Open Thread

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.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan7 Comments

More and more people are coming to the conclusion that liberal women don’t like men because they hang out with liberal men – Dem Rep Ellison accused of abuse. The MSM has been offering excuses as to why this story – apparently around for years – is only now coming out. Seems they are claiming that they couldn’t verify the details…if only Ellison had written an entry into a high school year book…

Don Surber points out that, so far, Trump is winning the trade war. The bottom line is that the American market is the most valuable in the world. And not just by a little bit…we are vastly richer than any other nation. By a long ways. To be sure, there are a few nations with higher per capita income than us, but we’re the only nation in the top 30 with a population over 150 million people. Its not just that we, as individuals, have a lot of money but that there are so many of us. No nation wants to be excluded from the American market. Sure, China and India have more people (do you realize we’re the third most populous nation in the world? I don’t think most Americans know that), but they are a lot poorer…so, even though there’s more of them, they simply can’t buy as much as we can. Our leverage in international trade is absolute – we can pretty much force everyone to do as we wish simply by threatening to cut them out of our market. Trump is doing that – and the world will knuckle under.

Democrats are now in favor of socialism. No, this isn’t a report from 1980.

Lesbian professor sexually harasses gay man…um, isn’t that doing lesbian wrong? Or am I missing something here?

Trump hung out with some bikers and one of the bikers had a tattoo which said, in effect, “I love guns and titties”. Liberals grabbed their smelling salts. I admit that the sentiment is crude, but I think that a broad swath of the American electorate is in tune with it.

As an aside, I think the next Civil War may be rather short.

Kurt Schlichter points out that Never Trump is actually Never You.

DeBlasio had his bully boys haul away a reporter who asked an impertinent question. But, yeah, Trump is the threat to the press.

Alex Jones and Stuff Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

I’ve only ever heard of Alex Jones – and run in to some of his supporters on social media. From what I gather, he’s rather out there, taking at face value any conspiracy theory you care to mention and then weaving even larger conspiracies of his own. I gather – I don’t know: I’ve never listened to word one from the guy. Basically, the guy is unknown to me. But, a lot of people love him and a lot of people hate him…and now he’s being deplatformed by the social media giants because he said The Bad Words that the SJW’s don’t like. None of that is unexpected – and neither is the TruCon, NeverTrump contingent offering a nuanced view which works out to “it’s ok the SJW’s got that guy off the web.” In other words, our Muh Principles Conservative betters are eager to surrender to the left, as usual.

Lots of heated rhetoric has been issued over this, but anyone with a brain knows what is happening: the left has chosen a marginal case to make their first move into overt censorship of non-left views. It is said that Jones has said some outrageous things, and I’ll bet that he has. And for the weak-kneed on the right, this makes it impossible to defend Jones. “I don’t want my Progressive friends thinking I’m like that! Icky poo! Bad, bad Non-Expert!”. But, I’ll defend him – I have to. As an individual, what happens to him is unimportant, but as a symbol – and a harbinger – we simply can’t let this one slide. If we do, then the left will just go to the next and the next and the next non-left opinion which is “too extreme” to be tolerated. Eventually, the only non-left opinions allowed will be the tame TruCon surrender-at-all-costs opinions (and don’t think this isn’t desired by the TruCons…its just what they want: all of us gone, them at the top of the Conservative heap, slowly surrendering to Progressive views).

The solution to this is to start putting the regulatory pressure of the government against the social media giants. This is a difficult step for small government Conservatives, but it is a pill we’ll have to swallow. The social media giants have deliberately turned themselves into an arm of the political left, and they must be treated as such. My preferred option is to break up the giants into several, smaller and competing entities…but, absent that, we need government rules ensuring that everyone has equal access to social media and, so, government prescribed rules for when an account can be deplatformed (you can see why this is my second option: eventually, the left might get the government power to make such rules…much better, in my view, to merely have smaller social media companies). For more opinion on this, here’s Legal Insurrection.

Democrats had been hoping for a special election win in Ohio and got disappointed…outside of the dollop of liberal tears this provided for us, I don’t think it means much. Democrats have done very well in the special elections overall, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into general election results. Thing about this one – it kinda sneaked up on us. I’m pretty observant about politics, but I don’t recall even hearing a whisper about it until special election day…I think the Dems and the MSM (but I repeat myself) were hoping to win this one quietly and then blast it to the rafters as proof that Trump is doomed…but an alert Trump and GOP pounced on it and made sure the GOP pulled out a low-turnout victory.

There’s a Twitter account called Sweet Meteor O’Death…a satirical account which had its very best days during the 2016 election when it was a candidate for President. Anyways, the account Tweeted out this:

Kill all the white people. And all the other people. And everything that’s alive. Except deep-sea, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria.

You get it. I get it. Twitter locked the guy’s account for 12 hours. Meanwhile, the New York Times’ new columnist’s racist rants are still there on Twitter for all to see.

Victor Davis Hanson is smart and everyone should listen to him. The thing is that everything has happened before. And if you don’t realize that, and also realize that everything can turn on a dime, you’ll always end up looking like a fool.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan18 Comments

Lot of people seem to think we’re supposed to respect Mueller because he had an excellent record in Vietnam. I don’t buy that – history is littered with fine junior officers who wound up lousy generals, or lousy political leaders. People are what they do – and no past action either permanently lifts up or casts down a person.

Legal Insurrection is saying that Mueller should put up or shut up: his probe, run through our political system, is tearing this nation apart. If he’s got the goods on Trump, let’s hear what they are. If he doesn’t, he should say so. And none of this “ongoing investigation” BS. Tell us, one way or the other.

South Africa is moving down the Zimbabwe route – now with a proposal to expropriate white-owned land without compensation. This will do nothing for South Africa’s poor – who, for the most part, don’t know how to farm. It will inflame racial tensions and give an excuse for the Ruling Class to remain in power. I’ve read lots of things about South Africa of late and none of it is good: but those thinking that the world will lift a finger to help white South Africans are fooling themselves. Now is the time to get out of South Africa, if you can. Flee. Run away. Go somewhere else. Today. It’ll only get worse from here. I do have sympathy, but it was also rather baked in that it would come out this way: there was no way the post-Apartheid government was going to provide the sort of wealth black South Africans thought they’d have if only Apartheid came to an end. Hopes were raised and are now completely dashed…and the ANC does not propose to surrender power simply because they didn’t deliver on their promises.

We all figured that Never Trump, beyond a certain point, would become Democrats – and we were right:

…according to speculation reported by POLITICO, former McCain 2008 chief strategist Steve Schmidt may go one step further: He’s reportedly thinking about signing up with a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, possibly former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

The good news is he’d likely do as well for Schultz as he did for McCain.

Good riddance.

I don’t have too many Progressive followers on Twitter. No more than a handful as a matter of fact. Twitter is very tribal: for the most part, no one wants to listen to the other side on that platform. But there is one I do have and I admire the guy (or gal; can’t tell if the account holder if male or female): I think him wrong, but he is sincere in arguing for what he thinks is right and he’s honest and never gets nasty. I think he follows me for the same reason. Over the years we’ve had some fun discussions…but lately, we’ve both been sliding towards being angry at the same people. Or, at least, the same sort of people. You know: I despise Never Trumpers…this guy despises Neo-Liberals (as he calls them). In this, we’re both despising unprincipled people who merely latch on to a political party to serve their own, selfish ends. And what I’m thinking of late: just how large is a potential coalition of all people who despise the Establishment? And can Trump (and, believe it or not, McConnell) tap into this and create a FDR-size constituency to win the 2020 election in the manner that FDR won the 1936 election? Time will tell.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

President Trump went on a bit of a Twitter storm about Mueller:

There is No Collusion! The Robert Mueller Rigged Witch Hunt, headed now by 17 (increased from 13, including an Obama White House lawyer) Angry Democrats, was started by a fraudulent Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. Therefore, the Witch Hunt is an illegal Scam!

What do you guys think? Is he getting closer to firing Mueller? Some people think so – I have long argued he should, but its been so long I’m wondering if he ever will? Others theorize that Trump, Sessions, et al have their own plan to take care of this plus a great deal of other things right before the mid-terms. I guess anyone’s guess is as good as any other – but one thing I’ve noticed that in the really crucial policy moves of the Trump Administration, there are no leaks. Probably, if there is something cooking, no more than Trump and six or seven of his closest people know what it is.

Justice Ginsburg says she wants to stick around at least five more years…which is nice, but if she wants to make sure Trump doesn’t replace her, she’ll have to hang around until 2025, in my view. And even then she might find President Pence or President Haley offering up her replacement.

Powerline notes that Iran is up against the wall right now – thanks to Trump’s policies. One thing seems to be a constant under Trump: our friends do better, our enemies do worse.

Some Republicans are trying to slip through a bit of Chamber of Commerce-approved semi-amnesty garbage, apparently thinking that Trump will shy away from a budget fight less than 100 days from the midterms. This turns out to have been an incorrect assessment:

I would be willing to “shut down” government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!

Remember, Republicans have been gun-shy on government shutdown since the shutdowns in the mid-90’s which…did absolutely nothing to harm the GOP. And who can forget the government shutdown in 2013 which led, just the following year,…to the best GOP mid-term since the 1920’s? Seriously, I don’t get why the GOP thinks a shutdown is a bad thing. It never adversely affects the GOP and it often clarifies issues. And with Trump in the White House, you can rely on it that any shutdown will be crafted to discomfit the American people as little as possible. Immigration reform with strong border security is popular overall, and especially popular with the GOP base which needs to turn out in November to save the House. A shutdown over the issue will merely fire up the voters we need…so, do it, unless the Dems cave on border security (if they were smart, they would cave, as that would make a lot of GOP voters relax, and thus be less likely to show up in November).

Austin, Texas, is thinking of re-naming itself because Stephen Austin owned slaves. As part of the plan to ensure we keep re-electing Trump President, forever, this is great…but outside of that, it is idiocy. Austin was a man of his times – a Southerner who grew up with slavery as an established thing who also had his doubts about it as the concept of slavery as an evil was gaining currency in the Western World. That he was wrong to hold slaves – and in seeing to it that slavery remained legal in Texas – is a sin he cannot escape…but the bottom line is that he helped lay the foundations for Texas’ liberty which ultimately benefited all Texans. To expunge his name won’t change the past.

I’m sure you guys have heard of the straw ban. Absolute Progressive idiocy. Heard it is based upon the conclusions of a middle school kid’s science project. Wouldn’t surprise me if that were true. Paper straws will now make a comeback. Here’s the thing, for those of old enough to remember: we switched from paper to plastic in the 1970’s to save the trees. Now, we’re going to slaughter trees again…the circle is complete!

Worst President Re-Release Open Thread

Mark Noonan22 Comments

The Worst President in History has been re-released. It has been updated! We’re very proud of this book and are pleased that it has done so well. Just to tip you off, Matt and I just got another idea for a book, so stay tuned. And buy this one, if you haven’t!

So, there’s this anti-ICE camp and, get this, they’ve set up borders for the camp and they strictly control who is allowed inside. I’d accuse them of hypocrisy, but there’s just no point because they are shameless.

California, since 1968, has been granted waivers to go beyond the national clean air standards – and the liberals of California have used these waivers to leverage the rest of the nation to subscribe to California’s clean air standards. Looks like the EPA may end that practice. On one hand, this is good as it prevents California from effectively dictating national auto emission standards…on the other hand, the more unlivable the liberals make California, the closer we get to the day the liberals are crushed in California. I’m distressed that we might be helping the liberals get rid of some of their own stupid mistakes.

Looks like the North Korean are dismantling at least some of their nuclear infrastructure. The MSM has been relentless in not covering this.

There was yet another in the series of “waiter gets racist note” events. Naturally, the MSM ran with the story…and just as naturally, it has now proved false. You might be thinking: why do they keep doing this? Well, the reason is that the retraction never gets much notice, at all, and zero notice on the left. Rely on it, most people of the left firmly believe that each of these events actually happened, just as they still believe “hands up, don’t shoot” is true. These stories aren’t for you and me: they are for the true believers of the Left, to keep them at a fever pitch.

Have any of you seen Interstellar? Every time I hear people talking about it, they are saying it is the very worst Sci-Fi movie ever made. I think it the best. If you’ve seen it, what do you think?

Open Thread

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Max Boot goes full liberal – the MSM still describes him as a Conservative, but that is only so they can say, “see, there are Conservative critics of Trump”. The reality is that if you are a “Conservative” critic of Trump at this point, you’re consciously working for liberal victory. As I’ve said before, one can reasonably take exception to various Trump policies and actions…but where the rubber hits the road, we don’t need “Conservative” critics of Trump right now. Trump has plenty of non-Conservative critics and they’ll make sure every move he makes is loudly criticized. If one can’t say something nice about Trump, then just shut up and say something bad about liberals…you don’t have to be a Trump cheerleader, but at least get on the team and work for victory. The future beckons and, at most, you’ll have to deal with Trump for a little more than 6 years. After that, there are all sorts of great people that everyone right of center should be able to get behind without any qualms…but if you’re ripping on Trump, now, you won’t get to be part of that, later.

Lee University students demand that Vice President Pence not be invited to speak – thus providing yet another liberal in-kind donation to the Trump re-election effort of 2020.

If Manchin votes to confirm Kavanaugh, then he’s got a good shot at getting re-elected in November. This is good in that it pretty much guarantees that Kavanaugh will be confirmed…it is bad in that we’ll still have Manchin in the Senate. Glass half full…

Looks like Trump’s old lawyer Cohen may have taped some conversations between himself and Trump: they may be salacious in they might show Trump working on paying off some Playboy Playmate that he had a to-do with. My take on this was, initially, to Tweet out “I felt a great disturbance in the MAGA: as if 63,000,000 souls suddenly shrugged their shoulders and went about their business”. I don’t think our liberal friends realize how little we care that a billionaire may have had an affair with a Playmate. Yes, it is immoral. Yes: Trump should not have done that. Very much he should show true contrition for this (alleged) act. But, it is also none of my business and, at all events, it has no bearing on his actions as President, which are all I care about at the moment. It is also not illegal for billionaires to have sexual relations with Playmates; nor is it illegal to flash cash at them to keep quiet about it. My later take is: this is a gigantic violation of attorney-client privilege and Mueller and his troops are entirely out of control at this point. What possible connection could there be between Trump having sex in 2006 and Russian election meddling 10 years later?

This is for our Amazona:

I refer, here, to ending birthright citizenship.

The notion that simply being born within the geographical limits of the United States automatically confers U.S. citizenship is an absurdity — historically, constitutionally, philosophically and practically.

Constitutional scholar Edward Erler has shown that the entire case for birthright citizenship is based on a deliberate misreading of the 14th Amendment. The purpose of that amendment was to resolve the question of citizenship for newly freed slaves. Following the Civil War, some in the South insisted that states had the right to deny citizenship to freedmen. In support, they cited 1857’s disgraceful Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, which held that no black American could ever be a citizen of the United States.

A constitutional amendment was thus necessary to overturn Dred Scott and to define the precise meaning of American citizenship.

Liberals, naturally, went ballistic over this – and plenty of Never Trumpers tut-tutted about it. But however one wants to read the 14th Amendment, it is an absurdity to think that just because a kid is born on American soil he or she now has all the rights and privileges of an American citizen.