Conserving Civilization – With Babies and Foreigners

Mark Noonan33 Comments

Been watching Social Media and the universal seems to be that Representative Steve King (R-IA) is a horrific racist – the offense comes from this tweet:

Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.

There was no reference to what particular ethnic group of babies were desired, but it is taken as a given – by plenty on the right as well as nearly all the left – that he meant “white babies”. Because, what else could he have meant?

That is our Rorschach on this, right? Given that we all know (know – meaning, we all agree to the Progressive Narrative, even if we’re Conservative, because one thing a Conservative can’t ever do is stray from the rules provided by the Progressives) that Trump appeals to racists (in his greedy quest for power, wealth and selling the United States to Putin for an option to build a casino in Sochi), any statement by him or his supporters which isn’t explicitly inclusive of all races must be a racist statement. King, you see, should have tweeted out, “We can’t restore our civilization without having our own black, Latino, Native American, Asian, Jewish and Muslim babies”. Hey, Mark – some of you ask – why didn’t you include white babies in there? Because if you do that, you’re racist. In fact, might have been better if he tweeted out, “We can’t restore our civilization without all sorts of babies, except white babies”. But even that probably wouldn’t have been good enough. It would really have to go, “Our civilization is a horrible, lousy thing built on racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, sexism, war and greed and anyone who wants to restore it is racist”. That might have passed muster.

King’s statement is wrong in that the genius of American civilization (presumptively, what he wishes to restore) is that it can take Non-Americans and turn them into Americans. Whether or not he meant it in a purely racist sense is beyond my reckoning, given that I’m not clairvoyant and thus lack the ability to read his mind. That aside, in a very real sense, the son of a Vietnamese refugee has ancestors who fought at Bunker Hill. As long as he adopts the ideal of America, it doesn’t matter that his ancestor got here 200 years after the battle. Meanwhile, someone who rejects the ideal of America, even if he had an actual blood relative at the battle, isn’t American. America, you see, isn’t a place – it is an idea. Sure, we have our physical territory, but America is built on a Creed as much as, say, the Catholic Church is. The Church used to directly rule a fair portion of Europe – now it directly rules only a few acres inside the city of Rome…but it is no less Catholic than it was when it ruled a large, temporal estate because the Church isn’t based on land, but on an idea. If we Americans who have generations in this nation cease to have children but we continue to transmit our ideal to the most recent arrival, then America continues.

This is a bit different from every other nation on Earth – Japan being a rather extreme example of a nation being a specific people in a specific place, but even in places like Germany and Spain, it is difficult for a foreigner to become fully integrated into the society, at least for many generations. The only other nations which approximate what we do are the United Kingdom and former parts of Britain’s Empire like Australia and Canada. Because they, too, have a bit of an ideal which transcends ethnicity and place. It isn’t quite like ours – ours is written in the Declaration of Independence (it is also in the Constitution, but that can be altered or abolished…nothing can ever be done to alter the Declaration). One close friend I grew up with was the son of parents who were born outside the United States…but there was no fundamental difference between those of us who had family for centuries in this land and him. It is that quick – when the ideal of America is imparted.

And it is in the task of transmitting the idea of America that we are failing – and failing very badly. The primary cause for this failure rests on the left. It is the left which is determined to break us up into warring tribes which keep to themselves and never absorb the American ideal. It is a divide and rule tactic; a tactic as old as the first Ruling Class to ever emerge, I imagine. But this failure is seconded by many on the right. The way this is done is to presume that only certain types of people can be American and transmit the American ideal. The worst part of this group are the out and out racists – people imbued with a species of warmed-over blood and soil neo-Nazi drivel. But even outside of that, we have a problem. If our worry is that only people of Western Civilization can become American, then I hate to break it to you, but Mexicans are as much a part of Western Civilization as we are. They are a mixed lot, but so are we – and they still get their Civilization from a Judeo-Christian, European base just as we do. Try to point this out to some on the right and you’ll get an earful…flip it around and try to explain to supposedly Latino-loving Progressives that Cortez was a heroic person and you’ll get another earful. Both sides have taken up positions which are simply not true – the left that America is so bad that it needs to change into something else, the right that you have to be of a certain type to be American. But let’s be sensible – a Mexican can easily become an American, if he wants to and if we insist upon it as the price for entry. So, too, can a Chinese, a Pakistani, a Nigerian…anyone. All it takes is a desire to be American, and then learning the ropes, as it were, of being an American.

I say to the left – cease your attempts at dividing us. I say to the right – cease your adherence to nonsensical ideas about who can be what. Our job, as Conservatives, is to conserve our civilization – and that means transmitting it to both American babies, and foreigners who wish to become American. It really isn’t a difficult task. The sons of Germans became Americans and fought Germans with gusto in World War Two. The sons of Japanese, become Americans, would have fought the Japanese with equal gusto, had we let them (instead, we sent them off to kill Germans – and a fine job they did of it).

I’m descended from a wide variety of ancestors – my surname comes from Ireland, but I haven’t the least feeling for Ireland, as such. Just another foreign country. Imagine, though, if my family had kept up the Irish feeling with intensity – and if my fellow Americans had kept up their intense feeling that an Irishman couldn’t be a proper American…you know, what with being a member of a despised, violent race which was also Catholic and thus owed allegiance to the Pope? I’d likely be locked into an impoverished, Irish ghetto and be mindlessly mouthing hatred of Protestants in general, and Britain in particular…while also taking great exception to the United States as a nation of fine words, but bad actions. But, it wasn’t like that – my great-great-grandfather became American, and by the time his son was an adult, the family was so American that great-grandpa became a wheelhorse of Democrat politics in New Jersey…and his daughter became a Hollywood star.

It is past time we left off this fight over differently wrong ideas. E pluribus unum really is a worthwhile thing. All it takes is a desire that it should be so. I fear we are losing that desire and if we do, then very bad things will follow.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan9 Comments

CNN is still working the Russian angle. Get a grip, for crying out loud. Trump’s actions in office have worked to Russia’s detriment.

Looks like a very old man in Minnesota may have been a henchman of the Nazis. His family still doubts it, but given where he’s from, it could well be true. He’s 98, so sending him to jail is not really a practical option. I do have a bit of sympathy for the Ukranian people as they were caught in the vise of World War Two. They were split between Poland and Stalin’s Russia before the war – and while the Poles weren’t remotely as bad as Stalin, they still carried out a lot of repression of the Ukranian people. Then the war came – Germans were fighting the Poles, and then the Russians…the temptation to throw in with the Germans must have been overwhelming. Very many Ukranians did. Stepan Bandera was the leader of those who fought alongside the Germans – but showing the bizarre realities of the time, two of his brothers were sent to Auschwitz…there to be killed by Polish patriots. Bandera, himself, wound up in Gestapo custody for a while. The Banderists, as the Russians called them, kept up the fight after the war – the last of them being rounded up in 1958. This is not to excuse any crimes the Ukrainians committed – but it is a plea for a careful understanding of the stresses people can be put under.

Britain has approved Brexit and will now start the negotiations for leaving. Scotland, meanwhile, appears to be opting to vote on secession from Great Britain and to stay in the EU. Bizarre that the Scots may opt out of governing themselves in favor of having un-elected bureaucrats in Brussels decide their fate. But, such is the pull of the welfare State…and the EU is far more welfare-y than the UK…for the UK (what remains of it), without Scotland you can expect the Labour party to be in the wilderness for quite a long time, as Scotland provides a huge number of Labour votes.

Preet Bharara is not the hero of the legal world people are making him out to be:

But — and I want to be clear here — Bharara’s refusal to resign wasn’t about principle. It was about putting himself publicly on the side of anti-Trump Democrats, no doubt in the expectation of future rewards, political or professional. It was not a brave act. It was, in fact, a species of corruption.

Do you want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump: environmentalists vandalize a Trump golf course.

Robert Stacy McCain describes feminists:

What part of crazy do I have to explain here? Feminists are berserk, bonkers, deranged, demented, delusional, irrational, non compos mentis, unhinged, wacky, psycho, off their rockers, nuttier than squirrel farts, a few fries short of a Happy Meal and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

Don Surber has some words about the CBO scoring of TrumpCare. I don’t think many have kind words to say about it – personally, I think it is an opening gambit in what will be a protracted series of negotiations until we get Trump’s bare minimum (repeal; replace; cross-border insurance sales; no one loses coverage) and whatever else he can tack on there (and others who figure it out get tacked on there). It is going to be messy, folks – but whatever emerges will at least be better than ObamaCare.

Merkel apparently wants to move Trump her way. She’ll fail.

Democrats say they’ll go for a government shut down to stop Trump’s wall. Democrats have convinced themselves that opposing Trump up and down the line is the way to go – in their minds, it was GOP knee-jerk opposition to Obama which won Congress and, ultimately, the White House. They fail to note that the GOP was opposing massively unpopular Obama policies…while the border wall is not ragingly popular among the entire population, it is very popular among Trump voters…opposing it just makes certain they can’t peel off Trumpsters in 2018 and 2020. Another thing being talked up is if the Democrats will suffer electorally because of a shutdown – this on the theory that the GOP suffered when it triggered shut downs in the past…the only flaw in that theory is that the GOP never suffered at all because of government shut downs. Finally, if the Dems do shut it down, I can bet that Trump’s tactic will be the opposite of Obama’s. Obama tried to make it painful – to make people think that without government, life can’t be lived. Trump will try to minimize any effect of a shut down so that people will start to understand that a great deal of government is entirely pointless.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan22 Comments

Seems that in districts where Trump won, he won overwhelmingly – and in districts where Hillary won, she won overwhelmingly. I can’t help but be reminded of something I read once upon a time – political operatives, reading the results of some local elections prior to the 1860 Presidential election (we didn’t vote for Congress all in one day back then), said, “these are Civil War returns”…meaning, the nation was so divided that it was as if two different nations existed. Trump’s primary job over the next four years is to find a way to change that…to get us back into a place where we aren’t so divided from one another. Of course, with the left calling him Hitler II, that is difficult…but, then again, the over-the-top rhetoric might also make the left so toxic that people turn to Trump as the reasonable alternative. It can happen – Britain’s Labour Party picked a leader so far-left that there is a chance that in the next British elections, the Tory party could win an outright majority of votes…something no party in Britain has done since 1931.

Some EPA bureaucrats are quitting. Good.

Careful, Democrats – you may get what you wish for. AG Sessions open to a special prosecutor. Hate to break it to you, Democrats, but for the previous 8 years it was your guys in charge and that means the chances that they were breaking laws is vastly higher than any chance Trump did.

Hatch to seek another term in 2018: with Trump’s backing. People are still saying that Trump is thin skinned, doesn’t know how to do politics, is kinda dumb…people will continue to be shocked by his winning, too.

Alleged super-genius Stephen Hawking says that without a world government, technology will destroy us. This is why people shouldn’t stray out of their area of expertise…and in all of Hawking’s super-geniusing, he apparently has yet to crack open 1984 or The Gulag Archipelago. Technology is just a tool, Mr Hawking – it is what people do with the tool which is good or bad. And handing all the tools to a few people who must necessarily have a limited connection with the needs of everyday folks is a recipe for ensuring the tools will be used for evil.

Progressive guy goes on a rant about how great Blue America is compared to Red America…fails to notice, among many other things, that California can’t build a high speed rail without federal subsidies…and the one they are trying to build is already way over budget and behind schedule. Sorry, Proggies, you think it is your side of the country making all the swell stuff and supporting everyone else but the reality is that your wealth is based upon trade…which would flow through your blue port cities whether you are Progressive, or not. Take away the trade (and the massive federal subsidies for higher education), and just what, exactly, does San Francisco provide for us? Food? No. Water? No. Steel? No. Lumber? No. Oil? No. Natural Gas? No. Anything?

Too good to check: Russian hackers have the goods on Progressive groups and are holding them up for ransom.

Victor Davis Hanson notices the bizarre disconnect in the minds of our Progressive leaders:

We have become an arrogant generation that virtue-signals that we can change the universe when in reality we cannot even run an awards ceremony, plow snow, fix potholes, build a road or dam, or stop inner-city youths from murdering one another.

Do our smug politicians promise utopia because they cannot cope with reality? Do lectures compensate for inaction? Do we fault past generations of Americans — who drank too many Cokes and smoked too many cigarettes — because we are ashamed that we lack their vision, confidence, and ability to build another Oroville Dam or a six-lane freeway, or to stop criminals from turning urban weekends into the Wild West?

Never Trump: Let Me Explain This to You

Mark Noonan46 Comments

Hey, hey, LBJ: how many kids did you kill today?

Thus went the chant of the 60’s radicals. We’re supposed to call them “anti-war protestors”, but if they were anti-war, they would have been just as opposed to the war being waged by the government of North Vietnam as they were displeased with the American effort. Of course, they had nothing bad to say about North Vietnam’s war. This is because it wasn’t about being against the war (or war, in general) but about being against the United States and its South Vietnamese allies winning the war. And, so, led by hard left radicals, the protestors set about saying the most outrageous, slanderous and cruel things they could about American leaders. I bring this up because there’s a direct line from that chant to the slogans being used today by protest groups led by hard left radicals.

Whatever one wishes to say about President Johnson and the Vietnam War (and I’ve got plenty of negative things to say on both subjects), the bottom line is that Johnson was the leader of the good guys during the war (as was Nixon, after him). This is not to say that Johnson didn’t do wrong: he did plenty wrong. But he wasn’t the bloodthirsty, hate-filled monster the protestors made him out to be. And while those protestors were chanting their slanderous cruelty, it was taken as a given that no one was supposed to say the same things back at them. People back then who pointed out that the protestors were mere stooges of Communist aggression and were working for the eventual murder and enslavement of millions were considered the kooks. People outside the pale of decent society. The only people allowed to be nasty were those of the left – and then it was a requirement that everyone else treat them as if they were reasonable, responsible members of society.

Post-Johnson, the Democrats learned their lesson: make sure the hard left never has bad things to say about you. Do that, and you can do whatever you want and the only slanders will be launched against Republicans. Democrats could have done the honorable thing and continued to fight the hard left, but it was much easier to co-opt the hard left (money talks, folks – and he who can dispense bags of government cash to Progressive groups will find they have a life-long friend). Much easier and it provided a convenient attack dog – any time a Republican got out of line, out came the Progressive protestors to slander said Republican. And, over time, the hard left Progressives managed to gain full control of the Democrats…and, now, it became the rule that Democrats could act like hard left people (ie, say nasty things which were untrue about their opponents) and be immune from like criticism.

Back in October I wrote and article called You Can’t Say That About Democrats. I was a bit astonished – it was after Trump had rudely got into Hillary’s face during the debate and just hammered her relentlessly. The pundit class were sure that his performance had done him in. We know, now, that it didn’t. But at the time, I wasn’t at all sure that Trump had done himself a favor with that because I, too, was of the unconscious opinion that no matter how outrageous Democrats and the overall left behaved, we weren’t allowed to be like them. They could call us racists, sexists, homophobes, Nazis, fascists; they could riot; burn; loot; threaten violence…they could do whatever they wanted and we could never do a darned thing about it.

But, as it turns out, we can – or, at least, Trump could. Throwing away the Cracker Jack Book of GOP Politics (which has the GOP ritually committing political suicide every election – though some times winning in spite of themselves because Democrats are just really, really dumb when you get down to it), Trump just went at it…and as someone who grew up and thrived in the rude, vulgar and rather cut-throat world of real estate development, he simply did what came natural to him: punched back whenever he was hit. And punched back very, very hard.

And this is something, especially, that Never Trump didn’t get then, and don’t get now. With the recent fracas over Trump’s tapping accusations, we see it writ large. We’re not supposed to say things like that! In spite of the fact that President Obama proved himself both a bald-faced liar (“you can keep your plan”) and someone willing to allow government power to be used against his opponents (IRS scandal), we were still not supposed to mention it – not in any serious way which would cause him any grief. That is just unkind, you see? Its the sort of thing, if said at the swell parties, which would result in a frosty silence and no more invitations to the swell parties. Trump just went ahead and said it. And you darn well know he’s right! Given what we know of Obama and his team it would have been astonishing if the power of government wasn’t use against Trump. And I think they felt they need to, as well.

I don’t buy the claim that Hillary, et al was shocked on election night. She wouldn’t have gone to Michigan and Pennsylvania if she was supremely confident until, say, 9 pm Eastern (as the story goes) that her election was in the bag. I personally think that by late October there was enough evidence of a seismic shift in the race to scare the bejabbers out of Team Hillary and the Democrats – and, so, the last minute efforts in the “Blue Wall”…and, likely, last minute attempts to find something, anything, on Trump that might shift it back towards Hillary. That is where the attempted effort to tap Trump’s communications came from. Nothing, it would seem, was found (or we would have seen it, by now), but there was still enough there for a campaign of innuendo to be used…and that started towards the end of Obama’s Administration when orders were given to spread the collected data far and wide with the certainty that plenty of people would leak the results to the MSM.

But all that is coming out of it is slander, at the end of the day. Trump is not a Russian stooge (his foreign policy actions demonstrate this conclusively); Trump’s team is not at the beck and call of corrupt Russian business interests. There simply was no Russian hacking of the election, nor any Russian shifting of the election results. But for weeks now we’ve had this lie spread daily by the MSM and the Democrats…along with the accusations that Trump is a racist, sexist Nazi out to destroy all that is good and decent in the world. And for people like the Never Trumpers, the rule still is that we can’t say anything bad about Democrats. But, as Trump went, screw that. Of course we can – because they are being very bad people right now.

Plenty of very strong arguments can be made that Trump shouldn’t have been the GOP nominee. I’ve heard them – I made some of them. But once Trump became the nominee, it became an imperative to ensure his election. Obama had just spent 8 years corrupting American politics. Slush fund payoffs to favored groups; crony-Capitalism to donors; abuse of Presidential authority; refusal to enforce the laws fairly; the relentless use of dishonesty to advance Obama’s political goals…all of this ground up and gravely coarsened American political life. Hillary would have continued this for another 4 to 8 years, to the massive detriment of the United States. In fact, if we had wound up with 16 years of what Obama gave, we might have found our nation fatally wounded. To be sure, no one could tell what Trump would actually do – he made a lot of promises, but we all know about politicians and their promises. But, still, given what we knew about Obama and Hillary, we simply had to take a chance on Trump. For all the talk (very prevalent in Never Trump circles) that Trump represents a moral decline for the United States, the actuality is that he represents a moral step up from Obama and Hillary.

I get it that Trump hasn’t lived a life of Christian virtue. I get it that his new-found respect for religion may not be genuine (though, ever trying to live a life of Christian hope, I’m proceeding on the assumption that it is genuine). I get it that, personally, he can be quite vulgar. But has he ever had someone arrested for making a video because having that person arrested advances a political lie launched to cover up a massive policy error? No. Trump’s personal moral failings are one thing – but they pale in comparison to the betrayal of public trust represented by both Obama and Hillary. A politician who breaks the public trust while holding political power has put the lives, fortunes and sacred honor of every American at risk. Trump, only in office for a few weeks, simply hasn’t had the time to do the wrong that Obama and Hillary have done – and Hillary certainly would have continued to do, had she won. Trump may never betray the public trust as Obama and Hillary have.

Seeing as Obama and Hillary were just awful and that their supporters are continuing to act in a terrible manner, I see nothing amiss in Trump punching back. Why shouldn’t he? The only reason is the old rule that we can’t say that about Democrats. But that rule was written by Democrats to protect themselves from their actions as Democrats. Heck with that. I don’t see why we have to play nice while they play dirty. Sure, I’d like a political life where everyone treats the other fairly and we debate only solid aspects of policy. But that is not the world we live in. We don’t live in it because Democrats can’t live in it. A real debate about any issue will cut against what Democrats want – if not in total, then in enough to undercut the ability of Democrat to retain and exercise power.

As for Never Trumpers, I’d like to point out that if you got your way and forced Trump out of office then what we’ll get in replacement is a Democrat who will do precisely what Democrats do – lie, bribe, grift, use the power of government against opponents, enact ever more repressive laws against anyone who doesn’t toe the Progressive line. Trump may fail – only time will tell on that; but to help him fail is merely to help the Democrats. We must help Trump succeed – and that means meeting him honestly and fairly. When he does well, congratulate him. When he does poorly, offer fair criticism and suggest alternatives. When Democrats attack, fight back. That last bit is very important. It was disgusting the way some Republicans were quick to jump on the anti-Trump train as soon as the Russian story broke. What purpose was there in seconding Democrat complaints save to help Democrats back into power, where they can go about making life miserable for us? Why do something like that? I honestly don’t understand it.

I don’t understand it because there is no Democrat result which can be worse than any Trump result. No matter how bad you wish to think Trump is, the Democrats are worse – worse for us, worse for the nation as a whole. Until they are really and thoroughly defeated and go through their own wilderness time and rebuild themselves into a fair and honest political player, our only rational act is to do what we can to keep them out of power. This doesn’t mean become a Trump cheerleader, but for goodness sake, don’t jump in with them against Trump. There’s no upside to that. They are just trying to claw their way back into power so they can get back to bribing themselves and screwing us over.

It is time – past time, really – for everyone to make their choice. What do you want? Do you want the United States to do well, or do you want to tear down Trump because that makes you feel better? Remember, tearing down Trump – while making you feel better – will result in Democrats back in power. I fully expect that some of the stalwart Never Trumpers of today will find themselves, by 2020, full-fledged Progressive Democrats…arguing that a vote for Warren/Booker is a vote for decency. But for most Never Trumpers, I’m hoping that there is a turn to the better hope – a hope that Trump can do well; that we can help him do well. And by doing well, making our nation a better place to live. Let the Democrats do what they do. Don’t help them. Even if you don’t want to fight for Trump, don’t fight for them. Fight for America – and right now, the only way to do that is to somehow or another help Trump do what is right for America.

The Russians Ain’t Coming

Mark Noonan69 Comments

For anyone to hold that a meeting between then-Senator Sessions and the Russian Ambassador is bad, what must be believed is that the Russians altered the results of the election. That’s it, folks – you have to get that deep into the paranoid, conspiracy theory weeds to even think the meeting had a nefarious aspect to it. This is stuff akin to believing that the Moon landing was faked.

Now, let’s think about a few things:

1. Since Trump has become President, there has been a push to revive American military strength. This is something the Russians won’t like.

2. Since Trump has become President, there has been a push to get NATO to increase its military strength. This, also, is something the Russians won’t like.

3. Our Ambassador to the UN has called the Russians out on their actions. This is, again, something the Russians won’t like.

4. Trump is pressing for a big increase in American oil and natural gas production, thus undercutting the prime source of Russian income. Obviously, Russians will not be pleased by this.

So, even supposing you want to get into the fever swamps and believe that Russia altered the election result, what are they getting for their efforts? It seems to me that if Trump is a Russian stooge (I’ve seen a Never Trump guy who claims to be a former intelligence agent claim that Trump has been a deep plant for the Russians for 30 years!), then Trump is massively betraying his benefactors. There is not a single policy proposal Trump has put forward which can be construed as being pro-Russian in its primary intent. Meanwhile, plenty of Trump policies are working directly against Russia.

Do you start to see the level of stupid we’re getting to here? But, never let it be said that the Republican Party isn’t up to the task: of course as soon as the bogus story broke about Sessions there were several GOP Congresscritters quick to call for an independent counsel. To look into what? That is something they won’t answer – save in general terms about “Russian influence”. But, you can’t let them do that – you have to bring it back to the bedrock of this insanity. The “influence” purported to have occurred was to change the result of the 2016 election. Why on Earth would anyone – even the most RINO GOPer there is – want to be attached to something as asinine as this?

I can only guess that even now, with Trump sworn in and moving ahead with policies that are pretty popular among the American people, the Establishment still wants to reverse the 2016 result. If they can’t get Trump out, then at least they want to hamstring him by firing off so many questions about his people that nothing can be done. Do keep in mind that a honest and fair Attorney General looking into what has been going on will result in a lot of people going to jail – Democrats, of course, but plenty of Republicans, as well. Don Surber has a good point in calling for Trump to invest in some oppo research…dig up the dirt on these Establishment clowns and hold it over their heads. But I think more is needed.

I’m disappointed that Sessions agreed to recuse himself – from what? Is what I ask. But even if there is something there, screw the niceties. I want Sessions to publicly lead the investigation not just into Russian but all foreign influence in the United States. I want to dig up all the pay for play influence peddling which we all darn well know is going on, and going on both sides of the aisle. We start indicting some of these clowns and they will know there’s a new sheriff in town and it’s time to cut it out with trying to undermine Trump. Beat him at the polls in 2018 and 2020, if you can, but no more of this “officials” leaking things.

I don’t think I’ve ever been this angry about politics before. I am utterly sick to death of this nonsense. An election happened; it went a certain way; deal with it. That we have to deal with insane, puerile nonsense while we’ve a nation to govern and a world to lead is too much. These people calling Trump a traitor based on a lunatic idea that he’s a Russian stooge – just let me note that the only people taking comfort from all this are armed enemies of the United States around the world.

Out and About on a Monday

Mark Noonan32 Comments

Fight for $15! Or, in this case, fight for Wendy’s to install 1,000 automated kiosks. Heckuva job there, Progressives…

For some, strange reason, ever since January 20th, our military actions have come in for close scrutiny by the MSM. Can’t imagine why.

Spain has a badly cratering birth rate – the solution? A Minister of Sex. So, legalize birth control and push it like it’s the wonder drug of all time. Then legalize abortion because Reasons. Then get your demographic crisis and create a government department to get people boinking, again. With or without birth control? That is unclear…

Craft beer – it’s sexist. Oh, don’t even try to act like you’re surprised.

Le Pen could win the French Presidential election. I doubt it – I figure that once she gets to the second round of voting, every last bit of the French Establishment will unite against her. This will result in a centrist French President which would be an improvement over the current Socialist, but not by much. Of course, don’t go thinking that Le Pen is Conservative – she’s a populist Statist who merely wants French welfare spending to go to French people (French politicians even as far back as the Bourbons have been relentless centralizers of power). Still, a win by Le Pen would be earth-shattering in France and probably quickly lead to the demise of the European Union.

Meanwhile, Trump – whom I suspected would govern as a populist Statist – is turning out to be quite a different sort of President, as Donald Surber points out. Trump may do more to restore the Constitutional balance in our Republic than we could ever hope to get from a standard GOPer. I don’t know if it’s entirely intentional, or just him following common sense…but he’s heading (mostly) the right way (we got to get his mind right on State’s legalizing dope and, more importantly, on reforming civil asset forfeiture).

Oddly, you had to show ID and use a paper ballot to vote for DNC Chair.

Great article at The American Thinker on the death of movement Conservatism and what comes next. As for me – a lot of Conservatives have revealed themselves to be Progressives who just want lower taxes (or Libertarians who’s only idea of liberty is legalized dope). I’m kinda glad they exposed themselves. Those who preferred Hillary to Trump have no way back, and good riddance to bad rubbish. Those who are now running with Progressive conspiracy theories about Trump are also diligently purging themselves from Conservatism. On the other hand, as the article points out, all is not rosy on our side…some rather kookish people have started to latch on to Conservatism (if someone has a kind word to say about Assange, that is a strong tell that “kook” is not far behind). I look forward to a better future – and a more genuine Conservatism which actually seeks to conserve things rather than just slow down and ratify Progressive ideas. But it is a rocky road in front of us.

Weekend Open Thread

Mark Noonan21 Comments

DHS is taking bids to build the border wall. Never Trump is saying endlessly that Trump won’t do what Trump said he’d do – but what I’m seeing in Trump is a man determined to carry out his promises. Now, maybe at the end of the day political realities prevent Trump from getting all he promised. That is actually fine – and anyone thinking they’ll beat Trump based on a promise not fulfilled will be missing a huge point: Trump is at least trying to carry out his promises. This is very unlike politicians on both sides who routinely start explaining why they can’t even try to carry out their promises.

Trump won’t be attending the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. Good – it is an exercise in silliness. All they do is attack Republicans, anyway.

The entertainment industry seems pretty determined to keep alienating large swaths of their audience.

Witches are casting a spell against Trump, his troops and, I guess, people who voted for him. Shall I break it to them that I include Trump in my Rosary? (yes, I included Obama in my daily prayers, as well, when he was in office). Sorry, witches, but Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, Our Lady of Perpetual help does Trump your spells.

Democrats choose an establishment party hack for chair. Some people – including a lot of Never Trumpers – are assuring everyone that the Democrats will win back the House in 2018 and then impeach Trump…which shows that both Never Trump and the Democrats simply cannot accept the 2016 result. I’ve had this and that to say about the 2018 prospects…I’ve made predictions before and I’ve been wrong (and right, some times), so take this as you like: anyone who thinks the Democrats will win the House in 2018 is delusional.

You’ll have to read this one to believe it – woman ticked off at man for opening the door for her.

The whole story of Trump being some sort of Russian stooge is nonsense – and here’s a good break down on it. The whole thing is just bizarre – I mean, Hillary was the one who engineered a big uranium deal for the Russians in apparent conjunction with Russian donations to her foundation…but Trump is the guy Putin wanted in the White House? Don’t get me wrong – Putin’s Russia is a problem for us and the Russians do seek to sow whatever chaos they can in the United States…but there is just no sense to the idea that Trump is Russia’s toady.

Out and About on a Wednesday

Mark Noonan35 Comments

There were those who figured they had to oppose Trump, even if it lead to a Hillary victory. Then there were those who understood that allowing a Progressive to win wasn’t worth it. But as it’s turning out, getting Trump in there is doing more to advance Conservative ideas than anything we’ve seen since Reagan – Legal Insurrection notes the changes at the EPA. We’ve got a boss over there who is committed to fact-based environmental policy and this is allowing Congressional GOPers to demand accountability and a bit of science without running into a Progressive brick wall. None of this would have happened if Hillary won – and with the exception of, perhaps, Cruz none of the other GOPers who could have made it would have brought any change like this.

Robert Reich figures the riots in Sweden were caused by Trump’s words – what I’d like Trump to do, now, is announce that I’ll win the lottery. Hey, if the guy has magical powers, I want a payoff!

CIA official takes a firm, moral stand against Trump and resigns…or, former Obama official/Clinton donor takes a powder before getting fired. Take your pick.

Booze isn’t allowed in space. I’m thinking that if human beings are to actually live in space long-term, they’ll eventually have to crack open a cold one. I think we need to really research what getting hammered in space is like. I volunteer to be flown to the ISS and tie one on – for Science!

James O’Keefe says he has hundreds of hours of footage of what goes on in the newsroom. Could be interesting.

North Korea – it’s really, really bad. Keep this in mind whenever anyone says we must not apply maximum force to an enemy during war time. Once the guns go off, the only thing American can accept is enemy surrender. Had we fought the Korean War to a victorious finish in the 1950’s, then we wouldn’t be troubled with North Korea today…ditto had we allowed the Israelis to go to full victory in either the Six Day or Yom Kippur wars. War is bad – not finishing a war is worse.

Texas is over-run with hogs – the solution, I think, it to over-run my grocery store with cheap bacon, but that’s just me.

Varad Mehta about journalists congratulating themselves on their Trump opposition:

For something to be revitalized, it must first have become defunct, gone extinct. The idea of renaissance implies the idea of a dark age out of which it emerges. Journalists sound very much as though a dark age has ended and that they have entered a renaissance. Perhaps they have. But if so, why were they in a dark age to begin with? Or to put it another way, if journalism’s back, where was it hiding for the last eight years?

There is no answer to this question that casts the media in a flattering light. At best, they were merely derelict; at worst, they refused to do their job for reasons of politics and partisanship.

As an aside, I started following Varad on Twitter during the 2016 campaign – exceptionally smart, well-informed man. He seems to be rising in the punditry world, and that is a good thing.

I’m sure if we asked the guys at Rush, we’d get a rather dim view from them about Trump…but, this might as well be the anthem of the Trump Era:

Fake News Open Thread

Mark Noonan22 Comments

The MSM was a-buzz with stories about how Trump said there was a terrorist attack in Sweden. Well, let’s go to the transcript:

Here’s the bottom line. We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening. We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris. We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country and there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing. So we’re going to keep our country safe.

Do you see anything in there which says, “there was a terrorist attack in Sweden”? No, of course you don’t – because there is nothing in there which says, “there was a terrorist attack in Sweden”. This is what is meant by “fake news” – and why most non-Democrats these days hold the MSM in utter contempt. Trump doesn’t speak in rounded, Churchillian sentences – it’s not his style. He’s not an experienced orator. Some times when he speaks it will be quite choppy in delivery and some ideas will get mashed together. But to make up out of whole cloth something that wasn’t there is infuriating. But, that is what the MSM does.

Latest report on the cultural enrichment front.

In a different angle of the fake news front, some on the right are condemning Pope Francis for saying there are no Muslim terrorists. Once again, let’s look at the transcript:

The other is a reflection that I shared at our most recent World Meeting of Popular Movements, and I feel is important to say it again: no people is criminal and no religion is terrorist. Christian terrorism does not exist, Jewish terrorism does not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not exist. They do not exist. No people is criminal or drug-trafficking or violent. “The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence yet, without equal opportunities, the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and will eventually explode.” There are fundamentalist and violent individuals in all peoples and religions—and with intolerant generalizations they become stronger because they feed on hate and xenophobia. By confronting terror with love, we work for peace.

This being in line with Sunday’s Bible reading:

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand over your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This is a difficult passage – very hard for us to even try to live up to. But it is the Pope’s job to try and get people to live up to it. Quite honestly, when you hear of a terrorist attack, right after you say a prayer for the victims you are supposed to say a prayer for the perpetrators, as well. No one ever said being Christian is easy. We really can’t confront the Muslim world with a unified voice and face of anger and hate – vigorously as we must battle those who are set on evil, yet we still have an obligation to reach out the hand of love and friendship to all, in the hope that even the worst will eventually grasp it.

On the other hand, this sort of thing is not at all helpful for anyone trying to bring a little love into the world. I view this sort of action as the result, however, of the West’s moral weakness. We’ve so degraded ourselves that we often can’t stand up for what is right.

Don Surber’s sequel to Trump the Press is out – Trump the Establishment. Pick up a copy, today.

And Don Surber notes that in the future, all movies will be made to please Chinese and Indian audiences. Just economics – 320 million Americans, 2.5 billion Chinese/Indians. Its all about the money.

Trump vs the Deep State

Mark Noonan45 Comments

The Deep State? If you haven’t heard, it’s a fairly new phrase which is gaining currency – started with the Wisconsin government attempting by means fair and foul to undermine Governor Walker’s reform effort. The concept of it is that members of the permanent bureaucracy – mostly Democrats but all of them regardless of political outlook having a vested interest in keeping things as they are – will simply destroy anyone who dares to reform government in a meaningful way. The underlying ideology is deeply based in Progressive beliefs about government – namely, that a set of experts, installed in government, can manage society better than the free flowing actions of the people. To be sure, such experts are willing to maintain the form of a democratic republic, but the bottom line is that the people, individually and collectively, are not to have a say in the basic direction of government policy.

And then along came Trump.

Trump is an inherent reformer because he has no loyalty to things as they are. He might propose reforms which are wrong – and even wrong-headed – but whatever he proposes will be based upon what he perceives as the right course of action, the vested interests of government and it’s cronies be damned. This is why the party of government (Democrats, MSM, a good selection of the GOP, those who make their living directly or indirectly off government expenditures) is up in arms – hyperventilating at an astonishing pace and acting as if their very lives (which they consider the life-force of the United States) were at stake. The bottom line is that these people have no legal mechanism to enforce their will; they can’t force a new election; they can’t even force an impeachment because that would require the cooperation of such a large number of Republicans (who, even if not Trump supporters, fear the electoral wrath of outraged Trumpsters) as to make it next to impossible. They only power they have is to sow confusion and hatred and hope, by some miracle, that a correlation of forces will arise to drive Trump from office. In other words, all they have is the Deep State – and they are using it to the limit to get after Trump.

I was struck by what happened to Flynn – I compare it to what happened to German generals Blomberg and Fritsch. Blomberg was Commander in Chief of the German army in the 1930’s, while Fritsch was the man most likely to succeed Blomberg in that post. While both of them were ok with Hitler’s Nazi regime, they were determined to keep the army out of Nazi party hands – and this irritated Hitler and his henchmen. By use of various secret police files to cook up scandals, Hitler managed to get rid of both men in succession, whereupon he took full control of the Army, thus getting rid of the last check upon his autocratic power. As regards Flynn, it appears that various members of our intelligence community selectively leaked information which, translated by MSM hostility, made it appear that Flynn was doing something wrong. Flynn managed to get himself caught up in the web by failure to be completely frank with Vice President Pence (and perhaps President Trump, as well). But the main agent of Flynn’s undoing was the Deep State’s determination that he be destroyed – likely as part of a larger plan to undo Trump entirely. And for all Trump’s opponents claiming that he’s some sort of proto-fascist, I note with great care that the side using fascist tactics is the anti-Trump side.

Over the past few days, I’ve seen some interesting statements on social media. This one from Bill Kristol was flabbergasting:

Obviously strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics. But if it comes to it, prefer the deep state to the Trump state.

This is a guy whom I’ve read for years and respected. He just showed himself to be someone who is entirely opposed to the workings of a democratic republic. You can’t prefer anything to normal democratic and constitutional politics. Rely on it, if we cease to use normal democratic and constitutional politics, Bill, it won’t be you or anyone you like calling the shots. Was Kristol ever on the same side as me? I really do wonder.

Back in 2003, I backed the Iraq campaign – so did Kristol, from what I can recall. I backed it because I felt it a necessary step to remove a troublesome regime and it would put us athwart the Iran-Syria axis, thus allowing us to deal with each of them piecemeal. Didn’t work out that way. We sat down in Baghdad and allowed our forces to become the targets in a shooting range. A huge number of mistakes were made, but I still believe I made the right choice in backing the Iraq campaign in the context of the times. Fast forward 14 years, and I’m wondering how many other people like Kristol were in the mix? What did they believe? Did they believe that a final reckoning with Iran and Syria was the wrong move? If they believed that, did they then do what they could to thwart action beyond Iraq by President Bush? Did our tactical mistakes in Iraq stem from the field, or from DC, where Deep State people set out to ensure that American power was misapplied? I just don’t know – and I’ll likely never know with any certainty…but Kristol’s statement isn’t unique, I’ve seen others – including some who claim to be former members of our intelligence community – who are seriously rooting for the IC to take down Trump; seriously, gleefully rubbing their hands at the prospect of the IC cooking the books until Trump is forced to resign or is impeached.

Do they realize that would spark a civil war? Are they that stupid? Don’t they understand that most of the people who would be willing to fight are on Trump’s side?

In the end, I don’t think they’ll get Trump. Right now, depending on the poll, Trump is approved of by anywhere from 39% to 55% of the American people, so don’t pay attention to polling on what is going on. But I do believe that, at bottom, in a fight between Outsider Trump and anyone Inside, Trump will win – people do have immense contempt for government, for the MSM and for those who cheer lead for same. But only time will really tell.