The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. – Winston Churchill

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. – Abraham Lincoln

We can’t have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves. – St Thomas Aquinas

Did you know that Herman Goring had an elder brother? Albert Goring. Helped Jews during the Nazi regime.

The SS America after a long and glorious career, wound up on the rocks. Let’s hope this isn’t prophetic.

Russian bombers are now based in Iran.

Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone. – Hilaire Belloc

The Sherman tank, built during World War Two, was giving good service in the Israeli armed forces as late as the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It has been up-gunned, but clearly that was a design that worked very well.

An ISIS fighter was receiving welfare. Of course.

To succeed in the world, it is much more necessary to possess the penetration to discern who is a fool, than to discover who is a clever man. – Charles Maurice de Tallyrand.

God is more ready to pardon that we have been to sin. – St. Catherine of Siena

The ship of democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board. – Grover Cleveland

Hillary is, without a doubt, the most dishonest person to ever enter American political life. She’s even scrubbing her own website when statements made in the past don’t square with current reality.

What is going on in Milwaukee is what happens when some people – in this case the DNC and their MSM water-carriers – decide to inflame hatred for political purposes. People have already died because of this – but we’re supposed to think Hillary and her allies are the calm, reasonable people…

The people who rule our world are coming to despise those they rule. I do believe a great deal of the push for mass immigration around the world is that the Ruling Class wants to dissolve their constituencies and elect new ones.

City planning commissioner resigns and moves out of city – because city policies are artificially keeping housing prices sky high. This sort of thing advantages those who already have – and keeps out interlopers of an unacceptable social background. We used to call it “segregation”, now we call it “housing policy”…but as it was in the past so it is today: people who got what they want diligently work to make certain that they keep it and no one else can get it.

Our use of air conditioning is a worse threat than ISIS – but our convicts must be provided it as a Constitutional right. We’re very close to Peak Liberal Idiocy, folks.

Globalization saved the middle class? Perhaps, if, that is, you define “middle class” as “college educated people who don’t actually make, mine or grow anything for a living”. You see, a guy working construction or in a factory should be middle class – in other words, with one income be able to afford a house, auto, raise kids and provide for their future and his and her retirement without necessarily needing government subsidies. I’m in favor of free trade – but I point out, with great care, that we can’t have free trade with tyrannical regimes. They cheat. All the time. Free trade must be absolutely fair and reciprocal on both sides. Nothing wrong with free market competition, but don’t try to sell me the notion that there is a free market between the United States and China.

Remember when we were all called Islamophobic racists for pointing out that within the stream of legitimate refugees there were bound to be terrorist infiltrators? Well, we were right. As usual.

Turns out ultra-leftist Mayor De Blasio’s Administration is pretty much like every other ultra-lefist government out there – corrupt. Under a free market, the rich become powerful; under socialism, the powerful become rich. Always. Everywhere. Never even the slightest variance – whenever you get a leftist government, the people who run said government rake it off like no tomorrow.

Once again, sorry to just cut out on everyone – but, once again, long-planned vacation…and, once again, didn’t bring the laptop with me. Anyways…

There are two kinds of barbarism – the kind where a people simply hasn’t risen far in civilization, and the kind where people reject civilization. It is the latter form of barbarism which is always most threatening to civilization. You see, a people who haven’t risen to civilization are hardly a threat to civilized people – think spears vs machine guns. On the other hand, those who have got a bit of civilization’s ability but who reject the civilization can take down a civilization. Remember, a good number of the barbarian generals who overthrew Roman power were former generals in the Roman army.

There are lots of ways to reject civilization but the most insidious is to reject any notion of keeping one’s word: of being honest. That is what threatens us – and Hillary is, currently, the leading contender for Barbarian in Chief. She does not tell the truth – from what I can tell, she’s incapable of telling the truth even when a short blast of just telling the truth would work to her advantage (for instance, had she just come clean about Benghazi it would have been a three day blow up…and then a nothing, given the short attention span of the people). Hillary cannot be trusted; not by anyone. To be sure, given the nature of things, she will in general advance leftwing causes in office, but even a leftist should understand that if push comes to shove, she’ll betray them as rapidly as she’ll betray anyone else.

Yes, Trump has a problem with the truth – but I don’t detect in him the complete rejection of truth I see in Hillary. And, right now, the election is Hillary’s to lose – so, she should be our main concern.

Meanwhile, a lot of GOPers and/or Conservatives are leaving off the ever more bogus #NeverTrump and getting ready for #ImWithHer. I honestly don’t understand this, at all. I understand not wanting to vote for Trump. I understand writing in someone, voting Third Party or not voting for President, at all…but to do things which might help Hillary to victory is a complete rejection of anything a Republican and/or a Conservative is supposed to stand for. And I call BS on those who are saying that Trump is so bad that Hillary is a better alternative – that is a flat out, bald-faced lie. Trump has said words which are questionable – Hillary has advanced policies which cost lives, as well as engaged in serial corruption not just to enrich herself, but to subvert the very rule of law in the United States.

Wage growth under Obama? You didn’t really believe there was, did you?

Obama legacy: an Islamist Turkey.

For all Trump’s troubles, down-ballot still looking ok for the GOP. No real surprise – after all, Nixon won in ’72 in a crushing blowout and yet the GOP gained nothing down-ballot.

Remember how I’ve theorized that Trump is working from a plan and that part of the plan is to pull non-traditional voters into the GOP side? Not just disaffected Democrats, but also people who simply don’t vote much, or at all? Well, I was right:

Most presidential campaigns spend their time and money appealing to people who vote regularly in elections. Not Donald Trump. According to a Trump campaign memo obtained by FiveThirtyEight, the campaign pursued a highly unorthodox strategy of courting unlikely voters during the primaries, focusing on people who rarely participate in GOP primary elections. The campaign relied on free media, including Trump’s frequent TV appearances, to turn out regular voters, according to the memo…

Do read the whole article; well worth your time. As I’ve said, Trump is a lot of things – but he isn’t stupid…and it appears that his plan to run in 2016 dates back to at least 2012, and possibly earlier. I’ve now heard rumors that Cruz is putting his data at Trump’s disposal for the general…that, coupled with the RNC’s newly robust GOTV and whatever the heck it is that Trump’s got back there getting out non-traditional voters means that we aren’t even close to the end of this campaign. But whatever you do, don’t expect Trump to “pivot” and become anything like a regular candidate. The whole thing of Trump is to eschew the normal way of doing business. Will it work? If you bet, then bet heavily against it…but maybe lay down that $10 on the long-shot, just for fun. Oh, and as an aside – victory goes to the side which is most prepared…and while Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip speaking style has caused him headaches (and may well cost him any chance of winning), I do believe it was all prepared well in advance.

Hillary says she just short-circuited in her answer (lie) about the email issue. Which means if we lose we’re going to lose to an android who isn’t programmed to tell the truth.

In South Africa, the ruling ANC suffered a massive electoral blow in municipal elections. They are still in charge, but it does appear that after a couple decades of the ANC coasting on Mandella’s moral authority, the people of South Africa are getting tired of economic stagnation, high crime and government corruption. Now, will the ANC actually allow itself to lose an election? That will be the real test – if they do allow themselves to get booted at the next national election, then South Africa is fine…if not, then it will descend into a Third World wasteland.

Maybe Donald Trump didn’t see a video of it, but the Iranians don’t seem to be shy about showing the pile of cash we sent them as non-ransom for non-hostages which weren’t released just because the cash got there before the plane with the hostages left Iran.

The iconic Gadsden Flag (you know, “Don’t Tread on Me”) is racist – this apparently on the Progressive theory that everything in America prior to 1/20/09 was racist.

Been reading some articles lately which are making the claim that the reason why Trump is given a pass by his supporters is because of Progressive absurdity on such matters…someone pulled together a bunch of quotes about a GOP candidate who was just this racist, sexist, homophobic proto-Nazi out to destroy all that is good and decent in America…thing is, all those quotes were pulled from 2012 articles about Romney. If Romney is the personification of all evil, then everyone even moderately to the right is evil. And if that’s the case, screw ’em. In for dime, in for a dollar. Progressives – maybe you should curb yourself a bit on the accusations of people who mildly disagree with you being evil? Just a thought.

CIA guy who helped Hillary cover up Benghazi endorses Clinton…this is supposed to be a “wow, see how bad Trump is – even CIA guys are endorsing Hillary” thing. But, as with all things connected to Hillary, it’s bull.

Seems that people are joining the Dallas Police Department in large numbers. Gives a bit of hope that in spite of relentless Progressive propaganda to the contrary, there’s still some spirit left in the United States.

A Catholic priest celebrating Mass in France was killed by ISIS goons. Oddly enough, the issue of air conditioning doesn’t seem to have played a role in this.

Trump is getting a lot of flack over his comments on NATO. All he’s doing, however, is tapping into a widespread view among the American people: that we Americans are routinely shafted by our alliance systems which put us on the hook while our allies rest on their oars, and engage in routine anti-Americanism into the bargain. As for me – keep NATO…but we do need some changes. First off, the European powers simply must massively increase their defense spending. Secondly, if we are to continue to commit ourselves to rushing off to the defense of European nations, then those nations should commit to come rushing to our defense if, say, we have to go to war with China. Collective security is the best guarantor of world peace…but it has to work both ways.

A Democrat unity breakfast didn’t work out so well. Happened to be driving around a bit this AM on some errands and so caught a few minutes of Rush – his opinion is that Sanders was unable to get regular Democrats to commit as delegates, so he was forced to turn to rent-a-mob, professional “no justice, no peace” activists…and such people lack a sense of decorum, to say the least. The Democrat convention could continue to be quite interesting.

The current RCP average of polls has Trump slightly up – which is probably correct, but is also probably immaterial. There’s a lot of campaign left to go and Hillary has yet to have her grand moment. And as I’ve said for a while, polling in 2016 might be quite off – it might well miss either a Trump or a Hillary landslide in the making. Meanwhile, in the 4-way poll (including Libertarian Johnson and Green Stein), Hillary is slightly up. I’m wondering: if GOPers disgusted with Trump go Johnson and Progs disgusted with Hillary go Stein, could we get a hung electoral college? Here’s how it might look.

Victor Davis Hanson has, as usual, something interesting to say on the whole Trump phenomena.

Democrats are actually worried about the November outcome – UAW President says Hillary has promised a re-negotiation of NAFTA.

Turns out it isn’t illegal to tell the truth about Planned Parenthood – score one for liberty!

Does Hillary want to ban guns? You betcha!

Are the Russians behind the DNC Leaks? Very possibly. Doesn’t matter, though – the e mails appear authentic. The larger issue: it appears that our national institutions are completely penetrated by any foreign power which has taken the time to try.

Why are we allied with Turkey? Let me put it this way – if Russia went to war against Turkey, does anyone want our sons and daughters bleeding to defend Turkey?

Japan is getting ready to amend their Constitution in some interesting ways. Now, keep in mind that the current Japanese Constitution was essentially dictated by MacArthur during the post-WWII occupation. The things being modified are all that bit about free speech and Japan renouncing war. The article I linked to casts it all in very dark terms, but I’m not so sure. From time to time here on the blog I’ve brought up the book Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy – its a long book, but I even more than ever recommend it. The thesis of the book is that Hirohito was not a powerless puppet in the hands of out-of-control militarists. That Hirohito orchestrated Japan’s political and military forces in order to engage in a war of conquest which would make Japan militarily and economically independent of all foreign forces. One thing which I remembered when I read that article is that when Hirohito and Japan’s leadership realized the war was irretrievably lost, they started to set up a program to keep the Emperor (Hirohito was willing to be personally sacrificed, if it came to that) and so structure post-war Japan that once Japan was back on it’s feet again, the Emperor could resume authority and have another go at trying to make a powerful Japan. I do wonder if that is what is happening, now.

The Bataclan attack in Paris was horrific – so horrific, in fact, that the French government appears to have suppressed information about just what went on. You see, our glorious leaders don’t want us to know what happened because that might upset us and, hill ape morons that we are, we might start demanding vigorous action against the enemy.

Seems that German companies aren’t employing a lot of refugees. This will be set down to racism and/or Islamophobia by our Progressive friends, but there’s actually a much more mundane explanation for it. The nations the refugees are coming from are not even remotely on the same economic level as the nations they are going to. Before the Civil War started, Syria was actually not doing so bad on economic development, but the bottom line is that more than 20% of Syria’s labor force was agricultural, while agriculture in Germany is a comparatively trivial part of the economy. Syrian education is considered substandard even by developing nation standards. Moving a whole bunch of ill-educated farmers to one of the most advanced economies in the world means you’re going to get a lot of people who are simply unemployable. This is the sort of thing that no one is thinking about – forget for a moment the whole Islam thing and the risk of terrorist infiltration…consider the fact that the people who are fleeing are simply not prepared to work and compete in the modern economic systems they are entering. Such people will be an underclass in the West for several generations, even with the best of will on everyone’s part.

The latest attack in Nice does have me a bit down. I’ve been there – it is a beautiful city. But, still, the main thing about it is the thing everyone refuses to mention: we have terrorism because various State and quasi-State actors support the terrorist groups. Our problem lies in Tehran and various Arabian States. Until we confront that, we won’t get anywhere. Bombing a few ISIS goons here and there doesn’t do a thing. Even if we managed to destroy ISIS as much as we destroyed al-Qaeda in Iraq, it won’t do any good…as long as there are immune people out there who can fund, supply and inspire the terrorists, it just goes on and on.

#NeverTrump played it’s last trick in the GOP Rules Committee and lost. This was entirely expected – #NeverTrump and #DumpTrump never had a chance as long as no credible alternative candidate declared him or herself. As much as Trump is mistrusted, you can’t beat something with nothing. If even Romney had stood forth as an alternative, the anti-Trump forces would at least have someone to coalesce around. They didn’t – word is there was a big #DumpTrump conference call last week and while all sorts of strategies were proposed to derail Trump, the people couldn’t even settle on one alternative candidate. I hate to say this – oh, heck; I don’t hate to say it…it needs to be said; tired of all this making nice-nice – but we’re dealing with very unserious people. And this is why Trump may yet win – no one is taking him seriously. He’s not a clown (though he is clownish) and he’s not Hitler II…he’s a demagogue of the highest order and he’s determined to be President. We needed someone who was just as determined and who could out-demagogue him. Some one who would have rhetorically kicked him in the nuts. But doing that would have required a complete rejection of the status-quo; a declared war against this rotten system we’ve got. No one wanted to. It wasn’t “nice”. The MSMers would have tut-tutted! And so Trump got the nomination – because he at least spoke to the disgust people have with things as they are. And he’s going to keep speaking to that as Nice and other such happens again and again from now to November.

This is the real world, folks – things actually happen (as some people in Nice could tell you). Unless you’re willing to deal with the concrete realities of how things are, you’re just spinning your wheels and wasting everyone’s time.

A bit of happy news for you – Rubio looks solid for re-election in Florida. So do other GOPers running for re-election in swing States. If we do get President Hillary – a likely event – then at least we’ve got a very good chance of saddling her with a GOP Congress (FWIW and YMMV).

If you’ve forgotten what a patriotic American is like, Senator Scott (R-SC) provides a reminder.

From Glenn Reynolds:

SOMETHING THAT’S BEEN LARGELY OVERLOOKED IN ALL THE RACIAL POSTURING: The cop who shot Philando Castile was a Latino named Jeronimo Yanez. But for our “racial justice” crowd, it’s always 1963 — but a 1963 in which Bull Connor is a Republican instead of the Democratic National Committeeman he actually was.

And keep this in mind as you wonder why people seem to unable to see the truth:

It has been discovered that with a dull urban population, all formed under a mechanical system of State education, a suggestion or command, however senseless and unreasoned, will be obeyed if it be sufficiently repeated. – Hilaire Belloc.

And what we’re up against:

We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles. – Hilaire Belloc

So, Obama can’t quite figure out what might have motivated the Dallas shooter. Well, on the plus side, at least he didn’t say the police acted stupidly.

Greens specifically invite Bernie to be their nominee. I’ve actually kind of liked Bernie on the campaign trail. Disagree with everything he says, but at least he’s been honestly saying what he wants for America. But, here’s the kicker – the Democrat party is corrupt to the bone. Oh, sure, they’ll impose the Prog stuff on America, but the bottom line is that they are merely in it for the power and wealth. An honest, dedicated Socialist would have nothing to do with them any longer…if he refuses the Green’s offer, then he’ll show himself a political hack.

Hillary says her record proves she takes national security seriously. If there was one person left in the United States who thought there was an ounce of honor in the Clintons, this should disabuse him of that notion.

Rasmussen shows Trump up 2, Reuters shows Hillary up 11. My view: I don’t think polling is going to work so well in 2016. The electorate is just as much a mess as our two major parties are.

Why, yes, Progressives will take their demands for political orthodoxy to the Church and demand compliance. What made you think otherwise? Oh, all those times they assured us that they didn’t care what we believed, they just didn’t want us to impose our views on society? Yeah – that was a lie.

Hillary was interviewed by the FBI today – don’t make too much of it. It’s all smoke and mirrors, as far as I’m concerned. From information in the public square, it is pretty obvious that an indictment is the right thing to do, but Obama’s Justice Department will not indict. Can’t. It would kill Democrat chances in November and that would risk Obama’s legacy. Now, I’d love to be shocked and find out that even among Democrats there is still an ounce of respect for the rule of law, but I’m not holding my breath.

When I was out camping last week, a guy was at the spring with his 12 year old daughter and his 8 year old son – they were just swimming as we were, but in the conversation we found out that as a special treat, he’s taking the 12 year old out hunting this November for deer and antelope (astonishing he managed to get her tags for both – but some times luck is with you). Now, that 12 year old girl will be 30 in 18 years and will be one of the rising people starting to rule our world…who do you think is going to be in charge: people like her, or the precious snowflakes of the Progressive cities who get participation trophies?

Give it up, Never Trumpers.

Keep going, Never Trumpers.

Take your pick, they are both great arguments. Victor Davis Hanson has something interesting to say to both sides.

A Progressive view of the revolving door of money and power in DC. Not a bad read, actually – Progressive, of course, so doesn’t make the connection that Big Government ensures a revolving door of money and power, but still pretty interesting.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace²but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! – Patrick Henry

Still enjoying the aftermath of Brexit – just such a nice feeling to see the pinheaded leaders get wrecked by the action of the people.

Reuters poll shows Hillary with a massive lead. Could be correct – but, then again, Brexit polling showed “remain” comfortably in the lead. It all depends on who you poll and how you manage the data…clearly, in a lot of polling recently (remember, the GOP was supposed to lose in Kansas in 2014 and ended up crushing the Democrat handily) has been way off. I suspect that in 2016 it will be more off than usual.

Related: Team Hillary has instructed the MSM to make no connection between Brexit and Trump.

When we built the Panama Canal we kept corruption nearly completely away from it – and we finished the job ahead of schedule. The expansion of the Panama Canal isn’t quite working out that well. It is astonishing to me – and a testament to the amount of corruption everywhere in the world – that we could build locks which have lasted more than 100 years without a hitch while the current contractor can’t seem to manage concrete that will last a month.

Don’t think I’d want to attend the Olympics in Brazil.

Hillary doesn’t seem to want you to know about the fat cats she entertains.