Open Thread

A Warm, Collective Open Thread

Mark Noonan20 Comments

UPDATE: Wow, that was a bit of a surprise in Venezuela. Between this and Iran we’ve just instructed our enemies that there’s nothing they have we can’t take away. This will greatly assist Rubio in “negotiating” with them.

Mamdani in his inaugural address talked of ending “rugged individualism” and replacing it with “the warmth of collectivism”. I found examples of this – bit of a before and after:

That, of course, is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; first as a young artillery officer in the Red Army, secondly about ten years later after drawing an eight year stint in Gulag for writing a letter mildly critical of collectivist warmth. Keep in mind that he was plucked out of the Red Army while he was at the front and the day after he had saved an artillery battery from a local Nazi counterattack. He was arrested by SMERSH – an organization founded by Stalin (it stood for “death to spies”) – to foster collectivist warmth at the front during WWII…the warmth being fostered was mostly to keep SMERSH personnel out of the front lines.

Because, you see, in a life and death struggle against the Fascist Beast, the Communists were determined to be firmly in the “life” camp. Cowards to a man and woman, the apparatchiks that Stalin had infested Russia with since the Revolution were living a nice life and certainly didn’t want to see it end over something as trivial as a Nazi invasion…but when the Motherland was calling for complete self-sacrifice by everyone, kinda hard to justify keeping yourself out of the combat units…unless you can find something useful to do elsewhere. And where better than ferreting out spies for a paranoid Stalin who couldn’t imagine a Soviet agency not being filled with people who despised him? But this means you had to keep finding them, right? I mean, if there ever came a point where you had defeated the Fascist spies, then it was time to pick up a rifle and charge into a Nazi trench. So, they just kept finding spies…and it didn’t matter how absurd the case was…there just had to be a case. Solzhenitsyn’s letter to a friend was all that was necessary…and the combat officer was degraded in front of his own troops and sent into the sausage grinder of Gulag.

But Mamdani says it will be different! How? Well, he says that if private landowners aren’t proper stewards of their property, then the City will step in and take over. And who decides what proper stewardship is? Well, the City. And never in human history has there been a government swayed by money and connections, right?

I mean, you know what is going to happen – some tenants will pitch a fit about a particular landlord and get the City to take over…and then if its not a desirable property the City will just let it rot (the tenants not paying rent, of course – or only nominal rent)…if it is a desirable property, then the tenants will be booted out in favor of those with City connections (they’ll do this by letting the tenants slide on the rent and then surprising them with eviction for unpaid rent…and these people will suddenly find that the byzantine system of eviction in NYC doesn’t apply to them). The bottom line is that the connected will wind up in all the nice areas – carefully guarded by the police who will never be so defunded that they can’t protect the Ruling Class – and everything else just falls apart…because no landlord is going to invest a cent in property which can be seized at the whim of Mamdani’s college roommate’s brother in law who’s now got a job in City government.

There are two ways to become Communist – and there have always only been these two ways: be stupid, or be evil. You can be a combination of both, but you simply must be stupid or evil. We tend to think of people like Marx as wrong. That is not the way to view it. He clearly wasn’t stupid – whatever you want to say about his philosophy, he certainly did create something that has moved millions. So, not stupid: thus, evil.

You think about it – he was the son of a lawyer who owned land. He had a good education paid for by his father. He dodged the draft (he being then a subject of the Kingdom of Prussia). He started writing for various Leftwing rags supported by rich people and ultimately Engels became his benefactor – Engels being the son of a very rich man. Point blank: Marx never worked a day in his life: he hadn’t the foggiest notion of the economic and spiritual needs of workers. But Marx did find he didn’t like Christian Europe – though technically Protestant (his father – a non-observant Jew – had officially converted to avoid official Prussian anti-Semitism when the Rhineland came under Prussian Rule in 1815), his Jewish background was a social hindrance…but rather than trying to understand why and seek amelioration (as many Jews did through the 19th century, being notably successful in the UK and USA on this front) he just decided he hated it…and cooked up a philosophy who’s main point was the destruction of everything he hated – Christianity, nobility, family and country. His work is very much a work-backwards thing…that is, he knew what he hated and he crafted his philosophy just so the destruction of the hated thing was justified.

I mean, think about “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. What absolute drivel. What is anyone’s ability? How do you know they are fully employing their ability? What is a need? How do you ensure that everyone’s needs are met all at once? How do you assign priority between needs? It is just stupid – the whole thing is unworkable. But if you want to convince a Christian to murder every priest and destroy every family, nothing better…because if you don’t think about it, it seems like a good idea. I mean, everyone has needs, right? Why can’t they all be met?

Oh, that’s right – what you might call a “need” the next guy might call a luxury…and this is before we get into a debate about having three pairs of size ten loafers but five people need them.

And it lead to 100 million murders…so far. The philosophy is still murdering people in China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and other places…and stirring up hatred, lies and theft everywhere…and even some murder even in places like the USA. Essentially, once you get to Marxism then you can simply justify any monstrous act and dress it up as altruism. Lenin was the first to figure this out…but he was eagerly followed by Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot…and now Mamdani.

He’s not a murderer! How dare you!

Because he’s a communist – the only reason he hasn’t had someone shot is because he doesn’t have the power. If he ever gets the power, he’ll kill people. He’ll steal untold sums. He’ll do everything rotten any human being has ever thought of and he’ll announce it as Serving Humanity. He’s either evil or stupid – though he seems more a combination of the two. A trust fund baby who’s never worked a day in his life is going to make sure the landlords behave…as if he has the slightest clue about maintaining a building or what its like to deal with tenants who treat the property like garbage because they feel immune to eviction. He’s already showing in his appointments that he wants an anti-Semitic, Islamist and Communist regime to punish New York City for daring to be American.

Now, how much damage he’ll actually do remains to be seen – Democrats are in a bit of a bind in that he’s a hero to the far left, but huge amounts of Democrat money are at stake in NYC and if he starts driving that money down to Florida and Texas, that’s going to be a major problem for the Democrats…they’ll start running out of money to steal, themselves. So, we might find that while Mamdani is allowed to make his grandiose communist statements, his wings are clipped in actual policy. But that doesn’t change what he is – remember that. Unless he repents and admits he was wrong, he’s someone to be warily watched.

And watched while we, under Trump, defund the Left. That still remains the key to avoiding a future of Collectivist Warmth…because the real fraud of the Left is that they’ve been subsidized by us. Without taxpayer funds, they will fall apart. That is the best way to torpedo Mamdani right now – just don’t send federal dollars. Say that given his unconstitutional actions, funds are being withheld until policy changes. He’ll want very much to take over NYC rental properties…but you still have to pay the owners if you are taking their property. NYC’s budget is already stretched past the breaking point…he won’t find billions to dispossess the landlords. In my view, the Mamdani experiment can be terribly useful for us – a real dose of Communism to hold up to American eyes, convincing them to never, ever go that route.

Happy New Year!

Mark Noonan17 Comments

Gotta say, enjoyed 2025. Got to do our usual beach vacation but we also tacked on a week up at Lake Tahoe, always an impressive place to be. Job is ok. Writing is fun. And, of course, Trump is President – he’s gone way past what I voted for and is starting in on things I wish to heck I had voted for. In my view, it is all starting to come together.

Altogether, something more than 2 million illegals out of the country – and we didn’t take in millions more. Next year promises a massive increase on that deportation number as the provisions of the OBBB come into play…including a large increase in staffing to get the illegals out. Plus, the Lawfare is running on empty…sure, you can hamstring things up, but only for a while…Trump has mostly won his cases and, in the end, there isn’t a Trump Exception to Article II. He is President. He has all Executive power vested in himself. The laws are all very clear – that nobody has enforced them is neither here nor there: they are being enforced now…and you can only sue so many times before the appellate courts just tell you to go jump in a lake over it…they’ve already ruled repeatedly that Trump can do what the law allows.

The drug trade is being massively impacted by our strategy of hitting it on the logistic side – something I’ve been urging for years. Drug lords come and go. Addicts are addicts. But the low level people who move the drugs and the money have operated with near-impunity…now they have to bet their lives that they can get drugs into the USA and money back down to the Cartels. After a while – and it won’t be a long while – they’ll stop finding people willing to bet their lives even under severe duress. What we can expect now is that the Cartel-owned governments will try to get into the smuggling business…using diplomatic cover to move money and drugs. This will work to a certain extent, but not nearly sufficient to keep the Cartels as powerful as they have been.

We’ve also turned off the spigot of American money which keeps the global Left in power. It can’t be underestimated how much of the sinews of Leftist politics have come from the US taxpayer under the guise of fostering democracy around the world. What we’ve really done is empower those the American Left favors…including using good, old fashioned voter fraud to get it done. That money is now gone…the NGOs are cast adrift…and we see the Right on the rise all around the world in consequence. We’re going to gain allies more and more as the miasma of Leftist power evaporates.

We’re going after corruption here at home – Minnesota is just the tip of a very large iceberg. All up and down the line money has been stolen. You might recall me asserting some years back that I estimated one in three federal dollars is stolen…I’m now thinking one in two…perhaps even two in three. It has been a bonanza of theft and it has all been used to keep the Left in power so they can both steal more and dictate ever more aspects of our lives. It has been going on for decades and nobody has done anything about it…a few small players on the edges might from time to time get taken down (likely because they didn’t share out properly) but nobody went after the system of corruption which has been built up in our country…the very concept that every year more and more must be spent no matter what result we’re getting. That awards are given essentially for having the largest staff and spending the most money. Trump is hitting at that – and this is the core of Leftist power in the USA. If they can’t steal money from us, they can’t survive politically…because nobody would vote for a Leftist unless paid to do so.

The GOP is flush with cash and continues to make large voter registration gains. Vance is the prohibitive favorite for the 2028 nomination and everyone is already quietly starting to line up behind him. Meanwhile, over in Democrat-land, they’re broke and hoping that Newsom can stop the nomination of a Harris/AOC ticket. We still can’t make certain predictions about how 2026 will go but we know that if the MSM is saying it, its a lie. So, the stories of alleged Democrat resurgence are just nonsense…the means to get Democrats to donate…but, once again, the cutoff of money to NGOs is a body blow…whatever else they were doing – no matter how much was stolen – the crucial thing was to launder it back into the DNC. You don’t get a ten million dollar grant to study two-spirit poetry in Sumatra without kicking a lot of that back to the benefactor. Rumor is that ActBlue is being investigated. Do recall that Matt and I essentially exposed this in 2007 with Caucus of Corruption…even back then we found huge numbers of donations for Democrats coming in like $26.59. Nobody donates $26.59. A foreigner donates in foreign currency and that gets converted into US dollars. This money squeeze will increasingly impact all Democrat efforts…from paying people to fill out fake ballots to purchasing rent-a-mobs to emphasize Democrat talking points.

To sum up, I enjoyed 2025 and I’m looking forward with eager anticipation to 2026.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan32 Comments

A passage from the upcoming Book X of the Mirrors series:

“An atomic bomb,” Tom said, nodding his head. “Where it splits an atom causing an explosion?”

“Well, so I’m informed; I never made it to any advanced mathematics,” Jerome replied. “But not just one atom; quite a lot of them packed very close together and then blown up causing the split and explosion. We dropped two of them on Japan and they threw up the sponge.”

“It sounds very horrible,” Aleste said. 

“It is very horrible, but it did end the war.”

“It did, but I perceive it was like the way my grandmother ended the war; it just made more wars.”

“That was magic.”

“So is your terrible bomb; you and your people have just forgotten what magic is. People always want short cuts.” Aleste shrugged. “And who am I to talk?”

“Couldn’t you stop using magic?,” Tom asked.

“I’d like to but I can’t; it is too late. Mother is wrong; it can’t be fixed. We’re just stuck with it now. Like your people and that bomb.”

Tom nodded.

“We all learn a bit, but never early enough.”

“Well, I sure didn’t. But if I had to guess, Tom, you learned soon enough.”

He shook his head.

“Not nearly soon enough.” He touched the globe and anchor emblem on his blouse. “Dad was a Marine in World War One. Fought in the Argonne. Told me about it. But he left out some details.”

“That’s as old as time.”

“Sure is. But I didn’t help myself. I was Romantic about it on purpose, I guess. What was my meat and potatoes?”

Tom stood up and started to recite with dramatic gestures:

The first that the general saw were the groups

Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops;

What was done? what to do? a glance told him both,

Then, striking his spurs, with a terrible oath,

He dashed down the line ‘mid a storm of huzzas,

And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because

The sight of the master compelled it to pause.

With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;

By the flash of his eye, and the red nostril’s play,

He seemed to the whole great army to say,

“I have brought you Sheridan all the way

From Winchester, down to save the day!”

“Gorgeous bit of poetry by Thomas Read. Dad loved it so much he named me after him.”

“It is a good bit of poetry,” Aleste said. “Stirring.”

“It is that, but I’d have been better off reading Sassoon.”

“What did he write?”

“Oh, a little more bitter than that.” 

“Please, tell me. I have to know. To learn.”

“All right.”

“You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

Sneak home and pray you’ll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.”

“That is bitter and I’m sorry for him. But it is something to know.”

“It is that.”

I really like that bit – the attitude is deeply woven into the whole tale: we must be brave. But let’s not kid ourselves, either. I think it is something that we have definitely lost in our storytelling. You think of even the very good war movies of the past 30 years or so and throughout them is a thread of its just suffering and you must get through it – but there is also heroism, which cleanses the effort. As long as we are this side of the hereafter, things won’t be all neat and tidy.

The latest example of this is some people getting upset that we’re killing drug smugglers. For goodness sake, they’re de-facto pirates. We can hang them after a drumhead court martial…its actually a mercy to whack them with a missile. It is over quickly. And we should be celebrating our sailors and airmen doing the deeds – they’re defending the least of us from a horrible scourge. And, sure, we can also spare a thought to those we kill – some of them are very much compelled to do it. But, then again, a man who truly knows the value of life would never hold his life more valuable than someone else’s…and everyone who gets into those boats has done just that, and so is getting what’s coming to them…getting, that is, what they were going to deal out. And more mercilessly…over a period of years, and the destruction of not merely individuals …but of families and whole communities.

I think we need to spin better tales, guys. I wish I were a better writer – that I could write something that would shake the world! I hope that some of ours eventually do…because we need stories that enlighten and encourage us. That show us that the good guys do win…but that even the most glorious victory comes with a high price.

Anyways, just a bit of thought I’m having as I polish up the book and get it ready for publication!

Open Thread

Mark Noonan27 Comments

Animal Farm was Orwell’s stinging parody of Stalin’s rule in Russia. The lies. The corruption. The secret police. The hypocrisy. Naturally, it is now being remade in a big budget film where the villain is – wait for it! – the Capitalist!

Yes, that’s it! The nice, wonderful Commies are doing a great job and it is all ruined by a Capitalist who subverts it.

It is a…well…rather Orwellian perversion of the story. And oh, so very 1984 in that it is a falsification of history. The kids ain’t reading, guys. And they won’t want to watch the old 1954 animated version (too stale in looks!) so going into the future if someone wants to find out about Orwell they’re going to find out he was a Communist who exposed how Capitalists ruin everything.

This is why the Right simply had to get into pop culture. We have to start writing books (doing my best!), songs, movies, TV shows…painting, sculpture. And we can’t just copy what was done before the Left ruined everything. It does have to be fresh and new – something that will appeal to people who are only barely literate in the traditional sense (they might be able to read words, but if you try to lay on them something as complex as, say, 1984, they won’t be able to fully understand it). This is where people like Musk have to step forth…we need money. Lots of it. We need to reward those who are right now in the infancy of an alternative pop culture.

Trump is going to address the nation – as of now, I don’t know for certain about what, but we’ve got quite a fleet off South America and Trump showing he’s rather upset with the corrupt, communist narco-terrorists down there. The Right is on the march down south – Chile being the latest nation to toss the Left out. But in Venezuela and Columbia as well as other places, the Left is too deeply entrenched (and is too willing to kill) to remove from power by normal means. I think Trump wants to give things a little shove. But, we’ll see! You never can tell what Trump has up his sleeve.

Trump caught a lot of flack over his post about Rob Reiner’s death. OTOH, Trump would catch a lot of flack if he posted, “I like apple pie”. TDS is widespread. But what was irritating was the number of people on the Right – not TDS-infected Never Trumpers – who took the opportunity to tut tut about it. As if they had just been waiting for their chance to show how morally superior they are. Like that is actually a morally correct thing to do…or that it is something that helps.

Look, I get that many have fond memories of Reiner as “Meathead” on All in the Family (a very conventionally Liberal , anti-American show in hindsight) as well as his movies Spinal Tap (mediocre with only one really funny scene) and The Princess Bride (cute enough, but it doesn’t hold up well – saw it for the first time in years a couple years back and it is definitely at the bottom of the re-watch list…its cuteness doesn’t sustain itself). Additionally, the manner in which he died was horrific – nobody should have to go like that. But none of this changes the fact that Reiner, for the last ten years of his life, voluntarily became a vicious liar for political purposes.

It wasn’t a mistake. He didn’t misinterpret the data. He set out to lie because, in his mind, Trump did the unforgivable thing of defeating Hillary. Reminder: all of these Hollywood types were good friends of Trump. Sought him out. Honored him. Couldn’t wait to be around him. Until Trump decided to challenge Hillary…whom the Hollywood types wanted as President because that is what the Script said. She had stood by Bill (as so many Hollywood types have stood by cheating spouses) and the payoff for that was supposed to be the White House (akin to a movie or book deal). Trump ruined all that. They had a whole host of TV shows and movies based upon the idea of a female President. Trump took it all away – and, so, when Hillary had her nervous breakdown about it, Hollywood took its cue and went to work. Knowingly. Voluntarily. Deciding that poisoning American politics was worth it if it could harm Trump.

Those lies are not funny. They have got people killed. They already sparked two attempts on Trump’s life (that we know of). They got Trump’s friends and allies ruined in Lawfare of the most foul, Stalinist sort. They have the USA today simmering on the edge with violence common and Civil War a possibility. Was Reiner the only person to do this? No. Was he even the most important? Again, no. But he was a willing participant in it and he never backed away. It was his own son who killed him – his now 32 year old son, who has a long history of drug addiction. Meaning that over the last ten years, when his son was 22 to 32 to years old and battling demons, Rob was taking the time out of his day to lie about Trump. This is just freaking bizarre – but it it was Rob chose to be.

So, no, we are not morally obligated to forget all that. In fact, it is far more morally important that we view things clearly than try to soften things up with pablum. Lives are at stake in our ability to fearlessly state the truth. And the truth is that whatever Reiner was in the past, for the last part of his life he decided to do very bad things. Trump called that out. And it should be called out. Yes, the evil that men do is interred with their bones – in that Reiner’s fate is really up to God now. But we have an obligation to not set up a system where a vicious liar is honored. Only a repentant liar may be honored.

The Left is trying to sweep the murders at Brown under the rug. Have to: if Jews and the few Conservatives at Brown were targeted, then all of higher education is going to feel the heat. The Left is hoping they can string things out and hope the news cycle changes (I think the fracas over the Reiner post was partially because of that – they wanted us to talk about anything else but Brown – especially after the pogrom in Australia). I’m hoping that Trump’s people are looking at it very closely…I want to find out just how deep the colleges are with antifa and Hamas.

Just Thinking a Bit

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Had a Man Cold this past week – toughed it out to Thursday end of shift by means of using up my “work from home” days but for Friday I had to do the worst possible thing you can do: take a sick day while sick! Total waste of a day! But, I needed it: slept most of the day. Didn’t go to Mass today because I’m still feeling it and I don’t want to get people sick just in time for Christmas (feel a bit guilty about that even though it isn’t a sin to miss a Mass because ill) – but what this really got me thinking is that I’m 61 and I felt the first symptoms last Monday while by tomorrow – a week in – it’ll be almost all done. Always been like that for me: I don’t get ill much and I get over it fast. Same thing with injury. I never bruise. I take falls that should break bones but they don’t. I heal fast – like when I have a root canal in the morning the pain is gone by afternoon and I’m eating normally that evening. The dentist is flabbergasted about how strong and deep the roots of my teeth are. I go and get a physical and everything is fantastic. I might be from what they call “the deep end of the gene pool”…that is, one of those people who’s genetics have determined a strong constitution. Generally people in my family (both sides) make it into their 80’s but I did have a grand-aunt who made it to 100. We’ll see how long this ride lasts!

As you might have guessed, I’ve been pondering my own mortality – not in a morose way! We all owe God a death, right? True, we all want a highly extended line of credit, but it stalks us all. It is more in thinking of how much time has passed, what I’ve seen – and when considering, say, my grand-niece born earlier this year, what she might see? I mean, if she lives the normal female lifespan for 2025 of 81 years, she’s going to 2106! And she’ll have met a man who as born in 1964. And will be one handshake away from a man (my grandfather) born in 1896.

Let’s roll that 81 years back – and its 1944. Call it 1945. Think of all that has changed since then. There was still a British King-Emperor of India. Israel was still in the future. To us oldsters, that world seems familiar but not for the young. Black and white photography? You had to dial a phone. And the number was Lakewood 2697. Long distance seemed a bit miraculous. The kids are now asking, “what the heck is long distance?”. Hardly anyone had flown in a plane as yet; if you could afford to travel you still got aboard a train…or a ship if crossing the sea. Television existed but was still years away from common; you listened to radio shows. And if you needed to reach someone fast you sent a telegram. This is an alien country to anyone, say, under 40. You know: born in 1985 or later. As for the rising generation (born after 2000, now, guys!), even a cell phone without video capability would seem stone age.

Things change very rapidly. In the Mirrors series I deliberately created a world where change wasn’t happening – the final explanation (and end) of that status is explained in Book X (honest, I’ll have it out soon – but its the last of the series and I love it so much I’m loath to finish it…I keep refining the refinements!). Change is good. Change is natural. But, also, change is deadly. Gotta be careful with it. In general, the Revolutionary is someone to be afraid of – most of the time, he really doesn’t understand anything and is entirely destructive. Only very rarely does a Revolutionary create something better than what was destroyed (our Founders, of course, being one of the rare examples of good Revolutionaries). In this bit more of a century since the end of World War One, we changed very much too rapidly. We let the Revolutionaries run wild. Sure, this got us the Moon and some very amazing medical advances…but it also got us nuclear weapons and assisted suicide. There’s some plusses and minuses here.

In the main, most people do just want to live their lives. To be sure, “living their lives” for some subsets of humanity is, well, bad. Afghan tribesmen living their lives see a bit of rapine as a fine way to make a few extra bucks. But, for the common run of humanity, just living as they see fit is the sum total of life’s goal. Tolkien noted this in his works when he had Aragorn point out that his job – his purpose in life – is to protect the simple people so they could remain simple. That is, not stupid: but untroubled. It is the duty of those who know to protect those who do not. Just as a parent sets guardrails for children so, too, must the true leader set guardrails for the people as a whole. Our Founders set them! But, just perhaps, not firmly enough? Trusted too much? Living as they did as free and equal people and being honest and upright patriots, they possibly assumed that the perverse could never gain sufficient purchase in the American mind to ruin their great work…we have found, now, that some things should have been much more firmly written. Ah, well: live and learn, right?

After Revolution, Reaction. And I think that is where we’re heading. These days, the word “reaction” has a bad connotation. Of course it does: we’re under the rule of Revolutionaries! But the last great Reaction was after the maelstrom of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Everyone had had quite enough of Revolution! That is why the later attempts to revive Revolution – most notably, 1848 – failed miserably. There were gripes and, indeed, even things to fight over. But, in the end, nobody wanted to create another period like 1791 to 1815. People opted for incremental change. And, year by year, they largely got it – the 19th century was a century of political, economic and social improvement. It was only after the turn of the 20th century…when the Bad Old Days were getting on to a century before and out of living memory…that people started listening again to the siren song of revolt and Revolution.

Though, to be sure, I don’t think anywhere there was a majority in favor of overturning the entire system. Lenin annulled the Russian election of 1917 – his Bolsheviks only winning 23% of the vote and, by far, a center-left coalition of democrats having won. Hitler never got more than 37% of the vote in a truly free and fair election. Mao, Mussolini and Castro never even considered a remotely free election. As angry as a people might be with the system, a desirous as they may be of deep changes, hardly anyone wants a complete overturn. Sure, the peasants of Russia had abandoned the Czar, hated the nobles and wanted the land for themselves…but they didn’t want to replace all that with a Commissar telling them all their land belonged to the State. That they might have been confused or lacked understanding is neither here nor there – they didn’t get what they wanted. In fact, hardly anyone ever does from the Revolutionaries because, for the most part, Revolutionaries hate the people…and want them punished for not measuring up to what the Revolutionaries believe is right conduct. And I do believe this latest run of the Revolutionaries is coming to a close – their desperate efforts to import a new population to use in overturning things is failing. And this was the last trick they had up their sleeve.

All around the world – and not just in the West – we see people rejecting those who uphold the current status quo. Nobody wants to continue as we have. Everyone looks around and wonders just why there are suddenly tens of millions of migrants and we have to let them in…and give them full benefits, legal protections and the right to vote. And then we also look around and notice that it isn’t our people who need to be replaced. That is, the Christians – the real believers, and the people who are of those who made our nation and civilization – are still having sufficient kids to maintain their population. It is those who have abandoned God who need replacements…not us. But it is those who abandoned God who are importing the replacements…and why replace us with people who aren’t like us? Who in many cases actively hate us? We figure we can do without the replacements as much as we can do without those who are actually being replaced.

This is why Populist-Right parties are going from strength to strength all over the world – even in places like Japan. The system the Revolutionaries made has failed in its promise and we’re all figuring that our old ways are just fine. You know: that tired, old bit about being sober, hard working, loyal, honest. Sure, it is boring as all get out and you don’t get the sort of art our Ruling Class prefers, but it works. And it’ll work forever. It will never fail – and it will always improve things. And so we no longer care what they say about it. It doesn’t sting. Perhaps if they had actually got us wealthier and, say, pushed us to the stars we’d still let them stay in charge…but we’re a bit pinched on the finances and they can’t even build a bridge in less than ten years. So, thanks; but go away.

And if they don’t go away voluntarily? That is, if they don’t surrender the power they lost fair and square in elections we win? Well, that would be…bad. Like very, very bad. Mostly for them, of course. But also for us. You see, we’re kind and tolerant and do want to live and let live. But if pressed to it…well, let’s just say that the Left won’t like what happens.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan27 Comments

Looks like we found a large deposit of “rare Earth” minerals in Utah – showing that Bismarck’s phrase about there being a special providence for fools, drunkards and the United States of America remains true: just what we needed. China was definitely leveraging their control over the global supply against us. And this discovery is in a Red State, so no fuss about extraction (there are actually sizeable rare Earths in California but good luck trying to get them out of the ground).

The Doomsters – who I more and more consider merely bought by the DNC – continue to Doom but from my perspective, things are rapidly brightening. We’re looking at sold economic growth in 2026 combined with increased personal income – just the recipe for people getting in a good mood. Tariffs work. They’ve always worked. They always will work. They are the natural economic order for any trading nation. The two insanities are to allow no trade at all or no restrictions on trade. As in all human action, a balance must be struck. Trump is doing that.

Between deportations and self-deportations, about 2.5 million illegals have left the country since January. And do keep in mind that we’re still ramping up enforcement – the OBBB paid for hiring and new equipment, most of which won’t come on line until 2026. We’re just getting started. Any illegal with a lick of sense is going to self-deport ASAP. Because next year there will be plenty of people to catch them…and if you’re forcibly deported, you can’t come back while self-deportation means you still have a shot at it.

A Democrat in Congress called the shooting of two National Guardsman – one dead – an “unfortunate accident”. Internalize the fact that they hate you and want you dead. They might have smiles on their faces. Might talk in the most reasonable tones imaginable. But what every Leftist wants is your corpse at the base of a wall.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

Never heard of Franklin the turtle until Hegseth posted a meme using the character – apparently a well-beloved children’s book character and the Canadian author is very, very upset that Franklin was used for some based memes. So, be sure to check them out so you can know what is inappropriate:

And, apparently, Franklin has been hanging out with Amazona of late:

So, whatever you do, don’t make any inappropriate Franklin memes. And don’t laugh at them because the Liberals say That’s Not Funny.

So, the Somali community of Minnesota is neck deep in fraud – and, guys, I am confident it is the tip of the iceberg. In fact, my bet is that immigration (legal and otherwise) over the past 20 years is heavily driven by criminal Cartels sending people here, getting them on benefits and then raking off a substantial amount. This is why Blue States are trying to refuse Trump demands to hand over the list of people on welfare…because that would expose the fraud. It can’t be emphasized enough how much theft is driving the opposition to MAGA. Sure, you get your true believers on the Left, but most people involved – especially in leadership – are bought, corrupted and corrupting. Trump is a threat to their gravy train.

I doubt very much we’ll actually go to war in South America. This is all a pressure campaign – ultimately not on any government down there, but on the Cartels who actually run things. El Salvador and Argentina are showing there are patriots in Latin America who can change things by ruthless action. But we can also see how hard it is for one to get in, and how much local and global opposition arises. And outside those few bright spots, it is a morass of cowards and criminals running things simply to keep themselves on the gravy train.

Securing our border and lighting up the mules at sea is rapidly generating an acute crisis. To maintain their position, the Cartels have to bribe the politicians and pay for thugs to go after those who can’t be bribed. What Trump is doing – in my view – with the military build up is putting pressure on people who are starting to feel less and less pressure from the cash-strapped Cartels. They can ease that pressure by either turning over power to patriots, or turning on the Cartels, themselves. It is a high stakes gambit, and we’ll see if Trump can carry it off.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan49 Comments

Keep in mind that a year ago the American people very solidly rejected the Left – but the Narrative being pushed now is that everyone regrets that and yearns for Kamala.

That simply isn’t true. Also keep in mind that at no time in 2024 did Harris’ own pollster show her with a lead – they knew they were cooked from the get-go. To be sure, they might not have told Harris (and her actions on election night indicate they didn’t) but they knew they never had a chance. And if you watch carefully the MSM coverage of Election Night 2024, after a brief burst of optimism early on, by 8 PM Eastern, they all knew it was over. I’ll never forget watching at about 6:30 PM here in the Pacific time zone irritated that they hadn’t called Georgia (they would call it just about half an hour later) when it had been clear since 5:00 that Trump had won it…and my stepson walks past, asking idly what I was watching: “the election.”

“Election? That was over two hours ago.”

I don’t know what particular cyber-nerd-fu he had used, but he told me that the numbers just weren’t there for her and was shocked that everyone hadn’t called it for Trump. So, too, with everyone else in the know. The latest they should have called it for Trump was 11 PM Eastern when California closed. But, they dragged it out until 1 or 2 PM Eastern. Why? Because the Democrats hadn’t given the MSM permission to call it. The Narrative was still be held up, likely to make sure they got all the votes they could downballot. That is how totally owned the MSM is – they could show the raw numbers. They could show that the outstanding votes weren’t there for Harris to catch up…but they couldn’t call it.

So, whatever you see in the MSM is whatever Narrative the Democrats have ordered the MSM to present. It is worse than useless to watch it – because even hate-watching it gives ratings and thus money to them.

Trump rope a doped them again and is now saying he’ll approve releasing the Epstein files. He knows he’s not in them. We know he’s not in them. Those who are saying he’s in them, know he’s not in them. We know by the simple fact that if he was in them, that would have come out years ago. We also note, with great care, that we’re not supposed to question any of the victims…to merely accept their assertions as Gospel. That tells you right there that the victims standing forth are in on a new con – a con designed to make people think that Trump is involved. After all, an NDA does not cover criminal acts…you can talk them up with out violating an NDA. There is nothing, really, to stop any of them from talking…unless they’re being paid not to talk. And I don’t mean by some rich idiot fifteen years ago, I mean today. Something is very dirty in all of this – and Trump has called their bluff.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan10 Comments

Apparently at UC San Diego something like 130 students were asked this math question: 7+2 = 6+___. And twenty five percent of them couldn’t answer it.

That is third grade math, tops. Another education thing I saw recently was a professor who’s class was upset because he was using letters for mathematical equations and the kids were furious that he expected them to know there are twenty six letters in the alphabet.

Turns out when Sir Edward Grey said the lights were going out in Europe in 1914 he was dead right – the only real reason I can think we’re here is so many of the very best people in the West were killed in WWI that we were left with nothing but the dregs…who have, step by step, brought the West down to their level. It is worse in Europe – where the dying was must greater – than in the USA, but everywhere in the West the 20th century saw the most intelligent, physically fit and bravest sacrificed…and as time went on, sacrificed by ever stupider people.

Always good to keep in mind that to be educated 125 years ago meant you knew Latin and Greek. That you had a firm grounding in math, history, law, theology, philosophy and geography, no matter what sort of degree you were aiming at. And also good to keep in mind that money didn’t keep you out of college – sure, the rich kids got in because daddy paid, but anyone who had the intellectual chops for college could get in. Sure, it was difficult to pass the exams…sure you probably had to work to earn money in addition to your scholarship…sure, you lived poor and struggled to keep going. But if you had the grit plus brains, you got the degree…and entered into a world of rare and honored achievement. To be an educated man or woman in 1900 placed you in an elite. A class of people who were not only intelligent, but knowledgeable, hard working and disciplined. Since WWI, all of that has been dispensed and getting a degree is really no more than sitting there and waiting to get it. And now the kids can’t add or read.

Democrats are in massive psy-op mode, again. The bottom line is that they want us talking about anything but their support for illegals, criminals and boys in girls sports (positions their insane base will not let them retreat from). This is why they are now bringing up Epstein as if it had anything to do with Trump. They don’t care that every scrap of evidence indicates that Trump never used Epstein’s services and that the two men hated each other – they’ll just lie and say up is down not really with the intent to convince, but just to get us talking about it. Meanwhile, the GOP is on track to flip voter registration in North Carolina red by 2026…and Pennsylvania by 2028. And even our loss in New Jersey this month is masking a distinct trend in favor of the GOP in that State. Oh, and Nevada is a Red State – so Red that both our Democrat Senators voted to end the shutdown.

The real key is to understand that whatever it is the Democrats and MSM (BIRM) are talking about is mere distraction. Don’t get distracted.

Marjorie Green has decided to join a long list of people who decided to go to war against Trump…and she’s destroying herself in the process. Lets face it, we all had questions about her from the start but as long as she was MAGA, ok. But now that she’s going on the View to attack Trump, that pretty much dispenses with her. Whatever she started out to do, she’s chosen the path of TDS grifter. So be it – and so long.

Michelle Obama is a bitter and exceptionally ignorant woman – she’s been gifted wealth unimaginable (and entirely unearned by her) from a nation she despises…and now she’s out on some book tour telling us how horrible we all are. She is the modern Ruling Class writ large…no ability, no accomplishment, massive sense of entitlement combined with disgusting bigotry. The bad news is she and her husband are only in their 60’s and so the USA has decades left of hearing these two creeps whine about America.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Happy Veteran’s Day!

What is the MSM up to? Well, lying. As a really good for-instance, 60 Minutes did a bit on Margaret Atwood where it is claimed that her weird kink book, The Handmaid’s Tale, has been banned. The book which has been turned into movies and TV shows and is ubiquitous on line and in bookstores has been “banned”.

As an author I don’t like to critique the works of others – especially since I can’t claim the mantle of the Great Author, myself. But I’ve always found the basic premise of Atwood’s story simply ridiculous. In fiction you’re allowed your flights of fancy – after all, you can use magic in Lontaria, right? But I still try to keep the story grounded in how human beings work. And one thing is certain: if only a small percentage of women could get pregnant (as it is in Atwood’s book), those women would rule the world and be able to command the loyalty of the richest and most powerful men. They wouldn’t be slaves while the rich and powerful are married to sterile women. But, anyways, absurd or not, it hasn’t been banned. But the MSM just goes on and lies that it is – not for you and me, but for the upper class white women who still consume MSM product (and who seem to enjoy Atwood’s weird kink…they also liked Fifty Shades of Grey, after all).

It really can’t be emphasized enough how important these lies are to the Ruling Class, now being heavily attacked by Trump and MAGA. Without lies, they’ve got nothing. They’d have to repent of their sins and join us. So it is very important for us to always know what the MSM is up to – what it is for: to keep the Dem base in line and to depress us.

Democrats caved on the shut down – and it has been noted that they didn’t cave in the face of SNAP benefits being delayed, but once some upper class areas were about to lose air service. That’s when they threw in the towel. I mean, can you imagine? What with climate summit and ski seasons upcoming, it was a crisis.

Main thing is there is nothing to show for it – Trump got almost all of his priorities funded for two years with the One Big Beautiful Bill (and, once again, showed himself vastly smarter than anyone else in DC) so the Democrats had no leverage. They tried to get GOPers to panic and fold but they only snagged Rand Paul on that effort. They never got a bi-partisan majority to reject the CR and that was, in the end, the whole story.

The absolutely insane Left base of the Democrat party is furious about this – they were told the Democrats were fighting. Nobody advised them it was all kabuki failure-theater. So now there are rumblings of primary challenges next year to Democrats who voted with the GOP on end the shutdown. Buy popcorn on that.