Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Germany’s internal intelligence agency – allegedly to protect Democracy – has ruled that Alternative for Germany (AfD) is an extremist party. This sets it on the path to being banned – and a ban on any of its adherents being employed by the German government.

Currently AfD holds 152 out of 630 seats in the Bundestag and is the official opposition to the ruling CDU/CSU/SPD coalition. That right there tells you what the problem is: the CDU/CSU is the nominal Conservative party in Germany while the SPD are the Socialists…but there they are in coalition. Why? Because they are all Establishment. So, too, are Greens and the Left – two pretty much outright Communist parties. Essentially, what you have is the entire German establishment determined to keep AfD out of power. And they thought after the election this past February that this was accomplished…AfD was held to a distinct minority of seats and everything could calmly go on as the Establishment imported Germany’s replacement population. But the most recent polling shows AfD tied with or slightly ahead of the CDU/CSU…and in the old east Germany, the AfD is starting to run away with it. The next election isn’t until 2029…but with AfD rising there is always a risk that the German government could lose a vote of confidence in the Bundestag and that would trigger an election…and as the SPD starts to drop down to political insignificance (after being one of Germany’s two major parties since WWII), they might decide it is better to roll the dice in a new election (polling in eastern Germany – you know, former Communist Germany – has them as low as 10%).

To be fair, the German laws which allow political parties to be banned stem from the reaction to the Nazi era – and we must note that the old Communist Party of Germany was banned in 1956, as have many small parties heavily influenced by Nazi ideology. The claim is made that because the AfD doesn’t like mass immigration they are striking at the heart of Democracy…which is drivel because Democracy doesn’t have anything to do with immigration. They are two entirely separate species of issues. But by casting up the shadow of Hitler they want to turn public opinion against AfD. I’ve mentioned the AfD platform before and it hasn’t anything remotely Nazi in it – in fact, if it is anything compared to the USA, it is a Libertarian ideology (though with generous welfare structures because Germany). They want a decentralized government made up of citizen-legislators and bureaucrats who don’t remain forever entrenched in the realms of power. This is very un-Nazi. Heck, its pretty much un-anything. No nation puts any real restraints on those who grasp for political and economic power. They’re not even anti-immigration – they just want it controlled, an end to bogus asylum claims and the full integration of the immigrants into German society…that is, make them Germans. If anyone can spot Nazism in here then I’m all ears.

Secretary of State Rubio and Vice President Vance issued strong condemnations of the move against AfD – seeing it for what it is: a desperate attempt by a dying political order to remove its opposition. In my view, if Germany goes forward with this ban, then we should not only withdraw from NATO, we should break off diplomatic relations with Germany. The United States cannot afford to be allied with tyrannical regimes.

Trump posted an AI picture of himself dressed up like the Pope and this has caused a lot of outrage…all of it bogus. And I include here some of the official Catholic outrage. After all, the Bishops fussing about this haven’t gotten around to addressing the public scandal of pro-abortion Catholic politicians. A joke picture by Team Trump is hardly something to get all upset about. Sure, it was in poor taste…but not exactly the most important thing going on at the moment, both in secular and religious matters.

I guess some white girl on social media used the N word and then some go fund me type thing raked her in half a million dollars. This has also generated a lot of outrage. But one smart guy I follow on X has noted that if we have different sets of rules for different ethnic groups then there will be a reaction to this. Nobody likes unfair things. If the N word is wrong, then it is wrong. It can’t be wrong for one sort of person to say it but right for another sort. I personally hold to the view that it is a vulgar and insulting term and its best left in the past. But as the word is routinely used by some, I’m not going to call out its use by others.

One set of rules, guys. Pick the rule you want and then everyone has to adhere to it. No special breaks.

Another story that crossed the time line is the arrest of an alleged 5 year old (who is clearly not 5) who was accused of stealing – when arrested, the shouts of racism came fast and furious (the accused being black, the victim being white). This has caused a bit of a social media kerfuffle. There is the real chance that the whole thing was a set-up: that is, some Left pressure group wanted to get a race story and so got one kid to steal from another and had a person handy there to video the interaction. But outside that, people are chiming in with stories of feral youngsters prowling around neighborhoods and businesses just looking for things to steal – and shouting racism when caught. This, I’m confident, is organized crime. It is like the people who go into stores and steal things…this isn’t random. These places are clearly cased in advance and the people doing the stealing pretty much know what they’re looking for (ie, high value, easy resale items). This is the long-term effect of the destruction of societal norms…most notably that theft is bad.

Keep in mind Leftist ideology here: all crime is the result of our unjust system. They sincerely believe this – and, so, their response to crime has been to systemically reduce penalties. This has taught people that they can easily get away from it – theft is a low risk/high reward occupation. Assault or killing is still a no-no (for now), but the Leftist judicial system will look benevolently upon your thievery. But what is forgotten here is that the police don’t exist to protect the honest – they are there to protect the thieves. To ensure they get a fair trial rather than a back-alley whipping or, in more extreme cases, hanging from the most convenient spot. Our Leftist urbanites will put up with a lot…and they’re rich enough to barely be inconvenienced when, say, their car is broken into. But working class and middle class people will only endure it for so long…and after they’ve been robbed a hundred times and the police continue to do nothing, they will take matters into their own hands. There will be curbside tribunals which will dispense rough and ready justice.

And when it happens, I didn’t see a darned thing. Sorry, sun got in my eyes.

There is a way out of this, of course. Start severely punishing petty crime. It actually does the thieves a favor as it will convince a large percentage of them to find something else to do for a living.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan16 Comments

I’ve read some articles which assert that Democrats believe they have a winner in the Maryland Man issue – they figure they can move off from defending the man but garner support by pointing out the procedural error which got him back to El Salvador.

No. Serious! They seem to really think this. That the American people will rise up in outrage over deportations because the forms weren’t filled out correctly.

At first glance we just laugh – but then it dawns on us: the Left are the people who run the bureaucracy, public and private. All they’ve ever done in their life is check off boxes and make certain forms are filled out. They consider this an accomplishment and the height of intellectual achievement. Think about every issue: the Experts says it is so and so and with this report from the Experts there is nothing further to discuss. Just check off that box and move on! And heaven help you if you don’t…because they love to find the clerical or spelling error…makes them feel smart.

We are, as I’ve said, dealing with some very stupid people. And we really should have figured this out a long while ago – we thought the Green stuff was Secret Communism…and it is but it is also very, very stupid…anyone can see that if your goal is to reduce CO2 you’ll build nuclear plants by the dozen. Nope: place mirrors in the desert that don’t work! Student loans – how often do you hear anyone suggest making them dischargable in bankruptcy? Hardly ever, if at all – and it is the simplest solution. If the grad simply isn’t making enough money post-college to carry the freight, file for bankruptcy and be done with it. But they don’t want that – they want to annul the debt. After the forms are filled out, of course. This is the dumbest way to go about it. But the Left is wedded to it (to be sure, this could also stem from a lot of well-off grads just not wanting to pay the bill…if the solution is bankruptcy but you make too much money for that, then where’s the advantage for you?).

I’ve seen a lot of Doomers on X – people who are saying it is all over, Trump has failed, the GOP is finished…and it all would have been better if Trump had done Y instead of Z. We are on Day 92. Just past three months. The Doomers are getting irritating. Sure, maybe the whole Trump experiment fails…but it’ll take a couple years for it to happen. And even if we get whacked in 2026 that doesn’t mean Trump has failed…Reagan got whacked in 1982, after all. Keep in mind as we go forward that there is money to be had in clicks…and hate clicks pay as much as love clicks. Some people will just say things to get clicks. As for me, when I see a Doomer on X or other social media, I hit the mute button. Won’t engage. Not going to give them money for poisoning the well.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard appears to be wary of engaging in military action against Iran. This, and her unwillingness to go to war over Ukraine, is upsetting a lot of hawks. Anyone who has hung around the blog knows that I want no war with Russia but have long figured we should go to war with Iran. These are my opinions informed by my understanding of the facts. Others can come to different conclusions. That’s ok. It is possible for honest people to look at the same set of facts and conclude differently. Nothing doing with some people – because Gabbard doesn’t want war with Russia she is now a Putin stooge and because she’s wary of an attack on Iran she’s also a Mullah stooge.

Stop it, people. Gabbard may be right or she may be wrong – but she’s not a traitor. She’s an honest, patriotic American citizen. She also doesn’t call the shots – Trump does. She gets to say what she thinks and then Trump decides. And only fool would want Trump to only receive one point of view on policy matters. Lets hear every honest opinion and try to sift through them to the best result – understanding that there might not be an actual good choice in a situation…some times it is just picking the least bad option.

Got into an argument on X yesterday. Surprise! Anyways, it started with someone noting a Leftwing account arguing that every Confederate should have been tortured and killed post-war. Naturally, this clickbait was generating a lot of outrage (as was its intent) but I noted that the real problem wasn’t that we didn’t mass murder Confederates, but simply that Johnson pardoned them all. And he did this because he was trying to curry favor with the former Planter Class (whom he despised) for an 1868 Presidential run as a Democrat. It didn’t work – they wouldn’t forgive him for remaining loyal to the Union and being Lincoln’s running mate. But that, really, was the entire post-Civil War failure…it created the whole problem. Which wasn’t the Klan (insane violence is always only a temporary problem) – the problem was we let the Confederates vote themselves back into power and, by outnumbering black Americans in the South, vote black Americans into Jim Crow. If the former Confederates were disenfranchised for good, it never would have happened. The race issue would have resolved itself in a generation or two – by 1920 at the latest.

This, in turn, got me a bunch of “how dare you!” from the Right…the usual blather about how the Confederacy was spotlessly honorable and the men who served her needed to be reintegrated back into civil life. Balderdash – the Confederacy came about because the Planter Class had lost power at the Federal level and wanted to keep stealing the labor of black Americans. There were decades of propaganda built up for it – keeping in mind that the idea of the Confederacy was born under Jackson’s Administration – playing upon racial fears, disdain for Northern tradesmen (greasy mechanics, the South considered them), prospects for conquest south of the Rio Grande and a rather hypocritical view of States Rights (ie, they wanted their States Rights…except in the case of the Fugitive Slave Act which essentially made every State a slave State), the Southern Ruling Class got their war.

And it was a catastrophe. The least justified Civil War in history and then they botched the execution (Washington could have told Lee that his job was to remain in being and free to maneuver; not being tied down to defending one city while the rest of the war was lost out West). A million or so people ended up dead (war, disease, hunger-related illness and so on). They got their arrogant, upper class, Plantation butts handed to them on a platter. Repent? Offer reparation? At least admit it wasn’t such a great idea? Nothing doing – they started working up justifications for themselves, lobbied for pardons and then recaptured the political system they had failed…the worst aspect of it was the fact that the Union was merciful. Nothing is quite so American as Grant’s “let ’em up easy” policy. This should have lead to that repentance (it did in some, most notably James Longstreet, but there were others), but the mercy was spat upon…with a spasm of Klan violence and laws mandating smaller water fountains among other ridiculous indignities.

Look, I get it – great-great-grandpa who served in the Alabama 5th Infantry was a good man who fought for what he thought was right. No, we don’t need to be tearing down statues. There was a greatness in Lee, and the sublime courage Confederate soldiers showed even against hopeless odds still shines across the ages. But lets also not kid ourselves about what happened. Lets keep in mind all those corpses and only say the war was justified if we could go to them and say, “it was good you died for this cause”. It was good for Billy Yank … Johnny Reb? Not so much. He shouldn’t have had to show his sublime courage in a lost cause. Wiser heads should have prevailed. And so it goes with most wars – and that it the primary point I make these days. Sometimes you do have to fight – but only because someone else is doing something so egregiously immoral that there is no other way to stop them.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan20 Comments

I think we’re all a bit amazed – and outraged – at Democrat’s going to bat for “Maryland Man”…you know, the guy who seems increasingly likely to be an MS-13 gangster and human trafficker. The whole concept of it is rather insane: he’s an El Salvadoran who was deported to El Salvador. I get that an order from 2019 – before the gangs were cleaned up in El Salvador – prohibited deportation to El Salvador but the bottom line is the man is back home. Nothing bad was done to him by us. And if he really didn’t want to go back to his home, he could have left the USA voluntarily over the six year period since the final deportation order was issued. In other words, there’s just nothing to be too upset about. So, why all the fuss?

We can’t ignore the possibility of sheer stupidity. As I’ve been saying for a while now, the Left is really stupid. They only manage to hold power by ruthless suppression of dissent in the institutions they have captured and taxpayer subsidy. They are dumb enough to drive over this cliff just because Trump pointed to it. But we must also consider the possibility that it isn’t sheer stupidity – always assume your enemy is smarter than he appears, right? And once I started rolling it around, I came up with an answer: 2026 and 2028.

So far a bit quietly, there is a far Left revolt brewing on the Democrat side. The people who are certain that Trump is Hitler II are in deadly – if rather stupid – earnest about it. They really do believe that unless Trump is stopped, all good things will come to an end. This is why we still see sotto voce appeals for lunatics to take another shot at Trump…but another area of battle is the threat of primary fights. The far Left is saying that anyone who doesn’t go flat out to stop Trump is a traitor and will be primaried. We’ll see if they can actually get this rolling…but part of what van Hollen is doing could be to lock down far Left support. “See? I’m out here Resisting! Love me! Don’t primary me!”. And, of course, if he’s got ambitions for 2028, he’d also want to lock down far Left support for the early Democrat primaries…you gotta figure that a straight, white male is going to be at a huge disadvantage in any Democrat Presidential primary…so, be More Commie Than Thou. And this will go for all of them who get that Presidential bug. Keep in mind that Democrats always figure they can tack Right after the primary…they’re foolish to believe this because (a) their base is infuriated by any tack to the Right and (b) they don’t have total domination of information any longer…with X and other platforms out there, you can’t successfully pretend all that Commie stuff didn’t happen. Harris learned this the hard way last November.

But my goodness does this look bad for them – Democrats who wouldn’t dream of meeting with the families of illegal immigrant victims flying all the way down to El Salvador for a chat over coffee. Not a good look. Horrendous look, in fact. The attack ads are already written: “Democrats are for illegal immigrants, we Republicans are for you, the American people.” Do keep in mind that in 1934 things were absolutely horrible in the United States and it was FDR’s first mid-term. This confluence of events should have walloped the Democrats pretty hard – Democrats gained 9 House and 9 Senate seats. This was because in spite of how horrible it all still was in the depths of the Great Depression, the GOP was so toxic that the people remained with the Democrats. And right now the Democrats are making themselves toxic. Fighting Trump on cutting waste, illegal immigration and protecting girls sports isn’t going to play well. Democrats are certainly hoping that the economy is bad come next year…but if they keep playing this game then even if it is bad, I still give the GOP a 50/50 shot at winning…and if the economy is in good shape (and I expect it will be) then, look out! Nobody can really assess how things might turn out.

Varad Mehta over on X (@varadmehta – a definite must-follow) has been talking up MAGA’s disdain for and lack of patience with the Judicial Resistance to Trump II:

It isn’t so much that we don’t want Courts. It isn’t that we don’t want Judicial Review. But we’re not going to endure a system where after great efforts – and our Candidate being shot – we find that a few judges get to stop us. It simply wouldn’t be fair – and it is also not remotely Constitutional. Reminder: the primary purpose of our independent Judiciary is to ensure that the Executive can’t jail us on a whim. The Founders didn’t want a system where a judge is beholden to the King. Nor a system like that in France where the King could use lettres de cachet to imprison anyone who offended him without trial or appeal. The Founders did NOT create a Judiciary to second-guess every issue under the Sun. A republican system of government presupposes that the elected representatives of the people decide what shall be…with the Courts only intervening when one or both of the other branches does something egregiously in violation of the written Constitution. Deporting a guy to El Salvador, firing redundant bureaucrats and cutting off USAID funding are not Constitutional issues. There is no reason to have the Judiciary speak to these matters. Anyone who doesn’t like what the current government is doing here is free to argue against it and try to get to a different election result next time…but only a different government can decide differently, not some district court judge appointed via political favoritism.

And if the Judiciary does not curb itself, then it will be curbed. As Varad has pointed out repeatedly, the Courts have already lost the respect of the Democrats – there is already a movement to simply pack the Courts with sufficient Democrat operatives to ensure all Judicial decisions line up with current Democrat policy. As of this moment, only Republicans still want to preserve an independent Judiciary. But patience is wearing thin. If Roberts and the rest of the Supreme Court want to retain any authority, at all, they’d better quickly smack down the district court judges.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan11 Comments

We’re supposed to be upset about the arson attack on the Pennsylvania’s governor’s mansion and…I just can’t work up anger. I mean, sure, the guy who did it should have the book thrown at him but ’round about the time Democrats were saying that Antifa/BLM just “needed space to destroy” I kinda lost my sympathy for Democrats under attack. Of course, the primary way to end political violence in the USA is to cut off the funding for it – and we’re already finding that the termination of USAID is a massive hit to Leftwing funding.

A lot of people on the Right are just now realizing that the invasion of illegals was largely funded by the American taxpayer via NGO’s. To me, it was obvious all along that the invasion was being paid for and quite a lot of the money was ours. What happened under Biden was a fast-track of what happened in the EU over a 20 year period – demographic replacement in order to secure the power of a dying Ruling Class. Bottom line is that if it weren’t for the recent immigrants in Europe, the governments of France and Britain would be different right now – both are sustained by the overwhelming votes of the recently arrived. The Democrats could see the writing on the wall – the political shifts in Florida and Pennsylvania have been going on for years and if not countered will just continue. Democrats could counter it by jettisoning the far Left but that was also risky as if the far Left formed a Party commanding 10% of the nationwide vote, Democrats would fall to permanent minority status…and, so, the choice was made: bring in people who would vote Dem no matter what (even if by only filling out a voter registration form which would result in bogus absentee ballot).

The funds for it are now cut off and the passage of people north has dropped to nearly nothing. Seems there isn’t this actual wave of people who want to uproot themselves from kith and kin to move north. Someone had to pay for it – and now I go on to the next part of this: none of the movement of people during the past 4 years would be allowed to happen without Cartel cooperation. Thing about criminal Cartels is they aren’t made up of nice people…they fleece everyone to the maximum amount possible and they don’t care how harmful it is to the victims. The passage of millions of people north was not a target which would be passed up. In fact, with all that NGO money floating around to get people north, it would be easy for the Cartels to realize that the more people moved, the more money they could steal from the process. I’m pretty confident if we look into it we’ll find quite a lot of people who had to come north with their family remaining at home under threat if they didn’t.

And all of this would mean that the NGO’s involved moving people north – and the government officials in the USA who facilitated the money for the NGO’s – had to work with the Cartels to get those people north. This, by the way, would be illegal. Like very, very illegal. Like 20 years in a federal penitentiary for each person moved north. That is what I think Team Trump should look into.

Some MAGA influencer types are starting to pitch a fit that 10,000 Democrats haven’t already been arrested. First off, we need to stop falling for click-bait. Social media accounts with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers are money-makers for their owners…and they need a continual stream of clicks to keep making money. Last year just by being pro-Trump and anti-Democrat they got all the clicks they could want…here in 2025 with Democrats out of power this isn’t enough to generate lots of clicks. Saying that Trump is doing well and complaining about powerless Democrats just isn’t all that click-baity. So, on to why hasn’t Trump perp-walked Schiff and “did you know this person in the Trump Administration is a neo-con Globalist spy?!?!?” Best way to answer this sort of thing is to point out it hasn’t even been 90 days yet. Sure, it seems like a lot longer but we’re not even 3 months in. Huge amounts have been done but, also, a lot of what has been done is still very preliminary work…you can’t just arrest 10,000 Democrats. You first have to get your key people in. Then weed out the clearly partisan hacks. Then start the investigation with a mind to it all might wind up in front of a Democrat judge so better make sure it is air tight. On and on like that – it will not happen overnight.

Arizona has begun the process of cleaning up their voter rolls – it naturally took and extended lawsuit to get this done because Democrats can’t survive with clean voter rolls. Estimates are that 50,000 or more bogus voters could be removed…which, curiously, is pretty much the Democrats routine margin of victory in Statewide races. Funny, huh?

Trump has authorized the US military to take control of a strip of land along the US/Mexico border – heavy emphasis on New Mexico, Arizona and California. This is necessary because the Democrat governors of those States aren’t exactly helpful in this matter and, also, there is likely some percentage of our border security people who are in Cartel pay. The mass flood of people has stopped, but that doesn’t mean the drugs and other contraband has.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan20 Comments

I think that quite a few Americans don’t realize how large the United States is. I’ve seen MSMers and some regular folks on X wondering where we will get lumber if we place a tariff on Canadian lumber? I get that we Americans are an insular folk but, my goodness, do people in the cities ever get out into the country? I did look it up and from what I can tell, in our national forests there are a trillion square feet of lumber. This doesn’t count all possible lumber sources in the USA. We don’t lack wood, people. Like not even a little bit. Maybe its all the decades of Environmentalist lies? People think we’re down to our last tree or something? There is more forested land in the USA than when Columbus arrived in the Americas. We’ve got lumber coming out of our ears…we just don’t harvest it. Until now: Team Trump is reviving logging.

Trump is pausing the tariffs on everyone but China – where he’s jacking them up even higher. This is good. The official word is that with everyone but China coming to the table, its time to make nice (except to China)…the quite rumor is that it is this plus some GOPers in the Senate were wetting their panties over the stock market. This is probably true. I’m hoping that Trump is trying to completely decouple us from China…but if we must have relations with them, then I want some hard-nosed deals. Like this:

China is still building coal-fired power plants like there’s no tomorrow. China doesn’t have much coal in their ground and what they do have is about the worst in the world…doesn’t burn very hot and it pollutes horribly. Meanwhile, we’ve got some of the largest coal reserves in the world and our coal is among the best: burns nice and hot and very clean even before you put devices on the chimneys to cut down on pollution even more. If I were in charge, any trade deal I made with China would include China exclusively using our coal. I don’t want to screw them over – I’d sell it to them at the market rate, but only our coal…ten year deal. Ten percent of the estimated price up front. The Chinese are using 5 billion metric tons per year; $102 per ton times 5 billion is $510 billion per year.

This is the kind of deals we have to make with predatory powers like China. If we are to buy from them, they must also buy from us. I’m sure China imports lumber. We know they import oil and natural gas. Feeding China’s population requires massive imports. All from us until the value we buy from them is met…and if it can’t be met by Chinese purchases of our goods, then we cut back on imports from China until the exports/imports come into rough balance. No more free ride – and do keep in mind that China needs that free ride. It is how the PRC sustains itself; taking in US dollars and using that money to essentially bribe sufficient amounts of China’s population to remain in control. If they have fair trade with us that will be disastrous for the PRC’s future – but that is their problem, not ours.

I saw a report that in the UK more British people attend Catholic Mass each Sunday than any other Christian service…that’s the good news. The bad news is that from what I can tell, probably not a tenth of Britain’s population is actually Christian. That sort of thing is doom for Britain – with the Muslim population rapidly rising and Muslims not being shy about asserting dominance once they reach that 20 percent or so of the population. What will happen is unknown – I’m doubtful of good outcome…but no matter how you slice it, the Britain which emerged from the Reformation is dead and it will not come back…the UK will become Catholic/Evangelical (which is also rising fast in the UK) or Muslim…the Church of England pretend-Christianity is gone and with it will soon go its trappings…the Monarchy, the nobility…the whole system. This, by the way, was fated to happen the moment Henry VIII broke with Rome…he thought he could keep Catholicism without the Pope (he was actually very deeply Catholic in his core dogmas)…he was wrong. I mean, it had a good run and the world will always have a place in its heart for people like the Duke of Wellington and Churchill…but the system that made them has died.

Speaking of Brits the world owes a debt to – and this is entirely off any topic – I was thinking not too long ago about Montgomery. We Americans have inherited Patton’s disdain for the man – his preening self confidence irritates and he’s rated as the poorer commander to Patton. But I happened to notice that in 1940 when the British were trying to get their army to Dunkirk to evacuate, Monty (then a major general) kept his Third Division intact during a fighting retreat – and that division was the only one to arrive back in Britain ready to fight. Anyone with knowledge of military affairs will tell you that any fool can attack…the real genius of command is shown when you have to retreat. How did Monty do this while everything was disintegrating around him? Simple: he saw it coming and vigorously trained his division in both attack and retreat so that everyone knew their job and all he had to do when the guns went off was calmly give the orders. That’s first rate generalship, guys. And it casts in my mind new light about how magnificent El Alamein really was and, furthermore, shows that Monty really screwed the Germans hard in Normandy – pinning them to useless positions around Caen while Patton got all the glory breaking through weak German defenses to the west.

And, once again: we all need to think carefully about what we think we know. Maybe it is true – but maybe its just a story we’ve been told?

Open Thread

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Democrats are lauding themselves because Cory Booker talked for 24 hours in the Senate and they held on to a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. I guess they need to feel they can win.

Booker talked, I guess, about how bad it is we’re deporting people. Not quite sure where the Democrats want to go with this nationally but Booker and others are prepping for 2028 and know they need Far Left Extremist votes in the early primary States. The Left Extremists are pleased as punch with Booker over this. So, too, are they happy with those still putting trans stuff front and center. On the other hand, deporting people is an 80/20 issue for the GOP. The guy they’re highlighting at the moment – the “Maryland father” – is probably just the least-threatening person in the batches deported. But, he’s MS-13…and even if he wasn’t, he’s an illegal and now a foreigner in a foreign land so no further concern of ours…and Democrat calls to bring him back simply do not comprehend the basic American desire here – if you’re illegal, out you go.

Now, let’s not get all wine and roses here – the reason we lost in Wisconsin last night is because GOP-leaning Independents stayed home. They came out in droves for Trump…but they are so-far not coming out for the GOP. And this, IMO, is because the GOP is so-far not giving them any reason to turn out. The people who put Trump into the White House want deep, radical change…the Congressional GOP is still only taking baby-steps towards change…likely hoping they can just do the bare minimum and wait until the Trump years are over and then go back to being the losers in the Democrats political script. Ain’t gonna happen.

Trump and his team aren’t going to let it happen – while we lost last night, this was the first time the national GOP did any heavy lifting in one of these off-year State elections. It wasn’t soon enough (Democrats were blowing through Soros money on it long before it even showed on our radar), but it did happen. It was a learning experience for us. Huge strides were taken even in defeat – the GOP candidate getting more votes for a WI Supreme Court seat than any GOPer in the past (and voter ID is now enshrined in Wisconsin’s Constitution – which means we might see fewer deep Blue districts having 99% turnout with 99% for the Democrat, as we did last night; of course they stuffed ballot boxes…Democrats always do, as much as they can; but in this case, we probably would have lost even a totally honest election). Very much under the radar what is also happening is GOP voter registrations gains…at this pace, some time in early 2026 Pennsylvania will flip red…and in New Jersey the GOP gains continue to mount (and NJ is actually our best prospect this November…the Dems still have an advantage but said advantage is in low-propensity Democrat voters…a good candidate and campaign and the GOP could pull this one off). What I’m saying is that we’re still winning- and Team Trump knows the stakes: if we lose the House in 2026, the Democrats will immediately impeach. It doesn’t matter why – they’ll do it (and, of course, won’t allow a single legislative victory to us). The House for 2026 is still very much up in the air…it could go either way. Trump is going to fight for it.

Bondi is seeking 20 year sentences for people who burn Teslas…and, hey presto, Tesla burnings stop. The reason the Left always resorts to violence is because since Kent State, we’ve let the Left get away with violence. The tin soldiers and Nixon were the last time someone shot a Lefty for being a typically violent Leftist. But it isn’t right that we allow it to happen – and Team Trump is not going to allow it to happen. This is very important – the twin pillars of the Left are government subsidy and violence. Trump is attacking both…they will soon lack the money to pay for violence and even if someone writes a check for a fiery but peaceful protest, nobody will show up at the stack of pre-positioned bricks because they won’t want to do 20 years over it.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan14 Comments

It is said – by known liars – that one of the people deported to the El Salvadoran prison was a Venezuelan man who had nothing to do with the gangs. He’s just this homosexual hair dresser never harmed a fly and was in the USA legally attempting to obtain asylum status because he’s gay and participated in an anti-Maduro protest. We’re supposed to feel angry that Trump deported this guy and demand that he be returned to the USA. To which I answer: no.

Suppose the liars in this instance aren’t lying – that he really is just a gay hairdresser with no gang affiliations and opposition to his government: so? He’s still a foreigner. He still has no right to be in the USA. And if he was fleeing for his life from Venezuelan government oppression of homosexuals and anti-Maduro activists, then Columbia is right next door. So, too, Brazil, Guyana and Trinidad. He didn’t need to come thousands of miles to save himself from anti-gay violence.

Asylum is for true emergencies – we have to get you out of your home country or you will be killed…because of your skin color or religion or orientation of what have you. Not because you’ll be poor. Not because it is a bit oppressive down there: because if you don’t flee, you die. This all stems from the St Louis in 1939 – a passenger liner from Germany filled with Jewish refugees which was refused entry in port after port, including American ports. The Jews eventually had to return to German control where a very large number of them ended up dead in the Holocaust. This is what we, as decent human beings, never want to happen again. That is what asylum is for. It isn’t because your homeland is poor and your government is corrupt and tyrannical. And asylum is to be obtained in the next country over – remember, it is lives that are at stake. Once you get to a place where they won’t kill you, then you’re safe…and, sure, from there you can go to the closest US consulate and apply for an immigrant visa to the USA but that’s it. You’re now regular process – you won’t die if you wait in line.

America isn’t the dumping ground for the world’s problems. Poverty is not a justification for refugee status. Neither is political oppression. Stay home and build your own economy. Conduct a revolution to overthrow your oppressive government. People do bear responsibility, even under tyranny. Part of what angers me about foreign aid is the endless nature of it…”the poor people of Africa/Asia/South America need our help to build up their lives”…this is something that made sense in 1960…its 2025. Sixty five years have passed. Singapore went from filthy-poor backwater of the dying British Empire to one of the richest countries in the world in less than half that time. With hardly any land and no natural resources. They just got to work – and now they’re reaping the rewards of their hard work. Why isn’t Ghana or Myanmar? Singapore has a per capita GDP of 89 grand – Ghana is less than 200 bucks a month. Sure, oppressive and corrupt governments…so, why haven’t their own people killed the corrupt tyrants and tried something else? Enough of this. Fix your own country. Only come knocking here if you’ll die otherwise (if the man in question has been a gay Iranian I’d never send him back, eg – he’d be killed if I did).

Trump has fired a shot across the bow of the weak kneed – essentially telling the world in this post that he won’t back down and it is those who keep fighting who will reap the glory. There will be no retreat and no surrender. Anyone looking for Trump to moderate his stance or give his opposition anything will be disappointed. It is full speed ahead.

And how it is going? Well, we’ve got some MSM polls (ROFL – but bear with me) saying that Trump’s support is declining…plus report after report claiming that Trumpsters are regretting their votes…”we didn’t vote for this” goes the claim…well, whatever. The reality: GOP voter registration gains continue. They didn’t stop after the election…Pennsylvania is now less than 100,000 active voters from flipping Red. The Democrats had like an 800,000 voter advantage there 10 years ago. New Jersey voter registration is trending Red (fast). Even California has shown more GOP registrations and Democrat – by a lot (we’re so far behind there, though, that it won’t matter for years). That is what is happening – people saw Biden and registered to vote GOP to get Trump back in…now that they’re seeing Trump, they’re registering GOP to keep Trump policies going. The political realignment to the Right spoken of since Reagan’s 1980 win is happening for real.

Oh, and Democrats – with the expected Electoral College adjustments following the 2030 census, a GOP Presidential candidate will be able to get past 270 even if losing WI/MI/PA. So, if we get Vance or DeSantis in for 2028…you’re super screwed for a long time. Enjoy!

Opening Day Open Thread

Mark Noonan31 Comments

That time of year again – when hope is strong…

As a Padres fan, I know that pain is coming my way. Ah, well! Its Opening Day…for now, its all good.

With all the woke garbage, baseball is still American. Of course, some bits of legend are fading – I was at a minor league game with the grandsons last Spring and after a guy whiffed I commented “Mighty Casey has struck out” and got blank stares from the boys. I was shocked: they had never read Casey at the Bat…but, then again, I don’t think the kids are reading much of anything these days. Anyways, they’ve heard of it now…and they both like to play a bit of Little League ball. It goes on.

One thing that is still amazing me is how so many on the Right still go along with the Left Narrative. The Signal thing is just that – another Left Narrative. We know the Left doesn’t even give a darn about national security. Heck, they hate the USA with a white-hot passion. But they got their little report (provided to us by a known and quite notorious liar who has routinely lied about Trump since the get-go) and they’re running with it…and the Usual Suspect Right voices are “well, this is bad, we should do something, there should be investigations and resignations!”. Which, of course, is the point of the exercise.

Back in 2017 the resignation of Michael Flynn and the start of the “Trump-Russia” special counsel investigation was really the beginning of the end for that Trump term. Very much good was still accomplished but so much time was lost and as people were forced to resign, they were invariably replaced by Establishment hacks who undermined Trump at every turn. I get us falling for it a bit in 2017 but in 2025? Come on – only a moron would go along with this.

And there they go – going along with it. So, morons.

The good news is that Trump is not allowing himself to be stampeded here – he’s holding firm and so are his people, and if you think the AG is going to recuse herself and appoint a special counsel, you’re nuts.

Meanwhile, the lawfare against Trump continues – with the judicial rulings getting ever more absurd…which, in the end, will play right into Trump’s hands. Keep in mind that Trump does not want to defy these rulings. As I’ve said for a while, Trump is the most law-abiding President we’ve had in ages. He wants to work within the system…but the system does include his ability to deport any foreigner he wants (no reason required) and to hire and fire at will in the Executive Branch (Executive power is vested in the President per Article II…this power is 100% Trump’s, not the judges – it can’t be taken away in any form save by Constitutional amendment). Our hope – and likely, Trump’s – is that the Supreme Court calls the District courts off…tells them to stop doing this. If they don’t…then on the matter of deporting criminal illegal aliens, Trump will openly defy and the American people will back him on it.

Don’t want it to be this way – I want us to retain judicial review (which is not, by the way, written into the Constitution…it isn’t even really implied in the document; the independent Judiciary was created so that the Executive wouldn’t have the power to jail people…it wasn’t set up to play referee on political matters) but we can’t let judges decide the course of the country. That is for the people via their elected leadership to decide. The Courts should only intervene if there is a really egregious violation of the obvious requirements of the Constitution. No penumbras here, guys. And if the Courts don’t curb themselves, then they’re going to find that they have no mechanism to enforce their rulings. The Judiciary has no army or police…and even if they want to hold in contempt and issue fines, the President can just pardon his people. I hope that Roberts can see the writing on the wall and reverse course.

A Brutally American Open Thread

Mark Noonan60 Comments

The Left is floating a new line of attack against Trump and his supporters: we’re now the Brutal Americans. We’re just so mean. So cruel. We don’t understand the subtle relationships of the world.

You know: that’s where we pretend that credentialed morons know what they’re talking about and that cowards who are letting Islamists assault their women are the brave guys.

Our failure to hold up our end here has “shattered” European illusions about the USA. Well, I guess we’re supposed to feel bad about that. Of course, once upon a time, Brutal Americans were more appreciated…like back when Easy Company was drinking Goering’s booze on Hitler’s patio:

Those were some pretty Brutal guys, I guess. But, times change.

I know that some of MAGA – including Trump – are urging Europe to live up to their NATO commitments but I’m more and more wondering what we’re even defending over there? Turkey has slid into anti-Israel Islamism, in Germany you can get arrested for being upset about Islamist violence and in Britain I understand you need an ID to buy a knife. I’m supposed to send some 18 year old kid from Kansas to die for that?

The most recent European entry into my bloodline arrived in the USA in 1849 – that is 176 years ago. I ain’t European. I’m American. I’m Native. I know that some people will get upset at that but I figure after a while the Settler is Settled. My rule of thumb is that if you own a couple great-great-grandparents born in the land, then you are Native to it. I own a lot of them. My earliest American ancestor got here some time before 1640. We’re just a stone’s throw from 400 years in the area. I have no connection to any other land than America. What I’m saying is that if I’m to care about Europe they have to give me a reason to care…just because I look like some of the people in Cork, Ireland doesn’t mean I give a darn about them. Don’t know them. Never met them. Have no intention of ever going there. So, tell me why I’m suppose to care what happens to them?

Oh, sure, in the general, Christian sense I do care…if they suddenly were struck by catastrophe I’d be willing to help them out of the jam…but if someone decides their idiotic population which keeps electing people who hate Ireland should now be governed by a Russian proconsul, I don’t see how this matters to me. Might suck for them but it won’t suck any worse than what they have now. Anyways, the way the Irish are going they will soon impose upon themselves Sharia law. And, hey, if that’s what they want – and they seem to want it – then who am I to complain? People get to choose their own path. But what would I be sending American soldiers to defend over there? Nothing that is of our interest, as far as I can see.

It is said that RFK Jr has plans to ban pharmaceutical advertisements on TV. We older folks remember a time when you never saw such ads…but there were court cases in which it was argued that a ban on such ads was a violation of the First Amendment…but I also understand that even in these rulings there is wiggle room to restrict “direct to consumer” ads of such things as drugs. We’ll see how this plays out – but as I have said again and again, the Constitution isn’t a suicide pact. I am dead certain that people are taking way more medicine than they have to for a host of maladies because the TV told them to. A prescription medication should only be taken fairly rarely. I’m 60 and I take none of them – and I do suffer from chronic pain and, like all human beings, I’m sometimes sad or anxious. I don’t go the medicine route for two reasons:

  1. I have my doubts that these drugs – especially the newer ones – are the result of a first-rate scientific method development.
  2. Human bodies learn to tolerate what they ingest. Not 1 for 1 but it happens…and we see it happening with the overuse of antibiotics…we’re developing Attila the Germ because we’re taking antibiotics when just a clean bandage would do the trick. If you take a med for something on the regular, your body is going to try to make that med ineffective because it isn’t what your body is naturally producing. The more you take it, the more your body will get used to it. Take medicines rarely (yes, I understand for some people a chronic condition requires daily, weekly, monthly dosing or they die…but some people are popping pills for things they don’t really need pills for).

My view on the ads is that the weak-minded person who believes the TV sees the ad and goes “you know, I have that ache, too!” and they’re off to the doctors who may not be totally on the level in their prescriptions. Especially if the customer calls the company for advice and they refer the customer to a doctor who might really be no more than a pusher of the drug. Take the ads off the air. It will get us back towards more of a system of a person feeling really bad, going to the doctor and then getting prescribed something the person never heard of before.

The new Snow White has flopped. It isn’t because Snow White isn’t White – it is because it is hot garbage. The apparent re-telling of the tale bears little relation to the original story. To review; Snow White is born of a Queen’s wish to have the most beautiful daughter. This comes true but the Queen dies. Later, Snow White’s father marries the Evil Queen who becomes obsessed with jealousy over Snow White’s beauty. She tries one strategy after another to kill Snow White and fails in all of them…but the last one seems to work and so Snow White is buried in a glass casket, which is discovered by a Prince out in the woods for a hunt. He rescues Snow White and they get married – the Evil Queen discovers that Snow White is alive and tries again to kill her, but is thwarted and executed. Just a fine fairy tale with the obvious moral that jealousy and pride are sins and you’ll get punished eventually for them. Meanwhile, if you are brave and good you’ll live happily ever after. Disney appears to have loused this up – I understand there really isn’t even a Prince character in this. Which kinda kills the whole story because it is the fortunate arrival of the Prince that changes defeat into victory for Snow White (always in fairy tales the actual victory must be of a miraculous nature…the destruction of the Ring in the Lord of the Rings only happens because Gollum trips and falls into Mount Doom’s flames). And in addition to butchering the actual story, the reviews indicate that it is badly written, badly acted and visually atrocious.

I don’t know how long Disney and the rest of Hollywood can go on losing money like this – I haven’t been to a theater in ages and it is hard to find a major studio production over the last 20 years that is even watchable. I do find some foreign and Indy stuff that is good – that is, actually has a story with some good writing and some interesting cinematography but even that is getting rarer. It is like everyone has been forbidden to tell tales and must, instead, either produce insipid drivel offending nobody or go on a Woke Fest which makes the story ridiculous (I’ve been watching the Walking Dead series – still sticking with it even though it went pretty woke after a while because the Daryl and Negan characters are intriguing and very well acted…they have various spinoffs going right now and in one of them a 5’7″ female character goes toe to toe in a fight with a 6’4″ males character…sure, they did have her ultimately lose the fight but the reality is there wouldn’t have been a fight…but Super Chick must always show up these days; it isn’t the worst thing, but it is irritating). There are stories to tell. Heck, I know this guy who has 9 books in a series which would make an awesome Netflix adaptation. But Hollywood can’t tell them…until they go broke, I guess.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan21 Comments

To get back at it, Home World was released on March 15th! It is Book IX and the penultimate book of the series (with the possibility of some one-off books in the future). Book X (currently untitled) will come out later this year to wrap it up. As the title suggests, our heroes are back here! As the jacket blurb notes, just a quick trip back home to wrap up all affairs…but things go wrong.

Its a fun one, guys! You’ll especially enjoy the time frame it happens and some side comments about America and the world. I thoroughly enjoyed putting part of the action in Arizona; with a character met there being based on an X friend who’s a rancher and author out in that State, though as with all characters, also a mash up of two or more people.

The JFK docs were released – no, we’re not going to find the plan by the CIA to kill him. That was never going to be in there. But this doesn’t mean we’re not finding things. Steve Portnoy did some reading:

So, the CIA noted that Oswald met with Cubans and Russians two months before Dallas. And then failed to note this little fact to the Secret Service/FBI when they knew Oswald was in Dallas when Kennedy was scheduled to be there. This is very much shades of Butler, PA. Had the CIA advised the Secret Service that a Dallas resident (and had been since June of 1962) has serious Commie connections, then it would have been natural for the Secret Service (and/or FBI) to keep tabs on him during JFK’s visit. Like maybe figuring out that he worked at a place which had a field of fire into the path the President would be taking through Dallas. And then for 60 years the CIA demanded that this be kept secret.

Pro tip: if you don’t want people to believe conspiracy theories, the first rule is to not lie by omission.

Do keep in mind that you don’t have to do something to cause an event…you can often cause the event by not doing things. You know, like not having an officer on the roof with a clear line of sight to the Presidential podium.

Malicious or incompetent? That is the unknown thing – and likely can’t be known at this point as nearly everyone involved in dead; and likely didn’t write it down…or destroyed ages ago the documents which would give us an answer. And the jokester gives us the best word on it:

I do apologize for the vulgar language…but its appropriate here. The fundamental problem here, as I’ve been noting for a while, is government secrecy. That somehow the government has got the idea that they are allowed to hide things from the people…as if we are serfs and they are masters. It isn’t supposed to work like that. What started as operational security concerns (Grant being furious at newspapers for basically writing his battle plans into the newspapers) has morphed into the government carefully doling out information which doesn’t tell us what the government actually did. If Oswald was just a lone nut then we, the people, did need to know how this lone nut was able to get into position to fire three rounds at the most powerful man in the world. The government hid that from us. Quite diligently. Because a lot of them would have been hung out to dry whether it was conspiracy or incompetence.

Trump is still holding back on a showdown with the Judiciary. The deportations to El Salvador are called “too late, judge”; implying that if the judge had ruled prior to the planes leaving our airspace, the deportations wouldn’t have happened. Roberts rose to the defense of his judges and that made them go totally insane…now basically ruling that Trump can’t be President without their permission. It is absurd…and it isn’t actually stopping anything. And Trump is just giving them enough rope to hang themselves.

In any battle between the elected and the un-elected, the elected is going to win. Simple as: the people will always favor those who they voted for. Trump is likely just waiting for his best moment to strike…when it all piles up as idiotically (and it is; high and deep!) that he can be the reasonable one defending Constitutional norms.

It must be kept in mind that the Judiciary has no method of enforcing its rulings. In that, only the Executive can enforce. The unwritten rule since Marbury is Executive acquiescence – though Biden’s refusal to obey the Court on student loans ended that precedent (to no Leftwing complaints, of course). And on the whole the Marbury precedent has been good – healthy. But it isn’t so much any longer. This is mostly because the Courts are intervening in areas which have no Federal or Constitutional scope. It has happened before, of course. Dred Scott was an egregious example of the Court getting involved in something it shouldn’t have – at that time, the legality of slavery was up to the States but the Court decided without any Constitutional authority to decree that Missouri’s slavery laws were valid in Wisconsin. It was an absurdity. But for the most part, the Court remained reticent and only acted when it was something crucial.

We can pick a case to say this is when the Great Departure happened but I’ll settle on Roe – that horrible poison in our body politic. Abortion was largely unknown (and mostly impractical) at the time the Constitution was adopted. No provision in that document in any way relates to how medical practices are to be regulated, nothing in there defines when a human being is endowed with their rights, no clause says a person has a right to an action which requires the assistance of at least one other person. Given all this, it all fell under the 9th and 10th Amendments…it was a matter for the States or the people to decide. If you wanted to make it a Federal issue, you’d have to amend the Constitution. And, by and large, the people and the States were dealing with it – badly in my view as abortion was legalized in State after State but this is how it works and I could have no complaint about the process much as I dislike the result. Whammo: here comes the Supreme Court to invent out of whole cloth a “right to privacy” which means we can’t regulate abortion at the State level. It wasn’t just a stupid ruling – it was an evil ruling. It cut at the very heart of the American system of government. Until Hobbs, it essentially removed the American people from any say in the matter. Since then, its just been one bad, wicked decision after another and now we have the Courts completely out of control trying to insert a “but, Trump” exception to Article II. It has to stop. It will be stopped. Only question is whether Roberts will call off the dogs or if Trump will start to openly defy the Courts.