Open Thread

If the Democrats were trying to provoke a civil war, what would they be doing differently?

Of course, I don’t think they are aiming at that – but only because they are so ignorant of history that they wouldn’t know. But it is disastrous what they are doing. Removing Marjorie Taylor Greene might seem a like a bit of fun to them, but it is telling her constituents that they aren’t allowed to have a voice in the House. Add in things like imposing political reliability tests on soldiers, allowing Ruling Class crooks to skate, having the entire Establishment call us simply bad people…this is going to work out that we, on our side, will eventually be forced underground as we become second class citizens. One might want to look into what happens when second class citizens are forced underground…of course, this will be the first time anyone has tried this experiment on a heavily armed population.

We might see the result of f*** around.

SAG was going to kick Donald Trump out, but he fired them.

Trump also had the perfect answer to the Democrats’ unconstitutional Impeachment scam.

Liz Cheney survived the attempt to oust her from GOP Leadership – but she’s got an incredibly tin ear. My bet: she loses her primary next year.

Liberal Canadian sketch troop gets so woke they cancel themselves.

Democrat governors: they suck as bad as you expect.

Related: campaign to recall Governor Newsom in California keep trucking along.

Zucker to leave CNN. No one really cares.

Open Thread

Now that McConnell has come out against Majorie Taylor Greene all the liberals who hate us will…keep hating us.

We must stop playing this game with them.

Bernie Sanders is a White Supremacist. Eventually, every non-insane person will realize that you can’t be woke enough. That’s when we win.

Portland has discovered that allowing Antifa to run riot for a year kinda sucks.

The guys at the Lincoln Project are pretty much what you expected them to be. We must keep in mind that for decades, these people were the real leaders of the GOP. Now we know that some of the accusations against “us” were true because these garbage people were our face to the world. I am so glad they unmasked themselves and are no longer part of us.

The MSM is now reporting what a lousy job Cuomo has been doing in NY regarding ‘Rona. This, I suspect, is Team Harris making sure Cuomo doesn’t run for the Democrat nomination in 2024.

We’re supposed to get hair-on-fire about the coup in Myanmar. Democracy is under attack! Well, it is a Democracy which brutally forced into exile about 740,000 Rohingya Muslims. I’m not sure I want us propping up a “Democracy” which does that sort of thing. I’m also just sick and tired of Imperial America. Its none of our business. The people of Myanmar have my prayers for peace, freedom and prosperity and I hope they are able to work out their problems. Without us.

Florida never went into the massive lockdowns and they are doing very well – and their economy isn’t crushed. The lunatic Democrat attacks on Governor DeSantis are because they fear this man running against Kamala. You know – the lady installed as VP. Who couldn’t even make it out of the Iowa Caucuses.

Defending Marjorie Taylor Greene is Self Defense

Good thread for you to read over on Twitter, and it hits on what has been on my mind about this effort to ban Marjorie Taylor Greene from public life. He talks about resisting the Democrat Words of Power which freeze debate. Noting that we’re allowed to talk about tax cuts (but not spending cuts!) and nothing else because whatever else we want to talk about will be called racist, sexist, homophobic or what have you and our “leaders” get terrified when such accusations fly…and they then proceed to knife whomever is the current target of Democrat ire because, they are sure, if they can just show the Democrats that they aren’t “one of them”, they’ll be liked and respected.

I don’t really know much about Greene. I had heard about her when she won the GOP primary in the R+27 Georgia 14th, which meant that she was certain to be a Congresswoman. If you take a look at her Wikipedia page (Wikipedia is worthless as a source of info on anything remotely connected to politics: an army of liberals continually edits the entries to keep them current with whatever the Liberal Narrative is) you’ll see that she’s called a Conspiracy Theorist. Maybe she is, maybe she isn’t. The bottom line is that I don’t care if she is. This is not because I support Conspiracy Theories but because I know what is going on here:

  1. Any time we point out the rank corruption and hypocrisy of the Ruling Class, that is called Conspiracy Theory.
  2. The purpose of calling us Conspiracy Theorists isn’t to exclude Conspiracy Theories from the public square, but to exclude our dissent from the public square.

The Democrats have it as an article of faith – and if you are of the Left and dissent from this, you will be ruthlessly excommunicated – that “hands up, don’t shoot”, happened. It absolutely did not happen. Witness statements and forensic evidence proves conclusively that nothing of the sort occurred. But it is an article of faith. It is one of the prime supports for the liberal argument that America is an inherently racist nation which has racist cops hunting unarmed, innocent black men. “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a Conspiracy Theory. And, as I said, it is an article of faith on the left. No one expounding it is excluded from public life. And this is just one of scores of Conspiracy Theories that the Left embraces and celebrates. And now we’re supposed to be all worried that they are accusing one of ours of being a Conspiracy Theorist? We’re supposed to turn on one of our own and hound her out of public life on the Left’s say so?

Sorry, but that is bullsh**.

We’ve been playing this game with the left for a long time – every since William F. Buckley led the charge to purge the John Birch Society from the right. To be sure, there were some kook aspects to the JBS – but any coalition of people is going to have oddballs. But pause for a moment to consider what the JBS wanted to do – work at the grassroots level to prevent leftist influence in American life. They weren’t really out there to capture the GOP Presidential nomination…their brief was to work with things like the local school board to defend America against what they saw as a concerted effort by domestic and foreign elites to subordinate American life to the dictates of a Corporatist and Socialist world order. Now, doesn’t that strike a bell? Doesn’t that seem like what we’ve got here in the United States in 2021? That, just maybe, if the right had had a grass roots efforts working on school boards and such in the 1960’s and 1970’s we wouldn’t quite be in the position we find ourselves?

Buckley went after the Birchers primarily because, pottering between Manhattan and his swank home in Connecticut, he didn’t want to be associated with those grubby people. After all, how does one explain a relationship with some Bircher to John Kenneth Galbraith and Gore Vidal? The Birchers were “those people”. You wanted their votes and their donations to your magazine, but you didn’t want them around you…and you certainly didn’t want any of your liberal friends to think you respected them! The price for Buckley to remain in the club, as it were, was to divorce himself from normal people who, maybe very inarticulately, still managed to understand that what was at stake was a way of life. Buckley leading the way, the right shifted away from trying to stop socialism at the school board and, instead, embarked on a campaign of lowering taxes and military confrontation with the USSR and assorted “liberation movements” supported by same.

To be sure, this was some useful work – but, in the end, the tax and regulatory policies simply worked to move our manufacturing to the third world and while defeating the USSR was a good thing, it was useless by 1991 as by then the worst aspects of Marxism were firmly implanted in American education and entertainment. We traded a scary looking parade of missiles in Moscow for a Stalinst re-writing history textbooks to say that America is an inherently racist nation. Which turned out to be the real threat? The chances that the USSR’s nuclear missiles would ever be fired at us were near zero. We’d be better off today with the parades in Moscow but no Marxists in education. Essentially, the Conservative movement, purged of the Birchers, did the exact wrong thing.

For many decades after our defeat – after, that is, we had decided that we wouldn’t work to prevent Socialist infiltration of American social and economic life – the normal people still kept faith with the purged right. We gave it our money and our votes and they kept telling us, promise!, that once everything was all set, they’d get around to addressing our fears that our jobs were going away and some real lunatics were forcing their views on American life. But, hey, what do you know: each time we got them into power, it turned out the only thing they could manage was a few tax cuts and the bombing of some poor, brown people. Reagan campaigned on dissolving the Department of Education. The damned thing had only been created in October of 1979: Carter’s payoff to the teacher’s unions for support in 1980. By the time Reagan was sworn in, it had only been in being for 15 months! Shutting it down would have been easy. We held the Senate. The Democrat majority in the House had been severely reduced. A bit of hardball and the Democrats would have signed off on terminating the effort. But, nothing. Now its 41 years in – and the Department of Education under Biden is going to start pushing local schools to impart even more egregious anti-Americanism into the curriculum. And this was Ronald Reagan! Not some Bush squish. Even Reagan left us high and dry.

But, we still kept at it. And again and again and again, we were betrayed. Even when we awarded the GOP with undisputed control of the American government in 2002, still no movement in our direction. No reform of entitlements. No curbing of immigration. No programs to restore American manufacturing. Just some more tax cuts and some more poor, brown people being bombed. At last we had had enough: and so Trump came in. And it was we normals who put him in power in spite of the best efforts not just of the Democrats, but of our own “leaders”. It was our triumph.

And then look what they did to him, and to us: slanders flew fast and furious. He and we were racist, sexist, homophobic Nazi dictators. Our “leaders” joined in the chorus and worked diligently with Democrats to hamstring every Trump effort to address the issues we cared about. In spite of all that, Trump did quite a lot and we were delighted. So much so that 12 million more of us voted for him in 2020 than had in 2016. But our effort was nullified. We are sure it was by fraud; but by hook or by crook, we know for certain that the entirety of the American and larger global Ruling Class had united against our champion. Whether or not fake votes gave Biden the victory, we know full well that if Trump (and we) had merely been treated fairly, the election would have been won in a landslide. So, now Trump is gone. We have no leader to defend us. And what are the Democrats and the Conservative leaders doing? Trying to make sure that our mere concerns are illegitimate. Make no mistake about it – the campaign against Marjorie Taylor Greene is not an effort to keep lunacy out of politics (the Ruling Class is absolutely insane), but to keep us out of power.

The slander campaign against Greene is an effort to tell us that we had better keep our mouths shut. That if we do speak up, anything we say can and will be used against us. That whether we say silly things or not, what we say will be presented as pure evil…and huge pressure will be exerted to get GOP office holders to go along with squashing our champions. They want us silenced. They want anyone who might decide to assume a leadership role among us to be scared off the task. They want our side to be lead by milquetoast compromisers who will sell us out for a tax cut. They want the GOP to purge the Birchers one more time – but this time, completely. They want, in the end, the GOP leadership to condemn their own voters as Deplorables.

Whether or not this campaign will be ultimately successful depends primarily upon our reaction to it. If we keep strong and keep pressure up on our own GOPers, then we can ride out the storm – and maybe even teach the GOP a lesson that vast power awaits them, if they’ll simply stop caring what the Democrats are saying. Don’t play their game any longer. “You’re a racist!”. “F*** you.” That’s all we need say – because it doesn’t matter what we say. Whether we condemn loudly or fight back, the Democrats and the MSM are going to call us racists, sexists, etc. Look how many times Trump condemned white supremacy – it didn’t matter. They just kept pretending that he hadn’t. And for all the True Conservative worries that this accusation was going to collapse Trump’s support…well, after being called a racist for 4 solid years, Trump did better than any GOPer among minority voters in 50 years. And, as I noted above, likely would have done better but for the slander campaign…which campaign was made vastly more effective by “Conservative” voices joining in. Had we been a united front, our faces set like flint against our enemies, Trump would have crested 90 million votes.

If there is to be a purge of the right, then let is start with a purge of all those on the right who are going after Greene. Let them be the outcasts. We don’t need them. In fact, it is suicidal for us to keep them because we know that every time the Democrats work up a slander campaign, they will join it. We must defend people like Greene. Not because she’s anything special, but because she represents us. She stands, at this moment, for each of us. If they get her, they get all of us. Self defense require us to defend her. And if we can do so – if we can keep her in office in spite of their efforts – then we will have finally and at last started to roll back the left.

Financial Crimes

The Game Stop scandal once and for all exposed just how corrupt the financial system is. The bottom line is that regular folks simply outwitted the Experts and the Experts, rather than take the loss and learn the lesson, called on the power of major corporations and government regulators to squash the regular folks. They do want us to take our savings and dump it in the market, but they don’t want a million of us, each using our $1,000.00, to do what they do all the time – manipulate stock prices for personal benefit.

This was also a rare moment of unity where everyone from Commies to MAGA were united in their outrage. Naturally, most solutions proposed for this are ineffective. I’m still in favor of breaking up all large corporations and confiscating all personal wealth above $5 billion (the proceeds to be distributed by lottery to American citizens in $100,000.00 lots). But even the Commies aren’t in favor of that. So, as we won’t actually solve the problem, a few other proposals.

  1. You can’t sell stock you don’t own (they really do this).
  2. The additional capital gains tax on a stock held less than 24 hours is 90%. Less than a week, 50%. Less than a month, 40%. Thirty one days or longer, no additional penalty. The idea here is to get people to be investors, rather than gamblers.
  3. Corporate boards are responsible, civil and criminal, if financially critical corporate information leaks before public announcement (this to hamper insider trading; don’t go after the guy who acts on a tip – go after the tipster).
  4. Shares of corporations bidding for government contracts in excess of $10 billion cannot be traded until after the contract is released. Once you start the bid process, no one can buy or sell your stock (this to prevent government people from insider trading).
  5. No bail out, ever, for any financial corporation. Sink or swim.
  6. No corporate executive can become a government employee until five years after leaving corporate employment. No government employee can become a corporate executive or board member until ten years after leaving government.
  7. Corporations with a market cap in excess of $1 billion cannot donate to political parties; pay speaking fees; employ spouses, siblings; children, grandchildren, parents, first cousins or in-laws of government officials

I know we’ve all defended free markets – and, in fact, we still do. But the reality is that we don’t have free markets. We have a quasi-feudal, bastard child of Capitalism and Socialism. The economy isn’t for GDP. It isn’t to get rich. It isn’t to provide a tax base. It is to allow one person, working hard and living frugally, to support a family and leave a legacy for children. Anything that is not geared towards that is bad and must go. Until we wake up to the fact that the system, itself, has to go, we really won’t get anywhere.

Open Thread

The Democrats sent over their farce impeachment to the Senate this evening. What really astonishes me is the mental back flips that the anti-Trump people are doing in order to justify this. One guy – he’s actually a bit famous – tried to bring up ancient English law which allowed for the impeachment of former office holders. I pointed out that ancient English law also allowed for bills of attainder – something we don’t do, because we didn’t merely copy England when we wrote our Constitution. One of the key aspects of our Constitution is that is pretty much precludes (as long as it is obeyed) political vengeance. The Founders knew this was important because one of the main factors in the downfall of both the Athenian Democracy and the Roman Republic was the pursuit of quasi-legal revenge. In our system, the defeated are supposed to go home in safety and the victors are supposed to let them go.

Of course, mercilessness is one of the main marks of our political opponents – both traditional left and Never Trump “right”. Lacking any conception of God – and those who make the most pious statements are usually the ones you find the most alienated from any sense of mercy – these people want to punish us. Not just for winning in 2016, but for so much as trying to win. This post-facto impeachment is a means of punishing not Trump, but you and I.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are rapidly discovering that holding 50 Senate seats and 221 House seats is…well…it isn’t much. Especially when your leader is 78 and a bit gaga. Senators Sinema (D-AZ) and Manchin (D-WV) have both come out strong against messing with the filibuster. I don’t put too much stock in them: they are Democrats, after all. They may merely want a price for it. But, in practical terms, busting the filibuster does nothing for either of them – especially for Manchin, set to become Energy Committee chair. Once the filibuster is broken, the Democrats need pay no attention to semi-moderate people like Manchin and Sinema. They’d feel they could peel off a couple GOPers at need (likely true, given Mitt and Murkowski). As long as the filibuster is in place, the Democrats must come hat in hand to Manchin and Sinema on every major issue – meaning they can pretty much get everything they want for their own States. Of course, this leaves out the fact that if Nancy loses 4 House Democrats, there won’t even be anything to send to the Senate to bust the filibuster over. A wise person I know on line pointed out that the filibuster might be moot if Nancy is continually stuck at 210 votes and can’t get the rest because either the Squad or the few remaining moderates won’t budge. A vigorous President could easily get around this by simply hitting the road and arguing for important and popular proposals…but other than their plan to raise the minimum wage (perennially popular even if economically dumb), they got nothing. “Call your Congressperson and demand she vote amnesty for illegals!” is not a great look. But in addition to advocating for very unpopular things, the Democrats have Joe Biden…who often seems to be unaware of where he is or what he’s supposed to do.

I’ve been calling it the 1/20 Miracle – the way cities and States are suddenly opening back up. Nothing changed. In fact, some of the places opening back up have higher cases and deaths than before. I mean, nothing changed other than who was in the White House. It was an op: a very bad flu blown out of proportion to harm Trump. The op is over, and so it is being wound down.

Budweiser, Coca-Cola and Pepsi aren’t doing Super Bowl ads this year. That has got to be devastating to the NFL. Get woke, go broke. The only football I’ve watched so far this year was part of a game on Thanksgiving (had some family over who felt they had to watch) and a bit of the end of yesterday’s Packers game where I was comforting a Cheesehead friend. I suppose I might go back to watching – but the bottom line is that the thrill is largely gone. I really didn’t miss it this year. I spent my Sunday football time writing on my books. It will never again be a “thing” where I rigorously follow and I’ve cut the emotional ties to the team I used to root for. Maybe some day some team out there will capture my imagination and I’ll become a fan again…but, I figure that is unlikely. And I assume there are likely millions like me…because Coke, Pepsi and Bud aren’t spending millions advertising. Meanwhile, Hockey went only mildly woke and it seems to have pretty much dropped it…so, I’ve got my Knights and I’ll watch them win the Cup this year.

Over at Ace – what if the Deplorables start deplatforming the Left? Sure, they can kick us off their Twitter and Facebook…but Joe Average in Dayton can kick them off heater repairs while Fred Normal in Richmond can skip towing your car with the “Coexist” bumper sticker.

Speaking of cancel culture, Miley Cyrus has got herself into SJW hot water. I’d say what it was about, but I’m going to make you click the link. You really won’t believe it.

Is it Time to Alter or to Abolish?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

So says our sublime Declaration. It is, presumably, the founding principle of an American. The trouble is, that for a very large portion of the population of the United States, it isn’t. And this portion may, indeed, constitute a majority. Perhaps even a large majority. It might be time to find out.

There is a very strong division in this nation and in spite of calls for unity and peace, what we have seen this past couple weeks is that our opponents do not think it good enough that we accept the results of the 2020 election. No; to them, that is not near enough. We need to be de-programmed; harassed; hounded out of public life. They don’t merely want power – they want power over us. We are unacceptable as we are. Until we are changed into them, they believe there cannot be peace.

On our side, it is very different. At least, for now. For the moment, you and I are perfectly content that our opponents live as they want to live. In their communities, we don’t care what they do. In fact, we find it even a little interesting and entertaining. We visit New York City or San Francisco and we find it all amusing. We are very happy to return home, of course, because we would never want to actually live like that…but going out to see how other people live and organize their lives is fun. Not so our opponents: on those rare occasions when they do visit our areas, they are horrified and simply more determined to change us. The trouble is that as they become ever more insistent that we change to suit them, I perceive a growing willingness on our side to pay them back in their own coin. This is not an optimal development. It is the stuff with which civil wars are made. Remember, our civil war (and another good example is the Spanish civil war) came about because each side became fearful that the other side was going to force it to conform.

Fortunately, we do have a way out. Built into our Constitution is the means to do so: we can call a Constitutional Convention and recraft our means of government.

Now, this is fraught with perils of it’s own. Things like this can spin out of control. But they can also hammer out compromises between very disparate interests. And, if it does prove impossible to hammer out a new Constitution which the overwhelming majority of Americans can subscribe to via ratification, then I think it would be clear that separation is best for everyone.

Do understand that if we call a Convention, we on our side might find that large majorities are in favor of calling health care a right – and a host of other things which we don’t think are. But even if we did find that, then at least we’d find where we are in the system. If the American people, in Congress Assembled, crafted a governing instrument which we truly found abhorrent, then our choices would be to knuckle under, or leave. But I don’t think it would be like that. I think we’d either be able to build something acceptable to 70%+, or we would find the task impossible and it would then become an effort at separating the nation peacefully.

I’m sure we can all find scores of things we’d like to have in such a new document – and if the spirit of compromise is really there (if, that is, we really are all Americans and thus willing to give to get), then we might find the ability to do things like really securing freedom of conscience in return for our concession on health care being defined as a right. We might find ourselves in a very different sort of America than we imagined – it might have many elements that we consider outright Socialist. But if it also has elements which the Socialists consider reactionary…that would mean that we met in good will and crafted a document we can all live with.

What we can’t do, in my view, is continue to drag on with the Constitution of 1787. It is amazing that it has lasted as long as it did, but it is clearly unsuited to current pressures. It is, in many aspects, a dead letter. And perhaps rightly so: it was written by people who lived centuries ago and times have changed and, just perhaps, if we all have a hand in crafting a new governing document, we’ll all respect it and live in peace under it. We can certainly hope so. I fear that if we try to sustain that which has already died, we’ll just stagger from one power grab to another leading to civil war and Caesarism.

The Start of a New Error

So, the senile, old crook gets installed tomorrow. Big deal. He won’t be in charge. Also: saw a photo of him atop an MSM article lauding him to the skies. So, this was the best they could find…he looked very old. Not to put too fine a point on it, he looks like my Dad did a few months before he went. I don’t give Joe much time.

Its going to be a miserable four years in politics because, really, no one is going to be minding the store. Even if Kamala gets in, she’ll be entirely out of her depth and ruled by the last advisor she speaks to. We’ll drift along from crisis to crisis while the MSM pretends all is well as it continues to stir up the pot against “right wing extremists”. I just hope we don’t get into a war. No chance we’ll actually win any war that this bunch gets us into.

The GOP should easily take Congress in 2022 but there’s a huge question mark out there: lots of people are furious at the GOP for not standing firmly behind Trump. Even in defeat, he’s leaving the GOP stronger than it was in 1977, 1993 and 2009. And not just a little – by quite a lot. Lost in all the hustle is that the Democrats only barely “won” 2020. And at the State level, they were crushed. A bit of wisdom and courage and the GOP would easily pick up 50+ House seats next year. But wisdom and courage are lacking. OTOH, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and a few others are standing tall. We’ll see how it comes out.

Do be careful what you say – the Deep State will be looking for people to make an example of. I’ve warned people of this on line. Don’t go shooting your mouth off. Not worth the trouble it would bring. Just work to get people who are really with us into office and pressure GOP officeholders for election reform. That is the way to win.

I’ve been writing at a blinding pace. Now more than 10,000 words into my sixth novel. Four and Five will come out at intervals this year. Six probably a year from now. I expect I’ll have Seven ready later this year and then I’ll start Eight. I think it wise that if you have something you love doing, go and do it. Sort of tune out the day to day in national affairs. It won’t do you any good to pay too close attention to the particular horrors the Biden crew will inflict on us. Pick your battles and place pressure as necessary on our guys when something really crucial comes up (gun control, illegal immigration, that sort of thing).

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Work for victory.

Open Thread

Battles is now out! Get your copy, today!

I’ve got the first draft of the second series already done. Two books: Shadow Army and Kings and Queen. Same characters, set six years after Battles. Probably get them released mid-year.

Just noticed that a quorum for the Senate to do business is 51. Kamala doesn’t count towards it. The GOP, if really pressed on things like abolishing the filibuster and packing the court, can halt all proceedings simply by not being there. It won’t be something which can be done all the time, but on the crucial things which would emasculate even the GOPe’s ability to get things done, Mitch might pull this out of his pocket.

I’ve been watching the erecting of barricades and barbed wire along with the absurd deployment of 26,000 Guardsmen to DC and I’ve taking two things away from it:

  1. I’m rather disgusted to be an American at the moment. This is simply shameful.
  2. The government is scared out of its wits.

They know full well that the number who would actually do something for them is tiny. Congress’ approval is at 15%. Joe Biden, even if we want to call him the legit winner (he ain’t) only barely scraped by in the Electoral College by 46,000 votes. The Democrats have bare power to govern, no mandate, and they are held in contempt by half the population.

The China Flu Op is complete and now the Blue State governors and mayors are starting to re-open their States. I thought it would be sooner, but I guess with all the disputes, they waited until after Joe was certified by the Electoral College.

Donald Trump got 75 million votes, 12 million more than in 2016, after a four year campaign of relentless slander with the final year being hit by the ‘Rona and impeachment. Had Trump been treated merely fair by the Ruling Class, he would have got 90 million votes, in my view. I know people who were moving towards Trump but ended up going Joe in the end simply because they felt that doing so would end the insanity (spoiler: it didn’t).

Morocco is awarding Trump their highest award for helping bring about peace in the Middle East. As we all know, the Trump years were most important because they clarified everything. We now know who America’s real allies in the world are.

Biden wants to make the national minimum wage $15. This will be vigorously opposed by the GOP. And I know that 99% of my fellow GOPers are opposed. I am opposed, too. But this is only because Biden is doing it. If we were doing it, I’d be ok with it. The thing about the minimum wage is that it is economic insanity but it is popular. People love it. Whenever it comes up for a vote, the people back it by huge majorities. As Lincoln once said, a commonly held opinion, whether well- or ill-founded cannot lightly be set aside. As we are going to get the higher minimum wage, we should have led the charge on it and used it to get other things we wanted. We have to start thinking like this: we need more votes. Lots more. And this means we need to convince people that if we’re in power, we’ll give them what they want.

Open Thread

The Kraut’s are offering to help us protect Democracy. What could go wrong?

Team Biden will release all available vaccine doses right away. This is a change from Trump which is holding some back to ensure people get their second shot. The possible benefit: more people gain immunity faster. Possible downfall: not enough people go for the second dose and thus immunity only lasts a short time. Personally, it is probably six of one, half dozen of the other. My guess is that the change is so that they can merely do something different from Trump.

Biden will go after guns, on that we can rely. What form the action takes remains to be seen, but the Democrats are salivating at the thought of going after those backwards yokels in Flyover America. Now, to be sure, this is one issue which can unite the various elements of the GOP and lead to severe punishment of the Democrats in 2022. But I don’t think they can help themselves.

The Lincoln Project: yeah, they’re pretty much what you expected them to be.

Richard Dawkins is also pretty much what you expect. That’s the thing about these “free thinkers”…they are actually slaves to fashion.

Pompeo is one of the few standing firmly by Trump right now. That means he’s going to give it a shot in 2024.