Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan12 Comments

One of the arguments made against term limits is that by thrusting inexperienced people into legislatures every few years, we’d really be turning over power to the un-elected legislative staffers. These staffers, with their years of legislative experience, would simply buffalo the legislator’s into voting for whatever the staff wanted. Ok, fair enough.

How is this different from what we have now?

Do you think any of the career politicians in Congress actually read and understand the bills they vote on?

What this thought has led me to is a wonder as to whether or not institutions actually work? Outside of dogmatic governed religious bodies (most notably, of course, the Catholic Church – though you’ll note various problems there), I don’t think they really do. The only one I can think of which had at least some long-term track record of success was the German General Staff. And it cost Germany two World Wars. But you do have to hand it to them – over those two World Wars they squeezed out the maximum amount of military power Germany could provide and applied it to Germany’s enemies in the most effective way possible – thus accounting for the rather lopsided Kraut to Non-Kraut casualty ratio (not counting Holocaust, it is like 5 non-Krauts killed for every Kraut they killed). But if that is our standard of “working”, I’d rather have more failures.

I’m not quite sure what we do here – but there has to be turnover, of that I am sure. As we can’t apply dogma to non-religious bodies (we have no one who would be universally respected to define dogma and thus heresy), the only defense mechanism I can think of is term limits. And to answer the charge that this would leave the permanent officials in charge – they have to have term limits, too.

It is one thing when a corporate bureaucracy becomes ossified, quite another when a government bureaucracy does. Because the government bureaucracy can jail and kill us; so, lots more serious. Just as we must find a means of ejecting politicians from office, so we’ll have to find a way to eject bureaucrats from office. Maybe we’ll eventually have to enact an amendment which says that you can’t serve, elected or appointed, in the federal government for more than 20 years?

Here’s a story saying that NYC cops may be opting for retirement at the first opportunity. I’ve seen other stories like this. Bottom line, if I was a cop in a blue jurisdiction, I’d be out, pension or no pension. You know for certain that the police and government officials will not back you up and if something you do winds up in a viral video then regardless of the facts of the case, you will be fired and very likely prosecuted. Just not worth it. And even if you think you’ll just turn a blind eye in certain areas of town (as is happening – in “George Floyd Square” in Minneapolis, it is getting very wild west), you still run the risk of having to make an arrest of someone non-white and each time you do that, you are at risk of being the next viral video. I can’t see any pension being worth that risk. And I don’t see a real way out of this – the blue city officials have staked out the position that BLM/Antifa are right and the cops are wrong. I don’t think you can re-cork that bottle and now say that the cops are right.

Joe’s first speech to Congress will be to empty seats. GOPers should place cardboard cutouts of themselves in the seats just to highlight the absurdity of this corrupt, senile, old fool being installed in the White House.

The children of Chernobyl aren’t showing any significant damage. Not really surprised – the radiation levels are probably set much higher than public safety really requires.

The Washington Post would like you to know that Senator Scott (R-SC) isn’t black enough.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan22 Comments

Usually after a jury trial we all tend to rest content with the verdict even if we think it might not have covered all issues involved – but in the Chauvin trial, I think everyone is pretty certain that the Jury felt massive pressure to convict. Did it play a role? It will be impossible to ever know. But we all suspect it, and that’s bad – because the ultimate foundation of our liberty is trial by jury. That if we’re ever accused of a crime that we can go in front of 12 of our fellow citizens and tell our side. Now, we’re all not so sure – if someone for political reasons wants us convicted, will political pressure be brought to bear? This is very much end of the Republic stuff and at the deepest level. If we can’t repair this damage, we will break up into our tribes and count on brute force for protection.

The hard core Marxists on the other side understand precisely what they’re doing – trying to overthrow the entire system so that a Marxist system can replace it. But I suspect that most on the Left don’t fully understand where they’re heading. That if they win, then shortly after we’re all destroyed, they’ll be destroyed. History, after all, is White Supremacist and so it isn’t taught.

Related: official Segregation at Michigan State.

A Norfolk, VA cop was doxxed and then fired after it was found that he had donated $25 to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense fund. As I’ve been saying, this is the most crucial part of Leftist power: the power to control our jobs. That this cop actually got fired was just a bonus for the Left…what they really wanted everyone to know is that they can find out what you do in your private life and expose it. Every cop in America now will think twice before making any political donations. Some of them will start donating to the Left to take on protective coloring. We must cure this – long ago I said that a law must be passed prohibiting the firing of a person for actions taken outside the workplace but now I go even further: there must be severe penalties assessed to anyone who posts personal information on line without the subject’s permission.

Texas opened up and nothing bad happened. The more we see Texas and Florida in contrast to New York and California the more convinced I am that the masks and lockdowns made things worse. That there is something in this virus which makes it easy to catch when you’re inside most of the time. Furthermore, we know that the panic around the China flu was generated initially by Chinese bots on social media…I’m starting to suspect that this virus was never all that bad except in very narrow circumstances (such as we saw in Wuhan, itself, and in northern Italy) and that we were suckered into the lockdown by a Chinese op.

Trump is firing up the fundraising. Prepping for 2024? Or just building for 2022? Time will tell.

Only 12 States remain as “duty to retreat” States. The rest are “stand your ground“. This is very important because the Left has decreed that you must surrender your property to the robber. This is based on Marxist theory that the only reason there is crime is the unjust distribution of wealth caused by Capitalism – if you have more than someone else, it is stolen goods. So, Lenin’s dictate of “loot the looters”. The more “stand your ground” laws we get, the better.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan34 Comments

Democrats in the House and Senate are moving forward with legislation to add 4 Justices to the Supreme Court. I rate their chances pretty low at the moment – it is a huge step and it isn’t at all popular. But if they are going to do it, they have to do it by, say, September or not at all. Their margins are very narrow and by Fall the Red and Purple Democrats will be looking for political cover. But it shows what they want – to simply ram through whatever they desire. It is a plain fact that the Rule of Law is dead in the United States – all that matters is what you can do if you have the power to do it. It is past time for all non-Democrats to wake up to this fact and act accordingly – only the complete removal of Democrats from any position of power will keep liberty alive.

Now that they don’t need the issue any longer, Biden is ordering a withdrawal from Afghanistan. Way past time – but do keep in mind that the only reason Trump couldn’t get us out was because the Deep State threw up every roadblock they could.

Governor Ricketts (R-NE) declares Nebraska a “2nd Amendment Sanctuary State”. This is good stuff and excellent as a pushback – but it also shows that we really are becoming two entirely different nations only kept together, for the moment, because the Left doesn’t want to let us go (they need people to hate and oppress) and we don’t want to take the risk of secession. I still hope for a peaceful settlement or separation…but the future is very cloudy.

Cop accidentally shoots a man with a warrant: cop charged. Cop deliberately shoots a Trumpster who, at worst, was guilty of trespass: no charges. We are second class citizens.

CNN is an arm of the DNC. You already knew this, but Project Veritas confirmed it.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan68 Comments

I’ve noticed over the past week that a bunch of Never Trump Republicans have started to write things along the line of, “I was hoping Biden would prove a moderate”. This is utter bull. Joe Biden has been in public life for half a century – everyone familiar with politics knows that Biden is both a liar and a bully. Everything that Biden is doing was predicted before the election and no one is stupid enough to have actually fallen for the Op which put Biden in office. And we know the real reason the Never Trump wanted Trump out – because he was wrecking the Tru-Con game of talking a big fight and then rolling over for the Left. This new Never Trump effort is an attempt to get back into the con – getting back, that is, into getting respect and money from us. Nothing doing. Never Trump made it’s choice and it is irrevocable – they no longer get a say in what we’re going to do.

Joe Biden is firing just about everyone Trump hired. Noted. When we next take the White House, the first Executive Order is to fire every single Democrat appointee effective immediately. This is pre-civil war stuff, to be sure: a complete overturn of personnel and policy as different parties win. So be it. It is what the Democrats want. They can end this any time they choose – all they have to do is start to treat us decently.

Glen Reynolds notes that the FBI isn’t very good at catching actual bad guys. Time and again a crime is committed by a “known wolf” and we’ve also seen how whom the FBI goes after is based on just about anything except what is right. I’ve called for abolishing the FBI for years – and it seems pretty clear to me that the FBI’s reputation is mostly based on good PR.

Here’s something you’ve never heard of because it doesn’t fit the Narrative: white guys falsely convicted of murdering a black man….and the conviction was done because it was felt necessary to punish some white person, any white person.

As I’ve said, BLM does have a point. Just how many people are sitting in jail right now because politics required it? We’ll never know, will we? But we’ve seen this sort of thing time and time again…people being railroaded by police and prosecutors for political reasons. The police and prosecutors are supposed to be the impartial tribunes of the law…but, clearly they are not, at least in areas where Democrats have a Narrative to support. I’m not quite sure how we reform our way out of this – in the Constitution, we’re supposed to have a speedy trial, and maybe that is the fix? You arrest someone – well, you’ve got a week to put him on trial and if you can’t, he walks. For good. If you do, after all, have real proof of guilt, you should be good to go, right? And if you don’t – if you’re trying to apply pressure for a guilty plea or working on someone to provide false testimony – then having only a week to get that done means you probably can’t do it.

Segregation is being pushed by the Left on college campus because they believe – probably correctly – that this is the way to build hardened cadres of foot soldiers…people who will become entirely infused with the Critical Race Narrative who will then go out, degree in hand, to rise into positions of authority in corporate and government bureaucracies. We must make Critical Race Theory illegal in the United States.

Biden’s You Tube videos are getting so many downvotes that You Tube is going to remove that function. Must protect The Precious!

Open Thread

Mark Noonan55 Comments

China Joe barely managed to stumble through his “press conference”…where the questions and answers were all rehearsed. Not sure how long they keep him at it – to be sure, his own people want to keep him in as long as possible and Harrris’ people want to wait until 1/21/23 to preserve two-term viability for her…but the man is clearly on borrowed time.

The fact that they are letting BLM and Antifa skate while holding Proud Boys without bail lets you know that the two-tiered justice system is for real. We are second class citizens in our own country. We will have to fix that – but until we do, always have a care what you say and who you say it to. The authorities will railroad people and there are people out there – maybe even among your family and friends – who will report you to the authorities. Don’t get paranoid, but do be careful.

Mayor Pete wants to impose a mileage tax on our cars. There are two reasons for this:

  1. As cars go electric, less gas tax revenue.
  2. The Left hates the fact that we can go wherever we want.

The preferred future for the Left is that we all live in tiny apartments built in high rise buildings in densely packed cities and that we use bicycles or public transport to get around. If this sounds familiar, it is: it is how most Chinese live these days. That is their ideal – though they also want us to stop eating food and switch over to bug paste (I’m not kidding). Remember, they hate the entire idea of owning property or having a private life.

There is starting to be State-level push back against Critical Race Theory. This is good, but also way too late. I first came across the species of thought in the late 1980s and I initially dismissed it as absurd. That was a mistake: these people are serious. The primary component about CRT is that anything opposed to it is by definition racist. It is the perfect vehicle for imposing Marxism – you can’t actually argue against it. So, it must be merely opposed. The best thing we can do is via budgetary control over State colleges. We can’t stop Harvard with its billions from imposing it on students dumb enough to attend…but we can stop the State colleges from imposing it. But even that is just a first step – it must be banned.

Yes, I know: Constitutional issues there. But by hook or by crook, the teaching of Critical Race Theory must be made a crime in the United States. It is that pernicious. We have learned that it was a mistake to allow Marxism access to the American body politic. It must be exiled to the fringes as much as Nazism and Fascism have been. Ultimately, we cannot be secure in our lives, liberties and property as long as Critical Race Theory is considered morally licit.

A bronze statue of Greta Thunberg is to be erected at a UK university, and it is causing all sorts of outrage. But do understand what this is for: they are tearing down the old statues (it happens in the UK, too – pretty much every hero of Britain’s past is on the path to being cancelled) and erecting statues to the new heroes. This is common after the Revolution – and though it took decades, the entire West fell to the Revolution. This is something that everyone has to get into their minds: you are no longer defending. You lost. You are now counter-attacking. This is counter-revolution. We are trying to undo what’s been done and restore (at least in part) what was before.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan28 Comments

Sorry I’ve been out! Been sick the past week. Much better now.

So, Stumbles McGramps can’t climb stairs. What’s the over/under before the Democrats push him out?

We were utterly humiliated by the Chinese in the Alaska meeting – this was the CCP telling Taiwan, India and Japan that, at least for the next four years, America is of no account in the world. We’ll see how the nations of Asia react to this – I suspect we’ll see even more arms buildup amongst them.

In the long term, I don’t mind that. As it turns out, it was a mistake for the United States to attempt to be the security guarantor for east Asia. It is the Pacific which is our concern as it is the moat for us – our concentration should always be on keeping the sea lanes open. Actually pushing back against China is the responsibility, primarily, of India and Japan. I do believe we should maintain our alliances, but we should make it clear to our allies that it is their responsibility to build sufficient military force to defend themselves. I actually urge Japan and Taiwan to build nuclear weapons.

As for us: I’ve become a peacenik quite a bit over the past few years – I’m tired of the American Empire. We gain no benefit from it and the cost in blood and treasure is high. But the worst long-term aspect of it is that the necessity of a National Security State has been turned against us – our police and intel agencies are now being used against domestic dissent. Abandon the Empire. Return the Army to its proper number and functions (and revive the State militia) and abolish the FBI, NSA and CIA.

Ron DeSantis continues to ride high – mostly because he was the first big State governor to buck the lockdowns. The Democrats are, of course, hitting him hard but the bottom line, no matter how you want to slice the data, is that Florida is no worse off (at least) than any other State as far as infections and deaths while their economy is booming. DeSantis has also learned how to push back against MSM lies nearly as much as Trump did. So, he’s got a leg up right now for 2024 (presuming he wins next year – which looks pretty certain).

Democrats in the House are working on annulling the results of the IA04 House race. I’m really a bit perplexed on this one. Sure, Democrats always grab whatever they can get away with – but it is just one seat. And the blowback they’ll get in Iowa and around the country if they seat the Democrat who lost could be horrific for them. I’m not sure if it is mere bloody mindedness, or they’ve got some internal polling showing that they could lose the House majority in special elections between now and 2022.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan36 Comments

Tucker Carlson pointed out that, for instance, a pregnant soldier is not combat-ready and the entire military Establishment dropped on him like a ton of bricks – demonstrating that the senior officers and enlisted of the United States Armed Forces are heavily politicized and they are on the side of the Left. This is just terrible – but not surprising.

There was no chance the Left was going to leave the military alone – and we’ve seen over the years as the military has lowered standards and spent time on woke training rather than combat readiness that the Left has deeply infected the military. As far as it goes, it is lost to us. I’m confident that most of the lower ranks are with us, but they are largely commanded by people who have made the conscious choice that pleasing the Establishment is the way to go for promotions. Over the years, this has merely meant that we’ve had a gigantic negative-feedback loop where those officers who are the worst – ie, most willing to bow to whatever is fashionable on the Left – have risen the highest.

First off, it means we can’t win a war. Anyone who wants to fight us now can do so with certainty that our military leadership lacks any ability to fight for victory. They don’t know how – they don’t even know what it is. They didn’t rise because of their expertise in military affairs but because they knew how to say the right things. Secondly, it means that if we get power back, we have to purge the military brass. A lot. They can’t be trusted. Also, and this is something I’ve said before: we should reduce the size of the Army. Make it 100,000 troops and then revive the State militias. No more large bodies of troops for forever wars and, also, no body of troops large enough to control the United States.

Related: they’re gonna dump gender neutral fitness tests. Because the only way to have women in combat units is to lower physical standards.

Meanwhile, Democrats continue to push HR1, which would totally destroy the American political system. We’ll see if the GOP has the guts to really fight it.

Cuomo continues to be hammered – not on his killing of people, but on his sexual harassment. Make no mistake about it: he won’t be forced out and he’ll likely be re-elected next year. All of this is just keeping him out of the 2024 contest which is being gift wrapped for Kamala.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Manchin is going soft on whether or not he’ll vote to end the filibuster – but, we all knew he would do that. He’s an egregious liar and political hack. There’s still a chance that Sinema would vote to keep it. The bottom line is that ending it right now would be pretty disastrous for us – it would mean statehood for DC and Puerto Rico and Court packing, just for starters. Side note on that: Democrats are convinced that Puerto Rico would be a lock for them and, on balance, it is likely to at least start out as Democrat-friendly territory…but I’ll bet we’ve got at least even money at taking one of the Senate seats if it comes to that. DC, of course, would be two Democrat Senators forever. The kicker, though, is that PR would get at least four House seats..and they ain’t coming out of the Red States.

But it doesn’t mean the end of the world. It would make it harder for us to win – but not impossible and if we do, we’re no longer hamstrung by the filibuster and will be able to do lots of things which we couldn’t before. The key to victory will lie in doing ever more to get non-traditional GOP voters on board. Especially Latino voters – who are primed, I think, to go steadily 45% for us. This is especially true given that the Democrat party is enthralled to upper class, white liberals who simply have nothing to say to anyone who works for a living. Most Latinos, being relative newcomers to the USA, haven’t got out of the habit of working…like the guy who came here today, on a Sunday, to take floor measurements. How many crackers are willing to do that? How hard do you think it’ll be for us to get him to vote our way?

But, for now, let’s hope we don’t get to that point – much better if we can keep the Democrats tied up until next year when it will become increasingly difficult for them to get Red and Purple Democrats to walk the plank. And then if we can win the House and/or the Senate in 2022, the Democrats have no way to move their legislative agenda forward.

Related: Democrats having a hard time appealing to Latino men.

Our Matt notes that Rush Limbaugh’s death certificate lists him as the greatest radio host of all time – which has the benefit of being absolutely true.

Cuomo is up to five credible accusers of sexual harassment. Doesn’t matter. He’s a Democrat. “Me Too” was only a tool to hammer Republicans with. That it managed to get Al Franken was just bizarre – and something Democrats remain angry about it. Rely on it – Cuomo will be overwhelmingly re-elected next year, because for the most part the people of New York aren’t even hearing about this, nor about the nursing home deaths. They’re still being told that Cuomo is great. The hits on him are to keep him out of the 2024 election – Democrats are expecting Joe to be dead or incapable of running by then, and they want the field cleared for Kamala. I’d love to be wrong about this – that Cuomo would be forced out and a measure of justice done. But I won’t hold my breath.

Democrats have found more Enemies for us to destroy: Pepe Le Pew and Speedy Gonzalez.

Yes, this is ridiculous. But the purpose here is to, step by step, erase the past. The weakness in Orwell’s 1984 was that Winston Smith had memories of times before the Party. What the Left wants is no memories. Every book, song, statue, painting, building or whatnot which can indicate a different mode of living will be destroyed – and a hundred years from now, only Party approved things will exist.

We’re starting to get some pictures from Mars Perseverance and they care cool. I do have one question: don’t those tracks kinda look like they’re made in wet ground?

Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

The GOP is slow rolling some of Biden’s nominees. Managed to collect the scalp of one of them. Biden is being forced back on minimum wage, amnesty for illegals and election reform. In other words: going as you’d expect when the President is a senile, 78 year old and the Democrats only have 50 Senators and a razor-thin majority in the House.

I did check out Trump’s CPAC speech – still not sure if he’ll try again in 2024, but the bottom line is that at least for the moment, if he runs, he’s got it. Lots can change between now and, say, June of 2023, but it is Trump’s for the asking. We’ll see if he asks. If he doesn’t get in, I’m warming to Ron DeSantis as a lot of people are, though I’m still completely open on whom I’ll actually back.

Lockdowns are being ended in Texas and that’s good – hopefully this will spread, but I’m still thinking the Democrat governors want to keep them going. In fact, I think the overall Democrat desire is to keep them going right through 2024. They seem to have calculated it out that the fear-mongering about Covid benefits them. And, maybe it does? It may well have added a couple million real votes to their total in 2020. There is a big split and a huge number of Americans are simply scared to death of the virus – I can only assume these are the people who still both consume and believe the MSM. Keep in mind that as the States reopen, there will be an economic boost and that will at least temporarily boost Biden.

I hope to goodness we don’t get into a major war these next four years: the military is going entirely SJW. I’ve heard they are even screening social media posts of recruits to see if there is any wrongthink out there. How the heck they plan on staffing the armed forces when they are excluding patriots, I have no idea. I highly recommend against any young people joining the military – and that is a sad thing for a veteran to say. But I don’t think they’ll allow you to be a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine these days. You have to check off the Intersectionality boxes, instead. Not worth the trouble – or the risk that you’ll be sent into battle and your CO got his or her job based on a SJW quota rather than battle worthiness.

Cancel Culture has come for Doctor Seuss and I find it enormously funny. Thy guy was a Commie’s Commie – but he wasn’t woke enough for modern times. Anyone want to tell the SJWs that Che killed homosexuals?

I’m still writing! A lot. Second draft of Shadow Army is now complete and I plan on dropping it in June, with the sequel to that, Kings and Queen, coming maybe in November or December. And I just finished the first draft of Book 6, which had a title but the Mrs hates the title so I’ve probably got to think up a new one.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan24 Comments

Did you know that Amazon got a $600 million contract from the CIA in 2013? Looks like they got another juicy one in 2020, as well. There’s nothing wrong with getting government contracts, of course – but when a monster company like Amazon is getting them, it makes you wonder just what happened to get that contract? Who talked to whom? We’ve got this multi-trillion dollar government spending money like mad and contracts like $600 million to Amazon barely create a ripple. This is the first I heard of it. It just illustrates, in my view, that we’ve created a monster and nobody really knows what it is doing.

Mexicans, being sensible and civilized people, are going with coal power. I’d prefer we all went with nuclear power, of course – but what we’re finding out is that we can’t rely on solar and wind.

Democrats are moving to censor all non-Left speech. I guess they figure if they don’t, they’re doomed. This is probably true. There are many moves being made in the Battleground States to fix the election vulnerabilities as was done in Florida. My view remains that they went all out to steal it for Biden, knowing that it would be obvious but calculating (correctly) that no one would really try to stop them. This doesn’t mean, however, that the GOP wants to lose forever. Just a few minor changes in election law will make it vastly more difficult to cheat. So, losing that option, Democrats are going to try to suppress our speech so that no one can campaign outside the Party Line.

The Democrats are in full court press against Governor DeSantis – because Governor DeSantis is doing Covid correctly and thus would be a strong candidate in 2024.

The Muppet Show has been labelled offensive content.

Trump will speak at CPAC – note that it is in Florida. Likely because Covid but I doubt it’ll get back to DC any time soon. Let’s face it: DC is enemy territory. He’s refusing to tip his hand on whether he’ll run in 2024 and that is entirely unsurprising. I suspect he won’t run, but it’ll be foolish of him to tip his hand before the 2024 mid-terms.