Open Thread

Mark Noonan64 Comments

Haiti is falling apart. Again. Actually, of course, it never was together. Been a mess since independence. Unlike most places that emerged from colonial domination, Haiti immediately massacred the entire colonial ruling class. So, the founders of the nation really had no clue how to go about it. All else seems to stem from that. You totally understand why they rebelled and why they hated their white overlords…but they also sabotaged themselves.

Not sure what can be done – colonial overlordship is the obvious solution, but who would take on the job? The Haitians would start taking shots at you even if you were trying to improve things. There also just isn’t much to work with. No significant natural resources. Population is badly educated. They do have the island climate and beautiful beaches so tourism is an obvious thing but there are also other places with just as nice beaches that don’t periodically descend into savagery. Just really bad and really sad. Naturally, we’ve pledged more than $100 million in additional funding…for just what, I can’t say. There is no government in the country.

Speaking of descent into savagery, all of Oakland’s Taco Bell’s are converting to cashless operations only via drive through. The reason is the incessant robberies. This might only be a band aid. We’ve already seen plenty of other businesses go under in the Bay Area simply because crime is out of control. OTOH, San Francisco just enacted via referendum two “law and order” measures…not much (drug tests for welfare bums, restoring some powers to the police) but at least a step…and an indication that even in the Progressive citadels, there’s a limit. As I’ve said, civilization is a veneer – and a very thin one, at that. You only keep it by firmly upholding it. You can’t really let people do whatever they want; there have to be rules, strictly enforced.

The Pittsburg Police will not have any officers in police stations between 3 and 7 am and only have limited numbers of officers on patrol. The reason? Well, they only get 8 percent of their calls during that time.

Until now.

Just watch: they’ve opened up a Window O’ Crime…the crooks will know when it will be easiest to get away and that’s when they’ll strike. Watch, especially, for home invasions to increase.

Dungeons and Dragons was a game played by nerds when I was a kid. I tried it a few times but I thought the premise ridiculous and never got into it. But a lot of people loved it. Naturally, the Woke have taken it over and are determined to turn it into something that nobody will like. Not sure how they’ll ruin it, but they will. After all, the game is fantasy and everyone is allowed to insert their own desires into their character (because, you know, they’re made up) but I’m guessing there will be some rules about the gender and race make up of characters or some insistence that certain types of characters be of certain genders, orientations and skin colors. Because the whole point of the game isn’t to go on an adventure but to make sure all boxes are checked off…

Team Trump is now fully in control of the RNC – with Trump’s daughter as co-chair. Oddly, this is probably the means whereby the RNC is saved. Donations have been plummeting as the GOP Base has tended to see the RNC as a tool of the GOP Establishment. And there is much truth in that assumption…the strategy and spending of the RNC is so incompetent that you do wonder if it was deliberate sabotage. We won the 2022 Ohio Senate election by more than 250,000 votes – the GOP poured money into this race while starving the Arizona gubernatorial and Nevada Senate races of funds; races which were lost by 17,000 and 8,000 votes, respectively. Don’t tell me the money and number-crunch guys didn’t see this coming. Or, if they didn’t, then they are so incompetent that it doesn’t matter if it wasn’t treason as it might as well be.

Look to the new RNC leadership to clean house and then for Team Trump and the RNC to go on a fundraising blitz…which will probably rake in money as the Trumpsters will open up for the RNC now that it is in loyal hands.

UPDATE: Checking in on the Left, this is from a HuffPo editor.

They are such sad people – but it shows they really believe the drivel.

State of the Open Thread

Mark Noonan50 Comments

There were two things the Left settled on after last night’s senile rant by Pudding Brain:

  1. He’s SOOOOO vigorous!
  2. He shouldn’t have called Laken Riley’s killer an illegal.

Point one was, of course, pre-set; they were going to say that no matter. It was a chorus clearly scripted. It mostly drew chortles.

The second point was just as universal but came out a little later as the Left absorbed the performance. Biden mangled the poor girl’s name in his scripted attempt to defuse the issue and that did generate a lot of negative comment but the “don’t call them illegals” thing is more telling. The Laken Riley issue is highlighting the broader issue of border security and the Democrats want it gone. That is why they are demanding we stop saying “illegal” when referring to illegal immigrants. They don’t want the American people thinking in those terms, because that terminology cuts against them.

Call them Dreamers or Newcomers or Migrants or any other positive-to-innocuous term you can think of, but don’t call them illegal! They don’t want the outrage of the American people getting focused here. I don’t think it’ll work; the cat, as they say, is out of the bag – and anyone with a daughter or granddaughter sees Laken Riley. It could have been ours on the slab in a morgue…and set there because Biden’s people maliciously opened the border and cruelly refuse to close it. It does sometimes work like that – things can be horrible and everyone knows it is but there is no focus…until something happens that provides the focus. Riley’s murder has done that – she really just was a nice, young girl starting out her life and a miserable excuse for a human being killed her for no reason. And it wouldn’t have happened if illegals weren’t here.

One thing that especially disgusts me: pro illegal people saying, “illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes”. This is obviously untrue drivel but even if it is true, does that matter? For heaven’s sake, Riley would be alive if the illegal wasn’t there. If that was the only crime an illegal committed this year, it would still be an outrage. An entirely preventable death. It is like people just don’t care about other human beings dying – except when its fictional Palestinian deaths, of course. Anyways, I’m not about to take moral lectures from people just back from the “shout your abortion” rally.

Among the diseased mental droppings last night was a program to have the US military build a pier in Gaza to ship supplies in. Among the history of dumb ideas, this one is right up there. First off, all we’d be doing is providing supplies to Hamas, thus prolonging the war. Second, it puts a wedge between the USA and Israel and thus encourages Hamas to resist in the hope that the USA will eventually pressure Israel to leave Hamas alive. Third, and worst, there is zero chance Hamas won’t take a shot at us. If a Hamas militant is any way within range of US troops, he will open fire. He can’t do otherwise; we are the enemy to Hamas. They hate us; and it is likely a tie between hating us and hating Jews. This means there is a very good chance that one or more American will be killed by Hamas in our effort to supply Hamas.

And all of this because Team Biden wants to shore up support among pro-Hamas Muslims in Michigan. Americans are to die in an effort to secure some electoral votes. Disgusting doesn’t begin to cover it.

Side note: the father of one of the Marine’s killed in Biden’s botched Afghan withdrawal heckled Pudding Brain last night. He was arrested. A gold star father; arrested for saying words. That is Biden’s America.

Meanwhile, Islamists continue to attack defenseless Christians in Africa and our government doesn’t give a damn. Never let the vile people running our government claim any mantle of morality.

Trump Rolls On

Mark Noonan66 Comments

Nine to nothing; that was a bit surprising in that I thought at least 1 or 2 of the liberals would stick by their party on the ruling. But, honestly, it would have been a tough pill for even the most ardent liberal Justice to swallow: the 14th, if it even applies, is a federal matter subject only to federal law. To disqualify anyone from the ballot would take a federal conviction…and even that wouldn’t necessarily stop a State from placing the convict’s name on the ballot. The Constitution gives the States great control over the manner of choosing Electors. It would be a very bizarre thing if we ever had a situation where someone who had been convicted under the 14th secured 270 electoral votes for President. But the issue only comes up after a conviction in federal court.

Think about that.

A DC jury would convict Trump on command of any charge filed. Zero doubt. You could charge him with being a vampire and DC jury would find him guilty. And yet not only has Trump not been charged with insurrection or any similar sort of act, but neither has anyone else involved in J6. What does that tell you? That the Powers That Be understand that such a charge would be tossed on appeal…perhaps even on the liberal-dominated DC Circuit. The Democrats know they can’t even take the first step on using the 14th against him, even in theory.

So, why all the fuss? Honestly, it was just to fill the empty heads of #Resistance liberals. To make it seem like something is being done. Remember, those types of people believe that Trump really is a Russian agent and that Putin flipped votes in 2016 to get him elected. Not kidding: they believe the whole thing from start to finish. Doesn’t matter that every fact shows the accusations are false: it is what they were told and to this day the MSM has never admitted that they participated in a lie. These people sit around wondering all day long “when will they get Trump?”. This was one in a series of efforts to “get Trump”. It failed; but they’ve already got other arrows in the quiver. These are all falling apart one by one, but it looks like there’s enough to keep it going until after Election Day.

All polls must be taken with a grain of salt, but as I’ve always said, they can be useful in spotting trends. Right now, an outlier or two aside, all polls are indicating a Trump win – with 47 to 49 percent of the vote, with 49 percent working out to an electoral college triumph; maybe as high as 327 Electoral Votes. Get above 50 percent and Trump will head towards 350. That is, of course, now; 8 months out. Lots can change. The trouble for Team Pudding Brain is that things can’t change for the better. Inflation is likely to rise again at least near term. Job losses (especially full time) are mounting. The border remains open. Crime continues to rise. Nothing Team Pudding Brain can do will reverse this because they are ideologically committed to the policies that are causing all the trouble. The only new wrinkle is the increasing hostility to Israel…a gambit to keep Muslim voters on side with a huge downside risk of losing the Jewish vote, which is nearly as large and could easily tip a State or two to Trump. Maybe a miracle happens…but even if things start to get better in spite of Biden, the fact remains that Biden is increasingly mentally and physically feeble. Six months from now he’ll just be worse; all of us who have dealt with aging relatives know how this works…once they start downhill, it just accelerates. Biden is clearly heading downhill.

Will they replace him? Only if he’s dead. His people now have sufficient control over the levers of Democrat power that it is almost impossible to displace them. A full court press by Teams Obama and Clinton might do it, but even that would only make it 50/50. Of course, he might very well die; what sort of chaos ensues if that happens after early voting has commenced is anyone’s guess. But probably there isn’t urgency among Democrats to replace him. To them, its a simple calculation: in the unexpected event that Biden wins, then all is good…if he loses, they figure Trump will have a bad 2026 midterm and with an open seat in 2028 the Democrats would think they’re favored to win it. Democrats are actually confident that they can keep Trump boxed in for 4 years just as they did before.

This doesn’t mean they won’t cheat. Of course they’ll cheat. Massively. They always do. But there is a limit to what cheating can do, and in Georgia and Wisconsin cheating is now a heck of a lot harder than it used to be. Nevada, too, as we have a GOP governor. And cheating only works if you have total control in the exact areas you need it. Trump gets to 49% and they’d just have too large a task on their hands.

I rate the odds as 55/45 in Trump’s favor right now. Subject to modification as conditions change over the next 8 months.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan36 Comments

The Crimson Blade goes live on March 10th! You can pre-order Kindle now. Having just done the very last review of it: gotta say, its awesome. There’s a growing conflict in the family, as it were. The Enemy is moving! But in ways that our heroes don’t fully understand. Everyone who likes a bit of history will enjoy the interaction between Fred and Celeste where it comes out, big surprise (/sarc), that Celeste is an ardent Monarchist!

So, the Michigan primary was a blowout win for Trump – and quite impressive numbers rolled up, including in traditionally Democrat areas. That plus the number of Democrat primary voters who voted “uncommitted” has Team Pudding Brain in a panic – that’s why they’re now overtly repeating Hamas lies and putting ever more pressure on Israel to quit. They are desperately worried they simply will not have enough votes in Michigan even given the invariable ballot box stuffing in Detriot.

To me, Israel continues to go far too slowly and carefully. I understand: they want to keep their own casualties low in addition to be chary of the blood of the Palestinians. These are noble sentiments, but celerity is key to success in war. You take too long and you can end up spilling more blood than if you just rammed through. And here’s the cruel truth: in war you must be willing to pour out whatever amount of blood is necessary to win. Nobody was more keen to keep casualties low than Wellington…but if the situation called for it, he would ruthlessly engage in quite bloody actions.

The vileness of our opponents becomes ever more clear, and it is finally costing them support. They were able to hide it for so long with their friendly media and, lets face it, some clever propaganda by Team Clinton and Team Obama…but with a senile Biden in charge, there’s no clear message and so the very worst aspects of the Left keep emerging where a Clinton or Obama would have skillfully hid them. The murder of that poor girl in Georgia is especially galvanizing…the Democrat attempts to sweep her death under the rug are leaving a very bad taste everywhere. We all know: she’s dead because illegals have been blithely released by the people specifically charged with keeping the people safe. You can’t work your way around that.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan42 Comments

So, what’s the over/under on Haley getting crushed in South Carolina? I’m going with 40.

She’s still in the race because a lot of big money people keep handing it to her. So, her staff has no reason to quit: they’re still getting paid. And that she hasn’t pulled the plug regardless tells me she’s a creature of her staff. Regardless of what happens in 2024, she’s off my list for 2028. I just don’t trust her.

Team Pudding Brain is now set to call the Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal. Basically asserting the Islamist position on the matter. Why? Gotta be Michigan – his people must be seeing disaster there and are desperate to shore up his support there among the Muslim community. But it probably won’t work: by and large the Muslim community anywhere in the world takes a strongly anti-Israel position.

But even if they kowtow to Islamist demands, I don’t think it is going to do the trick. The murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by an illegal immigrant is, by itself, just another in a long list of crimes committed by illegals who aren’t supposed to be here…but her death seems to be resonating far more widely than most. People are sick of it. Sick of illegals. Sick of the fact that once an illegal commits a really big horror we invariably find out he was in custody before and could have been deported.

It is all just getting to be too much. It is shifting the political dynamic, including in blue areas. It is such an easily fixable problem and everyone can see that government and business are conspiring to keep the illegals flowing. It makes people feel, correctly, that our Ruling Class hates us. This can lead to very odd things happening. Buckle up.

Some House Democrats are apparently working on ways and means of not certifying the 2024 election if Trump wins. They’ll only do this if they control a majority of House delegations next year – which may be different from who holds the overall House majority. Remember: when the House votes for President, it is one State, one vote. So, whoever has control of 26 or more State delegations wins. Currently the GOP controls 26 State delegations with 2 delegations split (so, essentially, no vote) and 22 under Democrat control. The Democrats would have to have a really good night in November for this to shift significantly. But, there you go: they are going to fight for democracy by denying the result. They are just lying, corrupt hypocrites determined to gain and retain power.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan37 Comments

Some Russian dissident gets offed in prison and we’re supposed to get all weepy-eyed about it.

Know what? Father Petros Mwale, a parish priest in Malawi (that’s in Africa, for any of you liberals who learned pronouns rather than geography in college), has been asking for our prayers for the farmers of Malawi as they endure a terrible drought. I do hope you will pause for a moment here and offer up those prayers.

The people there make $579.00 per year per capita. You know: your monthly car payment. They’ve got lots of problems, of course, just like the rest of post-colonial Africa and they have struggled to chart a course. Not nearly as bad as some African countries have had it. They work: 80% of the population engages in subsistence agriculture. They are pretty much free though there are abuses and corruption, just like everywhere. But, its mostly ok because they are pretty traditional and most issues are settled by local councils. And here’s the thing: the country borders Lake Malawi; its 11,400 square miles of water area with an average depth of 950 feet; so, big lake. Holds 2,000 cubic miles of water.

What I’m pointing out here is that Malawi has water. In, fact, quite a lot of water. Yes, other countries border the lake so it isn’t all Malawi’s, but they get their fair share right? Now, imagine if for a moment we had spent 10% of the Ukraine budget helping Malawi build a first rate water retention and irrigation system? The poor farmers there would have access to water even when the rains don’t come.

But, hey: nobody in Malawi passes out $50,000 a month no-show jobs to Westerners.

It is crucial to remember that what is a crisis in the world is usually what the Ruling Class wants to be a crisis because they can rake off money or power over it. There’s no rake-off helping hard working dirt farmers feed their families.

But, do get weepy over a dead Russian if that floats your boat.

I guess the latest thing for the Cartels is just to toss the drugs over the border wall where they are immediately picked up and driven off. We’ve talked about this before: you can’t stop a criminal cartel. Here’s a Wikipedia list of them – if you dig through it, you’ll note that Cartel follows Cartel. As soon as we take one down, another immediately steps in…because you can’t take them down. Not really. We might get the boss of a Cartel, but there’s a whole system of moving drugs from production to user. It probably employs hundreds of thousands of people and there are billions of dollars to be made. You can’t stop that by knocking off a boss.

OTOH, if we could catch the driver of the truck that picked up the drugs and hang him, that would stop it.

So, too, hanging the street pusher. The guy who is buying money orders to transmit them south. In short: the small fry. We can stop them because we don’t have to stop all of them: guarantee you the supply of small fry to actually move the drugs and money dries up when you start hanging them. To be sure, it won’t stop it entirely: even Singapore’s draconian laws against drug trafficking don’t stop it. But Singapore arrested a bit more than 3,000 people for drugs in 2023. New York City had that many deaths just from drug overdoses. Additionally: Singapore isn’t plagued by drug addicted zombies defecating on the streets.

Here’s your choice: execute 300 street pushers or have 3,000 addicts die next year. Choose.

How’s the election going? Well, Pudding Brain’s people are now starting to push a ceasefire proposal at the UN to stop Israel from taking the southern part of Gaza. In other words, what they’re trying to do is save Hamas. Why? Michigan: has a large Muslim community which has been rock solid for the Democrats. Plenty of Muslims are upset that Pudding Brain hasn’t taken a forcefully anti-Israel stance. Recent polling shows that Michigan in play, with some polls showing a Trump lead. So, screw the Jews: we need Michigan!

But think about it: Democrats encouraged the migration of a large population of anti-Semites in order to get their votes and now they’re moving to being overtly anti-Israel in order to retain the anti-Semitic votes.

The Divided States of America

Mark Noonan46 Comments

It was pointed out on X today that if you take the Democrat-governed urban areas of Missouri out of the mix, the murder rate in six times less than in those cities. Do you realize what a remarkable thing that is? In fact, there are counties in Missouri which go years without a homicide. And this is why the gun rights people get angry about the whole debate – another person used words to the effect of “a couple black kids shot at a bunch of brown kids and this means me, a white man who doesn’t live there, has to have his rights violated?”. That was a very crucial observation to make. It illustrates the dual nature of America in 2024. A house divided.

Keep in mind that the murder rate is high in Democrat-run cities on purpose. I refuse to concede that anyone is that stupid: you know what will happen if you let criminals go or let them off lightly. They’ll just go and commit more crimes. I don’t care how many studies you have or supposed arguments that this will lower crime, you know it won’t. It can’t. The person who commits a robbery, rape or murder isn’t a petty criminal just starting out on the life of crime – but the time you’re sticking a gun in a store clerk’s face, dragging a girl into an alley or ending a human life, you are a hardened criminal. And it doesn’t really matter how young the criminal is. You can become a hardened brute very young. Heck, Hitler did it with his people in just a few years with his Hitler Youth savages committing heinous war crimes at the age of 16 in some cases. However the person got to the store clerk, girl or person about to die, by the time they got there the only way to stop them is with force – and with lengthy incarceration if caught.

And everyone knows this.

But they let them out – if they even bother going after them. One of the dirty secrets of American policing is how badly policed most minority neighborhoods are. Huge amounts of crime in such areas go entirely unreported and only the worst aspects of it show up in the records. And as I said, it is desired. All of those who run Democrat cities are infused with Marxist-Leninist thought. It started to come here in the 1930s with German commie refugees (ie, cowards who wouldn’t stand up to Hitler) and it has just entrenched itself ever more deeply. By now, most of them don’t even know they are just aping Lenin’s “who, whom?” and “loot the looters”. But it is what they are doing; their belief is that crime is the result of the system and those who benefit from the system must be punished by crime until they abandon the system.

But then, also, today Trump was ruled guilty by a fraud masquerading as a judge. Guilty of what? of nothing. He borrowed money with the consent of the lender and then paid it back on time with interest. They say it was a crime – they say the assets used to back the loans were inflated. Not according to Trump or the banks – not, that is, according to the people involved. But according to a “judge” Trump is guilty of fraud. The same system which lets rapists and murderers walk is throwing the book at Trump. And pro-life protestors. And J6 defendants. And whistle blowers.

Why? Because it is, once again, not about justice or law: it is about punishing political offenders. You are to have rapists wander your streets because you are guilty of the political offenses of being middle class/white/Christian/Republican. Trump is being charged on the political grounds that he threatens the dominance of the Left. The rapist and the murderer does not threaten the political dominance of the Left (and the Ruling Class is confident that private security will keep them safe). This is all very obvious by now. And yet plenty don’t see it.

Also today we learned that some Russian dissident got offed in prison and we’re all supposed to be horrified by it. Honestly, I had never hard of the guy. Some people I know have claimed some knowledge but, lets face it, he’s only news because they want another $60 billion for Ukraine so stoking emotions about his death is politically useful at the moment. But in light of this – and Tucker Carlson having some nice things to say about Russia – we’re being told that to question American moral superiority over Putin’s Russia is tantamount to treason. Really? Yes, I get it that the Moscow metro system is a showpiece in no way reflective of how Russian life is. But the rat, crime and drug addict infested New York metro system is entirely reflective of how American life is in the cities. Maybe Russia does suck, but why can’t we – supposedly free and responsible people – at least have a subway system where people aren’t urinating on the cars? Not having human feces in public places – and people smoking crack on the train – doesn’t seem like an unreasonable ask. To me, it is kinda basic decency. The glittering art of the Moscow train station is obvious a front…but there are no human feces there. So, plus one for Russia.

We’re not actually free if there are bums wandering our streets in a drug-induced haze. They’re dangerous…and so we avoid the areas they congregate and we hope they don’t find their way to our immediate neighborhood. We’re not free if the crime rate is high; we have to lock our doors, perhaps arm ourselves, and pray that the criminals will pass us by because even if armed we don’t want to actually shoot someone. Sure, they aren’t free in Russia. In fact, there are hardly any free places left in the world – with rural America being the freest, but even there year by year it is less. And it gets less and less because an overpowering government sticks its nose in more and more…while also allowing criminals to wander freely, and persecuting anyone who steps out of line.

Another person said they are much freer in America than anyone in Russia is. Perhaps. But only marginally. And even with that, it is only because the government hasn’t got around to you yet. Think about it – if you were to be arrested as a white supremacist terrorist tomorrow, how confident are you that you could beat the rap? How long would it take? Think about your friends and family: how many would really stick by you knowing that doing so places them on the radar and at risk of arrest, themselves? The government can instantly ruin the life of any American citizen – and count on the MSM to take the government’s side, as long as the person arrested has been identified as an enemy of the Ruling Class. The Constitution won’t show up to help you – it is just a piece of paper. It only has power as long as people abide by it. That you could, by effort, get out of such an injustice doesn’t really mean anything – in that case, the process was the punishment. But in a nation really obeying the US Constitution, you’d have no fear of it even happening except by some bizarre mistake. Now we all know it can happen – and know that the only reason it hasn’t happened is that the Ruling Class is still a bit afraid of us…and, of course, we are armed. In the UK and Australia they are sending people to jail for trivial offenses…all of this, naturally, occurring after gun confiscation for your own good, dammit.

This is why we must steel ourselves to harsh actions. We don’t need a court ruling in our favor ten years after the violation…we need to start sending Leftist Ruling Class foot soldiers to jail. These corrupt and political judges, police officers, DA’s, NGOs etc all need to start seeing the inside of cells. For a long time. It is the only way we can possibly stop them short of violence.

These people – those who are persecuting people like Trump and pro-lifers – are not Americans. They are aliens. They are enemies. I don’t care if they have Mayflower ancestors…somewhere along the line they broke the mystic chains of memory and became anti-American. Out to destroy America and the Americans. It is either stop them, or they stop us.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan43 Comments

Now that the whole football thing is over with, we can fully concentrate on the sport that matters: Hockey!

We here in Vegas fell in love with our Golden Knights during the inaugural season 7 years ago and the love affair has just grown since then. Going from Misfits to Champions in 6 years just cemented it. I had never watched more than a couple minutes of hockey in my life until that first season…but as the Knights started to shock the world by winning and getting into playoff contention, I started to watch. It took a little while to grasp the rules and tactics of the game but I’m pretty well grounded now…periodically shouting at the TV “shoot, dammit, there’s a lane open” and “for crying out loud, don’t turn it over at the blue line” and other such hocky-fan things. It is the last, remaining un-woke sport, anyways. And I like the element of luck in it. In all major sports the worst can beat the best but in hockey just a little more so…because you’re trying to get a little black thing to go into a net off ice. The skills are there, the shot is there and its perfect…but it hits a post or goes just slightly wide. You never know how a game can go…how at times you’ll go 40 minutes of play without anyone scoring, and then in five minutes 4 goals are scored collectively. So, hoping my Knights repeat! To make up for the national humiliation of the Chiefs repeating.

Everyone in Pudding Brain’s world is out there asserting that Biden is vigorous and sharp as a tack…while he’s got no official actions scheduled for the next three days. You know: the middle of the work week. That presser he gave was a catastrophe…and his Super Bowl rant about potato chips didn’t help. Everyone knows: he’s senile. He’s probably lucid no more than a few hours a day and can’t possibly map out a strategy. We’re now governed by a collection of West Wing staffers and Jill who try to work the Joe Oracle to get a decision…its why everything is a mess right now. The only way out, now, is a Trump vote in November.

And that is why with very few exceptions I’m getting harsh with Never Trump. To be fair, I know a few who have consistently opposed Trump on policy grounds since 2015. That’s fine. I disagree but if someone is giving me an honest opinion based on facts and their interpretation of same, I can’t really complain. But the broad mass of Never Trump are just mind-numbed Orange Man Bad cretins. There is no moral or intellectual world where Biden is better than Trump. Getting Biden out is crucial to the basic safety of the United States. And these Never Trump guys are on and on about how they have to keep Biden in because Trump is worse. That isn’t just dishonest, it is stupid. It isn’t about Trump. It is not even about Republican or Democrat – it is about getting a clearly, mentally incompetent man out of office. Even Kamala would be better in that at least she’s not senile (other than that: disaster). Right now, if the 3 am call comes, we have no idea who will make the actual decision…and we might get no decision (which is vastly worse than even a bad decision) because nobody wants to take responsibility for it. Biden must go.

The Senate GOP is backing the Ukraine aid bill (naturally) but Senator Vance (R-OH) found within the text a requirement that the money remain available for Ukraine until September, 2025. Meaning that if Trump wins and carries out his pledge to end US support for the Ukraine war, he can be impeached. Rely on it, the Ruling Class knows it is at least even money that Trump wins in November and they’re trying to hamstring him in advance. The border bill was like that, too; all sorts of provisions which would de-facto tie Trump’s hands on border security.

Of course, poison pill or no, I think Trump should go for it. It is unlikely that there are 67 Senate votes to remove Trump. Just let impeachment after impeachment fail, if that is what it takes. Trump’s main task, if he wins, is to clear out the bureaucracy, anyways – that is where the danger really lies to himself and to any future GOP President. We now know that various officials of the Executive branch were not only refusing direct, legal Presidential orders, they were actively breaking the law to take down Trump. Massive housecleaning is necessary. An end to Civil Service protections, at least in all senior Executive Branch positions. Executive Branch people have no power – the President is the only person vested by the Constitution with Executive power. Anyone who exercises Executive power does so at the discretion of the President and simply cannot, except in cases of obviously illegal orders, refuse a Presidential order.

Canadian Leftist groups in cooperation with the Canadian government cooked up a story about how Catholic Church schools in Canada had mass graves for Native children murdered by Catholic Church schools. It was quite a big issue in Canada and they even got the Pope to issue an apology about it. Trouble is, there were and are no mass graves. Of course there weren’t: hey, the Church has a lot of faults but they don’t mass murder people. It was just a ridiculous accusation…but the Ruling Class ran with it because it was an attack on the Church and they’ll always go for that. It has all been exposed as a hoax but that doesn’t matter: to the Leftist, to original, flaming headline is always the dogma. “Hands up, don’t shoot”, “was just buying skittles” and “I can’t breath” are obligatory beliefs even though there isn’t the least bit of truth to them. So, too, with the “Church mass graves” story – the Left still asserts it is true, and so very often these days Leftist terrorists are burning down Catholic churches. Naturally, the police don’t get them: they’re busy looking for people who are misgendering.

So a perhaps-trans shooter with “free Palestine” on Xir gun tried to do a mass shooting, fortunately stopped. But you’ll be pleased to know the shooter is an illegal immigrant in country for 19 years and voted in the 2020 election.

Volkswagon has their Super Bowl ad and it was pretty good…left out something, though.

Russia, Russia, Russia

Mark Noonan24 Comments

So, I watched a bit of the Tucker interview of Putin – I wasn’t going to but everyone was ripping on Putin bringing up history back to the 8th century on it and mostly making out that it was ridiculous. It wasn’t.

Whether or not Putin actually believes it I can’t say, but what he is doing is making Russia’s legal claim to Ukraine. This is something alien to the American experience but it is something common to the larger Christian world: this is why dynastic wars used to happen. That is, disputes over who had the legal title to a bit of land. And in such things to lay out the clear succession of title was very important. It wasn’t a matter of people, it was a matter of land: who owned the land? And who did the land legally transfer to over time?

Land is very important in Russia – who has it, who is allowed to use it. The ancient Russian assembly was call the Zemsky Sobor – the assembly of the Russian land. Not the Russian people: the land. For them, it is all about land. What Putin lays out in the interview is the case that Ukraine originated as an integral part of Russia which was unfairly and unjustly taken away from Russia by foreign conquerors. Ukraine’s national identity – in Putin’s thinking – is a false thing manufactured by powers hostile to Russia. This is Putin’s justification for the war – and it is probably why he’s so far been able to sustain support for it, at least to the point of keeping a large army in the field. It is in line with Russian national feeling.

The bottom line is that we here in the USA – and the West overall – have to decide if this Russian irredentism is something worth fighting against? Additionally, is Putin’s aim merely the restoration of traditional Russian lands? Or does he have a goal of restoring the Empire of Alexander I? Ukraine and Belarus back under Moscow’s rule would be uncomfortable for Poland and Hungary but not a massive crisis. That can arguably be Russia…but if Putin wants Finland, the Baltics and Poland back? That becomes a bit of a problem.

But, in my view, still not an American problem. The EU outweighs Russia in every measure of potential power. The EU has more people, more money, more production capacity, better communications. On and on like that: Russia has more troops in uniform right now, but if the EU wanted, they could easily raise a military force of 20 million and massively outnumber the Russians with better equipped troops. What I’m saying is that if the EU wants to fight Russia, it will be a very one-sided fight resulting in a crushing Russian defeat.

But if the EU doesn’t want to do this, then why should I? I can see Poland’s concern here. But if Poland doesn’t raise an army and convince their neighbors to also raise armies, then why in heck should an American army be sent? The German army is about 67,000 troops. Out of a population of 84 million. The Polish army is 100,000. Out 30 million people. 118,000 in the French army out of 68 million people. These three nations, based on population and resources, should have standing military forces of 800,000, 300,000 and 600,000 respectively. These would not be large forces relative to population…but they’d have outnumbered the Russian army 3 to 1 on the eve of the invasion of Ukraine. These are not serious people. These are not people determined to defend themselves.

So, why should I?

Why should I send some kid from Kansas to die defending Kiev?

And Putin does propose to build something Christian. Maybe Putin is lying. He wouldn’t be the first Russian leader to do that. But the laws and the policy is still to promote the Christian theology and virtues. Meanwhile, over in the UK kids are being arrested for misgendering while in the Netherlands the government is trying to shut down Dutch farms to appease the weather god. I’m supposed to fight Russia? For Europe? So I can have more European commies come visit? More finger wagging about guns?

Really?

I don’t think so. I do not feel Russians to be my enemies. I feel no threat from Moscow. I do not want us to give another cent to Ukraine and I want us to withdraw from NATO. I’m done with this. World War Two as a long time ago. The world has changed. It is time we changed with it.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan24 Comments

I’ll have it out hopefully very soon – still shooting for a February 14th release date, but that might slip.

If you haven’t started the series, you can easily pick it up with Book VI: Heirs. But even The Crimson Blade is a rather stand-alone part of the Narrative. Anyways, they’re getting better as I go along. The upcoming Home World is very high end, I think. In The Crimson Blade I delve into both the honor and the guilt of the combat veteran, how children can feel about their parents, the stumbling block of bigotry. With lots of love, laughs and battles, of course!

It didn’t really matter but Nevada had a GOP Primary (the delegates are awarded in a week via caucus) and Nikki Haley managed to come in massively behind “None of these candidates” in the vote. Word is that she’s still rolling in campaign money; that’s why she’s staying in. Perhaps with a hope that something, anything will happen to Trump and she’ll be the only alternative. But she’s about to get wiped out in South Carolina and then Super Tuesday is she sticks.

The White House is threatening to reduce deportations if the border deal isn’t passed…which proves conclusively that the border is under the control of the Executive and they can secure it any time they want. They are really garbage people running our country right now. Essentially trying to blackmail Congress.

Tucker did an interview with Putin and heads exploded – from Neocons to Commies, everyone in the USA and the larger West is furious. Why? Because Putin might say something the American people find reasonable. That is, Putin might not come off as Hitler II. Can’t have that! Gotta keep the money rolling in. Sure, 650,000 military-aged Ukranian males have fled rather than serve, but any day now the Glorious Ukrainian Offensive will push the Russians out. Just need $60 billion more!

All of that is jeopardized if people see Putin as someone reasonable. Of course Putin is going to lie…but the Ukrainians lie, too. Perhaps if we bounce lie against lie we might get to truth? That’s why we’re not allowed to talk to Putin…because the truth might not justify $60 billion.