Open Thread

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.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

Hunter skated. Of course he skated. We all knew he would skate. He’s the son of a prominent Democrat. Even if Pudding Brain hadn’t been installed into the White House, Hunter would have skated. That Daddy was given the office just makes it even more existentially sure that a skate would occur.

This doesn’t really make any of us mad. We’re already angry with the two-tiered justice system. What we’re mad about is supposed fellow Righties justifying it.

The most absurd take – so widespread on the Never Trump Right that it must have been a memo sent out – was “well, Hunter cooperated and this is what happens when you do that, unlike Trump!”. FFS…cooperated on what? He committed several obvious felonies – especially given Democrat shrieks regarding guns his weapons violations. When you play ball with the prosecutor it is to get a light sentence as you drop dime on your criminal partners…Hunter isn’t dropping dime on anyone. He doesn’t have to: he had a “get out of jail free” card issued to him the moment his Dad showed himself to be a loyal Democrat Party foot soldier. So, like back by 1975. Getting to the VP slot and the White House just gold plated that ticket. Hunter got off because his name is Biden; plain and simple and that is all there is to it. Meanwhile, Trump is indicted not for breaking a law, but for being Trump. He’s guilty on an infinite charge of being Trump.

But what should also be noted here is that to justify this deal – to either participate in making it happen or excuse it after the fact – indicates sheer sociopathic behavior. Narcissism of the serial killer variety. It really is that stark; no person with any sense of decency can say other than the evidence in the Hunter case at least merits felony charges be issued. Whether or no Hunter could beat the rap in court is an unknown…but sending him to trial is warranted. Not allowing him to plea out with no jail time. But people are out there saying just that – it is all cool! These are the people who will happily shove you into a boxcar for the death camp. Who would happily inform on you to the secret police. Who would shout the loudest during a show trial.

Heard about that missing tourist sub on the Titanic? More I read, the more ridiculous it becomes…seems like it was a home-brew submersible with off-the-shelf equipment. I’m pretty confident those poor people are dead. But I would like to point out that the Titanic sits at 12,500 feet deep and the pressure is 390 times greater than on the surface. My point: it is dangerous. Even the best designed sub with the most experienced crew can be killed in an instant if something goes wrong. People simply should have a little more sense – certainly a greater understanding of risk/reward.

Looks like we “accidentally” sent an extra $6.2 billion to Ukraine. Yeah. Accident. How much you wanna bet me we never see a dime of that back and it all wound up in Swiss bank accounts?

A Muslim-majority town in Michigan banned the display of the “pride” flag on public buildings. A completely reasonable stance to take and one which Christians should duplicate in communities where they hold a majority. Naturally, this has caused some problems on the Left – how to square that “refugees welcome” and “pride” circle? After a few days to think it over, they’ve arrived at their solution: tell Muslims they are being fooled by White Supremacists and they better get their kids into transition indoctrination centers right quick.

I don’t think this will work.

I’m Back Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

We had a great time – best was actually the last day where we wound up at Aliso Beach…and got to see dolphins not ten yards off shore (the beach is peculiar in that is very steeply goes into the water and so its pretty deep very close to shore). There my granddaughter came up with the clever idea of leaving one of my books in the “take one, leave one” book library there…we’ll see if it generates any sales! So, I’m tanned…but not really rested because grandpa keeping up with an 11 year old took its toll on the knees (fellow geezers will understand).

But it was pretty cool and rainy – which is remarkable for June in the San Diego area. Highest temp we experienced was about 68 or so. So, back to Vegas and the heat, right? Nope: it has been raining all morning so far and the forecast is for off and on all day. To remind: the average rainfall in Las Vegas for June is 0.0 inches. So, this is a total global warming fail.

I did continue monitor the Trump indictment stuff and I remain flabbergasted at the number of people on the Right to continue to lend it credence. For heavens sake, it was put together by the same people who did Trump-Russia! In the end, we might just be too stupid to win.

Latest polling (pound of salt, as usual) shows Trump running away with the nomination and beating Biden. I’ll believe either when I see them. But the fact is that Biden remains catastrophically unpopular. Conventional Wisdom (which is never right) says that is ok because Trump is even more unpopular. We’ll see. DeSantis is still in the mix but he’s got a minefield to cross – attacking Trump while getting Trumpsters on board. If he can do it, then he’s sheer genius.

The pushback against TQ+ continues to grow – and more and more LGB are joining it. Honestly, isn’t everyone just sick to death of this? A whole month to celebrate the particular sexual activities of a small minority? It is that they are pushing the TQ+ on kids that is driving it, but as it is being driven the whole concept of “gay pride” is coming under attack. Ok, we get it: you’re gay. Whatever. All the laws criminalizing homosexuality are gone. Nobody cares. Move on.

But the Left can’t stop, can they? And they are getting ever more absurd. Saw a ridiculous MSM report earlier where there’s a “rainbow underground railroad” rescuing gays from Texas. I mean, come on! What is it – phone number for U Haul? But they are on and on about the “genocide” of gays and transgender…which, when you dig down into it, comes out to mean they’re mad at straights for not letting them turn their kids into transgender. I don’t really know how this will play out – Team Pudding Brain and every Democrat is fully committed to it – they’re even working on a law in California which will strip kids from any parent who doesn’t affirm their chosen gender. This is absolute objective evil…but the Democrats are all-in on it. Might this start to create a suburban backlash? For every Karen who wants a designer Trans kid might there be a hundred who are horrified at the prospect? We’re going to find out.

Looks like Uncle Grabby made an attempt to grab Eva Longoria’s breasts…TBF, that is an urge all men have but, my goodness, if this is what he does when the cameras are rolling, just what does our Creep in Chief do in private?

Anyways – did you hear that my Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup?

Open Thread

Mark Noonan26 Comments

Interesting thread over on Twitter about the origins of “gender ideology”. Worth a read but I’ll nutshell it – some degenerates wanted to have whatever sex they wanted, including with kids, and so cooked up a philosophy which made out that you can only be free if you’re a degenerate.

That someone would think this up isn’t at all surprising. People can think up all sorts of things. The problem comes in when evil ideas aren’t smacked down. And insane, evil ideas should be smacked down. The trouble is, since the breakup of what used to be called “Christendom” into divergent beliefs, there has been no Authority capable of smacking.

And I’m not talking here about arguing the lunatics into submission. You can’t do that. They’re lunatics! If they weren’t insane, narcissistic degenerates, they wouldn’t have their evil ideas. You can only stop them. As King St Louis of France allegedly said – after a while, if all attempts at reason have failed, all you can do is drive your sword in as deep as it will go.

Our problem here – and what might prove fatal to the Republic – is that with all the sublime good of our Declaration and Constitution, they are still suffused with so-called Enlightenment ideals. Primarily the ideal that thought must be free to go wherever Reason takes it. As was pointed out back then, if you make that your standard, then people will Reason themselves into all manner of horrors. At that time that just seemed like old fashioned reactionary fear-mongering…but Auschwitz and Gulag kinda show the old reactionaries were right back there around 1750. So does “men can get pregnant” and a host of other horrors now common in our society. Our Founders assumed that some things would just be accepted – that Patriotism is good. Manly courage. Womanly virtue. Thrift. Sobriety. That people would always take these as their basic standards and whatever Reasoning they did would never contravene these basics.

They forgot about crackpots. Made all sorts of provisions against the tyrant of the Napoleon type…but made no provision against the rise of a Nero…or, worse, ten thousand Neros, all trying to outdo each other in nauseating filth. They were heirs, at the time, to 17 centuries of Christian indoctrination and assumed that the basic morality of Christianity was the natural state of humanity. Thinking this, they left no way in our Constitution to deal with a neo-Marxist professor of gender studies.

We’re going to have to find one. And pretty quickly.

The bottom line is that we can’t allow these people to freely express their insane, anti-human ideology. They must be curbed, as we once upon a time curbed the lunatics. These people are simply destructive – of themselves and everyone around them. Have you ever checked into their bios on social media? All of them claim some form of mental illness (as a badge of honor!). They routinely describe themselves as depressed, lonesome, bitter and pessimistic (all with a rainbow banner, of course). These are people who have no hope, no sense, no knowledge…all they have is a burning sense of self importance. Their various mental and moral failures have been translated into a belief that because they are mental and moral failures they are superior…especially to the sane, boring people who go to work, raise their families and pay their taxes.

And they can’t be reasoned with. They lack the wit and are unwilling to learn. All we can do is stop them; to build the mechanisms whereby they are prevented from implementing their ideas anywhere outside their personal lives. People determined on self destruction really can’t be stopped – but we can stop this desire from spilling over into societal destruction.

Disney owns the rights to The French Connection – that magnificent 1971 movie which won Gene Hackman an Oscar for his excellent portrayal of Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle. Why do we care about this? Because Disney censored a line from the movie without telling anyone. Any copy you buy or stream now won’t have that line in it. Why? Because Hackman’s character makes a horribly racist statement. And, indeed, it was a horribly racist statement. But it wasn’t in the move to be racist, but to be part of Hackman’s character, who is a racist and otherwise ill-tempered man. The only reason we care about the guy is because for all his flaws, he broke up a major drug smuggling ring. This is Orwellian Ministry of Truth stuff. They are re-writing the past. If there are any books, movies or songs you love, get them now on hard copy because if they in any way offend the woke, they are going to be changed or destroyed.

You know any Armenians? I know a few. Very handsome men. Women of spectacular beauty. Most are very deeply Christian. And there’s the problem – a lot of these people live in LA and are not pleased with the over-the-top “Pride” drivel the public schools are pushing. Naturally, a fight broke out when these people were protesting…started by Antifa goons who then had to call in the cops to protect them. Think about that: decent, hard working Christians are being hassled by the cops for fighting back against Commie thugs.

Joke of the day which I stole from Twitter: the PGA merger will work out that the PGA retains control of holes 1-9 and 12-18. The Saudis do 9-11.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan35 Comments

I do have to point out that Donald Trump has been fairly ridiculous of late. Some of his statements and actions have been downright absurd. Thus far it hasn’t made a dent in his GOP Primary support…but my bet is that if he doesn’t get hold of this stuff it will. OTOH, DeSantis has also had some miscues. This is why a Primary is a good thing; whoever emerges with the prize will have earned it.

My position remains the same: I will support the nominee. There is no GOPer who is in any way the moral or intellectual inferior of any Democrat. Even supposing every bad thing said about Trump is true – and further stating that supposing every bad thing said about Biden is false – it is still no contest. Somewhere in Trump’s heart is the understanding that such things as abortion to birth, transition of minors and open borders are objectively evil and must be stopped. In Biden’s heart there is no such understanding – nor is there such understanding in the heart of any Democrat. The Democrat party proposes to push us into a world of complete lunacy where obvious facts are denied in service of ideological goals. It is the moral duty not of Republicans and not even of Americans to vote GOP…it the the moral duty of every human, as such. There is no evading this one: if the Democrats retain power for much longer, this nation will be destroyed. The stakes are that high. There can’t be any compromise…and no faltering of our will. Nominate Romney and I’ll vote for him. Anyone is better than any Democrat.

There has been a surprisingly large amount of pushback against “Pride” this year. In previous years we just laughed at it and moved on but this year there is a sharper edge to it. People are tired of it – and angry that everyone is being told to fall in line.

Bottom line: gay is boring. We don’t care. Be gay. Have fun. But we don’t need to know you’re gay. And it is perceived that the sort of gay people most of us know – regular, rather boring folks who just live, work and pay taxes like anyone else – aren’t being celebrated. The celebrations are always of the most absurd and/or disgusting people. So much so that I’m starting to wonder if a bunch of weirdos have de-facto hijacked homosexuality because it allows them to be freaks without any fear of censure? Crazy people crave attention and approval…and if you’ll do something disgusting in public and call it gay, you’ll not only not get arrested, you’ll be called a hero. That sort of thing is an irresistible attraction for the narcissistic lunatic. They simply wouldn’t pass on the opportunity.

NYPD had their cop cars painted up in “Pride” colors and it looks like the artist managed to sneak in the anti-cop “ACAB” logo. This is enormously funny. Leftists never forgive.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers will apparently argue that the gun laws Hunter violated were unconstitutional. And, to be sure, they are: as I’ve noted before, “Shall not be infringed” is pretty straightforward. It doesn’t have any wiggle room. Any law restricting any person – and that is citizen or not – from keeping and bearing any arm they choose is a violation of the Constitution. But it is annoying that Liberals are such complete hypocrites.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan34 Comments

My view on the GOP Primary is: I will support the nominee. I will not engage in nasty fights with fellow GOPers or GOP-leaning voters.

With RDS now officially in, the shape of the race is clear; it is mostly Trump vs DeSantis with Trump enjoying a huge amount of loyal Trumpster support while RDS is looking for a way to draw some of that vote over to himself. The rest of the pack is probably kidding itself about getting the nomination and, on balance, they probably help Trump by splitting up the anti-Trump vote. Of course, some of these also-rans likely won’t make it to January…the money battle is important right now. Not for Trump and RDS who functionally have unlimited amounts, but for the rest…any of them who want to be around past South Carolina had better come up with some hefty bucks. Those who can’t will likely bow out before the Iowa caucuses.

Do keep in mind that the Democrats are very likely paying for GOP division. We have seen over and over again how relative peanuts will get people to alter their views. It would cost only, say, $100,000 to get a prominent Trumpster pundit to start going “only Trump” as a means of keeping Trumpsters home if Trump doesn’t get the nomination. It wouldn’t cost any more to pay a DeSantis pundit to start going “only DeSantis” for the same reason. The Democrats very much need a divided and weakened GOP for 2024 because that is the only way they drag Biden’s senile carcass into a second term.

As I’ve said for a while, I’m not at all confident of GOP victory in 2024 – because of those divisions being diligently fostered. But I have had a little bit of a mental shift; there is a chance. What I see is that Biden – who has never been loved – is losing what popularity he had. Inflation continues to bite as does overall economic anxiety. We’re already in a recession which is being hidden by number juggling. And now the Culture War has taken an interesting turn. From Biden on down, they are all-in on the transgender thing especially for kids…but outside a few lunatic Blue enclaves, parents are rejecting this. What we might have is a perfect storm brewing where Democrats are set to become unpopular both on economics and social issues…hammering on abortion just barely scraped them by in 2022…that issue is a lot less salient for 2024 while other social issues are coming to the forefront. It could be a very interesting year.

CNN Headline: “Minorities, immigrants and now members of the LGBTQ community are being warned of the risks of visiting Florida after the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group issued a travel advisory following newly passed laws and policies”

Reminder: this lie is not pitched at you. They don’t care about you. They know you’ll never vote Democrat. This lie is for Democrats. And it doesn’t require them to actually believe there’s tyranny in Florida…but what it does tell them is that this is what they have to say is happening in Florida. This is to keep the conversation within the Party Line. That is, to keep them voting Democrat no matter how bad it gets.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan35 Comments

Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) announced his Presidential bid and one of the first questions the MSM asked him was, “are you a virgin?”. Just absolutely flabbergasting. Until I heard that, I didn’t know if Scott was married or not – but as it turns out, he’s 57 and unmarried and has no kids. This does, especially in 2023, bring up the prospect of homosexuality but this does not appear to be the case for Senator Scott. But, whatever: who’s danged business is it? Unless you have some solid information of inappropriate sexual activity, it is nobody’s business. But there goes the MSM – and you know why: they’re hoping he is homosexual or at least hope they can get people thinking he’s homosexual because you know us bigoted, hill-ape inbred MAGA morons would hate that. For goodness sake.

I don’t know Senator Scott’s personal life. No whiff of scandal along those lines has come up and you gotta figure that something would have by now. Is he chaste? I don’t know. Not my business. But it isn’t impossible for him to be chaste, you know? Not everyone even in 2023 is an animal. Some people remain civilized…and if Scott is a real believer in God and he is trying to follow his Christian faith then he might remain chaste because for the true Christian, sex – any sort of sex – outside of marriage is immoral.

There is the meme out there which goes, “you think you hate the media as much as you should, but you don’t.” There is no bottom for these vile and disgusting people.

Now, as for Scott’s ambitions: everyone assumes he’s auditioning for the VP slot for whomever gets the nod – likely Trump or DeSantis at this point. He’s kept friendly with both sides. But never count anyone out. I know that plenty of MAGA folks have problems with Scott but he’s a pretty good guy. Sure, he is close to the Establishment and that is a worry…but he also seems to be his own man. We could do a lot worse. If he does emerge, he gets my vote.

Target has been marketing “tuck friendly” clothes for little children. If you don’t know what they’re “tucking” then just think about it for a minute: it’ll come to you. And I mean really little children. Like 5 year olds. That is how far this insanity has gone. There has been good pushback on this and we’re winning lots of victories in Red States…but the overall American Establishment is still fully committed to making medical transition of minors the norm. We have a long way to go here. Victory comes when major retailers won’t even think about making “tuck friendly” clothes for kids.

LA Dodgers invited the anti-Catholic hate group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to “pride night”. Then uninvited them when everyone pointed out that, hey, they’re bigots. But now has re-invited them because when it comes to bullying, the LGBTQ community has that nailed down. Corporate America is simply too weak. I know that the basic principle we have is free markets…but in order to win this battle, we are going to have to forcibly instruct Corporate America that non-Lefists also exist.

Debt battle is rather boring but I am pleased that McCarthy is at least showing some backbone. The problem is that we can’t forever keep printing up new money so we can borrow it. It does come to an end. It might actually be better long term if it came to an end right away. We don’t have any money left. Its all gone – blown on wars and graft over the past 70 years as America’s industrial, agricultural and mining base has been destroyed. Go broke and start all over again.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

Over on Twitter @ZubyMusic asks, “What is the most damaging popular myth?”. Getting a lot of responses, some of them jokes of course. But it did get me thinking.

And I think that the most damaging popular myth is the history (so-called) of the last 100 years. That is, what we’ve been told is the history.

I’ve yammered on quite a bit over the past couple years about aspects of our received beliefs which don’t hold up to scrutiny and I’m coming to the conclusion that just as we have Narrative-Drivers for our politics (ie, story lines created – often in advance – to drive opinion in certain directions desired by those in charge) so we’ve had History-Drivers: that is, gatekeepers in the production of history who make certain that the historical Narrative only rolls into accepted grooves.

Just as in the MSM and the larger popular media the ability to be seen and heard largely depends on your ability to do as you’re told, so too is it likely to be this way in all disciplines. Do we really want to think that there is some institutional aspect of our society which isn’t controlled? That the people who have crafted Narrative after Narrative for our immediate political debates would let slip something as crucial as how history records things? That in a world of overwhelmingly conformist thought, they’d let independent thinkers have a place all to their own?

I’m just reminded of a story I heard some years back – it involved a moderately famous man but I can’t remember exactly who at the moment, but no worry as that isn’t fully relevant here. The key thing is that this man’s father was a British colonial official at the tail end of the Empire and upon a time this man pointed out to his son a ragged ship heading north from coastal east Africa and said, “that ship is filled with slaves, and I’m under orders to do nothing about it”. The British were leaving, as were all the colonial powers and with them went any impetus to stop the slave trade…and what had been firmly suppressed was now rising to the surface as the anti-slavers quite the scene. And then, 40 years later, we were all told that the British Empire was nothing but racist colonial oppression. Of course, a true history of Africa since the end of colonial rule would rather harp upon the breakdown of services, the rise of oppression and ethnic murder, the return of slavery…but, we can’t have that, can we? Doesn’t fit the Narrative. Oh, sure, when some particularly hideous thing happens, the world takes notice (like, say, the Rwandan genocide) but it is never placed in context. If any context is given at all, the problem is ascribed to “the legacy of colonialism”, as if the people today had no agency. And then we move on, not noticing until the next outrage occurs. Meanwhile, South Africa is slipping back into Third World status as the millennium promised with the end of Apartheid breaks down under the weight of bribery, incompetence and a raft of anti-white laws and rhetoric.

Just a little bit of the actual history of Africa and none of this would have had to happen. But just as in everything else, all we got was the Narrative history…and it is sustained in spite of any contravening facts.

Pudding Brain’s Secretary of Education said the quiet part out loud – asserting that teacher’s know better than parents what is best for kids. It is absurd and evil, but they really do think that way. They believe, that is, that someone with credentials is inherently superior. No surprise there: they all rise based on their credentials and so they hold credentials as supreme. None of these people – either in government or corporation – has ever had to produce. To actually make something happen or come into existence by their own efforts. Its all just reviewing plans and picking among them based upon the Current Thing and where the strongest pressure is coming from. And they are never tossed out, never jailed, never wind up in poverty. What we’re going to have to do is change laws to require first of all real world experience before you can take a government position and, secondly, entrance exams…really tough exams. Like, say, if you are seeking employment at the Department of Transportation, one of the questions should be along the lines of, “what is the per mile cost of moving a ton of goods from Long Beach to Denver?” and “if fleet average MPG is increased by 10 percent, what will be the average annual cost to an American consumer?”. Guarantee it will weed out these credentialed morons and allow room in there for people who actually know how things work.

See that little flap of metal up the pole there that everyone is smiling about? That was a shade installation to make travel by bus more equitable in Los Angeles. No, seriously; that little bit of metal is supposed to provide shade. I guess when its high noon and if you can stand right under it. It cost $10,000.00 to install. The Progs are seriously proud of this.

How about some fun stuff, now?

Open Thread

Mark Noonan30 Comments

The legal defense fund for Daniel Penny has raised a million dollars so far – its only been up for a day, maybe two, so that’s good. Its getting to enough money to really pay for some top flight lawyers. Couple things about it:

The Left is relentlessly pointing out that Penny is white and the man who died was black. Race, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with the incident. But inflaming race hatred is a key component of the Left’s program…its been part of it since the mid 1970’s but it went into overdrive when an increasingly failing and unpopular Obama needed a tool to keep his troops in line. It has just gone thermonuclear since then. Do keep in mind that this isn’t a mistake. This isn’t an unintended consequence. This is deliberate and malicious: it is just like Julius Streicher and his Der Sturmer in Nazi Germany: it is intended to otherize us and make us legitimate targets for violence.

Meanwhile, I’ve noticed on the Right far too many people trying to split the baby: deploring the indictment of Penny but also making statements to the effect of, “he took it too far”. This is why we lose – and it is because we have forgotten. Nobody is ever allowed to act out in public. Not even once and not even a little bit. It is impermissible to accost people; to yell at them; to threaten them in any manner. All Penny did was what a man is supposed to do in that situation; stop the guy. It is unfortunate – and was clearly unintended – that he should die. But his death is on his hands, not Penny’s. It was the raving nutter who deliberately placed himself into a situation where any decent man would have to take him down…as gently as possible but with whatever force proved necessary. If Penny had deliberately killed the man, it would still not be a crime: because, once again, nobody is ever allowed to be a raving lunatic in public. Doing that is a complete breakdown of the social contract wherein we all agree to be polite and reasonable for the benefit of all. Start allowing people to at will ignore that rule and social chaos ensues – as we already see in New York, San Francisco and many other places.

Team Pudding Brain has manufactured a border crisis and is flooding America with what may be many millions of illegal immigrants – with of course untold thousands of vicious criminals mixed in with them. The official numbers are staggering and probably aren’t 50% of what is really coming in. Now, why should they do this? I think they believe that the resulting chaos will help them short and long term: as communities get overrun with illegals, the Democrats will claim their “common sense immigration reform” (ie, amnesty) will fix the problem but Republicans are obstructing it (this is why they are dumping lots of illegals in deep Blue areas) while, long term, they figure these illegals they’ll eventually turn into citizens will be grateful and vote Democrat for a couple generations. The crime and social chaos is just a bonus in this plan – keeping in mind that your basic Democrat (whether conscious of it or not) is a Marxist who believes that our wealth and security are the result of an evil system and we must be punished for taking what was never ours. But I have noticed that the deep Blue areas become illegal dumping grounds aren’t the high end deep Blue areas. They aren’t moving these people to Malibu, ya know? It is poor urban areas mostly made up of POC who are getting the shipments…and it is infuriating these people. There is a huge opportunity here…and the person best able at the moment to take advantage of it is Trump…though RDS can also make the pitch very well: that we GOPers will save low income communities from being overrun.

Biden is congratulating himself for appointing lots of women as judges – our Matt asks how can he tell as he’s not a biologist?

CNN is trying to tell us that it isn’t the bums, looting, feces and crime driving retailers out of the big Blue cities. It is something else. Lots of stuff. Complex social changes. But not the bum sh***ing on the street. It isn’t that. Trust them!

Elon Musk hired his new CEO for Twitter – a lady names Linda Yaccarino who checks off just about every Left SJW nutjob box you can think of. This has caused a lot of negative comment on Twitter and, yeah, it is worrying. OTOH, Musk is still saying he’s committed to free speech…to troll the Left he even Tweeted out a Pepe the Frog meme (if you don’t know – Pepe is a frog used in rightwing memes and it is hated by the Left). So, I don’t know. I can see on the face of it why Yaccarino was picked – she’s apparently first rate at generating advertising dollars and Musk does want Twitter to be profitable. But there is the worry that the Safety Council will come back, by one means or another, and Right comment will start to be throttled again (towards the end of the old Twitter regime it was getting really bad). I’m going to wait and see, myself: some of the people Yaccarino follows are accounts the Left hates with a white-hot passion. She might be one of those few Commies who is actually ok with the free flow of ideas – they are very rare, but they do exist. We’re going to find out.