Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan46 Comments

The Democrats are proving there is no bottom to the gutter – Senator Feinstein, in a desperate and downright evil attempt to last-minute derail Kavanaugh, has said she received an anonymous denunciation of Kavanaugh and has referred it to Justice…where she’s likely relying on some Deep State malefactors to run with it, at least enough to lend this disgusting hit job some legitimacy.

This is the utter sh** of the left, folks – and it is what the Never Trumpers say we must vote for this November because Trump is so bad. F all these people! Get out and vote GOP as if your life depended on this November. Let’s take this garbage and shove it right up their a**.

Yes, as a matter of fact, this did piss me off. A lot.

Latest in liberal stupidity: Men’s preference for young women is a sign that masculinity is in crisis. Anyone want to break it to them that men find young women attractive because, well, sexual attraction has as its purpose procreation: you know, it’s rather biologically baked in for us to have a preference for sexual partners who can fulfill the biological purpose of sex?

So, a police force hires a man after determining he’s unable to handle stress…and then, in a stressful situation, he shoots a person. Now, why was he hired? Because he’s a Somali Muslim and diversity is our strength…

I see a Red Wave coming – because four separate forecasts have the Democrats winning the House.

Out and About Open Thread

Mark Noonan3 Comments

To give you a bit of hope for the future, a young man wrote this – and I think he’s going places:

The biggest piece of advice I can give to someone trying to get into the world of venture capital, and the place where I think I did the best job in my process, is to fake it till you make it. This means that even before you start working in VC, you should start acting like a venture capitalist. Working in private equity at The Carlyle Group, I knew I was in a related field and at a blue-chip firm that would help get my foot in the door (which it definitely did, but I was on my own past that point), but I also knew that my day-to-day at Carlyle was nothing like what my day-to-day would be like working at a venture capital firm. At Carlyle, I was dealing with billion-dollar transactions that involved decades-old companies, compared to early-stage venture capital where companies may or may not even have a product in the market and any financial records are slim at best. This meant that I had to take it upon myself to demonstrate that I had what it took to be successful in venture.

Nothing better than a kid with a plan and the grit to carry it out. Full disclosure: this young man is the son of a lady I grew up with. She’s naturally proud of her boy, and I think with good reason. So, as we geezers sit around wondering what comes after us, I think we can rely on their still being a good deal of determination and willingness to work in America. Where’s he’s going is where the future of the American economy will start. I hope he does well – for himself and for everyone.

Victor Davis Hanson nails it. Again. Because he’s smarter than most everyone. Love to hear a discussion about just any subject between him and Thomas Sowell. They could talk about knitting and I bet it’d be fascinating.

The Trump Administration has shut down the offices of the Palestinian Authority in DC – a move apparently in response to the PA’s refusal to get realistic about making peace. And this after various funds provided by us to the PA were cut. It is the way to go – and I don’t think we’ll get more than pro-forma words from the Arab world over it. No one wants the Israeli-Palestinian war to continue except the PA because the ongoing war is the primary justification for the PA government remaining in power. Time for a change, though. The Palestinians can have peace and prosperity as soon as they ask for it – they’ll just have to give up their stupid dream of one day driving the Israelis out of Tel Aviv.

A Progressive group as come out in favor of GULAG. No, I’m not kidding – they really think that GULAG is a good idea.

A Broadway actress has made a massive, in-kind donation to Trump’s re-election effort by wondering if where is John Wilkes Booth when we need him. OTOH, this sort of inflammatory, eliminationist rhetoric does get into the minds of the insane and convinces them to act. Our Progs really have no idea what they’re doing.

The ‘Stache of Doom (I stole that from a Twitter account, and I can’t remember which one) has dropped the hammer on US participation in the International Criminal Court. This is only sensible – the real reason for the Court is to drag US (and Israeli) officials before it in a form of globalized lawfare against us.

This police shooting is, well, strange – cop says she shot the (unarmed) guy because she thought she was in her apartment and he was an invader. I don’t know about you, but I tend to remember when I’m in my own home and when I’m not. Something bizarre is going on in this case.

British cops, who apparently have nothing else to do, are asking the public to report “non-crime hate incidents”. Which, of course, makes that whole Battle of Britain thing to have been rather a waste of time.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan8 Comments

Rachel Rollins won the Democrat primary for Suffolk County, MA District Attorney…and, given the nature of things, this means she’s the new DA. She’s promised to “decline to prosecute”, unless a supervisor’s permission is obtained, such crimes as trespassing, shoplifting, disorderly conduct, receiving stolen property, driving without a license, minor in possession of alcohol, drug possession with intent to distribute. Everything old is new, again – especially for liberals, who haven’t had a new idea in a century. This is precisely what did starting in the 1950’s – going easy on “minor” crimes because, well, they were being committed by poor boys who were simply acting out of frustration over poverty and lack of opportunity. The result was our murder rate in the 1970’s. This is just the per usual virtue signalling from leftists who will never, ever spend the night in a crime infested neighborhood.

Some Lefty rando on Twitter decided to get into Robert O’Neill’s face when O’Neill mildly pointed out that Obama still can’t say “Radical Islam”. The Lefty said:

He kinda killed Osama Bin Laden, so….

Thing is, O’Neill was part of Seal Team 6, which took out Bin Laden…the rest of the Lefty rando’s day didn’t go so well on Twitter.

Papadopoulos got 14 days. Trump pointed out that it cost $28 million to get to this…$2 million per day spent in jail.

Corey Stewart wants to have an ICE Tea Party on September 15th outside the Fairfax, VA ICE office.

Woman gets dumped, and Robert Stacy McCain has an interesting take on it.

Kavanaugh, TDS and Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

The Democrats seeded the audience for the Kavanaugh hearing with people who would deliberately try to disrupt the proceedings. The Democrat Senators all went on tirades against Kavanaugh. It was the most un-American, anti-democratic performance I’ve ever seen. I was disgusted and angered. I can only imagine the Democrats were trying to placate their base because they can’t in any way stop Kavanaugh from being confirmed. But I think what they did will turn off ever larger numbers of people.

To top it all off, one Progressive spied an anonymous lady sitting behind Kavanaugh and claimed that the position of her fingers amounted to a secret white power signal. Rather than having everyone laugh at him over it, bags of Progressives ran with it – they were seriously saying that this was the proof they needed that Trump is trying to secure white power fanatics for the Court. When it came out that she’s part Mexican and part Jewish (and descended from Jews who had to flee the Holocaust) that still didn’t stop the Progressives from claiming she’s a secret agent of white power! These people are certifiable!

OTOH, The Resistance set up a Twitter poll about Trump and 2020 and as of this time, with >214k votes cast, Trump is winning with 54% of the vote.

Bob Woodward wrote a book about Trump and made some claims some are finding unbelievable – especially General Mattis. Woodward has had a long-standing reputation as being a guy who can get White House staffers to talk. As for me, I’ve never really believed it. No White House staffer, of any President, is going to talk to Woodward unless he or she has permission to do so…and, so, will only say what is pre-approved. There’s no way a famous guy like Woodward can actually get a scoop. Its why guys like him aren’t workaday reporters…no one would go to such a person and spill it unless someone wanted it spilled. Woodward’s books have probably had some real insights into events, but to think he’s ever unearthed something in his books is absurd. My thinking is that no one who mattered in the White House spoke to Woodward – at least, not off the record. Woodward, at best, was only able to glean whatever Obama hold-overs could get…which was likely mostly second-hand stuff.

Britain’s Labour Party has a growing anti-Semitism problem. Lots of people complain about it, and their complaints are valid. Nothing, however, will be done about it. Labour’s future electoral health is based upon pleasing the rapidly growing Muslim population of Britain…Britain’s small Jewish population just won’t matter to Labour. I figure over the next decade Britain’s Jews will abandon Labour…and I wonder how long America’s Jews will continue to lend their support to the Democrats?

Liberals just don’t like America – nor the fact that the first man on the Moon was an American. They really don’t like their nation – First Man is just another symptom of it. Think about even some good movies – like, for instance, “Saving Private Ryan”. It was great – wonderfully done movie. But, still, think about it: the movie isn’t about the bravery of the troops or the magnificent victory they won: it was merely about who lived and died, who suffered and how much. We’re not supposed to be proud of the Army Rangers, but sorry for their plight. Even though most of them were double volunteers (volunteered for the Army, then volunteered for the Rangers; same thing for the Paratroopers).

Most of the real fighting in WWII wasn’t done by draftees – not in the sense of men who had to be forced into the fight. Even if they were particularly drafted, it was likely because they were told to wait for call-up as the military couldn’t take them when they presented themselves for service (the late William Manchester explained this about himself in his autobiographical “Goodbye, Darkness“). As Morrison put it, we had tough guys eager to fight against the enemy. And tough they were. And we should be proud of them. They weren’t lambs lead to slaughter, but lions who grabbed the enemy by the throat and slew them without remorse. But you can’t say that any more in the movies…it would offend liberals, and hurt ticket sales in China

Nike picked Kaepernick as their new model. Using the ridiculous tag line of “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Hate to break it to ya, Nike, but Kaepernick didn’t sacrifice his career for his cause…if was any good, he’d still be playing; and the fans would even put up with kneeling, if he could at least get better than 4-12 on the year. But to be an overpaid second-rater and then complain about America? That just pisses people off.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

California passed a bill to require all corporate boards to have at least one woman – because you tender, little ladies just can’t get there on your own, I guess.

Robert Stacy McCain notes the “wilding” problem in Chicago – and links to this article:

After spending the day at Oak Street Beach, the girlfriend claims she and her boyfriend were walking back to their car at around 6 p.m. in the vicinity of the 900 block of North Lake Shore Drive when they were surrounded by “20-to-25 offenders who gathered around them,” Hopkins said.

“She described a completely unprovoked attack with no warning. Her and her boyfriend were enjoying the day on the beach. They were walking back to their car minding their own business and, with no warning at all, they were surrounded by this large group and they did absolutely nothing to provoke it,” Hopkins said.

“They started a confrontation and, at some point, the victim was struck in the head and fell to the ground.”

Civilization is a thing veneer, folks. And lots of very bad people figured that out a long time ago – mostly notable Lenin, Hitler and Stalin. You rip the lid off, and people will do the most astonishingly savage things. Not all of them – but enough will. People just take peace for granted – security of life and property. But the general security we enjoyed in our cities wasn’t a natural event. It grew over a thousand years during which time everyone went around armed and punishments for even relatively minor crimes were brutal: in 18th century London, most men carried a sword and you could be flogged for petty theft. The idea that one shouldn’t commit a crime didn’t come naturally: it was literally beaten into the population. Its been a long time since the pound of flesh has really been extracted and, meanwhile, we’ve been essentially telling the rising generations that being a criminal is cool. What happened in that article is the natural result – and the natural result of that will be everyone eventually going around armed and a return to savage punishments for even minor offenses. And don’t think this all “just happened”…as I said, bad people long ago figured out that civilization is a weak reed…and those who hate our civilization (and they are legion among us) see things like the “wilding” as just another means of tearing down the hated civilization.

What is the Trump/Russia thing? Don Surber puts it all in a very complete nutshell:

The real news was the breakfast itself, which was relegated to Paragraph 14: “One of the meetings he recounted was a Washington breakfast attended by Steele, a Steele associate and Ohr. Ohr’s wife, Nellie, who worked for Fusion GPS, the political research firm that hired Steele, attended at least part of it.”

Ohr was not only married to a woman who worked for the company Hillary and the DNC hired to get dirt on Donald John Trump, but Ohr was meeting with the man in charge of delivering the dossier.

The only collusion with Russians was Steele and his sources at the Kremlin getting together to put together a dossier aimed at bringing down a duly elected American president.

It is all anyone needs to know – the Trump/Russia thing was cooked up by people determined to get Trump. The end. Shut it down – fire Mueller.

The reason we don’t have a Democracy is because our Founders knew that a full Democracy was too risky – remember, all the Athenians had to do to win the Peloponnesian War was not vote to execute a batch of successful admirals. The Founders kept the people away from full power, and that is a good thing, because popular passions can get out of hand. On the other hand, those yapping about “saving Democracy” under Trump dislike Democracy as much as the Founders did…especially as a fully functioning Democracy would probably force into exile most of those now claiming to be Democracy’s defenders.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

We’ll start off tonight with a racist song:

Legal Insurrection writes up the possibility – thin, but real – of a GOP Senate upset in Rhode Island.

On Twitter this evening someone posted a short video of the line for Trump’s Indiana rally. Now, I realize that Indiana is one of the most Trump-friendly States you can find out there…but the line was astonishing. My guess: there are more Republicans these days than there has been for a while, and they like Trump.

Democrat warns law enforcement against enforcing the law because Trump is President. I don’t think our Democrats fully realize what they’re doing here.

Democrat money is now far left – which is likely why the Democrats keep going further left: it is where the money is. Trouble is, I think this increasing leftist purity among Democrats is making the party smaller. Sure, it is more on fire enthusiastic and donates and organizes and knocks on doors like no tomorrow…but as a party becomes more ideologically pure, it starts to turn off anyone who isn’t ideologically pure. Some people on the right simply don’t like the populist elements of Trump. Well, I can dig that…but a fusion of Conservatism and Populism will likely win elections, whereas a purely Conservative party will consistently lose. Democrats are now purely left…

Democrats are calling for a boycott of In N Out burger…apparently not learning a thing from their Chik Fil A debacle.

Civil Rights of 1919. As it is, I think Congress can legislate very broadly, as the Constitution directly gives Congress the power to make all necessary laws and regulations to ensure the Constitution is enforced.

And we’ll end this with a secretly racist song:

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

An old friend – we first met in 1971 – walked back into my life today. Haven’t seen him since 1987. He first popped up a few weeks ago at another friend’s house…just knocked on his door and said “hello”. Now, he’s called me – using the number the other friend gave him. It is very strange to hear a voice from such a long time ago come back. But, it is also quite splendid. There aren’t, I think, too many people that really get into your heart. This friend is one of them. We only talked briefly – going over the largest aspects of each others lives since we parted. I’m hoping to get together soon so we can really talk over what each of us has done. This shows that true friendship never ends – we were talking as if we’d seen each other last week rather than decades ago. So, a good day for me.

Senator McCain is gone. I’ve obviously had some strenuous political disagreements with him. I’ll leave those aside for a bit. I prefer, right now, just to remember him as a hero of my youth. But I will say I oppose appointing his widow to his seat – there is something, in my view, just terribly un-American in doing that.

Mark Krikorian has something interesting about the Tibbetts murder:

…Tibbetts’s killer is reported to have lived in the United States for seven years, from age 17, and worked at an Iowa dairy farm for four of those years. He worked on the books, having used a stolen identity to get past the Social Security–number check (not E-Verify) used by his employer. His lawyer said that the killer “diligently filed tax returns legally with the IRS.” He had a car registered in someone else’s name and managed to drive for years without a license. He had a child with a high-school classmate of Tibbetts’s, meaning he was presumably listed as the father on the birth certificate.

That’s a lot of interaction with our institutions. That an illegal alien can do all that — for years — without raising a red flag represents a profound failure of policy…

It is that, but John Hinderaker notes that it is something more:

So the Social Security Administration and the IRS are not cooperating in the enforcement of federal law, which is the prime duty of the executive branch, according to Article II of the Constitution. President Trump runs both of those agencies. Why can’t he make them shape up? That question is the key to understanding American politics in the 21st Century.

The government is increasingly just doing whatever it wants. But that isn’t how it is supposed to work. We gave Donald Trump this power – not some unelected bureaucrats. It is very much time that we, the people, start to take charge of our government. One thing we haven’t really considered is that the bureaucrats should be term limited. No one should make a career out of being a bureaucrat. Other than military, perhaps no one should be permitted to work for the federal government for more than ten years?

Some Prog SJW type was just booted by ESPN…likely because ESPN is figuring out that when people tune into sports, they are trying to escape politics for a while.

DNC sets the rule that there has to be an equal number of men and women on their party committees…but, if gender is a social construct, how can they know?

“Worst President” is an Awesome Book, and Open Thread

Mark Noonan30 Comments

Jeff Johns did a review of Worst President:

Margolis and Noonan literally lay out chapter and verse, running down 200 separate entries, spread over a broad range of categories detailing a litany of examples to illustrate their thesis, all backed up with 124 pages of endnotes citing source materials. One of the striking things as you read through this book is the amount of things the mainstream media never bothered to cover, gave passing coverage to or made excuses for during Obama’s White House tenure.

You all have bought it, right?

Matt and I are grateful for Johns review, and for all those who have read it and told us how much they’ve appreciated our effort. We wrote the book to ensure that the totality of Obama wasn’t sent down the Memory Hole. As Johns points out, we’re sourced to our eyeballs on what we say: it all really happened. And most people simply don’t know about it.

Cocain Mitch is winning all down the line for President Trump, and for us. A lot of Trumpsters still say bad things about McConnell…but the reality is that McConnell is Trump’s best man on Capitol Hill.

Ted Cruz is locked into battle with Beto O’Rourke for the Senate in Texas…I, for one, have never viewed O’Rourke as a real threat…but, if he ever was, he ain’t, now:

“I can think of nothing more American than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights anytime, anywhere, anyplace,” O’Rourke concluded.

So, Ted Cruz is probably going to have to report this as an in-kind donation. O’Rourke’s problem is that he’s marketing himself as a modern Bobby Kennedy…a moderate who cares. But he doesn’t represent Bobby’s Democrat party…he represents Maxine Waters’ Democrat party. And that means he is simply forced to make statements which will make him forever toxic outside the deep, blue areas.

Trump deported an old Nazi the other day and, yes, some liberals managed to complain about it.

Also, that poor girl who was killed by the illegal immigrant? Well, liberals spent the day deriding her as a mere “white girl” and Warren went so far as to assert that her death must be set aside so we can tackle the important issue of children being separated from their parents at the border. Yes: she really said that.

It’s like the Democrats want Trump re-elected.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Well, Matt and I decided to write another book. Started working on it just yesterday and we hope to publish right around the 1st of November, 2019. Two guesses what the overall subject will be. Matt is actually doing double-duty as he’s also working a solo political book project. Meanwhile, I keep working on the third draft of the novel; which I think is getting to be a splendid story.

Bill Maher does the right thing: defend Alex Jones’ free speech rights. Most people on the left are simple partisans…but a few of them understand that unless all are free, none are free. Maher gets it.

Here’s a real problem:

Here’s the arithmetic: one in three potential recruits are disqualified from service because they’re overweight, one in four cannot meet minimal educational standards (a high school diploma or GED equivalent), and one in 10 have a criminal history. In plain terms, about 71 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds (the military’s target pool of potential recruits) are disqualified from the minute they enter a recruiting station: that’s 24 million out of 34 million Americans. The good news is that while the military takes pride in attracting those who are fit, educated, law abiding, and drug-free, they’re having difficulty finding them—manifestly because fewer of them actually exist.

Adding to the failure of many to meet requirements is the fact that in our now-booming economy, the military has less appeal to young men starting out in life.

But I’m not in a mood to despair over this. The overweight thing can be fixed, of course – and, in fact, 8 to 10 weeks of basic training would help just about anyone trim down to fighting weight. I’m also not too worried about the kids not having a high school diploma because having one doesn’t actually indicate being educated. The criminal history thing is a problem, but it is also not a 100% problem: in fact, a stint in the ranks might just be what the doctor ordered for a troubled youth who still hasn’t gone down the road to doing something truly horrible. We don’t want to lower standards, but I think that a revision of standards will allow us to get what we want…out of a nation of 317 million people with more than four million men reaching military age annually, we should be able to find the people to fill the services.

As long time readers know, I’m not in favor of conscription – not even in war time. If a nation can’t get volunteers to defend itself, then it isn’t worth defending. Revise the standards on weight to “what can a strict regime do for this kid’s weight in two months?”. Perhaps even start a pre-boot camp for the hefty kids: you can join if you drop X pounds by your induction date. Revise the high school diploma to a test to see if the kid can read, write and do basic sums. If he can, I don’t care if he failed to finish the third grade. Revise the criminal history thing to “as long as you weren’t convicted of a felony or ever charged with rape or murder”, you can join. Revise the drug use to “don’t care if you were high when you signed up, don’t do any more now that you’re in”. And then just train the hell out of the kids – push them, hard. All branches – everyone runs for miles, does lots and lots of pushups, learns how to use a rifle, how to fight hand to hand. Everyone, that is, becomes a warrior…or, they drop out of training and go home. No one is forced to stay: quit whenever you want. After they become lean, mean fighting machines, then they can learn their actual job in the military (be it remaining a lean, mean fighting machine in a Marine infantry battalion, or loading up missiles on the deck of a carrier. eg). And then keep the standards high – everyone has to requalify in physical fitness on a periodic basis…anyone who can’t cut the mustard: out. Do all this, and I think we’ll get just what we need.

The whole #MeToo thing ended just as soon as a senior Democrat got caught up in it during an election year. Always remember: Democrats don’t give a damn about people being harmed…all they care about is whether they can use something against a Republican.

As we’ve said for years, take all polls with a grain of salt – but there’s a poll out there saying Trump is more trusted than the Democrats. Here’s what I’ve been saying of late: if the MSM Narrative about Trump were true, CNN would be the highest rated cable news outfit.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan8 Comments

You’ll be happy to know that San Francisco has created Poop Patrols to pick up all the feces flooding the streets of San Francisco. With a little luck, they’ll be able to head off any coming cholera epidemic. Reminds me of the old joke: what did Socialists use for light before candles? Electricity.

OTOH, modern Capitalism is Jeff Bezos worth $150 billion and trying to influence our national political decisions in a way which favors him. Seriously, guys, start looking into Distributism. It is the only way out of this mess.

The Louisiana AG has excluded Citibank and BofA from a $600 million finance program for roads – because they are anti-gun. Good. Time to start punishing corporations for taking sides in politics.

Our Perfect and Wonderful CIA which we May Never Question blew it’s communication security and allowed the Chinese in. I’ve been of the opinion that the CIA has been penetrated by enemy agents since Day One. I just can’t forget that the CIA vetted itself in it’s original hires and there was no assurance that those doing the vetting weren’t enemy agents.

Pearl Jam has provided a massive, in-kind donation to Trump’s 2020 re-election effort.

The MSM, in an effort to allay concerns that it is united in attacking Trump, coordinated an attack on Trump in the editorial pages of about 300 newspapers.