Donald Trump

Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

The Official Word from the Progressive TV Chattering Class is that Trump has gone too far and now people are getting angry as Trump’s support collapses. How’s that working out? Well, lets check in with one of the most accurate pollsters of 2024:

The “Trump is going too far” message is orchestrated on the Left – it isn’t really directed at Trump but at week-kneed Congressional GOPers and the center-right people who are still all “well, I never” about things. The Left knows that Trump isn’t really controllable in that he doesn’t have to seek another term…but there is leverage over the Congressional GOP. But here’s the thing on that – the GOP House majority is so narrow that everyone in the GOP expects it to be lost in 2026…and that means if you want to get anything done, better get it done now. Absent a complete economic meltdown over the next 12 months or so, the Senate is probably safe for the GOP. So, a Dem House majority isn’t all that much a threat. Plus the Congressional GOP knows that going against Trump now is probably political suicide. There might be some time in 2026 to take a vote against Trump to provide a little separation in a swing district, but now isn’t the time for it.

It looks like our prayers for Pope Francis should be more for a holy death rather than recovery right now. Still some hope he’ll emerge from the hospital but an 88 year old with his maladies doesn’t have a lot of time left. As I’ve said pretty much from the start, Francis is theologically rock-solid but in the areas of politics and economics he is Left. He’s been an interesting Pope and probably what was needed at the time as the Church had become a bit ossified. Naturally, however, the Left elements in the Church took advantage of a kindly nature and tried to push actual heresy. That is for the next Pope to clear up. Cardinal Sarah is probably out of the running on account of age so I’m at a bit of a loss of who to pray for on it. Some are talking up Cardinal Pizzaballa – the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem – and while the man has guts (he offered himself as a Hamas hostage in return for release of the captive Israelis) he also seems (in my view) far too soft on Hamas, itself. Cardinal Besungu of the Democratic Republic of Congo is considered a very conservative alternative…and as the Church in Congo is horribly oppressed (a short while ago Islamists there beheaded 70 Christians in a Protestant church), he’d probably be a little bit…militant in defending Christ’s flock. But, in the end, we’re all just going to have to wait and see how this goes.

The German elections went about as expected – the socialist SPD was trounced, the center-right CDU emerged on top…and AfD came in second, about doubling their support from the previous election. Between the CDU and AfD and some small fry, there is a solid, Conservative majority for the Bundestag…and what this means is, naturally, that the CDU will coalition with the just-defeated SPD to keep AfD out. This is the Ruling Class Uniparty writ very large. But I think the CDU is making a huge mistake here – the German people rejected the Left but weren’t quite ready to go AfD…but if the CDU sees its mandate as something other than curbing migration, then there will be another election pretty quickly and the AfD might wind up the largest party in the Bundestag (they are second largest now). One curiosity about it – if you look at the election returns by district, what you see is that almost universally the old “West Germany” voted CDU while old “East Germany” voted AfD – with the SPD winning a few urban cores. A guy I know on X pointed out that old Germany was actually best preserved in the east because, in reaction to Communist occupation, they desperately clung on to their national identity. Looks like he was right. Additional observation: exit polls show that German youth resoundingly rejected both CDU and SPD, the two major post-WWII German political parties…they opted for the Right-Populist AfD or the Left-Populist Linke. The German Ruling Class is on borrowed time.

Bongino as Deputy Director of the FBI is a clear sign that Trump, Bondi and Patel are not about to put up with internal sabotage.

Among many senior officers fired after Hegseth took over Defense was the Chief of Naval Operations – Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to hold the post. And the Left has gone ballistic…”she highly rated! She’s a warfighter!”. The ships are rusty. I’ve seen video after video of US naval warships entering or leaving port absolutely covered in rust. She’s a bad officer, period. So are all other senior officers in the Navy. Civilians don’t fully understand the need for “spit and polish”…its not don’t just to look good but to internalize into serving sailors that they are sailors. This is the USS Aaron Ward after suffering repeated kamikaze attacks off Okinawa:

That crew fought off most attacks and got this hunk of junk back into port for repairs – because they were sailors. Meanwhile, in our modern, diverse and equitable Navy, USS Bonhomme Richard caught fire in port, San Diego, and burned to uselessness…because nobody on the ship or even in that whole naval installation was a sailor. Hegseth can’t fire the senior officers fast enough.

No, You Can’t Use my Morals to Kill Me

Mark Noonan37 Comments

The latest effort to derail DOGE has been to have moderate Right (not specifically Never Trump) people write despairing pieces about the failure of Conservatives to deplore Elon Musk’s serial adultery. He has 12 confirmed children, a social media influencer claiming number 13. They tie this into Trump’s sexual past and throw up their hands (a little dramatically) wondering just how we can do anything when those in charge of the movement are sinners? This effort is clearly orchestrated by the Left – which doesn’t care at all about morality but they will wipe their butt with their own flag if it helps them.

Rely on it, if we made an effort to codify morality into law, these same Right voices would rise in opposition to us on Libertarian grounds. The only people morality applies to, in their minds, is us: we have to be perfect and if we ain’t, then we don’t deserve to have power…or, indeed, anything.

To make it clear: adultery is a sin. Fornication is a sin. Horrible, bad sins which can destroy a human soul and condemn it to everlasting damnation.

But so, too, divorce and birth control. Working on the Sabbath. Not going to Mass on Sunday. Do you get what I’m saying? If we are to base our politics upon what is considered a sin in Christian theology, then we’re going to have a very different political organization. And one that won’t win anything. To be sure, winning in politics is not usually the most crucial consideration. We Christians are in the world but we are not supposed to be of it and we are supposed to, as far as possible, meekly live within the political structure trusting to God that things will work out. And for the most part, that is what Christians have done – it has been a long time since anyone really insisted upon any distinctly Christian policy in American politics. But things are different now. We’re not fighting for mere political power. We are fighting for our very lives.

We Christians are to accept martyrdom if it is thrust upon us. We aren’t to seek it out but if we are placed into the position where we can only live by denying God, then it is time for us to die – and joyfully so. But our prime duty here is escape if possible. Just as we are to avoid near occasions of sin, so we should avoid, if we can, situations where the choice becomes apostasy or death. That is what we’re trying to do here. I know it sounds perhaps a bit melodramatic, but it is win in politics right now, or die. If we lose and have to die, so be it – we trust in God. But let’s try not to lose.

We have to fully grasp what we’re up against. Remember, when the Palestinians sent in rape/murder squads to Israel, the global Left supported the Palestinians. They still do. Even today they are still out in the streets waving Hamas flags and calling Israel the bad guy. Think about that. They also sincerely believe that a human being can be born in the wrong body – and that anyone denying this is malevolent. They believe that punishing criminals is wrong. Not kidding about that: they are all in for “alternatives to punishment”…because they have internalized the idea that crime only happens because of injustice. We joke about saying “society made me do it”, but they really believe this to be the case…and so “society” needs to be punished. These are not reasoned, logical positions. They are not just false, but obviously false…and yet tens of millions of people in these United States of America believe it all and given that they further believe the world will die if they don’t get their way, we have the recipe for massacre.

Keep in mind that the whole basis of Nazism was stupidly wrong – ultimately based upon the belief that the Jews were an organized, malevolent force in the world deliberately out to destroy the civilized people – ie, the Aryans. This is no different from the modern Left believing that we are an organized, malevolent force deliberately out to destroy the planet. The Germans bought the Nazi argument and at least 40% of the American people have bought the Left argument. It won’t take much for a solid majority to get behind “born in the wrong body” and “that hamburger is killing the Earth!”. And people who think that the world will end if they don’t prevail are not noted for holding back…once you get that idea fixed in your head that only total destruction of the enemy allows you to survive, you’ll do anything to get your way.

I am not here in this year of 2025 trying to preserve Christian morality – we lost that fight decades ago when we didn’t oppose the completely insane idea of no-fault divorce…when we seriously went along with the idea that a promise made to God and Man can be annulled by a judge. At that point, the slide down into Elon Musk having 12 or 13 children from a large number of women was kinda baked in. And, on the whole, this is actually far more human than the Left which wants to trans kids they don’t abort…and suicide them if they wind up depressed teenagers. At least Musk is making babies and wanting them to get on a path towards a useful life. Better if he wasn’t nailing everything that will sit still for five minutes…but if I’ve got a choice between a world where people are bumping uglies with wild abandon and having buckets of children and another world where they lop off healthy body parts and then suicide the result…I know what I’m choosing. And I did just mention the suicide thing, didn’t I? Really think about that – the Left thinks it is good if people can have taxpayer funded “doctors” kill them if they’re feeling out of sorts. They don’t even call it a necessary evil any more – they call it good. Positive. A great outcome. Yay death!

For my own safety’s sake, I must defeat these people. Because I am not like them, I don’t want them jailed or killed. I will allow them to remain in their personal delusions…but I must do everything I can to remove them from all power and influence in the world. I will go pretty far here, including to eventual disenfranchisement and confiscation of their wealth if that proves necessary to stop these insane people. But for right now, I think that if we can de-fund them that will solve most of the problem…my conviction is that these insane beliefs are only given credence because subscription to them ensures well-paid sinecures for those willing to push the lunacy. Don’t ever downplay the power of a dollar sign in front of a morally and intellectually weak person. Much is written in the history books about how the German generals went along with Hitler even when it was clear his military commands were leading to disaster…much less is written about how Hitler secured and retained that compliance: money. He simply bribed his senior leaders to go along…and go along they did, only concerned about keeping their place at the trough. So, too, the modern American Left. And if we take away the money…if nobody is paying them to be insane, then there’s a strong chance they’ll stop being insane. And Musk is leading the charge in taking away their money.

Do I trust Musk? No. The default position on anyone with a great deal of money and/or power is mistrust. Trump gets trust now because he’s proven himself in the face of terrible odds to be on my side. Musk? Well, he’s doing some good things but so far the chips haven’t really been down…he hasn’t had to choose between his own happiness and the good of the people. The Left is pushing that way and he’s probably going to be forced to make that choice. We’ll see how that goes. But, meanwhile, he’s doing what I want – except too slowly and being far too nice to the Left. I want what he’s doing put on overdrive. Musk is a tool. He’s useful right now. If he remains useful then I’ll keep backing him – but the minute the tool is broken or proves ineffective, I’ll drop him like used chewing gum.

And here’s the kicker: once I defeat these insane people and restore a world where truth is the basis of action, then I can start to revive Christian morality – or, indeed, any moral code. People who think that abortion is good are not going to be converted to Christianity with ease. Heck, just getting them to stop being raving lunatics is a herculean task. But if they are no longer paid to believe that abortion is good then they might stop actually believing that abortion is good…and that will open them up to the prospect of understanding that being a good person requires a strict moral code enforced by law and custom. But this is all for after: after the Left is defeated. I can’t get there from here – I must first get rid of the lunatics. Then I can talk.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan76 Comments

We’re approaching the denouement of the Russo-Ukraine War: Trump’s team will be meeting Putin’s team in Saudi Arabia soon in order to work out the preliminary deal. Many people are upset with this because it is clear that the USA will not insist upon Russia evacuating all Ukrainian territory and, further, that we are not interested in Ukraine joining NATO (that is, we’re not interested in committing to Ukraine’s defense and thus endless friction and hostility with Russia). What the final terms are remains to be seen but Zelenskyy and other European leaders have already said they reject whatever deal is made.

And that’s just too darn bad: they don’t get a say.

For the European leaders, the bottom line is that they don’t have significant military forces ready for action and there is a distinct lack of will on committing European youth to war. The European Ruling Class is barely hanging on via increasingly repressive measures against dissidents and telling European youth that its time to ruck up and enter the trenches would be immensely unpopular (can you imagine? “Ok, Nigel from Liverpool – you get to go to Ukraine to die for the Donbas while Abdul from Pakistan gets to stay on welfare here in Blighty grooming your younger sister!”. Not gonna work out). If you don’t have force on the table, you don’t get to decide how a war goes.

As for Ukraine: they’ve been bled white (those who stayed: looked like a couple million Ukrainian youths bailed out early) and they simply lack the power to expel the Russians. At this point, it doesn’t matter what weapons we give them: there just aren’t enough Ukrainians in uniform to get through what are by now multiple layers of Russian defensive positions against a Russian army which hasn’t even begun to really call on Russia’s manpower reserves. Ukraine’s chance to have a say in the war was the 8 years between Russian invasions – they could have built up a powerful, mobile army to strike at Russia just as (or, better, just before) the Russians came on. They didn’t. Zelenskyy staked his country on the moral character of the European leadership and Joe Biden. Bad call. While Ukraine retains sufficient force to make total Russian conquest prohibitively expensive, they don’t have enough to go beyond that. Exhausted military forces also don’t get much of a say in how a war ends.

And both the USA and Russia have bigger fish to fry. Our challenge is in China, Russia’s challenge is to rebuild their military force and industrial base as quickly as possible to keep China from getting froggy about Siberia (people forget that large parts of Russian Siberia were Chinese until the mid-19th century). Bottom line: there’s no will for the war to continue, and so it will end. And if by some chance Ukraine and Europe reject the deal and decide to fight on? Then it is no skin off our nose – and we’ll have no reason to help Ukraine further.

CBS News had the day yesterday – making some of the most stupid statements ever made by an alleged news organization. One thing they highlighted as how cool it is that Europe oppresses free speech…with the capper being a CBS news actor telling Rubio that the Nazis used free speech to create the Holocaust. We all had a good laugh at that but I used the opportunity to remind everyone that only one nation on Earth actually secures the rights of the people: the USA. It is only our Constitution which has the phrase “Congress shall make no law”. All other Constitutions, no matter how wonderfully written or how much they talk about human rights has that – and all of them have provisions which allow the government to suspend every human right when the government decides it needs to. There is only one free nation on Earth: the USA. There only ever has been one, and only ever will be one – no other nation’s Ruling Class is ever going to allow the people to write it into basic law “Parliament shall make no law”. Our Constitution kinda slipped into being almost by accident…nobody was paying attention to what we were doing and the powers that would want to stop us were too far away. The whole thrust of the Progressive Left in the USA, by the way, has been to annul “Congress shall make no law”. Via bureaucratic and judicial fiat the Left has tried everything it can to get around that…and they never will stop trying to. It is the final bulwark of human liberty.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan38 Comments

The court orders against Trump are simply absurd. If they aren’t quickly disposed of on the appellate level, then Trump should start to ignore them. Perhaps first by quietly informing Chief Justice Roberts that he’d better put his judges on a leash or he’ll make it a pure Executive vs Judiciary conflict…such a conflict the Judiciary, being un-elected, is bound to lose. That is, if Roberts wants to retain Executive deference to Judicial rulings, then this nonsense of one federal judge issuing a nation-wide TRO simply has to stop. Forever. Side note: the Constitution gives Congress the right to regulate how cases are brought before the Courts…I recommend we enact legislation stating that only a Supreme Court Justice can issue a nation-wide TRO…and that TRO can be voided if three Justices decide to do so.

Do keep in mind why the Left is fighting Trump tooth and nail rather than picking it’s fights: it has to. It can’t concede an inch here. My Mrs – mostly non-political – asked me why don’t the Democrats just get on board with stopping the worst of the waste? Answer: because the worst of the waste is why Democrats get into power. Its why we see people entering the system poor and quickly getting rich far beyond what their official salary can justify. I’m not talking about the ideologically committed – they only make up a small percentage of all Democrats (though they rule absolutely as far as policy and messaging go): I’m talking about 90% of the Democrats from Senator down to associate professor at your community college. Its all about stealing – about getting well paid for doing nothing useful. While one individual $5 million grant might seem to you and me like something not worth fighting for, the people who were getting paid with it are up in arms…as is everyone else who lives off such grift. If one part of it goes down, all of it will go down…so they fight for each part of it, no matter how stupid and corrupt it looks.

Here’s my view: Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot. It is highly likely that all of the laws which restrict Executive discretion over personnel and discretionary spending are unconstitutional…and we do have a Court which may very well rule exactly that way. Democrats might be setting themselves up for a catastrophe. After all:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

Article II, section 1, paragraph one. There are no modifiers here. There is one person – and one person, alone – who has executive power, and that is the President. The President, and only the President, can give orders and/or delegate executive power. To say that some part of the Executive branch, or some executive function, is outside the control of the President is a clear violation of the Constitution. The Congress does not have the power to reach into the Executive and make it do things – the Congress’ power here is of the purse: the means to make the Executive bend to Legislative wishes is by refusing to appropriate funds for the Executive. This concept that the Legislative can tell the Executive whom can be hired and fired – that is, who the President may delegate authority to – flies in the face of the Constitution. So, too, does the concept that the Judiciary can interfere in Executive actions.

The Pope issued a statement which is being hailed by the global Left as an assertion that Trump is evil for his deportation program. It is always, however, necessary that one read statements of Pope Francis rather than blindly accept what someone says he said. In the statement:

…one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival.

To be sure, the Pope clearly doesn’t like the idea of mass deportations based solely on the fact of immigration status. But after he goes on a bit on that subject, he is forced (because Catholicism requires it) to concede:

This does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal immigration.

So, if you really want to sum up the Pope’s views:

Nations must remain open to immigrants.

Immigration should be orderly and legal.

Criminals must be controlled.

Deportation should not be based simply on the legal status of the foreigner in country.

The last bit most Americans are going to disagree with – the Pope is getting into a little bit of a gray area here in saying we can develop an orderly and legal immigration system but if someone jumps the line we can’t send them back into the line just based on that. The schizophrenia required to take any Left position rears its head here. In my view, I am not in any way in violation of the Pope’s statement – even though I favor a 20 year moratorium on all immigration (as per usual, unless an actual life is at stake). You see, to have an orderly and legal immigration system, I first must gain control of the situation – and this means I better not let anyone else in for a while as I sort out those who have come in over the past few years. Essentially, in order to be compliant with Church teaching on the matter of welcoming the stranger, I have to go through a process to ensure that I may welcome the stranger. The Pope might take exception and get very angry with me, but nothing I would do on immigration – and nothing Trump is doing – actually violates the inherent dignity of the migrants.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan33 Comments

Watching a bit of RFK get grilled – you’d have some sympathy for the hostile questions except for you know the Democrats are just lying, ignorant hacks who have been provided their questions by the Swamp. Kennedy isn’t perfect, but (as we used to say of old-timey Liberals) his heart is in the right place: he’s skeptical of the amount of medication we’re given these days. And everyone should be.

Look, I don’t like pain or cold symptoms or feeling sad just like everyone else – but I also know (because I took high school biology) that the human body is built to fight this stuff off. Our biology – created by Nature or God, depending on one’s point of view – desires our health because healthy human bodies means the continuation of the human species. Medicine is supposed to just back up this natural course of events…not take over our lives. Some people are taking huge numbers of pills to try to regulate every aspect of their physical and psychological well-being. That isn’t good.

I’m 60. I’ve got a bum knee. It hurts all the time – sometimes very badly sometimes less badly, but all the time. My eyesight is getting poorer (I have to wear glasses to be able to see the TV from my chair; my close up vision is still pretty good but even there the eye doc is saying I’m close to needing reading glasses, especially at night). I get those odd aches and pains that you can’t determine their source. I’m getting old. But even so, my body still tries to repair itself. And, to be fair, I am in pretty darned good health for a 60 year old who has smoked since 13 (I can do laps underwater in my pool, for instance). I do at least 20 pushups every morning! I’m sure if I bothered going to doctors on the regular, they’d find stuff to medicate…I’d reject it out of hand. I don’t want to go the route I’ve seen other oldsters go where its just one more pill after another and, of course, you can’t cure getting old and dying.

I recall my Uncle Mike – he was afflicted with something genetically common in my family: a bum heart valve (my grandfather had it, my dad had it, Uncle Mike as noted, my cousin has it – there is a high chance that I’ll have it at some point). The fix for this is to replace the heart valve – my dad did that and regretted it. Sure, it got him to 82 but he had to take pills and pills and pills and the blood thinners meant that if he sneezed too hard he’d bruise and it was all just a hassle. Uncle Mike got the diagnoses, considered what dad had gone through and decided to give it a miss…when the doc said it was “any day now” on his death, he went around visiting friends and family to say goodbye and then went home to die in his bed (the thing about it is that until that valve actually fails, you’re fine – if it fails and you don’t get rushed to the hospital for the valve replacement, you die). We can’t fight the inevitable. I think that is what RFK is really saying on medicine – and on food, all he’s saying is that perhaps we should have more fresh, natural food in our diet…this does kinda make some sense.

Pam Bondi got out of the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. Do note that when it is crunch time, Democrats never break ranks…they never make the grand gesture to the other side. This is what is really so infuriating about the Murkowskis of the GOP. There is no need for them to vote against our side – it is never reciprocated. All they’re doing is throwing a bone to the Democrats and giving them the “bi-partisan opposition” talking point.

Trump continues to sign his Executive Orders – set to sign one banning Critical Race Theory from federally-funded schools. Aside from torpedoing the hideous, anti-human ideology behind CRT, the real news here is that, finally, we’re using the strings. Keep in mind that most of the federal government’s power to influence State and local affairs comes from the strings attached to federal money. If you don’t do what Uncle Sam says, you don’t get the money. You don’t have to do it! Most of this stuff can be legally ignored by the States and localities…but they won’t get the money if the do that. For the first time, we’re attaching our strings. Democrats have gleefully attached their strings ever since the Welfare State was truly born in the 1960s…the GOP never has because, well, that wouldn’t be nice. Democrats would object! Now they can object al they want – we don’t care. Better, of course, just to dispense with all this drivel…but if we can’t then the crucial thing is to move the money from the Left’s priorities to ours.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

I think we’ve all noticed it – that Trump’s nominees are giving a full-throated endorsement of Trump policy. This is different from 2017 when it was pretty much “hey, approve me for this position and I’ll keep an eye on Trump for you!”. This now has the Democrats in quite a state of terror. They realize that what they’ve dished out for decades is about to be handed right back to them.

Our Democrats are now, as per usual, demanding bi-partisanship and that we make sure there isn’t any politicization of Justice. This is quite hilarious – that is, that they think we’d listen to them. We know what “bi-partisan” means: they get 90% of what they want, we get nothing. We also know what they mean by “politicization of Justice” means: for goodness sake, don’t do to us what we did to Trump! Of course, we don’t have to politicize Justice to go after Democrats…in what they did to Trump are a host of violations of federal law. This is why when Bondi said she would go wherever the law leads, Democrats got a sick feeling in their stomachs. All she has to do is follow the law and a lot of Democrats are going to jail.

Still, it remains to be seen: that is, if she’ll really follow the law. It is our hope, but nothing is for sure until it happens…and Trump is a deal maker: he might agree to turn a blind eye on this or that in order to get something he wants more. This would be ok as long as its something good for us. On the other hand, even if Trump would like to turn a blind eye, if Bondi gets the right people around her, it might not matter what deals Democrats want to strike…the hammer of Justice will drop on them.

The real problem the Democrats have is what Tallyrand said of the Bourbons after their restoration to the throne of France: they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Democrats are still voting against deporting illegal immigrants who commit sex crimes, and against banning men from women’s sports. Think about it: these are no brainer issues. Of course if you’re in country illegal and commit a sex crime you must be deported. Of course you can’t have boys competing with girls in sports. These are issues Americans are 70/30 in favor of. There is not a single vote to be garnered by opposing these measures…and plenty to be lost. But most Democrats are still committed to the flag they lost under in November.

The rule of thumb is that the party which won the White House will door poorly at the following midterms. The GOP should work from this assumption but there is an even money chance that it will go badly for the Democrats…and it’ll start leaning GOP if Trump has even moderate success over the next year. People carefully considered what the Democrats were offering and rejected it. The normal course of events for Democrats is to identify the issues they failed on and either jettison them, or at least modify them towards the political center. Nothing doing: the issues they failed on the worst are being held up as a litmus test for Democrats.

The ceasefire deal in Israel seems to me like a bad idea. I’m going to rely on Trump and Bibi to pull the fat out of the fire here but I can’t see an upside to allowing Hamas to live…let alone remain in charge of Gaza. It is clear, however, that the Israelis have lost some of the iron in the veins. The spirit of 1948 has atrophied. Time marches on. The Holocaust generation is nearly gone. A 25 year old Israeli has to ask great-grandpa about it, and great-grandpa is likely passed away by now. Sure, he learns about it in school and, by rote, honors the fallen…but he’s looking for a job and a girlfriend and there’s that weekend at the beach…suiting up to dig Hamas rats out of bunkers in Gaza lacks appeal. And lacks apparent immediate need: Israelis don’t feel like their backs are to the wall.

But their backs are to the wall. The Islamists take a very long view of this struggle. To them, survival after 10/7 is all the victory they need…they are now the he-men of the Islamist world who stood up to the Israelis and survived. Money and recruits will flow in. The world will rebuild Gaza for them. It might take ten years, but they will attack again. Sure, the Israelis will implement many new security protocols but human slackness always erodes these things over time…it is just the way things are. On 10/6 Hamas could easily get anything it wanted into Gaza – its why they had those thousands of rockets. The day after the ceasefire it’ll be almost impossible to get things in…but day by day it will get easier. Hamas’ goal is the total destruction of Israel and the murder of every single Jew on Earth. Unless and until Israel recognizes this and acts accordingly, there is always the possibility that Hamas can win.

UPDATE: Our Matt has an interesting look into the behind-the-scenes backstabbing that led to Biden’s withdrawal. Do read it: looks like they had knives out for a long time.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

Today the comeback becomes officially certified – and it is enormously funny that Harris has to certify it. Side note: that law they passed governing the VP in counting the electoral vote? Unconstitutional drivel. And even if it wasn’t, totally useless – there’s nothing anyone can actually do to stop the VP from taking any particular action in certification. I’ve always thought that with the obvious questions about the accuracy of the 2020 vote count that Pence’s duty by no later than mid-December 2020 was to announce he could not in good conscience count the EVs of the disputed States – that the House and Senate were going to have to get together and work it out in the manner of the 1876 election. Keep in mind that I figured this would result in Biden getting in after all was said and done…but it would have been said and done via a clear, open and fully Constitutional process (probably via a House vote for President)…what we had was obviously fraudulent votes being shoved down our throats.

And, hey, Liberals: how’d that work out for ya? Feeling positive and happy about it today?

I’d comment about Trump’s upcoming sentencing but its all so very stupid and corrupt and ultimately pointless that its just not worth it.

New York City imposed “congestion pricing” for driving in Manhattan – basically you now have to pay to drive your car into the city. This move was backed by the usual collection of Commie idiots who were all celebrating it yesterday. Its nothing but a “soak the poor” scheme…it won’t affect the rich people (you know: who backed it) because they can afford the freight. Oh, and the rich now get the additional benefit of less traffic as they drive from their vulture capitalist office to the celebratory gala. You could probably challenge the law on equal protection grounds but, meh…I don’t really care as I don’t live in NY and will never once in my life drive myself into Manhattan. New Yorkers keep doing this to themselves…and then wonder why their city is falling apart.

Senator Mike Lee introduced a bill to deny benefits to illegal immigrants…to which most people go, “why are they getting benefits now?” The answer to that is simple – California passed a law to deny benefits to illegals (back when CA was sane) and the Commies took it to Court and, ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that since the law doesn’t specify you have to be legal to get welfare, everyone gets welfare. This could all have been fixed right after that by amending the welfare laws and at times we have had a GOP trifecta and yet its never been fixed…which lets you know just how our Uniparty government has operated. Let’s see if Lee’s proposal gets anywhere…if he’s at all clever he will be able to generate publicity for this and, in the end, even some Democrats will have to vote to ban welfare for illegals…this is something that will have 85% public support.

Looks like a lot of Trump’s main agenda will go through Congress via one, large bill which is funny as heck because it’ll be passed via reconciliation so Dems can’t even slow it down and we’re using basically their “omnibus bill” garbage against them to enact policies that will save America and wreck Democrats. Democrats and Never Trumpers are trying to stop this by saying, “hey, that’s not fair!” and we’re all just laughing and laughing.

Canadian governor Justin Trudeau will resign in the next day or two – becoming yet another person who crossed Trump and wound up in the dumpster. He’s been just a horrid PM and he’s a bad man and, finally, even Canadians had enough…latest polling indicates that at the next election his Liberals are going to be wiped out. His resignation will probably help Liberals recover some ground – which is why he’s going (and much the same reason Biden went).

Bottom line is that all around the world, the Uniparty Ruling Class is feeling the heat…even people with an overall Liberal outlook are just sick of it all and want things to start working again…we don’t want imported grooming gangs, imported terrorists and imported anti-West activists. And that’s just one of a dozen problems the Liberal global order has ushered in.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

The Democrats – still in the Senate majority – have been holding Orange Man Bad hearings to finish off their term. Yesterday, the Orange Man was Bad because of this illegal immigrant he’d like to deport – Foday Turay – who is a prosecutor.

A prosecutor. Prosecuting American citizens. Democrats thought it would be a good idea to highlight that they gave a job in law enforcement to an illegal immigrant.

This is a strong indicator that our Democrats haven’t learned a darned thing. Trump ran an 18 month campaign with one of his major issues – front and center all the time – being that he was doing to deport the illegals. After hearing this argument – and the Democrat counter-argument, forcefully stated with a billion dollars of campaign funds and overwhelming MSM support for the Dem position – the American people elected Trump. That’s it. We’re done here. There might be some room for compromise here and there (we’re not rat bastards with no feelings, after all) but the basic thrust is going to be deportations and border security. That is what the American people want. It is what they will get.

Democrats are saying how mean it will be if illegals lose their jobs.

I don’t know what to say about such people – that is, people who can’t absorb simple facts like, say, a lost election. There’s no mind for me to reach. If after 11/5 you’re shouting BLM slogans, condemning Israel and rising in defense of illegal immigration you’re not just wrong, you’re an idiot. These ideas were rejected by the electorate…the only path forward for those who back such views is to rethink them, make adjustments and try different tactics. Democrats are acting like 11/5 didn’t happen.

Maybe its because after their news outfits finished up lying to them on 11/5, our Democrats continue to trust them? This would make them even stupider…but one of the excuses the MSM/Dems are making is that Trump didn’t win a landslide. To be sure, it wasn’t a 1980 result, but it was a close as we’re going to get any time soon. Let’s look at it:

In 2016, Trump received 62,984,828 votes. In 2024, 77,237,942. Little bit of math – even a Liberal could do this – and we see that over an 8 year period while under constant attack and lawfare, Trump increased his vote total by 14,253,114. That’s a 22.6% increase over his 2016 vote. That’s a pretty popular guy. And we must always keep in mind that in all three elections, Democrats stuffed ballot boxes. It is what they do – they insert as many fake ballots into the system as they can…this is especially prevalent in the Blue States where Democrats have consistently removed any vote security systems. My guess is that in any given national election, Democrat vote totals are probably 10% fake though it would take a very thorough investigation to get to an exact figure – it might be more (don’t get me wrong, even without fake votes, we were losing CA and NY…but we’d lose them by smaller margins in an honest system and we wouldn’t have the sheer magic of every late-decided House race in CA falling to the Dems weeks after the election).

And in this election, Trump’s coattails were sufficient to secure a Congressional majority. The Supreme Court is majority in favor of law. The Administrative State (Deep State) is going to be brought under control. We won, Democrats. You lost. You have no real power to alter the course for the next two years. Prepare for the mid-terms: they are traditionally favorable to the Party which lost the previous election. But, my goodness, you’re going to get wiped in 2026 if over the next two years you just keep going Resist drivel. There’s nothing to resist. The people have chosen. You have been rejected. The chances that in two years the people will be going, “wow, sorry I voted Trump: what I want is a return to the border invasion and more medical mutilation of kids!” is nil. If you want to win in 2026 and thus gain some actual leverage, you’re going to have to come up with something different.

Or don’t. I don’t care. The stupider you are, the better for us.

It looks increasingly like Hegseth and the rest of Trump’s picks will sail through. Joni Ernst was leading a charge against Hegseth – in cooperation with the MSM/DNC who worked up a series of increasingly stupid lies about Hegseth – but she’s cooling her jets now…there have been rumors of a primary challenge. There still might be one: her choice to make an issue out of Hegseth angered a lot of people (me, inlcuded). There was just no sense in it. Even if you dislike Trump, the place to fight him is not in cabinet picks…by and large, the American people accept that a President should get the cabinet of the President’s choice. To expend political capital fighting the guy chosen to clean up an obviously dysfunctional military was just stupid…and to lend credence to the Democrats’ serial slanders of the man was disgusting.

I’m sitting here getting ready to release Book IX of the Mirrors series (Home World) and I’m about 65% done with Book X (this will wrap up the series with possible different story lines available for later works – but I want to start working on my post-apocalyptic series Of the 15 as well as a sort of Hallmark movie story about a sailor and a princess) and here comes Hollywood with….Meet the Parents 4. Look, I get it: Meet the Parents was hilarious. The second installment was a credible sequel. The third installment dragged out a premise which was exhausted. What they heck are they going to do in a fourth movie? And, hey, its not just me putting out stuff that is new entertainment content…there are a host of indy writers out there, including some on the Left, who are putting out new stuff which has different takes on things. But our Entertainment Industry is a sick joke…just recycling the same old stuff over and over again. The reason? They figure an established franchise is at least sold money-maker…but they aren’t solid money-makers. Disney has just about killed the Star Wars franchise. The Narnia franchise is about to be destroyed in a woke version. The Tolkien universe is almost completely destroyed (this destruction starting, actually, with the total ruination of Faramir’s character in the third movie). Its not just that they are out of ideas: they are destroying what was once good ideas.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Getting old is fun – for instance, I started feeling this odd lump on my back and the Mrs, examining it, said I should go get it checked…so, off to the Doc who takes one look at it and breaks out the knife…got it sliced off and then burned a bit. So, yeah, feeling great! I’ll get the biopsy back in a week (it is probably pre-cancerous so no real worries). But, hey, fellow geezers – you do have to get stuff like that checked. Its a difference between some temporary discomfort and a real problem.

Speaking of real problems, the Hegseth nomination is clearly in come trouble. Why? Because Democrat operatives in the MSM started what amounts to a whisper campaign of slanders…”he drinks!” and “he plays around!”. The man is married and has seven children. As a manly man, I have no doubt that back in the day he probably took a drink or two and I believe for men such as him the phrase “has to beat them off with a stick” is appropriate. But its all just uncorroborated rumors…meanwhile, people who know him are going on record saying he’s a great guy. Which he probably is – even if there is a smudge or two in his background (like none of us have that). But that doesn’t stop our RINOs…who are clearly compromised by the Deep State.

In response to this, rumors were floated that DeSantis might be picked if Hegseth drops out…and this is Team Trump signalling that no matter what, the SecDef isn’t going to be a career four-star now working in the Defense industry. In other words, reform is coming to Defense…business as usual is over with. When that particular rumor started to float I noticed a distinct die-down in the anti-Hegseth effort…and, in fact, there seems to be ever less pushback on any of Trump’s nominees. This tells me that the Gaetz nomination was very deliberate…putting someone out there to be a lightning rod and to give a scalp to the wets. By and large, I expect Trump’s current nominees to get in…and thanks to the 1998 Executive vacancies act, Trump can pretty much get anyone he wants to 210 days even without Senate approval or having the Senate to into recess.

We’re going to get our reforms.

In light of this, there are now rumors that Biden is going to blanket pardon a host of people – everyone directly connected to him, of course, but also such people as Adam Schiff and Anthony Fauci. Will he do it? I’m sure pressure is being brought to bear…but, on the other hand, with the Hunter pardon 90% of the threat to Joe, himself, is ended. And its not like Joe is feeling a deep sense of loyalty to his party comrades these days. We’ll see how that plays out. Keep in mind that if they are pardoned, then they can’t invoke the 5th when called to testify before Congress or a grand jury…and even if we can’t get the top guys, there are a host of secondary people in the Democrat Party, the RINOs and the overall Deep State who are highly at risk. Everything they’ve done to get Trump has involved criminal acts…and Biden simply won’t pardon everyone.

We’re going to get our revenge, as it were: except, of course, it isn’t revenge…it is just getting the laws enforced.

Trump will travel to Paris for the re-opening of Notre Dame…this, to me, is significant as France is the pivot of European civilization, as well as being the eldest daughter of the Church. The French, themselves, have had their culture and religion atrophy over the past century but there still is a beating heart of France in there…and for Trump to attend the symbolic restoration of France’s heart is, to me, significant. I suspect that Catholic Melania has been working on him…and this was greatly reinforced by his downright miraculous survival of an assassination attempt.

I Beg Your Pardon Open Thread

Mark Noonan17 Comments

The funniest thing about Biden pardoning Hunter is the pretend-shock among the Left and Never Trumpers…those who aren’t immediately getting on board with the pardon (which is most of them) are all “well, I never! Who could have thought that Joe Biden would lie to us???”. Just another reminder that Trump’s most important act to date was taking out the trash on the Right.

It is a ten year pardon – going back to just before Hunter was placed on the board of Bursima. Which means that he’s now skating on everything he did during that time and Joe is betting that Trump’s DOJ won’t indict him on his part of it (Hunter can’t refuse to testify now – his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination doesn’t apply…he can’t be prosecuted for these things). This is probably a good bet – and might have already been discussed between Biden and Trump. Biden isn’t going to live much longer anyway…and even if indicted, his lawyers could very easily get a declaration that he’s not competent to stand trial. What was extra funny is that given the wording of it, there was a several hour period where Hunter could have robbed a bank yesterday and there would have been nothing anyone could do about it…Biden pardoned Hunter for everything done to December 1st.

There was, of course, zero chance that Hunter wasn’t going to skate…there was no way Biden was going to die while his only living son was locked up. This is over and above the Biden Crime Family aspect of it…it just wasn’t going to happen. All those firm statements that he wouldn’t were just lies…and everyone knew they were lies when stated. But what is odd is that usually these are done right out the door…in the last week in office, some times on the last day. Makes me (and others) wonder about the health status of Joe right now? Someone was in a hurry to get this done.

Trump posted on Truth right after tying this to the J6 defendants and so the expectation is that they walk sometime in the afternoon of January 20th. There is still some debate about how widespread the pardons should be – some arguing that only non-violent people should be pardoned. Nope: in my view, its gotta be everyone. And then compensation for them. We must “insult to injury” here. We have to let the Democrats now that it is over – their whole lawfare scheme is done and now the real law is about to be turned on them.