July 4th 1776

Mark Noonan14 Comments

So, what did we say that fine day?

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

This means they don’t have to be proved. They are like the sky being blue. You can argue if you like, but no American will accept any argument that these truths are not self evidently true.

that all men are created equal,

This is a dogma much like the Christian dogma of the Trinity (though on a lower level, of course). You can’t prove it. In fact, you can easily find evidence that while we are created equal, we are not actually equal. Not in physical ability, not in intellectual capacity and so on. But we hold that all men – though in 2025 we would write it “all people” – are created equal because this is the only way to justify a government by consent. We’re either equal and thus can only be governed at our consent, or we are unequal and our superior masters shall rule over us.

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We are endowed with the rights. That word is very important. Government doesn’t grant us our rights, we are endowed with them from the moment we are created. And these rights cannot be taken away – not even by our voluntary agreement. They exist outside of human reference. God or Nature – take your pick based on your beliefs – endowed us with them by the simple fact of our being human. Why do we assert this as self-evident? Because like our being created equal, it is the only way to justify the sort of government we have. If our rights are contingent upon agreement or law, then it is not self evident that we are created equal and the whole edifice collapses.

–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

Another key part: we institute government simply to secure our rights. Anything else governments do at the behest of the people is all fine and dandy, but the purpose of government is to secure our rights. It is the only thing the government must do. We might want government to pay us all money out of the Treasury…but we demand that government secure our rights.

–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.

No government is permanent. Not even our sublime Constitution. Humanity is Fallen. We sin. We err. We get greedy and stupid. We forget what we’re doing here. When that happens, we have the right to alter or to abolish that form of government which failed and try again with a new form of government.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

We can and will put up with a lot, but when our form of government starts to abuse us and usurp our rights, it is our duty to alter or abolish the government. Jefferson wasn’t letting us off the hook. The United States was founded on the dogmas listed above and subscription to those dogmas – a requirement for any person who wishes to have the title of American citizen – lays upon us the duty to change things when they’ve gone wrong. We are not to wait upon the boss to tell us – we tell him what we’re doing, and if we have to fight, so be it.

There is nothing like the United States. Nothing like our Declaration. Nothing like our Constitution. And there never will be another like it unless we Americans simply try to make what was done in 1776 better. Other nations – other peoples – are incapable of this form of government and our concepts of liberties and rights. We don’t know what magic of the universe – what interventions by God – made us what we are and gave us our Founders, but however it came to be, it was and remains unique. Other people do approach our ideals of government and liberty, but they always fall short…too fearful from long habits of servility of actually taking that final step to full, adult and human responsibility. Only we have said – and as far as we can tell, only we will say – “I am an adult human being with Rights and they will be respected”. Everyone else always places a “but” in there somewhere…some escape hatch which allows the adult to hide and allow some form of Master to take charge and order things to their liking.

And it is hard, my friends. We already know that some substantial portion of our own people have been so ruthlessly propagandized that they are eager to surrender their rights in return for a government subsidy. But it was hard in 1776, too. In fact, it is said that only about one in three of the Founding generation were active participants in creating our nation. Such is how is was, is and always will be: most people are afraid of taking any sort of responsibility. But true Americans never shy away from it – we eagerly demand to be given the choice, and we choose liberty at all costs and hazards. Outside of our varied faiths in God, nothing is more important to an American than being free and equal under God.

Look back upon that generation, now nearly 250 years past. They are long gone but they remain our standard. Do we measure up to them? Are we as brave as they were? If we have but a tenth of their courage, we shall remain free.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan2 Comments

I stayed up to watch the vote on the Rule for the OBBB…and it was all just so very irritating. I’m sick of these GOPers who play this game of chicken.

I get that everyone wants to maximize their political gain out of these things…but the place to do that is while the bill is being crafted, not when its up for final passage. It is like we’ve raised up a generation of Congresscritters who don’t know how to do it…and then as I mentally ranted and raved about it, I understood: they really don’t know how to do it. Do you realize how long its been since real politics took place in the Capitol? It isn’t a political field…its a stage. Its where you go to have an impressive background to state your talking points. Politics is done in staff offices…and for staffers, a bit of backstabbing at the crucial moment is probably what they’re told to do…and likely by Democrats (there is a poll of staffers for DC…and I’ll bet most of them are Democrats).

I don’t think these guys know how to horse trade and I’ve got the horrified feeling that they can’t horse trade because horse trading requires that you keep your word. In the old days of politics, a person’s word was their bond. You only rarely made a solid promise to do something but when you did, you kept your word. You had to. If you got a reputation for ratting out, you’d be finished. Nobody would trust you – the Party bosses would find a primary challenger because nobody likes a liar. Or, at least, nobody used to. Olden days valued honesty. Modern times seem to value the brazen lie – and the more brazen it is, the more it is admired. One of the GOPers causing the hold up last night just last year was stating that border security was the most important issue of our times…and there she was last night, objecting because the bill didn’t cut spending by an additional one percent. That isn’t principle – that is being a liar.

We really need to get people to understand that this isn’t a game. The fate of our nation is at stake – and while Democrats can gum up the works and prevent us from getting all we want, we still must get as much as we can. Trump must be able to rely on a solid GOP caucus…and if he can’t, then its time to primary until we do. We can’t make these people honest, but we can make them afraid.

Oh, Jeffries got up in the House to rant and rave against OBBB and he said, I quote, that the “deportation machine will be unleashed on steroids”. So, what we voted for.

Have a great and safe Fourth!

Open Thread

Mark Noonan18 Comments

The other day the UK voted to kill people to save on their healthcare budget. Of course, it wasn’t presented that way…it was all about “compassion” … where we compassionately whack granny rather than take care of her. After all, the old broad has been around a while and in her current condition she can’t bake a pie…so, here: take this $20 pill instead of this $20,000 medical treatment. It is all just horrific…but what is to be expected by people who don’t really believe anything any more. This is why I say the UK is doomed – and its not doomed by Muslims being imported, but by Brits not believing in God or, indeed, anything of note. The Muslims will take over the dead body of Britain…but someone would no matter because very soon there won’t be any British people left even if you do see some white guy with a Cockney accent. The only slight chance for Britain is the fact that – like a lot of places around the West – there is an ongoing revival of Christianity among youth. Still small in numbers, but growing rapidly…so, there might be a fight for Britain. But not over the current system – over who gets to replace it.

But I bring this up because there was this Lib-Dem MP who was rebuked from the pulpit by his priest. His Catholic priest. Had the guy been Church of England his non-binary priestess of color would have awarded him a medal for voting to kill. The MP was upset because the priest had made the public statement that he could no longer receive communion. That’s what bothered him – the public rebuke. Not the fact that he took his immortal soul in his hands and let it slip away because his constituents favor offing the elderly. The man goes to Mass every Sunday. Over the years the entire New Testament and most of the Old has been read out to him. He’s heard untold numbers of homilies expounding Catholic teaching…and he’s shocked and hurt that his public defiance of Catholic teaching led to a public rebuke of same. Catholic in Name Only! But that is the problem and if you wonder why we get some bad things happening in the Church – and, indeed, in all religions – it is just this: some people are only nominally in their religion. It is a sort of a hobby but it doesn’t touch their lives in any meaningful way…they live lives of practical paganism. And there are plenty of priests and pastors (and rabbis and imams) who are just as practically pagan as their wooden-headed congregations.

In case you wonder why I’m no longer in favor of universal suffrage it is really this: it isn’t that people are too stupid to vote but that people are too indifferent to be allowed to vote. If you don’t believe in anything, then why the heck are you even voting? For more welfare? To make some sort of social statement because you voted the “right” way? Well, that’s what gets us people like Obama in office so no thanks on that. I’d rather compete with people who hate me for a reason rather than people who hate me because TV told them to.

Canada tried to slap some BS tech tax on us retroactive back to 2022 and Trump terminated trade talks and Canada dropped the idea. It can’t be emphasized enough that access to the US market is the most valuable thing in the world…other countries might be richer per capita, other countries might have more people in them…but nobody has our combination of money and people. To sell in the USA is the most magnificent opportunity available…and people will pay through the nose for the privilege. That is what our Experts didn’t and don’t get and Trump instinctively knew all along. The tariffs are to get them to understand that there’s a price for doing business here and it’ll either be paid at the customs house or by a deal which allows us to sell in your country. Everyone gets to pick what they want but nobody gets a free ride any more.

Over on X a veteran posted about his experiences in the Muslim world during the War on Terrorism. It isn’t a pretty picture. It went viral. A lot. The guy has about 45,000 followers but the post is now up to 13.7 million views. Give it a read. What I believe is important about it is the fact that he’s just brutally telling us what it was like – with no condemnation of Muslims as Muslims. It is just what he saw – what he had direct experience of in a wartime situation in the Muslim world. I can tell it is true because it is a very extreme version of what I experienced in the peacetime Muslim world back in 1985-86. And do note that none of this sort of stuff was reported in the MSM…they’d be all over an American who shot the wrong guy but they never gave the actual context of what being there was like. It didn’t fit the Narrative.

First thing for all Americans to remember about Islam: it is different from the United States. This may come as a shock – especially for the fine people at Gays for Palestine – but they really aren’t just like us. Different language, different religious atmosphere, different historical development. The point being made in the post was that you can’t just willy-nilly transport these people to the USA – or the larger West – and expect them to simply fit in. Sure, self-selected people arriving via normal immigration process can be fine…and have been fine for ages…but waves of “refugees” being shoved in via NGO-funded human trafficking, not so much. The difference is that the Muslim who simply wants to live in, say, Germany and so does his best to live like a German is an immigrant…the Muslim trafficked into Germany is a combination of welfare bum and invader…who not only does not understand the West, but holds it in contempt.

We don’t want to have any more excuses for bad behavior – and it extends not just to importing people who don’t want to be here, but also to excusing Third World failure. I pointed out on X that Haiti is on the same island as the Dominican Republic and yet Dominica’s per capita GDP is more than five times that of Haiti. I asked, reasonably, just how could people louse it up as bad as the Haitians had? And then I got hit by The Excuse:

After independence from France – a quite brutal affair where the Haitians massacred all the white men and forced the surviving white women to marry Haitians – the French and Haitians reached a deal…and to be sure, it was a deal made with a French fleet off of Port au Prince. The French demanded an enormous sum of money as compensation for lost property and all the French who had been killed and, faced with overwhelming force, the Haitians agreed. These payment were enormous, especially on a poor country like Haiti, and the various financial means used to pay off the indemnity ended up working out to the last payment not being made until 1947. And that’s it, you see? Had that indemnity not been imposed, the Haitians would have had the economic sinews to build themselves up. There are serious calls for France to pony up $100 billion in reparations for all this.

I’d like to point out at this moment that 1947 was 78 years ago. Suppose Haitian development was negatively impacted by the debt – a reasonable assertion – this doesn’t explain why since the debt was paid there’s been no real improvement. Over the course of 78 years – a human lifetime – there should have been some movement towards economic prosperity and political stability. Instead we recently had some sort of bizarre cannibal gang rioting in Port au Prince. I get that Haiti has a legacy of slavery, colonialism and being treated unfairly by Great Powers…but lots of countries have that and aren’t basket cases. I start to suspect that there’s some fundamental failure in the Haitian people.

And we’re all done with that – and Trump revoking Temporary Protected Status for 500,000 Haitians has got the Democrats in an uproar and the rest of us asking, “does this mean we’ll get them all out? I’m sure there are more than 500,000 here”. It isn’t indifference to human suffering…it is impatience with endless excuse-making and explaining-away. The Haitians – and the rest of the people of the Third World – are human beings just like the rest of us. They are no dumber and no smarter than we are. They are as capable of building up a free and prosperous society as anyone…and we’re now suggesting that they get on it.

An Interlude About Music (Sort Of)

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Yesterday I watched a bit of a documentary called 1971: the Year That Music Changed Everything. And there’s a bit of Boomer pretentiousness, right? Changed everything! For crying out loud, Won’t Get Fooled Again, What’s Going On? and Ohio were pretty good tunes but they changed precisely nothing. And, anyways, if you want a song with refrain of “what’s going on?” the 1993 song What’s Up? is actually superior (though I may be biased as the songwriter/singer is a contemporary and so the song speaks more to me than Boomer political slop even though it is more overtly Left in tone than Marvin Gaye’s song).

But what caught my eye is that it opens with Chrissie Hynde talking and until I watched I didn’t know she had been present at Kent State during the riots there (her work with the band The Pretenders not starting until 1978). Hynde is, of course, a life-long far Left person – but she’s also one of the few intelligent people on the Left and so when cancel culture got started she condemned that because how can you arrive at truth if people aren’t allowed to be offended? Anyways, she’s talking about Kent State very matter of factly – no high emotion just saying they had burned down the ROTC building because they felt that the Army shouldn’t be on “their” campus…and you could tell in the talking that she was looking back on it all and wondering just how they came to believe the Army was the problem and that the campus on a taxpayer-funded college belongs to the kids? And then as she finishes talking the video cuts to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young singing their very famous song about it, Ohio. You know it:

Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in Ohio

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?

Apparently, Young wrote this in a flash of anger after hearing the news of Kent State. It was released in 1971 (so, of course, included in a documentary about 1971) even though the events happened the year before and…it did just ok. Peaking at number 14 on the charts…which makes you wonder just how much of everything the song could have changed?

I don’t know if the documentary producers meant it, but the juxtaposition of Hynde’s reasonable reminisces and Young’s shouting contemporary screed is very interesting. She was there. She knew what happened and what they had been up to. Young wasn’t. He saw the TV news reports about it. The song wasn’t about the events at Kent State but about how Cronkite and other news-actors presented it to Young. One recalls another Young song called Southern Man which made out that white Southerners were just racists who didn’t want white women having sex with black guys…and this was ripped to shreds by Ronnie Van Zant in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song Sweet Home Alabama which has the line:

Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow

To Young’s credit he did later admit that he richly earned that slam and it is one of the best lines ever written in a pop song (the best line in a pop song is “Many dreams come true And some have silver linings” in the Led Zepplin song Over the Hills and Far Away – I will not be taking questions about this assertion). And perhaps if Young had actually found out a bit about Kent State – or even just thought about it a bit, the song Ohio would have been different? Probably. But that is kinda the problem, isn’t it? People just reacting – especially reacting to dramatic video presented in a way designed to elicit a conditioned response. After all, Hynde one day decided to write a song about Ohio and called it My City Was Gone (you remember it as the opening music for Rush Limbaugh’s show).

I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no down-town

South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces

Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio

No mention of Kent State which must have been a formative and very shocking event in her life…because, of course, it was in the end, nothing. A tragedy in four deaths but a farce about why they happened. For heaven’s sake, the Army wasn’t the problem. No matter how much you hated the war in Vietnam, hated Nixon, even hated America…the Army is not in charge of deciding things. And the kids burning down the ROTC building were exact contemporaries of the kids in the Army at the time. Were they evil? The Left would have people believe so…and worked up events to convince people it was, but it was all stupid and any really thinking person looking back on it would be appalled by their participation in a stupid riot that ended up getting four people killed. And so the thinking person’s song is about urban sprawl.

On and on it has gone over the decades…provoked action, manipulated media reporting, emotional reaction. And it goes into the Book of Liberal Lore as canon…never a modification or a bit of reflection…it was Nixon who killed those kids at Kent State just like Brown had his hands up and was saying don’t shoot. When its all a very long time past, someone will make a documentary about it and will just rehash it all…just wait: in 2034 there will be “20 years after” documentaries about the Ferguson riots…and the 2045 documentaries about the anti-ICE riots will be a thing to behold! If, that is, the Left is still around to spin the Narrative. I’m starting to think they won’t be.

I think it is rather played out now – and with the money being cut off, the sinews of propaganda will weaken. And I think we’re all rather tired of it…this pretend world where those who set fires are heroes and the firefighters are the bad guys. Just perhaps by 2045 we’ll have a new version of Hynde singing an interesting song…rather than regurgitated slop about Fighting the Man? Hope so. It’ll be like being liberated.

Democrats Go Full Commie

Mark Noonan13 Comments

Why was Mamdani chosen as Democrat nominee for Mayor of New York City?

Because he’s foreign born.

Because he’s Muslim.

Because he’s a Communist.

Because he hates America.

Because he’s an anti-Semite.

Don’t overthink this – he’s a quite ignorant person (though like all such upper class ignoramuses, very certain about everything) who hates everything the United States stands for. And he’s like this simply because he was told to be like this. His entire education was at elite schools – meaning schools for the social elite, not elite as education. He was told from preschool that the USA is inherently racist and evil, that white people are inherently racist and evil, that Christianity is malevolent, that “national liberation movements” are always the good guys. On and on like that – and given his social group, absolutely no one to dissent from the Leftist orthodoxy. He’s probably never had anything like a serious conversation with someone who disagree with him. And he wouldn’t know what to do if it ever happened – he’d just mindlessly retreat to Leftist slogans. The anti-Semitism probably came in late, unless he learned it at home. It was only about the time he was in college that it became Leftist dogma that Israel is an Apartheid State. But however he came by it, he just took it in stride – never thought about it. The Party said so – and everyone he knows agrees.

And who has propelled him forward? Upper class white people. You can see it in the heat maps of the vote in NYC – the poorer the area, the more votes for Cuomo. And I mean by a lot. Black Americans, Latinos, working class people – can’t stand this upper class twit. And he knew who was going to get him a win: those upper class white people. Everything he said as pitched at them…and they eagerly jumped in because of his biography and, of course, because it is a way to Resisting Trump. Nope, not kidding about that – a big reason for their vote was the perception that Mamdani will fight Trump. That Mamdani will be a city mayor – not even a State governor – and will have zero ability to fight Trump doesn’t matter. The people who voted for him don’t even know this…they are as credentialed and ignorant as Mamdani, after all. They’re just sure about it all – after all, MSNBC tells them that Trump is horribly unpopular and is falling apart by the day (not kidding, this is what they’re fed) and that the Leftist Resistance – all that fighting for illegals and Hamas – has been the ticket to beating Trump (who, by the way, wasn’t actually elected – Kamala was not less popular, it was just that Musk manipulated the vote to give Trump the win).

So, don’t get yourself too wrapped up in one particular aspect here – it doesn’t really matter that he’s Muslim or Communist or foreign born…it is all of it together which tells us our problem. Even 20 years ago this guy would have got 5% of the vote in a vanity run for the Democrat nomination. Yesterday, this clown got 44% of the vote. He’ll run against a worn out Eric Adams running as an Indy and Curtis Sliwa as the totally pointless Republican candidate. And it won’t take much for Mamdani to win – while more than three million people voted in NYC in 2024, this year it’ll probably be around a million…and those upper class people in Manhattan are slavering at the prospect of voting Mamdani. Perhaps Sliwa backing out and endorsing Adams could help, but probably not. NYC is about to go Full Commie…and that is the future the Left wants for us…for America to be ruled by people who hate her with a passion and who will dismantle the whole thing. Waiting in the wings on the national stage are AOC and Crockett…just waiting for their chance to get into senior positions, maybe even the White House one day.

The good news is we elected Trump last year. The defunding of the Left proceeds as does the deportations. America is being rescued as the Democrats go Full Communist…and in Mamdani is the perfect poster boy. The GOP is already lining up to make him the face of the Democrat party. And plenty of other far-Left kooks are looking to primary sitting Democrats (Schumer’s immediate endorsement of Mamdani was an attempt to keep AOC from primarying him). The Democrats will see in Mamdani the path to victory in 2026 and 2028. They will quadruple down on insane Leftism. If we’re even remotely competent (in know, we’re still the GOP!) we’re going to smack these idiots down hard.

Side note: Looking into the nitwit’s biography I found that his grandfather was a member of the Indian Civil Service during the late stages of the British Raj – much like Kamala’s grandfather. Making me wonder how many British Empire-educated people moved into the West after the end of British rule and decided to take revenge on the West via their children and grandchildren?

Iran

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Did I vote for this?

You mean for Trump’s oft-stated determination that Iran would not be able to obtain a nuclear weapon? You mean his confirmation of official and bi-partisan US policy for the past quarter century? Yeah, I voted for that. In fact, I voted to make sure it would happen – because no other person in office would have done it.

Sure, I would have preferred the Mullahs had bowed to the inevitable. I thought – and Trump probably thought – that the vaporization of Soleimani would convince the Mullahs that Trump’s intentions were serious. I guess it didn’t. They probably thought they could just drag things out and wait for non-Trump to be in office. There is a good chance, after all, that Iranian intel people monitor the American MSM and figure they’re getting an accurate picture of the American political scene. Anyone who takes the American MSM seriously is going to have a massively warped sense of what is going on over here…and if the Mullahs believed that Trump was in trouble over deporting illegals, then that might have convinced them they could dig in their heels and wait him out.

Wrong answer!

Some people – including some who have been allegedly MAGA – are now lighting their hair on fire over the prospect of Trump sending in the Army. I am convinced this is paid for by the Iranian government…its just too stupid for words. We just showed we don’t need to send in the Army. We can destroy any target we wish in Iran with impunity. Sure, the Mullahs might send their absurd little Navy on a suicide run, but that will be quickly disposed of by the US Navy (sorry, 60 year old frigates and aged Russian Kilo-class subs are going to be sunk before they even know we’re there). They might try a proxy attack using terrorist groups – but Trump has already said that any Iranian retaliation will result in further US attacks…and I doubt that Trump is going to be too concerned about proving Iran was behind any attack…we’ll just assume they were behind it. And if they aren’t behind it, too bad, so sad – when you fund lunatic terrorist groups you takes your chances. Should have thought about blowback a long time ago. Trump did suggest that regime change would be useful but there was nothing in his statement indicating he wants us to forcibly change the regime…and he’s not dumb enough to come before the American people and say he wants to send 250,000 of our sons and daughters to Tehran. Just won’t happen.

And he posted that because he knows – even if his idiotic critics don’t – that the end of the Mullah regime means peace. They are the only people keeping the Islamist nonsense alive. Muslims might very well hate me, hate Jews, hate the USA, hate the west…but from the hate to the suicide vest are lots of steps. Takes lots of money for propaganda, for materials and training…take away that money and the hate might fester but it will fester in a void. Some jackanapes in Cairo ranting about stupid Americans as if we care. It is wise for Trump to put that prospect out there…it gets the Mullahs looking over their shoulders and realizing that, come what may, the oil sales must go on or they’ll run out of money to pay their bully boys – and no bully boys means mobs outside the palace calling for your blood.

As for what the Iranian people want – I couldn’t care less. I’ve seen some people write up how the Mullahs betrayed the Iranian revolution and it sounds like something wise to say and I’ve pretty much accepted it but then it kinda struck me – going back to ancient times, the people of Iran haven’t known a minute of political freedom. They were under absolute monarchy until the 1930’s and then a sort of bogus parliament was created as a fig leaf for absolute monarchy. And even in that absolute monarchy, it was really just a series of competing interest groups trying to be the power behind the throne…mostly in order to steal the money, especially the oil money once that came rolling in. Sure, the Shah was oppressive and by the mid-1970s he was unpopular, but did the mobs demonstrating against him even know what they wanted? Have any conception of what it means to be free? They had never lived it – and going back to their earliest civilized ancestors, they had no experience of it. Very likely they were just being manipulated by the Ayatollah’s people and they eventually got rid of the Shah for him and he just stepped into the role of absolute monarch under a different mask. Basically, it is all nonsense…and in a very real sense, not even a fully real country…just people who happen to speak mostly the same language and hold the same religious beliefs crammed into the borders Russia and Britain drew for them in the 19th century. I mean, for goodness sake, the Shah was trying to take the mantle of Cyrus the Great – the Shah was the son of a usurper placed on the throne by British machinations and here this nitwit was trying to claim he was somehow connected to the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. That isn’t God’s anointed…that is a guy play acting and hoping nobody bothers to check behind the curtain.

I just don’t care what they do. I’m only interested in Iran insofar as they cause my country any trouble. And shouting “death to America” while trying to build a nuke is the definition of trouble. If they had never done anything else to offend us, I’d still want them zapped over that. Call me silly, but when someone says they want to kill me and they’re trying to obtain the means to do so, I’m going to take them seriously and respond accordingly. And it isn’t The Jews making me do this – if Israel didn’t exist it wouldn’t change my view. And, no, I in no way feel morally responsible for their plight…I don’t care about the 1953 coup or anything else the Iranians use as an excuse to hate me. You see, I don’t care if they hate me – and I can’t fix what happened in the past. I only care if they want to kill me. And they have told us again and again they want to kill us. They could stop that at any time and we’d all be cool and happy. Their choice. Not mine.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

I get Trump’s reticence in relation to military action against Iran. War is always incalculable in results. Once the guns go off, you never quite know how it will come out. Clearly, the Mullahs should never possess a nuclear weapon. The chances they’ll actually use one are low given Israel’s almost certain already existing nuclear deterrent, but the world can’t rely on Mullah reasonableness. Additionally, I have held since 1979 that the Iranian regime is a pestilence. And since the fall of the USSR, they have been the primary promoter of Islamist terrorism (good to remember that prior to the fall of the USSR, most Muslim terrorists officially adhered to some sort of Socialist program downplaying the Islamic element…but the only pay for it post 1991 has been Tehran, so the Socialism is muted and the Islamism emphasized). Bottom line, if the Mullah regime goes, the most likely outcome in the Middle East is a general peace settlement as there will be no one to pay for Islamist programs (another good thing to remember is that outside Iran and its proxies, Islamist propaganda these days is heavily suppressed in Muslim nations…sure, they’ll let you publish endless copies of Mein Kampf and anti-Semitism if the order of the day…but this “river to the sea” nonsense is kept under control). In my view, we should – if necessary – launch attacks to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is crippled (there is some doubt that Israel has a weapon – outside a nuke – which can reach the deepest buried elements).

But I’m going to trust Trump’s judgement on this. He does have access to a lot of information we don’t have and, very important, he has earned our trust. The man took a bullet for us. He’s reliable – even if he gets it wrong, the motivation will still be to do what is best for the USA. If he orders an attack, I support that – if he decides to hold off, I’ll support that.

Someone posted a video on X claiming to show an empty Los Angeles emergency room – with the narration claiming it is a horror as “our people” aren’t getting life-saving care. If true, what it means is that illegals aren’t using the ER as their primary care facility…which they routinely do, clogging up the system and costing everyone untold sums of money. If they’re refusing to do this out of fear of ICE, then that is what I voted for – illegals should be afraid to show their faces. They should live furtive lives in the shadows – impossible to rent a house, buy a car, get health care…because they aren’t supposed to be here. They can go back home and not have these problems.

We’re also getting more tear-jerker bits of propaganda about some of the deported – “she’s a grandma who has been here 30 years and she loves being in America”. Yeah, if she had the least bit of respect for America and Americans, she wouldn’t have come here illegally. We really need to get that across – illegally crossing our border is an insult. It is done by people with total contempt for the United States and our people.

And, guys, it has been a long time since the immigrant was a self-selected, hard-working person who wanted to build a better life. The floodgates were opened under Obama (and, really, even before that) and the word went out that the suckers in the USA would let you stay illegally and provide you housing, medical care, food and education…never asking you to contribute or develop any love for America. The people who flooded in – especially when Biden was in office – are leeches looking to live off the American people. They’re precisely the people who keep their home countries as dumps…voting for any conman who offers a free ride and cheering loudly each tin pot dictator in turn…and, of course, considering it a point of honor to help and protect criminal gangs. They all have to go.

ICE is reporting a 500% increase in assaults on their officers – all of this encouraged and orchestrated by the Democrats. They are all-in on illegals – this is insane but, really, they can’t do otherwise…an end to illegal immigration and the huge amounts of graft it begets is a death knell for the Democrat party. Already the DNC is being starved of funds…the more Trump does the less money the Democrats will have. And that’s just one of a score of problems here – each 750,000 illegals deported means one less Blue State House seat, even if the SC refuses to allow Trump to only count citizens in the census. They must fight like this and hope that some even turns the American people against Trump’s policies. I don’t see that happening – they probably don’t, either – but they’ll keep at it because they have no choice.

I’m on Vacation Open Thread

Mark Noonan5 Comments

The thing is, I’m here right now:

That is Torrey Pines State Beach in California – far, far away from the anti-ICE riots, carefully guarded so the upper class Commies who reside nearby never have to suffer the consequences of their actions. But, as you can see, one heck of a nice beach. You can see that little inlet there with the bridge going over it…first time I was there was Spring of 1972. Mom brought me there. You used to be able to go inland on from that inlet and it was quite spectacular but the Commies decided it was a Wetland and HAD TO BE PRESERVED FOR ALL TIME and they closed it off to human activity…which will be funny as heck when erosion destroys that little inlet. Those cliffs you see were quite a bit further out back in 1972!

But as I’m there and not here (I’d normally be plunking myself downright by that closest lifeguard tower but with the Mrs still recovering from the broken hip, we’ll probably be over by the furthest one as its an easier path – if you happen to be in the area, say hi!) I decided to schedule this one so that everyone can keep a fresh post to talk up the issues of the day…which I’m confident will be different from the issues of today (Sunday). Things move very fast during Trump II! Remember the Elon/Trump fight? Seems like twenty years ago, doesn’t it?

I’ll be back late Thursday – so, if the world doesn’t blow up by then, we’ll chat some more!

Open Thread

Mark Noonan11 Comments

There is still some debate about whether or not Hitler actually hated the Jews or if this was all just part of a program to amass power. Keeping in mind that Hitler was the creator of the Big Lie – the concept that if you brazenly repeat the most absurd lies, they’ll be believed. In addition to this, the doctor who unsuccessfully treated Hitler’s mother for cancer was allowed to slip out of Austria unscathed after the Anschluss. So, there are some indications that it was all drivel. Of course, massively more indications that it was sincere hatred. But in the end, it didn’t matter if it was real or feigned…what matters is what happened.

I bring this up because the Army 250 parade really showed the divisions in our country. While our side was quite delighted with the parade and enjoyed a nice, patriotic afternoon honoring the Army, the Democrats were out at their No Kings marches around the country…and shouting incoherently the whole time. It was like trying to eat your dinner when there’s a couple three tables over having a shrieking fight. I pointed out on X – on a couple different threads – that the protests are over nothing. There is no fascist threat of tyranny. There is nothing unjust going on. Everything is actually pretty nice in the USA right now and getting better. But there the Democrats were…out there getting all shouty. And quite proud of themselves! They really think they stopped fascism cold!

Let’s go over some of the things the Left believes:

  1. Trump is a Russian agent.
  2. George Floyd is a hero.
  3. Luigi Mangione is a dreamboat hero.
  4. The Butler Assassination Attempt was faked.
  5. There is a due process for deportations.
  6. The Judicial is superior to the Executive.
  7. Homo sapiens can be born in the wrong body.
  8. America was built by slaves.
  9. America is stolen land.
  10. Los Angeles is actually part of Mexico.
  11. The 2024 election was stolen by Elon Musk for Trump.
  12. Cloth masks can stop a virus.
  13. Banning gas powered leaf blowers will save the environment.
  14. There is no physical strength difference between male and female.
  15. Trump is a Nazi.
  16. MAGA is all racist all the time.
  17. A violent protest can be “mostly peaceful”.
  18. The Founders were less educated than a purple haired 2025 college grad.
  19. There’s a genocide in Gaza.

You could probably add another 50 to the list – and the common run is not just that its all wrong, it is that it is all laughably, stupidly false. They’re pointing at the sky and saying it is green…and shouting at us when we say, “uh, you know its blue, right?”. Do they really believe all this drivel? I don’t know – I’ll bet that at least some of them (especially in the leadership) don’t believe a word of it. But like with ol’ Adolph, it doesn’t matter if it is sincere or not – it is what is done as a consequence. And among the many things the Democrats would like to happen now is for ICE agents to be cornered by a violent mob so they have to shoot their way out of it…thus making a new George Floyd for them (this is why Newsom filed his absurd suit to remove Trump from command of the CA Guard – the Guard has been protecting ICE as it goes about its raids – which haven’t stopped for a minute – thus preventing the bloody confrontation Newsom and the rest of the CA Democrats were trying to orchestrate from the start). And keep in mind that there’s a violent mob to go after ICE because people believe the nonsense lie that there’s something wrong with enforcing immigration laws…that somehow picking up a drug trafficker illegal in Compton is the same as loading Jews up on the train for Auschwitz. The lies used to gin up the mobs are that stupid…and there’s the mob, at least acting like they believe it.

And once again it all comes back to lies: and the lies are killing people. Some day everyone will admit that I am right – until we start to punish liars, we don’t really get out of this.

Trump caused some tremors among MAGA when he announced a pause on ICE raids for agricultural and hospitality industry workers. From what I’ve learned, this is a bit of window dressing to get a few GOP wets on board with the Big Beautiful Bill. Don’t know for certain if this is the case, but it does make the most sense. Though I also offer the possibility that ICE is overwhelmed with the scale of the task and so this is merely prioritization of resources…while we want all illegals out, there are illegals we should get out, first…and as agribusiness is a generally GOP-friendly constituency why not give them a break? At least some time to readjust their labor pool…and perhaps revamp the guest-worker program? Bottom line is that Trump will not go soft on illegal immigration – but also good to keep in mind that Trump has never been anti-immigration. And he doesn’t want to be mean here – certainly not to some poor guy who is really just trying to make a few bucks working the fields in the USA…but the invasion of illegals is a crisis that must be addressed, very firmly. Until the border is totally secure and millions deported, it is a crisis we can’t let up on.

The Mullahs: They Still Have to Go

Mark Noonan11 Comments

Gotta tip the hat to the Israelis – that must have taken months to set up. They did it without anyone figuring it out and it clearly caught the Iranians totally by surprise.

There are Right voices being raised against Israel – rather stupid Right voices, but they are there. It isn’t just for the Left that some people think history started last week. Also, things like the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Marine Corps Barracks bombing are very much ancient history – the young don’t even know they happened. It is, perhaps, a little hard for me to realize that one of the central events of my formative years is ancient but so it is…in fact, as ancient to the youth of today as World War One was to me when I was their age. But at least I knew about World War One! The kids today don’t know much – and a healthy skepticism about foreign adventures is being twisted by malevolent actors into sheer stupidity.

There are good and bad nations in the world. Good and bad governments. For the most part, it is a matter of perfect indifference to an American what another nation is like – if they are bad, we can just stay away from them and that’s fine. But some nations aren’t just bad, they are malicious. Iran is one of the malicious nations. Their government, actually. It isn’t that they chant “Death to America” that is the problem…it is that they try to carry out the chant. That they are mostly incompetent at it is neither here nor there. It is that they try to strike my nation any way they can which matters. Essentially, since the fall of the USSR and the termination of Soviet funding for terrorism, Iran has been the prime mover in the terrorist world. They fund it. Train it. Supply it. Facilitate it at every turn. They take the money of the people of Iran – the part they don’t steal and hide away in Western banks – and use it to fund people who enjoy killing. You know, like the Hamas cretins who attacked Israel on October 7th. They live for the day when they might pull off something like that in the USA. I’ve been saying since 1979 that the Mullah regime in Tehran has to go – and everything that has happened since 1979 has simply confirmed this view as correct. But if you’re talking to a kid born in 2002 you won’t get through to them…they don’t remember it. They don’t even remember 9/11. All they see is the aftermath of our failed War on Terrorism and they were fed a story about how it all happened…The Jews and so forth made it happen and, hey, you know they lied about that Hitler fellow, too!

Good place to point out that Iran funds a lot of the Holocaust revisionism. Muslim nations have generally done this since WWII in an attempt to undercut Israel’s moral legitimacy…but the Mullahs put it all on steroids. Another reason they are malevolent. And what is malevolent has to go. The cancer has to be cut out…because if you don’t, it’ll eventually kill you.

To be fair, there are plenty of nations with governments that are evil – they rob their own people, oppress, kill, etc. But I have no concern about it because they aren’t trying to kill me. This is a key distinction, guys! The pragmatic facts of life are that peace cannot come to the Middle East until the Mullahs are removed from power. As long as they are in power, they will continue to stir the pot and fund terrorism in a program to seek maximum advantage in service of their sick and twisted goal of destroying Israel and the United States. It doesn’t matter that they never will have this power – it is that they will keep trying to achieve their goal. Get rid of them and there will be peace. Their dream is stupid but they won’t give it up – so it will have to be taken away from them.

What Israel is doing won’t do the job. Oh, there’s a slight chance that the temporary weakening of the regime will allow for popular revolt in Iran, but that is a very slight chance. The Mullahs make sure their security goons are well paid – and that means they’ll continue to obey orders to kill anyone who steps out of line. More than likely, the Mullahs will ride this out – and will remain the problem. Even if Israel destroys their nuclear program – literally sets it back to square one – it won’t solve the problem. Still good for Israel and the world, but not a resolution. A resolution only comes when the Mullahs are gone.

I’ve favored for years the most logical way to get the Mullahs out – as they remain in power because they can pay for goons, take away their money. Complete freeze on all assets, total blockade – land, sea and air. Nobody and nothing gets in or out. Within a few months the money is gone and shortages are spreading and though the Mullahs will lash out they can’t actually break the blockade…and hungry people facing off with unpaid goons is only going to go one way. Any military element here (other than the actual blockading forces) will be to degrade the means Iran has of striking out – mostly wiping out their small Navy and destroying their missile production facilities. It wouldn’t take much. It wouldn’t take long. It just takes the will to do it.

That will is lacking – even in Trump – because people simply do not understand the nature of the problem. You can’t reason with people who have no reason. We’ve seen it – try arguing with a Liberal. It is impossible. They will not address your points nor your objections but will just endlessly and quite mindlessly repeat their talking points. The Mullahs may or may not be truly insane – but they do know, sane or not, that if they give up the Death to America/Israel dream, then there’s no justification for their continued power. They know that at best a life of impoverished exile awaits them after that…and very likely death at the hands of their own people. There is no upside for them to act rationally – and so they won’t. And they will continue to rely on our unwillingness to see their insanity. See it. Understand it. And then get rid of them – whatever it costs its cheaper than another 50 years of dealing with these lunatics.