Let’s Have a Revolution

Mark Noonan82 Comments

I think we need a Revolution just to re-establish the Constitutional order. I’m sure if our Amazona saw this – via Brit Hume – she’d have blown a gasket:

This from the article: “he (Vindman) was deeply troubled by what he interpreted as an attempt by the president to subvert U.S. foreign policy…” There is a huge fallacy in this. Anyone know what it is?

The fallacy is that a President can subvert US foreign policy, of course. Per the Constitution, American foreign policy is whatever the President says it is: good, bad or indifferent. Congress has inputs in that they must agree to pay the monetary cost of the President’s policy and the Senate must ratify any treaties the President makes in pursuit of Administration policy…but the President decides what it is. If the President wakes up tomorrow morning and decides that our foreign policy is to insist that foreigners hop on one foot when negotiating with us, then that is the foreign policy of the United States, the end. And it can only be subverted if someone other than the President tries to change policy.

But this is where we are in 2019 – where we have bureaucrats claiming they run the show and large swaths of American political power agreeing with that assertion. We’ve lost all concept of what the Rule of Law is and that has made our Constitution, functionally, a dead letter. It is only enforced, at the moment, on whim…but we can’t remain free (or even civilized) like that. We have to get back to strict enforcement of the law, or we’re doomed. And if we can’t get that via Trump (mostly by appointing judges) then we are going to have to alter or abolish our current government and start all over again.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan37 Comments

Good article on the Democrat-created collapse of California into Third World status. My only quibble is whether or not the voters of California are really that stupid – I do believe a great deal of the Democrat’s continued power there in spite of obvious failure is due to voter fraud on a grand scale.

Adam Schiff – a completely garbage person – is essentially witness tampering. He has to: if there aren’t lies, then he won’t even have a garbage reason to impeach Trump.

Meanwhile, the latest savior for impeachment – Lt. Colonel Vindman – is going to prove as a much a dud as the previous saviors. The real problem here, of course, is that Trump hasn’t done anything wrong. Had he explicitly told the Ukrainians that they’d get nothing unless they specifically investigated Hunter Biden, that still wouldn’t be a violation of law. In fact, it would be Trump merely going his job as the sole man with Constitutional authority to enforce federal law. To put it in really clear terms: once Trump became aware of what the Bidens were up to, it would have been an impeachable offense had he not done all he could to have the matter investigated as he is commanded by the Constitution to see to it that the laws are faithfully enforced. Anyways, back to Vindman: my bet is that he’s the guy who told the “whistleblower”…and if so, he broke the law…and so running to Congress may be a mere means to protect himself against prosecution by Barr.

Taylor Swift, who has been going increasingly SJW, is going to perform like a trained dog for the Chinese Communists. This does lend credence to a theory I’ve heard that it is the Chi-Coms who are pushing the SJW crap as a means to weaken the United States. Say bad things about America, get a Chinese contract.

Related: China’s economic problems could make for more aggression. Could be: a little known aspect of the timing of the start of WWII was that Hitler was informed in early 1939 that Germany was close to bankruptcy and it was either stop the military build up and have a recession, or conquer resources. The original German plan to attack was moved up from 1942 to 1939.

Its a Criminal Investigation Open Thread

Mark Noonan81 Comments

This is a bit important:

U.S. Attorney John Durham’s ongoing probe into potential FBI and Justice Department misconduct has transitioned into a full-fledged criminal investigation, two sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News on Thursday night.

One source added that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s upcoming report on FBI surveillance abuses will shed light on why Durham’s probe has become a criminal inquiry.

Now, we’ll see how it comes out – but I’m just pleased that there’s likely to be a grand jury empaneled and these Deep State creeps will be dragged through it. Maybe we can’t send them to jail…but we can do a bit of the Left’s “the process is the punishment” on them. Let them have to hire attorneys and bankrupt themselves doing it. Enough is really enough.

The Left is, of course, having fits tonight about this – but that made me point out on Twitter that they are simply not used to a Republican President who fights back. They are used to investigating us and dragging our names through the mud and never a bit of pushback. Even when a Democrat’s corruption is so flagrant that they do have to go to jail, they are used to the GOP taking no advantage of it. Part of this is because a lot of our guys are neck deep in it, as well: and know they can expect no mercy from the Left. But, come on! As Matt and I carefully recorded in our 2007 book, The Caucus of Corruption, the Democrats/Left/Establishment/What Have You are corrupt to the bone. And they’ve simply gotten away with it – and for so long that they really do think the laws don’t apply to them. Well, they are about to find out that the only man with the federal power of indictment and trial is President Trump…and he’s not only uninterested in going along to get along, he’s got a lot of scores to settle. The good news is that his opponents are so dirty that Trump merely has to find a guy who will investigate and prosecute and just let things roll along.

You might have forgot the Israeli elections a little while back – but, they are still going on, because there was no clear winner:

President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday tasked Benny Gantz, the Blue and White party leader, with forming Israel’s next government, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced earlier this week that he had failed to do so.

Gantz, like Netanyahu before him, now has 28 days to try and form a government, though the prime minister-designate is seen as being no more likely to manage the task.

So, Bibi is at least temporarily out: but it does seem difficult for Gantz to put a government together. Though, without knowing all the ins and outs of Israeli politics, I wonder if Bibi would be willing to throw his support to Gantz in return for a dropping of the ongoing criminal investigation Bibi faces? Guess we’ll find out – but from what I can tell, the likely outcome is that the Israelis will have to go to the polls a third time to see if they can sort it out. This is why I do like our Presidential system of government, by the way: it is clear, concise and only one person can possibly win.

We might finally get the 54’40” that President Polk promised us so long ago:

Following the reelection of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister with a Liberal minority, #Wexit, or Western exit (a play on Brexit), immediately began trending on Twitter, with separatist accounts gaining thousands of new followers.

One of the most important takeaways from the election is the blue sweep throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan. Both provinces have expressed growing indignation over the other provinces’ dependence on the oil industry, while simultaneously trying to stifle Alberta’s business prospects and economic growth by opposing pipelines.

“Blue” in Canadian terms is like “Red” here in the States: basically, Canada has the same sort of divide we do – coastal vs interior and urban vs rural. And if you want to talk about a loused up system: Trudeau barely crested 33% of the vote – a smaller total than his Conservative rival – and yet secured another four years as Prime Minister. I naturally doubt that Canada will break up – but, I’m pretty sure we could get Republican Senators out of the new States of Alberta, Saskatchewan and East British Columbia. So, let’s talk!

Congresswoman Katie Hill (D-CA) who probably won via a flurry of ballot-box stuffing in 2018, is quite the saucy tart. What makes it really funny is that this bong-hitting, tramp-stamped boozer who likes to go nude was fussing about Kavanaugh’s moral fitness. If it wasn’t for double standards, they’ve have no standards at all.

The Case for Diplomatic Can-Kicking

Mark Noonan14 Comments

In light of the cease-fire that Trump has negotiated in Syria, Ace has some interesting comments. Do read the whole thing, but this is what I’m thinking about:

Is everything fixed, then?

Let me answer that with a question: Is anything ever fixed?

When I was younger and less experienced — and had seen less war — I was a big believer in the Rumsfeld Doctrine, “if the problem seems unsolvable, enlarge it,” that is, don’t chew about the edges if chewing about the edges doesn’t solve things, but go for the whole sandwich if need be.

I also believed the empty Neocon slogans about appeasement and Hitler and Clinton “just kicking the can down the road” in Iraq.

The empty sloganeering went like this: If we don’t permanently solve our diplomatic/military crises once and for ever, then we’re just “kicking the can down the road” and deferring problems until later.

It is very difficult to permanently solve problem – by war or diplomacy. But if you can get the shooting to stop for a significant period of time and allow people to get on with their lives, you’ve done well. We don’t know what will come out of the Syria deal – the problem is most emphatically not solved because most Kurds live in Turkey and Iran and while this is so, at least a portion of the Kurd population will pine for unity with their brothers. But, maybe this deal with allow the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds to start building a life and, just perhaps, rising stability and wealth will make the Kurds outside Turkey less willing to tangle with the Turks? Who knows; and maybe in 5 or 10 years there will be another crisis…and if there is, our job will be to assess our interests and only if we feel there is something crucial concerning us should we offer more than our good offices.

Kicking the can down the road is also not entirely a bad thing. In 1878, the Great Powers of Europe were at loggerheads over what to do with Turkish territory conquered by the Russians in a recent war. Russia, the victor in the war, naturally wanted to have everything her own way. But Austria and Britain weren’t keen on Russian domination in the Balkans. The Germans were at cross purposes because they were trying to keep on good terms with both Russia and Austria. Turkey, naturally, wanted to recover the lost territories. In the end, the British Prime Minister Disreali brokered a settlement which gave Russia some of what she wanted but not total domination of the Balkans.

What is interesting at the time was that the Austrian government was a bit divided on what to do – some arguing for peace even if Russia got advantage, others wanting war to the knife to push the Russians back. The “war to the knife” side saw that whatever deal was made, if it didn’t totally push Russia out, it would just be kicking the can down the road. That the basic problem would remain and would eventually flare up again. And, they were right. The 1914 war was started in roughly the same area and over roughly the same issue: who was to dominate the Balkans? An argument could have been made that the issue should have been fought to a finish in 1878 rather than 1914 – but, had it happened in 1878 then it doesn’t mean that peace and reason would then become triumphant. The aftermath of the actual war to the knife is now known and it isn’t pretty. But by making peace in 1878, the peoples of Europe were spared a major war for 36 years. That is quite a long time, actually. It was a pity that when 1914 came there were no Statesmen of the stature of Disreali (nor any generals who could win the war quickly), but who could foresee that? But even if someone had negotiated an 11th hour agreement in 1914 (as they did the year before in 1913 after the Balkan nations had fought Turkey), it still wouldn’t have solved the problem. Until Russia surrendered her desire for domination of the Balkans, war was always a prospect in the area.

As Ace also points out, World War Two is a bit unique. We were clearly attacked out of the blue and without just cause. Our enemy in Hitler was a purely evil man who had to be destroyed. And we unleashed unlimited power against the enemy – the destruction we wrought was only limited by our capacity to deliver it to the enemy. Had the war in Europe gone on past August of 1945, then Berlin would have been nuked rather than Hiroshima. The level of violence was really astonishing – especially after the allied armies broke into Germany. It is fairly well known how the Russians behaved – and orgy of rape, murder and pillage – but less well known is what the Anglo-American and French forces did. There wasn’t the mass rape and murder that accompanied the Russian invasion (though the French – via their Algerian troops – did permit a great deal of rape as revenge for German rapes in France) but the slightest resistance was met with overwhelming firepower; a great deal of looting went on; Germans were kicked out of their houses to provide billets for allied soldiers. It was a crushing, overwhelming defeat – a defeat so complete that the militarist Germans simply gave up on the concept. But, such a thing is unlikely to repeat itself: both in having such a purely evil enemy and having a political situation where ruthless application of power is possible.

So, can kicking isn’t a completely wrong thing to do. In fact, it is probably the best we can accomplish in most circumstances. With the hope that if its kicked far enough, it will be replaced by some other problem down the road. Because until the End, there will always be problems. There will always be people who feel they have been cheated and/or who think they have a right to someone else’s belongings. Because of this, war will always be in prospect and will, at times, break out. Our job is to permanently have a military ready to fight and then first try our hardest to broker a settlement and, failing that, give the enemy such a lesson about American power that they’ll shy away from trying it a second time. Other than that, we can only wait and see what happens and then deal with it as it arises.

In light of this, permanent alliances and international bodies are a blind ally: they commit us to certain actions even though future events might make a mockery of our commitment. Think about Turkey: suppose we had decided to fight them? Well, as they are NATO allies, that would technically require Spain to go to war against us in defense of their NATO ally Turkey. We hope for friendship – or at least tolerable relations – with all nations; but we can never tell what the future will bring. And, so, we can’t tie our hands in advance – we have to be free to decide as situations arise how we will deal with them.

They say we had to get into NATO and the UN because the world was changing and this is what we needed – but precisely because the world is changing (and always has and always will) it was wrong to get into them. It is time for us to disentangle ourselves and just move forward on the path which seems best to us at the time. It is time, that is, to start kicking the can down the road rather than rushing to war.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan24 Comments

We went from the Deep State being a paranoid, right-wing conspiracy to it being the Defender of Democracy very fast:

The deep state is alive and well, composed of patriotic public servants. Their aim is not to bring down President Trump out of personal or political animus but to rescue the Republic from his excesses…

How it works out as a good thing that those with zero power should thwart those vested with Constitutional authority is beyond me – save as more proof of my They Are All Insane Liars theory. Still, this is a major admission – via the New York Times, the mouthpiece of the Ruling Class – that they are, indeed, attempting to subvert the Presidency. That they are cloaking it as selfless dedication merely indicates they are psychopaths…but the revelation, itself, means they know the jig is up: that Trump and team are about to spill the beans on just what the Deep State has been up to. This is pre-spin to get the Democrat base to think the upcoming revelations are good for Democrats and bad for Trump.

As for the Impeachment thing, itself: if you listen to the Experts, its all moving along smoothly and Trump is doomed…though all predictions of doom are given an asterisk and if you dig deep you find that even in the massively rigged polls, they aren’t finding a majority solidly in favor of removing the President. Maybe we on our side are the blind idiots who are missing crucial facts…anything is possible; but when the pack of insane liars which is the MSM are all reading from the same script my default position – based on decades of experience – is that they are merely pushing an insane lie. We’ll find out soon enough which is which.

And if you think Romney is winning any friends for standing athwart Trump – well, maybe not:

The survey by Utah Policy and Y2 Analytics shows that only 46 percent of respondents in Utah approve of his performance, while 51 percent do not approve of his performance.

Romney was elected in 2018 with 62 percent of the vote.

Mormons, by and large, were never going to warm to Trump. The over-the-top glitz; the brashness; the womanizing…these are not the Mormons favorite things. But, also, Mormons ain’t stupid, people: they know that if they want to be Mormons practicing their faith without let or hindrance from the Left, then Trump is their go-to guy right now…and undermining him from within is unwise. And there’s also this: people don’t like a back-stabber. Trump endorsed Romney in 2012 and in 2018: where is the return on that? It looks really lousy for Mitt to jump on Trump.

In a bit of Deus Vulte news, a group of Catholics tossed a pagan idol into the Tiber the other day. The idol, itself (a hideously ugly thing to look at, as are most pagan idols), supposedly represents the indigenous peoples of the Amazon…but, whatever: it was a pagan idol and the Pope shouldn’t have allowed it in a Catholic Church. I’m not one of those who subscribes to the Commie Pope thing as some of my more Trad fellow Catholics do…but it is clear to me that Pope Francis is allowing a lot of foxes into the hen house.

Leftists claimed that polar bears were dying out because of climate change. Scientist investigated the matter and determined that polar bears are thriving. Scientist has now been forced out of her position. The Left is at war with Science, guys; for all their supposed adherence to it, they are ignorant pagans who are in the act of destroying all science. One hundred years from now, if we don’t stop them, we’ll be living in another Dark Age.

A Texas jury has awarded sole custody to a mother so she may begin the chemical castration of her seven year old son. I’ve been unable to find out precisely why the father lost custody – other than a generic “bitter divorce fight” sort of thing. Was dad abusive? Drunk? Don’t know – going back a bit, haven’t found anything that clarifies that aspect of the case. But the bottom line is that it is insane to have a 7 year old transition to anything. This is especially the case when we’re talking about chemical alteration of the boy’s body, which may cause irreversible damage. That a judge even for a moment entertained the assertion that the boy should be allowed to transition shows how far down the road to complete lunacy we’ve gone. And right now, there are really no laws regarding this – but we’re going to have to make laws prohibiting transition prior to 18 (at least: I would prefer we make it 21). The trans issue is the last, bright red line: we allow the Left to push us past this and we’ll all be forced to deny self-evident truth and become liars.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan40 Comments

Been working on the sequel to Mirrors, to be called Secrets. As you’ve all read Mirrors by now (right?) you know that our great heroes, Bryce and Fred, are up to any challenge…but I’ve got Fred in quite the pickle in Secrets and I’m puzzled about how I get him out of it. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I hope – really, honestly – to have Secrets out early in 2020.

Hillary accused Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein (the lady who helped Hillary create the Trump-Russia Narrative, as you might recall) of being Russian agents. And everyone called her insane, right? Nope. I mean, lots of people did – but on the Democrat/Never Trump side its all been silence or, “hey, they are kinda Russian Agent-y”. These people are completely out of control.

As for why Hillary is suddenly worried about our Precious Bodily Fluids, the fact that her illegal server was, well, illegal and a huge security risk might play a role here.

Rasmussen finds that 49% of the American people haven’t been paying attention while 51% believe that the efforts to get Trump are a scam.

Trump’s lawyers go after CNN. Will anything come of it? Unlikely – but it is enormously funny.

Some US Senators – including Marco Rubio – have issued as statement to Activision Blizzard over it’s corporate kowtowing to China. It is an important issue and I’m glad it is being brought up (and under anyone but Trump, it never would have come up). China, of course, threatens dire punishment to any corporation which crosses China. Our job is to punish corporations even more if they kowtow. Enough of this – if you want to be corporate slaves to China, move your operations there.

There’s this group of ladies who dress up like 1940’s pinup girls and they go visit wounded veterans – except the VA says they don’t want them there because, I guess, there’s an a**hole out there who is offended (I can’t imagine any real veteran – even gay or female – being offended by this). We really need to bring a stop to this nonsense.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan68 Comments

The Impeachment Drama continues, but behind closed doors and then selective leaks to the MSM…which means they’ve got nothing but are trying to make it appear they have. I think it is still just with the hope that, somehow, Trump’s support will drop…but, absent that, I don’t see the Democrats actually impeaching Trump…they’ll probably drop the matter some time between Christmas and the first primaries. Though they might drag it out until March or April if the Democrat primary turns out to be too much of a clown show.

As for Trump’s support – he went down to Louisiana the day before their State and local elections and the GOP scored a tremendous victory the next day. Sure, Louisiana is a very red State, but it was really a phenomenal victory all up and down the ballot (you’re not hearing about it in the MSM because, per humorist David Burge, the job of the MSM is to “cover stories. With a pillow. Until they stop moving”). As a party, the Louisiana Democrats are barely clinging to the governorship (with a better than even chance they lose that in the November run-off) and, once that is gone, they’ll have no power at all in the State. Trump is also raising buckets of money and can whistle up a huge crowd on short notice. Polling also seems to indicate that his support hasn’t been dented but, you know: polling.

As if you didn’t already know – CNN really does have a vendetta against Trump, and it comes from the top.

Hunter Biden gave an interview to the very friendly MSM and still managed to step in it, if early reviews are correct (I didn’t watch it, myself). As Don Surber notes:

The ABC interview actually incriminated Hunter Biden as he had to concede that he has mooched off his old man’s position as senator and vice president.

The son said, “In retrospect, look, I think that it was poor judgment on my part. Is that I think that it was poor judgment because I don’t believe now, when I look back on it — I know that there was — did nothing wrong at all,” said Biden. However, was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is…a swamp in — in — in many ways? Yeah.”

He also said, “I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That’s where I made the mistake. So I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever.”

He takes no responsibility. He takes cash instead. He got his gigs because his name is Biden, which is all one needs to know about his lack of ethics.

This won’t work as well for Team Biden as I guess they thought it would. And given the Washington Post has a slobbering puff piece out about Warren, I’m guessing Joe’s days on the campaign trail are numbered.

The NBA has decided that sweet, sweet Chinese cash is the price of their soul. I stopped watching the NBA years ago as the players became increasingly garbage people who still dared to lecture Americans on morality…but there is something extra nauseating here. Remember, the NBA went ballistic when an American State tried to make a law about bathroom use…now they’re telling everyone to shut up about Hong Kong, because the ChiComs told them to.

Turns out that Trump’s economic policies are mostly benefiting….the middle class. Be fun to see how that works out in votes next year. I mean, fun for you and me: for Democrats, might be a bit less fun.

A Century-Long Mistake

Mark Noonan49 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how things are and how we got here – and I think I’ve identified the date when we went off course: September 14th, 1901. The day William McKinley died, a few days after being shot.

Take a look at this last address, made shortly before he was shot – do read the whole thing, but the bit that stands out for me is how he talks at length about the growing inter-dependence of the world while also asserting that our fair trade relations must never be done at the expense of our home production. Get it? We must trade, but we must never harm ourselves in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. This is the sort of speech we got when the President and Congress were trying to serve the interests of the American people – and they were doing what they did out in the open, debating it in public, and working strictly within the Constitutional confines of our government.

People don’t think much of McKinley and even someone as versed in history as I am only have a slight bit of knowledge about him – from a prosperous Ohio family; Civil War service, law, politics and the rise to the top. He is portrayed as unimaginative; plodding. He is entirely overshadowed by the man who succeeded him, Theodore Roosevelt, who is always cast in heroic terms…taking over and reinvigorating the American government. But I think we can see now, at long remove, that having a vigorous American government isn’t an unalloyed benefit. With a slight hiccup under Coolidge in the 1920’s, since McKinley we’ve seen the atrophy of Congressional power; an increasingly Imperial Presidency and the massive expansion of government control – and, over the long term, the imposition of policies which are overtly destructive of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt came in and had his famous assertion that if the law doesn’t specifically prohibit a President from doing a thing, then the thing can be done. It was a gigantic shift: it started the process of having our system being that of a government with strictly enumerated powers to having a government doing whatever it can get away with. Wilson and FDR just put that attitude on steroids – so much so that even a limited government man like Reagan still blithely exercised powers that Presidents up to McKinley would never dreamed of exercising. But a government without limits is a government which not only can do anything, it will do anything – and as it will still be a government run by human beings, it will almost certainly end up doing whatever those with the most influence demand. And therein lies our problem.

Realize that today – right now – there are people, right and left, who are demanding that Trump essentially go to war with Turkey because they think it wrong that the Turks are going after the Kurds. Maybe the Turks are wrong; but if the Turks are wrong, then it isn’t for the President to decide if we fight them…or, at least, it isn’t supposed to be the President who decides if we fight: it is supposed to be Congress, which will debate a declaration of war and then vote on it…and if approved, we go to war. But, we’re so far down this road that most don’t even see that – they are so used, that is, to the government just doing things that they are demanding it just do something in Syria. And do something about climate change. And trans people. And illegal immigrants. And so on and on and on.

And think about what we’ve got: a gigantic system of treaties, alliances, agreements, laws, regulations and such which authorize this, that or the other thing and none of it is fully known, hardly any of it was really debated…and it is all in the service of doing something, nobody really knows what…but if we don’t keep things just as they are, disaster will result. Or, so we’re told.

I asserted some while back that President Trump is the most law-abiding President we’ve had since Coolidge: and I’m sure I’m right about that. I do not say the most morally excellent President – first off, I can’t peer into souls and so I’m unable to judge the status of President Trump’s; secondly, because it is irrelevant to whether or not the President obeys the law. And Trump obeys the law. The proof of that is that after years of relentlessly being investigated (often by entirely illegal means) they still haven’t found a crime they can hang around his neck. Hardly anyone could survive that scrutiny…but, Trump has. And if you look at what he says and does, he’s always acting within the law and asking Congress to codify things into law. He isn’t President Pen and Phone. I don’t know if this lawfulness is the result of deep thought on the part of the President or mere instinct – but regardless, Trump has hit upon the first requirement of liberty: adherence to law. That we can only do, via government, what the law says we can do – no more, no less and if you don’t like it, change the law via lawful means.

It is my view that a Republic must strictly enforce its laws – and because of this, the laws must be few and easy to understand; and the government must not attempt to manage the lives of the people because doing so requires a multiplicity of laws, each of which will merely increase government power along with the ability to abuse that power. We cannot, willy nilly, go back to 1901 – but we must go back to it as much as we can, and the first step is to start enforcing all the laws. The laws against illegal entry. The laws against government malfeasance. So on and so forth: it doesn’t matter if they are good or bad laws: if they are on the books, they must be strictly enforced. And it is the strict enforcement of bad laws which will ensure their repeal or modification – keeping in mind that a host of laws are on the books which routinely trip up regular folks and they are kept because they aren’t allowed to trip up the Ruling Class…start having people like Hillary going to jail like a poor swabby who took a wrong picture and all of a sudden our Rulers will be less interested in keeping laws like that on the books.

The next part of a restoration should be, in my view, a disentangling of the United States from the world. We can be an Empire or a Republic: we can’t be both. NATO has to go. The UN has to go. Free Trade has to go – I am going to write up about what McKinley was talking up: Trade Reciprocity, which I think that Trump is on about. I want us to trade with the world – but only in ways that are mutually beneficial. Bring our boys and girls back home. Maintain a second-to-none military force in being. Advise the world that an attack upon the United States is a suicidal act – and then destroy the first nation which tests us on it. If we have alliances, they are to be temporary and serving a particular national goal. No more CIA. No more NSA. No more FBI. Relations with tyrannical States to be kept to a minimum (tyranny and liberty cannot really coexist).

It is time – past time – that we gave up the goals of those who don’t have our interests at heart. This is our country – it is made by us and for us. It is not a world police, nor a dumping ground for the world’s refuse. It is a place where free people debate among themselves and decide via law what course to follow. It is time, that is, for America to be America.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan61 Comments

Trump pulls our tiny number of troops out of part of northern Syria and all of a sudden, all of Trump’s opponents are pro-war. Ain’t fallin’ for it, guys.

As I said back when Obama was President, I’ve become quite the peace-nik – mostly because of complete lack of trust. I do trust President Trump’s basic instincts here, but overall I don’t trust our government, our military brass or the Democrats when it comes to war. The lives of our troops are too important for them to be thrown away on unclear, endless missions where we surrender all our military advantages and then haul up our troops on charges of war crimes when they make what some REMF thinks is a mistake. I’ll agree to send our troops to war on the following conditions:

1. It is declared.
2. It is fought with brutal and unlimited use of our military force.
3. This is very important to me – we inform all and sundry that when dealing with captured irregulars and hostile “civilian” populations, we’re going to use Rule .303.

The Trump impeachment circus goes on – from what I can tell, Schiff all but wrote the “whistleblower” complaint and as that is falling apart, the Democrats are cooking up a second “whistleblower” to shore up their collapsing case. Meanwhile, various DOJ investigators seem to be closing in on the whole start of the scandal – you know, back in 2016 when the O Admin authorized spying on Trump – and this is getting more and more people into a panic. None of can say where this goes, but I’m feeling confident that Trump (and McConnell) have a very firm grip on this and they are planning on using impeachment – if the Democrats do go for it – as a hammer in 2020.

Dick’s got woke and went broke – but don’t think that will deter them. The only thing an American corporation fears these days is offending the Chinese government. Dick’s made its anti-gun SJW move because it was, socially, cost-free for them. We have to make it economically expensive for corporations to indulge in this sort of thing – only then will they cool it.

Ellen DeGeneres was in the box at a football game with W and the left went ballistic. Ellen made a statement about how its ok for people to disagree and still be kind to each other. That isn’t sitting at all well with the left:

“Avengers” star Mark Ruffalo certainly agreed, saying kindness was out of the question until Bush was brought to justice.

Got that? Brought to justice…for the crime of being a moderately conservative Republican. And this is what Ellen – conventional American liberal – and W – conventional American conservative – don’t get: the left hates. It is what it does, first and foremost and above all else. For every Ellen there are a dozen liberals who’s fondest hope is to see people like us suffer. We could get along with – and often split the difference – with liberals who don’t hate, but such are not remotely in control of the left. We have to defeat these people – drive them from power and take away their subsidies. And we won’t be able to do that if we’re all pretending – as conventional conservatism has – that the left is run by sane people.

The brownouts in California afford us, I think, an opportunity to start rebuilding Republican strength in California. California is horribly misgoverned and this power outage thing just highlights how bad it is there. Trump has commented on it – to the fury of California Democrats – but I’m hoping that someone on Team Trump is really looking at the State to for any election prospects. Certainly it is worth it simply to run up the GOP vote total and thus help Trump win the popular vote (not that it matters, but that it’ll be a fitting and final insult to the Democrats) – but, long term, we can’t rely on Texas forever…and Californians are our fellow Americans (well, most of them, anyway) and we should be working to free them from liberal tyranny and malfeasance.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan98 Comments

In the Romney vs Trump battle, I can only say that it is the last straw for me: I am done, forever, with people like Romney. I can understand why someone might not like Trump but if you’re a Republican, your job is to advance the fortunes of the Republican Party – to propose Republican things. To make Republicans look as good as you can. To battle back against the Democrats. There was so much Romney could have done…and among all the things he could choose from, he decides to go after Trump…which no Republican was asking for him to do (Trump’s approval rating among GOPers is in the 95% range). So, what is Romney up to? In my view, its one of two things or it could be both: his own family is deep into garbage like the Bidens are and Trump refused Romney as SecState. I regret deeply voting for Romney in 2012 and I’m glad he lost.

If you listen to the Left and Never Trump (BIRM), Trump is already finished…its only a matter of a short time before he’s forced out (Romney’s thing was scripted into this, I’m sure). They believe this because, seriously, they only talk to themselves. Lots of things may happen to Trump – but being forced out over a clear hit job by the Democrats isn’t one of them.

Related: McConnell is doing anti-impeachment ads. This tells you what the fate of impeachment will be in Cocaine Mitch’s Senate should Nancy be forced to call a vote (she does not want to).

AOC says Trump’s attacks on Schiff are anti-Semitic. The most common response to this accusation from Trump supporters (myself included): he’s Jewish? Didn’t know that.

Related: anti-Semitic hate crimes are rising fast in Progressive NYC. Why? Because Progressives welcome anti-Semites. It is really that simple.