Open Thread

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.

I Beg Your Pardon Open Thread

Mark Noonan17 Comments

The funniest thing about Biden pardoning Hunter is the pretend-shock among the Left and Never Trumpers…those who aren’t immediately getting on board with the pardon (which is most of them) are all “well, I never! Who could have thought that Joe Biden would lie to us???”. Just another reminder that Trump’s most important act to date was taking out the trash on the Right.

It is a ten year pardon – going back to just before Hunter was placed on the board of Bursima. Which means that he’s now skating on everything he did during that time and Joe is betting that Trump’s DOJ won’t indict him on his part of it (Hunter can’t refuse to testify now – his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination doesn’t apply…he can’t be prosecuted for these things). This is probably a good bet – and might have already been discussed between Biden and Trump. Biden isn’t going to live much longer anyway…and even if indicted, his lawyers could very easily get a declaration that he’s not competent to stand trial. What was extra funny is that given the wording of it, there was a several hour period where Hunter could have robbed a bank yesterday and there would have been nothing anyone could do about it…Biden pardoned Hunter for everything done to December 1st.

There was, of course, zero chance that Hunter wasn’t going to skate…there was no way Biden was going to die while his only living son was locked up. This is over and above the Biden Crime Family aspect of it…it just wasn’t going to happen. All those firm statements that he wouldn’t were just lies…and everyone knew they were lies when stated. But what is odd is that usually these are done right out the door…in the last week in office, some times on the last day. Makes me (and others) wonder about the health status of Joe right now? Someone was in a hurry to get this done.

Trump posted on Truth right after tying this to the J6 defendants and so the expectation is that they walk sometime in the afternoon of January 20th. There is still some debate about how widespread the pardons should be – some arguing that only non-violent people should be pardoned. Nope: in my view, its gotta be everyone. And then compensation for them. We must “insult to injury” here. We have to let the Democrats now that it is over – their whole lawfare scheme is done and now the real law is about to be turned on them.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan24 Comments

So, how did that Thanksgiving feel? I mean, sure, the Macy’s parade was still pretty woke but that seemed like an ancient relic, didn’t it? The football was back to being pretty football-y (except you still can’t defend against the pass these days), having Thanksgiving dinner with the family felt more Thanksgiving-y. It felt like America again…like the last four years was just a nightmare we’ve all woken up from. And of course Donald Trump tweeted out Thanksgiving greetings even to the haters and losers. It was just a great day yesterday.

But, still, the Left is there!

Jack Smith is apparently going to give a hit-piece “report” about Trump to Garland who will, of course, release it to the press. I’m pretty confident this is actually illegal…and if it isn’t, it should be made so. What’s happening here is that after the prosecutor gave up on the case, he’s throwing into the public square what he couldn’t prove in court and/or under oath. Its mere slandering. The accused has no effective means of refuting the charges. Just a final garbage act from some really garbage people.

Its been weeks and people are still dunking on the Experts who called the election wrong. I know this because something I said on August 24th has been re-engaged on X: “Trump by 5 on 11/5 and you know it”. This in response to an Expert who was asserting that Harris would win by 8. I was wrong, of course: Trump is up by 3 (with almost all of it counted…but still above 50%!)…but my 2 point miss wasn’t an 11 point miss like an Expert can do.

That does bring to mind our missing friend, Casper. I figure he’s in the midst of one of two things:

  1. Finally realizing that if they were lying about the election that badly, maybe they’re lying about everything else.
  2. Going ever deeper into Resist conspiracy theories to explain it away (latest I’ve seen is an assertion that Putin ordered Musk to use Starlink to change Harris votes to Trump).

I lean towards 2 as the most likely outcome…admitting error is the hardest thing any human being can do…and for the Left, the admission of error comes along with admitting that you supported (actively or passively) things that are downright immoral.

In response to Trump’s border and trade proposals, the Left has settled upon telling us our guacamole will get more expensive and we’ll have to do our own household chores. No line of thought has more fully shown the difference between the Left and the Right. First off, not a big guac fan and Americanized Mexican food is better than Mexican food (just as Americanized Italian, Japanese, etc food is better than its source material). Secondly, I look after my own house. I guess the Lefties really are pretty rich – or maybe they like to pretend to be rich by hiring illegal servants they can underpay? I don’t know – but I look after my own house. No, not perhaps as well as a professional landscaping company…but my yards are tidy and while it was a two day operation to trim the Phoenix canariensis (the pineapple-looking palms to you who live in frozen areas) I did get it done…and when an old sprinkler riser broke I went to Lowe’s all by myself to get a replacement. For interior cleaning as well. Full disclosure: we have hired a cleaning service a couple times but they don’t really clean what we’d like them to clean…the more tedious things that you don’t need cleaned but once or twice per year (like blinds and such). I can mop my own floor…so I’ll probably never go much into having my house cleaned by others unless physical debility requires it.

They really do live in their own world, don’t they? To be sure, some on the Right do as well – still getting pushback from Right Free Traders which I understand but, goodness, it is just a plain, historic fact that we were under Protection when we armed the whole free world in WWII. Free Trade only came to the USA post-WWII where it was felt necessary both to prevent a resumption of the Depression and to aid the rest of the world getting back on its feet. These are debatable issues but this concept that Protection = Poverty is just nonsense. Protection only becomes a problem if you’re protecting failure…but if its designed to make sure that cheap labor can’t undercut your market, then its just common sense. Remember, we’re not being out-competed by China in manufacturing…they are using slave and near-slave labor combined with low quality to simply drive out of the market all competition. This is not Trade…this is predatory and only a fool would let them continue it.

Trump, by the way, has all of his major proposed cabinet positions filled and its still nearly two months before he takes office. Just like Team Trump on the campaign trail, these people are running a very tight ship. I do think they really will hit the ground running.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan66 Comments

Trump’s cabinet is starting to shape up and it is already more solid than his first – naturally, some people already have objections to this or that pick on varied grounds but, hey, its much better we’re complaining about Trump picks than watching in dismay as Harris picks one corrupt lunatic after another. Rubio at State surprised me but I think he’ll be fine. Noem at DHS is also a bit of a surprise but also fine. On and on like that.

Trump is also laying out some agenda items and his education reform proposals – to force colleges to actually teach rather than be mere indoctrination centers – are key to the long-term survival of the United States. I’ve said for decades that we have an American Left because it is taxpayer subsidized. There are massive numbers of people who are perfectly useless being paid big money ultimately from taxpayers to advance Leftist causes in spite of popular disapproval. Just forcing colleges to cut their bloated administrative staff will be a huge victory for sanity. Deportations of illegals by the million is definitely on the agenda and I hope Democrats try to stop it – the more they are perceived as defending illegals, the better for us long term. Nobody other than corrupt fools wants illegals in country…getting them out was one of the main issues decided by this election and the people want them out. Preliminary moves are being made to bring the Ukraine war to an end (shaping up as de-facto recognition of Russian territorial gains; the cost of trying to expel the Russians being just too high for such a marginal issue – most of the people who live in Russian-occupied territory are ethnic Russians; its basically returning Ukraine’s eastern border to where it had been under the Czars).

Our House majority is terribly narrow – and it is the result of Democrats getting a lot of really good gerrymandering…some of it forced by judicial decisions. Basically if we got this House vote in 2016 it would have been 250 GOPers…now it is, at best, going to be 222. The Red States were also screwed in the census redistricting…there are 8-10 House seats sitting in Blue States which should have been assigned to Red States after 2020. This does make it crucial that we win in 2028…we must control the head count in 2030 and ensure a legal distribution of House seats (and, of course, Electoral Votes…Trump could have won without WI/MI/PA if House seats and resultant EV’s had been legally distributed). We will naturally have some House RINOs try to screw us…but we do have the power of victory. Trump won, and decisively – even the most RINO GOPer is going to be terrified of crossing Trump, at least early on…and that is when most of the work has to be done.

The Senate battle right now is over Majority Leader – I would prefer Scott but that will very much be decided by the internal dynamics of the GOP Senate. I’m looking on it calmly because even if we get ultra-RINO Cormyn, the bottom line is that common sense dictates cooperation with Trump. In 2017, McConnell didn’t go that route because he and the rest of the GOPe were convinced that Trump was a flash in the pan and a mistake…nobody looking at election results can say that now. Trump represents a huge electoral constituency which the GOP will need to retain if they want to win going forward. Failure to back Trump at least on the crucial votes would be catastrophic for the GOP.

Just keep in mind that we’re only past the first step here – we won. But the task of reviving America is going to be a long and difficult one. It won’t be remotely completed during Trump’s term. All we’re really doing here is stopping the bleeding and laying the groundwork for the future. Keep faith, keep smiling and keep praying.

Election Day Open Thread

Mark Noonan45 Comments

I fell asleep on the family room chair last night at about 9 pm – just been doing a lot of running around of late and got a bit worn out. Normally, I can never fall asleep any place outside a bed. But I woke up at near midnight and got myself into bed and then slept soundly until 5:30 am. I woke up. Brushed my teeth. Put on some coffee. Opened up X…and then saw this:

He goes on to note that every metric of the election is more favorable to Trump than in either 2016 (when he narrowly won) or 2020 (when he narrowly lost). Which is pretty much what we’ve been saying here. Still not a done deal, of course; it is just the start of election day and maybe a Blue Tsunami suddenly shows up here to alter this…but I have my doubts such a thing will happen.

Not much to say, now. Go vote if you haven’t! Drag a friend with you! Unless its a liberal friend.

UPDATE: LOL at Selzer and her Harris +3 Iowa poll.

UPDATE II: I think Casper’s prediction of 350 EV’s for Harris will fall a little short.

WE DID IT!!!!

WE WON!!!