Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan37 Comments

Some Russian dissident gets offed in prison and we’re supposed to get all weepy-eyed about it.

Know what? Father Petros Mwale, a parish priest in Malawi (that’s in Africa, for any of you liberals who learned pronouns rather than geography in college), has been asking for our prayers for the farmers of Malawi as they endure a terrible drought. I do hope you will pause for a moment here and offer up those prayers.

The people there make $579.00 per year per capita. You know: your monthly car payment. They’ve got lots of problems, of course, just like the rest of post-colonial Africa and they have struggled to chart a course. Not nearly as bad as some African countries have had it. They work: 80% of the population engages in subsistence agriculture. They are pretty much free though there are abuses and corruption, just like everywhere. But, its mostly ok because they are pretty traditional and most issues are settled by local councils. And here’s the thing: the country borders Lake Malawi; its 11,400 square miles of water area with an average depth of 950 feet; so, big lake. Holds 2,000 cubic miles of water.

What I’m pointing out here is that Malawi has water. In, fact, quite a lot of water. Yes, other countries border the lake so it isn’t all Malawi’s, but they get their fair share right? Now, imagine if for a moment we had spent 10% of the Ukraine budget helping Malawi build a first rate water retention and irrigation system? The poor farmers there would have access to water even when the rains don’t come.

But, hey: nobody in Malawi passes out $50,000 a month no-show jobs to Westerners.

It is crucial to remember that what is a crisis in the world is usually what the Ruling Class wants to be a crisis because they can rake off money or power over it. There’s no rake-off helping hard working dirt farmers feed their families.

But, do get weepy over a dead Russian if that floats your boat.

I guess the latest thing for the Cartels is just to toss the drugs over the border wall where they are immediately picked up and driven off. We’ve talked about this before: you can’t stop a criminal cartel. Here’s a Wikipedia list of them – if you dig through it, you’ll note that Cartel follows Cartel. As soon as we take one down, another immediately steps in…because you can’t take them down. Not really. We might get the boss of a Cartel, but there’s a whole system of moving drugs from production to user. It probably employs hundreds of thousands of people and there are billions of dollars to be made. You can’t stop that by knocking off a boss.

OTOH, if we could catch the driver of the truck that picked up the drugs and hang him, that would stop it.

So, too, hanging the street pusher. The guy who is buying money orders to transmit them south. In short: the small fry. We can stop them because we don’t have to stop all of them: guarantee you the supply of small fry to actually move the drugs and money dries up when you start hanging them. To be sure, it won’t stop it entirely: even Singapore’s draconian laws against drug trafficking don’t stop it. But Singapore arrested a bit more than 3,000 people for drugs in 2023. New York City had that many deaths just from drug overdoses. Additionally: Singapore isn’t plagued by drug addicted zombies defecating on the streets.

Here’s your choice: execute 300 street pushers or have 3,000 addicts die next year. Choose.

How’s the election going? Well, Pudding Brain’s people are now starting to push a ceasefire proposal at the UN to stop Israel from taking the southern part of Gaza. In other words, what they’re trying to do is save Hamas. Why? Michigan: has a large Muslim community which has been rock solid for the Democrats. Plenty of Muslims are upset that Pudding Brain hasn’t taken a forcefully anti-Israel stance. Recent polling shows that Michigan in play, with some polls showing a Trump lead. So, screw the Jews: we need Michigan!

But think about it: Democrats encouraged the migration of a large population of anti-Semites in order to get their votes and now they’re moving to being overtly anti-Israel in order to retain the anti-Semitic votes.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan43 Comments

Now that the whole football thing is over with, we can fully concentrate on the sport that matters: Hockey!

We here in Vegas fell in love with our Golden Knights during the inaugural season 7 years ago and the love affair has just grown since then. Going from Misfits to Champions in 6 years just cemented it. I had never watched more than a couple minutes of hockey in my life until that first season…but as the Knights started to shock the world by winning and getting into playoff contention, I started to watch. It took a little while to grasp the rules and tactics of the game but I’m pretty well grounded now…periodically shouting at the TV “shoot, dammit, there’s a lane open” and “for crying out loud, don’t turn it over at the blue line” and other such hocky-fan things. It is the last, remaining un-woke sport, anyways. And I like the element of luck in it. In all major sports the worst can beat the best but in hockey just a little more so…because you’re trying to get a little black thing to go into a net off ice. The skills are there, the shot is there and its perfect…but it hits a post or goes just slightly wide. You never know how a game can go…how at times you’ll go 40 minutes of play without anyone scoring, and then in five minutes 4 goals are scored collectively. So, hoping my Knights repeat! To make up for the national humiliation of the Chiefs repeating.

Everyone in Pudding Brain’s world is out there asserting that Biden is vigorous and sharp as a tack…while he’s got no official actions scheduled for the next three days. You know: the middle of the work week. That presser he gave was a catastrophe…and his Super Bowl rant about potato chips didn’t help. Everyone knows: he’s senile. He’s probably lucid no more than a few hours a day and can’t possibly map out a strategy. We’re now governed by a collection of West Wing staffers and Jill who try to work the Joe Oracle to get a decision…its why everything is a mess right now. The only way out, now, is a Trump vote in November.

And that is why with very few exceptions I’m getting harsh with Never Trump. To be fair, I know a few who have consistently opposed Trump on policy grounds since 2015. That’s fine. I disagree but if someone is giving me an honest opinion based on facts and their interpretation of same, I can’t really complain. But the broad mass of Never Trump are just mind-numbed Orange Man Bad cretins. There is no moral or intellectual world where Biden is better than Trump. Getting Biden out is crucial to the basic safety of the United States. And these Never Trump guys are on and on about how they have to keep Biden in because Trump is worse. That isn’t just dishonest, it is stupid. It isn’t about Trump. It is not even about Republican or Democrat – it is about getting a clearly, mentally incompetent man out of office. Even Kamala would be better in that at least she’s not senile (other than that: disaster). Right now, if the 3 am call comes, we have no idea who will make the actual decision…and we might get no decision (which is vastly worse than even a bad decision) because nobody wants to take responsibility for it. Biden must go.

The Senate GOP is backing the Ukraine aid bill (naturally) but Senator Vance (R-OH) found within the text a requirement that the money remain available for Ukraine until September, 2025. Meaning that if Trump wins and carries out his pledge to end US support for the Ukraine war, he can be impeached. Rely on it, the Ruling Class knows it is at least even money that Trump wins in November and they’re trying to hamstring him in advance. The border bill was like that, too; all sorts of provisions which would de-facto tie Trump’s hands on border security.

Of course, poison pill or no, I think Trump should go for it. It is unlikely that there are 67 Senate votes to remove Trump. Just let impeachment after impeachment fail, if that is what it takes. Trump’s main task, if he wins, is to clear out the bureaucracy, anyways – that is where the danger really lies to himself and to any future GOP President. We now know that various officials of the Executive branch were not only refusing direct, legal Presidential orders, they were actively breaking the law to take down Trump. Massive housecleaning is necessary. An end to Civil Service protections, at least in all senior Executive Branch positions. Executive Branch people have no power – the President is the only person vested by the Constitution with Executive power. Anyone who exercises Executive power does so at the discretion of the President and simply cannot, except in cases of obviously illegal orders, refuse a Presidential order.

Canadian Leftist groups in cooperation with the Canadian government cooked up a story about how Catholic Church schools in Canada had mass graves for Native children murdered by Catholic Church schools. It was quite a big issue in Canada and they even got the Pope to issue an apology about it. Trouble is, there were and are no mass graves. Of course there weren’t: hey, the Church has a lot of faults but they don’t mass murder people. It was just a ridiculous accusation…but the Ruling Class ran with it because it was an attack on the Church and they’ll always go for that. It has all been exposed as a hoax but that doesn’t matter: to the Leftist, to original, flaming headline is always the dogma. “Hands up, don’t shoot”, “was just buying skittles” and “I can’t breath” are obligatory beliefs even though there isn’t the least bit of truth to them. So, too, with the “Church mass graves” story – the Left still asserts it is true, and so very often these days Leftist terrorists are burning down Catholic churches. Naturally, the police don’t get them: they’re busy looking for people who are misgendering.

So a perhaps-trans shooter with “free Palestine” on Xir gun tried to do a mass shooting, fortunately stopped. But you’ll be pleased to know the shooter is an illegal immigrant in country for 19 years and voted in the 2020 election.

Volkswagon has their Super Bowl ad and it was pretty good…left out something, though.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan24 Comments

I’ll have it out hopefully very soon – still shooting for a February 14th release date, but that might slip.

If you haven’t started the series, you can easily pick it up with Book VI: Heirs. But even The Crimson Blade is a rather stand-alone part of the Narrative. Anyways, they’re getting better as I go along. The upcoming Home World is very high end, I think. In The Crimson Blade I delve into both the honor and the guilt of the combat veteran, how children can feel about their parents, the stumbling block of bigotry. With lots of love, laughs and battles, of course!

It didn’t really matter but Nevada had a GOP Primary (the delegates are awarded in a week via caucus) and Nikki Haley managed to come in massively behind “None of these candidates” in the vote. Word is that she’s still rolling in campaign money; that’s why she’s staying in. Perhaps with a hope that something, anything will happen to Trump and she’ll be the only alternative. But she’s about to get wiped out in South Carolina and then Super Tuesday is she sticks.

The White House is threatening to reduce deportations if the border deal isn’t passed…which proves conclusively that the border is under the control of the Executive and they can secure it any time they want. They are really garbage people running our country right now. Essentially trying to blackmail Congress.

Tucker did an interview with Putin and heads exploded – from Neocons to Commies, everyone in the USA and the larger West is furious. Why? Because Putin might say something the American people find reasonable. That is, Putin might not come off as Hitler II. Can’t have that! Gotta keep the money rolling in. Sure, 650,000 military-aged Ukranian males have fled rather than serve, but any day now the Glorious Ukrainian Offensive will push the Russians out. Just need $60 billion more!

All of that is jeopardized if people see Putin as someone reasonable. Of course Putin is going to lie…but the Ukrainians lie, too. Perhaps if we bounce lie against lie we might get to truth? That’s why we’re not allowed to talk to Putin…because the truth might not justify $60 billion.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan64 Comments

The other day I read of a proposal in Canada to allow “mature minors” as young as 12 choose “MAID” – that is Canada’s hideous “medical assistance in dying” program. We’ve also seen proposals to let “mature minors” engage in sexual activity with adults and, of course, it is considered a given that a 12 year old (or even younger) can decide that biology got it wrong on their gender.

You have to think about what this is: this is not something that is in any way compatible with what we call Civilization. This is all objectively evil stuff. Anyone who adheres to it – and very soon if not already the global Left adheres to it all – is not someone who can be argued out of it. We have no frame of reference which would allow us to make the attempt – we’re aghast at the hideous, Mengele-like immorality of it all while the proponents as certain they are doing good.

Just as good, in fact, as Mengele felt about his experiments. Himmler about his Holocaust…and Soviet NKVD agents in sentencing people to 10 years of slavery for nothing. That is, they believe they are right and we are wrong. That to cut off healthy body parts of a child or allow him to kill himself is right. That, in fact, anyone who disagrees with this is the evil person. There’s no way for minds to meet on this – and no way to compromise. Neither they nor we will agree that some children should be able to cut off body parts and that some children can choose to kill themselves. We say, “not at all”, they say, “anyone who asks for it”. And with encouragement to ask, of course.

At the end of the day, compulsion will rule the day and decide the course. Either they will compel us to accept their views, or we will compel them to accept ours. We aren’t getting out of this by being nice. Libs of TikTok put out yet another video of a middle school teacher who is aggressively pushing the woke agenda on her students. It is a typical video – the earnest but very crazy-eyed lady calmly explaining how she’s pushing her ideological views. Unless and until we on our side see this as worthy of ten years in jail, this won’t stop. We can’t be in every classroom. We can’t monitor everything that is said. Only outright prohibition enforced by stiff jail sentences gets it to stop…all the while with the MSM reporting the propagandists as saints and us as wicked persecutors. But it has to be done. Or we will all be destroyed.

The liberal group “Vote Vets” has determined that the three American soldiers murdered by Iranian proxies the other day were killed…by Trump. It is Trump’s fault that it happened, you see? If Trump hadn’t been tough with Iran then none of this would be happening.

I don’t know. The polls are generally good but they also say lots of different things. Conventional wisdom is that the Democrats will be able to keep a solid Electoral majority behind Biden. Maybe so. We’ll find out: but I can’t help thinking that a campaign of “Orange Man Bad” combined with “Shout Your Abortion” is going to be unsuccessful. If it does work, then we’re just plain and simple doomed. But I suspect it is going to fall flat on its face.

I guess Harvard’s director of diversity has been caught in plagiarism. No surprise. A lot of people are ripping into her but I can’t work up any anger against her: she just worked the system. It is those who built and maintain the system that need to be destroyed. But make no mistake about it: prestige credentials issued in the last 25 years or so are worthless. If someone who has such credentials and is educated and intelligent it is in spite of the college, not because of it. This has happened for two reasons:

  1. Ideology – they want Leftist apparatchiks and that is what they produce.
  2. Colleges make more money if they pass out degrees than if they demand academic performance.

I don’t think our education system can be reformed. I think the rot is so deep that the whole structure is broken. To have education in this country again, we’re going to have to build a new, parallel system of education and allow time to whither away the existing system.

Seems that Pudding Brain reposted an Elmo post. Yes, Elmo from Sesame Street. That Elmo. In case you wonder how things are going.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

The Woke Legions determined to remove the statue of William Penn from Welcome Park in Pennsylvania. Nobody was 100% sure what the specific reason was though it was surmised that some Native American drivel was used to justify it. In general, of course, the reason is that the Woke hate Western Civilization as a whole…so even an anti-Slavery, pro-Native Quaker had to go. Looks like enough people got outraged and the removal is cancelled. Rely on it, that is only temporary. Joe Biden’s approval rating in Pennsylvania is in the sewer and Democrats are fearful of a blowout loss in the State come November. But if Pudding Brain gets back in, Penn will go…and even if Pudding Brain loses, the next Democrat Administration will try to get rid of the statue. They hate us; that is their prime motivation.

As of this point, I’m now insisting that we retain all statues – don’t care what they were placed for. I’d make the rule that if the statue or other public art has been there for more than fifty years, it stays forever. We’ll need local, State and federal legislation on this – but I am bound and determined to prevent the Woke occupation army from erasing American history. I’d rather be selective but I can’t – if I am not universal about it, they’ll eventually tear down the Washington Memorial.

The Fulton County, GA DA who is prosecuting Trump hired her boyfriend as special prosecutor…and paid him more than 600 grand. The lovely couple has already taken a couple cruises. There is no level of vile the Left won’t sink to. They lack all sense of morality.

The Establishment is still trying to get us to be shocked and horrified by what the IDF is doing in Gaza but it isn’t working. I don’t think we care what they say any more. As for the pro-Hamas demonstrations – that is clearly some Antifa/BLM astroturf…most Americans couldn’t point to Gaza on a map and simply don’t care about it. That they’re having thousands out almost daily disrupting normal life means they’re paying them…and we should be trying to find out who is funding it all.

As for the Gaza campaign – from what I understand the entirety of northern Gaza is in Israeli hands and they are systemically wrecking all of Hamas’ infrastructure before they move to the south part of Gaza to clear that out. My guess is that they’ll allow Gazans to move north as the IDF moves south…carefully screened at IDF checkpoints, to be sure. This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would but so far there seems to be no shaking in Israel’s resolve. I assume that is because as the full story of 10/7 has come out, it is so horrific that Israel is willing to take a lot of casualties to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The Democrats – led by Pudding Brain – are still trying to triangulate their way out of this: that is, still trying to talk out of both sides of their mouth, on one side assuring Progressive Jews that they are for Israel while also assuring BLM types that they want Israel to stop. I don’t think it is working – more than one hard core Leftist out there has said he can’t back Biden for 2024 over this. And they’re right to do that – pick a side and go with it. Trying to straddle both sides here is weak and pathetic.

Getting Old

Mark Noonan15 Comments

I turned 59 this past November and I can already feel that 60 this coming November is going to be a major event. I realize that 60 isn’t all that old but it is, nevertheless, old. You’re definitely on the backside and heading down fast. Things like retirement and death do loom ever larger. There just isn’t all that much time in front of you.

My dad lived to 82 and there’s no particular reason to think I can’t match that – though mom passed at the age of 70. Neither parent took care of their health and while both smoked (as do I) mom smoked like a chimney and some of the harshest tobacco I ever came across. She smoked these hideous little cigars called Erik’s; I did try them and nearly choked they were so harsh. So, 70 to 82…somewhere in there. That’s 11 to 23 years from now. That’s it. And I know any youngster out there of, say 25 years or so will think that 20 or so years is a long time, those of us past 40 know just how fast 20 years go by. It is a blink of the eye. And, yes, with modern medicine I can stretch that out…to, what?, 85? 90? Not much a difference there.

I’m not afraid of dying. I used to be; round there in the ages from 35 to 45 when the fact of mortality came into view I did have a fear of it. Long past that now. As Salisbury said, one might as well be afraid of falling asleep. It is going to happen – sooner or later in a more or less painful manner. As a Christian I do believe in the resurrection and I do work out my salvation in fear and trembling (per Philippians 2:12). Of course, no matter how strong our faith, none of us really know what is going to happen. That is why death is a fearful thing even for saints: you are stepping through a door which you will only go through once. But, no matter: God is with me. Salvation awaits. And if I’m wrong then my surprise at it will be much more short-lived than the surprise an atheist proved wrong will be.

What brought this all up was a bizarre video of Madonna taken on New Year’s Eve. She was wearing some strange, skin-tight suit and dancing like a maniac…but the skin under the suit wasn’t the skin of 25 year old Madonna and it showed. And she had to steady herself with a railing and she just looked absurd. A 65 year old woman trying to live as if it were 1984 forever. I felt sorry for her. I like getting older. No, I don’t like my bum knee. Nor do I like that I have to take pictures of things and use the zoom function to read them. But getting older has many advantages – not least of which is that I’m no longer expected to compete. I am what I am; take me or leave me. And I don’t care what anyone thinks of me. If you don’t like me, that is a you problem, not a me problem. I’m under no obligation to fit myself into your concepts of what I should be. It is nice to have very pretty, young girls smile at me and know that they’re smiling because they know I’m harmless – that I’m a man they can interact without any worry that I have an ulterior motive.

And I like being able to tell young people about the past. Sometimes you can really surprise the kiddies. One of my best surprises was calling the ‘fridge an “ice box” and my granddaughter asking me why and then explaining it. It gave her a glimpse into a different world, especially when I explained that one of her great-great-grandfather’s delivered ice for a living. She connected it with the movie “Frozen” which opens with men cutting blocks of ice from a lake – until that moment she didn’t know why they were doing that. This was just a cool thing – and it is something she’ll remember. Long after I’m gone; and maybe one day she’ll explain to her granddaughter what an “ice box” is?

And that is another fun part of getting old: thinking about what will be after you’re gone. My granddaughter will be my age in 2071. Think about that. We’ll all be long dead by then. She’ll still be here. And probably a mother and grandmother. I pointed that out to my granddaughter the other day when she was once again making fun of my white hair. And then I really got her thinking – and I could tell she was – when I pointed out that my grandfather was born in 1896. She’s only 11 and so time frames like that are still hard for her to comprehend but I think putting it like that got it driven home – about time, and how it passes.

Anyways, just me thinking about it as I enter the last section of my life. Not the end! Not yet! But I’m out of the rat race; I’m just living and seeing and enjoying those around me. The best part about getting old.

Welcome to 2024: Nightmare or Liberation?

Mark Noonan33 Comments

Not sure. Could go either way. But someone noted on X the other day that the actions of the Ruling Class (DNC/MSM/Corporate America/Deep State/GOPe, etc) are the actions of people who are losing control, know it, and are now lashing out irrationally.

As all of us have agree for a long time, polls are not to be trusted but we have had poll after poll now indicating that the only core, Democrat constituency – that is, core, Ruling Class constituency – who are staying on side are white, college educated women. In all other areas there has been erosion of Democrat support. Not necessarily resulting in gains of GOP power, but certainly ebbing away from the Democrats. And voter registration trends in places like Pennsylvania and Delaware are favoring the GOP. Yes, Delaware. Perhaps there is a limit? Perhaps there’s a point where things are so bad that even the deepest Blue areas start to shift?

We’ll have to see how the year goes but if it ends of a collapse of Democrat support then I’m going to identify the “stunt” of shipping illegals to sanctuary cities as the catalyst. The pebble that started the avalanche. Remember, the MSM simply wasn’t telling anyone about the invasion at the border. If any reports were made about illegal immigration it was couched in “poor, suffering Jose who just wants a better life”…not hundreds of thousands of fit, military-aged males surging across the border unchecked. Certainly nothing about the human costs this disastrous migration has caused. And absolutely not a word about the amount of taxpayer money, funneled through NGOs, paying for the migration. But start sending a few thousand of these illegals to blue cities and the lid was ripped off…mostly because the idiot leaders of the blue cities dumped the illegals in black and other working class/poor neighborhoods as if these people would be pleased (and I guarantee you the upper class liberal whites thought they would; nobody is more racist than a white liberal). It became something nobody could ignore and it placed in sharp relief just how lousy the Biden Administration is. At this point, whether its corruption or incompetence is irrelevant. It is just bad; people hate how things are going and have lost any faith that Team Pudding Brain can fix it.

The really important thing is going to be whether or not our civilization still can be saved. Sure, we might well elect a trifecta MAGA government this November. It could happen. In fact, probably 50/50 right now that we will. But supposing we do, will we then do what is necessary? Like most on the Right I hailed the rise of Georgia Meloni as Prime Minister of Italy in 2022…but we found out by the end of 2023 that she had pretty much entirely sold out. Now we’re all praising Javier Milei…and I strongly suspect he won’t sell out. He’s really taking a hatchet to the system…attacking the very founding ideas of the Progressive Social Democratic State. My thinking with him is that the global Ruling Class will try to have him killed. But if we win, we have to be like Milei…but even more so.

Milei has the good fortune to be in a country where the President has far more unilateral power over government than the USA. He’s able to just shut down things without so much as a by your leave from anyone. But, here’s the thing: we’re going to have to do that anyway. Sure, there’s laws saying that certain classes of bureaucrats can’t be fired without a tedious, time consuming process. Fire them anyway. Even if its initially just telling them to stay home while still getting paid. There was a ridiculous federal judge which ruled a State law banning medical mutilation of minors is unconstitutional: enforce the law anyways.

It is going to take that level of determination. That level of courage. It will take actions that might provoke an extreme reaction. What it will come down to is: do we want to win? I mean really win?

We’re going to find out.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan25 Comments

A couple of entitled Westerners – from UK and USA – go to a nail salon in Bali, get into an argument…and then forget that they aren’t in the UK or USA where white guilt protects them. Nice to see these sort of people treated as they should. Pro tip: in no civilized society are you allowed to get into a shouting/shoving match with the staff because of a dispute over the price. I think we’re all tired of these savages – and they do come from all ethnic backgrounds in the West. I mean, other than straight, white and male – those guys aren’t Protected. But everyone else is and so go off is the norm.

Until you arrive in a civilized nation. Like Bali.

Given Gaza, we were inundated with “Jesus was a Palestinian” over the Christmas Holiday. Do keep in mind that the lies are almost never meant for you. They are almost always designed for Democrats and the more mindless/ignorant part of the American population. The people who watch those bachelor reality shows and such. The people the lies work on have, at best, only a hazy idea of where Israel even is and have no knowledge of what happened more than a year ago. They just believe what the TV tells them…and so “Jesus was a Palestinian” is said to them and they nod their heads and are thus primed to show up in the streets and in polling calling for a ceasefire.

The next GOP President should take a trip to one of the Nigerian villages attacked by Islamists. Perhaps the one attacked just this Christmas? Any of them will do; there are a lot of them. And when he gets there and he makes himself available to the press, he should ask them: “why haven’t you told the American people what’s been happening here for years?”. The purpose isn’t to get an answer from them – but to start implanting in the low-info people that they are being systemically deceived.

Iranian-backed forces have been targeting American military forces since the Gaza War started – apparently, Pudding Brain’s people told Congress that we’re going to hit a few sites in Iraq over it. This is doing something to make it look like you’re doing something. We’re not going to hit anything serious because these are Iranian assets and our foreign and military establishments abhor doing anything that offends Iran. This is over and above all other considerations – that they kinda hate Israel plays a role, but not decisive here. Our establishment is just convinced that peace in the Middle East is dependent upon us selling the area to Iran. Sure, its stupid – but its what they believe. At least, it is what we must assume they believe considering their actions.

The bad news here is that Iranian-backed forces are threatening to halt seaborne trade in the Red Sea – basically closing the Suez Canal. There was a reason it was built, guys; because transiting via South Africa takes a huge amount of time and money. Already major shippers are rerouting their trade – and this is going to add massive cost to everything humanity does. You really have to understand how much of the world’s goods transit through Suez – either directly or in parts that go to make the whole. Don’t fuss about oil as some are – most of the largest tankers haven’t been able to fit in Suez for ages. Can’t fit through Panama, either. They’ve already been taking the longer route and that was long ago priced it…it is everything else that the problem will come in on. Brace for some bad economic shocks.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan77 Comments

Outside of the mindless realm of the Democrat Party, everyone is condemning the Colorado Supreme Court ruling against Trump – and even a few Democrats are against it. This is because it is just plain and simple stupid. Here is the relevant part of the 14th Amendment:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

What the Democrats are saying is that it is a proven fact that January 6th was an insurrection and it was instigated by Donald Trump. This is just a stupid assertion to make. The purpose of the January 6th participants wasn’t to overthrow the government but to ensure the government followed the law. You can call them mistaken. You can call them the most stupid people the world has ever seen – but it doesn’t change the fact of why they were there. The Confederates of 1861 wanted to leave the nation – the participants of January 6th wanted their nation to obey the law. They are not in the same universe of action. There was no insurrection against lawful authority on January 6th.

It is purely evil what the Democrats are doing. They are all appetite for power, wealth and sex and they will do anything to ensure they get their desire. In making this ruling, the Colorado Supreme Court has struck a body blow against the rule of law in this nation. After all, if this is so, then the Florida Supreme Court can remove Biden from the ballot on grounds that he is not ensuring that the laws are faithfully enforced. This is a far more true assertion than those made about January 6th and as far as due process – Biden hasn’t been convicted of anything – it works out the same: Trump was not given any due process. The Colorado court issued a ruling based on federal law over events that occurred outside of Colorado’s jurisdiction. Point blank: it isn’t for any State or local government to decide if the 14th Amendment applies to any person seeking federal office. It is a federal matter and so reserved for the federal courts.

Now on to another but related thing: over the past few days I have seen some DeSantis supporters firmly state that they will not vote Trump if he’s the nominee. Previously, it had mostly been Trumpsters saying they wouldn’t vote DeSantis. That point is now moot as it looks like Trump will be the nominee – the Colorado ruling is going to cement Trumpster support for their guy. Either position – Never Trump or Only Trump – is stupid. Evil. Asinine. A betrayal of all things decent. We don’t have much time left. The Democrats are ignoring the law on a regular basis. They are pushing ahead with the most radical elements of their program (ie, massive invasion at the border and medical mutilation of kids) in spite of overwhelming majorities being against them on it. They are confident that power is theirs and cannot be taken away. They might be right – but that doesn’t excuse us from our duty. We have a moral responsibility as citizens of the Republic to do what we can to preserve, protect and defend the Republic. In this instance – in 2024 – the strongest effort we can make in service of this moral duty is to vote Republican.

Not because they’re any good – but because they are not objectively evil and engaged in the deliberate and malicious destruction of the Republic. Any power we can take away from Democrats and hand to Republicans is power which can be used to defend the Republic. Any power retained or obtained by Democrats will be used to destroy the Republic – and this is regardless of what the law says. Democrats don’t care what the law says. If they have the power to do a thing, they’ll do it, law be damned. If they can give the order, make the ruling or modify the regulation, they’ll do it and blithely sit back and laugh at anyone who says that is against the law. We probably only have one or two shots left to save a Constitutional Republic. Once they’re gone then our only hope will be in dictatorship by a Franco or Pinochet. This is preferable only as an alternative to Leftist totalitarian tyranny; ie, if our lives are forfeit otherwise. I don’t want us to go down that path. I want us to remain free – and we only do that in the Republic; and we only keep the Republic if the enemies of it are removed from power.

It is, bottom line, a moral obligation to vote Republican in 2024. Any vote for a different party works out to participation in evil.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan40 Comments

Satanist erected a statue in the Iowa capitol and a Christian man knocked it down. We are now solemnly informed that this isn’t the way. That if we don’t allow that speech we won’t be able to speak, ourselves. This is just the sort of Libertarian/Progressive drivel that has nearly destroyed Civilization this past century. It is simply untrue that I am only able to be free when I’m covered in filth.

Freedom is not the ability to do anything you want: it is the ability to freely choose to do the right thing. Conservatives used to understand this but after a century of merely Conserving Progressive mistakes, this has been lost. The basic American Conservative of 2023 would fit right in with the Progressives of 1923. The modern American Conservative is in favor of Big Business, of foreign alliances and of allowing the wicked to operate freely – once again, on the stupid theory that if we don’t allow evil, we can’t have good.

This notion must be utterly rejected. There are some ideas so bad that they must be forcibly rejected. That particular Satan statue was just another in a series erected by vulgar nincompoops who do that just to insult Christians (they always seek to erect their garbage at Easter or Christmas; if they were really trying to do something for themselves rather than against Christians, they’d pick a day in June). In truth, such a statue is the least of our worries, but it is of the same species as all the other attacks on decency and logic which we are told we must defend if we’re to have decency and logic. But all of this is like telling a young man or woman that their best chance of remaining chaste is to go work in a brothel. It just doesn’t work like that. To have decency and logic we must defend decency and logic – and condemn, ostracize and punish the indecent and illogical.

Why? Well, that Senate staffer getting it on in a committee room is why. Think about the chain of events – the thought process – which brought those two men to that decision. What was missing in both of them was the least sense of decency or the least appreciation of logic. Their whole being is nothing but unreasonable indecency. This has nothing to do with the particular type of sex – it would have been just as bad had it been a man and woman engaging in the action. The fact that two adults thought it a good idea to have sex in a Senate room is a negation of every last aspect of civilization. Sure, the guy got fired – but do you think there will be further punishment? Do you doubt the man will get a good job somewhere else? He’s already out there attacking those who condemned his action – we’re denying his love, don’t you see? That he and his friend could have got a hotel room and done the same thing and nobody would have a complaint doesn’t even register…he and his friend thought it was a good idea and we’re all supposed to accept that.

How is our civilization supposed to survive with people like that? People who clearly don’t think there was anything wrong with what they did?

We’re hanging by a thread here, guys. A recent poll shows a majority of 18-24 year olds think that the solution to the war in Gaza is to turn Israel over to Hamas. This is insane…but really no more insane than a couple people bumping uglies in a Senate room. We’re getting precisely what we allowed…and now we’ve got a rising generation that would vote for Hitler if he offered to annul student loans. Guys, he was a vegetarian, non-smoking, non-drinking former art student; he’s tailor made for the run of the mill AntiFa activist. He was also a badly educated momma’s boy who thought he had special knowledge. Sound familiar?