Iran

Iran

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Did I vote for this?

You mean for Trump’s oft-stated determination that Iran would not be able to obtain a nuclear weapon? You mean his confirmation of official and bi-partisan US policy for the past quarter century? Yeah, I voted for that. In fact, I voted to make sure it would happen – because no other person in office would have done it.

Sure, I would have preferred the Mullahs had bowed to the inevitable. I thought – and Trump probably thought – that the vaporization of Soleimani would convince the Mullahs that Trump’s intentions were serious. I guess it didn’t. They probably thought they could just drag things out and wait for non-Trump to be in office. There is a good chance, after all, that Iranian intel people monitor the American MSM and figure they’re getting an accurate picture of the American political scene. Anyone who takes the American MSM seriously is going to have a massively warped sense of what is going on over here…and if the Mullahs believed that Trump was in trouble over deporting illegals, then that might have convinced them they could dig in their heels and wait him out.

Wrong answer!

Some people – including some who have been allegedly MAGA – are now lighting their hair on fire over the prospect of Trump sending in the Army. I am convinced this is paid for by the Iranian government…its just too stupid for words. We just showed we don’t need to send in the Army. We can destroy any target we wish in Iran with impunity. Sure, the Mullahs might send their absurd little Navy on a suicide run, but that will be quickly disposed of by the US Navy (sorry, 60 year old frigates and aged Russian Kilo-class subs are going to be sunk before they even know we’re there). They might try a proxy attack using terrorist groups – but Trump has already said that any Iranian retaliation will result in further US attacks…and I doubt that Trump is going to be too concerned about proving Iran was behind any attack…we’ll just assume they were behind it. And if they aren’t behind it, too bad, so sad – when you fund lunatic terrorist groups you takes your chances. Should have thought about blowback a long time ago. Trump did suggest that regime change would be useful but there was nothing in his statement indicating he wants us to forcibly change the regime…and he’s not dumb enough to come before the American people and say he wants to send 250,000 of our sons and daughters to Tehran. Just won’t happen.

And he posted that because he knows – even if his idiotic critics don’t – that the end of the Mullah regime means peace. They are the only people keeping the Islamist nonsense alive. Muslims might very well hate me, hate Jews, hate the USA, hate the west…but from the hate to the suicide vest are lots of steps. Takes lots of money for propaganda, for materials and training…take away that money and the hate might fester but it will fester in a void. Some jackanapes in Cairo ranting about stupid Americans as if we care. It is wise for Trump to put that prospect out there…it gets the Mullahs looking over their shoulders and realizing that, come what may, the oil sales must go on or they’ll run out of money to pay their bully boys – and no bully boys means mobs outside the palace calling for your blood.

As for what the Iranian people want – I couldn’t care less. I’ve seen some people write up how the Mullahs betrayed the Iranian revolution and it sounds like something wise to say and I’ve pretty much accepted it but then it kinda struck me – going back to ancient times, the people of Iran haven’t known a minute of political freedom. They were under absolute monarchy until the 1930’s and then a sort of bogus parliament was created as a fig leaf for absolute monarchy. And even in that absolute monarchy, it was really just a series of competing interest groups trying to be the power behind the throne…mostly in order to steal the money, especially the oil money once that came rolling in. Sure, the Shah was oppressive and by the mid-1970s he was unpopular, but did the mobs demonstrating against him even know what they wanted? Have any conception of what it means to be free? They had never lived it – and going back to their earliest civilized ancestors, they had no experience of it. Very likely they were just being manipulated by the Ayatollah’s people and they eventually got rid of the Shah for him and he just stepped into the role of absolute monarch under a different mask. Basically, it is all nonsense…and in a very real sense, not even a fully real country…just people who happen to speak mostly the same language and hold the same religious beliefs crammed into the borders Russia and Britain drew for them in the 19th century. I mean, for goodness sake, the Shah was trying to take the mantle of Cyrus the Great – the Shah was the son of a usurper placed on the throne by British machinations and here this nitwit was trying to claim he was somehow connected to the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. That isn’t God’s anointed…that is a guy play acting and hoping nobody bothers to check behind the curtain.

I just don’t care what they do. I’m only interested in Iran insofar as they cause my country any trouble. And shouting “death to America” while trying to build a nuke is the definition of trouble. If they had never done anything else to offend us, I’d still want them zapped over that. Call me silly, but when someone says they want to kill me and they’re trying to obtain the means to do so, I’m going to take them seriously and respond accordingly. And it isn’t The Jews making me do this – if Israel didn’t exist it wouldn’t change my view. And, no, I in no way feel morally responsible for their plight…I don’t care about the 1953 coup or anything else the Iranians use as an excuse to hate me. You see, I don’t care if they hate me – and I can’t fix what happened in the past. I only care if they want to kill me. And they have told us again and again they want to kill us. They could stop that at any time and we’d all be cool and happy. Their choice. Not mine.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

I get Trump’s reticence in relation to military action against Iran. War is always incalculable in results. Once the guns go off, you never quite know how it will come out. Clearly, the Mullahs should never possess a nuclear weapon. The chances they’ll actually use one are low given Israel’s almost certain already existing nuclear deterrent, but the world can’t rely on Mullah reasonableness. Additionally, I have held since 1979 that the Iranian regime is a pestilence. And since the fall of the USSR, they have been the primary promoter of Islamist terrorism (good to remember that prior to the fall of the USSR, most Muslim terrorists officially adhered to some sort of Socialist program downplaying the Islamic element…but the only pay for it post 1991 has been Tehran, so the Socialism is muted and the Islamism emphasized). Bottom line, if the Mullah regime goes, the most likely outcome in the Middle East is a general peace settlement as there will be no one to pay for Islamist programs (another good thing to remember is that outside Iran and its proxies, Islamist propaganda these days is heavily suppressed in Muslim nations…sure, they’ll let you publish endless copies of Mein Kampf and anti-Semitism if the order of the day…but this “river to the sea” nonsense is kept under control). In my view, we should – if necessary – launch attacks to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is crippled (there is some doubt that Israel has a weapon – outside a nuke – which can reach the deepest buried elements).

But I’m going to trust Trump’s judgement on this. He does have access to a lot of information we don’t have and, very important, he has earned our trust. The man took a bullet for us. He’s reliable – even if he gets it wrong, the motivation will still be to do what is best for the USA. If he orders an attack, I support that – if he decides to hold off, I’ll support that.

Someone posted a video on X claiming to show an empty Los Angeles emergency room – with the narration claiming it is a horror as “our people” aren’t getting life-saving care. If true, what it means is that illegals aren’t using the ER as their primary care facility…which they routinely do, clogging up the system and costing everyone untold sums of money. If they’re refusing to do this out of fear of ICE, then that is what I voted for – illegals should be afraid to show their faces. They should live furtive lives in the shadows – impossible to rent a house, buy a car, get health care…because they aren’t supposed to be here. They can go back home and not have these problems.

We’re also getting more tear-jerker bits of propaganda about some of the deported – “she’s a grandma who has been here 30 years and she loves being in America”. Yeah, if she had the least bit of respect for America and Americans, she wouldn’t have come here illegally. We really need to get that across – illegally crossing our border is an insult. It is done by people with total contempt for the United States and our people.

And, guys, it has been a long time since the immigrant was a self-selected, hard-working person who wanted to build a better life. The floodgates were opened under Obama (and, really, even before that) and the word went out that the suckers in the USA would let you stay illegally and provide you housing, medical care, food and education…never asking you to contribute or develop any love for America. The people who flooded in – especially when Biden was in office – are leeches looking to live off the American people. They’re precisely the people who keep their home countries as dumps…voting for any conman who offers a free ride and cheering loudly each tin pot dictator in turn…and, of course, considering it a point of honor to help and protect criminal gangs. They all have to go.

ICE is reporting a 500% increase in assaults on their officers – all of this encouraged and orchestrated by the Democrats. They are all-in on illegals – this is insane but, really, they can’t do otherwise…an end to illegal immigration and the huge amounts of graft it begets is a death knell for the Democrat party. Already the DNC is being starved of funds…the more Trump does the less money the Democrats will have. And that’s just one of a score of problems here – each 750,000 illegals deported means one less Blue State House seat, even if the SC refuses to allow Trump to only count citizens in the census. They must fight like this and hope that some even turns the American people against Trump’s policies. I don’t see that happening – they probably don’t, either – but they’ll keep at it because they have no choice.

The Mullahs: They Still Have to Go

Mark Noonan11 Comments

Gotta tip the hat to the Israelis – that must have taken months to set up. They did it without anyone figuring it out and it clearly caught the Iranians totally by surprise.

There are Right voices being raised against Israel – rather stupid Right voices, but they are there. It isn’t just for the Left that some people think history started last week. Also, things like the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Marine Corps Barracks bombing are very much ancient history – the young don’t even know they happened. It is, perhaps, a little hard for me to realize that one of the central events of my formative years is ancient but so it is…in fact, as ancient to the youth of today as World War One was to me when I was their age. But at least I knew about World War One! The kids today don’t know much – and a healthy skepticism about foreign adventures is being twisted by malevolent actors into sheer stupidity.

There are good and bad nations in the world. Good and bad governments. For the most part, it is a matter of perfect indifference to an American what another nation is like – if they are bad, we can just stay away from them and that’s fine. But some nations aren’t just bad, they are malicious. Iran is one of the malicious nations. Their government, actually. It isn’t that they chant “Death to America” that is the problem…it is that they try to carry out the chant. That they are mostly incompetent at it is neither here nor there. It is that they try to strike my nation any way they can which matters. Essentially, since the fall of the USSR and the termination of Soviet funding for terrorism, Iran has been the prime mover in the terrorist world. They fund it. Train it. Supply it. Facilitate it at every turn. They take the money of the people of Iran – the part they don’t steal and hide away in Western banks – and use it to fund people who enjoy killing. You know, like the Hamas cretins who attacked Israel on October 7th. They live for the day when they might pull off something like that in the USA. I’ve been saying since 1979 that the Mullah regime in Tehran has to go – and everything that has happened since 1979 has simply confirmed this view as correct. But if you’re talking to a kid born in 2002 you won’t get through to them…they don’t remember it. They don’t even remember 9/11. All they see is the aftermath of our failed War on Terrorism and they were fed a story about how it all happened…The Jews and so forth made it happen and, hey, you know they lied about that Hitler fellow, too!

Good place to point out that Iran funds a lot of the Holocaust revisionism. Muslim nations have generally done this since WWII in an attempt to undercut Israel’s moral legitimacy…but the Mullahs put it all on steroids. Another reason they are malevolent. And what is malevolent has to go. The cancer has to be cut out…because if you don’t, it’ll eventually kill you.

To be fair, there are plenty of nations with governments that are evil – they rob their own people, oppress, kill, etc. But I have no concern about it because they aren’t trying to kill me. This is a key distinction, guys! The pragmatic facts of life are that peace cannot come to the Middle East until the Mullahs are removed from power. As long as they are in power, they will continue to stir the pot and fund terrorism in a program to seek maximum advantage in service of their sick and twisted goal of destroying Israel and the United States. It doesn’t matter that they never will have this power – it is that they will keep trying to achieve their goal. Get rid of them and there will be peace. Their dream is stupid but they won’t give it up – so it will have to be taken away from them.

What Israel is doing won’t do the job. Oh, there’s a slight chance that the temporary weakening of the regime will allow for popular revolt in Iran, but that is a very slight chance. The Mullahs make sure their security goons are well paid – and that means they’ll continue to obey orders to kill anyone who steps out of line. More than likely, the Mullahs will ride this out – and will remain the problem. Even if Israel destroys their nuclear program – literally sets it back to square one – it won’t solve the problem. Still good for Israel and the world, but not a resolution. A resolution only comes when the Mullahs are gone.

I’ve favored for years the most logical way to get the Mullahs out – as they remain in power because they can pay for goons, take away their money. Complete freeze on all assets, total blockade – land, sea and air. Nobody and nothing gets in or out. Within a few months the money is gone and shortages are spreading and though the Mullahs will lash out they can’t actually break the blockade…and hungry people facing off with unpaid goons is only going to go one way. Any military element here (other than the actual blockading forces) will be to degrade the means Iran has of striking out – mostly wiping out their small Navy and destroying their missile production facilities. It wouldn’t take much. It wouldn’t take long. It just takes the will to do it.

That will is lacking – even in Trump – because people simply do not understand the nature of the problem. You can’t reason with people who have no reason. We’ve seen it – try arguing with a Liberal. It is impossible. They will not address your points nor your objections but will just endlessly and quite mindlessly repeat their talking points. The Mullahs may or may not be truly insane – but they do know, sane or not, that if they give up the Death to America/Israel dream, then there’s no justification for their continued power. They know that at best a life of impoverished exile awaits them after that…and very likely death at the hands of their own people. There is no upside for them to act rationally – and so they won’t. And they will continue to rely on our unwillingness to see their insanity. See it. Understand it. And then get rid of them – whatever it costs its cheaper than another 50 years of dealing with these lunatics.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan16 Comments

I’ve read some articles which assert that Democrats believe they have a winner in the Maryland Man issue – they figure they can move off from defending the man but garner support by pointing out the procedural error which got him back to El Salvador.

No. Serious! They seem to really think this. That the American people will rise up in outrage over deportations because the forms weren’t filled out correctly.

At first glance we just laugh – but then it dawns on us: the Left are the people who run the bureaucracy, public and private. All they’ve ever done in their life is check off boxes and make certain forms are filled out. They consider this an accomplishment and the height of intellectual achievement. Think about every issue: the Experts says it is so and so and with this report from the Experts there is nothing further to discuss. Just check off that box and move on! And heaven help you if you don’t…because they love to find the clerical or spelling error…makes them feel smart.

We are, as I’ve said, dealing with some very stupid people. And we really should have figured this out a long while ago – we thought the Green stuff was Secret Communism…and it is but it is also very, very stupid…anyone can see that if your goal is to reduce CO2 you’ll build nuclear plants by the dozen. Nope: place mirrors in the desert that don’t work! Student loans – how often do you hear anyone suggest making them dischargable in bankruptcy? Hardly ever, if at all – and it is the simplest solution. If the grad simply isn’t making enough money post-college to carry the freight, file for bankruptcy and be done with it. But they don’t want that – they want to annul the debt. After the forms are filled out, of course. This is the dumbest way to go about it. But the Left is wedded to it (to be sure, this could also stem from a lot of well-off grads just not wanting to pay the bill…if the solution is bankruptcy but you make too much money for that, then where’s the advantage for you?).

I’ve seen a lot of Doomers on X – people who are saying it is all over, Trump has failed, the GOP is finished…and it all would have been better if Trump had done Y instead of Z. We are on Day 92. Just past three months. The Doomers are getting irritating. Sure, maybe the whole Trump experiment fails…but it’ll take a couple years for it to happen. And even if we get whacked in 2026 that doesn’t mean Trump has failed…Reagan got whacked in 1982, after all. Keep in mind as we go forward that there is money to be had in clicks…and hate clicks pay as much as love clicks. Some people will just say things to get clicks. As for me, when I see a Doomer on X or other social media, I hit the mute button. Won’t engage. Not going to give them money for poisoning the well.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard appears to be wary of engaging in military action against Iran. This, and her unwillingness to go to war over Ukraine, is upsetting a lot of hawks. Anyone who has hung around the blog knows that I want no war with Russia but have long figured we should go to war with Iran. These are my opinions informed by my understanding of the facts. Others can come to different conclusions. That’s ok. It is possible for honest people to look at the same set of facts and conclude differently. Nothing doing with some people – because Gabbard doesn’t want war with Russia she is now a Putin stooge and because she’s wary of an attack on Iran she’s also a Mullah stooge.

Stop it, people. Gabbard may be right or she may be wrong – but she’s not a traitor. She’s an honest, patriotic American citizen. She also doesn’t call the shots – Trump does. She gets to say what she thinks and then Trump decides. And only fool would want Trump to only receive one point of view on policy matters. Lets hear every honest opinion and try to sift through them to the best result – understanding that there might not be an actual good choice in a situation…some times it is just picking the least bad option.

Got into an argument on X yesterday. Surprise! Anyways, it started with someone noting a Leftwing account arguing that every Confederate should have been tortured and killed post-war. Naturally, this clickbait was generating a lot of outrage (as was its intent) but I noted that the real problem wasn’t that we didn’t mass murder Confederates, but simply that Johnson pardoned them all. And he did this because he was trying to curry favor with the former Planter Class (whom he despised) for an 1868 Presidential run as a Democrat. It didn’t work – they wouldn’t forgive him for remaining loyal to the Union and being Lincoln’s running mate. But that, really, was the entire post-Civil War failure…it created the whole problem. Which wasn’t the Klan (insane violence is always only a temporary problem) – the problem was we let the Confederates vote themselves back into power and, by outnumbering black Americans in the South, vote black Americans into Jim Crow. If the former Confederates were disenfranchised for good, it never would have happened. The race issue would have resolved itself in a generation or two – by 1920 at the latest.

This, in turn, got me a bunch of “how dare you!” from the Right…the usual blather about how the Confederacy was spotlessly honorable and the men who served her needed to be reintegrated back into civil life. Balderdash – the Confederacy came about because the Planter Class had lost power at the Federal level and wanted to keep stealing the labor of black Americans. There were decades of propaganda built up for it – keeping in mind that the idea of the Confederacy was born under Jackson’s Administration – playing upon racial fears, disdain for Northern tradesmen (greasy mechanics, the South considered them), prospects for conquest south of the Rio Grande and a rather hypocritical view of States Rights (ie, they wanted their States Rights…except in the case of the Fugitive Slave Act which essentially made every State a slave State), the Southern Ruling Class got their war.

And it was a catastrophe. The least justified Civil War in history and then they botched the execution (Washington could have told Lee that his job was to remain in being and free to maneuver; not being tied down to defending one city while the rest of the war was lost out West). A million or so people ended up dead (war, disease, hunger-related illness and so on). They got their arrogant, upper class, Plantation butts handed to them on a platter. Repent? Offer reparation? At least admit it wasn’t such a great idea? Nothing doing – they started working up justifications for themselves, lobbied for pardons and then recaptured the political system they had failed…the worst aspect of it was the fact that the Union was merciful. Nothing is quite so American as Grant’s “let ’em up easy” policy. This should have lead to that repentance (it did in some, most notably James Longstreet, but there were others), but the mercy was spat upon…with a spasm of Klan violence and laws mandating smaller water fountains among other ridiculous indignities.

Look, I get it – great-great-grandpa who served in the Alabama 5th Infantry was a good man who fought for what he thought was right. No, we don’t need to be tearing down statues. There was a greatness in Lee, and the sublime courage Confederate soldiers showed even against hopeless odds still shines across the ages. But lets also not kid ourselves about what happened. Lets keep in mind all those corpses and only say the war was justified if we could go to them and say, “it was good you died for this cause”. It was good for Billy Yank … Johnny Reb? Not so much. He shouldn’t have had to show his sublime courage in a lost cause. Wiser heads should have prevailed. And so it goes with most wars – and that it the primary point I make these days. Sometimes you do have to fight – but only because someone else is doing something so egregiously immoral that there is no other way to stop them.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan46 Comments

The Trump trial gets ever more ridiculous by the day. The judge is just being massively unfair to the defense and is doing everything he can to help the prosecution. But even with that, it is clear the prosecutor doesn’t have a case. I’m still thinking we might get a hung jury here – perhaps even a not guilty. I mean it: the thing is such an obvious show trial that even a New York jury might figure this is just a step too far. But even with a guilty verdict, this thing will be vacated in short order on appeal. It is just drivel.

Meanwhile, Biden hits the trail and nobody shows up – Trump shows up in Manhattan to large, friendly crowds. There’s a couple outlier polls showing Biden even or slightly ahead – but even in that scenario, he loses. But most polls show Trump ahead, some significantly. Trump, to the absolute shock of everyone, is becoming popular…while Biden is increasingly despised. Everyone knows he’s senile and physically one foot on a banana peel. It is actually kinda insulting that the Democrats are trying to force him on us for another four years.

The pyscho-killer who masqueraded as President of Iran was whacked in a helicopter crash so NATO and the USA expressed their condolences. Because of course. Just f’ing disgusts me the way the USA and the West gets on its knees for the mullahs. The more you hear about the guy the more psycho he was – not a nice guy. No redeeming qualities. A bloodthirsty murderer, mostly of his own people. The riddance level on his death: good.

Various Leftists groups are dredging up Michael Brown (hands up, don’t shoot lie) and George Floyd (I can’t breath lie). Then there was Biden’s vile, racist speech on Sunday. Pretty sure these idiots are looking for another summer of riots. There are those who disagree with me on this – figuring it would be insanely stupid of the Left to stir the pot. My rejoinder to that is the Left is insanely stupid. My thinking is they believe that if they can stir up the fear and hatred of 2020, it’ll somehow work to Biden’s advantage.

We built that pier to bring aid to the Palestinians and Hamas is stealing all the aid. This is because Hamas doesn’t give a damn about human life. None of the Islamists do. Heck, none of the various stripes of pedos, grifters, tyrants and freaks who run our world do. They’re all anti-human and only interesting in obtaining money and sex for themselves.

Red Lobster if filing for bankruptcy because that is what middle class, family-orientated businesses do when the economy is red hot like Pudding Brain says it is.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan14 Comments

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) is rock solid on most things, but like most GOP Senators he’s still fully committed to the post-WWII “rules based international order”. You know, the thing that got us to lose 58,000 men in Vietnam, as just the highlight of the military and foreign policy disasters since WWII. Today he was doing a bit of saber rattling vis Iran. I pointed out that this is foolish given that our current political and military leaders are incapable of mounting a successful military effort. Our leaders are cowards and traitors, our military is worn out, we’re not getting enough recruits, training and maintenance have been let slide. To risk a major American military force against even a second rate enemy is folly and should only be done at the most extreme need…Israel’s possible conflict with Iran is insufficient cause. Israel has subs with cruise missiles. These missiles are almost certainly nuclear tipped. Israel will be fine.

Supposedly abortion was going to put Florida in play. Well, the latest poll – taken after abortion got on the ballot – shows Trump with a 12 point lead…and that support for adding abortion rights to the Florida Constitution is at 42%. That’s not all that much. We can rely on it that Democrats will go 24/7 abortion as we head towards November and it may, indeed, affect some votes. But I suspect that the post-Dobbs effect is starting to fade. As I’ve said before, for the pro-abortion people and areas, absolutely nothing changed. Here in Nevada we put abortion rights into the State Constitution decades ago. I don’t think we should have, but we did – and the only way that is going to change is if the people of Nevada vote to remove it. Twice (each amendment requires a majority vote in two consecutive elections). That just isn’t going to happen in any time line you care to think about. Maybe in a generation of two after the Culture of Life imparts itself to the people it’ll be repealed as a sad relic like some vestigial Jim Crow laws are these days. But not right now. How can you keep people outraged over something that doesn’t matter? All Dobbs did was restore the proper Constitutional position and if you live in a pro-abortion area you got what you wanted.

That is, of course, why the Democrats keep claiming that Trump has a double secret probation plan to ban abortion after he gets back in. But, he can’t. It almost certainly wouldn’t get through Congress even if the GOP has a trifecta and, per Dobbs, such a thing would likely be struck down as unconstitutional. Abortion is immoral but Roe was just bad law – there was not the slightest warrant in the Constitution to make that ruling. The Justices just made it up because they wanted abortion legal. Democrats will try mighty hard to scare urban/suburban white women about Trump’s Secret Plan to Make You all Handmaids, but I suspect it won’t work.

The GOP is knuckling under for a renewal of FISA. Of course. Speaker Johnson says he changed his mind once he got the Super Secret Briefings about it. So now his position is “trust me, bro”. Too late for that. We can’t possibly trust the government. Our assumption is that Johnson caved because the FBI, using FISA, found something on him. We’d like very much to trust Speaker Johnson – and there is a way he can get us to do that. Tell us what FISA is finding. That’s it. Keeping everything under a veil of secrecy is the problem – we can’t possibly trust the government to operate the program as its advertised as it was used to spy on Trump. But we can agree to keep it – with modifications – if we are told what it does other than spy on Trump. Not asking for nitty gritty details…but if this program is so great, then you should be able to point out a couple things it did. Plots foiled. Terrorists caught. Things like that. Let us know; you work for us, after all.

But even then if we do keep it, I think we’ll need to have a provision in there saying that the federal government can’t use FISA information to so much as investigate an American for actions inside the USA – let alone prosecute or jail them. That is, if you find Joe Smith is talking with Terror Fanatic Abdul in Syria…kill Abdul; you can’t touch Joe Smith. Not with FISA information. Not even with information you were able to dig up because you had FISA information. If its FISA, then as far as American citizens saying and doing things in the USA, it doesn’t exist.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan25 Comments

A couple of entitled Westerners – from UK and USA – go to a nail salon in Bali, get into an argument…and then forget that they aren’t in the UK or USA where white guilt protects them. Nice to see these sort of people treated as they should. Pro tip: in no civilized society are you allowed to get into a shouting/shoving match with the staff because of a dispute over the price. I think we’re all tired of these savages – and they do come from all ethnic backgrounds in the West. I mean, other than straight, white and male – those guys aren’t Protected. But everyone else is and so go off is the norm.

Until you arrive in a civilized nation. Like Bali.

Given Gaza, we were inundated with “Jesus was a Palestinian” over the Christmas Holiday. Do keep in mind that the lies are almost never meant for you. They are almost always designed for Democrats and the more mindless/ignorant part of the American population. The people who watch those bachelor reality shows and such. The people the lies work on have, at best, only a hazy idea of where Israel even is and have no knowledge of what happened more than a year ago. They just believe what the TV tells them…and so “Jesus was a Palestinian” is said to them and they nod their heads and are thus primed to show up in the streets and in polling calling for a ceasefire.

The next GOP President should take a trip to one of the Nigerian villages attacked by Islamists. Perhaps the one attacked just this Christmas? Any of them will do; there are a lot of them. And when he gets there and he makes himself available to the press, he should ask them: “why haven’t you told the American people what’s been happening here for years?”. The purpose isn’t to get an answer from them – but to start implanting in the low-info people that they are being systemically deceived.

Iranian-backed forces have been targeting American military forces since the Gaza War started – apparently, Pudding Brain’s people told Congress that we’re going to hit a few sites in Iraq over it. This is doing something to make it look like you’re doing something. We’re not going to hit anything serious because these are Iranian assets and our foreign and military establishments abhor doing anything that offends Iran. This is over and above all other considerations – that they kinda hate Israel plays a role, but not decisive here. Our establishment is just convinced that peace in the Middle East is dependent upon us selling the area to Iran. Sure, its stupid – but its what they believe. At least, it is what we must assume they believe considering their actions.

The bad news here is that Iranian-backed forces are threatening to halt seaborne trade in the Red Sea – basically closing the Suez Canal. There was a reason it was built, guys; because transiting via South Africa takes a huge amount of time and money. Already major shippers are rerouting their trade – and this is going to add massive cost to everything humanity does. You really have to understand how much of the world’s goods transit through Suez – either directly or in parts that go to make the whole. Don’t fuss about oil as some are – most of the largest tankers haven’t been able to fit in Suez for ages. Can’t fit through Panama, either. They’ve already been taking the longer route and that was long ago priced it…it is everything else that the problem will come in on. Brace for some bad economic shocks.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan31 Comments

Pudding Brain is set to surrender entirely to Iran on nuclear weapons and is now trying to curry favor or Venezuela. These guys will do anything other than pump American oil. Remember: their belief is that they must end oil to Save The Planet…and they are going to stick with that. OTOH, they are heading for a shellacking in November and so want gas prices down. Their solution is to buy the dirtiest oil in the world from two of the worst regimes in the world.

Yes, they are insane.

That’s the latest ISW map of Ukraine: the Russians have been forging ahead, but only in little bites, it would seem. The Russians, themselves, have a map showing much more Ukrainian territory under their control. I go with this as even if it is wrong, it is wrong out of caution. But you can see the Russians are clearly going for the territory east of the Dnieper River. Whether this is all Putin wants or just the prep for taking the rest remains to be seen.

Pro-Ukraine forces on social media get very mad at you if you point out that Ukraine is trying to start WWIII. I don’t think the Ukrainians want WWIII…but they are clearly willing to risk it. They pretty much have to: without outside intervention there is no way they can physically keep the Russians out: they simply don’t have sufficient weight of material for that. My bet is that they hope a bit of NATO vs Russia brinksmanship will bring Putin to the table as he won’t want a larger war. This may be correct. This may also end up in WWIII. There’s no shame in Ukraine trying this – the life of their nation is at stake. But everyone better understand what’s happening and not get all starry-eyed about Ukraine to the point where all common sense is lost.

At the University of North Texas the students (well, the idiot, Commie students) shouted down a speaker. Remember: this is Texas. Ever more Red Texas. But, its like that all over, isn’t it? No matter how Red the State, the Commies still control education and media at the bare minimum. And this is because the feckless GOP simply let it happen. Didn’t want to fight. Not the hill to die on! Well, turns out it was: and now we’re starting to see pushback against it. This is good, but it is also showing that many State GOPers are RINOs as bad as any Congressional GOPer.

This plus the Latino shift to the GOP is what terrifies the Ruling Class – and that includes the GOP part of the Ruling Class. Turns out, Latino voters are in favor of border security. This seems bizarre to Progressives, but that’s because Progressives are stupid. No sane person wants an unending flow of unvetted people coming in. And, sure, Pedro down there in south Texas doesn’t want cousin Julio deported…but he also wants good schools, well paid jobs and low crime…and he knows he can’t get that if the border isn’t secure. What do they fear? A GOP with increasingly strong working class support across racial lines starts enacting laws that working class people want: no more CRT, at least late-term abortion bans, no more teaching 3rd graders about transgender issues, secure borders, Made in America…the stuff of Establishment nightmares.

Gas here at my local Vegas gas station went from $4.09 a gallon on Monday to $4.69 a gallon today. And it was something like $3.79 a gallon about two weeks ago. This is an economic killer – we’re getting into a risk of hyperinflation. Still a low risk, but what is normally a 0.01% risk in the USA is now about a 10% risk. These prices (and the massive spikes in wheat and corn prices) are going to ripple through the economy over the next six months and I do expect a very sharp recession out of it.

Team Pudding Brain and the MSM are blaming Putin for this.

Make America Disco Again

Mark Noonan17 Comments

War in the Middle East. Gas shortages. All we need is a bit of inflation (which is coming) and for Biden’s brother to make beer and we’re back in the 1970’s.

At least we might get some cool music again:

Sorry I didn’t write for a week! Was just finishing the final draft of Shadow Army. Have that out in a couple weeks. It picks up our heroes 6 years after Battles.

As to that war in the Middle East – it is happening because the Palestinian leadership was ordered to do it by Iran. Iran, in turn, ordered it done because they want our attention on that while they take Team Biden to the cleaners in return for a revived Iran Deal, which will be even worse than the last one. The Iranians are able to do this, I think, partially with the active connivance of part of Team Biden, partially because the rest of Team Biden is simply too stupid to see the game.

For those who know what they’re doing, I really have no explanation for their fervent desire to appease Iran. It doesn’t even make bad sense as our wartime alliance with Stalin did. The Iranian regime long ago forfeited the support of the Iranian people. Iran is a basket case of a nation. Let them fall apart – and then once the Mullahs are out, work a deal with their successors. But the foreign policy elite has it in their mind that we must sustain the Mullahs. Even outright bribery doesn’t explain thinking this is something to do (the Saudis – Iran’s deadly enemies – would pay more for a different policy line).

CDC says you can drop the masks if vaccinated (I am – first shot, bit of a sore arm; second shot, crying like a little girl my arm hurt so much…but in 36 hours I was fine). This whole thing has been drivel from start to finish. It was a bad flu, nothing more.

They are doing an audit of Maricopa County, AZ – and they are finding discrepancies. I doubt, though, they’ll find enough to be decisive: those who conducted the steal have had more than enough time to destroy evidence. And its not like Biden’s DOJ will be coming after anyone who broke the law. I honestly have my doubts that Biden even topped 65 million votes. They really stuffed the ballot boxes this time – they wanted to be sure he got over 50%. But, even then, they underestimated how big Trump’s vote would be, especially in the Battlegrounds – that’s why they had to stop counting for a bit, manufacture some more ballots, and then stuff them in to shove Biden over the EC top by 42,000 votes. That is how close a shave it was – just that many votes the other way, and Trump would still be in.

I know this makes some people certain we can never win again – but the bottom line is that in the GOP controlled areas, reforms are being enacted which will make it vastly harder to cheat. Remember, in 2000 Gore’s attempt to steal Florida led to weeks of controversy. In 2020, the State was called for Trump 17 minutes after the polls closed in the panhandle (not, though, by the major networks – they delayed that call for a long time because they needed to call AZ for Biden before or right around same time to give the impression of a Biden win). That is the difference between a State where Dems can stuff a ballot box and a State where they can’t. There has been much hang wringing about the future of the GOP in Texas – but not from me. The reason it has gotten closer is not because Latinos have been moving in (TX hasn’t had a white majority in ages) but because in the deep blue areas of Texas (and there are some big ones, like Austin), the Democrats have been stuffing the ballot box. But that will now become harder. As I’ve been saying for ages, the best defense against fraud isn’t voter ID (though that helps), but requiring precincts to report their total number of votes within 30 minutes of closure. Once that number is locked in, you can’t stuff…puts a huge handicap because no matter how much data is crunched, no Democrat really knows what turnout will be in the deep Red areas until the vote comes in.

The GOP nominee for Virginia’s Lt Governor is a black woman who rips to shreds Critical Race Theory. More of this, please. My view: CRT must become illegal in the United States. Yes, I know this would take an Amendment…but it is such a poison that the Republic must vomit it out entirely.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan30 Comments

Cocaine Mitch says he’s got the votes to proceed with an impeachment trial without bothering with Nancy’s asinine demand for more witnesses. As Team Mitch put it on Twitter:

The thing fell apart because, after years of investigation, it has been discovered that Trump hasn’t done anything illegal. And that is astonishing considering he’s a NYC real estate developer…he must have some primo legal advisors who make sure that he’s always on the right side of the law. Rely on it, if they could have found anything on Trump, they would have used it. They found nothing.

But the Democrat Base is informed by MSNBC – and, so, they believe that Trump is minutes away from being removed. Seriously: if you check out the comments from these people on social media, they are convinced of it. Blow past the bot accounts (and there are a huge number of them – what is trending on social media is whatever someone pays to have trend) and see the real people, including Blue Checks, who are certain of this. And why wouldn’t they be? They’ve never heard anyone say otherwise.

Meanwhile, the GOP Senate candidate for Michigan – John James – out raised his Democrat opponent for the second quarter in a row. Democrats are donating as if MSNBC were telling the truth…and, so, instead of pouring money in to defend a Democrat seat which may go GOP in November, they are throwing their money at a quixotic attempt to unseat McConnell.

The Covington Catholic boys got a bit of justice today as CNN settled the suit. As is usual for such settlements, we don’t know any details. My view: they settled because they didn’t want to go through discovery. Even if they would have prevailed in court, the revelation of how news stories are crafted would have been devastating.

Iran miscalculated:

It is hard to understand Iran supreme leader Khamenei’s blunder in attacking the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. He either believed that Trump was weakened by his impeachment, as Western liberal media breathlessly and continuously reported, or might have been misled by John Kerry’s incompetent advice (apparently, Kerry met again with Khamenei’s emissaries in Paris just few weeks ago). Whatever the reasons, his goal of triggering a limited war with America to rally his people around the regime has failed miserably.

You know the drill: they attack, we respond…it bogs down, we hit some place where the enemy has hidden the asset behind civilians…war crimes!, blah, blah, blah and everything remains as before. Trump did the unexpected – he killed the boss. Now all the other bosses are wondering which of them have targets painted on their backs. The knowledge that you are to be droned striked in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully. Don’t know if Trump is just going on instinct here or if he’s thought about it for years and always figured this is what he’d do if in office. I’m leaning these days more towards “he’s been thinking about this for a while”. We don’t know how all this will play out, but it certainly seems a better option that either flat out war or surrender which our Elites have been telling us for 40 years were our only options.