Coup Attempt

Open Thread

Mark Noonan44 Comments

No surprise that Milley may have been involved in coup activities against Trump. The bottom line is that pretty much everyone in the Executive Branch was working against him from Day One. They won’t tolerate an outsider. What this means is that if we secure the White House in 2024 – no matter who it is – mass firings must be the first order of business.

I know that a lot of the people in the Executive Branch have civil service protection – but those who can’t be fired have to be reassigned to sorting paper clips or something. They can’t be involved in forming or even knowing about Administration policy. And if we get a trifecta, then we have to make it so that all Executive Branch employees serve at the pleasure of the President. I get the idea behind 19th century Civil Service reform. The old “spoils system” was rotten to the core. But a system where supposedly apolitical career bureaucrats undermine a President they don’t like is worse than the most corrupt spoils system you can imagine. A corrupt crony of the President installed into office can be immediately removed when discovered – a civil service protected traitor can’t be. We elect the President to be absolute ruler of the Executive Branch. All Executive power is vested in the President. There is nobody else who has federal Executive power. Given this, only the person we, the people, place into the office may exercise discretionary power. Everyone else has to follow orders, or get out.

The Chinese just blew up 15 high rises which had sat empty for a decade. Mark it, folks: just as everything in the MSM about the United States is a lie, so is everything about China. We don’t really know the shape of the world because what is actually happening is buried under a mountain of lies. The lies are designed with varied purposes – but the general purpose is to increase the wealth and power of the Global Ruling Class, of which China’s Ruling Class is now the leading member. The bad news: we don’t know what disaster may suddenly explode upon the world because so many lies are being told.

I’ve discerned a new sort of Social Media Bot. Anyone who spends any time on Facebook or Twitter knows the normal Bot: someone paid to just mouth whatever is the Conventional Wisdom of the day. These bots are easy to spot: they usually follow a lot of people and have few followers. Because they aren’t real people. They don’t interact: they just post what they’re paid to post or argue mindlessly the point they’re paid to make. But now I see another type: harder to spot as they do genuinely interact and so can seem to be real people. But they still are part of the control system. Some of them will be Debbie Downers: always saying there’s no point, we can’t win. Others demanding purity on one issue and demanding that anyone who disagrees be blacklisted. Others stir up intramural fights. All three of them will usually be found to eventually be asking for money for something: the Cause, or the book they are writing, or some such. Have to be wary when on social media: as for me, most of my social media is done on Twitter. My block list has gone past 21,000. It is the way to keep it sane and ensure that I’m able to discuss things with real people.

LA County is going for vaccine passports. It is inevitable in any Democrat controlled area – especially after the recall failed (it failed because the Dems massive registration advantage combined with the GOP not finding a message which resonated: silver lining is that Latino voters continue to shift GOP, especially males…who in CA voted nearly identical to white males; Jose ain’t fond of Pronouns, “Latinx” and bums defecating on the sidewalk). The Democrats believe their talisman for victory is Covid fear-mongering. And if not victory, at least limiting the losses next year. If Pudding Brain is under 50% next November, it probably means 20+ House seats lost…and the lower into the 40s he goes, the worse…but the calculation seems to be that if they can keep up the fear and keep it tribal, they can limit their losses in the Purple areas.

Deep State Deep Sixed Open Thread

Mark Noonan54 Comments

Trump is at long last getting rid of the people who have been undercutting him from within – the Deep State operatives and Obama holdovers…Ric Grennell is especially cleaning house in the intelligence agencies. And what is ol’ Mitt’s response?

The firings of multiple Inspectors General is unprecedented; doing so
without good cause chills the independence essential to their purpose. It is a threat to accountable democracy and a fissure in the constitutional balance of power.

It just reeks of surrender – but, also, sheer ignorance. The Executive branch isn’t supposed to balance itself…Congress and the Court balance the Executive…to have people in your own Administration who are working against you isn’t balance, it is a negation of an Executive. We elected Trump to be the guy in charge of the Executive. per the Constitution, there is only one person in charge of that branch: the President. He decides 100% of what Executive branch policy will be and everyone in the Executive branch has to shut up and soldier, or quit. That is how it is supposed to be – and it is how it must be. Having IG’s who see their job as curbing the President – rather than rooting out lawbreakers and people refusing to carry out Administration policy – is insane. It must be stopped – and I’m glad Trump is finally stopping it.

Along these lines it has been noticed that in the whole Trump-Russia charade, Mitch McConnell has been rather AWOL. Don’t get me wrong: he’s good for a lot of things, but on this he’s been absent…and thus allowing people like the now-former Senate intel chief Burr have his way…and Burr’s way was to provide cover for the Deep State. Now that Burr is out of the committee due to his sordid financial trickery (and it seems to be raking in Feinstein, at least a bit), it is time for McConnell to think anew and act anew – as President Trump urged:

Mitch, I love you, but this is 100% true. Time is running out. Get tough and move quickly, or it will be too late. The Dems are vicious, but got caught. They MUST pay a big price for what they have done to our Country. Don’t let them get away with this!

Mitch McConnell has spent years pretending as though the Russian collusion hoax never happened. If he thinks he’s going to keep the Senate majority and confirm more judges without addressing the hoax and holding the hoaxers accountable, he’s lost his mind.

McConnell is old school, as I think we all know. Not a bad guy. Has some genuine Conservative views. Not a crook like a Burr or a Clinton is…but, still, someone who doesn’t want to rock the system…the various gravy trains which flow through DC and the corporate world and which he and his family have benefited from. But now is a time for choosing: them, or us? If McConnell chooses us, then not only will his position as Majority Leader be solidified but he’ll be an American hero. If he chooses them…then all bets are off.

From The Washington Examiner:

The sheriff of Fresno County, California, said she is unable to enforce the state’s stay-at-home order because she’s too busy rearresting accused criminals who were released due to the state’s new “zero-dollar bail” policy.

Some people are getting a little too frisky and talking of Red California. Ain’t gonna happen, folks. California will go for Biden by 20 points in November. But the combination of lockdown insanity and things like no-bail for criminals (and laws which essentially allow someone to steal $900 worth of stuff and them come back the next day and steal another $900 worth) might be wearing out the Democrats’ welcome even in deep Blue California. But this might help us flip a few House seats in November…and California will eventually become, if not Red, at least Purple. At the end of the day, Latino voters might well be in favor of lots of Progressive ideology, especially as it relates to government spending…but no one but rich, white Liberals favor things like letting criminals out of jail while locking up moms for taking their kids to the park. The Democrats are working hard to turn Texas Blue and they are having some success…but not as much as they want. But, meanwhile, Florida is the next state to go Red and even California isn’t the firm fortress Democrats think it is.

Writing a Book Open Thread

Mark Noonan22 Comments

Still working on Secrets – you all have got your copy of Mirrors, right? – and I’m enjoying it immensely. Don’t really know much about the whole fiction author thing but I do wonder if authors are supposed to fall in love with their characters? Bryce and Fred are just great guys while Celeste and Rossalyn are proving to be very tough and resourceful, at any rate. I’m just under 60,000 words on the sequel and it is coming to its climax; probably another 30-40,000 words to go. I’ve introduced several new good guys and a couple new bad guys, as well (one of which is a woman, to sort of balance it out – all my ladies have proven to be good eggs, so far; so I thought I needed a bad lady). As happened to a much better work, the tale is growing in the telling and, at least for me, three or four books of this won’t be enough. I’ve also had to draw a map of Hadwin’s world – it was getting difficult to orientate what direction everyone was going without it. Now I understand why Tolkien also needed one.

Flynn case dismissed, right? Well, not quite – the judge in the case is proving to be an obvious ally of the Deep State and is now inviting Trump opponents to tell him why he should keep the case going, even though the prosecutor says there is no crime to charge Flynn with, or even anything to start an investigation over. Just amazing. One theory I’ve seen is that they want to force Trump to pardon Flynn – to keep some patina of “he’s guilty” on it all. Maybe – but it also might be sheer, hate-filled bloody mindedness at this point.

Acting DNI Grennell has declassified lots and lots of stuff and this is allowing us, for the first time, to really see the picture of the coup attempt. It is going to be very hard to not vote for Grennell in the GOP primary in 2024, should he decide to run. He’s showing that he’s got the most important Trumpist aspect: guts. And if he can be brave while also being less abrasive than Trump, he might become an unstoppable political force. We’ll see what the future brings.

RSM on the Arbery case. I’m mostly agnostic on the case because, well, if the MSM is pushing it hard (and they are) then someone is lying. There’s no way the MSM would push a true story. At the very least, there doesn’t seem to be an actual racial angle here, though the MSM and its minions are already saying that Arbery was killed because he was black. Maybe the shooters are guilty of murder or manslaughter – that is for a jury to decide and unless they plead out, this will go to a jury and the jury will hear the actual facts of the case: and those facts may end up strongly at variance with what the MSM has been saying.

This Open Thread is Exonerated

Mark Noonan35 Comments

That feeling of joy you got in your heart earlier today? That was your realization that Justice can still be had in the United States.

Flynn was railroaded, plain and simple – and some of the things coming out today show that Obama knew…what we don’t know, yet, is if he ordered it. We won’t know unless someone turns on him…which would be a very difficult thing for any Establishment type to do because they know that it would forever be over for them. No one in the club would ever let them back in again. I’m not even sure the prospect of 20 years in jail would convince someone to drop dime on Barry.

Be that as it may, what is clearly emerging is that the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the Obama Administration – and continuing via Deep State operatives during the Trump Administration – cooked up a false investigation to first try to stop Trump from being elected, then to undo the election once he had one. As one Twitter friend of mine put it: in January of 2017, we did not have a peaceful transfer of power. It was all garbage from start to finish. There was never any collusion with Russia by Trump or his team – in fact, its coming out (as I long suspected) that if Putin preferred anyone in 2016, it was Hillary, who was already safely bought and even if not bought, so mind-bogglingly stupid that Putin could get away with bloody murder on her watch.

But we’re still not done – and we won’t be done until at least some of these criminals go to jail. My Father was opposed to the death penalty all his life (as far as I know), but there was one thing he wanted to keep it for: treason. His view was that treason was the worst possible crime because to betray a nation is to attempt to murder every citizen of the nation. The people who thought this up and carried it out are traitors; their loyalty, when not to a foreign paymaster (and I’m certain that a large number are the deep-cover spies of foreign powers) is to their class. They don’t give a damn about our country. Patriots simply do not use lies and blackmail because their side lost the last election. I want these people to go down, very hard.

We’ll see if that happens – the Deep State is still very powerful and its hard to find anyone who has the position to do something who isn’t allied with the Establishment or deathly afraid of it. I hope that Barr has the guts to do it – and I hope he’s found at least a few others with the guts to push this to a conclusion.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan43 Comments

I got a Parler account. It advertises itself as the alternative to the left social media giants – we’ll see how it goes; a few teething problems as masses of people sign up, but it works pretty well and may do fine.

As more information comes out about the Mueller Report, it seems clear to me that it is a pack of malicious lies. I noted before it came out that it would be as lurid as possible, but also wouldn’t have anything on Trump, and that is proving correct. What is amazing, though, is how badly they constructed the lurid lies: they’re being easily knocked down, one after another. Ace – and others – have theorized that the report, itself, was meant as no more than a hook to hang Trump on. Make the report; turn it in; make it difficult for Barr to release it quickly and then selectively leak the lurid bits to build a public case that Trump has to go. Barr stopped that cold with his summary pointing out that there was no collusion or obstruction.

As for Barr, I suspect he’s further along in his efforts to find out what really happened than we think. What will come of it? I don’t know: it could be that some of the worst players in all this kept their hands legally clean…and to really unravel it we would need people willing to testify against their co-conspirators in return for reduced sentences…but, if the big boys kept their act together, we might only be able to go after some small fry who won’t be able to explain the totality of the coup attempt. I do hope that a lot of people wind up in jail over this – but I’m not sure it will be possible.

There’s a poll out which asserts Americans are more worried about Fake News than terrorism – which is a correct assessment. Terrorists can kill, but the lies in our MSM could trigger a nation-destroying civil war. 100% of the credit for people really waking up to how dishonest the MSM is goes to Trump…without him relentlessly hammering the MSM for their lies, they’d still largely be getting away with them.

RSM notes an anti-lesbian hate crime in Tennessee which, for some bizarre reason, hasn’t become a national news story. Watch the video, and you’ll see why.

Here’s a poll which is part of the Democrats’ battle space prep for 2020: allegedly shows Biden beating Trump in Texas by four percentage points. Trump beat Hillary by nine percentage points in 2016. Ask yourself: is there one thing – one thing, at all – which has Trump has done since 2016 which would make Texans sour on him to the point that the Texas vote for the Democrat would go from 43% to 48%? Of course there is no such thing – and the Texas economy is booming. There is zero – and I mean absolutely zero – chance that any Democrat beats Trump in Texas in 2020. And everyone involved in politics knows this. But, here’s the poll…and Democrats will tout it and GOPers in Texas (some, anyways) will wring their hands…but it is a garbage poll designed to deflate GOP spirits; that is all it is.

New York City is, like Los Angeles, developing a very bad rat problem. All part of the Progressive program to bring back bubonic plagues.

AOC asserts that Manafort should be released rather than kept in solitary at Rikers. Tip of the hat to the Commie on this one: she’s better, at least here, than most of her fellow Progressives. The bottom line is that Manafort was transferred to Rikers to pressure him. The Democrats need someone – anyone – to testify under oath that Trump broke a law. Treating Manafort like he’s some sort of crazed killer is an excellent way to break him. Trump should pardon Manafort (of course, another theory put out there is that they’ve done this to get Trump to issue a pardon so they can say “aha! That’s why Manfort didn’t talk!”. Even so: pardon him).

Things Happening Fast Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

Legal Insurrection wonders: who will be the first to cut a deal? Thing is, until just now, there has never been that worry among the Left/Ruling Class. They don’t have to cut deals because they’ve already got them: if you have the right friends, nothing will happen to you no matter what you did wrong…and even in the rare instance where you have to face some jail time, it won’t be much and your friends will see you come out all right on the other end. But, now, we might have some people in power who won’t allow the powerful to skate…and, if so, then eventually, one of the people involved in the attempted coup will spill it.

Related: Democrats start to realize they are facing a debacle in 2020.

Also related: don’t get cocky, kids. Long way to go.

The national debt: it is still a problem. Trump won’t deal with it unless forced to by circumstances, and if he’s re-elected, that might happen. But, basically, no one really wants to deal with it in advance. It is not a problem of immediate concern in Americans’ day to day lives, and the pain of dealing with it would be politically unpopular. But, that which can’t be repaid, won’t be: we’ll have to do something about this, and maybe sooner than we think. OTOH, if Trump really can engineer consistent 3% growth, we might get out of this fairly easy.

Alabama has effectively banned elective abortion. Naturally, the left and the FredoCons are up in arms over this. As we wait for the inevitable lawsuit and injunction, I’d just like to restate my views. Elective abortion is always wrong – it is a grave evil which puts anyone involved at risk of their immortal soul. Outside that, it is also entirely unjust – there is no rational circumstance in which one can justify the deliberate taking of an innocent human life. Even the rape exception is wrong: because dad was a beast doesn’t justify killing the kid. I fully understand the pain that some go through over this – but you can’t fix pain by doing a wrong thing.

Bill DeBlasio, mayor of the increasingly anti-Semitic New York City is blaming Trump for all the Julius Streicher wanna-bees he’s got in his town. This is because he’s a liberal and thus full of sh** (Hat Tip: Ace).

Mitt Romney is doing his best John McCain impression. I hereby un-cast my vote for Romney in 2012.

Is Trump About to Drain the Swamp?

Mark Noonan

This could be the biggest news in politics for the past 50 years:

Attorney General William Barr has reportedly tapped the U.S. attorney for Connecticut to investigate the origins of the Justice Department’s Russia investigation.

John Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, will examine the FBI’s decision to open a counterintelligence investigation into the 2016 presidential election and its probe of possible links between the Kremlin’s efforts to interfere in the election and members of President Donald Trump’s campaign team.

Its not just investigating the coup attempt which is important – it is where such an investigation will lead, if the guy in charge of it has no fear and is seeking no favor. And Durham may be that guy – he’s been used by politicians of both parties to look into things and so has a bi-partisan reputation as a good guy and he’s clearly not ambitious – he’s at the tail end of his career and he never seems to have sought top jobs in DC (or, he was denied them because DC didn’t want an honest man). If we have an AG who is willing to let corruption investigations go forward no matter where they lead, then what we might be witnessing is the beginning of the end for our corrupt Ruling Class.

We’ll see what happens – but I’m encouraged.