Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan65 Comments

I watched an Estonian moving called 1944; highly recommend. It is in Estonian and so has subtitles but it is just a good movie. It involves Estonians who have been forced by circumstances to fight in both the German and Soviet armies in WWII, naturally ending up fighting each other. Aside from some good acting and direction, it is worthwhile to watch because it does get into that moral dilemma of just what is the right thing to do? You feel for the soldiers on both sides; caught in a web, a small nation between overwhelming neighbors. The Estonians in the Waffen SS mostly despising Hitler but hating the Soviets for deporting their families in 1940…the Estonians in the Red Army mostly despising Stalin and his regime but wanting the Germans out of their nation. Give it a watch.

Pudding Brain and his people are all-in on open borders. Actually saying it out loud and on the cameras, though absurdly claiming that Trump is responsible for a broken immigration system that they’re fixing. They’re also all-in on medical mutilation of minors. Keeping prices high. I think what we’ve really got is a senile Executive and all the little Commies lower down have nobody to stop them…and so they’re pushing Left on the long-help Leftist theory that the reason the American people haven’t embraced Communism is lack of Leftist policy. This may not work out as they hoped.

On the other hand, the GOP is also all-in on helping out Pudding Brain in Ukraine. I just don’t understand it. I mean, outside of bribery. There is zero political downside for the GOP standing aside here – don’t even have to actively oppose the Ukraine war…but for goodness sake don’t be out there being a booster for it. It is bound to end in failure…and all they’re doing is ensuring that the blame for the loss sits on the GOP. The Base doesn’t want this war.

Polls says this and that – and some special elections have gone against us. How will 2024 come out? Beats the heck out of me. But some Leftists are sounding the alarm just as they did in 2016: on the ground, there does appear to be a shift to the GOP. Pennsylvania voter registration continues to favor the GOP. Looks like there won’t be unlimited drop boxes in Wisconsin for 2024. I do think the GOP can win – if it can unite.

That unity will be hard to gain because the Democrats will pay for “GOPers” to sow division. They’re already doing it. There are two equally stupid positions to hold: Never Trump and Only Trump. I don’t care how much a RINO the person is: better than any Democrat. I don’t care how Trumpy a candidate is: still better than any Democrat. Time for everyone to grow up and just do the right thing.

Menedez gets indicted again. Don’t for a minute think this is because the Ruling Class is opposed to corruption. If the charges are true – and remember DOJ does just make things up – then his problem was either stealing above his station or not sharing out properly. Also, could be a back door to force Pudding Brain out: apparently, there is at least some connection between what Menendez is accused of doing and Hunter’s dealings. And keep in mind what they’re charging Menedez with: profiting off of his wife’s actions. Sound familiar?

Couple of minority kids deliberately ran over a retired cop here in Vegas. They were booked as “white”. Not the first time I’ve seen this; and it is clearly deliberate. They are fudging crime stats right in front of us. Trying to lower the amount of POC crime and make out white men to be far more dangerous than they are. All part of a program designed to eventually arrest every troublesome MAGA person as a terrorist.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan59 Comments

Texas AG Ken Paxton was acquitted in his impeachment trial. There will be many GOPe tears shed. After all was said and done, it doesn’t look like Paxton even remotely broke a law. The whole thing was absurd.

There’s a video out of Lauren Boebert (R-CO) apparently being felt up by her date at a theater. Who I guess is a long-standing Democrat. The usual suspects on the Right called for the smelling salts. But I have some questions:

  1. Why was there a security camera in a darkened theater?
  2. Why was it pointed pretty much right at Boebert’s boobs?
  3. Why do we have this video but not the Epstein video?
  4. Why are GOPers so entirely stupid all the time as they join Democrats in condemning Boebert?
  5. I mean, for goodness sake, the Democrats have a candidate in Virginia who makes actual pornography for a living and, you know?, Democrats are also in favor of Mengele-like medical mutilation of children. You’d think GOPers would figure that in a target-rich environment we don’t need to spend any time condemning our own.

To be sure, Boebert should have gotten a room. She and her date are not 16. Also: she should have been smart enough not to date a Democrat. There is zero chance he actually supports any aspect of GOP policy and no matter what attachment he might feel to Boebert, loyalty to the Party will trump it…which could even lead the guy into setting her up to be targeted by “security cameras” in a theater.

We’ve also got stories about Noem (R-SD) and Greene (R-GA) having some problems in the area of sexual morality. The Noem thing seems to be entirely gossip at this point but that isn’t important. The entire Establishment has clearly decided that high profile MAGA women are to be exposed ruthlessly. Unfortunately, all three of these women at least in some way voluntarily put themselves at risk. It is crucial to the Left that the rising number of MAGA women doesn’t eventually make it into the suburbs. They are counting on these salacious stories to get upper class urban and suburban women to view MAGA women with contempt.

What can we do about it? Nothing – at least as far as stopping the Establishment. What we can do is refuse to engage. If any of these women – or any woman – is doing something in this area as she shouldn’t, none of our business. Let them work it out for themselves. Do not be deflected into engaging the Democrats on their terms. Another aspect of this is to deflect from the fact that Democrats are in favor of adult perverts twerking in front of children. That whole issue is turning into poison for Democrats and they’d much rather talk about a case of hypocrisy regarding a Christian “family values” woman having an affair.

The Ukraine War continues to be the least-reported war in modern history. Do recall that things being blown up makes for must-watch TV and that’s why starting with Vietnam film crews have been all over war to get great shots of explosions and such. But for some reason, the actual fighting in Ukraine hasn’t produced a lot of video. On both sides, it all seems to be carefully edited video for propaganda purposes…and usually taken at a distance where you can’t see what actually happened. Both sides seem to be keen to prevent battlefield video from getting out. Why?

I suspect because it ain’t pretty. The talk of a grand Ukrainian counter-offensive and chest-thumping predictions of imminent Ukrainian victory are hiding the fact that the front line has barely moved this year. The Russo-Ukrainian war has become positional with armies in close proximity to each other. Don’t know if the Ukrainians are keeping to their old Soviet instruction on military tactics but the Russians clearly are – in a situation like this, the Russians build belt after belt of defensive positions and simply allow their enemies to grind themselves to powder on them. Their first use of this was Kursk-Orel in 1943 and it worked splendidly. The Krauts lost 165,000 dead in six weeks. It has been so far impossible to find any reliable numbers on Ukrainian or Russian casualties. If you go to pro-Ukraine sites its buckets of Russian blood, pro-Russian and its buckets of Ukrainian blood. But a positional struggle against Russian defense in depth tactics is going to be costly. Very costly. Any film of a battlefield is going to have a lot of corpses…and as the battle goes on in the summer heat you can’t actually go out there in no man’s land to collect the bodies and bury them: they rot where they fall. This is why I think we don’t see a lot of close-up video…it would horrify everyone, and that would threaten the flow of money into Ukraine and right back into Western pockets.

My larger worry here is that we’re just slipping into war. We as a people have no real conception of what that it like any longer. We get upset when a dozen or a score of ours are killed in an engagement. Imagine if we got into a situation like the Battle of Tarawa where we lost more than a thousand dead in just three days? I don’t think we can psychologically handle that. But if you’ve got a brigade of Russkies dug in on a ridge and you have to dislodge them for your advance to succeed…you’re going to lose a thousand soldiers doing it. And once you’ve secured that ridge…you’ll just find another brigade holding the next ridge back. How long do you think this American people could sustain that? How long do you think our volunteer military will be able to remain combat effective with that sort of attrition rate? And that’s if we’re winning! Suppose our first and second assaults fail? A couple thousand dead and the Russians are still holding out?

We are not in any way prepared for war…and our leadership may very well bumble us into one.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan69 Comments

So the House will finally start thinking about impeaching Biden. Good.

Now, of course we can’t convict; there is zero chance that 67 Senators will vote to convict Biden no matter what the evidence shows. This, in itself, demonstrates how utterly corrupt our system is…and we can rely on it that at least some GOPers (Mitt Romney, eg) will also vote to acquit come what may (after all, his own son was also involved in Ukraine corruption). But this isn’t about getting a conviction. And, no, it isn’t revenge for Trump. If it is anything, it is to set the marker – to produce a body of work which will be the base-line for rooting out corruption in 2025 and later if we win.

This is why I hope that one of the charges made is failure to see to it that the laws are faithfully enforced. Article II, Section 3: he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed. The President is specifically enjoined by the Constitution to enforce the laws. All the laws all the time. Point blank: he doesn’t even have prosecutorial discretion (and, so, neither do his subordinates from Attorney General on down). There’s nothing in there saying “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, unless he finds a reason not to”. It is just, “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”. The end. Doesn’t matter if its bad law or stupid law or law that no longer serves its purpose – if it is enacted by Congress and hasn’t been repealed or ruled unconstitutional, it is the law and the President shall take care that it is faithfully enforced until such time as it is repealed or ruled unconstitutional.

Why is this important? Because the President has allowed people to skate – all Presidents have to one extent or another, but under Biden it is on steroids. This is why Hunter is skating…but, more importantly, so are large numbers of people who should be facing massive jail time. Once again, not asserting the laws they would fall under are good or that we shouldn’t repeal/modify them, but they are the laws. The most egregious cases are the permitting of illegals to cross our border with impunity and allowing Antifa/BLM rioters to skate. Pudding Brain’s job is to enforce the laws and he has refused to do it in direct violation of the oath he took. All the rest of it is important, but nothing is more crucial than this: the law must be enforced. Tied in with this is the selective and cruel prosecutions of the J6 people and Team Trump…things that other people are allowed to walk on are being used to send J6 people to jail for long sentences…and they are proposing long sentences for Trump and his people on ridiculous charges no Democrat would ever face.

To get back to rule of law we must first punish those charged with enforcing the law who failed their duty. We can’t actually punish Biden, but if we can make the case and use it as a basis for prosecutions down the road, we’ll be on the path back to law.

The MSM – on orders – is calling the impeachment inquiry “without evidence”. This lie isn’t meant for you. It is meant for Democrats who still consume MSM product and so haven’t heard of the evidence. This is designed to make sure they don’t get curious about it.

Inflation rate is rising again.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are anti-Catholic bigots. But they are also pervs. Really, really pervy.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan12 Comments

New Mexico’s Democrat governor Grisham yesterday announced that the Second Amendment was null and void in Albuquerque for 30 days. The alleged justification for the action are the recent murders of some children, including an 11 year old. As far as that goes, this was just par for the course from Democrats – cynically exploiting the death of a child to advance their Leftist agenda; in this case, disarming the population. It was ridiculous in practical terms (the only possible people who would obey the order are those who would never murder anyone) but also an outrage against the Constitution. You really can’t just willy-nilly set aside its provisions.

What surprised everyone a bit was the number of prominent Democrats who came out to oppose the move. Not immediately – there was about a day between order and condemnation. This means someone quickly did some polling on the issue and found it catastrophically bad for Democrats. You know for certain their concern wasn’t the Constitution. Grisham is guilty of not only saying the quiet part out loud, but saying it before the Democrat party as a whole was prepared to defend it. But even with that, it is a huge problem.

The governor can be impeached. But the Legislature is controlled by Democrats. The State and local police could refuse to comply with an illegal order. But the cops most concerned – in Albuquerque – already announced they would enforce the rule. The Federal government can arrest the governor – as well as any staffers or police who cooperate with the order – on conspiracy to deny the civil rights of the people of New Mexico (this is actually a violation of US law; we really have enacted laws making it illegal to deny a person their civil rights…it has just never been enforced against a Democrat), but Pudding Brain’s DOJ won’t do that. So, we’re kinda stuck, aren’t we?

Sure, anyone arrested under the order can fight it in court and almost certainly they will prevail. Eventually. Could take a couple years, maybe longer. And what will they get after the fight? A court order nullifying the order, years after it went into effect (with maybe a judge ordering an injunction against its enforcement while the case winds its way through the courts). No penalty to the governor or for anyone who enforced the order. Lots of expense for those arrested on the basis of an illegal order. Nothing has more clearly shown that when the rubber meets the road, the Constitution is a mere scrap of paper…only in force as long as those with power agree to enforce it.

What we lack – and it is now a glaring lack, given that Democrats have dispensed with the Rule of Law – is any mechanism for enforcing the law – for securing our rights – when the government is actively working to oppress the people. A temporary fix is to get a GOP President in office willing to prosecute the governor. That would go a long way. But not all the way. In fact, might even make a Leftist hero out of her. And a GOPer won’t be President forever. Eventually, a Democrat gets back in and we’re back at square one.

It is a problem we’re going to have to deal with; the construction of mechanisms which allow the people to stop the government. Not quite sure how to go about this (some sort of Tribune like in ancient Rome?), but when all of the power is in the hands of people who don’t respect the law, we need something outside the law to stand between us and the government.

Democrats are increasingly angry over GOP governors shipping illegals to Blue cities. This means it is working; and we should not only keep it up, but increase the numbers. It is turning out to be a PR catastrophe for the Democrats…it is causing huge stress in Democrat cities (and among various Dem voting blocs) but the Democrats can’t seal the border to stop it because that would upset the far Left. They are in a pickle and it is gloriosu.

Senator Kennedy ripped into the Deputy Secretary of Energy over the price tag for getting us to “net zero” by 2050 and how nobody can say how much this will change the climate if we do it. It is in a lot of ways a grand effort by Kennedy but in the end, he lost the argument: because he conceded, repeatedly, that being “carbon neutral” is good; a goal we should achieve. We can’t do that – that is, we can’t even for a moment concede a point to the Democrats. All they believe are lies and we can’t go along with them.

There is no “climate crisis”.

Just as there is no “gun violence”. People are violent; guns are inanimate objects.

Abortion is not healthcare.

On and on like that.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan84 Comments

Senators Collins (R-ME) and Murray (D-WA) proudly announced they had advanced a “bi-partisan” spending bill through committee today. We already know what’s in it without looking: a Democrat Christmas wish list and some kickbacks to the GOP donor class. It is what “bi-partisan” means. One thing this will lack – as all bills lack – is anything for the GOP base.

Dem base: gets stuff.

Dem donor class: my goodness you won’t believe how much they get!

GOP donor class: more than enough to keep them cutting checks for the GOP.

GOP base: diddly squat.

Why is one fourth of the interested parties screwed? Why is that fourth always screwed?

I understand Collins’ position – she’s a GOPer representing a purple State and so she has to trim her sails to retain electoral viability. Totally dig it. Nothing actually dishonorable in that. Politics is, after all, the art of the possible. But, still: why do we get nothing? Collins could do it. She could easily throw us a bone. Even as a minority-party Senator she swings great weight…can gum up the works for weeks if she wanted to; could also work with GOP House Leaders on a strategy to leverage some GOP wins into the final product. But we know what we’ll get: nothing. There will be money in there for all manner of ridiculous things (the X account @RandoLand_us details it regularly); we’re literally sending money out to pay for lesbian poetry in the Third World. If the Democrats can get that – and they always do – why can’t we, say, get a few million to support artists who write from a Christian perspective? I mean, not that I need the money…but if we’re going to flash the cash at Diversity then, well, part of Diversity is me…I’m a Diversity. My voice needs to be heard!

Only moderately kidding there: I wouldn’t take the money. But, still: why not a little cash our way? Why not, say, get a return for our vote? Without Collins and other GOPers in the Senate lots of bills have a murky future. That is massive political leverage. Use it!

But they don’t and that does tell us something: they despise us. People like Collins know they need our votes, but they hate it. She’ll do bare minimum GOP-ish stuff to retain GOP votes but all her efforts are really directed at helping her friends, the Democrats. The only people on the outside looking in is the GOP base; nobody represents it at the tables of the powerful. This is why, so far, it is mostly sticking with Trump…and if DeSantis really wants to make a contest of it, he’ll have to demonstrate that he’s going to get things for the base even better than Trump could.

And it does need to be done; we on the Right are losing faith in the USA. Not in the idea; not in what the flag represents, but in the system under that flag. That is what the Never Trumpers and Collins-style people don’t get: we’re alienated. After all, we get scorned, we get harassed, we get arrested…but we don’t actually get anything. We’re going to rush more billions to Ukraine but we’ve still got people waiting years for VA benefits…and as we on the Right make up the bulk of veterans, it does sink in that slow VA benefits is intentional. They don’t give a darn about us and hope we die before they have to pay out.

Someone in the Uniparty better start thinking fast of this could all blow up.

The ADL – a mere arm of the DNC propaganda machine – has been using accusations of anti-Semitism at X to crush advertising revenues. Though the ADL is a Democrat front organization, it still has the reputation built up in the last century of being a fighter against bigotry. That it decades ago became a mere DNC mouthpiece simply hasn’t registered in Corporate America…so when they get a memo from the ADL they tend to act on it. Musk now says he’ll sue – claiming the ADL has cost X $22 billion in value. Could be an interesting case.

Tucker Carlson is interviewing a guy who says he had relations with Obama way back when. Such has been rumored since Obama first rose to prominence. I’m kinda “meh” about it – if Obama is gay or bi and hid it then it is yet another in a long line of Obama lies.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan42 Comments

Nashville trans shooter had a manifesto: we still haven’t seen it, might not for years.

Jacksonville racist shooter had a manifesto: it was out pretty much as soon as the story broke.

It could be explained by mere gatekeeping: the MSM simply not allowing anything out which could dispute the Narrative (don’t tell me that some enterprising reporter couldn’t get the trans shooter’s manifesto if they wanted to). But I’m not so sure it is just that. It was out way too fast. Like someone had it all set to go. As if someone knew the shooting was coming.

And that makes me want the shooter’s associates looked into. He was 21 – ie, born in 2002. Woke was already heavily into the schools. As he went through schools he got the full show – racism bad, America bad, white males bad. What I’m saying: whatever was in this guy, the Left put it there. Who, then, turned it to racism? Sure, I know he could have found it himself as the web is chock full of it…and the means used by propagandists to sucker people in are very effective (and that’s whether you’re trying to turn your target racist or trans). But, still; its a long way from posting on some Stromfront chat room to getting a gun and killing human beings (just as its a long way from a girl liking Tonka trucks to having “top surgery”). Who lit the fuse? I want to know – what we need to know: are there people pushing people towards certain actions to support the Ruling Class Narrative/Agenda? We know that scores of the “climate change forest fires” have actually been set by arsonists – someone is setting those people off, and I suspect that someone set the Jacksonville shooter off.

And it might good deeper and higher than we suspect. Over the last couple weeks the FBI has busted down a couple doors and shot people for positing “threats” on line. It is clear that the Feds are looking for a “MAGA Terrorist” they can put on trial. The two guys shot didn’t fit the full bill, not being credible in a trial setting…and now both are conveniently (for the FBI) dead. I strongly suspect that the apparatus of power in the USA is trying to get horrid things to happen to justify the continued power of the Ruling Class.

“But Mark, they would never do that!”

Yes, they would. Ruling classes threatened in the core of their being will do anything to keep in power. There are more than enough questions about the Colosio assassination in Mexico back in 1994 to conclude that it was likely the Ruling Class eliminating one of their own who had got off the ranch. When power, wealth and prestige are at stake, people do all sorts of odd things…and do keep in mind that America’s Ruling Class, each year, dispenses trillions of dollars and the influence that goes with it. And we also know that, by and large, those in charge of the United States has no sense of morals at all. There’s nothing to hold them back.

They’ve set Trump’s trial date for the election interference case for March 24, 2024. They will try to get a swift conviction and place Trump in jail. Sure, Trump’s lawyers will appeal and all that, but they want him in jail – at this point, in the hope that the GOP would then dump Trump. Make no mistake about it, they fear him again…there is a palpable shift out there and some polls are reflecting an easy Electoral College win for Trump. We’ll see how it goes; I would suspect that Trump’s legal team will try to delay it.

Burning Man is a ridiculous gathering of modern, smelly hippies in the Nevada desert. All those purple haired vegans you’ve heard about? They attend it. This year its being held on tribal lands near Pyramid Lake and some other purple haired vegans decided to block traffic to the event to protest hot weather. Absolutely hilarious that two sets of Commie losers were in a stand off! Anyways, what they forgot is that an Indian Reservation is owned by Indians and if they don’t want you blocking their road, you don’t get to block their road – Native cops busted down the barricade and arrested all the whiny, upper class white Commies and you’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan103 Comments

Tucker’s interview with Trump has been up (as this point) a bit more than an hour and it has more than 81 million views. This is going to far outpace whatever audience the Fox GOP debate will get. I didn’t watch the debate as I tend not to watch such things this early on, especially with that many people on stage. It is a bit silly. But I did watch the Trump interview with my Mrs – he’s still engaging and fun to watch. Clearly a little older but he seems in good shape. The usual run of Trump thinking out loud…but also, as per usual, did nail point after point. The Mrs was entertained – and she’s never particularly warmed up to Trump.

Trump is still a major political factor. To try to dismiss him is folly.

Now: we’ll see what happens when votes start being cast.

Do any of you remember the Eddy Grant song Electric Avenue? Lately a line in it has been rolling around in my head:

Who is to blame in what country?
Never can get to the one

Does seem like that, doesn’t it? Because we were all good, little GOPers back in 2001 – and patriots, always – we kinda let it slide that nobody in official circles went to jail over the attack. It was massive fail in intelligence, law enforcement and military…nobody paid a price (except for the 3,000 who died, of course). I think that’s when things really started to fall apart…when our Ruling Class found out that no matter how bad the failure, if they just scripted it right, they could breeze right past it…and maybe even get a commendation and promotion.

You know the song Putting on the Ritz where the line goes, “trying hard to look like Gary Cooper”? I never really got that because, for me, Gary Cooper was an older cowboy actor. But here’s a picture of him from a 1926 silent film. I get it, now.

The limit is 13. I repeat, the limit is 13!

Open Thread

Mark Noonan40 Comments

Rumors have been swirling that they are getting ready to impose COVID lockdowns again for 2024. I discounted them but now I’m not so sure – Lionsgate has reinstated mask mandates in their LA office and a few other bits of info in my own life tell me that something is up: that there might be a push to resume COVID panic. The main reason I can figure for this is to allow free flowing fraud for 2024 – and the bad news for us is that most battleground States have Democrat governors who will certainly want to impose the mandates when ordered to. Still not a done deal: outside of a small portion of idiots, nobody wants mask mandates and other COVID lockdowns in place. Popular resistance might prevent it.

The other possibility for bringing them back is that we are teetering on the edge of a major economic downturn and getting COVID restrictions back in place will be a convenient thing to blame…rather than all the selling out to China and paying for a proxy war in Ukraine that we’re losing. Main thing: put nothing past these people. As I’ve said before – once you get a person going along with abortion to birth, there is no morality left. They are into objective evil.

They seem to be slow walking Maui information, don’t they? Rumor is that hundreds are still missing – and must be presumed dead by now. Including large numbers of children. Why not let it out right way? Because they need it to be old news…dribbled out, perhaps with a Friday newsdump. To have Democrat policy cause such a shocking disaster isn’t something they want in the public eye. They also needed a chance to get Pudding Brain’s meds right for a visit. They did the best they could but of course that senile idiot tried to make the tragedy about himself; trying to talk up a minor house fire he had once into something comparable. But make no mistake about it, that fire was caused and aggravated by Democrat policy at the local, State and federal level. It should never have happened – and if by some chance it started, wise policy before and during would have made it a minor event. This is blood on Democrat hands.

We on our side really need to hit on this; every Blue city murder, every death along the border, every drug overdose…all of it comes to us via Democrat policy. They are piling up corpses in great, big bloody batches and we can’t afford to be nice about it: paint their doors with the blood of the victims. No more letting Democrats get away with a claim of being compassionate…they are as cruel and uncaring as the worst savages of history.

The end of Buckley-ite Conservatism? National Review is ending its fortnightly format and going monthly. Naturally they are dressing it up as new and improved…but the bottom line is that it shows a declining appetite for what NR sells. And just what does it sell? Conservatism which Liberals find tolerable.

No disrespect to the late Bill Buckley here. He was a man of brilliance who did many things to advance Conservative thought. In the heyday of Liberal dominance – the 20 years after the end of WWII – Buckley’s magazine was one of the few things keeping the flame of Conservatism alive. But in the end Buckley’s project failed. And it failed because it presumed Liberalism to be a valid worldview. That is, that Liberalism had a genuine intellectual and philosophical underpinning. It didn’t. It doesn’t. It never could have. Liberalism, from its first emergence in the middle 18th century always had the fatal flaw: the absurd belief that if we could just get the system right, we’d get the desired morality. Buckley’s brand of Conservatism did see through that, but not all the way. There was still some underlying assumption that Liberalism is tolerable, when just a bit of thought lets you know that it will always devolve into some sort of totalitarian barbarism. Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Nazism all grew out of Liberalism…and the increasing favor tyranny finds on the Left today is just yet another manifestation of Liberalism’s devolution to tyranny.

The breaking point – the thing which pointed to ultimate failure – was the casting out of the Birchers. I, too, once believed that it was a good and necessary thing. Can’t have kooks! Well, true; but we also can’t let ourselves be suckers. And casting out the Birchers made us suckers. Whatever screwball ideas they may have had, the bottom line is that they were defending what Conservatism is supposed to defend; faith, family and property. Because they were abandoned, the Right essentially abandoned the defense of faith, family and property. If you think back on it all, every time there was a crucial fight on those issues, the Conservative movement caved into the Left. It wasn’t Conservatism which began the pro-Life movement. It wasn’t Conservatism which saved the Second Amendment. There weren’t rich donors behind them; while Conservatism would say kind things about them, they never got into the fight. If Conservatism wanted to Conserve anything then it’s jobs was to guide and channel the Birch-impulse…away from the genuine screwballs. But to do that would be to get down in the dirt and fight it out to the destruction of Left or Right. Conservatism never wanted to do that. Might upset the liberal friends, you know?

And so it drifted until with betrayal piled on top of betrayal, the common folk turned to an outsider to get what they want – a defense of faith, family and property. We’ve yet to see how this comes out – but what Buckley did is gone, never to return.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan82 Comments

Word is that Pudding Brain has a fake e mail address. Oddly, it is a .gov address…which means he was helped in getting it by employees of the government. Like spending half his time in Delaware, this is a means whereby he avoids FOIA requests…if it doesn’t happen in the White House or in Biden’s official communications, then it doesn’t show up in oversight. To be sure, some of this is to make sure Biden is just out of the public eye – he can barely do an hour of work a day – but most of it is just to hide what is going on. From you. As Joe said, he doesn’t work for us.

Lot of argument about whether or not Trump should drop the 2020 vote issue. Maybe he should: but I’d like to point out that the GOP’s best chance of an easy move-on from Trump was for it to loudly proclaim 2020 as filled with questions and pledging to vindicate Trump’s assertion. Trump is mad – he had the White House stolen from him. It doesn’t matter if you believe that; he does. And the anger is doubled by all the GOPers he helped out dropping dime on him. This, I think, is the reason he’s running: he wants vindication.

Seems an IRS agent killed another IRS agent in a shoot out – which leaves us with the question: why are IRS agents armed?

Ninth Circuit has ruled that Idaho’s ban on biological males competing in women’s sports is unconstitutional…on what possible grounds I can’t imagine. I’m sure they dressed it up under equal protection but for heaven’s sake this issue has only existed even in theory since the 1970’s and we have no legal consensus on how all this works. Just because someone says it is so doesn’t make it so – this will go to the Supreme Court where I view it’s future as murky. There could be 2 sorta-Right Justices who want to make a name for themselves on the left on this issue as Kennedy did on SSM. The real problem here is the Courts refusing to hold themselves bound by the law – whatever is in the Constitution, this issue isn’t covered by it, plus or minus. It is therefore a matter for the States or the people to decide.

We do have in the Constitution the power to regular how federal courts operate – the right to appeal to the federal judiciary is not absolute…and as the Courts are selective in what cases they take, we can be selective in what cases they can hear. I’d hold that for a federal court to even hear a case they’d have to quote chapter and verse where the case is covered under the Constitution before they even start. I’d also work on a bit of State nullification: that is, a State going ahead and enforcing the law even if a federal court strikes it down on the grounds that the federal courts have no power over the issue. Depending on who is in the White House this could get interesting…but to me it is a fight worth having. That is: making it clear that there are issues the federal government simply has zero authority over. And lets see a President try to arrest the government of a State for not obeying a court order. Sometimes to get change you have to provoke a crisis.

Main thing: there isn’t supposed to be a final word under our system of government: it was certainly never meant to be 9 judges making the final call.