Looking at the Political Field

Mark Noonan14 Comments

Our Democrat and Never Trump friends are giving out squeals of joy over the results from Virginia – it is the harbinger of Trump Doom. Forget it. It’s over. Trump is toast. Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer, here we come…and if Trump doesn’t get impeached after that, then President Kamala Harris will fix all he’s done.

I don’t know. To be sure, the GOP took a shellacking in Virginia – the Democrats seem to have worked out a killer plan to flip State legislative seats where they voted Hillary in 2016, the Democrat candidate for governor benefited greatly from that. OTOH, there are still some seats out there held by Democrats but Trump won the district in 2016…so, the GOP can play the same game. Not as effectively, of course, because given how well the GOP did at the State level the previous 8 years, there’s not a lot left for them to grab. And that is where my mind is going – this is just part of an expected snap-back. A good election cycle doesn’t mean a party is going anywhere. The GOP picked up 81 House seats in the ’38 midterms and it meant absolutely nothing…just a blip in the Democrats 60 year stranglehold on American politics.

What I can’t see is people being so disappointed in Trump that they’d return to power people like Pelosi and Schumer…or anyone like them. It could happen, of course, but I just don’t think it will. As I wrote last year, given that this will be Trump’s first midterm, the cards are stacked against the GOP…only the vast number of Democrats up for re-election makes the Senate pretty secure, while the House actually should be reachable by the Democrats. The Democrats need a net gain of 24 in the House to take a bare majority. There are 23 House seats won by GOPers but which voted Hillary in 2016; there are 12 House seats won by Democrats but which voted Trump in 2016. Only in 3 or 4 of each batch, however, was the Presidential margin a lot larger than the Congressional margin. Outside of a wave election for the Democrats, I think it comes out a wash…with maybe the Democrats netting 4 or 5 House seats.

Without a doubt, the 2018 midterms will be nationalized – the usual caveat that all politics is local will be highly attenuated next year. The United States is deeply divided on partisan lines. The GOP base – especially the Trumpster part of it – is deeply disappointed in the Congressional GOP. But I think that will manifest itself in more primary challenges…and more RINOs deciding to retire. When push comes to shove, the GOP base – and especially the Trumpster part of it – knows that it is political suicide to flip a lot of seats over to the Democrats. Not only will Trump’s agenda grind to a complete halt, but the whole purpose of the Democrat majority would be to go on scandal hunts to try and bring Trump down. The Democrat base is also very much fired up – they hate Trump with a white-hot passion. But my thinking is that the Democrat base is now, for the first time since the 1920’s, smaller than the GOP base. This follows a trend which has been going on for more than 30 years as everyone who isn’t a flat-out Progressive grows increasingly dismayed with the Democrat party. There was no way the old line GOP was ever going to get these people with any sort of consistency…but Trump, I think, can and will.

And that, in the end, is why I think 2018 will be good for the GOP…and good for America. The election will be nationalized, courtesy of the Democrats, and Trump will be able to hit the hustings proclaiming himself besieged by people who want to stop Making America Great Again. With the lower overall turnout always found in midterm years, I think the now-larger GOP base, fired up by Trump, will prevail. I could be wrong, of course; we’ll see. But I look to the future with calm confidence.

Reliving Election Night, 2016: a Progressive Nightmare

Mark Noonan15 Comments

Esquire has an article out – The Untold Stories of Election Day 2016. If you haven’t read it yet, do so: it will bring pure joy to your heart. Here’s the crux of the matter:

Omarosa Manigault, Trump campaign: If we believed what was on the television, we would have thought we lost. But looking at the numbers that were in front of us in the key battleground states, we were up…or we were neck and neck, with expectations of higher turnout and more enthusiasm. We were going off of our own internal data. What was being shown on CNN and MSNBC and some of these other networks was showing a stark contrast to what was in front of us.

That was it, all along. The race was always tight – it never was anything but. Hillary did have her chances to win, but it was never going to be a walk over. It is like everyone in the Expert Class simply refused to remember that she was terribly unpopular and an absolutely awful retail politician. The whole of the MSM – including Fox – was feeding out this story that Trump was just terrible and Hillary was so polished and accomplished and was sure to win…and to support it, they rolled out poll after poll showing Hillary ahead.

Now, as I wrote back then, I was unsure who was going to win going into election day. I was off from work that day and was also scheduled off the following day: perfect for the political junkie. I didn’t pay the least attention to what was going on through the day: I knew from experience (especially from 2004), that the early reports would not only be wrong, but would be done deliberately wrong to try and boost Democrat turnout while depressing GOP turnout. No sense watching that sort of thing: best to wait until there were some actual votes. I already had my mental marker on how the night would go: if FL and/or PA was called fast for Hillary, she had won…if either of them were delayed, or called for Trump, it was all over for Hillary. I went out and about with the Mrs and, after dinner, came home to settle in for the watch. I think I clicked around a few channels but the coverage was so annoyingly pro-Hillary that I quickly got irritated. I actually decided, I think, to watch something else and just follow on Twitter, but I eventually surfed by Fox Business and Stuart Varney was on doing early coverage…he’s a huge Trumpster, but after the nauseating coverage on the other networks, he seemed to be completely fair and detached. I stayed on it.

I was watching out of one eye, checking Twitter (especially Decision Desk – a must-follow for election day) and really just waiting for it. Keep in mind that I’m on Pacific time: the first polls would close at 4 pm my time. I tuned in about 5 pm. The Mrs periodically checked in on me – she seemed pretty sure that Trump would win it, and she’s always right about how elections will go (don’t know were she gets the intuition from: she hates politics with a passion…but once she sees a bit about how a campaign is going, she always gets it exactly right). As I continued to watch the TV, it switched over to Neil Cavuto hosting – don’t know if he’s a Conservative, but he’s always a level-headed guy who goes with the facts as far as he can find them. During one tune out, he mentioned offhand that there were odd numbers in Michigan. That was my first inkling – this was before Ohio was called at 7:36pm my time…but I had been looking at Ohio and wondered by 6pm why it hadn’t been called for Trump already. My guess was that if Ohio was going Trump – and it was – then Florida likely would as well. I expected Trump to win all of Romney’s 2012 States (I never believed the BS that AZ and UT were in play). Add FL and OH to Romney’s 2012 total and Trump was up to 253 electoral votes…add Michigan to that, Trump was at 269. When Ohio was called for Trump, in my mind, it was over – at 7:36pm Pacific. The Mrs checked in a few minutes after that – and I said words to the effect of, “I think Trump might have this”. She said, “told you so” and exited.

By the time the MSM got around to calling Florida at 7:50pm my time, I was starting to perceive – looking at numbers elsewhere, as well – that the MSM was slow-walking the State calls because they didn’t want to get out in front of Hillary and her team. Until they told the MSM it was ok to call the race, the race wouldn’t be called. From that point on, the night got merely irritating. The sycophancy of these people! The numbers were the numbers; the votes were being counted. They were holding back calling States which had 90%+ in and all of Hillary’s territory reported. It really isn’t as difficult to call a State as the MSM was making out that night…and the number-crunchers working for the MSM were doing all they could to let everyone paying attention know that it was all over. They kept going back to the un-called States and pointing out, relentlessly, that there simply weren’t enough possible Hillary votes to overcome Trump leads in State after State. The Mrs hung it up at 10pm our time and went to bed – I kept hanging on, hoping to see Hillary concede. It was only after the report flashed that Hillary had called Trump that the MSM called the necessary States to show Trump over 270.

To me, the lesson of the night was simply to ignore the MSM, entirely. They will not do anything against the wishes of the Democrats. There is really just no point in listening to them any more, except for laughs. In areas non-political, they might some times get things right, if only by accident. But in anything which can be construed as political, they are just going to take their marching orders – and talking points – from the DNC, no matter how divorced from reality DNC press releases are. What will happen over the next years is unknown – but the last thing I’ll do is follow the lead of the MSM. I’m going with whatever facts I can find…and I should have been more bold in 2016 when I saw that a net 100,000 people had switched from Democrat to Republican in Pennsylvania. That, right there, was the whole story: people were abandoning the Democrats in droves. And I’ve seen reports, buried deep, that they have continued to abandon the Democrats all through 2017, as well. The proof will be in the pudding, of course – we’ll see how things shake out when the votes are counted. But I’m betting that they’ll be counted mostly in Trump’s favor for quite a while.

Lot of News Open Thread

Mark Noonan60 Comments

So much, that I can’t really think of it all…but this is the stuff which has stuck in my mind today:

Democracy for America has pulled it’s support for Virginia’s Democrat candidate for governor – he, apparently, was insufficiently in tune with the Party Line on immigration. Now, why did Northam fall into heresy? I can only surmise that the Republican candidate’s attacks on the immigration issue are bearing fruit and Northam felt he had to so something with the election coming on Tuesday. Stay tuned.

Trump called for the death penalty for the NYC terror suspect and our Progressives friends got themselves into a snit that he didn’t call for the death penalty for the Vegas shooter…forgetting, I guess, that the Vegas shooter is already dead. Details – our Progressives ain’t too good with them.

A guy on his way out of employment at Twitter shut down Trump’s Twitter account. Liberals were temporarily pleased.

Democrats seem to have decided to throw Hillary under the bus: starting with Donna Brazile admitting that the primaries were rigged for Hillary. Also admitting that Obama left the DNC $24 million in debt. Also also admitting that Hillary seemed to use donations to the DNC as a slush fund for her Presidential campaign. Also also also Brazile glossing over her responsibility for all this. The only question is whether they are doing this just to get rid of a political barnacle, or whether they’ve been tipped off by Mueller’s team that bad news is coming.

Melania Trump to be protected by an all-female Japanese security team – which sounds really, really awesome. I hope she’s got a lair in some island volcano somewhere…

The GOP tax plan strips out the ability of illegal immigrants to get various tax credits. Which is a big, “no duh” for most of us because, you know, they are illegal and not supposed to even be in the country, let alone getting tax credits. There are other good things in there – also some things which seem a bit more dodgy. We’ll have to see what finally comes out of the Congressional sausage factory.

The Bolsheviks are calling for Revolution on November 4th. Not particularly worried. Don’t get me wrong: these guys ever get on top and you and I are going to be sharing bunks at the re-education camp; but these guys are simply nuts, at the moment.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan36 Comments

In the Progressive paradise of Sacramento, California, 200 women have signed a letter claiming massive sexual harassment. Not a single person is surprised. But I did make Twitchy for the second time over it.

I’ll give you a moment to, once again, bask in my reflected glory.

This has been noted in the comments here, but it is worth it’s own entry: George Washington’s Church – the Church helped pay for, that is, and worshiped in for many years of his life – wants to take down a plaque in his honor. As you know, I was ok with tearing down Confederate statues (or, at least, moving them away from public squares), but now I’ve reconsidered: this isn’t about who and how we honor, but just a foot in the door in erasing all of American history. If the left wants to fight a political battle over this issue, then let’s have at it: we win.

Medical science is hard at work on anti-aging treatments. I don’t like this, all that much. I know it’d be great to keep the eyesight and not lose muscle and bone mass as we age. I totally understand that. But do we really want to live to be 150 or 200 years old? We can barely contain our wickedness with 80 years…give us people who at 110 are just as vigorous as people today are at, say, 40, and we’ll be opening up a can of worms which we might well come to regret. People who start to think themselves immortal are going to start getting ever more filled with pride. Everyone is still going to die: living a very long life is probably just going to make it harder for people to do so. I’m just glad this thing won’t be fully developed until I’m out of here.

Sometimes, a RINO has a purpose: Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) calls for DNC and Clinton campaign officials to re-testify about the Trump dossier.

The Virginia governors race is turning on the immigration issue: the bottom line question is whether or not Democrats agree we should have borders. The Experts are telling us that the Democrat is set to win…but the Experts also told us Hillary was going to win. We’ll have to see how it comes out…but if the Republican wins (I rate it 50/50), it will be just more evidence that the electorate is changing.

Find the Jobs

Mark Noonan36 Comments

Here’s a story that is bound to bring a smile to Conservative faces: Progressive pizza shop that tried to pay fair wages (as defined by Progs) goes out of business. And, yes, reading it you can see the utter silliness of Progressive thinking. But what isn’t being noticed is, in my mind, the most important thing: the Progs are trying to gin up $15.00 an hour jobs out of $5.00 an hour jobs because they cannot see other types of jobs.

A Progressive sees things like “lawyer”, “professor”, “community organizer” and says, “hey, what great, well-paid jobs!”, while also realizing that not everyone is cut out to be such…but they have to do something, right? So, $15.00 an hour for making pizza. But is it any better on the right? Not really – most on the right also don’t see any jobs but the sort of jobs they know about…and if you can’t get them, well, to bad, so sad. This has the benefit of not stupidly believing that a pizza slicer can make $15.00 an hour, but it has the drawback of not having any sort of $15.00 an hour job for average folks out there. A bit of a shift in understanding is required.

In 2015 (the most recent year I can find any numbers on), the United States consumed 132.8 million metric tons of steel. In that same year, the United States produced 78.9 million metric tons of steel. Do the math and you can see we imported 53.9 million metric tons. The American steel industry has been operating for some years now at about 70% of capacity. What can we get from this?

1. We produce a lot of steel.
2. We can produce a lot more steel, even without building more plants.
3. We import a lot of steel.
4. Given how much we use, there is clearly a massive market for steel.
5. Given that we do produce quite a lot of it, we can make steel profitably.

So, if we use that much steel and we can make that much steel at a good enough profit to justify making steel, why do we import any steel, at all?

Right now, a steel worker makes a bit more than $20 an hour. Not a bad wage. Given that we import 40.58% of our steel, it stands to reason that we can employ a very large number of additional people making steel at $20.00 an hour. It also seems to me that figuring out a way to boost American steel production is a much better way to provide better wages than to either ignore the problem (as the right mostly does) or to demand that burger-flippers get paid near-steel industry wages (as the left stupidly demands). Do keep in mind, this is just talking about steel workers – but steel is made of things like iron and coal and a host of other materials that have to be produced, refined and shipped…all jobs that, also, pay more than burger flipping and which are clearly profitable industries in the United States because we already do them at a profit.

I’m sure the answer is varied for why we don’t. Our tax policies are insane. Our regulatory policies even more so. We allow foreign producers to dump their product on our market because our investor class has a vested interest in high profit margins on their overseas investments. We have environmentalists going nuts over any sort of productive activity. We have upper class twits who don’t want dirty industries anywhere near them. On and on like that – but we must cut that all out. If you want to see the future of America, think of it as 150 million welfare bums, hooked on drugs, sitting around while Progs “fight for 15” and Conservatives write another article about how great free trade is. Unless, that is, we find a way. Just do it – there’s a way to get the United States not only producing the 132.8 million tons of steel we use, but also exporting an additional 100 million tons. Don’t tell me it can’t be done – it can be done. It already is being done…and if it isn’t being done in sufficient volume to employ every single American in a well-paid job, then it is simply because we’re preventing it from happening.

Scandal Sheet

Mark Noonan5 Comments

We have discussed the overall scandals, but here’s what I’ve got right now:

The Uranium One scandal is a major thing – and Obama’s Administration made sure it happened (with Hillary leading the way) and then covered it up.

The Dossier Scandal is smaller in scale, but very important – paid for at least partially by Team Hillary, it was used by the Obama Administration to justify spying on Team Trump during and after the 2016 campaign (it appears other justifications were used, as well). In the end, this bogus dossier is the central part of the so-called Trump/Russia scandal…it was used, ultimately, to say “there’s something to be investigated, here” and so bring on Mueller.

Mueller, it seems to me, was brought in via Comey’s machinations – and just why would you want that when you know full well that the Trump/Russia concept was a mere figment of the imagination? To make sure the cover-up of the Uranium One scandal stayed in place, as far as I can see.

I don’t perceive a connection at this time between the Uranium One/Dossier scandals and the Awan IT scandal. But, stay tuned.

Flake Out

Mark Noonan7 Comments

Ace posts an interesting list gathered by Jason Johnson about Flake:

1) Tempting to comment on Flake’s floor speech. Instead, offering context on his view of “governing” by highlighting a few of his votes.

2) Jeff Flake was 1 of 10 Republican senators who voted to confirm Loretta Lynch for Attorney General

3) Flake voted to fund President Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty.

4) Flake voted against Sen. Mike Lee’s 1st Amendment Defense Act

5) Flake voted for Obama’s $1.1 trillion Cromnibus 2015 spending bill

6) Flake voted to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank

7) Flake voted for S.2114 which increased Russia’s power at the International Monetary Fund

8) Flake voted for a CLEAN debt limit suspension (2014)

9) Flake was 1 of 11 Republican senators who voted to confirm Janet Yellen

10) Flake voted for the Ryan-Murray budget which lifted spending caps & raised fees (taxes) in exchange for promises of future spending cuts

11) Flake voted for the Gang of 8 amnesty bill

12) Flake voted for the post-Newtown gun grab

13) Flake voted AGAINST The Defund Obamacare Act of 2013 (S.1292)

14) Flake voted to increase debt by $900 billion in exchange for the promise of discretionary cuts in the future (2011)

15) Flake preferred John Kasich over Cruz or Trump in the 2016 GOP Primary.

This is Conservatism? This is principled leadership? My comment earlier in the day over an MSM article saying that Flake was “appalled” by Trump that we Conservatives were rather appalled by a guy who thinks cheap labor and trade deals with Chinese tyrants are Conservative.

I’ve seen polling which shows Flake at about 18% approval rating – he was going to lose next year, no matter what. It seems he’s managed to anger both the Democrats and the GOP in Arizona. People just weren’t going to buy it…especially not GOP voters. Everyone knew what he’d do in a re-election bid…talk a huge game of Conservatism, and then just knife us in the back once he was re-elected. Dumping him does put the GOP Seat at risk, but what good has having it in GOP hands done for us?

Corker and Flake out means we’ve got a couple weak members out – and have a very solid shot of replacing both of them with people we can rely on. We also have a good chance of picking up a net of 4 or 5 Senate seats next year. If this gets done, the few remaining RINOs will simply be overwhelmed (either out-voted or terrified of being primaried if they stray). Could be a lot of good things coming our way in 2019.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan2 Comments

Shocking news! Trump supporters still want the Wall.

I’ll pause a moment while you recover.

All better, now? Ok, on we go.

Did you hear that the WHO appointed Robert Mugabe a goodwill ambassador? I’ve heard they’ve reconsidered the move, but the fact that they made it, at all, says all that needs to be said about the UN and associated organizations. They are corrupt to the bone and not worthy of the attention of decent people. The sooner we abandon this relic of Yalta, the better.

Lindsay Graham said he had no idea that US troops were in Niger. I admit, myself, to being rather hazy on it…I seem to recall a decision to send some forces into that part of Africa a few years back, but let’s face it: the MSM didn’t actually report much on this particular Obama War. But, still, Graham is a Senator. He gets briefed on these things – I don’t know what is actually worse: the prospect that he’s lying about not knowing, or the real possibility that he simply didn’t know.

Andrew Sullivan is of the opinion that immigration is the issue which could lose the next election for the Democrats. There is some truth to that, but I think the larger point is that our Ruling Class’ (here and Europe) determination to have open borders indicates contempt for the Ruled. There is a sense that those in charge want to have the immigrants in not so much for the sake of the immigrants, but simply so they can preen themselves about being morally superior to those who have questions about open immigration. The continued rush by the Ruling Class to press forward on the Progressive plan as if Hillary had won last year is merely building up a mountain of disgust on the part of the regular folks…who will, I think, make the Ruling Class pay at the polls.

Thinking About Those Who Give All

Mark Noonan25 Comments

Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t think that Trump’s comments to the widow – if they were accurately reported – were offensive. I can just imagine my father saying pretty much the same thing had I died during my Navy service. I’ve read some comments from some veterans claiming to be offended and I’m not going to call them wrong for viewing it that way, but for me and the veterans I know, it was just a thing to be said. When we signed up, we all knew it was possible. To be sure, we all thought, if it came to combat, “it’ll be you and you and you, but not me”, but we also knew that the reality could be very different.

And it all got me thinking that we’re taking the whole thing of death a bit the wrong way. We all, as Shakespeare said, owe God a death. We hope to have our line of credit extended indefinitely (as Manchester in his autobiography about his war experiences put it), but death does come for us all in the by and by. And I think that, these days, we get entirely too maudlin about death.

I’m not thinking we should get all Spartan about it – “come home with your shield, or on it”; was what Spartan mothers would say to their sons going off to war – but, perhaps, a bit more Roman?

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.”

Or another view, similar, which I’ve quoted here years before:

Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!

Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,
Where there’s no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart’s long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.

That was Rupert Brooke, written as he went off to World War One. He got his death, and while very sorrowful for his many friends, it was still a glorious thing and he a man worthy of honor and remembrance. And I think that a lot of our people who seem ill at ease around death are those “sick hearts that honour could not move”. People who shrink from any real sacrifice – whether it is the sacrifice of merely having children and being decent parents; the sacrifice of keeping at a dreary job because one has responsibilities…or the sacrifice of one’s life in a cause.

I am getting old, now; not quite old, yet – but getting there. There is more time behind me than in front. I have done many things to be ashamed of, but there are a few things I’ve done which please me. I’ve kept my promise in some things, that is – and one of them was to be a Sailor in the United States Navy. Had I died as a young man in the Navy, I’d likely be nearly forgotten by now. Decades would have passed; my parents are now dead. My brothers and sisters would, at times, be reminded they once had a brother who is no longer there…but I wouldn’t be much more than a fleeting memory; a life cut short on this Earth. But, for all that, we are all doomed to be forgotten on this Earth. Whether one believes in the religious or the purely materialistic view of the world, eventually everything we do here becomes less than a memory here. We who have religion believe there is something much greater beyond this world, but even we believe that this world is doomed. You can take one of two courses of action in light of this: to either greedily grab on to every bit of life you can, or to merely try to do the right thing by others, even if it means you die and they go on. To those who greedily grab on to life, the fact that a life is cut short is the worst crime. To those who take the other view, it is the life that is poorly lived, long or short, which is the worst crime.

It is terribly sad for us – especially as we grow older – to see a young person die. Even for those of us with religious belief, there seems to be something very wrong in a young person, so full of promise, to be taken away from us. But there is something else to ponder about those who die young:

Right you guessed the rising morrow
And scorned to tread the mire you must:
Dust’s your wages, son of sorrow,
But men may come to worse than dust.

Souls undone, undoing others,-
Long time since the tale began.
You would not live to wrong your brothers:
Oh lad, you died as fits a man.

Now to your grave shall friend and stranger
With ruth and some with envy come:
Undishonoured, clear of danger,
Clean of guilt, pass hence and home.

Turn safe to rest, no dreams, no waking;
And here, man, here’s the wreath I’ve made:
‘Tis not a gift that’s worth the taking,
But wear it and it will not fade.

That is from A Shropeshire Lad – which is not exactly what I’m looking for, but it does address the issue of whether death is the worst thing which can happen. A man (or, these days, a woman) who goes to war is doing an act of sublime self-sacrifice. This is especially true in our modern age where we do not conscript people into war (and God grant we never do, again). That young man or woman who dons our nation’s uniform may have all sorts of bad in him or her. But by putting their lives on the line, they are balancing that bad – and if they do end up giving their life for their country, then they have carried out the greatest love of all, that a person should give his or her life for their friends. C. S. Lewis pointed out that had he, in his World War One service, shot a German in the same instant the German shot him, they’d both probably have wound up in heaven and had a good laugh about it. At such a moment, a person’s selfish desires are at their lowest ebb and their willingness to sacrifice to save others at the highest pitch. And as we must all die, why is this the worst way to die?

I would, of course, that all the young people today could live to a hundred and during their long lives have nothing but the blessings of peace, love and prosperity. But we all know that won’t happen. Even in the best of our lives, there is pain. And, at the end of it, death. We should avoid war because it is wrong to kill. But some times it becomes necessary to kill in order to defend what we hold most dear. And if we have to kill, it is certain that some of ours will be killed. To feel sorrow at their deaths is natural and beautiful – but to take their death and keep it separate from their courage is wrong. They, I think, would not want to be merely remembered as those who died, but as those who did something very special.

Busy Week Open Thread

Mark Noonan18 Comments

Governor Brown of California had a flash of sanity. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembered that due process of law is rather a good thing.

Salon made up a list of Conservatives worth following on Twitter. You now have your list of who not to follow.

Harvey Weinstein has been demoted from Progressive Hero to Evil Defender of Patriarchy. Bill retains his position as Progressive Hero, however.

You’re a racist. No, really – Progressives say so. Again.

Trump and McConnell had a get together. I think the Trumpsters are doing wrong by McConnell. As I’ve said before, he’s probably one of the most reliable people trying to help Trump…if only because he knows that if Trump wins, the GOP wins; if Trump loses, the GOP loses.

Don Surber has some observations about the press and freedom. My view: a free press is only worthwhile if it isn’t all on one side. Biased journalism isn’t the problem – the press has always been biased. Used to be, however, that there was biased journalism in favor of all sides…and so, in the aggregate, the truth would come out. These days, 90% of the press (at least) is all on one side…and that they pretend to objectivity merely makes their bias more pronounced.

Jimmy Kimmel isn’t upset that Republicans no longer watch his show. I’ve never seen it, so I wouldn’t know.

O J Simpson is out searching for the real killers partying with women. The only thing I don’t understand: why any woman, even for pay, would want to be around him?

Our SJW friends have moved on from toppling Lee to going after statues of Lincoln. This is just how the left is – but I think that people tire, at long last, of it all. The proof will be in the electoral pudding, but I think that 2018 and 2020 will surprise a lot of people.

Yet another fake hate crime. These days, I always work on the assumption that hate crimes are all fake. There just aren’t enough real racists left in America to sustain a hate crime campaign. Tops, a few hundred thousand Americans subscribe to the absurdity that a person is inferior based on skin color. In order to keep race hatred alive, the race-baiters are forced to use fraud.