Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan38 Comments

The court orders against Trump are simply absurd. If they aren’t quickly disposed of on the appellate level, then Trump should start to ignore them. Perhaps first by quietly informing Chief Justice Roberts that he’d better put his judges on a leash or he’ll make it a pure Executive vs Judiciary conflict…such a conflict the Judiciary, being un-elected, is bound to lose. That is, if Roberts wants to retain Executive deference to Judicial rulings, then this nonsense of one federal judge issuing a nation-wide TRO simply has to stop. Forever. Side note: the Constitution gives Congress the right to regulate how cases are brought before the Courts…I recommend we enact legislation stating that only a Supreme Court Justice can issue a nation-wide TRO…and that TRO can be voided if three Justices decide to do so.

Do keep in mind why the Left is fighting Trump tooth and nail rather than picking it’s fights: it has to. It can’t concede an inch here. My Mrs – mostly non-political – asked me why don’t the Democrats just get on board with stopping the worst of the waste? Answer: because the worst of the waste is why Democrats get into power. Its why we see people entering the system poor and quickly getting rich far beyond what their official salary can justify. I’m not talking about the ideologically committed – they only make up a small percentage of all Democrats (though they rule absolutely as far as policy and messaging go): I’m talking about 90% of the Democrats from Senator down to associate professor at your community college. Its all about stealing – about getting well paid for doing nothing useful. While one individual $5 million grant might seem to you and me like something not worth fighting for, the people who were getting paid with it are up in arms…as is everyone else who lives off such grift. If one part of it goes down, all of it will go down…so they fight for each part of it, no matter how stupid and corrupt it looks.

Here’s my view: Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot. It is highly likely that all of the laws which restrict Executive discretion over personnel and discretionary spending are unconstitutional…and we do have a Court which may very well rule exactly that way. Democrats might be setting themselves up for a catastrophe. After all:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

Article II, section 1, paragraph one. There are no modifiers here. There is one person – and one person, alone – who has executive power, and that is the President. The President, and only the President, can give orders and/or delegate executive power. To say that some part of the Executive branch, or some executive function, is outside the control of the President is a clear violation of the Constitution. The Congress does not have the power to reach into the Executive and make it do things – the Congress’ power here is of the purse: the means to make the Executive bend to Legislative wishes is by refusing to appropriate funds for the Executive. This concept that the Legislative can tell the Executive whom can be hired and fired – that is, who the President may delegate authority to – flies in the face of the Constitution. So, too, does the concept that the Judiciary can interfere in Executive actions.

The Pope issued a statement which is being hailed by the global Left as an assertion that Trump is evil for his deportation program. It is always, however, necessary that one read statements of Pope Francis rather than blindly accept what someone says he said. In the statement:

…one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival.

To be sure, the Pope clearly doesn’t like the idea of mass deportations based solely on the fact of immigration status. But after he goes on a bit on that subject, he is forced (because Catholicism requires it) to concede:

This does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal immigration.

So, if you really want to sum up the Pope’s views:

Nations must remain open to immigrants.

Immigration should be orderly and legal.

Criminals must be controlled.

Deportation should not be based simply on the legal status of the foreigner in country.

The last bit most Americans are going to disagree with – the Pope is getting into a little bit of a gray area here in saying we can develop an orderly and legal immigration system but if someone jumps the line we can’t send them back into the line just based on that. The schizophrenia required to take any Left position rears its head here. In my view, I am not in any way in violation of the Pope’s statement – even though I favor a 20 year moratorium on all immigration (as per usual, unless an actual life is at stake). You see, to have an orderly and legal immigration system, I first must gain control of the situation – and this means I better not let anyone else in for a while as I sort out those who have come in over the past few years. Essentially, in order to be compliant with Church teaching on the matter of welcoming the stranger, I have to go through a process to ensure that I may welcome the stranger. The Pope might take exception and get very angry with me, but nothing I would do on immigration – and nothing Trump is doing – actually violates the inherent dignity of the migrants.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan4 Comments

I watched a little bit of Hannity’s interview of Vance and while I can’t recall Vance’s exact words, I was impressed when discussing military matters that he seems to understand that there have been huge changes in war fighting capability (and there will be even more going forward) and that is essentially time to think anew and act anew. This is an excellent and necessary first step as our military was built for the Cold War and then downsized while starting to concentrate on battling insurgency…but its mindset is still mostly Cold War…like we’re about to be faced with 10,000 Russian tanks pouring through the Fulda Gap in Germany. Neither the Ukrainians nor Russians have given a really good account of themselves in the war (probably poor leadership on both sides causing this) but they have given us some hints about what’s coming…and how difficult it is to move against any sort of alert and entrenched defense.

We all recall WWI when the cannon and the machine gun ruled the battlefield and the whole problem was that they prevented the stronger allied army from imposing its will on the weaker German army…until it was found that if you put a plate of steel on a tracked vehicle, you could get at the machine guns and artillery. Most military thinking still seems to be built around the idea that you’ll dash ahead with your tanks and other armored vehicles, break the enemy line and press on to victory. But what I’m seeing in Ukraine is that armored vehicles don’t dare show themselves…drone-fired and man-portable anti-tank weapons are making it difficult for armor to even properly engage the enemy. I believe this is why the Ukraine war has become a trench-war stalemate.

And, so, it was refreshing to see that Vance is clearly thinking about this – about how remotely operated weapons and such are altering battlefield conditions and so we must adjust ourselves to the new reality. My view is that we’re going to want to comprehensively develop this concept…what I’d like to have is the ability at the start of any conflict to essentially shut down the enemy. Destroy his ability to move and communicate and you’ll also destroy his ability to shoot (or at least shoot with any prospect of success). Remember the Germans produced 4,400 tanks in the last 4 months of the war but hardly any of them made it to a battlefield because German road and rail systems had been destroyed by bombing. These days, drones can probably drop every bridge in a medium-sized nation within hours of the start of a fight…that, alone, will destroy their ability to move efficiently.

From what I can tell, the efforts to block Trump’s nominees are failing – even Gabbard and RFK seem set to cruise through. Part of this is the realization even by the RINOs that there is huge primary risk in actually stopping a nominee. Part of it is that the Democrats are stuck on stupid. Shrieking, ignorant stump speeches in the committee hearings rather than actual questions. On the other side of it, all Trump’s picks are clearly intelligent people who have thought about things.

The Department of Defense will no longer fly a female soldier around for abortions. This was Biden policy that if you were stationed in a Red State and needed to whack your kid he’d pay to fly you to a Blue State where it could be done. To me, just weird – the concept of a female soldier is based around the Strong Woman Who Don’t Need No Man…but who apparently can’t exercise a little self control on the weekends and so needs a plane ticket from Alabama to California. Which is it, Liberals? Pick one.

All the hot chicks are with us and this is upsetting the people who can’t get dates – in this case, a hot correspondent is being condemned for her clothes by the people who covered up Biden’s laptop.

Democrats are having their DNC meeting to pick new leadership and figure out why they lost. They are confident it was because of sexism and racism. So, we’re certain that Trump still has moles in the DNC. These people really have learned nothing…but, in a sense, they can’t. Any admission that they got it wrong means that several parts of the Democrat coalition will walk out…go third party and stay third party thus simply handing power to the GOP for a generation. The downside here is that refusal to jettison the most lunatic parts of the coalition will continually alienate the overall electorate. On the other hand, don’t get too cocky, GOPers: I can’t remember the state (think it was South Dakota) but this past Tuesday a special election for State legislative seat in a district that was Trump +24 flipped to the Dems. Special elections are strange and the Dems have gotten really good at flipping special election seats because turnout is so low but the bottom line is that without Trump on the ballot, the GOP does have a turnout problem. The GOP had better start giving people a reason to vote for them or we might have problems.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan33 Comments

Watching a bit of RFK get grilled – you’d have some sympathy for the hostile questions except for you know the Democrats are just lying, ignorant hacks who have been provided their questions by the Swamp. Kennedy isn’t perfect, but (as we used to say of old-timey Liberals) his heart is in the right place: he’s skeptical of the amount of medication we’re given these days. And everyone should be.

Look, I don’t like pain or cold symptoms or feeling sad just like everyone else – but I also know (because I took high school biology) that the human body is built to fight this stuff off. Our biology – created by Nature or God, depending on one’s point of view – desires our health because healthy human bodies means the continuation of the human species. Medicine is supposed to just back up this natural course of events…not take over our lives. Some people are taking huge numbers of pills to try to regulate every aspect of their physical and psychological well-being. That isn’t good.

I’m 60. I’ve got a bum knee. It hurts all the time – sometimes very badly sometimes less badly, but all the time. My eyesight is getting poorer (I have to wear glasses to be able to see the TV from my chair; my close up vision is still pretty good but even there the eye doc is saying I’m close to needing reading glasses, especially at night). I get those odd aches and pains that you can’t determine their source. I’m getting old. But even so, my body still tries to repair itself. And, to be fair, I am in pretty darned good health for a 60 year old who has smoked since 13 (I can do laps underwater in my pool, for instance). I do at least 20 pushups every morning! I’m sure if I bothered going to doctors on the regular, they’d find stuff to medicate…I’d reject it out of hand. I don’t want to go the route I’ve seen other oldsters go where its just one more pill after another and, of course, you can’t cure getting old and dying.

I recall my Uncle Mike – he was afflicted with something genetically common in my family: a bum heart valve (my grandfather had it, my dad had it, Uncle Mike as noted, my cousin has it – there is a high chance that I’ll have it at some point). The fix for this is to replace the heart valve – my dad did that and regretted it. Sure, it got him to 82 but he had to take pills and pills and pills and the blood thinners meant that if he sneezed too hard he’d bruise and it was all just a hassle. Uncle Mike got the diagnoses, considered what dad had gone through and decided to give it a miss…when the doc said it was “any day now” on his death, he went around visiting friends and family to say goodbye and then went home to die in his bed (the thing about it is that until that valve actually fails, you’re fine – if it fails and you don’t get rushed to the hospital for the valve replacement, you die). We can’t fight the inevitable. I think that is what RFK is really saying on medicine – and on food, all he’s saying is that perhaps we should have more fresh, natural food in our diet…this does kinda make some sense.

Pam Bondi got out of the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. Do note that when it is crunch time, Democrats never break ranks…they never make the grand gesture to the other side. This is what is really so infuriating about the Murkowskis of the GOP. There is no need for them to vote against our side – it is never reciprocated. All they’re doing is throwing a bone to the Democrats and giving them the “bi-partisan opposition” talking point.

Trump continues to sign his Executive Orders – set to sign one banning Critical Race Theory from federally-funded schools. Aside from torpedoing the hideous, anti-human ideology behind CRT, the real news here is that, finally, we’re using the strings. Keep in mind that most of the federal government’s power to influence State and local affairs comes from the strings attached to federal money. If you don’t do what Uncle Sam says, you don’t get the money. You don’t have to do it! Most of this stuff can be legally ignored by the States and localities…but they won’t get the money if the do that. For the first time, we’re attaching our strings. Democrats have gleefully attached their strings ever since the Welfare State was truly born in the 1960s…the GOP never has because, well, that wouldn’t be nice. Democrats would object! Now they can object al they want – we don’t care. Better, of course, just to dispense with all this drivel…but if we can’t then the crucial thing is to move the money from the Left’s priorities to ours.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

I think we’ve all noticed it – that Trump’s nominees are giving a full-throated endorsement of Trump policy. This is different from 2017 when it was pretty much “hey, approve me for this position and I’ll keep an eye on Trump for you!”. This now has the Democrats in quite a state of terror. They realize that what they’ve dished out for decades is about to be handed right back to them.

Our Democrats are now, as per usual, demanding bi-partisanship and that we make sure there isn’t any politicization of Justice. This is quite hilarious – that is, that they think we’d listen to them. We know what “bi-partisan” means: they get 90% of what they want, we get nothing. We also know what they mean by “politicization of Justice” means: for goodness sake, don’t do to us what we did to Trump! Of course, we don’t have to politicize Justice to go after Democrats…in what they did to Trump are a host of violations of federal law. This is why when Bondi said she would go wherever the law leads, Democrats got a sick feeling in their stomachs. All she has to do is follow the law and a lot of Democrats are going to jail.

Still, it remains to be seen: that is, if she’ll really follow the law. It is our hope, but nothing is for sure until it happens…and Trump is a deal maker: he might agree to turn a blind eye on this or that in order to get something he wants more. This would be ok as long as its something good for us. On the other hand, even if Trump would like to turn a blind eye, if Bondi gets the right people around her, it might not matter what deals Democrats want to strike…the hammer of Justice will drop on them.

The real problem the Democrats have is what Tallyrand said of the Bourbons after their restoration to the throne of France: they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Democrats are still voting against deporting illegal immigrants who commit sex crimes, and against banning men from women’s sports. Think about it: these are no brainer issues. Of course if you’re in country illegal and commit a sex crime you must be deported. Of course you can’t have boys competing with girls in sports. These are issues Americans are 70/30 in favor of. There is not a single vote to be garnered by opposing these measures…and plenty to be lost. But most Democrats are still committed to the flag they lost under in November.

The rule of thumb is that the party which won the White House will door poorly at the following midterms. The GOP should work from this assumption but there is an even money chance that it will go badly for the Democrats…and it’ll start leaning GOP if Trump has even moderate success over the next year. People carefully considered what the Democrats were offering and rejected it. The normal course of events for Democrats is to identify the issues they failed on and either jettison them, or at least modify them towards the political center. Nothing doing: the issues they failed on the worst are being held up as a litmus test for Democrats.

The ceasefire deal in Israel seems to me like a bad idea. I’m going to rely on Trump and Bibi to pull the fat out of the fire here but I can’t see an upside to allowing Hamas to live…let alone remain in charge of Gaza. It is clear, however, that the Israelis have lost some of the iron in the veins. The spirit of 1948 has atrophied. Time marches on. The Holocaust generation is nearly gone. A 25 year old Israeli has to ask great-grandpa about it, and great-grandpa is likely passed away by now. Sure, he learns about it in school and, by rote, honors the fallen…but he’s looking for a job and a girlfriend and there’s that weekend at the beach…suiting up to dig Hamas rats out of bunkers in Gaza lacks appeal. And lacks apparent immediate need: Israelis don’t feel like their backs are to the wall.

But their backs are to the wall. The Islamists take a very long view of this struggle. To them, survival after 10/7 is all the victory they need…they are now the he-men of the Islamist world who stood up to the Israelis and survived. Money and recruits will flow in. The world will rebuild Gaza for them. It might take ten years, but they will attack again. Sure, the Israelis will implement many new security protocols but human slackness always erodes these things over time…it is just the way things are. On 10/6 Hamas could easily get anything it wanted into Gaza – its why they had those thousands of rockets. The day after the ceasefire it’ll be almost impossible to get things in…but day by day it will get easier. Hamas’ goal is the total destruction of Israel and the murder of every single Jew on Earth. Unless and until Israel recognizes this and acts accordingly, there is always the possibility that Hamas can win.

UPDATE: Our Matt has an interesting look into the behind-the-scenes backstabbing that led to Biden’s withdrawal. Do read it: looks like they had knives out for a long time.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

I think that at least Gavin Newsom’s career is over…sure, he’s still a golden boy of the Democrat party and thus has full protection from the MSM…but if he runs in the 2028 primaries, then Josh Shapiro is just going to run the fire on a loop in his ads and that will be that. And if it is determined that his continued existence is bad, then the Democrat Powers That Be will put out the political hit on him just as the did on Biden after the debate. Side note, the 2028 Dem primary is likely to be brutal…nobody is really in charge over there and there is no obvious successor to Biden. We’ll probably have a vigorous primary, ourselves, but it really comes down to Vance or DeSantis – who are both highly intelligent, good men who will do the right thing.

I am advised this is real, not a parody:

The trouble with the Left these days is that it is harder and harder to make fun of them because whatever exaggerated nonsense you want to say for the joke is quickly overtaken by Leftwing reality. So, even if this isn’t real, it will be next week.

This kinda passed under the radar – Romania had a Presidential election back on November 24th. Their system is that everyone can pretty much leap into the race and among the candidates if nobody gets 50% +1, the two highest vote totals go to a runoff. Fine and dandy, right? There were six major candidates so it was pretty much a given that nobody was getting to 50% and, sure enough, the two highest votes were for Elena Lasconi at 19.2 percent and Calin Georgescu at 23 percent. The second round was due to happen on December 8th and, from what I’ve read, Georgescu was going to win fairly easily. But there was a problem. You see, Georgescu was the wrong guy.

I can’t tell you just how horrific it is to have The Wrong Guy win. I mean, how are we to Protect Our Democracy if The Wrong Guy gets in? Look at what happened here in the USA when we let The Wrong Guy win!!!

So, what makes him The Wrong Guy? Sifting through it all, he’s considered a far-right extremist because…he wants a strong Romanian military and doesn’t want to fight Russia. Other than that, lots of things are said about him but as I don’t read Romanian, I’m not going to call the reports credible…knowing how our own MSM lies all the time about everything, I can’t rely on them to tell me the truth about The Wrong Guy. Maybe he is a nut and a bad guy…but if so he’s a Romanian nut and bad guy and my view is that if the people of Romania (who seem as sane as any other people in the world) want to vote for a nut and bad guy, that’s their business. The global Ruling Class saw it differently – and they managed to get the Romanian Supreme Court to annul the November vote. To protect Democracy, you see? Apparently no actual reason was given by the Court for the annulment but it is darkly hinted that Russian disinformation caused Romanians to vote for Putin’s Puppet, Georgescu. The vote is now rescheduled for May and, as you probably guessed, Georgescu is being criminally investigated by the government which had its term willy-nilly extended to preside over the re-do which will make sure The Wrong Guy doesn’t come in first.

This is very much what they tried to do in the USA and only thanks to our Constitution was it (barely) prevented. Make no mistake about it – the Global Ruling Class does not propose to let the people vote the Ruling Class out of power. They’re already saying that what they did in Romania they’ll do in Germany if the Krauts vote for The Wrong Guy.

It is now my view that we must withdraw from NATO – there is nothing left in Europe to defend and, indeed, a strong case can be made that a Russian conquest of Europe would make it freer than it currently is.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

Today the comeback becomes officially certified – and it is enormously funny that Harris has to certify it. Side note: that law they passed governing the VP in counting the electoral vote? Unconstitutional drivel. And even if it wasn’t, totally useless – there’s nothing anyone can actually do to stop the VP from taking any particular action in certification. I’ve always thought that with the obvious questions about the accuracy of the 2020 vote count that Pence’s duty by no later than mid-December 2020 was to announce he could not in good conscience count the EVs of the disputed States – that the House and Senate were going to have to get together and work it out in the manner of the 1876 election. Keep in mind that I figured this would result in Biden getting in after all was said and done…but it would have been said and done via a clear, open and fully Constitutional process (probably via a House vote for President)…what we had was obviously fraudulent votes being shoved down our throats.

And, hey, Liberals: how’d that work out for ya? Feeling positive and happy about it today?

I’d comment about Trump’s upcoming sentencing but its all so very stupid and corrupt and ultimately pointless that its just not worth it.

New York City imposed “congestion pricing” for driving in Manhattan – basically you now have to pay to drive your car into the city. This move was backed by the usual collection of Commie idiots who were all celebrating it yesterday. Its nothing but a “soak the poor” scheme…it won’t affect the rich people (you know: who backed it) because they can afford the freight. Oh, and the rich now get the additional benefit of less traffic as they drive from their vulture capitalist office to the celebratory gala. You could probably challenge the law on equal protection grounds but, meh…I don’t really care as I don’t live in NY and will never once in my life drive myself into Manhattan. New Yorkers keep doing this to themselves…and then wonder why their city is falling apart.

Senator Mike Lee introduced a bill to deny benefits to illegal immigrants…to which most people go, “why are they getting benefits now?” The answer to that is simple – California passed a law to deny benefits to illegals (back when CA was sane) and the Commies took it to Court and, ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that since the law doesn’t specify you have to be legal to get welfare, everyone gets welfare. This could all have been fixed right after that by amending the welfare laws and at times we have had a GOP trifecta and yet its never been fixed…which lets you know just how our Uniparty government has operated. Let’s see if Lee’s proposal gets anywhere…if he’s at all clever he will be able to generate publicity for this and, in the end, even some Democrats will have to vote to ban welfare for illegals…this is something that will have 85% public support.

Looks like a lot of Trump’s main agenda will go through Congress via one, large bill which is funny as heck because it’ll be passed via reconciliation so Dems can’t even slow it down and we’re using basically their “omnibus bill” garbage against them to enact policies that will save America and wreck Democrats. Democrats and Never Trumpers are trying to stop this by saying, “hey, that’s not fair!” and we’re all just laughing and laughing.

Canadian governor Justin Trudeau will resign in the next day or two – becoming yet another person who crossed Trump and wound up in the dumpster. He’s been just a horrid PM and he’s a bad man and, finally, even Canadians had enough…latest polling indicates that at the next election his Liberals are going to be wiped out. His resignation will probably help Liberals recover some ground – which is why he’s going (and much the same reason Biden went).

Bottom line is that all around the world, the Uniparty Ruling Class is feeling the heat…even people with an overall Liberal outlook are just sick of it all and want things to start working again…we don’t want imported grooming gangs, imported terrorists and imported anti-West activists. And that’s just one of a dozen problems the Liberal global order has ushered in.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) took dead aim at the infamous Filburn case – this was a Depression-era court case in which a man was fined for producing for his own consumption more wheat than the federal government allowed. Filburn’s argument – which is 100% correct – was that since his wheat was only for his own consumption it wasn’t commerce (interstate or otherwise) and so Congress had no right to regulate his production under the commerce clause. The Supreme Court – by 1938 controlled by FDR loyalists – simply ruled that the clearly written Constitution meant the opposite of what it said. This is the foundation for why the federal government is deeply involved in all aspects of American life (it was also the foundation of the absurd Roe and Obergefell decisions).

It is way past time we revisited these issues – in fact, Lee might have hit upon the most crucial: that is, the federal government’s assertion under the commerce clause that as anything might effect interstate commerce it is covered by federal law. This assertion makes a mockery of even having State and local government. Commerce is a word with meaning – so is interstate. For Uncle Sam to have a say there must be something for sale across State lines. If it isn’t for sale and/or doesn’t cross State lines, the federal government has no power over it under the 10th Amendment which holds that powers not granted to the federal government are reserved to the States or to the people.

Keep in mind that the federal government’s interference in agriculture was based upon the idea that we must keep food prices high. Think about that. America’s fertile farmland and hard working farmers had done so well that food prices were dropping. Now, this did adversely impact some farmers…no kidding; of course it would. This did result in the heartbreaking fact that a farmer who wasn’t making it was going to lose his farm…perhaps a farm several generations in his family and founded by a hard-bitten pioneer back in the Old West. That was tragic…and some aid should be rendered to any hard working person who is losing out. But to keep food prices high? Why in God’s name would anyone want high food prices?

I guarantee you that farming, as an industry, will never die. People gotta eat – three squares a day, every day. There are 335,893,238 Americans. That is more than a billion meals per day. Every day. We should be producing at maximum capacity to both ensure there’s always more than enough and that it is as inexpensive as possible…not working out ridiculous programs to restrict production and artificially keep prices high so that the least-efficient farms can keep going (spoiler: they didn’t keep going anyway – 100 years ago there were 14 million employed on farms in a much smaller US population, these days it is about 3 million). And don’t get me wrong here – I personally think more people should be in the food production business. I don’t like megacorporations owning vast farm and ranch acreage. I’m ok with tax and regulatory changes which would make it easier – and more profitable – for small, local farms to operate. But to restrict production? That’s just stupid.

Daniel Penny will be attending the Army-Navy game (Go Navy, BTW) as a guest of VP Vance (yes, I know that technically he’s not until 1/20 but its clear that neither Joe nor Kamala are working any longer so we default to Trump and Vance). This has caused some heartache among the Stupid-American Community. Their argument is that it is unsavory for Penny to be there…as if he did something wrong.

And you really need to roll that around in your head. Back in 1912 when the Titanic was sinking, by and large the men aboard swiftly figured out that they were going to have to die if the women and children were going to live. Sure, there were a few cowards but if you, say, roll through the First and Second Class passengers who died, you’ll be in almost all-male company. These were the men with easiest access to the lifeboats – and they were men of social and financial power. They could have mostly got away. They stayed, and died. Because that is what you do. So, too, with Penny. He could have just sat there and pretended he saw nothing…but he saw a threat and he saw innocent people who had no way to defend themselves…and so he placed himself – his life – between the threat and the others. You can never know what will happen once a physical altercation begins. Penny, as a Marine, obviously knows how to take care of himself in a fight but in a fight, the other guy always gets a say. For all Penny knew, he was going to his death…and yet he went anyway. That is just heroism, plain and simple.

And that is what the Left is really complaining about here – not the death, but the heroism. They can’t stand it; they hate it, in fact. They prefer that people sit quietly and accept their fate – no, not themselves. They want to be in privileged communities and transport where such risk will never confront them. But for you, serf, they just want you complacent as they run their little sociological experiments on you. The threat wasn’t a threat – he was a street dancer who needed help! That he was a drug addict who had refused lavish offers of help is simply not mentioned. Because to mention it blows up the whole program. So, Penny had to be brought down…and we all expected a conviction because it is NYC…but we all forgot that the jurors ride the subway, too.

If the Left keeps up with this sort of thing then the world will swiftly come to understand that the real purpose of the police isn’t to protect and serve the honest, but to save the lives of the guilty. We have police so that we, the citizens, don’t have to lynch criminals. A societal decision was made more than a century ago that we would surrender part of our right to self defense in the interests of order and justice (plus as we went along we became a lot more weak-stomached than we used to be). But this only works so long as, by and large, the police keep us safe…and not just safe from rape and murder, but from even being overly harassed as we go about our business. The Left likes to assert that someone ranting and raving on a subway is just something you can ignore…but you can’t. Especially if you’re a youth, or a woman, or an unfit man. That raving lunatic might end up harmless…but you can’t be sure. The whole time he’s there ranting and raving you are in terror. The police are supposed to come and take that man away…and do it so efficiently that only rarely is anyone confronted by someone raving on a subway.

If that deal is broken, then people will reclaim their right to self defense…and the raving nutter won’t be merely restrained by a passenger (this is all Penny did – the man was alive when the police arrived), but he’ll be killed. And nobody saw nothing. The Left doesn’t realize the fire they are playing with here.

UPDATE:

Just so we can all keep up to Social Media speed here, Sidney Sweeney was recently photographed at a pool and to the shock of some, she didn’t look like she does when she’s perfectly made up for the red carpet. They’re calling her mid! Well, we report, you decide (posting bikin-clad pics of Sweeney is NOT engagement farming. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

The Democrats – still in the Senate majority – have been holding Orange Man Bad hearings to finish off their term. Yesterday, the Orange Man was Bad because of this illegal immigrant he’d like to deport – Foday Turay – who is a prosecutor.

A prosecutor. Prosecuting American citizens. Democrats thought it would be a good idea to highlight that they gave a job in law enforcement to an illegal immigrant.

This is a strong indicator that our Democrats haven’t learned a darned thing. Trump ran an 18 month campaign with one of his major issues – front and center all the time – being that he was doing to deport the illegals. After hearing this argument – and the Democrat counter-argument, forcefully stated with a billion dollars of campaign funds and overwhelming MSM support for the Dem position – the American people elected Trump. That’s it. We’re done here. There might be some room for compromise here and there (we’re not rat bastards with no feelings, after all) but the basic thrust is going to be deportations and border security. That is what the American people want. It is what they will get.

Democrats are saying how mean it will be if illegals lose their jobs.

I don’t know what to say about such people – that is, people who can’t absorb simple facts like, say, a lost election. There’s no mind for me to reach. If after 11/5 you’re shouting BLM slogans, condemning Israel and rising in defense of illegal immigration you’re not just wrong, you’re an idiot. These ideas were rejected by the electorate…the only path forward for those who back such views is to rethink them, make adjustments and try different tactics. Democrats are acting like 11/5 didn’t happen.

Maybe its because after their news outfits finished up lying to them on 11/5, our Democrats continue to trust them? This would make them even stupider…but one of the excuses the MSM/Dems are making is that Trump didn’t win a landslide. To be sure, it wasn’t a 1980 result, but it was a close as we’re going to get any time soon. Let’s look at it:

In 2016, Trump received 62,984,828 votes. In 2024, 77,237,942. Little bit of math – even a Liberal could do this – and we see that over an 8 year period while under constant attack and lawfare, Trump increased his vote total by 14,253,114. That’s a 22.6% increase over his 2016 vote. That’s a pretty popular guy. And we must always keep in mind that in all three elections, Democrats stuffed ballot boxes. It is what they do – they insert as many fake ballots into the system as they can…this is especially prevalent in the Blue States where Democrats have consistently removed any vote security systems. My guess is that in any given national election, Democrat vote totals are probably 10% fake though it would take a very thorough investigation to get to an exact figure – it might be more (don’t get me wrong, even without fake votes, we were losing CA and NY…but we’d lose them by smaller margins in an honest system and we wouldn’t have the sheer magic of every late-decided House race in CA falling to the Dems weeks after the election).

And in this election, Trump’s coattails were sufficient to secure a Congressional majority. The Supreme Court is majority in favor of law. The Administrative State (Deep State) is going to be brought under control. We won, Democrats. You lost. You have no real power to alter the course for the next two years. Prepare for the mid-terms: they are traditionally favorable to the Party which lost the previous election. But, my goodness, you’re going to get wiped in 2026 if over the next two years you just keep going Resist drivel. There’s nothing to resist. The people have chosen. You have been rejected. The chances that in two years the people will be going, “wow, sorry I voted Trump: what I want is a return to the border invasion and more medical mutilation of kids!” is nil. If you want to win in 2026 and thus gain some actual leverage, you’re going to have to come up with something different.

Or don’t. I don’t care. The stupider you are, the better for us.

It looks increasingly like Hegseth and the rest of Trump’s picks will sail through. Joni Ernst was leading a charge against Hegseth – in cooperation with the MSM/DNC who worked up a series of increasingly stupid lies about Hegseth – but she’s cooling her jets now…there have been rumors of a primary challenge. There still might be one: her choice to make an issue out of Hegseth angered a lot of people (me, inlcuded). There was just no sense in it. Even if you dislike Trump, the place to fight him is not in cabinet picks…by and large, the American people accept that a President should get the cabinet of the President’s choice. To expend political capital fighting the guy chosen to clean up an obviously dysfunctional military was just stupid…and to lend credence to the Democrats’ serial slanders of the man was disgusting.

I’m sitting here getting ready to release Book IX of the Mirrors series (Home World) and I’m about 65% done with Book X (this will wrap up the series with possible different story lines available for later works – but I want to start working on my post-apocalyptic series Of the 15 as well as a sort of Hallmark movie story about a sailor and a princess) and here comes Hollywood with….Meet the Parents 4. Look, I get it: Meet the Parents was hilarious. The second installment was a credible sequel. The third installment dragged out a premise which was exhausted. What they heck are they going to do in a fourth movie? And, hey, its not just me putting out stuff that is new entertainment content…there are a host of indy writers out there, including some on the Left, who are putting out new stuff which has different takes on things. But our Entertainment Industry is a sick joke…just recycling the same old stuff over and over again. The reason? They figure an established franchise is at least sold money-maker…but they aren’t solid money-makers. Disney has just about killed the Star Wars franchise. The Narnia franchise is about to be destroyed in a woke version. The Tolkien universe is almost completely destroyed (this destruction starting, actually, with the total ruination of Faramir’s character in the third movie). Its not just that they are out of ideas: they are destroying what was once good ideas.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan21 Comments

This will be a bit for Amazona to chew on!

Team Trump is asserting that they will be working to end “birthright citizenship”. This is the concept that if you are born in American territory, you are American. The argument in favor of this is the wording of the 14th Amendment which goes: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”. This is held to mean that in 1868, an Amendment to ensure that black Americans who had been cruelly denied their rights as citizens applies to Juanita in Chiapas who boards a bus for Juarez, crosses illegally into El Paso and has a kid.

Yeah, no. Don’t think so. The Constitution isn’t a suicide pact. I’m a strict constructionist…original intent and all that. There was no intent to make “anchor babies” a thing. It wasn’t even in mind as the Amendment was proposed, passed and ratified. There was no court case on it – we don’t have, for instance, a court case from 1880 where a person illegally in the USA is arguing their American-born child is American. It wasn’t even a concept until about 40 years ago. This is mostly because travel used to be far more difficult and pregnant women wouldn’t often travel as their condition wasn’t conducive to arduous travel. But when you can now fly cheaply many thousands of miles in a few hours…here we go.

To hold that the 14th means we must allow “anchor babies” is as stupid as saying that a law legalizing interracial marriage means two boys can get married. Sure, this is basically what Obergefell held…but that was one of the most monumentally stupid decisions the Court has ever rendered. This has nothing to do with the merits of same sex marriage – maybe it is something we should do? But to apply laws written without the subject in mind is just asinine. Anchor babies and SSM were new subjects that no law, prior to them being brought up, covered. In the case of SSM, the Court should have ruled: sort it out via the political process. Because no law of the USA prior to the concept of SSM covered SSM – and this includes, of course, the Constitution of the USA which, being silent on the matter, leaves its resolution to the States, or the people. So, too, “anchor babies” – no law of the USA covers it, so any laws about it will have to be made on the fly and if you really want “anchor babies” to be American citizens because of the plot of dirt they were born on, amend the Constitution…don’t try to bootstrap it on to something never intended for it.

Assad’s regime in Syria has collapsed and the usual collection of Neo-Con warmongers and Liberal idiots is cheering. We pray for the people there and hope that we get a miracle…but what we’re likely to get is a massacre.

Good to keep in mind that Syria isn’t a country. It is a geographic expression. The people who reside in the borders of Syria are very different groups, some of whom hate each other with a passion. Assad is Alawite and his faction has dominated Syria since the early 1970s…as a sort of 3 million person Alawite Empire lording it over the other 22 million people there…though the Christians and Druze of Syria have tended to favor Alawite rule as it is far less oppressive than other Muslim rule (Alawites are a bit of a bizarre Muslim sect held by many Muslims to be heretical…some even consider them idolators). The Alawites were long heavily suppressed by other Muslims (especially the Turks during the Ottoman Empire) but when the French took over Syria in 1918, they tended to favor the Alawites and so, post-French rule, the Alawites were best positioned to take over.

As you can see just in that short paragraph, this isn’t going to be a cut and dried thing. The rebels are not fighting for a free Syria where are all afforded equal rights – they just want to be in charge. The only possible saving grace here is that the rebels are a coalition and maybe none of them are strong enough to totally dominate…that might provide some wiggle room to avoid disaster. But there is a massive danger that this is going to degenerate into tribal score-settling and that means Alawites, Christians and Druze are in for a very bad time.

I talked about this a few days ago – about how we live in the land of make-believe. And a price will now be extracted for the world pretending that Syria was a country…rather than several countries that want nothing to do with each other and so, upon independence, what should have done was to break it up into its ethnic components, including population transfers to avoid having oppressed minorities. Had the real world been lived in then what we call Syria today would be at least 5 nations including 1 Christian and 1 Druze and nobody would have been dying all this time. Side note: there is an even money chance that American intel people fostered this Assad collapse just to toss a problem for Trump to deal with.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Getting old is fun – for instance, I started feeling this odd lump on my back and the Mrs, examining it, said I should go get it checked…so, off to the Doc who takes one look at it and breaks out the knife…got it sliced off and then burned a bit. So, yeah, feeling great! I’ll get the biopsy back in a week (it is probably pre-cancerous so no real worries). But, hey, fellow geezers – you do have to get stuff like that checked. Its a difference between some temporary discomfort and a real problem.

Speaking of real problems, the Hegseth nomination is clearly in come trouble. Why? Because Democrat operatives in the MSM started what amounts to a whisper campaign of slanders…”he drinks!” and “he plays around!”. The man is married and has seven children. As a manly man, I have no doubt that back in the day he probably took a drink or two and I believe for men such as him the phrase “has to beat them off with a stick” is appropriate. But its all just uncorroborated rumors…meanwhile, people who know him are going on record saying he’s a great guy. Which he probably is – even if there is a smudge or two in his background (like none of us have that). But that doesn’t stop our RINOs…who are clearly compromised by the Deep State.

In response to this, rumors were floated that DeSantis might be picked if Hegseth drops out…and this is Team Trump signalling that no matter what, the SecDef isn’t going to be a career four-star now working in the Defense industry. In other words, reform is coming to Defense…business as usual is over with. When that particular rumor started to float I noticed a distinct die-down in the anti-Hegseth effort…and, in fact, there seems to be ever less pushback on any of Trump’s nominees. This tells me that the Gaetz nomination was very deliberate…putting someone out there to be a lightning rod and to give a scalp to the wets. By and large, I expect Trump’s current nominees to get in…and thanks to the 1998 Executive vacancies act, Trump can pretty much get anyone he wants to 210 days even without Senate approval or having the Senate to into recess.

We’re going to get our reforms.

In light of this, there are now rumors that Biden is going to blanket pardon a host of people – everyone directly connected to him, of course, but also such people as Adam Schiff and Anthony Fauci. Will he do it? I’m sure pressure is being brought to bear…but, on the other hand, with the Hunter pardon 90% of the threat to Joe, himself, is ended. And its not like Joe is feeling a deep sense of loyalty to his party comrades these days. We’ll see how that plays out. Keep in mind that if they are pardoned, then they can’t invoke the 5th when called to testify before Congress or a grand jury…and even if we can’t get the top guys, there are a host of secondary people in the Democrat Party, the RINOs and the overall Deep State who are highly at risk. Everything they’ve done to get Trump has involved criminal acts…and Biden simply won’t pardon everyone.

We’re going to get our revenge, as it were: except, of course, it isn’t revenge…it is just getting the laws enforced.

Trump will travel to Paris for the re-opening of Notre Dame…this, to me, is significant as France is the pivot of European civilization, as well as being the eldest daughter of the Church. The French, themselves, have had their culture and religion atrophy over the past century but there still is a beating heart of France in there…and for Trump to attend the symbolic restoration of France’s heart is, to me, significant. I suspect that Catholic Melania has been working on him…and this was greatly reinforced by his downright miraculous survival of an assassination attempt.