Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan44 Comments

We were all wondering when it first came out if it were an April Fool’s joke, but it does appear that Biden is denying he proclaimed trans visibility for Easter. Now, to be sure, one must think carefully about this: the Party Line on it now is that the day has been around since 2009 and it just happened to fall on Easter…and, hey, isn’t this just as important as the observation of the resurrection? So, it might be just on that level that Biden is denying he made it happen – that he was just rote doing what you’re supposed to do on national observations that we all participate in. Because, you know, we all can’t wait for trans day of visibility to roll around each year.

That, of course, is actually damage control: someone decided that Biden and the rest of the Democrats would make a to do about trans on Easter as a malicious insult…and they thought that our outrage would get blowback that would work to Democrat advantage. When it was actually done – when the thing was in the public square – they suddenly realized how absolutely hideous it was and now they’re trying to back and fill.

My advice: forget the polls. They are going to fluctuate a bit back and forth. Carter had a 7 point lead in Gallup in April of 1980. Dukakis was down 2 in April of 1988, up 16 in May. On and on like that. This is what I think is the real dynamic of 2024: that people are just getting sick of it all. The trans on Easter thing is just another element in a large tapestry of things people just don’t like about the Biden years. The biggest thing will remain the price of gas and groceries but in all respects, just nothing is going right. That is why Democrats are now pinning their hopes on abortion: they just managed to get a pro-abortion amendment on the Florida ballot. They’ll do that in as many States as they can. Trust me on this: by September it’ll be 24/7 abortion. It did work partially in 2022. Will it work again? I doubt it. If it does then it means we never had a chance, anyway: if America returns Biden to office just to make sure children can be killed, then we’re out of the political market altogether. But outside a desperation move like that, there’s nothing Biden and the Democrats can do – any policy that would actually fix the problems they’ve created (notably reducing spending to cut inflation and closing the border to stop illegal immigration) is opposed by too large a part of the Democrat base. They are caught in a bind and can only hope that something else gets them out of it. Abortion is something else. So, too, things like trans day of visibility…but that has already backfired.

People are tired. Biden was supposed to be a placeholder. The Not Trump. He wasn’t supposed to do anything but end Covid and then let things coast until someone else got in. But they forgot he is senile – and when not senile, stupid. He isn’t running the show. He lacks the wit or will to ride herd on the far left like Obama and Clinton did. Thus the far left is setting the policy – but nobody ever voted for the far left. The more they do, the worse it gets for Biden.

Louis Conter, the last survivor of the USS Arizona, passed away. He was 102. God bless the man. Almost all the WWII vets are gone. Korean vets, too. The old soldier you see these days is likely a former 19 year old Marine from Vietnam, 1967.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

I have this friend whom I’ve known since 1971. When we were kids, we liked science fiction (heck, we both still do) and so we’d ponder in, say, 1978 what the future might hold. We came up with some pretty fantastic ideas of what humanity might achieve but among the possibilities, cannibalism wasn’t one of them. Now we’ve got alleged cannibal gangs in Haiti and there was this train accident in California the other day where a leg was thrown clear and a guy apparently picked it up and started snacking on it. We seem to be devolving at an increasing pace.

Gas prices are starting to rise again and this is putting downward pressure on Biden’s poll numbers. In response to this, Team Pudding Brain has asked Ukraine to not blow up Russian oil facilities which would put even more upward pressure on gas prices. So, we’re paying for Ukraine to fight the Russians while also doing what we can to ensure Russia has money to fight the Ukrainians. Got a call from Zombie Kafka and he asked that we knock it off.

That terrorist attack in Moscow was of the quite horrific variety. Moscow is, of course, tightly protected and gun control is universal in Russia but this terrorist squad managed to get there and accessed a pre-positioned cache of some pretty heavy weapons. You can’t stop determined lunatics. Aside from that, what’s it all about?

Nobody knows. Very good chance that nobody will ever really know. US government word is that ISIS took responsibility and that is a possibility: ISIS has a gripe against Russia over the Syrian Civil War where the Russian- and Iranian-back Syrian regime fought ISIS. The Russian government is clearly indicating a Ukrainian connection and even if that wasn’t true, the Russian government would be keen to make it true. If any element of the Ukrainian government was involved – even rogue – the US will do all it can to suppress that information. We’re in for a raft of conspiracy theories on this one, guys.

Could Ukraine have had a hand in it? That is a distinct possibility. The Russians are advancing again; not very fast or far, but definitely moving the line westwards. There was a massive Russian missile strike against Ukrainian electricity production a couple days ago. Ukraine is having ever more trouble filling its depleted ranks (there are stories that French combat units are moving into Western Ukraine; don’t guess wrong here…this is probably more to prevent Russia from moving too far west in the event of a Ukrainian collapse; the French don’t want a shooting war with Russia; they don’t have the army for it). Could desperate times in Kiev lead to desperate, even foolish, measures? They could.

Bottom line: a messy situation just go messier – and if the Russian government can pin this on Ukraine, even with bogus evidence, it will strongly motivate the Russian people to take a pound of flesh from Ukraine.

Biden’s people are pushing very hard to stop Israel from hitting the southern part of Gaza. This is because of polling in Michigan and Minnesota with their large Muslim populations. But it is also rather disgusting that our government is increasingly aligned with Hamas against Israel. I don’t think the Democrats really come back from this – once you start down that road, it ends at Der Sturmer; they’ll be repeating blood libels by 2028.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan64 Comments

Haiti is falling apart. Again. Actually, of course, it never was together. Been a mess since independence. Unlike most places that emerged from colonial domination, Haiti immediately massacred the entire colonial ruling class. So, the founders of the nation really had no clue how to go about it. All else seems to stem from that. You totally understand why they rebelled and why they hated their white overlords…but they also sabotaged themselves.

Not sure what can be done – colonial overlordship is the obvious solution, but who would take on the job? The Haitians would start taking shots at you even if you were trying to improve things. There also just isn’t much to work with. No significant natural resources. Population is badly educated. They do have the island climate and beautiful beaches so tourism is an obvious thing but there are also other places with just as nice beaches that don’t periodically descend into savagery. Just really bad and really sad. Naturally, we’ve pledged more than $100 million in additional funding…for just what, I can’t say. There is no government in the country.

Speaking of descent into savagery, all of Oakland’s Taco Bell’s are converting to cashless operations only via drive through. The reason is the incessant robberies. This might only be a band aid. We’ve already seen plenty of other businesses go under in the Bay Area simply because crime is out of control. OTOH, San Francisco just enacted via referendum two “law and order” measures…not much (drug tests for welfare bums, restoring some powers to the police) but at least a step…and an indication that even in the Progressive citadels, there’s a limit. As I’ve said, civilization is a veneer – and a very thin one, at that. You only keep it by firmly upholding it. You can’t really let people do whatever they want; there have to be rules, strictly enforced.

The Pittsburg Police will not have any officers in police stations between 3 and 7 am and only have limited numbers of officers on patrol. The reason? Well, they only get 8 percent of their calls during that time.

Until now.

Just watch: they’ve opened up a Window O’ Crime…the crooks will know when it will be easiest to get away and that’s when they’ll strike. Watch, especially, for home invasions to increase.

Dungeons and Dragons was a game played by nerds when I was a kid. I tried it a few times but I thought the premise ridiculous and never got into it. But a lot of people loved it. Naturally, the Woke have taken it over and are determined to turn it into something that nobody will like. Not sure how they’ll ruin it, but they will. After all, the game is fantasy and everyone is allowed to insert their own desires into their character (because, you know, they’re made up) but I’m guessing there will be some rules about the gender and race make up of characters or some insistence that certain types of characters be of certain genders, orientations and skin colors. Because the whole point of the game isn’t to go on an adventure but to make sure all boxes are checked off…

Team Trump is now fully in control of the RNC – with Trump’s daughter as co-chair. Oddly, this is probably the means whereby the RNC is saved. Donations have been plummeting as the GOP Base has tended to see the RNC as a tool of the GOP Establishment. And there is much truth in that assumption…the strategy and spending of the RNC is so incompetent that you do wonder if it was deliberate sabotage. We won the 2022 Ohio Senate election by more than 250,000 votes – the GOP poured money into this race while starving the Arizona gubernatorial and Nevada Senate races of funds; races which were lost by 17,000 and 8,000 votes, respectively. Don’t tell me the money and number-crunch guys didn’t see this coming. Or, if they didn’t, then they are so incompetent that it doesn’t matter if it wasn’t treason as it might as well be.

Look to the new RNC leadership to clean house and then for Team Trump and the RNC to go on a fundraising blitz…which will probably rake in money as the Trumpsters will open up for the RNC now that it is in loyal hands.

UPDATE: Checking in on the Left, this is from a HuffPo editor.

They are such sad people – but it shows they really believe the drivel.

State of the Open Thread

Mark Noonan50 Comments

There were two things the Left settled on after last night’s senile rant by Pudding Brain:

  1. He’s SOOOOO vigorous!
  2. He shouldn’t have called Laken Riley’s killer an illegal.

Point one was, of course, pre-set; they were going to say that no matter. It was a chorus clearly scripted. It mostly drew chortles.

The second point was just as universal but came out a little later as the Left absorbed the performance. Biden mangled the poor girl’s name in his scripted attempt to defuse the issue and that did generate a lot of negative comment but the “don’t call them illegals” thing is more telling. The Laken Riley issue is highlighting the broader issue of border security and the Democrats want it gone. That is why they are demanding we stop saying “illegal” when referring to illegal immigrants. They don’t want the American people thinking in those terms, because that terminology cuts against them.

Call them Dreamers or Newcomers or Migrants or any other positive-to-innocuous term you can think of, but don’t call them illegal! They don’t want the outrage of the American people getting focused here. I don’t think it’ll work; the cat, as they say, is out of the bag – and anyone with a daughter or granddaughter sees Laken Riley. It could have been ours on the slab in a morgue…and set there because Biden’s people maliciously opened the border and cruelly refuse to close it. It does sometimes work like that – things can be horrible and everyone knows it is but there is no focus…until something happens that provides the focus. Riley’s murder has done that – she really just was a nice, young girl starting out her life and a miserable excuse for a human being killed her for no reason. And it wouldn’t have happened if illegals weren’t here.

One thing that especially disgusts me: pro illegal people saying, “illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes”. This is obviously untrue drivel but even if it is true, does that matter? For heaven’s sake, Riley would be alive if the illegal wasn’t there. If that was the only crime an illegal committed this year, it would still be an outrage. An entirely preventable death. It is like people just don’t care about other human beings dying – except when its fictional Palestinian deaths, of course. Anyways, I’m not about to take moral lectures from people just back from the “shout your abortion” rally.

Among the diseased mental droppings last night was a program to have the US military build a pier in Gaza to ship supplies in. Among the history of dumb ideas, this one is right up there. First off, all we’d be doing is providing supplies to Hamas, thus prolonging the war. Second, it puts a wedge between the USA and Israel and thus encourages Hamas to resist in the hope that the USA will eventually pressure Israel to leave Hamas alive. Third, and worst, there is zero chance Hamas won’t take a shot at us. If a Hamas militant is any way within range of US troops, he will open fire. He can’t do otherwise; we are the enemy to Hamas. They hate us; and it is likely a tie between hating us and hating Jews. This means there is a very good chance that one or more American will be killed by Hamas in our effort to supply Hamas.

And all of this because Team Biden wants to shore up support among pro-Hamas Muslims in Michigan. Americans are to die in an effort to secure some electoral votes. Disgusting doesn’t begin to cover it.

Side note: the father of one of the Marine’s killed in Biden’s botched Afghan withdrawal heckled Pudding Brain last night. He was arrested. A gold star father; arrested for saying words. That is Biden’s America.

Meanwhile, Islamists continue to attack defenseless Christians in Africa and our government doesn’t give a damn. Never let the vile people running our government claim any mantle of morality.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan36 Comments

The Crimson Blade goes live on March 10th! You can pre-order Kindle now. Having just done the very last review of it: gotta say, its awesome. There’s a growing conflict in the family, as it were. The Enemy is moving! But in ways that our heroes don’t fully understand. Everyone who likes a bit of history will enjoy the interaction between Fred and Celeste where it comes out, big surprise (/sarc), that Celeste is an ardent Monarchist!

So, the Michigan primary was a blowout win for Trump – and quite impressive numbers rolled up, including in traditionally Democrat areas. That plus the number of Democrat primary voters who voted “uncommitted” has Team Pudding Brain in a panic – that’s why they’re now overtly repeating Hamas lies and putting ever more pressure on Israel to quit. They are desperately worried they simply will not have enough votes in Michigan even given the invariable ballot box stuffing in Detriot.

To me, Israel continues to go far too slowly and carefully. I understand: they want to keep their own casualties low in addition to be chary of the blood of the Palestinians. These are noble sentiments, but celerity is key to success in war. You take too long and you can end up spilling more blood than if you just rammed through. And here’s the cruel truth: in war you must be willing to pour out whatever amount of blood is necessary to win. Nobody was more keen to keep casualties low than Wellington…but if the situation called for it, he would ruthlessly engage in quite bloody actions.

The vileness of our opponents becomes ever more clear, and it is finally costing them support. They were able to hide it for so long with their friendly media and, lets face it, some clever propaganda by Team Clinton and Team Obama…but with a senile Biden in charge, there’s no clear message and so the very worst aspects of the Left keep emerging where a Clinton or Obama would have skillfully hid them. The murder of that poor girl in Georgia is especially galvanizing…the Democrat attempts to sweep her death under the rug are leaving a very bad taste everywhere. We all know: she’s dead because illegals have been blithely released by the people specifically charged with keeping the people safe. You can’t work your way around that.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan42 Comments

So, what’s the over/under on Haley getting crushed in South Carolina? I’m going with 40.

She’s still in the race because a lot of big money people keep handing it to her. So, her staff has no reason to quit: they’re still getting paid. And that she hasn’t pulled the plug regardless tells me she’s a creature of her staff. Regardless of what happens in 2024, she’s off my list for 2028. I just don’t trust her.

Team Pudding Brain is now set to call the Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal. Basically asserting the Islamist position on the matter. Why? Gotta be Michigan – his people must be seeing disaster there and are desperate to shore up his support there among the Muslim community. But it probably won’t work: by and large the Muslim community anywhere in the world takes a strongly anti-Israel position.

But even if they kowtow to Islamist demands, I don’t think it is going to do the trick. The murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by an illegal immigrant is, by itself, just another in a long list of crimes committed by illegals who aren’t supposed to be here…but her death seems to be resonating far more widely than most. People are sick of it. Sick of illegals. Sick of the fact that once an illegal commits a really big horror we invariably find out he was in custody before and could have been deported.

It is all just getting to be too much. It is shifting the political dynamic, including in blue areas. It is such an easily fixable problem and everyone can see that government and business are conspiring to keep the illegals flowing. It makes people feel, correctly, that our Ruling Class hates us. This can lead to very odd things happening. Buckle up.

Some House Democrats are apparently working on ways and means of not certifying the 2024 election if Trump wins. They’ll only do this if they control a majority of House delegations next year – which may be different from who holds the overall House majority. Remember: when the House votes for President, it is one State, one vote. So, whoever has control of 26 or more State delegations wins. Currently the GOP controls 26 State delegations with 2 delegations split (so, essentially, no vote) and 22 under Democrat control. The Democrats would have to have a really good night in November for this to shift significantly. But, there you go: they are going to fight for democracy by denying the result. They are just lying, corrupt hypocrites determined to gain and retain power.

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.