Law

No King of Open Threads

Mark Noonan16 Comments

The Democrats are out there yapping away about No Kings today – they do this because they’re still dead certain the American people are on their side. Do keep in mind this is a sincere belief…and there’s polling to back it up! No, seriously! Of course, such polling shows Trump minus fourteen on immigration…so, in other words, its a poll of the faculty at Columbia University. But that doesn’t worry our Dems! They have their poll showing that Resistance is working and so if they just keep calling Trump Hitler and keep fighting for illegals, 2026 will be a landslide win for them.

But I think there is a more serious issue for us on our side to discuss: what are we to do with these morons? That is, how can our Republic survive if complete nitwits who believe obvious lies are allowed a say? I’m honestly not sure it can. At least, not as we knew it forty or so years ago. They are just too completely stupid to be fully reformed…someone who’s, say, forty years old and seriously believes that allowing millions of Third World migrants in is not someone who is capable of thought. Because only a moment’s thought would get to the point of “oh, yeah; that’s not good. Even if immigration is good. Even if high numbers of immigration is good – just waving millions through is a really bad idea”. Eventually, I believe, we’re going to have to restrict the franchise and return at least some government power to a body only indirectly elected by the people (you know, the Senate as it is supposed to be).

It will be the only way we can preserve the rule of law, after all. The thing about having a rule of law is that you need those in charge of making and enforcing law to know what a law is, and the various circumstances which those charged with enforcing law are faced with. It isn’t a game. Sure, there is a need for a theory of law – for those who are philosophers of law. Who try to draw out of law its underlying meaning and help us determine what is likely a good or bad law. But we also need very practical people who will ensure that the laws are both enforced but also not a suicide pact. You have people right now who are saying zapping drug boats on the high seas is illegal…and it is lawyers saying it. Which means – unless they’re just flat out lying – none of them have the least clue about how law works.

Guys, we read them their rights when we’ve picked them up on suspicion of bank robbery…we kill them when they’re heading towards our shores with a load of poison. Both are proper operations of law and in both cases all required respect for human rights have been observed. You don’t get to try to import poison – or slaves – into America and then expect us to jump through hoops before we can do anything to you. No: if we catch you in international waters, we treat you like a pirate (but much more efficiently than taking the time to hang you from a yardarm). A man arrested for bank robbery can waive his fifth amendment rights and confess freely to his crimes…a man driving a drug-laden boat in international waters has by the action waived all of his rights. That is, had he stayed in his own nation’s territorial waters or not taken contraband into international waters then we’d have to largely be hands off…but the combination of contraband + international waters = hellfire missile. Per the rule of law.

And here’s our real problem – there are millions of Americans who think we actually are doing something wrong. And not just in killing drug dealers at sea…in the mere process of detaining a person illegally in the USA, they believe our laws say we can’t do that. That we must only arrest such with a specific warrant listing a definite crime and then give the illegal a full trial – at our expense – before we can deport. Only a drooling idiot would believe that. And would you let a drooling idiot vote? Well, tens of millions of them did so last November.

They also believe there is a “hate speech” exception to the First Amendment, that “shall not be infringed” means you can infringe all the live long day, that abortion is a Constitutional right…on and on and on like that. Complete nonsense. Twaddle…but it is said not just by some low level moron but by people who hold elective and appointive office. People who can have us arrested. And there is the real problem we have – if these dimwits can vote then they may obtain power again and then we’ll find ourselves faced with morons who hate us having the power to jail. Not something I want to do. And it is not something I think our country can survive long term.

Here’s the kicker: restricting the franchise is also the only way we can ensure ourselves against a King. As others have pointed out, Trump is our Gracchi. If this doesn’t work, then we’ll find a Sulla. But make no mistake about it, we’re not actually going to allow ourselves to be lined against a wall by the functional equivalent of the cast of Idiocracy. In the end, the only way to avoid Caesar is to make sure morons can’t guarantee his arrival.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) took dead aim at the infamous Filburn case – this was a Depression-era court case in which a man was fined for producing for his own consumption more wheat than the federal government allowed. Filburn’s argument – which is 100% correct – was that since his wheat was only for his own consumption it wasn’t commerce (interstate or otherwise) and so Congress had no right to regulate his production under the commerce clause. The Supreme Court – by 1938 controlled by FDR loyalists – simply ruled that the clearly written Constitution meant the opposite of what it said. This is the foundation for why the federal government is deeply involved in all aspects of American life (it was also the foundation of the absurd Roe and Obergefell decisions).

It is way past time we revisited these issues – in fact, Lee might have hit upon the most crucial: that is, the federal government’s assertion under the commerce clause that as anything might effect interstate commerce it is covered by federal law. This assertion makes a mockery of even having State and local government. Commerce is a word with meaning – so is interstate. For Uncle Sam to have a say there must be something for sale across State lines. If it isn’t for sale and/or doesn’t cross State lines, the federal government has no power over it under the 10th Amendment which holds that powers not granted to the federal government are reserved to the States or to the people.

Keep in mind that the federal government’s interference in agriculture was based upon the idea that we must keep food prices high. Think about that. America’s fertile farmland and hard working farmers had done so well that food prices were dropping. Now, this did adversely impact some farmers…no kidding; of course it would. This did result in the heartbreaking fact that a farmer who wasn’t making it was going to lose his farm…perhaps a farm several generations in his family and founded by a hard-bitten pioneer back in the Old West. That was tragic…and some aid should be rendered to any hard working person who is losing out. But to keep food prices high? Why in God’s name would anyone want high food prices?

I guarantee you that farming, as an industry, will never die. People gotta eat – three squares a day, every day. There are 335,893,238 Americans. That is more than a billion meals per day. Every day. We should be producing at maximum capacity to both ensure there’s always more than enough and that it is as inexpensive as possible…not working out ridiculous programs to restrict production and artificially keep prices high so that the least-efficient farms can keep going (spoiler: they didn’t keep going anyway – 100 years ago there were 14 million employed on farms in a much smaller US population, these days it is about 3 million). And don’t get me wrong here – I personally think more people should be in the food production business. I don’t like megacorporations owning vast farm and ranch acreage. I’m ok with tax and regulatory changes which would make it easier – and more profitable – for small, local farms to operate. But to restrict production? That’s just stupid.

Daniel Penny will be attending the Army-Navy game (Go Navy, BTW) as a guest of VP Vance (yes, I know that technically he’s not until 1/20 but its clear that neither Joe nor Kamala are working any longer so we default to Trump and Vance). This has caused some heartache among the Stupid-American Community. Their argument is that it is unsavory for Penny to be there…as if he did something wrong.

And you really need to roll that around in your head. Back in 1912 when the Titanic was sinking, by and large the men aboard swiftly figured out that they were going to have to die if the women and children were going to live. Sure, there were a few cowards but if you, say, roll through the First and Second Class passengers who died, you’ll be in almost all-male company. These were the men with easiest access to the lifeboats – and they were men of social and financial power. They could have mostly got away. They stayed, and died. Because that is what you do. So, too, with Penny. He could have just sat there and pretended he saw nothing…but he saw a threat and he saw innocent people who had no way to defend themselves…and so he placed himself – his life – between the threat and the others. You can never know what will happen once a physical altercation begins. Penny, as a Marine, obviously knows how to take care of himself in a fight but in a fight, the other guy always gets a say. For all Penny knew, he was going to his death…and yet he went anyway. That is just heroism, plain and simple.

And that is what the Left is really complaining about here – not the death, but the heroism. They can’t stand it; they hate it, in fact. They prefer that people sit quietly and accept their fate – no, not themselves. They want to be in privileged communities and transport where such risk will never confront them. But for you, serf, they just want you complacent as they run their little sociological experiments on you. The threat wasn’t a threat – he was a street dancer who needed help! That he was a drug addict who had refused lavish offers of help is simply not mentioned. Because to mention it blows up the whole program. So, Penny had to be brought down…and we all expected a conviction because it is NYC…but we all forgot that the jurors ride the subway, too.

If the Left keeps up with this sort of thing then the world will swiftly come to understand that the real purpose of the police isn’t to protect and serve the honest, but to save the lives of the guilty. We have police so that we, the citizens, don’t have to lynch criminals. A societal decision was made more than a century ago that we would surrender part of our right to self defense in the interests of order and justice (plus as we went along we became a lot more weak-stomached than we used to be). But this only works so long as, by and large, the police keep us safe…and not just safe from rape and murder, but from even being overly harassed as we go about our business. The Left likes to assert that someone ranting and raving on a subway is just something you can ignore…but you can’t. Especially if you’re a youth, or a woman, or an unfit man. That raving lunatic might end up harmless…but you can’t be sure. The whole time he’s there ranting and raving you are in terror. The police are supposed to come and take that man away…and do it so efficiently that only rarely is anyone confronted by someone raving on a subway.

If that deal is broken, then people will reclaim their right to self defense…and the raving nutter won’t be merely restrained by a passenger (this is all Penny did – the man was alive when the police arrived), but he’ll be killed. And nobody saw nothing. The Left doesn’t realize the fire they are playing with here.

UPDATE:

Just so we can all keep up to Social Media speed here, Sidney Sweeney was recently photographed at a pool and to the shock of some, she didn’t look like she does when she’s perfectly made up for the red carpet. They’re calling her mid! Well, we report, you decide (posting bikin-clad pics of Sweeney is NOT engagement farming. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

The Divided States of America

Mark Noonan46 Comments

It was pointed out on X today that if you take the Democrat-governed urban areas of Missouri out of the mix, the murder rate in six times less than in those cities. Do you realize what a remarkable thing that is? In fact, there are counties in Missouri which go years without a homicide. And this is why the gun rights people get angry about the whole debate – another person used words to the effect of “a couple black kids shot at a bunch of brown kids and this means me, a white man who doesn’t live there, has to have his rights violated?”. That was a very crucial observation to make. It illustrates the dual nature of America in 2024. A house divided.

Keep in mind that the murder rate is high in Democrat-run cities on purpose. I refuse to concede that anyone is that stupid: you know what will happen if you let criminals go or let them off lightly. They’ll just go and commit more crimes. I don’t care how many studies you have or supposed arguments that this will lower crime, you know it won’t. It can’t. The person who commits a robbery, rape or murder isn’t a petty criminal just starting out on the life of crime – but the time you’re sticking a gun in a store clerk’s face, dragging a girl into an alley or ending a human life, you are a hardened criminal. And it doesn’t really matter how young the criminal is. You can become a hardened brute very young. Heck, Hitler did it with his people in just a few years with his Hitler Youth savages committing heinous war crimes at the age of 16 in some cases. However the person got to the store clerk, girl or person about to die, by the time they got there the only way to stop them is with force – and with lengthy incarceration if caught.

And everyone knows this.

But they let them out – if they even bother going after them. One of the dirty secrets of American policing is how badly policed most minority neighborhoods are. Huge amounts of crime in such areas go entirely unreported and only the worst aspects of it show up in the records. And as I said, it is desired. All of those who run Democrat cities are infused with Marxist-Leninist thought. It started to come here in the 1930s with German commie refugees (ie, cowards who wouldn’t stand up to Hitler) and it has just entrenched itself ever more deeply. By now, most of them don’t even know they are just aping Lenin’s “who, whom?” and “loot the looters”. But it is what they are doing; their belief is that crime is the result of the system and those who benefit from the system must be punished by crime until they abandon the system.

But then, also, today Trump was ruled guilty by a fraud masquerading as a judge. Guilty of what? of nothing. He borrowed money with the consent of the lender and then paid it back on time with interest. They say it was a crime – they say the assets used to back the loans were inflated. Not according to Trump or the banks – not, that is, according to the people involved. But according to a “judge” Trump is guilty of fraud. The same system which lets rapists and murderers walk is throwing the book at Trump. And pro-life protestors. And J6 defendants. And whistle blowers.

Why? Because it is, once again, not about justice or law: it is about punishing political offenders. You are to have rapists wander your streets because you are guilty of the political offenses of being middle class/white/Christian/Republican. Trump is being charged on the political grounds that he threatens the dominance of the Left. The rapist and the murderer does not threaten the political dominance of the Left (and the Ruling Class is confident that private security will keep them safe). This is all very obvious by now. And yet plenty don’t see it.

Also today we learned that some Russian dissident got offed in prison and we’re all supposed to be horrified by it. Honestly, I had never hard of the guy. Some people I know have claimed some knowledge but, lets face it, he’s only news because they want another $60 billion for Ukraine so stoking emotions about his death is politically useful at the moment. But in light of this – and Tucker Carlson having some nice things to say about Russia – we’re being told that to question American moral superiority over Putin’s Russia is tantamount to treason. Really? Yes, I get it that the Moscow metro system is a showpiece in no way reflective of how Russian life is. But the rat, crime and drug addict infested New York metro system is entirely reflective of how American life is in the cities. Maybe Russia does suck, but why can’t we – supposedly free and responsible people – at least have a subway system where people aren’t urinating on the cars? Not having human feces in public places – and people smoking crack on the train – doesn’t seem like an unreasonable ask. To me, it is kinda basic decency. The glittering art of the Moscow train station is obvious a front…but there are no human feces there. So, plus one for Russia.

We’re not actually free if there are bums wandering our streets in a drug-induced haze. They’re dangerous…and so we avoid the areas they congregate and we hope they don’t find their way to our immediate neighborhood. We’re not free if the crime rate is high; we have to lock our doors, perhaps arm ourselves, and pray that the criminals will pass us by because even if armed we don’t want to actually shoot someone. Sure, they aren’t free in Russia. In fact, there are hardly any free places left in the world – with rural America being the freest, but even there year by year it is less. And it gets less and less because an overpowering government sticks its nose in more and more…while also allowing criminals to wander freely, and persecuting anyone who steps out of line.

Another person said they are much freer in America than anyone in Russia is. Perhaps. But only marginally. And even with that, it is only because the government hasn’t got around to you yet. Think about it – if you were to be arrested as a white supremacist terrorist tomorrow, how confident are you that you could beat the rap? How long would it take? Think about your friends and family: how many would really stick by you knowing that doing so places them on the radar and at risk of arrest, themselves? The government can instantly ruin the life of any American citizen – and count on the MSM to take the government’s side, as long as the person arrested has been identified as an enemy of the Ruling Class. The Constitution won’t show up to help you – it is just a piece of paper. It only has power as long as people abide by it. That you could, by effort, get out of such an injustice doesn’t really mean anything – in that case, the process was the punishment. But in a nation really obeying the US Constitution, you’d have no fear of it even happening except by some bizarre mistake. Now we all know it can happen – and know that the only reason it hasn’t happened is that the Ruling Class is still a bit afraid of us…and, of course, we are armed. In the UK and Australia they are sending people to jail for trivial offenses…all of this, naturally, occurring after gun confiscation for your own good, dammit.

This is why we must steel ourselves to harsh actions. We don’t need a court ruling in our favor ten years after the violation…we need to start sending Leftist Ruling Class foot soldiers to jail. These corrupt and political judges, police officers, DA’s, NGOs etc all need to start seeing the inside of cells. For a long time. It is the only way we can possibly stop them short of violence.

These people – those who are persecuting people like Trump and pro-lifers – are not Americans. They are aliens. They are enemies. I don’t care if they have Mayflower ancestors…somewhere along the line they broke the mystic chains of memory and became anti-American. Out to destroy America and the Americans. It is either stop them, or they stop us.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan88 Comments

Senator Kennedy asked a Biden judicial nominee a pretty basic legal question (the sort you’d expect to be learned in pre-law) and the nominee had no idea what Kennedy was asking about. A lot of people are all, “what in heck are they teaching?” about it…but all with the assumption that law schools are still, well, law schools.

Now, to be fair, I have been set a little bit straight by a Twitter friend who stoutly asserts that in the law schools there are professors who vigorously teach law even if they, themselves, are far Left nutjobs. I trust the guy who told me this so I have to assume a blanket assertion I made on Twitter wasn’t true – that being that they don’t teach law, at all, in law school. So, I take my correction: they still do teach some law. That said, as we can see from this Biden nominee, they don’t teach much law…and I still vigorously assert that there is a negative selection in people brought into the government to ensure against any possibility of a real lawyer being appointed to a senior law enforcement or judicial position.

There are two factors as work here. The first is the need for “diversity”. The race hustlers are insisting that we have vast numbers of non-male, non-white lawyers. Whether or not there is a sufficiently large pool of such is irrelevant and I’m certain that its racist to even ask. They are going to get their diversity, folks: that is baked in. And not just diversity in admission, but diversity in result. No law school out there is going to have their graduating class be less than, say, 20 percent black…and if this means they have to graduate people who aren’t capable, they’ll do it. And, yes, I’m quite confident that when it comes to grading bar exams, the people doing so are also going to make certain that the “right” percentage of each diversity quota makes it (anyways, I understand from a lawyer friend that the bar has never been a straight up pass or fail: there has always been a little fudging in deciding just what constitutes passing and failing: easy, then, to rig the system to get the result you want). So, what we’ve got is a built in system which will ensure that a certain percentage of people will have no business at all being lawyers, but lawyers they shall be.

And that brings us to the second factor: the need for certainty. This is something which stems from Leninist legal practice – and it would amaze even many Conservatives to find out how much of Progressive legal and social policy is based on Leninism. It really has taken over the Left in the United States. Took decades to get it done, but it has been accomplished. In this instance, Leninist legal principle is that there is no “both sides” in the law – the law is to advance the cause or it isn’t law. In Lenin’s parlance it would be to advance the cause of the Working Class…but our modern Leninists don’t really like workers (Lenin didn’t either, of course) and so the cause now is the Victim…the racial, sexual, gender, what have you victim of the Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, Imperialist, Genocidal AmeriKKKa. The law is to advance the cause of the Victim or it isn’t law. Whatever happens, the designated victim must prevail in court – and as the victim is always pre-determined by the DNC Narrative of the moment, the Progressive lawyers and judges know how to rule. This is why law isn’t really taught, or at least isn’t taught to those being groomed for senior judicial positions: the Left needs certainty. The absolute assurance that when their legal cases are brought forth, everyone involved will follow the Party Line on who is the Victim. Can’t get that out of anyone who really knows the law or has an ounce of self respect: you can only get certainty out of mindless, Party hacks. And, so, that is what we get…and so Biden’s nominee who doesn’t know a basic aspect of law. But he’ll be confirmed and for decades he’ll be ruling however the Progressives tell him to.

As of this moment, nobody has a clue about Trump’s indictment. Which shows, if nothing else has, how flimsy it all is. As I said a long while ago: if Trump had really broken any law, they could have got him on it long ago. Say whatever you want about the man, but he keeps his legal affairs in order. And as I also observed, this makes sense: working the New York real estate market is a minefield of legal hazard and anyone who is successful at it gets first rate legal advice on just what can and can’t be done within the law. Trump’s been at this for decades…I’ll bet he’s one of the few rich people in the world who can stand up to legal scrutiny.

Uganda voted to ban homosexuality. The Left is still trying to figure out what to do about a bunch of black people who are victims of colonialism not going along with white Progressives. Of course the Left wants to hammer them over this – and the Left is also chock full of neo-imperialists trying to impose Western morals on Africa – but this was a democratic vote in the Ugandan parliament…they’re going to have a rough time with this one.

I’m just going to laugh about it, myself.

Mexico’s President condemns Biden and the USA on human rights grounds – including pointing out how wrong it is for the Democrats to seek the indictment of their political opponent. He’s right. And we look absurd. It is a moment of national humiliation that I’m not only lectured to by the President of Mexico, but I can’t punch back because I have no grounds.

DeSantis after a very good run has now backtracked on Ukraine and is taking a more neo-con line. To me, this is an unforced error for RDS – the base is pacifist and, also, this is the Democrat’s war and they are going to lose it. All GOPers should stay the heck away so that when this blows up, it blows up only in Democrat faces. The last thing we need is for the GOP to take ownership of this war…especially as the moment we do, the Democrats will go back to being anti-war, accusing us of war crimes and they’ll suddenly discover that their darling Zelensky is a corrupt thug. I hope that RDS backtracks on his backtrack.

Civilization Requires Force

Mark Noonan11 Comments

Some years back, I wrote about Bill Buckley and National Review’s successful efforts to purge the Birchers from the Conservative movement. The problem Buckley and others perceived what the JBS’ penchant for conspiracy theories – the kooky idea that there was a genuine global Communist conspiracy to undermine America and that this conspiracy had agents all through the US government and other institutions. The breaking point came when Welch – the founder of JBS – implied that Eisenhower might be some sort of Communist agent. That was, of course, ridiculous and Welch, himself, later distanced himself from it. But the crucial thing was that the Communists, at the time entirely subservient to Moscow and now just operating on their own, really were trying to undermine the USA any way they could. There really were Communist agents all through the government and other American institutions. And the primary failure of Conservatism was in not rooting these elements out – which, in my mind, was really Welch’s primary complaint about Ike. Part of the reason Truman didn’t seek re-election in 1952 was because the penetration of the US Government by Communists had been exposed and it was a horrible scandal especially as American troops were fighting Communist forces in Korea.

Ike could have cleared out the infiltrators. He didn’t; for normal GOPe reasons, he let them go…some to retire, others to be transferred to some other agency. For all the Progressive talk of a anti-Communist witch hunt in the 1950’s, the reality is that there wasn’t a witch hunt. Had there been one, we’d be a lot better off today. Had we gone on a truly forceful anti-Communist crusade in the USA, purging them from all positions and jailing those who were de-facto Soviet agents (very many of the leaders were), think of all the societal decay which wouldn’t have occurred…a huge amount of our social and economic disintegration over the past 50-60 years was caused by people who hate us being left in positions of power and influence.

So, why bring this up? Water over the dam, right? Can’t undo the past. Nope; we can’t. But we can work on the future. And over at National Review they are informing us that we Conservatives had better not like Nayib Bukele.

I know: your first question is, who the heck is that?

I, too, had never heard of him before NRO told me he’s bad. Turns out, he’s the President of El Salvador and he’s gotten a bit infamous of late for his massive crackdown on the horrifically violent gang MS-13. It had gotten really bad in El Salvador, guys; with some sources claiming the murder rate a few years back was 40 for every 100,000 people (most recent stat for us is 7 per 100,000…which, BTW, is a huge spike from just a few years ago). The gangs pretty much did whatever they wanted in El Salvador (as they do in so many Latin American countries) and, remember, these gangs aren’t like the US Mafia or even things like the Crips and the Bloods…for whatever reasons, Latin American gangs are simply inhuman brutes in their violence. Not just killing (via unbelievably savage means) rivals and witnesses (the normal run of gangland killings) but seeming to go out of their way to cruelly kill people who pose little or no threat, just to keep people terrified of the gangs, as such. Bukele did mass arrests and the murder rate in El Salvador has dropped precipitously.

Naturally, the Ruling Class is upset with this. You know the real reason why: a lot of them are owned by the criminals via bribery. But they are officially upset that, to put it mildly, Bukele didn’t ensure that the legal i’s were dotted and t’s crossed on the arrests…and it looks like arrested gangsters who were defiant…didn’t end so well.

Cry me a river.

Bukele is fighting for his country. He’s a bit of an odd duck having risen out of the Marxist FLMN and then dumping them for a more populist/nationalist ideology (which is another likely reason the Ruling Class hates him: can’t abandon the Commies!). He’s also clearly an opportunist (as a young, ambitious pol often is); there are claims he made some side deals with elements of MS-13 from time to time (which is logical to do; hold off one band while dealing with another of more immediate concern). But the thing is you can’t have a civilized nation if crime is running rampant. Your right to free speech and to vote is worthless if at any time you can be robbed or murdered by criminals acting with near-impunity (especially while your Ruling Class is safe and dry behind well-guarded walls and secret deals with the criminals). Before anything else, we must be secure in our lives and property. It isn’t just the bedrock of civilization, it is the bedrock of any functioning society no matter how primitive or advanced. Bukele is simply reacting to reality – unless his people are safe, they can’t build anything.

In a civilization we have carefully constructed rules, written and unwritten, about how things work. And when everything is functioning, these rules are sufficient. Most of the time, we simply obey the unwritten rules: going to work, paying our bills, keeping our houses tidy, being polite to others. In those rare instances where something slipped, we then refer to the written rules and, being civilized people, we go to court and let lawyers, judges and the law figure out the best possible result. But at the back of it all, the thing which made it and ultimately must sustain it, is force. Brutal force. A force which can kill everyone who won’t obey the written and unwritten rules. Bukele is just demonstrating this – and it is causing some alarm among those who are continuing to live well as the current system globally collapses into lawlessness.

It is coming here, folks. When you see those videos of people looting stores and beating others and such, that shows you the problem – a complete rejection of the unwritten rules and utter contempt for the written. And that contempt is well-earned as those in charge of enforcing the written rules have simply allowed crime to slide almost entirely for ideological reasons. But people can’t live like that. We can’t live forever in a society where people can rob and kill with impunity. The robbers and killers must be stopped by any means necessary.

We may already be past the point where the normal system are capable of handling this – that is, our system may be so weak and corrupted that even if it tried to address the issue, it can’t. If we are past the time of working with the rules, then we will find that the people will turn to an American version of Bukele. Someone who says they’ll get rid of the criminals and then just does so – and law be damned. Just get rid of them will be the cry and nobody is going to care what a Court which couldn’t stop the cime is going to say.

Bukele is further accused of using the emergency to gather power to himself which Constitutionally the President doesn’t have. And that is likely true, at least to some degree. He pretty much feels he has to: his people want to be saved from crime and he’s going to save them from it. This does bear the risk of the end of freedom in El Salvador – strongmen who save nations have historically been unwilling to surrender power after the rescue is complete. They come to see themselves as indispensable. They are fearful if they surrender power, their successors will come after them. Ego! We’ll see how El Salvador works this out – but however it comes out, Bukele is saving civilization. And if we let crime get out of hand here – and we are – then the American people will also turn to someone like Bukele…some who will just bust heads until the criminal element is gone. And then we’ll see if that person gives up the power.

It all stems from the fact that civilization is thin: it is a veneer over the human savage. In just a generation or two it can be lost – and if lost, that is when you’ll start seeing a disintegration among the people. I think we can already see that disintegration. We wait now to see if those committed to civilization will step up and save it…or if they’ll weakly allow the collapse to accelerate until the people forth a Caesar.