Donald Trump

Open Thread

Mark Noonan60 Comments

I’m getting some feedback on “Mirrors” and I have to say I’m pleased – people are liking it. Wish it would sell more, of course! But, the main thing is that I’ve written a story that people like. And I’m very grateful for that.

So, the Ukraine thing – looks more and more like it is another self-own by the Democrats: it is the Bidens who might be in jeopardy, not Trump. My view: in any controversy regarding Trump, always work on the assumption that he’s the guy who didn’t break the law. We’ve long heard about Biden’s son getting sweet heart deals in Ukraine…and my bet is that this NSA “whistleblower” was a desperate rear-guard to try and keep it from coming out. RSM has thoughts.

Patriots ditch Antonio Brown after a mere 11 days with rising allegations of bad behavior. I don’t know what is true in this – it’ll come out over time, I’m sure.

We’re close to flipping the 9th Circuit – this is why we elected Trump and why we have to re-elect him. Once the Courts are firmly in the hands of judges who will enforce the law not only will the left no longer be able to impose their policies via judicial fiat, but we’ll be able to start rolling back the previous, unconstitutional rulings liberal judges made. All those years the Tru-Cons told us they’d do this…and they never, ever did: Trump has nearly done it in three years. All that was lacking was the will.

“Ad Astra” has a good review. I might have to go see it – and as the Progs are simply hating Sallone’s latest “First Blood” installment, I’ll probably have to check it out, too.

Trump’s approval rating is better than Obama’s at this point in his term. And this with, I’m very certain, polls cooked to make Trump look worse than he is.

The Moral Necessity of Voting for Trump (and the GOP)

Mark Noonan15 Comments

There is a lot of talk about morality and norms of late – mostly in relation to Trump and how he is destroying both. We’ve all seen it: the endless stream of opinions deploring how Trump is corrupting America and destroying what we are. The corollary to this is that we must do whatever we can to get rid of Trump…even to electing Democrats. The bottom line in all this: nothing can possibly be worse than Trump.

Yeah, right.

Recently, Democrats have made serious proposals to pack the courts, abolish the electoral college and abolish the Senate (or reapportion it based on population). They assert the 2nd Amendment does not secure an individual right to bear arms and that the 1st Amendment does not protect “hate speech”. They believe that illegal aliens should vote, that no ID be required to vote and that unknown and unaccountable activists be allowed to “ballot harvest” on election day. The sum total of these proposals is an insistence that in no way, shape or form should anyone non-left be able to secure power in the United States and that once the left obtains power there should be no restrictions on the use of that power.

All of this stems from the leftist belief that they are absolutely right and those who oppose them are not merely wrong, but immoral in their views. I, as a Conservative, don’t want people to be judged by the content of their character because I believe it is right to do so: I want that because I’m an evil person who wishes to perpetuate injustice to benefit myself. The left, if given enough power for a long enough time, will implement, in one form or another, every one of these proposals (and more, besides) because they believe that the very survival of the human race and the planet depends upon it – and they will brook no opposition from anyone.

Do you want that? Do you want yourself to eventually be declared mentally incompetent because you will not assert that a woman can have a penis? And then have your right to bear arms and fly on airplanes denied because, as a crazy female-penis-denier, you’ve been placed on a government list prohibiting such people from doing those things? Do you want your religion forced to teach things that deny the things your religion asserts are true? Do you want your wealth confiscated in the name of fighting climate change and you forced to move into a densely populated city where you’ll have no car, no proper sanitation and whether or not you can be employed will be determined by a social credit system run by leftists? Do you want your government chosen in a flurry of urban ballot-box stuffing? Do you think I’m kidding when I say this is where the left wants to take us? And do you think for a moment they won’t go there if they have the means to do so?

We can all wish for a different set of circumstances. I could wish I was six feet tall, good looking and rich. But, the fact of the matter is that I’m five feet, seven inches, kinda dumpy looking and I think I could scrounge money for a meal at Jack in the Box if you’re hungry. Because of these circumstances, in my life I’ve had to get ahead on sheer hard work and an ability to be charming. You work with what you’ve got, in other words. And in politics, right now, what we’ve got is President Trump and the GOP – and, God help us all, that is what stands between us and a leftist disaster.

As an aside, do not doubt the left’s sincerity. They really believe they are right. They aren’t doing this for fun. I’ve been watching them a lot of late and they are seriously convinced of stuff you and I find absurd. And there is no way to talk them out of it: they are armored from ear to ear and simply won’t listen to contrary ideas or facts (the rare liberal who does wake up tends to prove the rule). They are going to do what they want because they think that they are helping – that by forcing you to say things you believe are untrue; by forcing you to surrender your property; by forcing you to live like an urban hipster, they are making you a better person and building a better world. And if you really get out of line, their punishment of you is also just for your own good…to prevent you from poisoning the minds of other people. Take them seriously and take them at their word.

So, what can we do? Well, as I noted above, I’d like different circumstances – I’d like the perfect GOP President and Congress and party organization which would do everything exactly right at all times. But, we aren’t going to get that. We’re going to have to go with what we have: Trump and the current GOP. Somehow or another, we have to award them absolute political victory in 2020 and beyond (I’d say we dare not let Democrats obtain Executive power for at least 20 years; hopefully that long out of power will force the Democrats to change). It is either vote for Trump and the GOP, or allow Democrats who are committed to enforcing a series of lies and imposing a series of oppressions to sustain the lies. It really is a time for choosing: which do you want? A flawed GOP plus Trump who’s heart is clearly in the right place, or Democrats who are pledged beforehand to destroy everything which you hold dear?

To me, there isn’t any question: if I want to live in a society where truth may be spoken; where property can be owned; where people can live as they wish; where laws are enforced, then I’ve got no choice but to back Trump and the GOP. And keep backing them until such time as we’ve either entirely rebuilt the barriers against tyranny in this country, or Democrats change back into a party where truth is allowed. It is a moral requirement, in my view, that I vote for Trump and the GOP in 2020. To do otherwise is to betray not just my moral code, but the very concept of morality. It may seem weird that a billionaire playboy works out to be the Tribune of truth and decency, but that is actually the way the world works: often it is the most unlikely person imaginable who turns out to have been granted the talisman of truth. Don’t ask me why it wound up being Trump (and Mitch McConnell) – I don’t know. Don’t really care, either. They are what they are – and they’ve all I’ve got; so, I’m going to do the right thing in 2020.

With Kavanaugh, We’ve Reached the Crisis

Mark Noonan52 Comments

So, the Michael Avenatti, the day after claiming (in a legally deniable way) that Kavanaugh was a vile beast, has taken his Twitter account private. He claims it was because of Trump trolls…but, he’s been dealing with that for a year. I’ll leave everyone to judge for themselves the matter.

That was just a small thing in the overall Kavanaugh story, of course: more important is the fact that the accusations keep getting worse while also getting more flimsy. And the shrieking SJW left is shrieking ever louder. They are convinced that Kavanaugh is a drunken, serial rapist (I’m not kidding: I’ve read their comments). Meanwhile, Cocaine Mitch and The Donald are standing firm…and word is that even the GOP squishes (with the possible exception of Flake) are getting outraged over this mess. I sure know that I am. Yeah, I’m a veteran…but I’m not a tough guy. In fact, I’m just about un-tough. I’m a pretty calm and relaxed person who is broadly tolerant of all human frailties, because I am fully aware of my own failures. But, man oh man, am I fit to be tied, now. I’ve never been so angry. A howling mob of SJW fascists chased Ted Cruz and his wife out of restaurant last night…Cruz, given his position, could do no other than flee.

I will never flee.

Lost in the shuffle is that reality isn’t matching up to DNC/MSM Narratives. It isn’t just things like the Gallup poll which shows the GOP more popular than the Democrats (you know how I feel about polls): but it’s also things like CNN being low-rated; Michael Moore’s anti-Trump hit job “documentary” failing at the box office; the RNC being flush with cash while the DNC is effectively bankrupt. I’m suspecting that part of the reason the Democrats turned it up to 11 on Kavanaugh (and it was the Democrat leadership, not the base, leading the way here) is because their own estimates of their November chances are looking bad…and they are firing up the base to get them to vote. A party on the cusp of winning takes a calm, middle-of-the-road line to pull in all wavering voters…a party afraid of being blown out acts like the world is coming to an end.

I don’t know how the rest of this week is going to go – I’m highly doubtful that Ford will testify on Thursday. Unless she can come up with someone or something to verify her story, she’d look a complete idiot testifying in front of the Senate on national TV. And if she’s not telling the truth – and I don’t think she is – she’ll open herself up to legal jeopardy. But, we’ll see: maybe she does play her hand out to the end? Stranger things have happened. I was getting doubtful about Kavanaugh’s chances a couple days ago, but not I’m starting to have confidence return. But, in the end, even if a few GOPers knife us in the back over this, I think that more and more people are coming to realize that the Democrats must be kept out of power…they are completely irresponsible and will wreck the nation to spite Trump, if given the chance.

It is very, very sad what we’re seeing – the Democrats, by inviting the SJW left into politics, have injected a poison into the body politic we’ll be a long time getting rid of. Our job, as patriots, is to stand firm…and vote like your life depended on it. Because it does.

“Worst President” is an Awesome Book, and Open Thread

Mark Noonan30 Comments

Jeff Johns did a review of Worst President:

Margolis and Noonan literally lay out chapter and verse, running down 200 separate entries, spread over a broad range of categories detailing a litany of examples to illustrate their thesis, all backed up with 124 pages of endnotes citing source materials. One of the striking things as you read through this book is the amount of things the mainstream media never bothered to cover, gave passing coverage to or made excuses for during Obama’s White House tenure.

You all have bought it, right?

Matt and I are grateful for Johns review, and for all those who have read it and told us how much they’ve appreciated our effort. We wrote the book to ensure that the totality of Obama wasn’t sent down the Memory Hole. As Johns points out, we’re sourced to our eyeballs on what we say: it all really happened. And most people simply don’t know about it.

Cocain Mitch is winning all down the line for President Trump, and for us. A lot of Trumpsters still say bad things about McConnell…but the reality is that McConnell is Trump’s best man on Capitol Hill.

Ted Cruz is locked into battle with Beto O’Rourke for the Senate in Texas…I, for one, have never viewed O’Rourke as a real threat…but, if he ever was, he ain’t, now:

“I can think of nothing more American than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights anytime, anywhere, anyplace,” O’Rourke concluded.

So, Ted Cruz is probably going to have to report this as an in-kind donation. O’Rourke’s problem is that he’s marketing himself as a modern Bobby Kennedy…a moderate who cares. But he doesn’t represent Bobby’s Democrat party…he represents Maxine Waters’ Democrat party. And that means he is simply forced to make statements which will make him forever toxic outside the deep, blue areas.

Trump deported an old Nazi the other day and, yes, some liberals managed to complain about it.

Also, that poor girl who was killed by the illegal immigrant? Well, liberals spent the day deriding her as a mere “white girl” and Warren went so far as to assert that her death must be set aside so we can tackle the important issue of children being separated from their parents at the border. Yes: she really said that.

It’s like the Democrats want Trump re-elected.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Well, Matt and I decided to write another book. Started working on it just yesterday and we hope to publish right around the 1st of November, 2019. Two guesses what the overall subject will be. Matt is actually doing double-duty as he’s also working a solo political book project. Meanwhile, I keep working on the third draft of the novel; which I think is getting to be a splendid story.

Bill Maher does the right thing: defend Alex Jones’ free speech rights. Most people on the left are simple partisans…but a few of them understand that unless all are free, none are free. Maher gets it.

Here’s a real problem:

Here’s the arithmetic: one in three potential recruits are disqualified from service because they’re overweight, one in four cannot meet minimal educational standards (a high school diploma or GED equivalent), and one in 10 have a criminal history. In plain terms, about 71 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds (the military’s target pool of potential recruits) are disqualified from the minute they enter a recruiting station: that’s 24 million out of 34 million Americans. The good news is that while the military takes pride in attracting those who are fit, educated, law abiding, and drug-free, they’re having difficulty finding them—manifestly because fewer of them actually exist.

Adding to the failure of many to meet requirements is the fact that in our now-booming economy, the military has less appeal to young men starting out in life.

But I’m not in a mood to despair over this. The overweight thing can be fixed, of course – and, in fact, 8 to 10 weeks of basic training would help just about anyone trim down to fighting weight. I’m also not too worried about the kids not having a high school diploma because having one doesn’t actually indicate being educated. The criminal history thing is a problem, but it is also not a 100% problem: in fact, a stint in the ranks might just be what the doctor ordered for a troubled youth who still hasn’t gone down the road to doing something truly horrible. We don’t want to lower standards, but I think that a revision of standards will allow us to get what we want…out of a nation of 317 million people with more than four million men reaching military age annually, we should be able to find the people to fill the services.

As long time readers know, I’m not in favor of conscription – not even in war time. If a nation can’t get volunteers to defend itself, then it isn’t worth defending. Revise the standards on weight to “what can a strict regime do for this kid’s weight in two months?”. Perhaps even start a pre-boot camp for the hefty kids: you can join if you drop X pounds by your induction date. Revise the high school diploma to a test to see if the kid can read, write and do basic sums. If he can, I don’t care if he failed to finish the third grade. Revise the criminal history thing to “as long as you weren’t convicted of a felony or ever charged with rape or murder”, you can join. Revise the drug use to “don’t care if you were high when you signed up, don’t do any more now that you’re in”. And then just train the hell out of the kids – push them, hard. All branches – everyone runs for miles, does lots and lots of pushups, learns how to use a rifle, how to fight hand to hand. Everyone, that is, becomes a warrior…or, they drop out of training and go home. No one is forced to stay: quit whenever you want. After they become lean, mean fighting machines, then they can learn their actual job in the military (be it remaining a lean, mean fighting machine in a Marine infantry battalion, or loading up missiles on the deck of a carrier. eg). And then keep the standards high – everyone has to requalify in physical fitness on a periodic basis…anyone who can’t cut the mustard: out. Do all this, and I think we’ll get just what we need.

The whole #MeToo thing ended just as soon as a senior Democrat got caught up in it during an election year. Always remember: Democrats don’t give a damn about people being harmed…all they care about is whether they can use something against a Republican.

As we’ve said for years, take all polls with a grain of salt – but there’s a poll out there saying Trump is more trusted than the Democrats. Here’s what I’ve been saying of late: if the MSM Narrative about Trump were true, CNN would be the highest rated cable news outfit.

We’ve Been Ruled by Idiots: and Conservatives Defend This

Mark Noonan6 Comments

August 8th recently passed and it was the 100th anniversary of the Black Day. This was the day the British began the Battle of Amiens. While it was, of itself, a big victory, the more important aspect of it was on the morale of the two sides. The German commander, Ludendorf, named it the Black Day because of the very large number of German soldiers who merely surrendered rather than fight or retreat. From that point on, the Germans knew they were beaten and were merely trying to hold on to as much as they could before capitulation. Meanwhile, all of the allied armies were stimulated by the victory as they now knew they could break the German lines at will and steadily push them back no matter what the enemy did (it was, of course, the mass use of tanks which played the decisive role here).

This was the point when the whole German war effort in World War One was shown to be stupid – and done by people who, for all their intellectual achievements, were quite stupid. Think about how the war started – Germany, faced with the need to help their Austro-Hungarian allies fight off Russia, decided that the smart course was to attack France and Belgium, thus bringing Britain into the war against them. That was their plan! Their long held, carefully organized plan was to create more heavily armed enemies from the first minute war started! And no one who came up with this plan was shot for Supreme Idiocy or even so much as committed to an insane asylum. We’ll leave aside the Allies response: charge straight ahead into entrenched German machine guns and artillery. You get the picture: We’re dealing with a lot of dumb.

I mentioned Ludendorf, and he was one of the smartest of the lot. Simply brilliant. A superb organizer. But, in the end, he couldn’t count. He launched a “win the war” offensive in March of 1918 with the idea being that Germany could conquer victory before the United States, which had entered the war the year before, could exert it’s full power (which would happen some time in 1919, if the war went on that long). As I said, he couldn’t count: he couldn’t count up all the military aged males in the UK, France and the USA and realize they vastly outnumbered the military aged males in Germany. He also, seemingly, couldn’t read a map and failed to realize that even taking Paris in 1918 would not alter the overall strategic situation. The only wise course open to him – too all Germans – once the USA got in was to pick the time to concede defeat and surrender….and that such a time was before the German soldiers started surrendering in tens of thousands.

But that isn’t the end of the dumb for the German leadership. Some weeks after the Black Day the supreme allied commander, Foch, was heard to observe, “that gentleman (the German) can still escape: but he’ll have to leave his luggage behind”. What he meant was that if the Germans would leave behind the mountains of supplies they had built up in France over 4 years of war, they could get their army back to the German border in excellent defensive positions and it would be the Spring of 1919 before the allies could launch a serious attack…and they might not want to by then. With the Germans out of France and Belgium, all impetus to attack would be gone. Germany would still have had to negotiate a loser’s peace, but it wouldn’t have been an abject surrender followed by a dictated peace. But the German military leadership, chock full of very smart men, simply couldn’t make up its mind to do that until it was too late to try. In the end, the Germans fought for 51 months and suffered millions of dead – and inflicted millions of deaths – only to lose a war they didn’t have to fight, but stupidly got themselves into, and then stupidly refused to get out of when the game was up.

I bring this up because rolling around in my head for a while now has been a dawning understanding that for quite some time, our civilization has been run by some very dumb people. Unserious people. People who are quite willing to, as it were, fiddle while Rome burns. And then I got into a bit of a debate with a Facebook friend – nice guy, fellow Catholic. But, he hates Trump and that has colored his views in astonishing ways. What he was on about a couple days ago was how Conservatism is in bad shape because it listens to Sean Hannity rather than George Will. I pointed out in response that even supposing Hannity is a carnival barker, Conservatism is better of with him than with Will. He asked, why? And I said that people like George Will are erudite, well-dressed people drinking the correct wine while justifying the destruction of our civilization. People who, like the German High Command in WWI, are very, very smart and have all sorts of credentials but simply cannot, or will not, see what is right in front of them.

Ancient Rome didn’t go from a city of a million people with excellent water and sewage systems to a city of 40,000 people living in filth and drawing their water from the Tiber all in a day. Nope, took quite a lot longer than that. Several centuries, in fact. The last great building project in ancient Rome was Trajan’s Forum, early in the second century. The next big event in the life of Rome was the sack of the city by the Visigoths early in the 5th century. Neat, 300 year period there…where not much was actually done, other than people living off the wealth and power built up by their better ancestors. Sound familiar to your modern ears? All it would have taken for Rome to endure forever was a bit of maintenance. Do you understand that? All the heavy lifting had been done. Just maintain the infrastructure and keep the army up to snuff and, presto!, things remain great. Forever. But, no; they failed.

They did do lots of things, of course. They weren’t just marking time. They had a few civil wars in there. Assassinated a crop of Emperors. Watched people getting slaughtered in the Colosseum. Sat on their asses on welfare. Let foreigners do the grunt work. Watched as their domestic industry and agriculture was moved away from Italy and over to other parts of the Empire. They also had some brilliant political leaders such as Septimus Severus and Diocletian. And the social life was quite brilliant! Excellent food, fashionably dressed people, well appointed homes. They had towering intellects like Dio Cassius and Tacitus. And in religion you could pretty much get whatever you wanted – and be sure that whatever you wanted was ratified by the religious and philosophical authorities of the day (except by those pesky Jews and those outrageous Christians, who proposed to actually live the virtues everyone said were good…the bastards!). Once again, does all this sound familiar?

But, don’t go too far in making parallels to ancient Rome. We’re actually doing worse. To give you an idea: back early in the Russian Revolution, one of Lenin’s female comrades (I think it was Alexandra Kollontai, but I’m not 100% sure), opened up a vision for Lenin of sexual relations being treated as no more significant than quenching one’s thirst with a glass of water. Lenin didn’t go one way or the other on that, but he did observe that no one would want to get a drink of water from a gutter. Of course, Lenin was wrong: we now have people eagerly looking for gutters to get their drinks from. Furthermore, they insist that if you refuse to drink from the gutter, you’re a hateful bigot! Here’s the really funny thing: given what he said about it, Lenin wasn’t woke enough to be acceptable among the modern left! If he magically appeared to today, the left would despise him for his petite bourgeoisie insensitivity. So far, and fast, we have traveled downwards!

And at least the Romans built stuff to last. The Lake Homs Dam in Syria was built in the 3rd Century by the Romans and it is still in use. It was modified last century, but only to make it hold more water. The basics of the dam are still the original Roman construction from 1,734 years ago. Our stuff isn’t built like that. We, too, have to do maintenance, but we have a much weaker infrastructure to keep up…we can’t neglect it nearly as long. But, we’ve been neglecting it. You might recall the infrastructure bill from 2009 that we spent a bazillion dollars on…well, it looks like we’ll need another bazillion for the same thing…now, we can assume that everything has run down again after nine years…or, we can assume that the first bazillion was thrown down the toilet and wound up in the hands of politically connected people who didn’t get a lot of actual work done. Take your pick on those views. I’ll let you guess where I fall on the guesses. We have weaker stuff as our basis and we’re doing worse than the Romans at maintenance. In the realm of morality, we’re traveling down a road (get that drink from the gutter!) of immorality faster than the Romans ever dreamed. Sure, they liked to watch people being killed in the arena, but at least they weren’t going about massacring unborn children, nor legalizing the practice of effectively putting a pillow over granny’s face when she gets too old and irritating to deal with.

We’ve got people covering themselves with tattoos like painted savages. We’ve got people who father multiple children by multiple women without ever making any sort of commitment to them. We’ve got people in the military who are merely punching tickets to ensure their rise in rank. We’ve got corporate officers who spend more time working out their diversity program than they do working on their products. We’ve got people who despise liberty and who think there’s a right to have a house. We’ve got religious leaders openly or covertly denying the very aspects of their religion. But we’re banning plastic straws! Tell me, what of any decent thing has been conserved? Where is the maintenance of societal norms which would allow us to survive long term as a civilization? There is none – nothing has been conserved. Not by the Conservative leaders…each time the push against civilization has come, the Conservative leaders have found an excuse for why we have to allow it to happen.

Back in 2016, I was just desperate to stop Hillary. She’s corrupt to the bone and clearly an amazingly stupid person. She even lies when telling the truth would work to her advantage. All she amounts to is an appetite for power and wealth. She gathers it endlessly and is never satisfied. And she’s not alone in this. Think of all the people who are just there, grabbing whatever they can and then working out ways of defending their ill-gotten money and power. They don’t give a damn what is happening…all they care about is getting and then getting some more…and then squashing anyone who questions how they got it, and whether they should keep it. If they were at least smart enough to make sure our Navy ships didn’t crash into freighters and that the streets weren’t crumbling, they’d be tolerable. But, they can’t manage that. They can only do what the very stupidest person can do: grab and then lie about it. My vote in 2016 was just a desperate plea against that sort of thing. But then something strange happened: the guy I voted for turned out to be pretty darned good.

I had figured Trump for “one of them”, as it were. But, even though “one of them”, at least not someone who had spent his whole, adult life – like Hillary – screwing over the people. I fully expected huge doses of liberalism to come out of the New York liberal carnival barker with a penchant for pretty ladies. All of a sudden, I’ve got a President getting the regulators – the enforcers of stupidity – off the backs of the doers…the actually smart people who make things work. I’ve got a President who understands that if we don’t make, mine and grow things here in the USA, then we’re doomed (how long have I been yammering on about making, mining and growing things, guys?). I’ve got a President who is clearly not afraid to use American military power to maximum effect, but is also chary of the blood of Americans and so shies away from foreign military actions (having a President who wants to win a fight is a rather new experience for me). I’ve got a President who doesn’t care about the opinions of pretentious, credentialed twits who not only can’t change a tire, but would be afraid to even try (ick! I’d get all dirty! Isn’t there a foreigner who can do that for me?). I’ve got a President who punches back when punched. For the first time in my life – not excluding Reagan – I actually think I’ve got a President who is looking out for me and mine.

Is he Conservative? I don’t really know. Also, don’t really care. He’s doing a lot of Conservative things, that’s for sure. Does he know what he’s doing? I’ve long suspected his political actions are built to a long held plan…but now I’m starting to think that this guy might have, for the last 40 years, thought over everything and realized that we needed some radical changes in policy, or we’re doomed. One thing I know for certain, kicking him out and putting the same idiots who have presided over the destruction of our civilization is out of the question. Trump might lose, in the end, but he won’t lose because I helped beat him…nor because I failed to support him. I’m feeling very confident about our future for the first time in a long while…and unlike back in the Reagan years, I’ve no worries about what comes after this President. Pence certainly spent his life as GOPe to the bone, but he seems to really understand what Trump is about and I’m sure that if we can get Trump two terms, his successor will just do more Trump (although more politely that Trump).

Trump stands for the Mom and Dad doing their best. He stands for the sergeant and battalion commander trying to keep readiness at a high level. He stands for the farmer growing his crops. He stands for the plumbing contractor with a payroll to meet. He doesn’t stand for the tenured radical on campus. He doesn’t stand for the CEO trying to squeeze an extra percent of profit out of moving the factory to Mexico. He doesn’t stand for layabouts manning our bureaucracy. And, yep, he doesn’t stand for the Bow Tied Conservatives who talk about low taxes and tut tut about societal decay but do nothing about it. We’ll do more for rebuilding social cohesion by having a booming, Make/Mine/Grow economy allowing a parent to stay home and raise the kids than we’ll do with 10,000 more Conservative Think Tank pieces on the decline of the family unit. If Trump is this out of control moron that our Conservative Betters claim he is, then I’m in favor of idiocy…at least this idiot is actually doing some good things. But, the truth is that Trump is proving the smarter man…and, I think, proving the more morally sound man. After all, in the grand scheme of things, who has done the more immoral thing: they guy who slept with a stripper, or the guy who justified the destruction of morality? No wise person hates a sinner because all wise people know they are sinners, too. But what must be hated – despised, loathed and driven out of the public square – is those who say that the sin isn’t a sin. According to Scripture, the righteous man falls seven times a day, and most of us ain’t righteous. But it is one thing to sin and repent (even on an endless loop of sin/repent), and quite another to sin and then say, “my sin was a good thing”. The former is human and trying, the latter is an inch away from demonic. That the demon has a Harvard degree and is impeccably well mannered doesn’t help things…nor does it detract from the normal repentant sinner that he’s an uncultured clod.

And what kind of a moron do you have to be to think that a people, awash in sin, can survive? If we’re laying around on welfare, engaging in promiscuity and then congratulating ourselves for our sloth and lust, what are we going to get? Clean cities and a strong economy? Uh, guys, I don’t think it’ll work out that way. In fact, we know it doesn’t – we’ve got feces rolling through the streets of San Francisco. We’re worried about filth borne disease in the United States, guys. You know, as we allow people to come in illegally and also allow poor bodies who need mental healthcare to just wallow on the edges of our cities in unsanitary, ad-hoc camps. How do you think things will be in 20 years, if we don’t change?

So, here I am – standing athwart stupidity, yelling “stop”. Well, not exactly: when you yell “stop” at a stupid person, it usually makes them double down. But what I am doing is making sure that I’m expending my efforts in preventing a return to Rule by Stupid. If that means I have to keep electing Trump and people like him, I’m ok with that. I’ll take the odd Playmate in the background if I also get the policies which allow me to live free…and gives me a chance to help restore a bit of sanity to our society.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan18 Comments

Lot of people seem to think we’re supposed to respect Mueller because he had an excellent record in Vietnam. I don’t buy that – history is littered with fine junior officers who wound up lousy generals, or lousy political leaders. People are what they do – and no past action either permanently lifts up or casts down a person.

Legal Insurrection is saying that Mueller should put up or shut up: his probe, run through our political system, is tearing this nation apart. If he’s got the goods on Trump, let’s hear what they are. If he doesn’t, he should say so. And none of this “ongoing investigation” BS. Tell us, one way or the other.

South Africa is moving down the Zimbabwe route – now with a proposal to expropriate white-owned land without compensation. This will do nothing for South Africa’s poor – who, for the most part, don’t know how to farm. It will inflame racial tensions and give an excuse for the Ruling Class to remain in power. I’ve read lots of things about South Africa of late and none of it is good: but those thinking that the world will lift a finger to help white South Africans are fooling themselves. Now is the time to get out of South Africa, if you can. Flee. Run away. Go somewhere else. Today. It’ll only get worse from here. I do have sympathy, but it was also rather baked in that it would come out this way: there was no way the post-Apartheid government was going to provide the sort of wealth black South Africans thought they’d have if only Apartheid came to an end. Hopes were raised and are now completely dashed…and the ANC does not propose to surrender power simply because they didn’t deliver on their promises.

We all figured that Never Trump, beyond a certain point, would become Democrats – and we were right:

…according to speculation reported by POLITICO, former McCain 2008 chief strategist Steve Schmidt may go one step further: He’s reportedly thinking about signing up with a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, possibly former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

The good news is he’d likely do as well for Schultz as he did for McCain.

Good riddance.

I don’t have too many Progressive followers on Twitter. No more than a handful as a matter of fact. Twitter is very tribal: for the most part, no one wants to listen to the other side on that platform. But there is one I do have and I admire the guy (or gal; can’t tell if the account holder if male or female): I think him wrong, but he is sincere in arguing for what he thinks is right and he’s honest and never gets nasty. I think he follows me for the same reason. Over the years we’ve had some fun discussions…but lately, we’ve both been sliding towards being angry at the same people. Or, at least, the same sort of people. You know: I despise Never Trumpers…this guy despises Neo-Liberals (as he calls them). In this, we’re both despising unprincipled people who merely latch on to a political party to serve their own, selfish ends. And what I’m thinking of late: just how large is a potential coalition of all people who despise the Establishment? And can Trump (and, believe it or not, McConnell) tap into this and create a FDR-size constituency to win the 2020 election in the manner that FDR won the 1936 election? Time will tell.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

President Trump went on a bit of a Twitter storm about Mueller:

There is No Collusion! The Robert Mueller Rigged Witch Hunt, headed now by 17 (increased from 13, including an Obama White House lawyer) Angry Democrats, was started by a fraudulent Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. Therefore, the Witch Hunt is an illegal Scam!

What do you guys think? Is he getting closer to firing Mueller? Some people think so – I have long argued he should, but its been so long I’m wondering if he ever will? Others theorize that Trump, Sessions, et al have their own plan to take care of this plus a great deal of other things right before the mid-terms. I guess anyone’s guess is as good as any other – but one thing I’ve noticed that in the really crucial policy moves of the Trump Administration, there are no leaks. Probably, if there is something cooking, no more than Trump and six or seven of his closest people know what it is.

Justice Ginsburg says she wants to stick around at least five more years…which is nice, but if she wants to make sure Trump doesn’t replace her, she’ll have to hang around until 2025, in my view. And even then she might find President Pence or President Haley offering up her replacement.

Powerline notes that Iran is up against the wall right now – thanks to Trump’s policies. One thing seems to be a constant under Trump: our friends do better, our enemies do worse.

Some Republicans are trying to slip through a bit of Chamber of Commerce-approved semi-amnesty garbage, apparently thinking that Trump will shy away from a budget fight less than 100 days from the midterms. This turns out to have been an incorrect assessment:

I would be willing to “shut down” government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!

Remember, Republicans have been gun-shy on government shutdown since the shutdowns in the mid-90’s which…did absolutely nothing to harm the GOP. And who can forget the government shutdown in 2013 which led, just the following year,…to the best GOP mid-term since the 1920’s? Seriously, I don’t get why the GOP thinks a shutdown is a bad thing. It never adversely affects the GOP and it often clarifies issues. And with Trump in the White House, you can rely on it that any shutdown will be crafted to discomfit the American people as little as possible. Immigration reform with strong border security is popular overall, and especially popular with the GOP base which needs to turn out in November to save the House. A shutdown over the issue will merely fire up the voters we need…so, do it, unless the Dems cave on border security (if they were smart, they would cave, as that would make a lot of GOP voters relax, and thus be less likely to show up in November).

Austin, Texas, is thinking of re-naming itself because Stephen Austin owned slaves. As part of the plan to ensure we keep re-electing Trump President, forever, this is great…but outside of that, it is idiocy. Austin was a man of his times – a Southerner who grew up with slavery as an established thing who also had his doubts about it as the concept of slavery as an evil was gaining currency in the Western World. That he was wrong to hold slaves – and in seeing to it that slavery remained legal in Texas – is a sin he cannot escape…but the bottom line is that he helped lay the foundations for Texas’ liberty which ultimately benefited all Texans. To expunge his name won’t change the past.

I’m sure you guys have heard of the straw ban. Absolute Progressive idiocy. Heard it is based upon the conclusions of a middle school kid’s science project. Wouldn’t surprise me if that were true. Paper straws will now make a comeback. Here’s the thing, for those of old enough to remember: we switched from paper to plastic in the 1970’s to save the trees. Now, we’re going to slaughter trees again…the circle is complete!

Open Thread

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Max Boot goes full liberal – the MSM still describes him as a Conservative, but that is only so they can say, “see, there are Conservative critics of Trump”. The reality is that if you are a “Conservative” critic of Trump at this point, you’re consciously working for liberal victory. As I’ve said before, one can reasonably take exception to various Trump policies and actions…but where the rubber hits the road, we don’t need “Conservative” critics of Trump right now. Trump has plenty of non-Conservative critics and they’ll make sure every move he makes is loudly criticized. If one can’t say something nice about Trump, then just shut up and say something bad about liberals…you don’t have to be a Trump cheerleader, but at least get on the team and work for victory. The future beckons and, at most, you’ll have to deal with Trump for a little more than 6 years. After that, there are all sorts of great people that everyone right of center should be able to get behind without any qualms…but if you’re ripping on Trump, now, you won’t get to be part of that, later.

Lee University students demand that Vice President Pence not be invited to speak – thus providing yet another liberal in-kind donation to the Trump re-election effort of 2020.

If Manchin votes to confirm Kavanaugh, then he’s got a good shot at getting re-elected in November. This is good in that it pretty much guarantees that Kavanaugh will be confirmed…it is bad in that we’ll still have Manchin in the Senate. Glass half full…

Looks like Trump’s old lawyer Cohen may have taped some conversations between himself and Trump: they may be salacious in they might show Trump working on paying off some Playboy Playmate that he had a to-do with. My take on this was, initially, to Tweet out “I felt a great disturbance in the MAGA: as if 63,000,000 souls suddenly shrugged their shoulders and went about their business”. I don’t think our liberal friends realize how little we care that a billionaire may have had an affair with a Playmate. Yes, it is immoral. Yes: Trump should not have done that. Very much he should show true contrition for this (alleged) act. But, it is also none of my business and, at all events, it has no bearing on his actions as President, which are all I care about at the moment. It is also not illegal for billionaires to have sexual relations with Playmates; nor is it illegal to flash cash at them to keep quiet about it. My later take is: this is a gigantic violation of attorney-client privilege and Mueller and his troops are entirely out of control at this point. What possible connection could there be between Trump having sex in 2006 and Russian election meddling 10 years later?

This is for our Amazona:

I refer, here, to ending birthright citizenship.

The notion that simply being born within the geographical limits of the United States automatically confers U.S. citizenship is an absurdity — historically, constitutionally, philosophically and practically.

Constitutional scholar Edward Erler has shown that the entire case for birthright citizenship is based on a deliberate misreading of the 14th Amendment. The purpose of that amendment was to resolve the question of citizenship for newly freed slaves. Following the Civil War, some in the South insisted that states had the right to deny citizenship to freedmen. In support, they cited 1857’s disgraceful Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, which held that no black American could ever be a citizen of the United States.

A constitutional amendment was thus necessary to overturn Dred Scott and to define the precise meaning of American citizenship.

Liberals, naturally, went ballistic over this – and plenty of Never Trumpers tut-tutted about it. But however one wants to read the 14th Amendment, it is an absurdity to think that just because a kid is born on American soil he or she now has all the rights and privileges of an American citizen.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan37 Comments

The DNC/MSM/Never Trump combine went ballistic over the Trump/Putin presser. I didn’t watch it, but I did see it explode in real time over social media. We seriously had people calling for the overthrow of the United States government to “save” us from Putin’s stooge, Trump. Plenty of people on the right – almost all Never Trump, but a few weak kneed others, as well – joined in. Given that this happened in conjunction with the discovery and an alleged Russia-NRA (yes, you read that right) connection to undermine America starting in 2015, it was all clearly scripted to be part of battle space prep for November. Do lay that to heart: everything that will show up in the news relating to politics from now until November will be battle space prep.

The more mundane reality is that Trump has Putin over a barrel and Putin knows it – so, it is time to make nice with the USA until we return an idiot like Obama to power. We’ve checkmated Putin in Syria and in the rest of the Middle East; our increasing oil production is putting a huge strain on the Russian economy; beefing up military forces in Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe means there are no more easy pickings for Putin; our calls for NATO to re-arm may create a long period of time when Russia has to behave. Trump, also no fool, knows that while Russia can’t wreck us, they can cause plenty of trouble, and if that trouble can be avoided by making a bit of nice with Putin, no worries.

In 2017, the nation which reduced its carbon emission the most was the United States…which shows that the Paris treaty and all other climate treaties are hot garbage.

Lisa Page testified again on Monday (another reason for the Dems, etc, to have a meltdown over Russia) and was apparently cooperative. I don’t know, of course, but I think she’s flipped on the Deep State.

Meathead made a movie about the Iraq war called Shock and Awe. It opened this past weekend. You didn’t go see it. Hardly anyone did. It grossed $41,000.00 (yes, forty one thousand dollars). Get woke, go broke is becoming a common thing…but more certain is it that if you tangle with Trump, you will lose…mostly because you first have to go insane before you tangle with Trump.