The longer I live the more convinced I become that any concentration of power or wealth is a threat to human liberty. I can’t say I’ve got the answers to how to fix the problem, but our Constitution provides a framework for making sure that no one gets on top of another in any long-term manner…but we on the right need to seriously and deeply consider just how we will change the Constitution when we obtain power (and we will: eventually, these Progressive nitwits will wreck everything and we’ll be called in to repair the world). Term limits (everyone who goes into politics long enough gets captured by the system…so don’t let anyone be there that long); strict controls on who is allowed to spend government money; beefed up protections for the dissenters…such things need to be built into our laws; and now that we’ve learned a few lessons, built in such a way that the con-artists will have a difficult time dismantling what we put in place.

What Media Bias? Part 200 – CNN blames the GOP for Archuleta being in charge of OPM:

…When she won Senate confirmation to lead the Office of Personnel Management, the chief objections from lawmakers who voted against her focused on Obamacare.

That was October, 2013, and the 62-35 vote reflected the political concerns at the time about how the agency, which serves as the federal government’s HR department, would implement parts of the health care law opposed by Republicans…

…Less attention focused on the agency’s role in handling government security clearances and how it safeguards some of the most sensitive U.S. government databases.

Even less was paid to why Archuleta — whose most recent job was as a national political director for Obama for America, the President’s reelection campaign — was the person to help fix what was an agency already struggling to deal with technology problems and serious data breaches.

Aides to Republican lawmakers who voted for her confirmation now acknowledge they didn’t pay enough attention to the importance of technology in the agency Archuleta was taking over…

One, small fact: the Senate was in Democrat hands when Archuleta was confirmed. 35 GOPers voted against her. All 55 Democrats voted for her. Even if all 45 GOPers in the Senate at that time voted “no” she still would have been confirmed. She’s a Democrat political hack put into office by Obama and a supine, then-Democrat-controlled Senate…and CNN wants LIV to believe that somehow the GOP failed here.

Does the United States need an exorcism? I’m no theologian – but, what the heck: give it a try.

South Carolina Republicans removed the Confederate Battle Flag from the State House today. It must be noted that Democrats put it there and Democrats never made a move to remove it.

The South Carolina shooter obtained his firearm via a loophole in the law – this loophole is called The Miserably Incompetent Big Government loophole. According to Progs, it can only be fixed by making the government bigger and more incompetent.

Everyone is agog over Fox’s Megyn Kelly calling out Obama on not commenting on the murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal immigrant in a sanctuary city. I guess it is nice that someone mentioned it, but it is also quite pointless. Obama isn’t commenting on it because no comment he can make will work to his political advantage. So, it becomes a non-event – and next week we’ll move on to the next story and in a month or two Obama will be back on the hustings pressing for “comprehensive immigration reform”. Fighting Obama in the political arena is not about calling him out on his dishonesty – it is about actually fighting him. Until someone steps up and says “no” to him, we’re just spinning our wheels.

I suggested that the Chinese government would just order their money bags to stay in the market – and I was right:

China’s securities regulator banned major shareholders, corporate executives and directors from selling stakes in listed companies for six months, its latest effort to stop the nation’s $3.5 trillion stock-market rout.

Oddly enough, right about the time this order came down the line, the New York Stock Exchange had a “technical glitch”, halting trading for a few hours. Don’t you just love completely unrelated coincidences? I know I do.

Obama may just give up on setting a dead line for the Iranians to agree to a nuke deal – I guess he figures it will take them a while to figure out just how much Obama is willing to surrender and he’s kindly giving them time to expand their wish list.

Greece is asking for a three year stay on financial execution – because if the EU just shovels more cash at Greece they’re sure to reform. Right?

Because the world is so peaceful, the Army has unveiled plans to reduce our active forces by 40,000 troops.

Russia and China are getting more buddy-buddy all the time. This is amazingly stupid on the part of Russia because only in alliance with the United States can Russia hang on to Siberia in the long term…but, meanwhile, this budding alliance is a threat to the United States. Which makes our Army reductions even more sensible. Right?

The murder rate in Baltimore has skyrocketed – so the mayor of Baltimore has fired the chief of police because Reasons.

A judge is really upset at the way the Obama Administration has just ignored court orders, lied to him and essentially gone off in a lawless manner on Obama’s amnesty program. He has ordered the offending officials to appear personally in court to explain why they shouldn’t be held in contempt of court. Problem is, these guys are already breaking the law – I doubt they’ll mind breaking it, again, by not showing up as the judge has ordered. Here’s a little secret for you, boys and girls, the Judicial can only enforce its decrees with the voluntary cooperation of the Executive…in other words, all Judicial decisions are just words on paper unless the Executive decides to give force to them. To be sure, the Executive should obey Judicial orders, but if the Executive doesn’t, the only recourse is for the Legislative to impeach the Executive, which will never happen. Our government only works when people obey the rules. Welcome to a government which doesn’t obey the rules.

ISIS is crucifying people for not obeying the requirements of Ramadan. Once again, glad or Army is being reduced by 40,000 troops.

Israel and India are drawing together – faced with a lot of the same enemies, they probably figure this will be useful…and as neither of them can count on American support…

Everyone hates Donald Trump these days. He’s a blowhard. A clown. He doesn’t do politics right. To be sure, he’s not my choice for President, but the man does have guts. He’s actually losing deals and money because he’s taking a stand. Maybe it’s the wrong stand (remember: I’m the pro-amnesty guy), but he’s taking it…a little courage is refreshing. And single-handed he has taken the discussion on illegal immigration away from the “DREAMers” and put it squarely where it belongs – on the astonishing level of criminality surrounding illegal immigration. No one really has a word to say against someone who is coming to get a job – but because we allow illegal immigration – because, that is, we’re refusing to enforce our own laws – the law-breakers have completely taken over. That horrid murder in San Francisco (by an illegal immigrant, with an illegally-obtained weapon, in a gun-free zone, in a Sanctuary City) has, I think, started to focus the public mind on the real problem – and Trump was out in front on it. The GOP should stop jumping on Trump and start challenging Democrats over their lack of support for border security.

Seems that the anti-Israel forces are gearing up for Gaza Flotilla III. What could go wrong? You know, you can pretty much bring all the food and medicine you want into Gaza…you just have to go thru Israeli security to do it as the Israelis have this bizarre, freakish desire to not allow arms into a place stuffed full of people who want to kill all the Jews. I know; weird.

The Russians are making a play for Greece – which reminds me that Russia has never liked the fact that they don’t control Constantinople and the Straights. The deal would be along the lines of Putin opening up a line of credit for Greece’s welfare state and Greece going into alliance with Russia. This is considered fearful, and it is – but it would actually be most immediately fearful for Turkey. In case you ever wondered why the British and the French allied themselves with the Turks to fight the Crimean War – this is why. Its a long time from 1854, but some things stay the same…and these days there is no French or British Empire with armies and navies worthy of the name.

Latest investment advice: stuff your mattress with cash.

Hillary is calling for gun control – which means if you’re a Democrat activist in a red State, don’t be expecting any visits from Hillary or campaign cash…she’s not even remotely interested in the States Romney won in 2012. Though it might work out rather funny if Sanders or someone ends up being credible in the primaries as Hillary would then have to win a vote in some red States…

In spite of electing Obama in 2008, it looks like the world is doomed.

Saw a claim on Twitter that Nixon was drunk during the Yom Kippur War – which did lead @RogerStoneJr to note this means a drunk Nixon is better than a sober Obama.

How about some quotes?

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. – C. S. Lewis

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. – Hillaire Belloc

No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated. – Samuel Johnson

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. – Mark Twain

The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man. – G. K. Chesterton

 

Today is June 6th – which means that 71 years ago, we invaded Normandy. Take a moment to remember those brave troops. As an aside, though, upon looking at it in the hindest of hind sight, I think we should have invaded at the Pas de Calais. Sure, the Germans had more there, but not that much more and if we had got ashore there – and we would have, given our absolute command of the air and sea – then Germany might have been defeated by October of 1944. Oh well – just keep it in mind if Putin decides to conquer Western Europe and we have to go back, again.

The New York Times is breathlessly reporting that Marco Rubio has four traffic tickets since 1997 – and Mrs. Rubio 13. They are swearing up and down that they dug this up by themselves – but there is strong evidence that it was spoon fed to them by one of Hillary’s political smear groups. This is an entirely irrelevant fact which is not worthy of being reported. It would only be an issue if, say, the Rubios’ tried to use their influence to squash the tickets. That didn’t happen, and so there’s nothing here for people to care about…but the MSM reported it, and we can only assume they did so because they were ordered to by Team Hillary. Think about it – you’re wasting a lot of time and effort reporting something like this – why do it? It’ll be like this all through the 2016 cycle. Hopefully we’ll win – if for no other reason than it’ll finally get the nauseating Team Clinton political machine out of our lives.

Murderous sniper on the loose in Colorado? We don’t know, yet – but it is possible.

Crime is rising in New York City – its almost as if having a soft-on-crime Progressive as Mayor isn’t such a good idea.

Black Chicago pastor not entirely happy with the Democrat Party. Hopefully this entirely correct sentiment will continue to grow in the African-American community.

Democrats don’t like the idea of over the counter sales of birth control. The bottom line is that if women are empowered to make their own choices without a government program, then there is zero need for government. Being in favor of choice is all well and good, but if it doesn’t mean a large, expensive government bureaucracy, then maybe its better we do without it, huh?

The Greeks are still financially screwed – and I have little sympathy for them. From what I can tell, the Greeks don’t want to pay their bills, which is something I agree with. If stupid bankers want to loan people more money than they can possibly repay, then the bankers are just going to have to take it in the shorts. But the Greeks don’t want to repay while still getting buckets of new money to keep their Welfare State going – in other words, they don’t want to go the route of poverty plus hard work to get themselves out of the jam they got themselves into. Pick one thing or the other, Greeks: either pay back what you borrowed or default and be poor for a while as you work yourself back to wealth.

State says they are preparing to investigate the Hillary e mail scam – and I believe them. And I believe their preparations will be complete no later than December, 2016.

ISIS fighter goes on social media to brag about how great their command center is. 22 hours later, the US Air Force blows the place to smithereens. Which is a good thing – but I doubt the wisdom in the Air Force telling us they used social media to find the target…now not only will ISIS have learned a lesson in security, but they might sucker us into blowing up a school or hospital via social media.

Terribly sorry to hear of the death of Vice President Biden’s son, Beau. I can only imagine the pain. One Catholic to another, I ask Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, to pray for the repose of the soul of Beau Biden, and for the comfort of his family and friends.

Yes, I realize they are all also-rans – but we’ve now got O’Malley and Sanders in the race against Hillary, and we can shortly expect Lincoln Chaffee to join the lists. Keep in mind that Biden still might get in, as may former Senator Webb and Senator Warren. Obama was also supposed to be an also-ran in 2008, you know? Hillary may be the giant who only needs a slight shove to fall down. What is rather funny is that all three Democrats in the race are talking up how bad things are as if a certain Democrat hadn’t been in charge since 2009. Winning a third term in the White House is a tricky thing. It has only happened once since World War Two when the elder Bush rode Reagan’s coat tails into office…anyone want to tell me that a Democrat can ride Obama’s record into office?

The decline in GDP of 0.7% in Q1 2015 is interesting – and I’d likely have more to say on it if I had any real interest in government statistics. Given how relentlessly dishonest our government is, I just don’t trust that is the true number. I’m highly doubtful that it was better than the announced figure because if it was, they’d have gone with that – one is left to assume that the reality is much worse.

Latest mindblowingly dumb Democrat idea – make gun owners get liability insurance in order to curb gun violence. Like a person contemplating a crime will make sure his insurance is in order before he acts…

Some people are talking up a rise in crime rates of late – there does seem to be some evidence of it but before I join the bandwagon on this, I want to see how things go for a while. It could just be a statistical blip…or it could well be, as some claim, that the police are deciding that if enforcing the law means you might be hauled into court like those cops in Baltimore, then maybe its better to turn a blind eye…

A lot of liberals went nuts over the armed demonstration in front of an Islamic center in Arizona. I didn’t. Now, those who pay attention know that I’m not in favor of drawing insulting pictures of anyone’s religion, even of Islam. So, have I changed? Nope. People have a perfect right to demonstrate peacefully and to keep and bear arms in the United States – even if they are demonstrating peacefully while keeping and bearing the arms. Demonstrating, as such, does not insult anyone. And as I recall some of the rather anti-Catholic demonstrations by liberals out in front of Catholic churches, I take liberal outrage here with about ten pounds of salt.

The guy who drew the Stalinist “Hope” poster for Obama is disappointed in Obama – and in the American people. From what I’ve read, we’re just not commie enough, and neither is Obama. I guess he’s right – even about Obama. After all, we’re nearly six and a half years in and Obama hasn’t called out the Kulaks by name.

Walker has the early lead in Iowa. Right now, its Anybody But Bush. Or Christie. Or Graham. Or Trump, if he gets in (the Donald does seem to be getting ready to jump in).

Bob Schieffer doesn’t know where we get our news from these days. Here’s a clue for ya, Bob: we don’t get it from the MSM because the MSM doesn’t report it . If you did, we wouldn’t have President Obama and Hillary would be facing indictment.

And, now, St Joan of Arc:

JOAN of Arc was not stuck at the cross-roads, either by rejecting all the paths like Tolstoy, or by accepting them all like Nietzsche. She chose a path, and went down it like a thunderbolt. Yet Joan, when I came to think of her, had in her all that was true either in Tolstoy or Nietzsche, all that was even tolerable in either of them. I thought of all that is noble in Tolstoy, the pleasure in plain things, especially in plain pity, the actualities of the earth, the reverence for the poor, the dignity of the bowed back. Joan of Arc had all that and with this great addition, that she endured poverty as well as admiring it; whereas Tolstoy is only a typical aristocrat trying to find out its secret. And then I thought of all that was brave and proud and pathetic in poor Nietzsche, and his mutiny against the emptiness and timidity of our time. I thought of his cry for the ecstatic equilibrium of danger, his hunger for the rush of great horses, his cry to arms. Well, Joan of Arc had all that, and again with this difference, that she did not praise fighting, but fought. We KNOW that she was not afraid of an army, while Nietzsche, for all we know, was afraid of a cow. Tolstoy only praised the peasant; she was the peasant. Nietzsche only praised the warrior; she was the warrior. She beat them both at their own antagonistic ideals; she was more gentle than the one, more violent than the other. Yet she was a perfectly practical person who did something, while they are wild speculators who do nothing.

~G.K. Chesterton: “Orthodoxy,” III.—The Suicide of Thought.</i>

 

Bernie Sanders is out there plugging for a top marginal rate of 90% – typical socialist nonsense, to be sure, but it just occurred to me: the rate doesn’t matter as much as everyone being treated the same for tax purposes. The problem isn’t in what rate we have, but who is getting special treatment. If it were really true that above a certain income amount everyone pays 90% of that to Uncle Sam, it would probably be bad…but what is worse is when some people at, say, $250,000 a year get hit with it and others making the same amount don’t. Same thing with corporations. The thing is our tax code is riddled with exceptions for various groups – over the years all manner of special favors have been written into it and so while the official rate is X, only some people pay that…others who managed to get the ear of a Congresscritter pay less. Set a rate and stick to it – no one gets a break from it, for anything. That, I think, would create the political will to ensure that all tax rates are set rationally…and, by the way, taxing 90% of someone’s income is irrational….the super rich you are theoretically going after with such a rate don’t pay that tax because they don’t make much taxable income. The extreme example is the Clinton slush fund – a “charity” which is mostly concerned with keeping Bill and Hillary and their hangers-on living a plush life. Make the top marginal rate 100% and you still won’t touch their slush fund…nor the various other slush funds built up by the super-rich to hold on to their money. 25% is probably a reasonable highest marginal rate, if we don’t got for a flat tax.

The “Iraqis” don’t want to fight for Ramadi. There’s a simple reason for that – there are no Iraqis. You see, Iraq was an administrative convenience for the British Empire…some territory they grabbed in the carve-up of the Ottoman Empire after World War One. Keep in mind that the Brits in 1918 never envisioned the end of the British Empire: those people back then fully expected British rule in Iraq to be continuing to this day. Joe Biden took a lot of flack prior to the Iraq War for suggesting a partition of the nation…in my view, it was one of the few sensible things the man ever said. I went along with Bush’s desire for a unified, democratic Iraq because that became the plan and I hoped it would work out. It actually might have, had we not abandoned Iraq under Obama. Be that as it may, the true state of Iraq is now in sharp relief: the people living in the nation of are different nationalities with not too much concern one nationality to another. At this point, trying to keep Iraq together is probably a lost cause…the Shia and the Sunni don’t like each other, the Kurds appear to want no real part of it and there are plenty of other minority peoples who would probably agree to pretty much any other arrangement than current. Whether or not some sort of Iraqi Confederation can be put together is an unknown – but the concept that a unitary Iraqi State governed from Baghdad is in the cards absent massive U.S. military intervention is almost certainly a non-starter.

Why we can’t argue with liberals – this article says that persons of color must have a “safe space” where they can discuss there issues. Such a place must have no white people in it, because that would change the dynamic once those white people are present – which is an assumption that all white people are racists and that all non-white people are fearful of white people. This, of course, would be a racist view to hold – but liberals have their “out” on that in their claim that only people with power can be racist…which is, of course, to make another racist statement that all white people have power and no non-white people have any. There’s no way for us to win this argument – so, let’s just de-fund the left, get rid of them, and go on with a rational society.

So, we had an earthquake in Nevada. We then had rain. The end of the world was expected momentarily, but all we got was a traffic jam on the US 95.

Senate GOP revives Pelosi’s “we have to pass it to find out what’s in it” policy re: legislation. We’ve given Obama the go-ahead on trade authority…as if anything Obama negotiates could possibly be to the advantage of the United States. That is bad enough – but no one will even tell us what’s in the trade deal. And the GOP leadership wonders why it has a popularity problem…

The economic data just hasn’t been all that great lately. Our government’s solution? Change the data.

Your new car has a computer and a complex program to run the car – manufacturers are arguing that while you own the car, you only own a license to the computer program which runs your car. My view? Not so fast. Suck it up, manufacturers. You want to put all these clever gizmos in the car to get us to by it, fine – but what I pay for I own, completely.

Yeah, Hillary is just as corrupt as we all thought.

Apparently, fighting climate change is the first step to defeating ISIS.

Roger Simon is rather upset about the state of the world. I agree with him on that. But I disagree on the PATRIOT Act thing – I don’t care if we can’t show anyone in particular harmed by it: I don’t trust any government but particularly this government to have that much information on that.

Memorial Day is Monday. It ain’t about the barbecue:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.- John McCrae, 1915

I’m only a couple chapters into it, but Jay Cost’s A Republic No More is a definite must-read.

Seems that feminists are on the prowl to find out just whom you follow on Twitter. I suggest Manspreading to keep the women at bay.

Syria is cheating on the WMD deal – but, we already knew that would happen so it doesn’t amount to a new Obama failure.

I was going to link to an article on The Daily Caller where Obama compares America’s wealthy to lottery winners. This is in some respects true, especially as it relates to Obama. But I’m not going to link to it because The Daily Caller’s website is so horribly filled with ads that it always causes my computer to freeze up. And Hot Air ain’t much better. Advice to conservative websites: make your sites user-friendly.

Blogger who was critical of Islam gets hacked to death in Bangladesh. No word yet on whether his family will apologize for his provocation of the killers.

Its no big deal that our MSM routinely refers to Mohammed as “the prophet Mohammed”, right? Well, it would be if they also routinely referred to Jesus as “Our Lord Jesus Christ”. But, they don’t. And they don’t because they aren’t afraid of Christians.

Turns out that McDonald’s has a lower acceptance rate than the Ivy League. Kinda shows how messed up our economy really is:

While the average college student accumulated over $25,000 in debt, the average McDonald’s part-time employee made $40,000 over 4 years. At an Ivy League school, there are generally three possible ways to confront the bill: get a scholarship, have wealthy parents cover the entire bill, or go into massive debt. Some of these Ivy League students might be paying off their debt for decades. Meanwhile, instead of being in the hole, the part-time McDonald’s workers made money overall. Of course, they are all on food stamps, but never mind that.

We’re becoming less Christian. This comes as a shock to no one – what will come as more of a shock to some is just how lousy America will become if this trend continues.