Open Thread

Mark Noonan28 Comments

Some SJW types painted nauseating graffiti all over a GOP office in Illinois. Not at all surprising. This is what the left is building – on purpose and maliciously. They want people at a fever pitch of hate. And they are hoping for confrontations – I’ve seen the comments all over social media, including from “respectable” people on the Left. Trouble is, eventually someone is going to shoot back (we’re already past the “someone is going to get shot” phase, as Congressman Scalise can testify). To be sure, the MSM will try to paint the first bit of return fire as some unique outrage…but no one is really listening to the MSM any longer. I hope it doesn’t come out like that – but if you get in people’s faces enough, you will get a direct reaction.

Meanwhile, Cocaine Mitch says he’ll hold a vote on Kavanaugh this week.

Georgetown University says it is committed to Social Justice. This is what Social Justice is, in practice:

C. Christine Fair, an associate professor at Georgetown in the School of Foreign Service, tweeted Saturday, saying white Republican men should die and an added bonus would be if women “castrate their corpses and feed them to swine.”

The University blew off complaints about this by saying they like free speech…which someone should test by holding a pro-life vigil on campus with the participants wearing MAGA hats.

Professor produces a study showing that, just perhaps, the lack of women in physics is based on something other than sexism…and, of course, promptly gets un-personed and his research consigned to the nearest Memory Hole.

Don Surber: smart guy:

The Marxist Mob’s attack on Judge Brett Kavanaugh is part of a multi-decadal plan to eliminate the Constitution — which Marxists slander as a a slave document.

Yep.

Trump should make this his 2020 theme song:

Some Thoughts on the Left

Mark Noonan24 Comments

What we’re dealing with in the Left is a few things, all mixed together in a bad way.

First and foremost, the Long Peace. Even though we’ve engaged in near-continuous warfare since 1941, the American people haven’t really felt the affects of war save for the 9/11 attacks, which were limited in area affected. Our homes have not been bombed; our women and children murdered; our farms and factories destroyed, by foreign invaders. All of us are, to a certain extent, a bit blind to the some times cruel realities of the world. But the people of the left have plain forgotten that the barbarians are right out there, waiting for their chance, and only eternal vigilance keeps us safe.

Secondly, the gigantic prosperity of the United States. This not only means that Americans don’t know real want – real privation – but we actually have so much extra wealth lying around that we can support millions who do nothing and many more millions who do nothing useful. When you look at leftists, you’ll find a gigantic portion of them either work in fields where concrete results are not expected, or don’t work at all. Sure, you can find some who do work…but usually on the lower end of the leftist movement and almost always as union workers who think that the left still cares about working people (and I think that more and more such people are becoming disillusioned with the left; I’m not talking about government employees, but people like those in the SEIU). We’re so rich that we can afford massive waste – especially the sort of waste which essentially pays the left to tear down our civilization. But, trouble is, you know when you’re doing something useful and when you’re not. A plumber comes home at the end of the day knowing he fixed some leaking pipes…but what does a Gender Studies Professor think about at the end of the day? “I wrote another screed against the Patriarchy!”? People who don’t do useful things, tend to get defensive and want to justify themselves…getting mad and hateful is the easiest way to do so.

Third, we’re in a moral crisis in this nation. Remember the people who pushed to have us pass out condoms in middle school? They are the same people marching in the #MeToo movement. The left sold people on the idea of complete immorality (predicted, I should note, by Chesterton a century ago when he said the next great heresy would be an attack on morality, as such, and especially sexual morality) and when people tried to live immorally, they found out why the priests and philosophers had been saying for 2,000 years that you can’t do that. In short, people got suckered into living lives of hedonistic dissipation, found that it sucked, and then got mad about it…but without repenting what they had done. What we’re seeing is very often someone pissed off that they didn’t have a nice life after they lived like dogs in heat and they are blaming the elements of society which said, “don’t do that” for the failure of their experiment.

All of this has been mixed together and what we have are bitter, spiteful people who have become merciless, shameless liars. And I mean really shameless. Over the past couple days the accusations and insinuations against Kavanaugh have actually gotten worse. Avenatti’s accusations are now getting too tame for the left to pursue! By Wednesday, Georgetown Prep will probably be accused of holding demonic sex orgies…and the shameless liars of the left will just eat it up.

A bit ago a Twitter friend and I engaged – a moderate to the core, he was delighted that Flake had, supposedly, tried to cool things off. I pointed out that while Flake may, personally, be a good man, he promoted sheer evil by going along with the Democrats demand. And not just evil to us, but evil to the left, themselves. You see, by indulging them this way, we’re allowing them to get worse…and no decent human being should set up a situation where our fellow people are able to wallow in filth. We can’t stop such things, but we certainly must do all we can to limit them, if at all possible. Flake didn’t see his duty – and I don’t know if it was cowardice or stupidity which moved him, but it doesn’t really matter: the damage was done.

What we have to keep in mind is that we’re in a fight of Right v Wrong – there’s no compromise. Any concession we make from this point forward will merely be seized upon by the shameless liars to indulge in yet more shameless lying. Our duty to ourselves – and to them – is to stand firm and give them not an inch. We’re not like them – meaning, we’re not shameless liars; nor are we merciless – so we won’t do to them what they very much want to do to us, but we must do all we can to stop them and remove them from power. Only once they are completely bereft of power will some of them, at least, wake up from their nightmare, see what they have done, and repent. They could still remain liberals, but they’ll at least have learned not to be evil. And that is important. Being wrong is fine: we’re all wrong on some things, frequently…but as long as we’re not evil, we’re at least not subtracting from the overall civilization.

Stand firm. There is not much reason to engage them in debate (it just allows them more opportunity to shamelessly lie, after all) and work as hard as you can for your side. We have a real chance over the next two years to win a revolutionary amount of power. So much power that we can impose a settlement on the political debate (meaning, not that there won’t be debate, but that we’ll be back to where we were from 1865 to 1965: conducting our debates in an agreed framework and with a sense of fair play for each side). Or, perhaps, we’ll be the side which is crushed. So be it: but let’s not help them crush us.

Some Thoughts on Kavanaugh

Mark Noonan50 Comments

I watched Ford’s statement and then the questioning (well, a good portion of it, anyways; did have some work around the yard to get done today). Her statement added nothing to what we know. She contradicted earlier statements. It was let slide by everyone, but she says she gave a friendly hello to Judge (you know: one of her attackers) 6-8 weeks after the alleged attack. She was clearly working from a script, repeatedly had to refer to her notes to answer basic questions about recent events and gave (to me, at least) a cringe-worthy attempt at coming off as an outraged victim. I ended up being nauseated by it all.

And then Kavanaugh happened: Democrats immediately (on social media) went ballistic about it, but that is an indicator of how effective it was. He was genuinely outraged. The contrast between his real, raw emotions on display with Ford was astonishing. On the questioning, Kavanaugh did well, but had a few weak moments (the answer to “why don’t you ask for an FBI investigation?” is “because there’s no point: it’d just give you guys time to dredge up some more ridiculous accusations”) – until Graham came on. Wow! He’s a Conservative hero, now. And the thing is, it is people like Graham whom the Democrats had to convince…but all they did was anger him. And that is what is key about this: the Democrats have made everyone non-Democrat very, very mad.

Short term, this may very well cost the Democrats a lot in November. But, long term, is foreshadows a worsening political situation in the United States. We’re very nearly at each other’s throats. And the Left won’t dial is back and we on the Right can’t back down. The next few years may end up getting very rough.

With Kavanaugh, We’ve Reached the Crisis

Mark Noonan52 Comments

So, the Michael Avenatti, the day after claiming (in a legally deniable way) that Kavanaugh was a vile beast, has taken his Twitter account private. He claims it was because of Trump trolls…but, he’s been dealing with that for a year. I’ll leave everyone to judge for themselves the matter.

That was just a small thing in the overall Kavanaugh story, of course: more important is the fact that the accusations keep getting worse while also getting more flimsy. And the shrieking SJW left is shrieking ever louder. They are convinced that Kavanaugh is a drunken, serial rapist (I’m not kidding: I’ve read their comments). Meanwhile, Cocaine Mitch and The Donald are standing firm…and word is that even the GOP squishes (with the possible exception of Flake) are getting outraged over this mess. I sure know that I am. Yeah, I’m a veteran…but I’m not a tough guy. In fact, I’m just about un-tough. I’m a pretty calm and relaxed person who is broadly tolerant of all human frailties, because I am fully aware of my own failures. But, man oh man, am I fit to be tied, now. I’ve never been so angry. A howling mob of SJW fascists chased Ted Cruz and his wife out of restaurant last night…Cruz, given his position, could do no other than flee.

I will never flee.

Lost in the shuffle is that reality isn’t matching up to DNC/MSM Narratives. It isn’t just things like the Gallup poll which shows the GOP more popular than the Democrats (you know how I feel about polls): but it’s also things like CNN being low-rated; Michael Moore’s anti-Trump hit job “documentary” failing at the box office; the RNC being flush with cash while the DNC is effectively bankrupt. I’m suspecting that part of the reason the Democrats turned it up to 11 on Kavanaugh (and it was the Democrat leadership, not the base, leading the way here) is because their own estimates of their November chances are looking bad…and they are firing up the base to get them to vote. A party on the cusp of winning takes a calm, middle-of-the-road line to pull in all wavering voters…a party afraid of being blown out acts like the world is coming to an end.

I don’t know how the rest of this week is going to go – I’m highly doubtful that Ford will testify on Thursday. Unless she can come up with someone or something to verify her story, she’d look a complete idiot testifying in front of the Senate on national TV. And if she’s not telling the truth – and I don’t think she is – she’ll open herself up to legal jeopardy. But, we’ll see: maybe she does play her hand out to the end? Stranger things have happened. I was getting doubtful about Kavanaugh’s chances a couple days ago, but not I’m starting to have confidence return. But, in the end, even if a few GOPers knife us in the back over this, I think that more and more people are coming to realize that the Democrats must be kept out of power…they are completely irresponsible and will wreck the nation to spite Trump, if given the chance.

It is very, very sad what we’re seeing – the Democrats, by inviting the SJW left into politics, have injected a poison into the body politic we’ll be a long time getting rid of. Our job, as patriots, is to stand firm…and vote like your life depended on it. Because it does.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan39 Comments

As I write this, Ford won’t testify and Grassley is giving her until Friday to agree to testify. The only thing which could keep this alive would be a new accuser…and don’t think the Dems aren’t gaming that out to see if they could make it work, at least to the point where Kavanaugh’s confirmation is pushed past the mid-terms.

What has impressed me most over the past 48 hours is:

1. Aside from a few cowards, most non-left people have stood firm. For once, the non-Democrat part of the country is not running for the hills when the Democrats lob a grenade into the body politic. We’ve got to get into the mindset that we have to jump on the grenade. No more fear: fight back, every time.

2. I’m hearing from and about Average Joe’s and Jane’s – people who don’t follow politics closely and who don’t have strong loyalty to either party – who are furious over this. I’ve even heard such state that even if they could prove Kavanaugh did it, it shouldn’t stop him from being on the Court. As I’ve said before, the one thing Americans tend to unite on is that they don’t like unfairness. It is simply unfair to accuse a person of a horrible act and not only refuse all cross-examination of the accuser, but to make the accusation in such a way that the accused really has no way to even try to disprove the allegation.

How all this will work out in the near and long term, I don’t know: but I’m starting to suspect that this is going to cost the Democrats some Senate seats in November. There is a theory out there that it is all a case of mistaken identity – that it happened, but someone else was the perpetrator. This is possible…but I doubt it was “mistaken” identity…

Muckraking journalist James O’Keefe got a video of Justice Department officials admitting they use their official powers to help the political left. So, here’s the Deep State, guys: a collection of bureaucrats who view their primary loyalty as being to a political party – or movement – rather than to the people of the United States. They brag in the videos about how they can’t be fired – they are relying on the protections built into law so that people can’t be fired for political reasons: but such laws were also written on the assumption that the bureaucrats would remain carefully neutral in the political battles of the United States. It is time to clean house – and if it means changing the civil service laws, it’ll have to be done.

Interesting article on the prospect of microbial life in some briney lakes under the Martian ice…my view: life is probably very rare in the Universe. The conditions necessary for any life like we have on Earth are so narrow that the chances of any particular planet having them are small. One only need look at Mars and Venus to see…here are three planets, Venus, Mars and Earth, that all seem to have the necessary pre-conditions for life, but only one of them has it. My guess is that we’ll search a very long time, out to very far distances, and never detect anything alive.

The Air Force Secretary has mapped out a plan for the Space Force. A lot of people, including many on the right, have heaped ridicule on the President’s proposal…much as many did with Reagan’s proposal for SDI. But, folks, Space is important – I’ve held for 30 years that eventually Space will become as dominant as the Sea in human life. Whomever controls Space will control their own national destiny.

Kavanaugh Must Be Confirmed

Mark Noonan13 Comments

I don’t think I’ve ever been made so angry by political events. At least in the case of Moore they had the yearbook: thin, but at least it was a contemporary document which verified that Moore had some contact with his accuser. All we’ve got in Kavanaugh’s case is a letter which doesn’t even state clearly when and where it happened. And, now, word is his accuser is pushing back against the idea of testifying before the Senate and her lawyer is claiming the accuser has no burden of proof. I’d say this was Soviet-style slandering, but the Soviets weren’t this dishonorable.

Kavanaugh completely denies any such event took place – not just with the accuser, but at all. The other person claimed to be there also denies it happened. There is no way to actually investigate the matter because we don’t know when and where it happened – which is just terribly convenient for the accuser because if she gave a specific date, then Kavanaugh might be able to prove he was elsewhere at the time. Rather astonishing that such a searing event in her life doesn’t come with the date within a week of the event and a place at least within a few blocks of where it might have happened.

Meanwhile, some – but not all – of the Never Trumpers are all “this is serious and we have to listen”. As if that is what the Democrats want. They don’t want that: they want Kavanaugh to be axed. And, then, if they win the Senate, they’ll just keep that seat vacant for two years hoping that a Democrat wins in 2020. This is all about the exercise of raw, political power. The Democrats want to win – and this is their last, desperate gambit to do that. If we let them win, then we’re cooked. If mere accusation is enough to kill Kavanaugh’s nomination, then no one is safe…and very many people will refuse to even get involved in politics for fear that someone will just make something up about them.

The only way we win this is to put Kavanaugh on the Court – no other outcome works. If we fail, we’re doomed. They’ll just keep doing this and keep doing this and keep doing this until the only “dissenting” voices in politics are those who will never actually challenge the left. This is the hill we must fight on: there is no tomorrow. We either win and get Kavanaugh on the Court, or our political future is finished.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan46 Comments

The Democrats are proving there is no bottom to the gutter – Senator Feinstein, in a desperate and downright evil attempt to last-minute derail Kavanaugh, has said she received an anonymous denunciation of Kavanaugh and has referred it to Justice…where she’s likely relying on some Deep State malefactors to run with it, at least enough to lend this disgusting hit job some legitimacy.

This is the utter sh** of the left, folks – and it is what the Never Trumpers say we must vote for this November because Trump is so bad. F all these people! Get out and vote GOP as if your life depended on this November. Let’s take this garbage and shove it right up their a**.

Yes, as a matter of fact, this did piss me off. A lot.

Latest in liberal stupidity: Men’s preference for young women is a sign that masculinity is in crisis. Anyone want to break it to them that men find young women attractive because, well, sexual attraction has as its purpose procreation: you know, it’s rather biologically baked in for us to have a preference for sexual partners who can fulfill the biological purpose of sex?

So, a police force hires a man after determining he’s unable to handle stress…and then, in a stressful situation, he shoots a person. Now, why was he hired? Because he’s a Somali Muslim and diversity is our strength…

I see a Red Wave coming – because four separate forecasts have the Democrats winning the House.

9/11 Plus 17 Years

Mark Noonan14 Comments

It doesn’t seem that long ago, does it? On the other hand, one of the youngsters I work with is 23…and, so, was 6 when it happened. At most, there is some vague memories in there, but no real remembrance of what it was.

Such is the course of human life – most things are forgotten. Simply overtaken by later events. And think of all that has gone on since then. It has been a crowded bunch of years.

What is sad is how the patriotism and determination of 9/12 is now gone, completely. That was rather cynically destroyed by the Democrats starting in 2003 when they realized that their only chance of beating Bush in 2004 was to make the post-9/11 fight politically unpopular. They managed the trick, but not in time to prevent Bush’s re-election. But make no mistake about it, the reason we got Obama is because of years of relentless hatred directed against Bush until he, and the whole GOP, seemed odious. Democrats are trying this trick, again, and this time from a higher pitch of toxicity than the post-9/11 baseline. But there is one, gigantic difference: Trump is punching back. Hard.

But, that aside, there is still the unfinished business of 9/11 – namely, how to make certain that no Islamists will ever want to attack us like that, again? We’ve hit the Islamist enemy very hard in the past 17 years. Make no mistake about it: openly and in secret, US forces have made life rather a living hell for the Jihadists. But as long as they aren’t destroyed – and their prime sponsors remain relatively untouched – this war will go on, and, eventually, they’ll try something even more spectacular than 9/11. As I said way back then, unless we go to the source of the problem (you know, like in Iran and such), we’ll never finish the fight. It is the old story written again and again: if you give your enemy a sanctuary which you won’t attack, then you are handing him eventual victory.

Still, say a prayer for those who died, and for those who still hurt from the loss – and, of course, for our military members who still have to fight the war. It is good to remember, for as long as we can, after all.

Out and About Open Thread

Mark Noonan3 Comments

To give you a bit of hope for the future, a young man wrote this – and I think he’s going places:

The biggest piece of advice I can give to someone trying to get into the world of venture capital, and the place where I think I did the best job in my process, is to fake it till you make it. This means that even before you start working in VC, you should start acting like a venture capitalist. Working in private equity at The Carlyle Group, I knew I was in a related field and at a blue-chip firm that would help get my foot in the door (which it definitely did, but I was on my own past that point), but I also knew that my day-to-day at Carlyle was nothing like what my day-to-day would be like working at a venture capital firm. At Carlyle, I was dealing with billion-dollar transactions that involved decades-old companies, compared to early-stage venture capital where companies may or may not even have a product in the market and any financial records are slim at best. This meant that I had to take it upon myself to demonstrate that I had what it took to be successful in venture.

Nothing better than a kid with a plan and the grit to carry it out. Full disclosure: this young man is the son of a lady I grew up with. She’s naturally proud of her boy, and I think with good reason. So, as we geezers sit around wondering what comes after us, I think we can rely on their still being a good deal of determination and willingness to work in America. Where’s he’s going is where the future of the American economy will start. I hope he does well – for himself and for everyone.

Victor Davis Hanson nails it. Again. Because he’s smarter than most everyone. Love to hear a discussion about just any subject between him and Thomas Sowell. They could talk about knitting and I bet it’d be fascinating.

The Trump Administration has shut down the offices of the Palestinian Authority in DC – a move apparently in response to the PA’s refusal to get realistic about making peace. And this after various funds provided by us to the PA were cut. It is the way to go – and I don’t think we’ll get more than pro-forma words from the Arab world over it. No one wants the Israeli-Palestinian war to continue except the PA because the ongoing war is the primary justification for the PA government remaining in power. Time for a change, though. The Palestinians can have peace and prosperity as soon as they ask for it – they’ll just have to give up their stupid dream of one day driving the Israelis out of Tel Aviv.

A Progressive group as come out in favor of GULAG. No, I’m not kidding – they really think that GULAG is a good idea.

A Broadway actress has made a massive, in-kind donation to Trump’s re-election effort by wondering if where is John Wilkes Booth when we need him. OTOH, this sort of inflammatory, eliminationist rhetoric does get into the minds of the insane and convinces them to act. Our Progs really have no idea what they’re doing.

The ‘Stache of Doom (I stole that from a Twitter account, and I can’t remember which one) has dropped the hammer on US participation in the International Criminal Court. This is only sensible – the real reason for the Court is to drag US (and Israeli) officials before it in a form of globalized lawfare against us.

This police shooting is, well, strange – cop says she shot the (unarmed) guy because she thought she was in her apartment and he was an invader. I don’t know about you, but I tend to remember when I’m in my own home and when I’m not. Something bizarre is going on in this case.

British cops, who apparently have nothing else to do, are asking the public to report “non-crime hate incidents”. Which, of course, makes that whole Battle of Britain thing to have been rather a waste of time.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan8 Comments

Rachel Rollins won the Democrat primary for Suffolk County, MA District Attorney…and, given the nature of things, this means she’s the new DA. She’s promised to “decline to prosecute”, unless a supervisor’s permission is obtained, such crimes as trespassing, shoplifting, disorderly conduct, receiving stolen property, driving without a license, minor in possession of alcohol, drug possession with intent to distribute. Everything old is new, again – especially for liberals, who haven’t had a new idea in a century. This is precisely what did starting in the 1950’s – going easy on “minor” crimes because, well, they were being committed by poor boys who were simply acting out of frustration over poverty and lack of opportunity. The result was our murder rate in the 1970’s. This is just the per usual virtue signalling from leftists who will never, ever spend the night in a crime infested neighborhood.

Some Lefty rando on Twitter decided to get into Robert O’Neill’s face when O’Neill mildly pointed out that Obama still can’t say “Radical Islam”. The Lefty said:

He kinda killed Osama Bin Laden, so….

Thing is, O’Neill was part of Seal Team 6, which took out Bin Laden…the rest of the Lefty rando’s day didn’t go so well on Twitter.

Papadopoulos got 14 days. Trump pointed out that it cost $28 million to get to this…$2 million per day spent in jail.

Corey Stewart wants to have an ICE Tea Party on September 15th outside the Fairfax, VA ICE office.

Woman gets dumped, and Robert Stacy McCain has an interesting take on it.