Open Thread

Mark Noonan44 Comments

Here is Kari Lake hammering the MSM on “election denier” accusations. It is how it is done – and we need ever more of this. She takes their stupid lies and just shoves them right back in their faces.

It is crucial that we understand the MSM is nothing but propaganda for the DNC. It is all Pravda, all the time. Everything they say which in any way relates to politics is a lie. It is either a complete fabrication or so twisted in presentation that the kernel of truth in there is entirely obscured and you can’t from their report connect it to the actual situation. They don’t make mistakes – everything they say is off a script provided by the DNC. Some day the full truth will come out and it will be shown that those who set the tone for the MSM – the movers and shakers of it who decide what is a story and how it will be covered – received direct orders on it from DNC operatives. Rely on it: I am absolutely right about this.

But how can you be sure?

Because they are always on the same page – at most a word or two is changed. They all say the exact same thing – and such uniformity is only possible on command, it cannot develop spontaneously.

I’m confident of an Oz victory in Pennsylvania mostly on the fact that there’s been no recent polling on it – which means the pollsters, even with D-heavy samples, are finding an Oz surge and they don’t want that to get out this late in the game as it would crush Democrat fundraising down the stretch.

As I’ve said for years, none of us can know the future – it is all up for grabs and in an infinite universe, literally anything is possible. But the fundamentals of 2022 started with the fact that Pudding Brain is in the White House. Depending on who you ask and how it is calculated, the President’s party loses an average of about 30 seats in the first mid-term when the incumbent is having popularity problems – and they usually are because even people who were popular when elected suffer a bit of buyer’s remorse. This is just the natural ebb and flow of politics, guys. W bucked the trend in 2002 because that was a year after 9/11 and we were all happy and united at the time – Bush’s popularity was still sky high. Given that the GOP only needs 6 seats to win a majority, the House was gone pretty much the minute they installed Uncle Grandpa into the Oval Office.

There was an outside chance for the Democrats in the Senate. With a 50/50 tie going in and a friendly map for the Democrats, if Biden maintained about a 46% average popularity and if nothing bad happened, the Democrats might have come out even or maybe even got a net gain of 1. But Biden sits around 42% (and it is likely 38% when you account for, once again, D-heavy samples) and we’ve got inflation and shortages and crime and border problems and a general feeling that everything sucks. A good Democrat candidate who runs a great campaign can probably run 4 points or so ahead of Biden’s approval…so, if this was a good year, Biden at 46 means some Democrats can make it. Biden at 42…they’re doomed. Biden at 38 – extra doomed.

Given the fundamentals, we can expect a pretty good November 8th for the GOP – the only question is, how good? We talking a solid night of, say, 30 House and 3 Senate seats, or a wipe out with a net GOP gain of 50 in the House and 5 in the Senate? That is the only question – I think there’s a larger chance of the wipe out: Democrats are already engaging in triage and abandoning various races…while GOP groups are looking for long-shots (I saw an ad against Dina Titus here in Las Vegas – she sits on a D+12 House district: that’s a stretch, but that someone is willing to spend some GOP money on it means it is in the realm of the possible).

The next thing to consider is, what next? With a GOP Congress being likely come January, what do we do with it? It is pretty clear that at the moment, McConnell doesn’t want to have a MAGA fight against the Democrats. McCarthy, over in the House, is making some noises like he’s willing to have that battle. But that is the crucial thing – we aren’t electing a GOP Congress to work across the aisle…we’re electing a GOP Congress to engage in unrelenting war on the Democrat party. We’ve learned that all bi-partisanship gets us is slightly slower surrender. We do want Hunter indicted, Biden impeached, the government shut down until the 87,000 IRS agents are gone and the border is secured. We know that the GOP leadership largely lacks the stomach for such a fight…but the incoming Congress will be more MAGA than any past Congress: we might successfully hold some feet to the fire.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan47 Comments

If you listen to polls, both the OK and NY governor races are tied.

This is why you shouldn’t listen to polls. The chances that the GOP is in trouble in Oklahoma are <0.1%. The risk that the Democrat is in trouble in NY is <10%. That is a huge spread, BTW – but, still, pretty solid for the Democrat. What isn’t at all possible is a GOP governor losing in a deep Red State in a GOP year.

OTOH, there is that non-zero chance that the GOP gets a miracle in New York. It would take an epic GOP Red Wave to make it happen…but there is a chance (small) that this happens. It all comes down, as usual, to who shows up? If the economy is the main issue, then the Democrats are getting shellacked. The reason the Democrats are leaning heavy into abortion (every second Democrat ad here in Nevada is “THE GOP WILL END ABORTION!!!) is because they must make the race about something else. Anything else. They tried to make 1/6 the issue (there were even ads on it here in Nevada) but that flopped…so, we’re all abortion, all the time right now. Will it work? I don’t think it will – I view it as a desperate throw of the dice by a party which dares not talk about itself.

If, however, in addition to the economy being the motivator we also see a drop in traditional Democrat turnout (especially among African-American voters) then the shellacking could turn into a beat down of epic proportions…that’s where NY governor, WA Senator and other races call to the GOP.

We’ll find out 11/8.

Been working on Book VI , Heirs, honestly meant to have it out by now but my production has been astonishing in later books (it will now be at least an 11 book series) and as the story has developed the characters (old and new) have gone off in some very interesting directions and this has necessitated a bit of a rework of Book VI, mostly in the foreshadowing of things that come later. I’ll have it out in a month or so. Book VII, Empress, will come real quick after that as I have hardly any modifications to make on it. Book VIII The Crimson Blade I want to have out in Summer of 2023. All that leads up to Book IX, Home World, which is 80% done and then on to Book X, Ghost Tower about 60% done and then we wrap it up (we hope) with Book XI, Antaki (only just started). Meanwhile, I’ve got the outline of my next series…not sure what it will be titled but it is an awesome cool story of deception confronted with courage.

Ever more parents are pushing back against transgender propaganda in schools. Most famously this past week were mostly Muslim parents in Michigan who went ballistic over the propaganda. Hate to break it to the Muslims, but there time as a favored “oppressed group” now likely draws to a close. Trans now trumps all in the Intersectionality Bingo Card. Some people did get a little upset because it was Muslims and there is always that concern they’ll impose Sharia. But, given a choice between Sharia and teaching kids that men can get pregnant, I’m going to have to go with Sharia. The true solution, of course, is to take control of the school boards – you know for a fact that no member of that board roasted by the Muslims so much as asked the locals what they want. Liberal Democrats they likely were elected because Muslims, like most immigrant communities, tend to vote Democrat – and most of the time, nobody really cares what the school board is up to. Until recently, that is – we now know how crucial it is. In fact, along with Sheriffs, it might be one of the two most crucial things to control.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan17 Comments

So, we had a hideous inflation report…and then the 1/6 nimrods subpoenaed Trump. This allowed the MSM to universally drop the Bad For Democrat Narrative and pick up the…well, what they think is the Bad For Trump Narrative. They are so utterly predictable.

Naturally, the Resist (!) Left went into onanistic overdrive on the news – fantasizing about Trump refusing it and the DOJ frog-marching him out of Mar a Lago…because none of them know how things work. Trump will, of course, throw up legal objections (all legitimate as the committee has no real authority to do what they think they’re doing) and then the election will happen and on January 3rd a Republican majority will dispense with it. And it is highly doubtful that even as nasty a partisan as Garland will try to set a precedent which would allow Trump or DeSantis to arrest Biden on January 21st, 2025.

The 1/6 Committee isn’t really about the mid-terms any longer. They had hoped that their friendly MSM Narrative would make people so hate Trump that it would help them at the polls…but the reality is the story that was buried today: inflation. It is rising very fast and while various entities are still trying to hide the effects, they can only do that for a little while. Once November 8th is past they’ll give it up and let inflation run its course – with the hope (for them) that it will abate and the resultant intensified recession will end long enough in front of 2024 to give the Democrats a shot.

It was revealed by the Saudis that Pudding Brain attempted to pressure them into keeping production high in front of the mid-terms. Think about that – with many decades of proven reserves in the ground (and 200 years worth altogether) Team Biden still won’t even consider increasing American production and instead opted to try a sordid deal with the Saudis. And merely to save their political bacon. These people really do hate the United States and her people – they just want power and the wealth it brings to them.

Fetterman is clearly suffering some bad effects from his stroke a little while back and the Dem/MSM Narrative on it switched from “there’s nothing wrong” to “you’re an abelist bigot if you mention it”. I feel a little sad for the man – I’m pretty sure it is just his people (and his consultants making bank no matter how the election goes) keeping him at it. My father had a stroke and I know how difficult it is for a person to bounce back from them, if they ever fully can. Dad never quite got back and had a speech impediment for the rest of his life – looks like Fetterman will, too. This doesn’t mean that Fetterman can’t have a long and productive life, but the bottom line is that the recovery time from a stroke is not the time to be running for Senate. It is cruel to keep him at it. It may end up killing him – and the Democrats don’t care: they figure that Shapiro has a 70/30 shot at getting re-elected and will be able to name Fetterman’s replacement (personally, I think its about a 52/48 shot – I still hold that polls are massively underestimating the coming GOP turnout while at the same time massively overestimating the likely Democrat turnout).

Meanwhile, Democrats have rung the alarm bell in…Oregon. I guess there’s just so much Antifa a place can take and then they’ll even (((shudder))) give the GOP a shot: we’re looking pretty good for the governorship and even have an outside shot at a legislative majority. Meanwhile, over in Washington Patty Murray appears to be in some trouble – I’ll still rate that “lean Democrat” because they have so much power (and ability to cheat) in Seattle…but, clearly, Democrats are in some trouble. What we saw in 2021 was a pretty nearly uniform swing in VA and NJ of ten points from the Democrats to the GOP…if that holds true in 2022, a huge GOP year is coming…but there’s is a chance that the swing will be even larger. Meanwhile, Ron Jonson looks like a lock in the WI Senate rate while Kemp appears similarly situated in the Georgia governorship (don’t even talk about FL – Governor and Senate races will be called at poll closing in the Panhandle). What I can’t see is a huge divergence between PA and WI…they tend to flow together being States with a lot of demographic similarities. We’re about to clean up in WI but fail in PA? Could happen – but PA is trending Red much more rapidly than WI (voter registration changes in favor of the GOP mark out PA as the next FL). We’ll see what happens – but I’m expecting some pretty big wins in PA. Michigan? Officially, everyone says that Whitmer has it in a lock…and it would take a pretty big GOP wave to get the GOP over the top there. But we might have that.

From the Ukraine to the Nuclear Holocaust is But a Step

Mark Noonan28 Comments

The Ukrainians blow up a bridge. Putin calls it terrorism and in retaliation rains down a bunch of bombs on Ukrainian cities…and then nitwits in the West start calling for direct strikes on Russia.

Not liking where this seems to be heading.

As I’ve said all along, there is zero American strategic interest in who governs the Donbas or, indeed, all of Ukraine. It wouldn’t change the balance of power against us in the least. On the other hand, Poland, Germany and Romania (and, to a lesser extent, France, Italy, Spain and England) have a vested interest in the matter. Combined, they have land forces numbering about 170,000 – and reserves can be mobilized to make them larger. France, Italy, Spain and Britain can back that up with about 380,000 troops (once again, more when fully mobilized). This doesn’t count air and naval forces. Nor economic power. That is more than enough to deter Russia – especially as Europe’s population and industrial power is larger than Russia’s so in a long war, Europe wins no matter what the Russians do (and France and the UK are nuclear-armed, so that balances against Russia’s nuclear weapons). Quick and cool-headed diplomacy backed by a credible threat of force likely would have gotten the Russians to back down.

So, why wasn’t that done? Because while quick and cool-headed diplomacy backed by credible force would likely get Russia to back down, it wouldn’t certainly do so. In other words: the Europeans might have to fight. They don’t want to. And I don’t think they want to ever: not even if their homelands were at stake. Certainly not for the Donbas. Europe is so sunk in narcissistic sloth and cowardice that I doubt there is the plain courage to stand up to a bully…so, they asked us to step in and they are pouring weapons into Ukraine hoping that somehow the 41 million Ukrainians can defeat 145 million Russians (do the math, guys).

The chances that anyone will use a nuke are low, but as I pointed out previously, they are rising all the time. The whole concept of using nuclear weapons being unthinkable was something implanted by propaganda to make sure, first and foremost, that the United States never took advantage of its overwhelming superiority in that area. I still doubt that Putin will use them – he can put into uniform about 3 million soldiers and that should be more than sufficient to deal with Ukraine. But you never can tell – there are stories rolling around that US and NATO special forces are boots on the ground assisting the Ukraine on the battlefield. If they are, it is likely intel that they are providing – data on Russian strength and intentions obtained from our satellites and human intelligence capabilities. If this is so, and if such manages to route a significant Russian force thus opening up Russian territory to Ukrainian invasion, things could get dicey very fast.

It is a very delicate situation right now and I very much doubt that our political or military leadership has a clue how to end it. They want victory, of course – or at least something that can be presented on TV as a victory (our Ruling Class lives and dies by how things appear on TV): but nobody – not NATO and not us – wants to put in the real effort necessary to secure a victory. Its all just a hope.

But Putin isn’t hoping – he’s trying to win. Like all Russian leaders he’s confronted with the fact his Russian people simply aren’t good at things which require organization and timing. So, he seems to be turning to the tried-and-true Russian method of just pounding his way through to success. You hope that Ukraine has produced a general who can confound Putin’s plans – and swiftly, but without seeming a mortal threat to Russia. And you hope that nobody at State or DoD is contemplating something like a covert attack on Russia’s military infrastructure by American forces.

I don’t know how it will come out – but literally anything is possible given the level of stupidity and ignorance our leaders have. Let’s just pray for peace – that somehow God grants us mercy and this war just blows over.

The Evil Democrats

Mark Noonan

The Department of Homeland Security is admitting that Cartel income from human trafficking across the American border has risen from $500 million in 2018 to $13 billion in 2022. Drugs are still number one by far, but let’s face the fact that the United States has become an insatiable maw for the new slave trade – and huge numbers of these people are no more than slaves, especially the “unaccompanied minors” being sent across. Also: there is zero chance that there has been this much of an increase without the active cooperation of American law enforcement officials. Something this big is by far too easy to spot and even the veriest simpleton of a cop would be able to figure out what is going on. I’m not saying that everyone is involved but, also, you never need that – and the Cartels have decades of experience of bribing (and intimidating) law enforcement. And with $13 billion just in slaves to sell, the Cartels have plenty of money for bribes.

And we got here because the Democrat Party- the Left, the overall Establishment – wanted this. Don’t try to soften this: what is happening with human trafficking is the easy and obvious result of Democrat policies to allow people to flood in unvetted and then allow them (heck, send them, often by plane) deep into the American interior with a mere notice to appear which will be ignored. And the Democrats did this – opened a border which Trump had by and large secured – simply because they hate us. They don’t care about these poor people (Martha’s Vineyard proved that – they bounced those illegals out so fast their heads were spinning). They don’t care about the mountain of human suffering they are causing not just among these trafficked people, but among the American communities they are settled in, with all the connections to Cartel criminality which comes with them. They just don’t care – they did this because it was the opposite of what we wanted. They are spiting us with the blood of foreigners suffocating in trucks or raped along the border.

And they are like that because they are not good people. And I don’t mean this in the sense that all of us can strive to be better – I mean that they have chosen to be bad. To be evil.

It really should come as no shock – after all, a person who is ok with federally funded abortion on demand to the moment of birth (the core, Democrat demand on the issue) is someone who left off morality quite a while ago. And they don’t get away from this descent into wickedness if they say that they, personally, don’t like abortion to birth…if you think that anyone, anywhere, should be able to hold that position and also hold office in the United States, then you are downright evil on a very personal level. To paraphrase our Democrats, it isn’t enough to be against killing kids 8 months into pregnancy – you must actively work to stop it.

There is no policy of the Democrat Party – or of the overall global Left – which is not based upon hatred. Forget their words: they long ago learned to turn words on their head. Remember, when a person of the Left says they’re fighting Liberty, what they mean isn’t the ability of the individual to live as they see fit. No, it is something much more sinister than that: they are fighting to liberate from the family, from the country, from morality…from God, at the bottom of it. That is what they mean by the word Liberty – and that is why you will see them say “my body, my choice” in regards to abortion and then shout “vaccine mandate” in the next breath. It isn’t a contradiction to them – your Liberty is only the Liberty to be opposed to God and all that is decent…but you don’t have the liberty to do what you wish. Because if you can do as you wish, you may choose to do something the Left doesn’t want – you may even decide to worship God and then get married and raise children in a family.

This all stems, by the way, from Lenin and the Russian revolutionaries. It can’t be emphasized enough how Leninism rules the Left these days. He was, after all, the first successful Leftist. He managed to obtain, retain and transmit his power. All the other Leftist movements before him (most notably the Marxists of 1848 and the Communards of 1871) had been crushed. Lenin won – and even those who claimed to reject Leninism still, by various degrees, sat at his feet and learned from the master. Because Leninism gained a country – and eventually an Empire – it was able to nurture itself and spread out into the world. By threat and blandishment it made it impossible for anyone on the Left first to oppose Leninism and later to refuse to support Leninism. The process took about 50 years (1917 to 1967); it first captured the colleges and then, via the college graduates, captured the institutions college grads work in.

But the main thing about Lenin wasn’t the Marxism – in fact, Marx would have rejected a lot of Leninism. Lenin was an opportunist of genius and in his time Marxism was the fashionable thing as it seemed to offer a “scientific” explanation and cure for the ills of society. But the main thing Lenin wanted was absolute power for himself and absolute war on the society he came from – he hated those damned, thick-headed Russian peasants who only wanted to be left alone. He despised those middle class drones working away and trying to merely build a nice life for their families. He also hated this nobility he came from, but not nearly with the white-hot passion that he hated the peasants and middle class…with their infuriating religious devotion and unwillingness to fit into the boxes Lenin assigned to them. What Lenin did was make it appear that his least desire was the only way to Marxism – didn’t matter if he changed his mind from day to day, whatever bug was up his rear at any given moment was the absolute necessity for the Marxist future.

Does this at all sound familiar? Bring anything to mind? Perhaps all those Democrats who are always immediately on board with The Current Thing? They’ve merely learned their lesson – because failure to immediately follow the Party Line (initially established by Lenin, carried on by whomever gets themselves into a position to make the New Party Line, often on a daily basis) means you are outcast. Destroyed. Ruined! Marked for nothing but destruction.

You might want to say at this point, “hey, Mark: I know that the leaders are bad, but the rank-and-file people aren’t. They are good people. They want good things; they’ve just been conned.”

To which I answer: yes, they have been. Just like the Germans were conned by the Nazis.

The Nazis sold the Germans a flaming pile of dog…stuff…but after a while, you are still a human being with agency and you get to decide your level of participation. And some Germans figured out that even the first step was bad. Others figured it out later. But the overwhelming mass didn’t figure it out until a Russian or American boot was kicking their door in. I’ll never forget that The World at War interview with a “typical German woman” and she said it true: she didn’t become angry with Hitler and the Nazis until the defeat. It was a Gangster’s anger – Hitler had promised them the world if they obeyed. They obeyed…and all they got was a ruined nation. And then there was Hitler’s secretary, Traudl Junge, interviewed many years after the war, pointing out that her immediate post-war assertions that she hadn’t known Hitler was a monster was based on her not wanting to know. And your typical Democrat person in the United States doesn’t know that humans are being trafficked. Doesn’t know that crime is rising. That there are shortages of food in some places. That kids as young as 8 are being “transitioned” on the flimsiest of justifications. To be sure, the MSM – owned by the Democrat Party – isn’t helpful to anyone who wants to know…but everyone is supposed to want to know. These rank-and-file Democrats don’t want to know.

And it doesn’t matter why they don’t want to know. Laziness, cowardice…what have you. We’re human beings. We have Reason – we’re supposed to use it. We’re supposed to think about it. Someone says we need to abort a healthy child at 8 months from a healthy mother, we’re supposed to ask why someone would want to do that? What’s the justification? On every level – practical and moral. We are accountable for our actions. For we believers, it is accountability to God. For non-believers it would be accountability to the community. But there is always that accountability – why? Why do you believe as you do? Why do you act as you do? Justify it. And if you can’t justify your beliefs and actions, you’d better stop. The Germans suddenly found themselves in May of 1945 in a non-Nazi world where they had to provide an explanation for boxcars of people shipped – with massive cooperation all through German society – to death camps. There will come a day – and we pray to God it is soon – where people will be asked to justify why they thought it ok for kids to be trafficked across the border. Why they thought it ok for thugs to burn cities. Why they thought it ok for government agencies to spy on Americans.

But until that day, we on our side must be on our guard. We can’t cooperate with these people because, as decent human beings, we cannot cooperate with evil. There is no bi-partisanship with the Devil. There is no mid-point between Good and Evil. There is Good and there is Evil and as far as human Reason can determine, we are obligated to adhere to Good, cost what it might. If this means we lose elections – if this means we lose all power and are utterly under the boot of a Leftist tyranny – then that is how it will have to be. We can’t do what is wrong and hope we will get what is right out of it.

No more compromise. We fight. We fight all the time. We fight on every issue. Nothing Left gets done with our help – it only happens because they overwhelm us. And if we obtain power, then as far as that power allows, we extirpate the Left from political, economic and social power. All or nothing, guys. Good or Evil. I want Good.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan27 Comments

A couple days ago Elon Musk suggested a possible path to peace in Ukraine – the nutshell of it was free and fair elections in the ethnic-Russian areas and everyone abides by the result. It is to be doubted that Putin would ever agree to it even though such a vote would probably result in a win for Russia…but likely not an overwhelming win and he’s certainly not about to allow free and fair elections in the Donbas when he won’t allow them in Moscow.

But what amazed was the fury which greeted Musk’s suggestion – even Ukrainian government officials piled on. The same officials who were grateful a couple months ago to Musk for providing Starlink for free after the Russians have pretty much zapped the entire Ukrainian communications network. Musk was roundly condemned as a Russian agent and the very thought of peace was scorned.

People around me long enough know that my basic belief about war is that if you get into one, you apply the maximum power you can muster against the enemy until he quits. This, of course, is a very American perspective because we are so powerful – generally, a full application of American power means the other side loses (this is why we’ve been forbidden to apply our full power since 1945). Even in our current state of decline, we’re still vastly more powerful than anyone else out there. But what if you aren’t the strongest power?

It still holds in my view: you apply the maximum amount of power you can muster. But with a thought towards obtaining peace as soon as possible because if you are the weaker side, then a long war only has one ending for you: defeat.

As I noted early on, the path to a clear-cut Ukrainian victory was for them to be able to mount a serious offensive into Russia right at the start. Think Six Day War: you drive deep and fast to entirely disrupt the enemy plans and, hopefully, get him to panic and willing to talk peace at just about any price. Absent that, the second best option was to trade space for time – and sell territory at a usurious blood price: hopefully that would get the Russians to quit. As it turns out, Ukraine did neither – it was, in fact, Ukrainians who were ground up defending every inch of ground in positions good, bad and indifferent as the Russians systemically used artillery to bludgeon their way forward. Now the Ukrainians, re-equipped by NATO, are taking the offensive again and they are gaining ground…but mostly it looks like ground the Russians are giving up, unwilling to spend blood to hold it…and, once again, Russian artillery is exacting a high blood price for each Ukrainian advance.

So, in my view (and, apparently, Musk’s) it is time to talk peace. It is unlikely that Ukraine, unaided on the ground, will be able to expel the Russians from all Ukrainian territory. If they are finally able to do so, the price will be high and the further they advance, the more heavily Russian the local population is. And, of course, the Russians get a say: if Putin fully mobilizes Russia for war, he’ll have overwhelming weight on his side and he will prevail…perhaps conquering the whole country. So: smoke a peace pipe.

But, we can’t have that, it would seem. I guess our Ruling Class can’t think of anything else to do. And they are making money off it.

In other Musk news, he’s once again saying he’ll buy Twitter. As soon as word of this came out, everyone’s follower count dropped – some by many thousands. I only lost 12 because I don’t let bots follow me. So, it seemed pretty clear that Twitter was getting rid of bots before Elon takes over and shows that their algorithm is entirely self-dealing and their traffic and trends are manufactured.

Herschel Walker – I’m sure you’ve talked about it. As for me: I refuse to condemn based on an uncorroborated story. Walker denies it. Unless and until stand-up-in-court proof is presented, I will discount the accusation. A lot of us on the right are taking this basic position and the left is getting mighty irritated with us – but what is making them scorching mad is when we say that even if they prove it, we won’t withdraw support for Walker.

The funny part about this is that I’m sure their strategy went like this: “Hey, they’re a bunch of white, racist Christians who hate anyone who sins. They’re only backing Walker because they think he’ll do as he’s told. So, we tell them that Walker paid for an abortion and their Christian bigotry, supported by their racism, will do Walker in!”. Don’t doubt me on this: they really think we’re like that. As if we Christians don’t believe that the blood of Christ covers all sins. And in addition to that, it won’t make us help elect a man committed to the Democrat’s position: federally funded abortion on demand to the moment of birth.

What pleased me most when the story broke is how few bedwetters on the Right emerged – discounting all Never Trump (which has morphed into Never Republican), of genuine conservatives only a few lent the story any credence, and most of them said it made no difference given Walker’s opponent. We’re learning! We’re no longer falling for the Left’s drivel. This is good and bodes well for the future.

Nuclear Nightmare

Mark Noonan60 Comments

I’ve talked a bit about the lies of our times (translation: yammered on endlessly about it), but something jumped out at me today.

There has been some chatter about the supposed threat of Putin using nuclear weapons in his war in Ukraine. Whether or not there’s anything to it, I don’t know. Could be just fear-mongering by our leaders to keep us on board with spending endless billions of never-to-be-audited dollars there. But it occurred to me that if, say, Putin were to use a nuke to destroy a Ukrainian division, just what could anyone do about it?

Ukraine gave up its nukes: so, no threat of retaliation from there. If there was to be a proportionate response, it would have to come from the USA, UK or France – the three nuclear-armed NATO powers. Which nation will risk a nuclear exchange with Russia over that? Nuke Smolensk and risk Nancy, Birmingham or Boston being wiped out in response? Not gonna happen – not in any conceivable universe of possibilities.

So, in the end, if Putin decided he has to use nukes, he’s got a free-fire zone. And that also got me thinking: just why haven’t nuclear weapons been used since 1945?

They kill lots of people?

Ok. They sure do. But so does conventional bombing: the conventional bombing raid on Tokyo March 10th, 1945 killed an estimated 100,000: about as many as were killed at Hiroshima. Dead is dead – whether in a nuclear flash or a firestorm. And nobody has been shy about killing since WWII – just between Korea and Vietnam about 6 million people were killed. And think of all the fighting all through the past 75 years! War after war after war and nothing is resolved and then some more war and killing because it wasn’t resolved and so on and etc. This is better than a nuclear bomb?

So, killing really isn’t the reason nobody uses them. But what about the long-term effects of nuclear war? Nuclear Winter! Land and water poisoned for thousands of years! Well…if you look into Nuclear Winter, if it is something which can happen (and there are doubts), then it is predicated upon thousands of nuclear weapons going off nearly at the same time. This is something which is very unlikely to happen. And as for poisoned land and water – well, as I’ve pointed out before, people never stopped living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even around Chernobyl they’re doing nature documentaries to chronicle how plants and animals are thriving in the absence of human activity. Think about that – the most deadly and poisonous nuclear accident in history…and they’re doing documentaries about how plants and animals are thriving. People live there now, too; some people have apparently lived there all along, and nobody is growing a third arm or having any other unusual physical actions.

So, just maybe the dangers of nuclear radiation are a bit overblown?

Now you have to think back a bit – and be over the age of, say, 45. People younger than that simply won’t have a memory of how we were positioned in the last part of the Cold War. At our peak, we had more than 31,000 nuclear warheads. And we didn’t just have the nukes – with rockets, bombers and subs, we had the ability to deliver these weapons with pinpoint accuracy in literal minutes from the word “go”. Old time veterans like me can remember SIOP: Single Integrated Operation Plan. That was military shorthand for how to wipe out the entirety of the Soviet Union in about thirty minutes.

But here’s the real kicker – and is once again something we know but we don’t know. Any of us of the right age who looked into weapons and capabilities of the USA and USSR knew at a glance that any nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union was only going to have one outcome: a wiped out USSR. Sure, the Russkies would try to respond but given their technological and organizational level (which was low – see Invasion of Ukraine for an example of Russian combat effectiveness), they’d have been lucky to get one or two shots off at us before they were utterly destroyed. Dirty little secret of the Cold War was that most Russian ICBM’s were not launch-capable at a moment’s notice. It is actually tricky to keep a liquid fueled rocket ready to go and the Russians just didn’t have the skill to do that. Their liquid-fueled rockets were usually standing empty and it would have taken hours or days to get them ready…and we would have seen that with our satellites giving us plenty of time to attack before they could even launch. This is why the Soviets invested so much money in mobile nuclear launchers…they needed to keep something they hoped we would miss (we wouldn’t have – any rocket which can go between continents is large and noticeable from the sky). Their bomber force was obsolescent before it took to the air – and they never mastered the American ability to build a genuine penetration bomber which would have a solid shot of making it to the target. The Cuban Missile Crisis was caused by the Russian desire to have at least some missiles with a decent shot of hitting the United States before we could destroy them on the ground.

But we never thought of it that way, did we? Even after sizing up capabilities, we were still frozen in the concept that a nuclear exchange meant mutual destruction. Nobody wins. Everyone is dead. Civilization is wiped out – and the few survivors are living in a Mad Max dystopia. Just can’t do it! And we got to that mental attitude early on – about the time MacArthur was suggesting that the best way to deal with a million ChiCom soldiers massing in Manchuria would be to drop an atomic bomb on them. You can’t! It would be mass murder! The Russians would nuke us in response and we’d all die!

Well, can’t see as sparing those ChiComs nuclear destruction was all that helpful – not to them or to us. Nobody knows how many Chinese soldiers died in Korea: Chinese government assertions on it are quite useless and while we made estimates, we never really counted. But, rely on it, they were enormous. Again and again the Chinese leadership sent masses of their soldiers straight into American firepower. Their deaths must have been in the hundreds of thousands. And then there’s the deaths they inflicted – ours, South Korean, other UN allies. Over a three year slugging match in horrible conditions for both sides. So, a nuke in Manchuria is the morally inferior choice? Even if it brings with it the possibility that the mere threat of nuking might have got the ChiComs to climb down? Or, if it didn’t, bring the war to the same, swift end it brought to WWII? With a lot fewer of ours dead? And does anyone really think that if we nuked the People’s Volunteer Army in Manchuria that Stalin would risk Moscow for the chance of nuking New York City?

Where’s the downside here?

But we were told that to even contemplate it was immoral. And who said so? Well, the usual suspects when we discuss any historical restraint placed on the application of American power – the American left and Establishment was against it. But why were they? It isn’t like we’ve found these people over time to be opposed to death. Oh, sure, they don’t want to die themselves, but again and again they have sent people they don’t know into the shambles of war…had them fight and die for no purpose and then awarded themselves medals and commendations for doing it. So, I can’t see that morality is what got them to advocate against nukes. And, in fact, the only thing a refusal to use nukes helped was…the enemies of the United States. Here you have this Super Power with overwhelming force which can make all your bravery quite useless…and that Super Power pledges not to use it against you. You can do whatever you want: start wars, murder people, loot and imprison…kill as many Americans as you can! And rely on it, no matter what you do, that Super Power will never take the easy way out of his problem by simply exterminating you with a few bombs well placed.

I just have to believe that the campaign to make nuclear weapons unthinkable emerged from the USSR. Had to: it only helped them. It allowed them to feel safe from destruction while also make it seem like they were a power equal to the United States.

But now it is 2022. Things are different. And serious people with actual knowledge of how nuclear weapons work are in power and to them it is a mere calculation: a cost-benefit analysis. We might find out soon that plenty of players around the world are willing to use nukes against the nuke-free – because the target can’t hit back and none of the nuke-armed powers are going to risk themselves by retaliating in the name of the victim. What I’m saying here is that after quite a long while of living a pipe dream about nuclear weapons, we might have to live in the real world of them.

And that makes me wonder: it has been a long time since we built or tested a nuke. Just how effective is our arsenal? Because if it isn’t up to snuff – and our enemies have fully penetrated our government and probably know to the last detail the condition of our nuclear force – then we might find a nuclear sabre rattled at us.

We might be in for a very difficult time – and all because, ultimately, we allowed ourselves to be conned on this and so many other issues.

Tonight We’re Going to Party Like its 399

Mark Noonan11 Comments

The other day I got into a minor Twitter tiff over a Tweet of mine. In it, I pointed out that my generation (and I’m nearly 58) as the last to be properly educated and that each succeeding year after I left school, education became more and more degraded. My point in this was a warning: we’re rapidly running out of people who know how to do things. They’re all getting rather long in the tooth and if we don’t raise up their replacements, we’ll enter a Dark Age as things simply stop working and nobody knows how to repair them, or make their replacements.

One of the comments I got back is that everything is just fine – youth knows what is doing! To that, I rejoined that it’ll be fun watching Tik Tok influencers wonder in 2040 why they only get 6 hours of electricity per day. And the response on that? “Hey, buddy, some of those influencers make more money than you ever will!”. Which is true, and kinda proved my point.

And it can all fall apart. Highly advanced, industrial civilization works very well when the people running it know what they’re doing. As soon as the people who know are gone, everything rather collapses.

I have a Twitter friend from South Africa and over the past few weeks he’s been without power on multiple occasions and sometimes for many hours. What happened? Well, South Africa’s electricity has for nearly a century been provided by a government-run enterprise – so, it started under British colonial rule, transitioned to fully independent South Africa and now is still there long into post-Apartheid South Africa. But the main thing was that after Apartheid, the thing became a patronage slush fund…friends and family of the ANC got jobs…and, of course, nobody would want to take orders from the white people who had been running it so out the door they went. As far as I can determine, since the end of Apartheid nearly nothing has been done to maintain or increase power generation and so now you’ve got an aging power system built for a much smaller population laboring to keep the lights on.

And my bet is that they still don’t know what to do. That is: those in charge of South Africa haven’t the foggiest notion of how power is generated and transmitted and since the end of Apartheid they made little or no effort to send black South Africans to school on these subjects. So, very soon South Africans will be able to celebrate thirty years since the end of Apartheid…they’ll just need candles to see it.

And that is how fast things can fall apart. The Durants, in their history of Rome, noted the life of an upper class Roman who lived in Gaul in the second half of the fourth century. It was an interesting look at life in that time but what was most striking is how everything seemed fine. The man had an interesting and useful life – nothing spectacular; just a life lived. He died about ten years before the barbarian flood. To him, in his time, all seemed well…sure, the government was sclerotic and corrupt; the roads and aqueducts weren’t being well maintained; taxes were too high…but nothing to worry about? Until, of course, there was something to worry about. As I’ve said before, things fall apart slowly and then all at once. The bell tolled in South Africa in 2007 when during an oddly high demand, it was found that the system couldn’t carry the load…15 years ago. Plenty of time to get it right…but nothing was done, because nobody knew how to do it. Just as in, say, 390 AD, nobody really knew how to maintain the Roman Empire. Everyone was sort of going through the motions…but at the first bit of pressure, it was revealed that there was nothing sustaining it.

And that is my point – we have in the USA the infrastructure of a major industrial power…but it is wearing down and it isn’t keeping pace with the continued growth of population. Prices are going up for two reasons: Uncle Sam printing trillions but, also, because we don’t have the ability to just swing into higher production when higher prices makes such production profitable. I did a little shopping trip with the Mrs this week and the thing which struck me the most is how at a glance everything seemed ok but when you looked a little closer, you could see the problem.

She was, of course, looking for stuff that girls look for but, with time to kill, I went to look for some things I needed: in this case, undershirts. I like a particular brand in a particular style. It isn’t fancy stuff – it is from a brand you’ve seen your whole life. And they did have some: the shelves were not bare. But where two years ago I would have seen a dozen packages of each size, I now saw one or two packages, and they didn’t have all sizes. Went to see about getting a couple new shirts: half a rack of men’s shirts where they used to be two or three full racks. Well, we need a new knife set for the kitchen as over the years two of our steak knives have gone missing and the carving knife is pretty banged up…so I go to the rack which would in the past have set after set of kitchen knives for you to ponder quality and price. There were a total of four knife sets. One a return which had been opened (after examination, I bought this one).

This is not the America I grew up in. We are no longer the Land of Plenty. We are the Land of We’ll See What They Got And I Hope It Will Do.

I do believe we can fix this – the bell has rung for us and we are on the precipice…but all we need are people who know how to do things. As we still have people who do know how to do things, the trick is to get them to tell some youngsters how to do it. In other words, if we start very soon and begin to genuinely educate people, then just about the time we’re set to collapse, we’ll have a young generation able to step up and keep things working. It’ll be irritating for them as the generation in front of them will be made up of mostly useless people, but they’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that civilization rides on their shoulders…and for all I care, they can send the Tik Tok Influencers to work camps.

We have a very short time remaining where we can transmit civilization to the next generation. If we do, it’ll be fine. If we don’t, it’ll all die…though like as not just after I die. So, this isn’t for me: this is for the grandkids.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan33 Comments

Who blew up the Nordstream pipelines? Who in heck knows – if it was blown up, it could be an act of war. But by whom and against whom? Very murky situation – but also very bad as it will increase pressure on global energy supplies as we enter winter.

The main thing here is that we wouldn’t have to care if Pudding Brain wasn’t strangling American energy production.

A couple respectable pollsters (there are a few) are starting to get it together and showing us winning pretty handily in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada – and with good signs in Pennsylvania. The more “stretch” races are in places like Washington and New Mexico. The bottom line is that 25 House and 2 Senate seats are within very easy reach of the GOP and that puts an end to Pudding Brain’s legislative efforts…and if McConnell allows even five federal judgeships to be filled over the next two years, I’ll be surprised.

But some people are starting to see that very much underneath the radar, GOP turnout might come as a huge shock to everyone. Remember, the leadership of the United States is calling us Nazi terrorist threats to Democracy…polling has shown (or, I guess, failed to show: but you know what I mean) the “shy GOP voter” over the past few cycles. This partially explains the massive misses recently – like when the aggregate in Ohio the day before the 2020 election showed it either tied or Trump barely ahead before he went on to win the State by more than 8 points. But the increased hateful rhetoric against GOP voters is possibly making ever more “shy GOP voters”: people who won’t even pick up the phone when the pollster calls…but who are yet determined to vote GOP in November. We’ll see if that happens…but if it does, then November 8th could be a bloodbath. And one sign that it might be happening is that Democrats are spending money in the Washington Senate race…which should be a walkover even in a strong GOP year.

That video I linked to PM Meloni? YouTube has deleted it. Because they are terrified of her…and so a bit of fascism is necessary here, to “protect” people, you see? All just to Save Democracy.

As Hurricane Ian bears down on Florida, the Democrats and the MSM (BIRM) are praying for a catastrophe they can blame on DeSantis. These are very sick and twisted people.

Our Progressive friends would like us dead. For our own good, of course. And to prevent us from Democracy-ing the wrong way.

Gloria all’Italia

Mark Noonan74 Comments

Because I’m old and kinda stupid, I can’t figure out how to embed this video in the post – but if you haven’t seen PM-Elect Giorgia Meloni’s speech , it is all you need to know about why the Globalists hate her. More than anyone else I’ve seen, she gets it. She understand that dehumanization is the goal…to make us mere numbers who consume on command (but only what we’re permitted to consume!).

Watch it. Absorb it. Make it part of your worldview.