You can have Rules or Rulers, a wise man once said – meaning that you can either live by dogma, or you can live by the whim of a King. Take your pick – I prefer dogmas, myself.

A GOP office in North Carolina was fire bombed. Naturally, some Progs are thinking GOPers did it, themselves.

Know about the war in Somalia? Of course not – doesn’t fit the Obama Narrative. But, we are intensifying our effort in that war.

In October of 2008, a month before the election, the Democrats’ corporate paymasters had already settled on Obama’s cabinet. There is a bit of an internal battle among Democrats about how things will be divvied up in a Clinton Administration – hate to break it to you, earnest Progressive friends, but Democrats do not push back against those who write the checks.

Victor Davis Hanson lays out the modern medievalism of the United States. He notes that the modern medievalism lacks the saving grace of a deep, religious belief to provide a counter to despotism. I’ll never want to get too far into an argument with someone like Hanson – but the fact of life is that the Middle Ages were not so much an age of despotism as we moderns tend to think. Yes, people had a lot of duties to perform…but taxes took up a far smaller percentage of income than today and a person was free from relentless propaganda.

The Washington Post is convinced that Hillary has already won. So have most experts. Polling almost uniformly confirms this view. Except for the much-maligned LA Times Poll (currently showing a 0.6% Trump lead). Thing is, the Washington Post poll released yesterday pretty much has the race the same as it did in mid-September – Hillary ahead by 4; the Washington Post poll, in my experience, has always been a bit favorable for the Democrats (just as the Rasmussen poll very often favors Republicans). The spread in that poll is D+8 – but that is not as important as the fact that after a month of Team Hillary dropping nuclear Oppo on Trump, the race hasn’t changed much. In fact, none of the national polling I’ve seen actually shows much change over the past month. But, still, it almost all gives the advantage to Hillary – so, she’s the next President. As I said, only if Trump shakes up the normal electorate can he win…and such an shake up would not necessarily show up in polling. The LA Times says they have figured out how the electorate has been shaken up in 2016 and thus they stand by their polling – and Sean Trende notes that there is some reason for their confidence: the LA Times poll – called the Rand poll in the past – was dead-on in 2012. Of course, Trende also note that past performance is no guarantee of future results. My view – Hillary has the institutional advantage and by all traditional measures is the next President. And thank goodness that people are just in love with our institutions in this oh, so very traditional year.

UPDATE: the RCP average shows Clinton up by 7 – it’s over. Trump is heading for a crushing loss. So, has the LA Times poll gone along? Nope: Trump is now up 1.6 points in that poll. Just weird – and I guess we won’t know for sure until 11/8. If you’re betting money, lay it on Hillary…but maybe make a side bet on Trump.

UPDATE II: I’ve been a Republican since I became an adult. My first ballot was cast in 1988 – I could have voted in ’84, of course, but I was overseas in the Navy and absentee balloting wasn’t much of a thing back then; certainly not for a 19 year old squid. I did some volunteer work for George H W Bush in 1988 – but I had to reach out to volunteer. I’ve donated a few times to various GOP campaigns, but I think my last time was in ’04 (though I may have donated a bit in ’06 – but whatever I’ve done in the past 12 years, it wasn’t much). Other than that 1988 thing, I’ve never done any volunteer work. So, while Republican I’m pretty much off the radar – certainly haven’t donated this year either to the GOP, GOP candidates or Donald Trump. So, much to my surprise, I get a phone call today from the Trump campaign asking if I’d like to volunteer.

I’ve read several bits from GOPers swearing that they’ve got this Cracker Jack GOTV for November – something which will do wonders. I’ve doubted it – and all reports are that Team Trump and the overall GOP are going to be skunked by Team Hillary and the DNC in GOTV efforts. Me getting a call today makes me wonder if that will really be the case.

So, why the Nuclear Oppo Dump on Trump this week? Perhaps because of the news that 100,000 PA Democrats have switched to the GOP this past year? Now, to be sure, about 38,000 GOPers switched to Democrats, but that is still pretty bad news. Meanwhile, the PA GOP says that, in total, the GOP has signed up 243,139 since November of last year. The bad news? Given what Romney won in 2012 in PA, that would not be quite enough…if Hillary does as well as Obama overall. If. Big freaking IF. Oh, Trump back in the lead in Ohio.

A peak at what a Hillary Presidency would be like after she appoints a few Justices – Venezuela’s Supreme Court just ruled that the President can write his own budget.

If you like your freedoms, you can keep your freedoms – Feingold caught on tape stating that Hillary would use executive orders to curb gun rights. But, yeah, way more important to stop Trump ’cause he’s gross and all that…

Some like to think that if we had nominated Rubio, all would be well. I grant that smearing Rubio would have been more difficult than smearing Trump…but the Democrats would have done it anyway.

Always remember, the Democrats and the MSM don’t have to tell the truth – there is no power in this land which can make them tell the truth and there is no desire on their part that the truth be told.

Why, yes, Hillary does support taxpayer funded abortion on demand. Why? Because she has to – all senior Democrats must bow before the abortion lobby…

Former President of Haitian Senate calls the Clintons common thieves.

Podesta thinks he can get us backwards Catholics to change. He’s wrong. It doesn’t work like that – the Catholic Church just waits you out. Been around 2,000 years. Lot of changes during that time, folks – still the same, old Church.

Almost instantly after last night’s debate various MSMers and hangers-on started talking about how Pence did good, but refused to defend Trump…whole series of conversations about it on social media, with requisite “sources say” on background to lend credibility. But, it happened too fast…it was too many people essentially saying the same thing. I figure it originated with Team Hillary. Just because the JournoList was shut down, doesn’t mean MSMers ceased intimate coordination with the Democrats, folks. Remember, the MSM is on the Democrats’ side.

The NY Times says that Ohio is no longer important, so you know it’s pretty in-the-bag for Trump – and all those stories of the House being at risk for the GOP? Not so much. In fact, given current RCP ratings, the GOP could lose as little as one seat.

Realizing that for Trump States like FL and NC are must-wins and that he’s behind in both States…still, did anyone predict that by early October the GOP nominee would have OH and IA pretty much locked up for November? I don’t think so – and I do recall that Mitt was still desperately battling for both of them right before the election. Trump’s got lots of problems and the Democrats have massive power to push Hillary over the line…but Trump is the first GOPer who could feel secure about Ohio since George H W Bush ran in 1988.

If you like your liberty, you can keep it, right? Well, not so much – Uncle Sam enlisted local PD’s to scan license plates at gun shows. I’m sure someone back in there has some justification for it, but whatever they say, it’s nonsense. It is collecting data on people who are sure to be 99.99% free of any criminal activity. It is building data-bases on us – and I don’t like that.

Give complete control of a city to Progressives, things start to suck. It always works out like that.

Kevin Williamson gives the argument for keeping American foreign policy pretty much as-is. Not a defense of Obama’s blunders, but a defense of, for lack of a better term, the Post-WWII international settlement…where the US takes up the burden of keeping the peace of the world via military alliances and free trade. I disagree – have, in fact, disagreed for years. Many years. You see, the idea that we should keep US forces stationed somewhere as a trip-wire against military aggression is monstrously immoral – it is setting up some of our best and bravest to just die in a fight they can’t immediately win. It also gives an overblown sense of security in the nations the troops are stationed in, thus allowing the host nation to skimp on military preparedness. I don’t mind alliances – but we cannot have what was called in old diplomatic language inégale partie; each side must pull it’s full weight in any agreement. I do think we should agree to the defense of Poland – but this must be predicated upon Poland maintaining sufficient military force in being to offer a vigorous defense of Poland until such time as help can arrive or, given who might attack Poland, we could start attacking Russia on their Pacific frontier. Furthermore, the UN as structured is not just absurd, it is also a force for evil in the world because it allows bad actors on the world stage to use the UN to make demands in the service of evil causes. Finally, looking after the United States – our economic and military interests – does come first and foremost. Free trade is great, but if it means deals with a corrupt China, then it isn’t really free trade.

Everyone got burned by “un-skewing” the polls in 2012, so in 2016 complaints about polls are jokingly referred to as “un-cucking” the polls. But there is an argument to be made that things aren’t necessarily as they appear. I’ve been saying all along that for Trump to win he’d have to, in a sense, create a bit of a different electorate than we’ve seen the last few cycles – and that such a shift would not necessarily show up in polling. Anyway, take it as you like – we’ll see on November 8th.

Hillary, who turns 69 later this month, is tapping Al Gore, 68, to help her with the youth vote. No, that is not an Onion article.

ISIS is calling for more knife attacks – while the word is that the attacks will be “random” you can bet your last dollar that in the United States, if they come here, the attacks will be done in gun-free zones or areas with strict gun control. You guys out there on the shooting range have nothing to worry about…

Remember I promised that I wouldn’t hurl insults any more? This story tests my resolve:

The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a dynamic, activist minister with a loyal following at her Protestant congregation in suburban Toronto. She is also an outspoken atheist.

“We don’t talk about God,” Vosper said in an interview, describing services at her West Hill United Church, adding that it’s time the church gave up on “the idolatry of a theistic god.”

Some things cry out for a massive hurling of insults. This is one of them. But, I refuse…

Libertarians – there doesn’t seem to be much point to them – their VP candidate is saying that no one is more qualified than Hillary to be President. Allahpundit notes in the article that Governor Weld and Hillary Clinton have been friends since they worked together on the Watergate Committee. Keep in mind that Weld was an allegedly Republican governor – but with that kind of long-term friendship, just what would Weld ever do which would actually stop a Progressive thing from happening?

And that reminds me about the new President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. He’s a bit of an odd fellow. He won the election earlier this year with 39.01% of the vote. There were five major candidates for the office – one was the grandson of a previous President; one picked Ferdinand Marcos’ son as her VP; one was a former Vice President; one was an expatriate who only returned to the country when her father (a failed Presidential candidate) died. No wonder the outsider won. People will put up with Ruling Classes for quite a long time, but after a while as things just get worse and worse, they will turn towards anyone who will mix things up…even if his campaign pledge is to murder drug dealers (a campaign promise he is keeping). Perhaps Trump ends up flaming out – but if we keep getting this same old, same old Ruling Class BS over and over again, eventually the people will turn successfully to someone who will shake things up.

Ace goes on another rant. Quite a good one, too. Ace has some views I don’t agree with – but I’m 100% with him in having nothing but contempt for our “thought leaders” who first diligently surrendered on Conservative issues and now demand everyone help them elect Hillary because Trump says The Bad Words.

Trump is a sure loser! Perhaps. But the House is pretty much safe as it can be for the GOP and the Senate looks ever more likely to retain a GOP majority. The GOP is also crowing about the prospect of increasing their already record-high number of governorships…even Sanders’ Vermont might elect a Republican this year. For the GOP being a dying party, knifed in the back by Trump and his legions, it seems pretty electorally healthy at the State level.

As an aside, early voting in terms of ballot requests seems to favor Hillary in North Carolina, Trump in Florida. Of course, ballot requests are not a 100% predictor – if you’re registered as a Republican and plan to vote for Hillary, for instance, then your ballot request will sill be totaled up with the other Republican ballot requests and ditto for Democrats who are planning to vote Trump. Still, it is worrisome to Team Trump that Hillary seems to be getting a boost in NC…but it must be equally worrisome for Team Hillary that Trump is getting an apparent boost in FL.

The Obama Administration forgot that Jerusalem is in Israel, it would seem.

College kid chooses his pronoun – Your Majesty.

We can’t question Hillary’s health, but Trump’s sniffles last night clearly indicate he’s a coke head.

In spite of the fact that it was Hillary – while Secretary of State – who assisted a Russian combine in purchasing US uranium, anti-Trump people are convinced that Trump is the merest stooge of the Kremlin. Odd that it took this long for our Progressive friends to realize that Russia is a threat – and the 80’s really did call and want their foreign policy back. Anyways, in service of this idea of Trump the Kremlin Stooge, someone slapped together a map which allegedly showed that the #TrumpWon hastag started in Russia and a lot of people gleefully leaped on it. Trouble is, it’s fake.

Let this be a lesson on confirmation bias. Avoid it.

Egypt claims a “solid and stable” relationship with Israel. Of course, Israel also has good relations with nations as diverse as Greece and India. Seems that only the United States is on the outs with Israel.

Russia appears to be using Syria as a testing ground for new weapons systems. This, of course, is what Germany did in Spain during the 1930’s…in case you were wondering just where on the “when does the next World War start?” clock we are.

As for me, I still defend the Iraq Campaign as the correct thing to do – but there’s this big argument over whether or not Trump was for or against it prior to the start of the campaign. To which I ask, who the heck cares? The only person in the race who had any actual say in the matter is Hillary, who voted for it. Why isn’t anyone asking Hillary about that?

You’ll be glad to clear that Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) has been cleared in the investigation of a bit of free speech he exercised. You should be in tears over the fact that someone thought there should be an investigation.

Trump and Clinton tied in Minnesota? The poll is from Breitbart which has been very pro-Trump all year, so take it with a grain of salt…but, if true, then Hillary is in a lot of trouble.

If you’ve never been over to Robert Stacy McCain’s website, it is well worth a read. Among other things, he delves deeply into the modern SJW movement…and what he finds there is, well, very strange.

Protestors in Charlotte have come up with a list of demands. One of them is to de-fund the Police Department. I don’t think they really thought that one through.

Last weekend of summer! This year has just flown by – and we all hope that the election will soon be over, but deep down we all know it’ll be a 269-269 tie and it will just go on and on and on…

Hillary is going to beg for some Millenial support. Meh. I guess she could offer to cancel student loan debt and that my wow some…but the bottom line is that the kids aren’t going to turn out in droves for a 69 year old politician who has been clinging on to DC for 25 years.

Netanyahu is catching some flack from the usual suspects about his accusation that the Palestinian leadership wants to ethnically cleanse Jews from the West Bank…but the bottom line is that is what they demand.

Hillary is “freakishly” unpopular – or, at least, that is how Progressives view it. The actuality is that she’s a corrupt barnacle on the American body politic and no one really likes her, nor wants her to be President.

Shocking news: Obama Administration covering up a report showing that the border is pretty much wide open. I know, you just can’t believe this.

A look at what the first city on Mars might be like. As for me – until we really get a handle on radiation in space and what low/zero gravity does to humans (or find a way to manufacture, as it were, gravity at need), we’re really not going to get anywhere in deep space. We can go to Mars (and I think we should), if we like – but I suspect we can’t stay there long, with current technology.

Barack Obama’s legacy. It ain’t too good. But you already knew that because you bought this book. Right? Come on, it’s only $3.99 on Kindle. Geesh. Can’t get a cup of coffee for that, and this will last longer.

Scare a Democrat friend of yours: point out this Michigan poll.

Some are convinced that Basket of Deplorables will convince people to stay away from Trump. Others are convinced that Hillary’s physical collapse will push her out the race. Yet others are convinced that a lot of people don’t know what they are talking about. One thing 2016 has taught me is that the political experts are nothing of the kind – passing themselves off as dispassionate observers (left or right) of the political scene, what I’ve actually seen is a collection of ill-educated, petulant children who get really, really mad when reality doesn’t match up to their predictions.

I saw a Tweet today from one of our Thought Leaders who was saying we have to stop Trump in order to save our world. Oh, puhleeeese! It’s a Presidential election, folks, not the precursor to the End Times. In fairness, I have seen Trumpsters who are certain we have to elect Trump or Doom Awaits. To be sure, the election of either candidate brings a lot of doom-y thoughts to my mind, but that is mostly because of the overall situation, not anything specific to Trump or Clinton. We’re living in a world of lunacy, as I noted the other day – and what world are we trying to save? The one where we use fake money and debt to keep big banks afloat? Or is it the one where we allow a despotic regime like China’s to veto us in the UN? I get thoughts of doom because I’m certain that Hillary will continue the destruction and I’m not at all sure Trump even realizes what needs to be stopped.

On the plus side for a Trump Presidency is something that Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) points out – given that everyone (DNC, MSM, GOP regulars, bureaucracy) hates Trump, there will actually be a lot of checks to any unreasonable use of power by a President Trump. In order to get anything done, he’s going to have to battle through the unified opposition of the Ruling Class. Or, alternately, roll over for the Ruling Class and just do what they want, plus maybe a bit of border wall along the way. The flip side of that is voting Hillary – who will have the DNC, MSM and bureaucracy on her side and a GOP as frightened of offending her as they have been of offending Obama. In short, absolutely no check on her power.

Trump wants to do debates without moderators – smart move, and it would be an actual debate.

Yeah, there are some kooks floating around the edges of the Trump campaign – but no one seems to mind the kooks of BDS floating ever nearer the center of the American left.

They don’t call CNN Clinton News Network for nothing.

Sniper takes out an ISIS goon from a mile away.

On September 12th, 1683 a glorious victory – brought to us via a very brave Polish king and his army.

For some reason Christian refugees from Syria have a hard time getting into the United States.

If you’re digging up dirt on Melania Trump then you are just being lousy. She’s the spouse, not the candidate.

The MSM is convinced that Trump did not have a good day yesterday. I’m not sure he had a good day or a bad day, mostly because it’s hard to tell what the heck is happening in 2016. But one thing I will say: he definitely ripped the lid off the hypocrisy of our immigration debate. Essentially, people are shocked and hurt that Trump said we should enforce U.S. law regarding immigration. The non-Trump position is now, “any desire to have any immigration or border laws is bad”…and I’ve seen some #NeverTrump people finally come out and admit that they are #ImWithHer over this. Trust me on this – any Conservative who now jumps on the Hillary bandwagon will be a full-blown Progressive within 6 months – partially because their new Progressive friends will insist (Progressives really, really hate dissent) and partially because a lot of Conservatives are turning out to have always been Progressives who merely want a low corporate tax rate. A lot of illusions are dying in 2016 – one of the main things to go down is the illusion that there ever was a Conservative movement. We genuine Conservatives will not be rebuilding, but building for the first time a Conservative movement in 2017.

Hint: it won’t look anything like the false-Conservative thing which has proved a barnacle on American politics for the last 20 years.

Zika is now in Miami Beach – because we all thought the 21st century was going to be about insect-borne disease, right?

I completely understand Jonah Goldberg’s call to purge the Alt Right – but I do wonder why the left never has to purge their extremists?

Nate Silver – proof that even among Progressives you can find a sensible person from time to time.

The thing about Hillary is that there appears to be no bottom to her corruption.

St. Thomas More was a Conservative:

A Conservative movement would argue for a ban on no-fault divorce.

Here’s a shorthand of our problem: we’re a nation which has 800K+ divorces per year and we’re mad about politicians not keeping their promises.

People are furious that the drug maker Mylan has jacked up the price of the EpiPen. Progressives are upset over the price hike while Conservatives are out there pointing out (correctly) that the reason Mylan can do this is because of restrictive, government regulations which prevent a competitor from placing a different EpiPen product on the market…but even the Conservatives are missing the point that Mylan has spent just in 2016 $875,000.00 lobbying the government, and they spent $1,550,000.00 lobbying in 2015. Who wants to bet that some of that lobbying was related to making sure that Mylan has a clear shot at the EpiPen market? Who wants to suppose that even a penny of it went to lobbying for a more open drug market? As I’ve been saying for years, Big Corporation is no friend of ours – they are not Conservative. And, yes, this means that we Conservatives should be fighting against Big Corporation. That is, if we ever want to win. I advocate for a law requiring the break up of any corporation that has a market capitalization in excess of $50 billion (that, by the way, breaks up all the large corporations you’re likely familiar with). Competition is good – let’s have some.

Whatever level of immigration we ultimately decide upon, it should be based upon merit and national need. We don’t need people over 45 moving here. We do need more doctors and engineers. Don’t need more billionaires. And we don’t need that many of any sort – we’re rising towards 320 million people, and we’ll hit 400 million by mid-century. In and among such a large population, we should be able to find all the people we need.

A Progressive is someone who continually changes his goal – every time something a Progressive does fails, it isn’t a time to re-assess the original desire, but to make up a whole, new desire and then pretend that was the goal all along.

Public schools are built on the concept that everyone has the same general education desires and abilities. I’ve looked around a bit and noticed one very stunning fact about people: they are different from one another. Some kids are good at this, some are good at that – and the parents likely know best what the kid likes and is good at. To be sure, there are bad parents out there – but most will make an effort at it; and if we didn’t have a public school system, then we’d have a myriad of different types of schools catering to different desires and different income levels. We, as a people, need plumbers, electricians, carpenters and mechanics far more than we even need engineers…and vastly more than we need Liberal Arts grads. There is an honorable place for those who learn essentially for the sake of learning – who delve deep into history and philosophy and try to understand the nature of humanity…but when the faucet is leaking, you need a plumber. You’ll never actually need someone to explain Cartesian philosophy to you.

Telling the truth is not the same as not lying – you can say nothing and thus not lie, but you aren’t by that act telling the truth. Telling the truth, as our famed oath in court says, means to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The problem with modern times is that, for the most part, people refuse to tell the truth – to tell everything that relates to the subject at hand, in clear and concise language that cannot be mistaken in meaning.

There is no such thing as a half-truth, by the way. Add an ounce of lie to a pound of truth and all you get is a lie.

If you are opposed to Big Government, you should be opposed to the death penalty. After all, a wise man doesn’t trust the government to consistently get it right about trivial matters – it is the height of folly to somehow think that the government will always get it right on the matter of executing a human being. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever want it on my conscience that an innocent man was sent to death because of a mistake, or because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Nothing better proves the complete hypocrisy of the left better than the way they’ve treated Obama’s non-action on the Louisiana floods. The left only cares about people when they can wring political advantage out of it – there’s no upside in highlighting disaster in Louisiana (Democrat President, Democrat governor), so there’s just nothing to care about.

LA Times tracking poll shows Trump once again with a national lead – not that big a thing, but the LA Times did pick up the previous Trump surge in the polls. I suspect that Trump’s “pivot” (as it were) over the past week is going to bring most GOPers home to him…and that will work to increase his poll numbers.

Libertarians should focus on liberty. Of course. But they don’t seem to be – in fact, in 2016, I’ve seen them as de-facto Democrat Lite.

Ed Morrisey’s review of the Ben Hur reboot. He gives it 4 out of 5 stars. I’m very wary of watching remakes as 99% of them suck very, very badly. This is especially a tough hill to climb for me because (a) I was always a big fan of Charlton Heston and (b) that version of Ben Hur is now a beloved memory of my youth. I think, though, that I might give this one a shot.

A Palestinian who rendered aid to a Jewish woman is facing persecution by his fellow Palestinians. Couple this with that Egyptian athlete who refused to shake hands with the Israeli in Rio and you really get to the crux of the problem: all too many Muslims refuse to concede the basic humanity of Israelis. Obviously, given the subject of the story, some of them do – but enough of them don’t to cause all the trouble.

The glories of socialism – Venezuelans raid zoo for food.

Some people are upset at questions regarding Hillary’s overall health – but I think it just natural. She’s pushing 70 and Trump is over 70…both of them should be observed closely as to whether they have the sheer physical stamina for the job. And there’s Trump, out on the hustings day in and day out…while Hillary keeps to a light schedule and just isn’t in the news all that much. To be sure, part of this is just in the nature of things – Hillary is disliked and her advisors have probably carefully explained to her that the less people see her, the better her chances…but surely the Democrats can come up with enough friendly audiences to keep her busy?

Honest conversations about race are anything but. The bottom line is that the Progressives don’t want such a conversation as anything relevant and true on the subject indicts them. But, meanwhile, the right also doesn’t want such a conversation because, well, I guess we’re afraid to have it. But it does need to be had – and Trump, to his credit, has at least dived into it. I’m praying that we on the right start seriously talking about it – and, more importantly, listening about it. The future of our nation really revolves around how we resolve this issue…Tribalism is what can break us apart and finish us as a people. We must become united.