Senate hearings on it…so, when to we start hanging people?

I know, I know; that is extreme. But, my goodness, it is so patently obvious that the senior reaches as FBI and Justice were out to get Trump that the continued denials by the Democrats are getting infuriating. Horowitz tried to thread the needle by essentially saying he couldn’t prove bias in the genesis of the effort…but the massive violations of law which were required to get it going can only be explained by political bias. By people who thought Hillary would win and so it would never come out. What happened after Trump’s victory all merely amounted to an attempt to find anything to hang on Trump or, failing that, cover up what they had done.

Meanwhile, Barr:

“From a civil liberties standpoint, the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government use the apparatus of the state … both to spy on political opponents but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of an election,” Barr said. He added that this was the first time in history that “counterintelligence techniques” were used against a presidential campaign.

I hope he nails their a** to the wall.

Ted Cruz had his moment and once again made us all love him:

This exchange. Staggering.

Cruz: “A lawyer at the FBI creates fraudulent evidence, alters an email that is in turn used as the basis for a sworn statement to the court that the court relies on. Am I stating that accurately?”

Horowitz: “That’s correct. That’s what occurred”

Ace links to Techno Frog’s rundown of all the Establishment hacks who swore by the FISA warrants and tried to sell the whole thing to the American people. The more you read, the more outraged you get. These are the supposedly smart and informed guys and they were absolutely assuring everyone that the dossier and FISA were on the level. They went out of their way to insult people who dared question the veracity of the FISA warrants. And outside of one or two, all of them are still keeping up the garbage now that its been exposed. Our Ruling Class just sucks.

What are they like, these Ruling Class morons? How are they in the day to day, really? Ace looks at their High School Mean Girls routine and silly flirt-arguments they have in between saying Orange Man Bad, and nails it:

If it’s important, you say something.

If it’s not important, you practice the most ancient of all manly arts, the Manly Art of Shutting the F*** Up Once in a While and Giving Your C***slappers a Rest.

I’m glad to know that there’s a cure for this affliction of normal masculine reserve, now, and that Jonah Goldberg is proof of that.

Apparently, being on Social Media all day long is a cure for normal, regular heterosexual masculinity. It’s a feminizing and juvenilizing force which turns toxic men into pliable weakling children and fat little girls trying to advance in the social hierarchy.

Very much to the point, but Ace, as usual, is too kind to these dimwits.

So far, Boris Johnson seems set for a pretty impressive victory tomorrow, but we’ll see. According to this, only 6% of Britain’s Jews are planning to vote Labour…in spite of their overwhelming approval of Remain in the EU. This is cognitive dissonance writ large: the Jews of Europe are under renewed threat because of the EU. It is the EU which is currying favor with people who hate Jews…getting out of the EU is the best things Jews can do for themselves. And yet most European Jews still want the EU…it is just weird.

Barack and Michelle Obama threaten promise to stay involved in politics forever. Come on, man: what have we ever done to you guys?

Newt on Hillary:

If Hillary runs she becomes the william jennings bryan of our time. He lost three times 1896, 1900, 1908.Hillary has it in her to lose a third time.The bitterness from other candidates would be intense-the Clinton-Epstein stories would be overwhelming. Hillary please make our day.

Open Thread

M. Noonan36 Comments

So, the IG report came out – and after spending hundreds of pages revealing how many things were done wrong, it concluded with an essentially, “hey, sorry; my bad” statement. This is drivel – no one is that incompetent; what was done to engineer the spying on Trump was obviously criminal…and downright un-American. I hope that Barr and his crew will go after these people. Some statements made after the release of the report indicate he might. We’ll have to wait and see. As for me, I’m more convinced than ever that the FBI has to go. It simply can’t be trusted.

Rumor has it that the House will settle on two articles of impeachment: Obstructing Congress and Abuse of Power. Which is garbage. The Executive can’t obstruct Congress no more than Congress and obstruct the President. They are co-equal branches of government and neither has to bend the knee to the other. As for Abuse of Power…it sounds like something, but it isn’t. Note that colluding and bribery and so forth won’t make an appearance. Which means even after the Democrats rigged hearings to ensure something bad about Trump came out, they still came up with nothing.

Will they vote on them? Remains to be seen. Could be that they went with two very nebulous articles so that if a vote is held, the trial in the Senate is over quickly. Those two articles can be done in a day because there’s not much to say about them, on either side…and it is at least a chance that things like the Bidens won’t even be brought up in such a trial.

Its polls, but as our Experts still seem to live and die by them, this poll has to be giving them fits: it shows Trump surging in the battleground States. Make of it what you will – and even if we start to see lots of Trump-positive polls, don’t take them to heart. Work next year like we’re down by ten and only a miracle of effort will scrape Trump through.

Seems that Prince Andrew invited both Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein to his daughter’s 18th birthday party back in 2006. That grosses you out because of what you know, now…but what really nauseated me was the description of the party. A little girl’s 18th birthday – it cost 400,000 pounds. They were awash in champagne and food and had an orchestra. Who the heck are these people? Where did they come from? Why are we allowing them to keep living like that?