Gaza

We are Betrayed

Mark Noonan50 Comments

The savages on the loose in DC yesterday completely outraged me. I didn’t see any US flags; maybe there was one or two, but they clearly weren’t prominent. The participants in that riot – with its desecration of American icons – are not my compatriots. I don’t care what their citizenship status is, they are not Americans. They are not part of me. They are alien invaders.

It wasn’t just here, of course, in many Western cities these packs of lunatic foreigners were causing trouble…in London with the Brit cops telling British veterans not to wave their Union Jacks as that might incite the Islamist hordes to violence. And you think about that and then it hits you: DC since January 6th has been an armed camp in case MAGA shows back up! But last night they were climbing the White House fence and nobody was trying to push them back. If you and I did that we’d be sitting in jail right now, if not in a morgue. This means that the barbarians are considered a protected class by the Rulers of the West.

No surprise; they’ve been abetting their arrival in our countries for decades now. As a mutual on X put it: 20 years after 9/11 the Taliban rules in Afghanistan and Islamists riot in our streets. We lost. And the loss was built in. Thinking about the actual response to 9/11 one can’t escape the feeling that all we were doing was making it look like we were doing something. Thousands of American lives expended in battle, trillions of dollars down the toilet, God knows how many foreigners killed…and all for nothing. Well, nothing for us: what the Ruling Class got was apparently what it wanted: all of us simply tired of fighting uselessly while they imported a huge contingent of our enemies to make sure we couldn’t fight effectively in the future. Oh, and lots and lots of Islamist oil money! Don’t think our guys didn’t get paid!

And that is why they are so desperate to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire; Israel must lose this fight. You see, if Israel does crush Hamas and secure its own safety via a military campaign then it completely exposes our Ruling Class. It lets everyone know that the only reason we didn’t crush the Islamists is because our Rulers chose not to…and that’s when the money will become acutely embarrassing. Where it will be obvious that in return for Islamo-Bucks are Ruling Class crafted a Narrative that as Islam is the Religion of Peace we can’t press too hard and must come to an accommodation with them…or the Muslims will get mad at us. Well, last night showed they are mad at us – and its not over any thing we’ve done. Or Israel has done. Its just us they hate; and like all people consumed with hatred, they simply lie to justify it. They’re claiming Israeli war crimes (naturally) but they’re also claiming that Hamas didn’t do anything (they are seriously saying that most of the Israeli dead on 10/7 were killed by the IDF). It doesn’t matter: they hate and so they lie. They lie in the face of obvious facts.

So, you ask, if they don’t really hate us for anything we’ve done, then why do they hate us? That is simple: Islam holds itself to be a Master Race. Not based on genetics as the Nazis had it, but based on adherence to Islam. But the basic thrust is still the same: a Race chosen (in this case by God rather than Nature) to rule over the entire world. To lord it over the untermenschen. They are the source of all that is good; they have a right to rule.

So, why don’t they? Because of the Jews. And the Americans, who are controlled by the Jews. There is a reason The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf are perennial bestsellers in the Muslim world: it answers their question. Namely, after God gave overlordship to the Muslims and they went on a glorious run of conquest giving them wealth undreamed…they are in the modern era impoverished and backwards. How could this have happened? Hitler provided the answer: the Jews! They undermined Islam from within! Corrupted Muslim youth! They conspire daily to break the Muslim world…they are, therefor, the enemies of God! And just add “American” in there, too; we are pretty much indistinguishable in Muslim eyes from the Jews.

This is how they justify celebrating the rape and murder of Israeli teens at a concert: it was their right to rape and murder those girls. The girls weren’t Muslim; they weren’t performing their proper role as slaves and as they were out in public unescorted by their father or brother, they were whores asking to be raped. To them, this was just the Master punishing the disobedient servant. And make no mistake about it, in Arabic they do explicitly celebrate it. For the West, in English, they downplay or deny it…but amongst themselves it is a feather in the cap! And they can do this because they know that the MSM – which also gets lots of Islamist oil bucks – simply will not translate the Arabic into English for a Western audience. The western MSM is already engaged in telling the West that “from the river to the sea” is merely an aspiration for freedom and is not a call to massacre every Jew in Israel. But if you check directly with the Muslims, in Arabic, they say that is what it means.

What does this mean for us? It means we have to win. We haven’t been engaged in a clash of civilizations, but they have. They always have. Ever since the first ragged groups of Muslim raiders emerged from Arabia in the 7th century the Islamic world has been engaged in a clash of civilizations. The difference was that we, once upon a time, recognized it as such. Now we pretend it isn’t happening…mostly because our Ruling Class despises our civilization; they are, in the end, sure they can remain the same rich, amoral pigs under Islam as they are under our civilization. And they aren’t wrong to think that: they, after all, meet the leading lights of the Muslim world in the guarded resorts where poor boys and girls are abused. The Duke of Blunderwood won’t bat an eye at becoming the Pasha of Al-Blunderwood. Nor will any multibillionaire make much of a fuss at changing his name to a Muslim one. To the rich, a simple religion which makes no real demands on them is best, after all.

But as you and I don’t want that future, we’re going to have to win this war. To do this, our first step is to clear the rot out of our own system. That is, get rid of the Ruling Class which is abetting the enemy. Once they’re gone, we can make clear to Islam that we do have the courage to defend what is ours. We can even become, if not friends, then enemies who deeply respect each other. As Chesterton pointed out, it was very possible for the most ardent Crusader to respect his Muslim opponent, and vice versa, then it is for the modern Ruling Class to respect anyone or anything. Do keep that in mind: I don’t hate Islam. I oppose it. My model for our relationship is Richard the Lionheart vs Saladin. Fight if we must, and vigorously, but always with a respect. But we can’t get to that until we fix ourselves.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan22 Comments

There’s video out there showing Border Patrol agents using a forklift to raise up the barbed wire Texas placed along the border so that illegals can steam in. Need to really understand all that is happening here.

All law enforcement officers take an oath to uphold the law. All persons in the military and law enforcement are instructed in their duty to disobey illegal orders. It is against the law to illegally enter the USA – even if you’re an asylum-seeker, you’re still supposed to present yourself at a legal border crossing and make your case. There is never any justification for anyone to cross the US border outside of legal border crossings. What the Border Patrol – the agency tasked with defending the border! – is doing is abetting illegal activity. They are breaking the law. Now, they’ll just say they are obeying orders…and you know they are! But that is irrelevant: since WWII “I was just obeying orders” is no defense; nobody is supposed to obey an illegal order. Not under any circumstance.

Understand that our law enforcement agencies will break the law and will obey any order given. While some county Sheriff’s departments might be on our side (especially in deep red areas), I wouldn’t bet a nickle that a city or State (let alone federal) police agency will protect my rights. They are not, at the moment, going out of their way to oppress but they are definitely willing to obey any order to oppress. One thing we need to do is completely revamp how policing is done in the United States. It needs to be very local and very much under the control of the people.

The Biden people are in a funk – they are trying to thread the needle between supporting Israel and pleasing their increasingly anti-Semitic base and it just isn’t working. My perception now is that they’ve decided to lean towards the Islamist side: just more votes and money in it (nations like Qatar provide buckets of money to any institution willing to parrot the Islamist line…if you’re really wondering how America’s prestige universities became anti-Semitic sewers, there ya go). Just as Israel is set to encircle Gaza City, itself, and thus contain (and eventually destroy) the prime area of Hamas power, Pudding Brain’s people are out there saying we need a “humanitarian pause”…you know, a breather for Hamas and more time for Iran and Hezbollah to deploy forces which can strike Israel. Yes, it really is disgusting…but when your internal polls are showing you down in Michigan and that promised “consulting” job paid for by Qatari money is being pulled, you do what you gotta do.

And that anti-Semitism is getting more vile and open, isn’t it?

To be fair, it isn’t all on the Left; there are plenty of Right voices also joining in on it, on the absurd notion that “America First” is undermined by the Jews. These idiots just need to remember – if they know anything at all – that most Russian Jews weren’t Bolsheviks even if a lot of Bolsheviks were Jews (as one Russian Jewish leader put it: “the Trotsky’s make the headlines but the Bronstein’s pay the bills”). Yes, there are Jews in the Globalist groups undermining all Western nations. There are also Protestants and Catholics. For the Globalists whatever ethnic or religious status they might have is secondary to their Globalist ideology. Meaning: that they are Jewish or Catholic or Protestant is entirely secondary. Their nature is Globalist first and foremost. In the end, probably better these vile people revealed themselves to us – we can ditch them and move on; they only make up a very small proportion of the Right.

On the Left, though, it is becoming endemic. To keep your Leftists bona-fides these days you pretty much have to offer support for Hamas; you have to, in one way or another, approve of 10/7. Anyone who doesn’t is a racist, sexist, homophobic, settler colonialist bastard. This is why we get people calling for a ceasefire: it is the easiest way to support Hamas without overtly stating support for Hamas. To the casual observer, calling for a ceasefire seems like a good thing and not in Hamas’ favor; but, of course, it is. It is, in fact, the one thing that can save them now. It is, in the end, a call for a repeat of 10/7 at a later date. And anyone who thinks for a moment or two realizes this…including all those Leftists in the USA who are calling for a ceasefire. They know what they are doing: and they are doing it to maintain their Leftist membership.

They do have a problem, though: most Americans – and at least a plurality of Democrats – don’t like anti-Semitism and broadly support Israel’s right to self defense. This is going to make it hard for Democrats, even with the MSM working overtime to hide the Leftist anti-Semitism.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan33 Comments

Saw on Facebook that our Matt Margolis recently lost his mother; prayers for the family are greatly appreciated.

I think I can see what the Israeli’s are up to. They do not, apparently, want to conquer and occupy Gaza. This is understandable: trying to control and take care of two million hostile people is a tall order for even a Great Power…a small power like Israel probably feels it is just too much to attempt. So, what they are doing is trying destroy Hamas’ Gaza infrastructure while killing as many Hamas members as they can – especially senior leadership. It is a play to knock back Hamas’ physical capability as well as a harsh lesson to any surviving and successor Hamas leadership that doing 10/7 means you die.

This is just guess on my part; the IDF doesn’t check with me. But it looks like this from the outside.

I don’t think this will work.

Hamas isn’t the particular problem, no more than the Nazis were in Germany – the problem is that the population of Gaza by and large has faith in Hamas’ promise, just as Germans had faith in Nazism, even if they weren’t overtly committed to the party. Even at the end, in January of 1945, most Germans still felt that Nazism was good and that Hitler would pull it off for them. It was only the spasm of violence March to May 1945 which burned out the Nazi cancer…which made it impossible for the Germans to continue to believe in Nazism. The revelation of Nazi crimes post-war wasn’t the catalyst; the Germans already knew about them before the war ended. It was Russians massacring Germans by the bushel, the French letting their Algerian troops do whatever the heck they wanted, Anglo-American soldiers giving Germans five minutes to clear out of the undamaged buildings…that is what showed the Germans they had lost, that the Nazis had lied.

There were, after all, plenty of Nazis left in Germany after the war ended. Committed, believing Nazis…and not all of them set for the gallows or a term in prison. Paul Hausser was a Waffen-SS general who went about post-war white-washing the Waffen-SS. Felix Steiner was another believing Nazi general who really wasn’t punished at all post-war; he also participated in pro-Nazi post-war activities. But while the long-term effect of their efforts has led to some absurd modern beliefs about the Nazis (most pro-Nazi organizations these days take their cues from the BS people like Hausser put out post-war, including Holocaust denial open or covert) it never recaptured the imagination of the German people…because that post-war generation knew what happens when you follow the Nazis into war. The problem with the Israeli plan – if I’ve got it right – is that it will still leave Hamas as a credible standard. No matter how many of the leadership are killed, some number of them will survive and raise the flag again…and if the people of Gaza don’t feel the war on their flesh, they’ll still believe…and just hope for a better outcome in a future round.

Of course, Israel might feel they have no other choice; as I said, holding down two million people takes a lot of effort…the process of utter humiliation which would get them to reject Hamas – and all Islamist ideologies – is time consuming and dangerous. It might be something that the Israeli body politic just couldn’t sustain. Right now, Israelis are flint; the more they hear about just what Hamas did, the more grimly determined they are upon retribution. But there’s a point where anger does start to fade and its usually when your own boys and girls are dying for limited gains. And I might be wrong; they might just be prepping the ground for a general assault and occupation.

What has been of interest for Americans has been the number of Progressive Jews – by far the large majority of the American Jewish population – is how vicious their supposed Progressive allies are. I did make the rather cold observation that for Progressive Jews, the American Left was fine as long as the targets were straight, white Christians. Progressive Jews do bear a lot of animosity towards that class of people – but none of it really justified. Whatever white Christians did to Jews in America, its many decades past. The Jews should be long past any feeling of fear or insult. But, they kept it up…only to discover, very late, that the only Americans they can rely on are Jesus-freak gun-nut rednecks. I doubt we’ll see a quick shift in Jewish voting patterns, but this is going to be part of the breakup of the Left coalition. We’re already seeing erosion among Latino and Asian communities, tiny bits of movement in the African-American communities and now we’ll almost certainly see it among Jews.

The bottom line is that the American Left is entirely dominated by a pagan (in practical terms…but lots of them are still in mainline Protestant denominations), white, upper class of ignorant holders of college degrees. Our Credentialed Incompetents. As they are without any concept of God, they are de-facto evil; they are cruel, greedy, and narcissistic. They are out there right now – or their college-aged spawn – shouting various “death to the Jews” slogans…which are just variations on “Black Lives Matter”, “No Justice, No Peace”, “Antifa”, “ACAB” and so forth. I rather cruelly asked a couple Progressive Jews just what they thought “America is systemically racist” meant when they vapidly nodded along with it? If America is racist then Americans are racist…and just what do you do with racists? You kill them. FFS, none of this is at all surprising. Except to people at the top of the social and economic order, because getting to the top these days requires the cultivation of stupidity.

We won’t ever get a majority of Jews on our side (for most Jews, being Progressive is far more important to their identity than being Jewish; so, too, for Progressive Christians). Just as we’ll never get a majority of Asians, Blacks and Latinos. But if we can just eat into the Democrat numbers here – I’m talking just 10 point shifts, which still works out to Democrats dominating these demographics – then it is all over for the Democrats. That’s why Pudding Brain’s people have been making pro-Israel noises, as have some other Democrat office-holders. I do give a tiny bit of credit where credit is due here…but make no mistake about it, those Democrats making pro-Israel statements are merely trying to ride the tiger. Most of their base – the purple-haired pronouners – are viciously anti-Semitic. But just enough of the base remains pro-Israel that the Democrat leadership needs to keep them on side. They’re trying to thread the needle…to just hold it together until 2024 is over.

I don’t think they’ll be able to…not for lack of effort, but because their base is so stupid and ignorant they simply won’t play ball. The Democrats will crack up; hopefully just in time for 2024.

The Gaza War

Mark Noonan49 Comments

Some hours ago word got out that Israel had commenced ground operations into northern Gaza. I doubt this is the real start of it; they are probably just going for position and also testing Hamas’ resolve: just how much fight is there in them. There might not be as much as people think: Arabs have never made great soldiers. They are good at irregular operations and taking advantage of an opponent’s weaknesses or mistakes, but in the main their tactical ability and willingness to stand and fight have been limited ever since they emerged from the deserts of Arabia. How long will Hamas fighters stand in the rubble when death stares them in the face? We’re going to find out; but my bet is a lot of the tunnels Hamas has dug are for escape…a way out once the IDF appears. To completely defeat them, the IDF will have to corner them in places where they have no choice but to stand and be destroyed, or surrender.

However it goes, this will be an extended process and Israel will take her losses; if even some of Hamas stands and fights then digging such people out of rubble has always been a difficult process. But it can be done; we lost a lot on Iwo Jima where the Japanese were splendidly dug in but in the end our Marines killed the Japanese at a 3:1 ratio…which is a reversal of normal offensive losses against dug in opponents. You just have to be good and apply firepower liberally.

Immediately upon the news getting out, the Left sprang into action to try to save Hamas – calls for a ceasefire and the usual drivel about an Israeli genocide in Gaza filled social media. This is simply vile but it is also in the nature of things. Make no mistake about it: many people admire what Hamas did on October 7th. And I’m not just talking Muslim Jihadists; plenty on the secular Left in the West clearly feel that the Hamas attackers were he-men, doing what the pathetic, sniveling Western Left only dreams about doing. They are now rising to defend Hamas because Hamas are their heroes. They look forward to stopping the IDF so their guys can do it again.

But in a larger sense, the whole West is really responsible for this state of affairs. I’ve talked many times about the French war in Algeria in the 1950’s and the longer I think about it, the more watershed that conflict becomes. The harbinger of the modern world. While the West flattered itself that post-WWII it had created a rules-based global order where social democracy under their guidance would rule the world, what was really happening was a revival of savagery not seen since the Vandals of the 5th century or Tamerlane’s hordes in the 14th. And it all really started in Algeria.

Sure, there were signs and portents before this – and Hitler’s whole program was based on a belief that savagery would beat civilized weaklings. This was wrong, as he found out just before that bullet ripped through his skull: savagery works against weaklings, civilized or not. It doesn’t work against the brave…and so Easy Company drank Goering’s booze on Hitler’s patio. Hitler had misjudged the time; had he held fire until a decade later, he might have pulled it off. But, then again, it took Hitler and his war to bring about the triumph of the cowards in the West.

Oh, they were there before WWII! Various writers and artists, civil servants and educators; especially in England and France. Basically ridiculing the notions of patriotism and bravery. Mostly, of course, because they were neither patriotic nor brave and so to get the world where their like were on top, they had to play their part in tearing down the old order. And they did – and by the post-WWII world, they were the people in charge of passing out degrees and awarding prizes; and they naturally rewarded their like – who between 1945 and 1965 wormed their way deeply into all institutions. Most of them were to one degree or another Marxists just as most of them were … well, lets just say non-traditional in their sexual attitudes.

It was these people, ensconced in editorial offices, college administrations, entertainment, departments of government, who essentially sabotaged any fight against barbarism. And after WWII they became dominant because it appeared that their class had slain the Nazi beast. It hadn’t; it was a lot of average Joe’s and Jane’s throughout the world who had saved the Ruling Class’ bacon after they nearly handed the world to Hitler. But on VJ day, it looked like the pinheads had done it, and so they carried into the post-war world a sense that they knew what they were doing and it was good. They did, at least in part, know what they were doing – but it wasn’t what was advertised and it was all bad.

Here’s how it would go, time and time again: savages attack. Civilized soldiers respond. The leaders of the Ruling Class pitch a fit about the civilized response. On and on like that. Never, of course, giving more than a passing mention of the savagery except to justify it on their way to tearing apart those trying to stop it. And, in my view, it really got rolling in Algeria.

No matter what complaints some Algerians had about the French – and there were significant complaints to be made – the FLN used absolute barbarism as their primary method of warfare. While at times they would try an attack on a French military target, most of the time what they were doing was going after civilians. French and Algerian. The French for obvious reasons, the Algerians because many of them wanted nothing to do with the FLN. Algerian rebels set bombs in stores; tortured people to death; raped; mutilated. Nothing France had ever done remotely justified such savagery – but the FLN made the bet that they could do this and provoke a French response which would eventually get the upper reaches of French society to give in. In this they were completely correct. As the French army set about the FLN they had to do some quite brutal things of their own (but never as brutal as the FLN did). That was the nature of the fight; that is what the FLN wanted. And they only way to defeat them was to quite ruthlessly go after the enemy.

And here’s the kicker: it worked. The French army won the war. The FLN had alienated a large segment of the native Algerian population (more Algerians served in the French military – by far – than ever served in the FLN) while the French army had pushed them deep into the margins of Algeria, there to be eventually hunted and exterminated. But while the French army was doing this, back home the voices of the cowardly started to dominate. How could we? Aren’t we better than this? Can’t we negotiate? On and on like that – until, politically, the fight could no longer be sustained and France teetered on the brink of Civil War. By the time France called in De Gaulle to rescue the State he saw as his only option to scuttle the French effort in Algeria. And so it was done: the whole country was turned over to the savages…who went on a rampage against anyone in Algeria who hadn’t supported them while a couple million people fled to France.

And that was the lesson the world learned; more importantly, what the savages learned. The more brutal and cruel you are, the more the leaders of the West will justify your actions and undercut their own efforts to fight you. Its all just been a progression from that. And even now, faced with what happened 10/7 (it really was quite horrific) we’re still holding back. Our government is urging restraint. Other Western governments are calling for a ceasefire which would hand outright victory to Hamas. Even the Israelis are going as gentle as they can…perhaps too gentle. We’ll know in a few days if that is the case.

For heaven’s sake: they raped women to death and cut off the heads of babies! If this doesn’t call forth the West’s manhood, what will? It isn’t a matter of becoming cruel like them – we are not beasts – but of becoming quite ruthless about getting after them. We know that civilians are going to die. The enemy wants that. It is just part of their plan: they don’t care about human life. The children of Gaza are just a prop in a morality play to them. The more of them killed, the better. Getting at the enemy will mean going through those the enemy places in front. It is sad. It is terrible. It must be done. And no man should tremble at it: once it is done, there won’t be anyone around who will either cut off an Israeli baby’s head, or use a Palestinian baby as a shield. It is good for the babies of both people that the enemy is utterly destroyed. That is what should be on our minds.

This might well be our last stand; our last chance to stand firm against barbarism, and maybe one day even start pushing it back. I hope the IDF gets the job done, as distasteful as I know it will be for them. You can bet that if I were a 20 year old Israeli the last thing I’d want to do is comb through the rubble of Gaza looking for psychotic killers. But I hope that if I were a 20 year old Israeli, I’d have the courage to do what is necessary…and I hope we here in the USA rediscover that courage.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

The same government which is sending grandma to jail for 5 years over J6 says they lack the ability to arrest all known gangsters and seal the border. Bluntly: your government approves of criminality. It is probably bribed by the gangs.

Think about it – they know who the gangsters are. They know where the gangsters live. It is almost an existential certainty that any gang member, if he’s not already wanted on a warrant, has evidence on or around him proving criminal activity. We could, like El Salvador, sweep these people up. Sure, we’re a much larger nation with many more people…but you gotta know we can get 90% of them if we picked a day and then just did it. But we don’t. And if we ask, we’re given 10,000 excuses.

And, sure, defense lawyers would be all over such an action. But, why? Because they would be paid to be all over them. Meanwhile, the government can RICO all your assets away from you without trial…but we somehow can’t confiscate the gang money which would be used to pay for gang lawyers. And the same appellate system which is refusing to help out the J6 defendants would be releasing gangsters on ridiculous technicalities in a heartbeat. We are crime-ridden because at least enough of our government is well paid to make it so.

Now, think of all the people coming across – especially those caught and released. The government knows precisely how many of them have terrorist affiliations…and yet they are allowed to come in.

I bring this up because it is why Israel suffered 10/7. The Israeli government knew that Hamas was raising up a generation of psychotic killers and training them in methods of massacre. It was an open secret that “aid” shipments to Gaza were stuffed to the gills with military material. That Hamas had entire manufacturing facilities for rockets and other weapons of war. While I am confident they just totally missed this attack, the fact that there was going to be a major attack simply could not have been missed. But the Israeli government – like our government and all Western governments – isn’t paid to protect the people. There’s no upside for expending that effort and taking that political risk. Israel has been engaged in an absurd fight over whether or not judges should have some control outside the judiciary…which is obviously something needed but they went and had a fight about it while Hamas put the final touches on massacre.

The only reason we don’t have an endless series of these attacks is not lack of power and opportunity, but simple gumption. Hamas did what all terrorist groups want but heretofore have simply lacked the will to carry out. That will now exists. No matter what Israel does to Gaza, the maestros of massacre now see what can be done and how overall weak the response is. Israel is allowing aid into Gaza; they are feeding their enemies. They are still providing advance warnings of attacks. It was a good joke for the IDF to respond to UN complains of lack of fuel in Gaza to point out (with pictures) that Hamas has a huge fuel storage facility. But why hasn’t it been blown up? And at least Israel is fighting back! With a couple score Americans confirmed dead and maybe a dozen held captive, we’re still urging restraint and talking up a two-State solution at the UN. European governments are even more craven.

I think we might be in for a bad time.

We at least have a new Speaker and to the shock of everyone, he’s not an Establishment creature. Mike Johnson is mostly an unknown quantity but he’s been a Trump supporter in the past and seems pretty America-first; he’s been given a grade of F by something called “Republicans for Ukraine”. When Gaetz threw his hand-grenade I think we all expected some sort of disaster…but in the end, the guy we got seems to be loved by MAGA and at least respected by RINO. We could have some good things. One of the things he’s promised – and he’ll be under MASSIVE pressure to break this promise – is no more Continuing Resolutions. Budgeting will be done via the budget process with each agency budget getting its up or down vote. This might seem small but it is crucial…it brings accountability and control. It makes the agencies justify their budgets. It means a lot of Leftwing wish-list stuff will end up on the cutting room floor.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan84 Comments

Still no major movement into Gaza and now we’re providing aid for Hamas. But don’t worry, Pudding Brain’s people say that if Hamas tries to steal the aid, they’ll condemn it. This is not looking good.

On the other hand, the IDF is still talking victory – that they will totally destroy Hamas in Gaza. Can’t see how they do that while allowing us to feed Hamas…but I can only assume they at least think they’ve got a plan that’ll work. We’re going to find out.

Pudding Brain went to Israel and it was just so entirely humiliating…this aged, senile crook out there to provide cover for aids who are desperately trying to get Israel to surrender to Hamas. We are a very pathetic nation right now. The pissant King of Jordan refused to even meet with Biden. I’m sure the Israelis didn’t want to…but as he’s the guy signing the checks, they had to put up with it. While Israel has built a robust domestic arms industry, there are still come crucial elements which come from us so I guess Israel still feels over a barrel.

For future reference on Israel’s part, I’d buy about 100 Panzerhaubitze 2000 from the Krauts (given the past, the Germans would likely do an easy-payment deal); its a 155mm self propelled howitzer which has an effective range of 67 kilometers. This means, depending on where positioned on Israeli-controlled territory, it can hit anywhere in Gaza or the West bank and very deep into Lebanon and Jordan, as well. Get about a million rounds of ammo for it (the stuff keeps forever) and anytime anyone in range causes trouble, just level an area with cannon fire. 155 mm is very common and no matter what is going on, you’d be able to replenish ammunition from some source. One thing the IDF has always had a lack of is tube artillery; when fighting conventional forces, that isn’t much of a handicap but when confronting dug in irregular forces like Hamas, it is just what the doctor ordered.

The GOP still can’t come up with a Speaker. The battle is between those who want a MAGA purist and those who want a conventional GOPer who can be relied upon to fully fund Democrat priorities. To me the easy deal is to agree to the RINO with a proviso that any funding bill will, once it gets to the floor, be stripped down to its components for an up or down vote. For instance, Pudding Brain wants us to cobble together a bill for Ukraine, Israel and border security. Fine. But once it comes time for a vote, it is broken up into 3 separate bills. This doesn’t mean all of it fails…but it does mean there will have to be some real horse trading…like in return for Ukraine aid, we get, say, funding to Texas for building a border wall (if we give the money to Biden, his people either won’t spend it or will buy something ineffective). On and on like that.

This battle over the Speakership is causing all sorts of heartache…in government and the pundit class. Most Americans are probably only vaguely aware of it and don’t care one way or the other. This will not hurt GOP prospects for 2024 unless something really ridiculous happens, like some RINOs joining Democrats to make Jeffries Speaker. I really do discount this – though the rumor does abound. Any GOPer voting for such a thing has got to know the career ends with that vote. There will be a successful primary challenge.

Meanwhile, GOP prospects brighten by the day – some recent polling shows any of Trump, DeSantis or Haley beating Biden (keeping in mind that anything less than Biden +5 in the popular vote likely means a GOP victory). This is not because the GOP is any good – it isn’t, and we just about universally despise it, as a thing – but because Biden is just so very bad. There have been rumors of Democrats trying to ditch Biden but I don’t think it’ll happen. Though Obama and Clinton people are all over the Democrat establishment, they generally don’t like each other and getting them to agree to an alternative is going to be hard (especially as Clinton’s people would probably want Clinton to be the alternative); if they don’t come together, then the Biden people hold sway…and as they only survive in power as long as Joe does, they simply will not let it go. Unless Biden dies, he’s the guy. And there may come a point when the Democrat powers that be just let it alone – knowing that Joe is a goner. Trump if he gets back in is only for one term; if its DeSantis they figure they can still win Congress in 2026 and do to him in 2028 what they did to Trump in 2020.

As the Gaza war has gone on we’ve been treated to some MSM lies astonishing in their scope and, indeed, arrogance. Some people are pretending to be shocked about this. They also pretend to be shocked when the corruption of our government is revealed. Everyone knows. It isn’t a surprise. The MSM lies, it lies all the time and about everything. So, too, the government. But here’s why a lot of people pretend it is all shocking: they know what it means to admit that our government and media are just liars. It means we can’t allow either to go on as is.

I’ve been pointing out for a while that the First Amendment cannot sanely be construed to protect lying. That our Founders knew we would have liars does not mean they were trying to secure a right to lie. They were trying to secure a right to tell the truth – what we Catholics called rightly ordered freedom: The freedom to do what is right. While we all can do evil, we are not being free when we do so…we are, in fact, enslaving ourselves when we do wrong. What I’m saying is that we, the people, can enact laws punishing lies. We can make anyone who publicly utters a lie pay for it – in civil or criminal court, or both. And we are going to have to do this – because the MSM cannot at this point correct itself. It is, as it were, determined to lie at this point. In a sense, they’ve told so many lies that they are committed to lying. Not really, of course; anyone can repent. But in their minds to admit that they’ve been lying for years is too humiliating. So, they’ll just double and triple down on the lies. But we can’t have a Republic if liars are allow to lie with impunity…so we will have to stop them.

The other thing I’ve been yammering on about is the need to end government secrecy. It really does have to go, and in its entirety. Whatever tiny advantage we gain against foreign adversaries by having secrets is vastly outweighed by government’s ability to hide corruption and incompetence under a veil of secrecy. For us to have a Republic we must know what the government is doing as it does it. Only thus can we judge if our agencies of government are working in our interest. We must enact laws requiring the government to do everything out in the open. No secrets. Ever.

A Decisive Moment

Mark Noonan72 Comments

I’m not feeling all too positive about the Israeli-Gaza War; there seems to be a lack of willingness to press home an assault.

I do realize that it is a formidable thing; if Hamas does have 40,000 troops then the assault force will have to be in the range of 120,000. They’ll have to fight in a tightly packed area with plenty of opportunity for ambush and infiltration by the enemy. Hamas will be hiding behind women and children. In short, it would be bloody and perhaps the Israeli government is just unwilling to spend the blood? I can’t see an assault costing less than about 12,000 casualties; call it 4,000 dead and 8,000 wounded. That is a lot, especially given Israel’s small population.

That sort of shock to the Israeli body politic will be hard to absorb; can the Israeli government actually survive that kind of loss? Jews in general and Israelis in particular are very chary about spending blood. This probably stems from now-ancestral memory of the Holocaust. Israel’s Labor Party never fully recovered from the shock of the Yom Kippur War. It now holds just 4 seats in the Israeli Knesset after being dominant from 1948 to 1977. This will work into the calculation, sad as that is to say. And they’ll also worry that it won’t work; that Hamas dug in will be able to hang on and inflict sufficient casualties to get the Israelis to quit.

But I can’t see other than Israel has to do it. It will take some real steel in the veins to get it done, but it must be done. Hamas just proved it has no limits in its actions. If it survives, then it wins – recruits and money will flow in. Hamas is already developing advanced military capabilities. A little more time and it won’t be rockets fired into the blue but precision munitions with deep penetration capabilities hitting vital Israeli targets. They will, if they do expand, be able to attack on several fronts at once and other radical Islamist groups will want to get in on the action…raiding an Israeli village will become a requirement for any organization which wants to have credibility on the Arab street. In short, if Israel doesn’t go in it will be a catastrophic defeat. And a defeat which will place the long-term survival of Israel at risk. Iran will soon have a nuclear weapon…and against an Israel perceived as morally weak, they probably will use it. It might make surviving Israelis feel good to know that Tehran got nuked in the response, but Israel is tiny and just two or three hits to major population centers and the country is done for.

Pudding Brain is heading to Israel – almost certainly because his puppet masters want to pressure the Israelis to quit. It is a matter of conviction on the Left that the reason the Arabs hate Israel is because of the “occupation”. They simply will not admit that it is because of decades of propaganda that the Arabs hate Israel. That if the Arabs simply stopped, it would all be over almost instantly. But the Arabs can’t stop – not the leaders of the Islamist groups; their only claim to legitimacy is their promise to conquer Tel Aviv…if that goes away, they go away. So, they won’t stop. They have no reason to. And if they see Israel wimp out in the face of casualties, then they’ll know that victory beckons. But Biden’s people don’t see it that way – they’re sure if they get the Israelis to back off and can get aid into Gaza that they’ll eventually get Hamas to agree to Israel’s existence (after massive Israeli concessions, of course). I’m hoping that the Israelis just ignore him and rely on Congress to ensure that whatever aid is needed will still flow no matter how mad Biden’s people are.

The other thing bringing me down is the revelation of how many Americans are buying Hamas propaganda. Polling is good but we’ve clearly got at least 20-25% of the population so ignorant of history that they fault Israel for the war. They are out in the streets praising Hamas – that is praising people who just sent in death/rape squads. Don’t believe them when they deny the squads; they are out to cheer precisely that, but they’ve been coached to deny the reason for their joy because their masters know how bad that would look on TV.

For now.

This keeps up much longer and in a few years they’ll be quite open in their support for genocide. We’ve got a serious problem. It has moved me to reconsider just how we govern ourselves: we need to devise mechanisms to ensure that people who favor Nazi-like policies are not allowed a say. Not sure how we do it. The long term fix is to increasingly gain control of the education system and make sure drivel isn’t imparted…but meanwhile we’ve got a whole generation raised on drivel. How do we control them for th next fifty years?

Then next 72 hours or so will be decisive, I think. We’ll find out by then if Israel will move. God bless them and give them strength to endure.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan55 Comments

Someone wrote some years ago that how a person views Israel is shorthand for whether or not they’re decent. I don’t think this is 100% but the past few days have shows the overall truth of the statement. The huge divide right now is over Israel.

To be sure, most of the Left is firmly in Hamas’ camp though there have been a few big voices on the Left raised in support of Israel. It is on the Right where we’re finding some surprises with many big Right voices – including many self-identified as MAGA and/or Trumpster – basically swallowing Hamas’ propaganda; some to the point where they’ve gone to overt anti-Semitism. It is strange, but also explicable.

The first thing to consider is that the conspiracy theory side of things remains mostly ridiculous – but with bizarre and disgusting things such as the failure to release the Epstein client list and the continual revelations of well-placed people being exposed as pedophiles, the Conspiracists have found much grist for their mill. There isn’t a cabal of Globalist pedophiles running the world…but there are a lot of pedophiles who are Globalists and the Globalists do often protect them. But it isn’t a very long step to seeing all this nauseating stuff and falling for the Conspiracy Theories which have grown up around them…from there is just a skip over to the anti-Semitic side of the aisle where it is asserted – as it has been since the Protocols were fabricated – that The Jews are behind all that stuff. I think some of our people have fallen for this. And having fallen – and being by nature Isolationists, into the bargain – they were primed to condemn Israel and now fall for Hamas.

It is sad and we will have to battle against it – but I think we should go easy on ostracism for the moment. As my Dad pointed out to me decades ago, you’re going to hate a lot of your best allies in the fight for freedom. I’ll say that in the pressure of the moment, a lot of people got suckered and I think we can induce them to come back to the side of the angels on it. Keeping in mind that I am Isolationist, Protectionist and America First…but I recognize evil when I see it and Hamas is downright evil.

A few things to keep in mind about this:

  1. The battle is not thousands of years old. It it 94 years old. It started in 1929 when the Muslim population of then-British Mandate decided, entirely unprovoked, to have a pogrom. Why? Because the Muslim Ruling Class felt threatened in its position and the Muslim population greedily eyed the rising Jewish prosperity. In short, they wanted to steal. It was only after 1929 that the Jews in the Holy Land started to arm themselves and then only in self defense. Every subsequent event in the Jewish-Muslim war started right then…it has just been a progression. But always keep in mind that the Muslims started it…and not for any good reason; just over greed for power and money.
  2. The Muslim population of the West Bank and Gaza have been rigorously educated from pre-school to hate Jews and glory in killing them. There are about 4.5 million Muslims in the area. Half are under twenty. That means that half of them – more than two million – are just eagerly waiting for their chance to kill a Jew. Its all been one gigantic Hitler Youth camp. They are now a poisoned tree and it will take a long while to purge the poison. In other words, no sane person can make a deal with them right now.
  3. Iran probably fostered this attack to scuttle the growing rapprochement between Israel and the Arab States. Iran has a deep fear of being isolated in hatred of Israel and the purpose of Hamas, for Iran, is to have an absolutely lunatic pawn to be used when Iran feels necessary.
  4. Iran and Hamas probably calculated that Israel would hold back. They still might be calculating that. In fact, Israel might still hold back – and the world is already starting to pressure Israel to hold back. Hamas wins if the Israel attack ends and Hamas is still around. They don’t care how many people die. Israel should not hold back.
  5. Hamas has no moral grounds to continue fighting. Not just on the fact that their chosen method of warfare is murder and rape, but on grounds of simple military reality: they can’t beat the Israelis. Nobody fought harder than the Warsaw Poles against the Germans in 1944 but even they, when faced with the stark fact that continued resistance just meant death with no different outcome, they honorably surrendered. Hamas has a moral obligation to surrender to spare lives. If they do not, then all lives lost are Hamas’ responsibility. This is entirely outside any other considerations – continuing to fight a hopeless battle, unless your enemy proposes to massacre all of you, is immoral. The whole world should be pressuring Hamas to surrender, not for Israel to hold back.

There Are no Non-Combatants

Mark Noonan72 Comments

Julius Streicher was hung as a major war criminal at Nuremberg on October 16th, 1946. What did he do? Well, he didn’t kill any Jews. Didn’t organize shipments to death camps. Wasn’t a member of the SS or Gestapo. Wasn’t part of Hitler’s inner circle. He wasn’t even a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA) until he was made an honorary member in 1934. Heck, he hadn’t even had an official position in the Nazi government since 1940. So, what was it? Why did we bother executing him as one of the major war criminals?

Because he was the publisher of Der Sturmer. This was a hideously anti-Semitic rag which pushed the blood libel of the Jews and accused them of every manner of depravity. Basically, what Streicher did was set the stage for the Holocaust; he infected the German mind with the most vicious type of anti-Semitism so when it came time to round up the Jews and ship them off to camps, the Germans could tell themselves it was a good thing to do. The judgement of the Nuremberg Tribunal was that without people like Streicher, the Holocaust would not have been possible.

In the past I’ve noted my objections to the Nuremberg Trials – most notably that they had Soviet judges – but this is one thing I believe the Tribunal got right: the crime of not doing the right thing. My only real objection to the Streicher conviction was that it wasn’t carried further. That is, it wasn’t applied more broadly to the German people. You see, Streicher knew what he was doing; he wasn’t some complete moron; he was a school teacher and the son of a school teacher. He knew that you aren’t supposed to spread hate and lies. How do I know for certain he knew? Because it is rock-solid certain that Streicher wouldn’t want hatred and lies spread about him and his own. Whatever Streicher’s real views about Jews, he knew going in – before be put the first lie to paper – that he wasn’t supposed to do that. The German people, as a whole, also knew: their protestations in 1945 that they had no idea about the Holocaust were drivel…the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in 1935 and any fool could see that only very bad things would result from a legal system which denied the humanity of a segment of the population. Once again: we’re certain of this because no German would want to have laws enacted making Germans into a sub-human class.

I bring this up because we’re already getting the stories of “innocent Palestinians” being killed in the Israeli retaliation. My contention is there are no innocent Palestinians. As I’ve noted before, we started seeing those videos out of Palestine some years back where cute, little Palestinian kids are taught to hate Jews and to glory in killing them. Those cute, little Palestinian kids are now the adults in the Hamas death squads. The whole of Palestinian society – especially in Gaza where Hamas dominates – is geared towards teaching hatred of Jews and the glory of killing them. Just as Germans didn’t make the leap immediately to shoving Jews into gas chambers so, too, did the Palestinians not start raping and murdering random Israelis right out the gate. It took time, patience and careful instruction. It took a religious, social and political infrastructure all singing the same song to craft the sort of people who would think it was a good idea to walk up to an old Israeli at a bus stop and shoot him. To rape a girl next to her dead friends at a concert. To parade naked corpses through the streets. And the Palestinians who have created this system and now unleashed it on Israelis knew when they started that it was wrong. How do I know? Because you can be certain that the Palestinians don’t want the Israelis to teach their children from the ground up that God wants them to rape and murder Palestinians. The Palestinians have no excuse; they are participants in what amounts to a very large Hitler Youth camp. They deliberately made people eager to commit evil; just as the Nazis did.

And, now, the Palestinians have to pay. In blood. Lots of it. There is a cancer in the Palestinian body politic and until it is cut out no cure is possible. It isn’t enough to just hit some targets; the entirety of the system which makes death squads has to go. I do not know what Israel has planned – they are clearly gearing up for a massive operation and the troops sent in will have little reason to be gentle. But I hope the Israelis realize the magnitude of their task – all of Hamas has to go. The whole idea of it has to be wiped out – that is, so much violence has to be applied to the people of Gaza that they come to realize – as the Germans did in 1945 – that the lies they believed were a false god. Nazism was exterminated with thousands of tons of bombs and allied boots kicking in German doors. So, too, it will have to be in Gaza.

And in this operation the Israelis are incapable of committing a crime. There is nothing they can do which would be out of bounds. I know lots of people like to think there are hard and fast rules of war but there really is only one rule: if the enemy does it, so can you. Once the enemy uncorks hell, then hell may be applied to the enemy. You must never be the first, but once the other side does it, you’re free to act in whatever manner seems best to you.

To be certain, the Israelis are civilized people so we’re not going to see IDF soldiers raping and murdering Palestinian women. But because Palestinians raped and murdered Israeli women, there is no limit on the application of force. There are no non-combatants. There are no innocents. There are people who must be compelled to stop believing in Hamas and whatever application of violence proves necessary is legitimate.

My prayers are for the soldiers of the IDF – that they may conduct themselves with courage and as they go through their distasteful task I ask God to give them the wisdom to know when it is time to kill and when it is time to heal.

Culture Does Matter

Mark Noonan6 Comments

From NRO’s The Corner:

During my recent trip to Israel, I had suggested that the choices a society makes about its culture play a role in creating prosperity, and that the significant disparity between Israeli and Palestinian living standards was powerfully influenced by it. In some quarters, that comment became the subject of controversy.

But what exactly accounts for prosperity if not culture? In the case of the United States, it is a particular kind of culture that has made us the greatest economic power in the history of the earth. Many significant features come to mind: our work ethic, our appreciation for education, our willingness to take risks, our commitment to honor and oath, our family orientation, our devotion to a purpose greater than ourselves, our patriotism. But one feature of our culture that propels the American economy stands out above all others: freedom. The American economy is fueled by freedom. Free people and their free enterprises are what drive our economic vitality…

Read the rest of it here.  Romney is completely correct – is the the culture of barbarism which prevents the Palestinians from enjoying a better life.  Give up the terrorism, give up the “death to Israel” nonsense and get rid of the kleptocrats who run the place and the Palestinians will swiftly be as prosperous as the Israelis.  It is up to the Palestinians – they have to decide what kind of life they want to live.  The world waits – you can be sure of it that the United States, alone, would pour untold billions in to the West Bank and Gaza.  Make the West Bank and Gaza a free market enclave like Hong Kong used to be and in 20 years you wouldn’t recognize the place…and you’d have Israelis asking real nice if they can join in (Israel does have a lot of success, but they still over-tax and over-regulate a bit; a leftover from the socialist days of the past).

Things can change.  People can change.  But they have to want to – and as an aside, all you liberals out there who are supporting the current Palestinian regime:  you’re part of the problem.  You’re propping up the very people who ensure endless war, endless oppression and endless poverty for the Palestinian people.

UPDATE:  Yet another reason to vote for Romney – our recovery weakest in all the world since 1970.