Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan49 Comments

Proterra just filed for bankruptcy.

They’re an Electric Vehicle company much-touted (and subsidized) but Team Pudding Brain.

Energy Secretary Granholm cashed out $1.6 million in Proterra stock just before it went belly up.

Now, you can be stupid and say this was all just a coincidence…or you can see the obvious: a grift company set up to drain money from the Treasury tipped off the Energy Secretary – who must have been in on the scam – so she can get her pile of money, ultimately courtesy of the taxpayers.

They’re not even really hiding that they are corrupt. They keep the details secret, but the fact that they are corrupt is obvious and they are laughing at us. With the revelation that foreign oligarchs and gangsters have funneled $20 million into various Biden Family shell companies, the MSM position (so far) is that there is no proof that any of this money was directly given to Joe Biden. They know that’s a stupid thing to say. They don’t care. They know nothing will happen; they are even confident that if a GOPer wins the White House nothing will happen – likely because too many senior GOPers are hip deep in the overall Ruling Class corruption. Like this:

Senator Tim Scott – who is not a bad guy – had his campaign books looked into and it seems that huge amounts of money are being spent on brand new companies. We’re talking millions of dollars going from Scott’s campaign chest (which is huge) into these companies for…well, not for a whole heck of a lot. And make no mistake about it, what Scott is doing here is legal. But it is almost certainly what Matt and I found in Caucus of Corruption back in 2006: politicians essentially paying themselves out of campaign donations. You know: hire your wife as a consultant for half a million dollars. With this being relatively clean – legal and not actually hidden – can you imagine what we’d find if we really dug into the bowels of government? As of a minute ago, in FY 2023 (which started October 1st, 2022) Uncle Sam has spent $4,805,159,571,246.00 – $455 million more than they had spent by this time last year! Who the heck is keeping track of all that?

Suppose you had just a billion dollars and someone was stealing ten thousand dollars a day from you…you have a billion. It’ll be ages before you really notice it. And that is just you with your own billion dollars. Now imagine nearly five trillion dollars being shoveled out and millions of people coming and going…how hard would it be to steal a million dollars every day? That would only be 365 million by the end of the year. That is 0.007% of the money. that is like someone slightly shaving some metal of a penny. How would you notice? What I’m saying: rely on it, huge amounts of money are being stolen. probably at least a trillion every year of late. Often legally: but only as long as the people don’t find out about it and so demand reforms. Protecting that pile of stolen money is crucial to those stealing it: there is literally nothing they won’t do to keep you from finding out about it and stopping it.

Like, for instance, indicting Trump for saying things…which ultimately stems from Trump wanting to look into a big part of the corruption, what was going on in Ukraine.

RDS booted a Soros-backed, Commie State Attorney. And this is sure to warm Amazona’s heart – not just on a Commie getting the boot, by why she got it: DeSantis determined she was violating her oath of office by allowing violent felons to skate. This is wonderful stuff; and definitely the way to go. We can no longer tolerate people getting into official positions to undermine what those positions are for.

As we pretty much already knew, the FBI was targeting Catholics as domestic terrorists. Like the Traditional Latin Mass? Dude: the FBI wants to know all about it. Hey, I get it – the Trad Catholics can be a bit tiresome (I actually lean a bit left theologically; that whole Divine Mercy thing has sunk deep into me), but they aren’t terrorists. Unlike, you know, Antifa/BLM who are…and are also crooks and con artists, into the bargain. The sort of people the FBI might want to look into before they tackle the lady on her way to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. And I would like to remind one and all that while we Catholics are pretty easy going…we can become Cristeros at need.

The World Bank is cutting off funding to Uganda because of a recently passed law restricting homosexuality. Now, to be sure, I don’t think Uganda should have passed this law. I don’t think the government should be in the business of policing the personal relationships of the citizens. But here’s the thing: I’m not Ugandan. Not my country. The people of Uganda are perfectly capable of exercising their own judgement about what is best for themselves and while I can offer my opinion on it, I in no way have the right to try to force a people to live as I think best. The purpose of The World Bank is to provide funding to poor nations so they can rise out of poverty. Uganda has a Per Capita Income of about a grand a year. That’s pretty poor, if you ask me. They could probably use some economic development…but what they don’t need is rich, white foreigners telling them how to live. The old Imperialism sought to bring Christian truth and material advancement…the new Imperialism seeks to make the world like San Francisco.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan82 Comments

Normally, I never condemn anyone for their vote but for 2024 a GOP vote has become a moral obligation on all decent people. Regardless of what anyone thinks of any particular GOP candidate and in spite of the manifest weakness, corruption and folly of the GOP, itself, the Democrats have become so overwhelmingly bad – anti-human, evil in policy – that anyone with the least moral sense has to vote for the one alternative likely to eject the Democrats from power: and that is the GOP.

They are using the Department of Justice as a Gestapo. They are selling us out to the Green Lobby while China builds coal-fired power plants. They favor abortion to birth and the medical transition of children. They are conniving at the new slave trade along our southern border. They are making policy based on bribes and kickbacks. They are feeding the flames of internal hatred and division merely to keep selected demographic voting blocs on their side. It is all just horrible and if it goes on America is lost. They must be stopped – and the only way to stop them (God help us!) is the GOP.

As I’ve said many times, I will back the eventual GOP nominee regardless of who that person is – and I am no longer engaging in internal debate about which candidate is best. They are all better than any Democrat. From the most Trumpy to the most RINO among them, they are all miles above any Democrat. I urge all on our side to cease sniping at each other – sure, battle for your candidate, but don’t spend any time attacking the supporters of someone else. Save that fire for the Democrats. There is simply too much at stake for us to waste our effort on internal battles.

The latest Trump indictment is the same flaming garbage as the other two – they are charging him for speech. The only reason they can do this is the charges are being filed in DC and the federal judiciary there is under the control of frothing-at-the-mouth Leftwing fanatics imposed by Obama. The case should be tossed, but it won’t be – even the DC court of appeals is a no-go as a majority of it is Democrats. Eventually the Supreme Court will toss the case, but that could be years from now. The only question here is do Democrats feel an advantage for a quick trial and conviction (there is no doubt a DC jury will follow Party orders and convict no matter what the facts are), or have it hang over Trump especially if he’s the nominee? They might not know themselves, so you may see a bit of confusion in how they proceed. And they’re not done – they’re working on more charges in various venues and I would suspect if Trump is the nominee then in September of next year he’ll be charged with sedition.

But, does it matter? Right now, Trump is riding high for the GOP nomination and there are worried rumbles among the Left: a concern that even if Biden remains ahead, he’s not enough ahead to win. Remember, 3 or less points in the popular vote likely means a GOP Electoral College victory. And one recent poll actually had them tied – which would work out to a catastrophic Democrat defeat, probably costing them the Senate. I don’t care too much for polls…but the people who control the money in politics (on both sides) live and die by them. That is why we’re also hearing rumbles that people want Joe off the ticket…that, in fact, the recent revelations about Hunter originate in Democrats trying to force a change on the ticket. Who can really know?

The basic problem the Democrats have is that for the first time, they don’t have a smart person in charge. Much as we all despise Obama and the Clintons, they knew how to operate political machinery. Biden is senile and barely able to function more than a few hours a day. The Executive decisions likely depend on who talks to him last, and most of the time that would be Jill, who has never shown any political talent. The really bad thing for Democrats is there is nobody to ride herd on the most kook Left parts of the coalition. They are now rather regularly saying the quiet part out loud…including in front of people who aren’t emotionally committed to them. It could make for a wild ride next year.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan25 Comments

Little follow up to my post from two days ago: after discussing what is brave and so forth, got into a similar debate about what are rights. It was rather heated for a while and I think I’ve identified why: I thought after a while that we were talking past each other because I realized I hadn’t pointed out that with rights come responsibilities…and that’s when it all really fell apart and I found out that lots of people don’t even have a mental conception of responsibilities. And, guys, this was me arguing with the Right. The Left never even showed up.

To nutshell it, I pointed out that we are under no obligation to allow bad and/or insane people to occupy the public square. That among the rights we as citizens hold is the right to a peaceful, polite, orderly society so that we may conduct our lawful business without let or hindrance. This caused the explosion – one guy considering me a fascist over it. The bottom line is that those opposing me do not believe that we have a right to decency and neither do people have a responsibility to be decent. Sure, they conceded that someone causing direct harm could be arrested…but only in very narrow circumstances and if I didn’t like the way things we, too bad: we can only be free if lousy people are allowed to be lousy.

This shows how far the rot has gone – first that people believe a bum or a gangster is someone exercising freedom rather than representing the mentality of a slave. Secondly that decent people have to put up with the lousy…that if we don’t do that, we can’t be free. The truth, of course, is that if you don’t have an orderly, polite society you can’t be free…because a disordered, rude society is swiftly run by the most barbaric among us and barbarians do not respect the rights of anyone. This is why we have people waltzing into stores and just swiping everything. You can say the changes to the law caused it and I’d agree that it was a proximate cause of the event, but the bottom line is that you and I – even if absolutely assured we wouldn’t get prosecuted – simply would not go and steal stuff. We know its wrong and we don’t have a right to take what belongs to others. Barbarians don’t know its wrong and figure anything they can grab is theirs by right.

And how are we supposed to survive like that? The answer is that we can’t. It is already starting to fall apart (and the suburban people who figure they can just shop on line are gonna love it when their Amazon delivery trucks start to get hijacked in droves). Eventually those who produce or who have goods to sell will retreat behind walls and only allow select people in…and they’ll only produce in small amounts for fear that goods available for sale are also readily available for theft. Shortages, lack of access, rising prices are going to come unless this is stopped.

And they way you stop a barbarian is to hit him. Very hard. So that it hurts a lot. And you keep hitting him until he stops. It is the only way. It isn’t fascist; not even akin to fascism. It is saving civilization and thus freedom.

So, Hunter had his plea deal and the judge tossed it because it absurdly granted Hunter immunity from future charges…in case anyone following up on his actions found even more crimes (spoiler: there are more crimes. A lot more crimes). So, he plead guilty. Now, don’t get your hopes up: Team Pudding Brain isn’t going to allow Joe’s spawn to go to jail and they will want all possible charges wrapped up before election day, 2024, for fear that if a GOPer – or even a hostile or indifferent Democrat – gets in for 2025 the jig will be up. Rely on it that they are already working on a modified slap on the wrist. And the Biden’s are too arrogant to understand that the way out – the way to make this all go away – is for Hunter to see the inside of a jail cell. Say a 3 year rap, out in 18 months. Be good for Hunter: his best chance to get clean before he overdoses. It would still be a wrist slap, but everyone is going to figure “at least he went to jail” and stop looking into it. The hope is the nitwits keep screwing it up and a GOP President gets to have his team look into it.

DeSantis said something mildly approving of RFK (who is a nut) and the world went mad – and mostly is was DeSantis supporters who went mad. They’re busy writing his political obituary over it. But I do detect something: some RDS supporters clearly only backed RDS as the non-Trump without much hope he’d actually win the nomination and thus provide these people with an excuse to vote Biden in 2024. As for me: it wasn’t that bad and RDS has plenty of time to repair whatever damage was done. What I’ve been advising people is to not get committed to any particular candidate too early. The Trumpsters and the DeSantis-stans are both making the mistake of getting too deeply invested when the first primary is still months away (though I suspect DNC pot-stirring is playing a role here). I’ve committed to vote for the GOP nominee – of late I’m not even saying who I prefer. Any GOPer is the moral and intellectual superior of every Democrat.

In line with that, do you feel the shift? After the 2022 midterms I think most of us expected rather resounding defeat in 2024. I sure did. But Dobbs fades and Pudding Brain’s utter nastiness comes ever more to the fore. I think people are disgusted with him. A lot. Sure, Trump has his negatives – and rely on it that if RDS or someone else gets it, their negatives will be driven sky high by the MSM – but Trump didn’t abandon a grandchild. Isn’t talking about “gender affirming care” for minors as if the very concept weren’t an abomination. Without getting too deep here, for the first time in a while I do think we can win next year. Steep hill to climb. We still have to win outside the margin of fraud (which will be a lot lower than in 2020), but I think we can do it. Stay tuned.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan17 Comments

I hear the Barbie movie is a woke-fest – but it is making huge money, likely because they didn’t push it as a woke-fest. Gotta say that’s some clever marketing…Barbie, of course, having huge market just on the name so large numbers of little girls and their parents would go see it if they thought it was just a Barbie movie. We’ll see how it does long-term as the woke comes out.

The other big movie release is Oppenheimer – which I am suspecting is a good movie based on Nolan directing; he usually doesn’t disappoint. I bet, though, it will have all that nuclear weapons angst which Soviet propaganda generated during the Cold War to make sure the USA never pressed its overwhelming advantage in nuclear weapons. The other aspect to look for is just how much they explore Oppenheimer’s Communist connections. I figure if Oppenheimer, himself, had been a Commie that would have come out some time after the end of the Cold War…so, he probably wasn’t a card-carrying member. But his social and professional connections were shot through with Commies. Of course, part of that was the times: the intellectual class, which has always been a little stupid in practical affairs, fell hook, line and sinker for Communism in the first half of the 20th century. A portion of them woke up about it but not before the damage was done – not just in allowing spies to run wild, but also the deep infiltration of American institutions, public and private, by Communists.

We’ve talked about atomic bombs before so I’ll just briefly re-state: it is just a big bomb. The only legitimate hesitation in using one is the immense amount of death and destruction it causes. That is, do you need to destroy that city and end all those lives? In a lot of war situations, you simply would not have to and so use would be gratuitous and immoral. But in the context of Japan in 1945, there was at that point no other way out for us or the Japanese. It was either fight it out conventionally at the cost of millions of lives (mostly Japanese but quite a lot of American and allied as well) or blow up a couple cities at the cost of a couple hundred thousand lives and end it. Whether or not we and the Japanese should have got ourselves into that predicament is an entirely separate issue – and not just in Japan’s decision to attack, but our decision to demand unconditional surrender in 1942…my view is that we should never have done that and should have opened negotiations in 1943 after the Battle of the Philippine Sea for a peace deal which got Japan out of the Philippines and China proper but left the Japanese Empire intact as a counter balance to Russia and China.

But, such wasn’t to be. And because we had Commies and because we got ourselves jammed with Japan…we were pretty much prevented from using nukes during the Korean War when the obvious best way to get the Chinese out of Korea was an ultimatum to get out or Shanghai gets nuked.

The latest trope in the Reparations issue is the insistence that “black people built America”. I see it more and more often – so, you see, we owe it! As I’ve discussed before, there is an injustice here which can be corrected without inflicting a new injustice – that is, out of the national wealth (public lands and mineral rights, mostly) provide funds to the descendants of slaves in order to help them catch up given their ancestors were illegally prevented from building wealth at all from 1776 to 1865 and then hampered in it from 1865 to 1965. But the concept that slaves built America is not just a lie, it is a stupid lie. Slave labor is a moral abomination and lousy economics.

The South was economically and intellectually backwards by 1861 – not just behind the North but massively behind and falling back further year by year. The Southern leadership thought they had the talisman of power in King Cotton but the fact of the matter is that by 1860 the agricultural products of free labor in the North were more valuable than what the whip could drag out of Southern soil. The whole project of the Confederacy was a con – I’m willing to concede that some of the leaders of the Confederacy conned themselves along with the mostly middle class soldiers who did most of the dying (that is North and South, by the way), but it was still a con. A stupid, regressive idea who’s only possible beneficiaries were the tiny class of wealthy slave drivers (who weren’t all that wealthy; they were heavily in debt because the costs of keeping slaves was very high). The leaders of the South would have been better off – and cost a lot less lives – if they had just freed their slaves and hired them.

But the main point here is that there was no building of America by slaves. Having slaves was probably a net economic loser for the USA as a whole. But if it did generate any net wealth, it was small and all of it was burned down in the Civil War. And you’d think black radicals would want to understand that slavery doesn’t work…but what they’re essentially saying is that it was the most effective economic system ever.

This is because they’re very, very stupid people.

Little bit of shift out there, guys. We dumped Bud Light and their sales are down like 30% or some such. The Left tried to shut down Jason Aldean for his latest song…and all it did was drive the tune to number one. We can win this. The more insane the Left gets, the harder it is for them to defend themselves and attack us.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan31 Comments

Today’s prime example of why I want to burn it all to the ground is this thread. Do read it, but to nutshell it a couple of gay guys rented out a woman’s womb to produce their designer child and when the mother came up with breast cancer they essentially ordered the child killed. The mother was willing to take the child as her own – she just needed it born premie so she could get cancer treatment. Nothing doing: kill the kid! And when she gave birth anyway, they (under the power provided to them by California law) refused any medical treatment for the premature boy, and so he died.

Hate to break it to everyone, but gay and straight are not the same thing. “Love is love” is an absurdity. We are what we are – and if you are a person who has a deep-seated sexual attraction to the same sex and you decide that that is how you will live your life then having kids is precluded. It just is what it is. I’m not condemning anyone for being gay, but I am going to insist that you don’t try to twist life to fit some bizarre desire you may have to engage in gay sex and be a father. Pick one. Stick with it. Don’t bring kids into a mix where they can only happen via the rather disgusting act of renting a human body for breeding purposes.

Another example is the Michigan AG indicting a group of elderly GOPers who produced a slate of Trump 2020 Electors. They’re seriously going to criminal charge these people – with the real “crime” being, “you supported Trump.

Hung Cao is running as a GOPer for Senate in Virginia – gotta say that this web ad of his is rock solid. He’s the son of Vietnamese refugees so he knows – and emphasizes – that he knows what our domestic Communists are up to. Aside from the “kid of immigrants makes good” story line, he’s also an American warrior – naval officer with lots of combat experience. Youngkin as Governor is trying to change Virginia’s blue trajectory and I think he’s having some success. Getting Cao into the Senate would cement it.

Word is that they’ll indict Trump. Again. This time for speeches he gave in the run up to January 6th. I think the Left is simply insane on this now – or they are looking at some polling indicating that Trump is at least on par with Biden and they are panicking. Whatever their motivations, this is yet more Death of the Republic stuff. Once Trump-Russia was proven to be a fraud, any official action against Trump will be seen by his supports as just more Trump-Russia. Even if you can prove that something Trump did was a crime, it won’t matter at this point. You had your shot and you burned it on a transparent lie. If we keep going down this route, then civil war is at the end of it. Maybe not today. Maybe not even for some years, but it will come. People who feel like they can’t get a fair shake will eventually resort to violence. It is as certain as night following day.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan15 Comments

The Establishment is really going after The Sound of Freedom – the anti-child trafficking movie. They are going ballistic…and that tells you the tale: there really is a huge amount of child trafficking in the Ruling Class. There’s no other explanation for going to hard after the movie. Think about it – they’ll try to scare you into thinking eggs are poison just to get some viewership…talking about this issue would get eyes on TV. They don’t want any eyes on this movie. And that can only be because they know all about it and are afraid it’ll all come out before they can normalize it.

Odd man out?

It has flown around the interwebs…and it might be a little unfair to Zelensky as it might have just been a bad looking moment, but he does appear in many ways to not be part of the club there at the NATO summit.

Solid information about the course of the Ukraine war is very difficult to find. The only rock-solid thing we know about both sides is that they lie. If we have an MSM we’d have people on the ground who could check claims against observed reality but the Russia MSM is as subservient to Putin as the Western MSM is subservient to Zelensky; they both just repeat what they’re told. The proof, then, must be in the puddling – the much anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive ground ahead a short distance, possibly at enormous cost, and now the Russians are starting to push ahead again. The main thing is that this isn’t working out as the Establishment hoped…and that picture might merely symbolize the Establishment realizing that the game is up and now its time to back away slowly and let things play out as they will.

As I said at the start of the war, absent an immediate, deep offensive strike by Ukraine into Russia, this war could only have one outcome as long as the Russians didn’t quit: Ukrainian defeat. Anything short of a very quick Ukrainian victory akin to the Israeli victories in the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars could only end disastrously for Ukraine because they simply lack the numbers to fight a war of attrition with Russia. Some people tried to make out that it was like WWI where the lower-population Germany won a war of attrition with Russia…except it wasn’t just Germany it was Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey and, in the end, Russia won the war of attrition (as they were bound to do). On the day before the Revolution, Russia had won WWI…had won it since they mastered their Great Retreat in 1915. Once the Russian army got away from the Germans after Gorlice-Tarnow, all Russia had to do to win was stay in the field. Keep in mind that the German’s unleashed the U-Boat war because they didn’t perceive any weakening in Russian power and so turned to submarines in a desperate gambit to knock Britain out of the war. It was Russia’s misfortune that at the moment of victory, the Czar was universally despised. Absent that, Russia would have been at Versailles helping to dictate terms to Germany in 1919.

How this particular war turns out remains to be seen – Russia is bleeding a lot, too. How much does Putin want? Be nice if someone asked him…because that might be the way out. If nobody asks him and Putin feels that he can’t stop for fear of losing domestic support then what could have been a negotiated peace in 2023 ends up with the total destruction of Ukraine in 2025.

The Hollywood writers have been on strike for a while now – and it appears that the TV writers may join in.

Absolutely nobody in God’s green Earth cares.

The latest Indiana Jones moving is flopping – partially because they have absurdly cast a geezer as the lead in an action movie, partially because they had to go woke as per usual these days. I came up in 30 seconds with a new Indiana Jones movie guaranteed to break box office records; Reboot Indiana with a new, younger actor (like they do with the Bond movies) and make the story Indy’s effort to save Priam’s Horde in Berlin, 1945. Make the conflict between Indy and Gestapo Muller because given that Muller disappeared on or about May 1st, 1945, you could have Indy kill him in the climactic scene. You’d get youth, killing Nazis, you can cast some Russians as heavies which plays into current politics. Lots of things blowing up. This is the formula…and, sure, it is formulaic. But it is cracking good fun and would make a ton of money. If Hollywood wants to start making money, I’m right here…got buckets of great ideas.

There’s a video Pudding Brain put out in 2020 saying he’s always got time to take a call from his grandkids…with the video showing him talking to same. It is turning out to be a devastating indictment of Biden because he has not – and apparently will not – acknowledge his youngest grandchild by Hunter. Perhaps 100 years ago you could get away with trying to ignore a bastard…but we don’t even use that word any longer. And good riddance to it. Stipulating that we must do far better to get people married first and then have kids, the bottom line is that no matter what the parents are, it isn’t the kid’s fault. Suppose the woman did totally blindside Hunter on it – said she was on birth control, that sort of thing – and further suppose that she’s just the worst person in the world while Hunter is the innocent man (stop laughing!)…none of that matters. The little girl is Joe’s flesh and blood. She’s family. However she got here, she’s here. And Joe – and the rest of the Biden family – have denied her. The more this gets out – and it is spreading around out there – the worse Joe looks. Remember, his whole thing (a complete lie) is “good ol’ Joe”. That he’s at bottom this nice, decent guy. He never has been, but that has been the image presented in the MSM…but you can’t explain away his refusal to welcome his granddaughter. There’s just no possible excuse for it. And it shows Biden to be the utter creep he is.

Now, why is this suddenly spreading? That is, why is the MSM starting to talk about it it just now? The girl has been around for years. It hasn’t been a secret. So, why just now?

The rumor is that the Democrats are thinking about dumping Biden and picking someone else for 2024. All we can do on that is watch and wait.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan64 Comments

The White House won’t emphatically state that the coke isn’t Hunter’s. It is a fairly simple thing – it either is, or it isn’t his. And as I’ve said before, don’t buy any story claiming they have no idea…they know exactly who the coke belongs to. That they won’t forthrightly state it isn’t Hunter’s means they know it is his. And, yes, coke-heads are like that – very irresponsible to the point of sheer idiocy. He really did leave his laptop filled with incriminating evidence at the repair shop. Because he’s a stupid drug addict. You don’t have to overthink this. More than likely, he brought a little blow into the White House (it seems that 53 year old Hunter has taken up residence there as being there is bullet-proof as far as getting a summons goes)…he probably took it out to give himself a little boost and simply forgot about it. End of story.

But the thing is that simple possession is 3 years in jail – in other words, if it is Hunter’s coke (and it is) then he has to go to jail. So, the White House will continue to spin this thing with the most absurd lies and rely on it that DOJ has been told to keep hands off on it.

I just want it noted at this point that bringing decency back to the White House has involved a lot more hookers, blow and abandoned grandchildren than I thought it would.

And about that grandchild – I guess the case has now been settled but the fact of the matter is that Joe Biden refuses to acknowledge the child. Some rumors exist that Hunter pressured the mother to get an abortion; it is in keeping with the sort of low-life Hunter is and I could easily see him and his garbage father being pissed off that she didn’t agree to that expedient. Not that I’m calling her a pillar of virtue – it could well have been a set up by a clever girl looking for a payday. That does happen – normally with sports stars and the like, but any moron with access to cash is a target of such things. But regardless what sort of people mom and dad are, the child isn’t responsible…and that child is Joe’s flesh and blood. Family. And he’s rejected her. That right there shows what a lousy creep Joe Biden is.

But we already knew that – when his first wife was killed Joe showed up at the hospital with cameras in tow…so that they could get dramatic, heart-wrenching shots of Joe’s reaction. Think about it: at a time when his wife was dead and his child injured, Joe spared thought for how to wring some political advantage out of it. Joe Biden has been trash as far as we can determine all his adult life – some time after he rose to adulthood, and it seems early, he decided that being a lying, backstabbing grifter was the way to go.

More and more people are thinking that Trump has the nomination in the bag. I’m not one of them. Mostly because I’ve given up making any sort of hard and fast political predictions. Been burned too many times when what is obvious turned out to be wrong. Things are just strange out there and anyone telling you that they know what will happen is trying to make a sucker out of you.

But speaking of the upcoming election – that is another wrinkle in the coke story; at least for a time, the White House was trying to imply that Team Harris might be responsible for the coke. They dropped that – my bet because someone Team Harris knows for certain who’s coke it is and threatened to spill it – but it brought to mind that Gavin Newsom has been acting a lot like a guy who wants to run for President…and not in 2028. As California continues to crash and burn, Newsom has been out on the hustings helping State Democrat parties and politicians. You know: laying the groundwork. To be sure, it could just be groundwork for 2028 but if he was laying the foundation just for that, he’d be front and center stumping for Joe and Kamala. He isn’t. What’s going on?

Once again, nobody knows – even the people doing it might not know. Might just be keeping irons in the fire. But there is that chance that Team Democrat is planning on scratching both Joe and Kamala…and that means they’d need a new guy and Newsom is the major Democrat doing the preliminary work to be that guy.

I guess we’re sending cluster bombs to Ukraine – lot of people upset about that because of the type of ordnance. I’m meh on it: the only reason cluster bombs are rated as bad is because when we used them in the past, the American Left worked up the accusation that use of such munitions counted as a war crime. That was ridiculous then and it remain ridiculous today. They are just bombs…and they are excellent for anti-personnel and for making runways at least temporarily unusable. As I’ve said before: there really aren’t war crimes. There are crimes, of course – the Holocaust being the worst. But war crimes? You’re engaged in mass slaughter and you’re going to try to parse this type of slaughter as good while that type is bad? Attempts to humanize war are attempts to humanize hell; the thing just can’t be done. Additionally, no enemy of the USA will ever adhere to any rules – if they think it will give them an advantage against us, they’ll do it. The reason we, as a people, should not engage in brutality (rapine, slaughter and the like) is for our own sake…and because clemency towards enemies is the mightiest engine of war. But just get stuffed about “war crimes” when we’re blowing the enemy up…the purpose of the war action is to kill the enemy. How he’s killed is irrelevant.

Speaking of Ukraine – we’re sending the bombs because they’re said to be out of ammo. The Ukrainians have been on the offensive for some while now and they’ve only advanced a few miles and are now out of ammunition. This doesn’t look like raging success to me.

Happy Fourth of July

Mark Noonan

Sorry I didn’t get to this earlier – got busy writing on Ghost Tower (Book X) last night and then had to be up and busy early as our 4th barbecue went off earlier than usual due to part of the family having flight plans in the afternoon. Anyways: hope its all been great for you! No fingers blown off or nothing.

The Democrats went heavy into “we’re all on stolen land and America was built by slaves” for their July 4th messaging…which probably doesn’t appeal to a lot of demographics but I don’t think they really care about that. This is what I’m calling the Pudding Brain Effect. With an entirely ineffective man on top, there’s nobody to ride herd on these nitwits and so they just go further and further Left and are louder and louder about it. We know the Left despises the United States – and this includes people on the Left like the Clintons and the Obamas – but under their leadership it was kept muted. Back of the class; nobody shouting it. All in good time, as it were. But now the nuts are front and center. We’ll see how it plays out.

It really comes down to just how many people still believe TV. If its a majority, the Democrats will win no matter how insane they get because the TV simply will not tell people what is going on. If, however, a majority has come to mistrust the TV, then we might have a surprising result…and it could be the growing insanity of the Left which finally turns the tide. Nobody wants what the Left is selling other than a very small minority living in some of the deepest Blue cities and insulated from the disastrous effects of Left policy.

Word is that cocaine was found in the White House. I find it hard to believe that any such thing could get in without someone high up knowing about it. No, the Secret Service wouldn’t search Hunter’s suitcase…but they would be aware of what is in it. They have to be: a threat to the President can come from any direction. The Service is good at keeping Presidential secrets – they have to be in order for the President to trust them – so it isn’t like they’ll talk about the exact circumstances of such a thing…but they simply had to know. Or someone high up had to know. So, my question: is someone high up in Team Pudding Brain setting him up for a fall? Someone co-opted by Team Harris or some other faction in Democrat leadership to usher in Biden’s downfall in return for some benefit afterwards?

Officially – ie, in the MSM Narrative – Pudding Brain is cruising to re-election against a divided and weak GOP. This is something I thought was correct as little as a few weeks ago. But now I’m not so sure: things seem to be shifting. Biden is reaching new lows in approval polls. The Culture War stuff is turning off lots of people from the Democrats. Some Democrats might be looking at the situation and starting to think that if Joe is the nominee, even Trump might get back in…and a Trump who will be burning for revenge. But even if it is DeSantis, he’s already declared war on the Establishment. Truth be told, any GOPer who is elected will have to gut the Establishment simply in order to survive in office. The Democrats might be getting terrified…and in a mood to knock Joe out. We’ll see.

Muslims in France are on a rampage – officially in response to a Muslim being shot by the cops. Who the heck really knows? But the barbarians are now burning down libraries. They’ve also defaced Holocaust memorials.

Guys, the area known today as Algeria wasn’t known as the Barbary Coast for nothing back in the day. In fact, the reason the French moved into Algeria in the 1830s was to suppress the barbarian pirates who infested the area and who lacked all control as Ottoman power withdrew. From the fall of Rome until the French conquest Algeria was a miserable, impoverished backwater populated by thieves and slavers. The French mission was to civilize the land – and they did so. In the century after the French conquest massive development was set afoot with a revival of art, architecture and learning in Algeria. But nobody likes an outsider overlord so the Muslim population remained aloof. Eventually turning to armed rebellion…but not just any armed rebellion. It was quite savage – and the people treated most brutally by the rebels were Algerians who either preferred to remain French or at least wanted some sort of compromise between French and Algerian culture. The French eventually threw in the towel and simply handed power over to their most barbaric enemies. Small surprise that Algerians, transported to France, are not quite up to French standards; and less surprise that when angered, they turn specifically against defenseless people and symbols of civilization.

I don’t know how France gets out of this mess. Don’t know if France can get out of this mess. Its all very sad – and it all stems from simple lack of courage.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan14 Comments

So they had a whole bunch of “Pride” parades this past weekend and the usual suspects among the Democrats were out there with their social media posts holding up a “Pride” flag and saying how happy they were to attend. But this year things went a bit different – given that Twitter, especially, isn’t as subjected to censorship as it used to be, when people posted the other photographs from “Pride”, it got into a lot of places…so many places that the Left went nuts. Not over the naked guys flashing their dangly bits in front of kids…no; they were mad that we noticed naked guys (and enormously fat, old and ugly guys, into the bargain) were waving the short arm.

Of course, we’ve known this all along – and, indeed, a few old degenerates showing off their privates is actually fairly tame for a “Pride” parade. The actual sex acts are a bit more grotesque. I’m sure that was posted as well but I’ve a fairly decent “follow” count on Twitter and so none of that got Tweeted into my time line.

It did get me thinking that a lot of the real freaks at these things aren’t so much gay as, well, freaks. Sure, they talk up the gay aspect of it, but they’re mostly about the freakiness. What “Pride” really means to this type is the ability to engage in their perverted kink without censure. I’m very firm on this because none of the gay guys I know and have known – including some really good looking guys – ever felt the urge to whip it out in public.

But, that aside, the Left had a meltdown about it. And rightly so – most people simply do not know what is going on. What they’ve seen of “Pride” is highly sanitized by the MSM. Just as what most of them have seen of transgenderism is some nice, soft spoken person who isn’t threatening…the six foot two weirdo in a pink miniskirt is a bit more off-putting and so not shown (yes, I’ve really seen this; the Left likes to think nobody on the Right gets around – but, for instance, I’ve been the only white guy at a Mexican bar and the only white guy at a black house party. Heck, I once hitched a ride at 2 am from a gangbanger. I like people; I get along with them. I’m not afraid of people, not even the weird ones. I can shift in an instant from biker bar to classical music concert). A lot more of this stuff gets out – if people actually see it – then the game is up for the Left. The way they get what they want is slow, incremental change until the Far Left is implemented – the guy with the fake breasts and three foot dildo strapped around his waist kinda kills that plan.

Both Trump and DeSantis are campaigning on ending birthright citizenship – it has become the price of entry into the GOP field. Oh, sure; some of the candidates will reject it, but anyone who wants a serious shot at the nomination will embrace it.

And it has to be done. I’m of the position that birthright citizenship does not cover persons born to non-citizens and certainly not those born to non-citizens illegally in the country. I know the arguments saying the 14th says anyone born in the USA, but one has to place things in their historic context, and that is precisely what the Left – and part of the Right – refuses to do; to them, it is a “living document”. Except for this one thing. They are only literalists in this tiny area – which happens to be the area where GOP moneybags and Marxist Democrats agree on the outcome. In the time it was enacted, what was intended by the 14th was a complete shutdown of any ex-Confederate attempt to refuse citizenship to any freed slave or their descendants. It was ratified in direct response to Southern States attempts to write their citizenship laws in a manner with de-facto excluded black Americans from citizenship.

Now, this won’t be easy! And eventually it may take an Amendment. But we start with what we can: in this case, Trump and DeSantis promising Executive Orders. This will naturally generate lawsuits. That is good. It gets the issue into the public square and it will force Democrats to take what is bound to be the unpopular opinion: just get across the border and your kid is as American as apple pie! Most Americans probably don’t even realize this is an issue…it isn’t something the MSM talks about. Just by getting it into the debate, we gain the advantage…and a fight over this means other things like border walls and strict deportation for adult illegals will become easier.

The MSM is busy trying to downplay the Hunter Biden scandal – seriously saying it is all about a father’s desire to help his addict son. Yeah, sure…every addict son gets $10 million from foreign entities funneled through a raft of offshore shell companies. They’re caught and they know it – but there’s also nothing anyone can really do about it. Its all Federal and Pudding Brain’s people simply won’t allow anything to happen.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan28 Comments

I guess there is some coup-like activity going on in Russia at the moment – nobody really knows what is going on but it appears that Putin’s Wagner mercenaries are angry and they are claiming they are heading to Moscow to wipe out the Ministry of Defense. Could be a host of things running from a fake coup set up by Putin to consolidate power and eliminate enemies all the way to a real coup attempt. In a few days, we’ll know. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians should be attacking all along the line right now with whatever they’ve got – if it is a real coup attempt. Because if it is, they’d likely find a demoralized enemy in front of them who might collapse at a blow. But if they keep just slogging it out with the Russian army in their counter-offensive as for the past couple weeks, then it means at least Ukrainian intel doesn’t think its a real coup.

I retain my standard position: don’t care. Not our problem.

So that jury-rigged sub apparently imploded pretty much right away after it got down to the ocean floor. It was made at least partially with carbon fiber material and from what I understand, never make a sub out of carbon fiber material. Something to do with the nature of carbon fiber that makes it unsuitable for submersibles. The nimrod zillionaire who built the thing was warned about this but he wasn’t going to let experts who know what they’re talking about stop him! The event is an exemplar of modern life: narcissists who don’t know anything wasting money doing things which don’t need to be done but which give an ego boost. I’ve no sympathy for anyone on that sub – even going down there in a properly constructed sub is horribly dangerous and unless you are a scientific researcher you’ve no business going there. To go down in a rich guy’s vanity boat is simply stupid.

The release of all that Hunter Biden info pretty conclusively shows that Hunter has been running a scam based on his father’s name for years. Naturally, Never Trump’s reaction is: “well, we’re still not sure there was a crime”. They assert this because they are so filled with hatred of Trump it has made them stupid. You see, they can’t admit that the DOJ is letting Hunter skate because if they do, it calls into question the indictment of Trump. After all, if the DOJ is so corrupt as to let obvious law-breaking slide for political reasons, what’s to stop them from prosecuting an innocent man for political reasons? On the other hand, you do have to give Hunter credit for trying to write off the sex club membership fees on his taxes – that takes some guts. On the other, other hand, it let me know there are “elite sex clubs” in the USA…which makes me want to burn the system down to the ground, twice.

Garland is now claiming that if we complain about his corrupt DOJ, we’re a threat to Democracy. Don’t take this lightly: he is threatening you. The FBI has become a de-facto secret police along the lines of the NKVD.