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.

Kavanaugh, TDS and Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

The Democrats seeded the audience for the Kavanaugh hearing with people who would deliberately try to disrupt the proceedings. The Democrat Senators all went on tirades against Kavanaugh. It was the most un-American, anti-democratic performance I’ve ever seen. I was disgusted and angered. I can only imagine the Democrats were trying to placate their base because they can’t in any way stop Kavanaugh from being confirmed. But I think what they did will turn off ever larger numbers of people.

To top it all off, one Progressive spied an anonymous lady sitting behind Kavanaugh and claimed that the position of her fingers amounted to a secret white power signal. Rather than having everyone laugh at him over it, bags of Progressives ran with it – they were seriously saying that this was the proof they needed that Trump is trying to secure white power fanatics for the Court. When it came out that she’s part Mexican and part Jewish (and descended from Jews who had to flee the Holocaust) that still didn’t stop the Progressives from claiming she’s a secret agent of white power! These people are certifiable!

OTOH, The Resistance set up a Twitter poll about Trump and 2020 and as of this time, with >214k votes cast, Trump is winning with 54% of the vote.

Bob Woodward wrote a book about Trump and made some claims some are finding unbelievable – especially General Mattis. Woodward has had a long-standing reputation as being a guy who can get White House staffers to talk. As for me, I’ve never really believed it. No White House staffer, of any President, is going to talk to Woodward unless he or she has permission to do so…and, so, will only say what is pre-approved. There’s no way a famous guy like Woodward can actually get a scoop. Its why guys like him aren’t workaday reporters…no one would go to such a person and spill it unless someone wanted it spilled. Woodward’s books have probably had some real insights into events, but to think he’s ever unearthed something in his books is absurd. My thinking is that no one who mattered in the White House spoke to Woodward – at least, not off the record. Woodward, at best, was only able to glean whatever Obama hold-overs could get…which was likely mostly second-hand stuff.

Britain’s Labour Party has a growing anti-Semitism problem. Lots of people complain about it, and their complaints are valid. Nothing, however, will be done about it. Labour’s future electoral health is based upon pleasing the rapidly growing Muslim population of Britain…Britain’s small Jewish population just won’t matter to Labour. I figure over the next decade Britain’s Jews will abandon Labour…and I wonder how long America’s Jews will continue to lend their support to the Democrats?

Liberals just don’t like America – nor the fact that the first man on the Moon was an American. They really don’t like their nation – First Man is just another symptom of it. Think about even some good movies – like, for instance, “Saving Private Ryan”. It was great – wonderfully done movie. But, still, think about it: the movie isn’t about the bravery of the troops or the magnificent victory they won: it was merely about who lived and died, who suffered and how much. We’re not supposed to be proud of the Army Rangers, but sorry for their plight. Even though most of them were double volunteers (volunteered for the Army, then volunteered for the Rangers; same thing for the Paratroopers).

Most of the real fighting in WWII wasn’t done by draftees – not in the sense of men who had to be forced into the fight. Even if they were particularly drafted, it was likely because they were told to wait for call-up as the military couldn’t take them when they presented themselves for service (the late William Manchester explained this about himself in his autobiographical “Goodbye, Darkness“). As Morrison put it, we had tough guys eager to fight against the enemy. And tough they were. And we should be proud of them. They weren’t lambs lead to slaughter, but lions who grabbed the enemy by the throat and slew them without remorse. But you can’t say that any more in the movies…it would offend liberals, and hurt ticket sales in China

Nike picked Kaepernick as their new model. Using the ridiculous tag line of “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Hate to break it to ya, Nike, but Kaepernick didn’t sacrifice his career for his cause…if was any good, he’d still be playing; and the fans would even put up with kneeling, if he could at least get better than 4-12 on the year. But to be an overpaid second-rater and then complain about America? That just pisses people off.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

California passed a bill to require all corporate boards to have at least one woman – because you tender, little ladies just can’t get there on your own, I guess.

Robert Stacy McCain notes the “wilding” problem in Chicago – and links to this article:

After spending the day at Oak Street Beach, the girlfriend claims she and her boyfriend were walking back to their car at around 6 p.m. in the vicinity of the 900 block of North Lake Shore Drive when they were surrounded by “20-to-25 offenders who gathered around them,” Hopkins said.

“She described a completely unprovoked attack with no warning. Her and her boyfriend were enjoying the day on the beach. They were walking back to their car minding their own business and, with no warning at all, they were surrounded by this large group and they did absolutely nothing to provoke it,” Hopkins said.

“They started a confrontation and, at some point, the victim was struck in the head and fell to the ground.”

Civilization is a thing veneer, folks. And lots of very bad people figured that out a long time ago – mostly notable Lenin, Hitler and Stalin. You rip the lid off, and people will do the most astonishingly savage things. Not all of them – but enough will. People just take peace for granted – security of life and property. But the general security we enjoyed in our cities wasn’t a natural event. It grew over a thousand years during which time everyone went around armed and punishments for even relatively minor crimes were brutal: in 18th century London, most men carried a sword and you could be flogged for petty theft. The idea that one shouldn’t commit a crime didn’t come naturally: it was literally beaten into the population. Its been a long time since the pound of flesh has really been extracted and, meanwhile, we’ve been essentially telling the rising generations that being a criminal is cool. What happened in that article is the natural result – and the natural result of that will be everyone eventually going around armed and a return to savage punishments for even minor offenses. And don’t think this all “just happened”…as I said, bad people long ago figured out that civilization is a weak reed…and those who hate our civilization (and they are legion among us) see things like the “wilding” as just another means of tearing down the hated civilization.

What is the Trump/Russia thing? Don Surber puts it all in a very complete nutshell:

The real news was the breakfast itself, which was relegated to Paragraph 14: “One of the meetings he recounted was a Washington breakfast attended by Steele, a Steele associate and Ohr. Ohr’s wife, Nellie, who worked for Fusion GPS, the political research firm that hired Steele, attended at least part of it.”

Ohr was not only married to a woman who worked for the company Hillary and the DNC hired to get dirt on Donald John Trump, but Ohr was meeting with the man in charge of delivering the dossier.

The only collusion with Russians was Steele and his sources at the Kremlin getting together to put together a dossier aimed at bringing down a duly elected American president.

It is all anyone needs to know – the Trump/Russia thing was cooked up by people determined to get Trump. The end. Shut it down – fire Mueller.

The reason we don’t have a Democracy is because our Founders knew that a full Democracy was too risky – remember, all the Athenians had to do to win the Peloponnesian War was not vote to execute a batch of successful admirals. The Founders kept the people away from full power, and that is a good thing, because popular passions can get out of hand. On the other hand, those yapping about “saving Democracy” under Trump dislike Democracy as much as the Founders did…especially as a fully functioning Democracy would probably force into exile most of those now claiming to be Democracy’s defenders.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

We’ll start off tonight with a racist song:

Legal Insurrection writes up the possibility – thin, but real – of a GOP Senate upset in Rhode Island.

On Twitter this evening someone posted a short video of the line for Trump’s Indiana rally. Now, I realize that Indiana is one of the most Trump-friendly States you can find out there…but the line was astonishing. My guess: there are more Republicans these days than there has been for a while, and they like Trump.

Democrat warns law enforcement against enforcing the law because Trump is President. I don’t think our Democrats fully realize what they’re doing here.

Democrat money is now far left – which is likely why the Democrats keep going further left: it is where the money is. Trouble is, I think this increasing leftist purity among Democrats is making the party smaller. Sure, it is more on fire enthusiastic and donates and organizes and knocks on doors like no tomorrow…but as a party becomes more ideologically pure, it starts to turn off anyone who isn’t ideologically pure. Some people on the right simply don’t like the populist elements of Trump. Well, I can dig that…but a fusion of Conservatism and Populism will likely win elections, whereas a purely Conservative party will consistently lose. Democrats are now purely left…

Democrats are calling for a boycott of In N Out burger…apparently not learning a thing from their Chik Fil A debacle.

Civil Rights of 1919. As it is, I think Congress can legislate very broadly, as the Constitution directly gives Congress the power to make all necessary laws and regulations to ensure the Constitution is enforced.

And we’ll end this with a secretly racist song: