MAGA

Finding the Real Enemy

Mark Noonan2 Comments

Earlier today on X someone brought up Neville Chamberlain in relation to those currently running the world and I noted that (a) the Holocaust hadn’t started by the end of his tenure and (b) he was quite right that a Second World War would end Britain’s dominant position in the world; that he wasn’t necessarily wrong in the narrow sense. And this all got me thinking. I know, dangerous! But in light of the rise of neo-Nazi anti-Semitism on both the Left and the Right, I think it is good for us to sort of think the whole matter over again.

First and foremost, the world is a tricky place. It doesn’t lend itself to the hard and fast a lot of the time. In the light of history, we know Churchill was right – that every effort should have been made from Hitler’s rise to oppose and eventually destroy his regime. But that is hindsight. All credit to Churchill for correctly perceiving the sort of man Hitler was but, also, good to keep in mind that Churchill always sought dragons to slay. It was heroic and cast him in the starring role where he could display his unique dragon-slaying talents. Bottom line is that in 1933 and, indeed, up until March 1939 with Hitler’s occupation of Prague (or November, 1938 if you want to use Kristallnacht at the clarifying moment), the true nature of Hitler could only be guessed at, not known. And as far as things went to that point, he was no worse than Stalin. In other words, the grounds for a holy crusade were insufficient until later. It was only when he did something without the slightest justification and without even attempting to get some sort of international agreement on it (so, taking Prague or killing Jews simply for being Jews) that it could be clearly understood that Hitler wasn’t just a bad man, but an existential threat. And even at that point, the Holocaust wasn’t happening – and could not be imagined by any sane person.

Chamberlain was highly condemned after he left office – by the Labour party and by Churchill. It is mostly via the books Guilty Men (anonymously co-authored by Labour, Liberal and Conservative politicians) and Churchill’s The Gathering Storm that we perceive Chamberlain. These books are not fair to Chamberlain – nor were they intended to be. They were written to make a case – in Guilty Men a case against Tories and in The Gathering Storm a case against Chamberlain specifically. And they made their cases very effectively – and not dishonestly, especially in the case of Churchill’s book. But they still were cases – legal briefs, as it were. They weren’t the whole story and they weren’t cross examined by the defense. At least, not until decades later when confidential government documents and Chamberlain’s personal papers became available.

Chamberlain, though, wasn’t a coward nor was he an idiot. He had the word from the military Chiefs of Staff: there was no way Britain could stop a German conquest of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain had started British rearmament in 1935 so he knew that force had to be confronted by force. But he also knew that, by and large, the British people didn’t want to fight. That, indeed, the whole WWI thing was perceived as a mistake (and it was for Britain; they never should have sent a mass army to Flanders to chew German barbed wire). If there was some price to be paid which would get Hitler to sit down and shut up, Chamberlain figured it was still cheaper than a war which would destroy Europe and Britain’s Empire even if successful. Remember: as far as being homicidal and oppressive, by Munich Hitler was still no worse than Stalin, and nobody was calling for a crusade to end Stalin’s regime. The einsatzgruppen and death camps were still in the future. And so he did what he did. And went to war when it was clear that only military force would stop Hitler. And he’s been condemned at the bar of history ever since.

And we are supposed to learn from that history, but we don’t. Part of the problem is that ever since WWII, in order to get us to go along with massive defense appropriations, a national security State and endless wars we never get to win, they keep telling us that each new threat is a new Hitler. That if we don’t get on the ball and stop this guy, then its WWIII!!! And we’re all GONNA DIE!!!! This might make for clever propaganda but in the long run it has led to American’s getting fatigued with the effort. The expenditures of blood and treasure haven’t made us safer, freer or more prosperous. The latest iteration of this is, of course, Putin – if we don’t stop him in Ukraine then all of Europe will fall! For goodness sake, the man can’t even move his armies forward twenty miles in a straight line over the course of an entire summer’s campaign. He’s not about to roll into Warsaw, Berlin and Paris. Plus there is no indication he wants to take more than Ukraine, and maybe not even all of it. I mean, sure, if his armies do finally gain a strategic breakthrough he’s going to wring every ounce of advantage out of that…but, for now, that just isn’t happening. And it doesn’t look like it will happen any time soon.

But we get the Putin/Hitler thing endlessly and we’re called traitors if we don’t support an open-ended commitment to Ukraine even at the risk of a shooting war with Russia. And while we’ve been making a boogie man out of Putin, a real Hitlerian threat has arisen that we’re not fighting. Indeed, very large numbers of Americans are actively applauding this threat…and are joining it on its journey to anti-Semitic hatred and violence that would make Himmler proud. That threat is Islamism.

As I said earlier, in 1933 you simply couldn’t know. You could – and should – hate Hitler right away for the sort of things he was openly doing from the start, but you still couldn’t know where it was going. That there was a madman in charge of a major European power who’s ultimate goal was the death of every single Jew in the world…and the enslavement of those he considered to be inferiors. But now it is 2025 and we have the example of 1933-1945 in hand…and we’ve got people in the Muslim world who are using the exact same terminology as Hitler’s Nazis…who are denying the basic humanity of Jews. Who’s goal is the murder of every single Jew in the world…and the enslavement of everyone who isn’t Muslim. Is this all Muslims? It doesn’t matter. No more than it mattered if the Nazis represented all Germans. In the end, people who deny the humanity of others and propose mass murder and slavery as a solution to global problems should be stopped at the earliest opportunity. This is the lesson we were supposed to learn from WWII…not that every tin pot dictator is an existential threat, but that existential threats are existential threats and the quicker you end them, the better. That is, we know now that on January 30th, 1933 the Anglo-French alliance should have invaded Germany and killed Hitler and his Nazis. They couldn’t know they should…but if any of us could go back in time, that’s what we’d tell them they have to do. That any costs associated with doing this will be vastly less than the costs to come if action isn’t taken.

Now is the time to imagine you’re a time traveler from 2100…and your job is to tell us that the Islamists and associated neo-Nazi anti-Semites have to be destroyed, regardless of cost, because any such cost will be less than letting them go on. But that isn’t happening – mostly because we so distorted the history of WWII and its run-up and have so relentlessly ignored the rise of neo-Nazism in the Muslim world and the West that we simply don’t know what to do as a people.

To be sure, some people do – Trump is very clear on it: Putin isn’t Hitler and the stupid war in Ukraine should end. All Muslims aren’t Islamists so its ok to cut deals with the reasonable side of it…but the Islamists have to go. The anti-Semites – foreign and domestic – we see infecting our cities and colleges have to go. And Trump’s reward for seeing the world as it is: he’s a stooge of Putin and Israel. No, it doesn’t have to make sense. Stupid lies never have to. They just have to get the point across in an easily swallowed manner…and people are looking for an easy scapegoat for things not working perfectly.

And that brings us to the origin of the problem: the lack of apparent sense in it all. You have to think about how Marxism and anti-Semitism gained purchase. The world emerged from a Royalist system of life and thought in the 19th century and started along the path to voting to decide. Voting was the cure all, you see? That is how it was sold, and continued to be sold: if we can just vote, its all gravy! Surely a government we vote on will reflect our values and implement policies in accordance with our desires, right? How else could it be?

Well, it didn’t work out like that at all. The elected leaders would argue endlessly in parliament and in the streets but nothing went right and like clockwork it was revealed that those in government and business were giving and taking bribes. You couldn’t appeal to the King for justice – he had either been overthrown or made into a political eunuch. Various shadowy factions seemed to be in control and perverting the will of the people, at least as people perceived it (and most people perceive their own views as the general will – that is, they assume most people want what they want and can’t imagine anyone trying to get something else except in service of corruption or other evil). The Marxist and anti-Semitic agitators provided the answer – and it was a similar answer: a cabal of rich people were running the world in secret and had to be overthrown. And these rich people promoted perversion, addiction and crime to further their schemes of control. Sound familiar?

America was mostly protected against this because our strictly limited government for the longest time did ultimately reflect our values. Because it couldn’t do otherwise – our values were written into the government document. We could say what we want. Bear arms. Live where we want. Go where we want. Hard work lead to success. The kooks were here by the middle of the 19th century but nobody was paying much attention to them…until things started to not be as we wanted. The massive wave of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries wasn’t voted on…it just happened. Big business subsidized it to get cheap labor. Nobody was fighting to create a Federal Reserve…it was enacted at the behest of the rich but it wasn’t a popular movement. Year by year more and more things started to happen that nobody voted for and we were told we just had to go along with it and, for the most part, we did because America was so strong that it seemed acceptable to have a few odd things here and there. It was only when things started to go bad that the Marxist and anti-Semite conspiracy theorists started to gain traction…call it the end of the Vietnam War for the start point…the beginning of lunacy becoming mainstream…where Americans seriously started to think there was a shadowy cabal running the world.

And you have to keep in mind that there is some reality in this – it isn’t Jews or the Capitalists doing it…but there are rich people who do pervert society for their own ends. And some of them are Jews (some Catholic, some Protestant, some agnostic…but the Jews are always the easy target because they are small in numbers and can thus be cast as alien demons much easier). There really are people who get things nobody wants them to have via bribery. Nobody ever wanted some guy to be paid $100,000 to study Marxist lesbian poetry in El Salvador…but the guy got paid. How? Why? One of a million such things. How did this happen? How in heck does Mega Corporation X get to fire 10,000 Americans and hire 8,000 H1B foreigners to replace them? Who said? When was this debated?

It is corrupt. It is suicidal. So amazingly stupid that no sane person would agree to it…and so the insanity must be part of a Larger Conspiracy. Because of this the Marxist and the anti-Semite never lacked for supposed evidence of the Conspiracy. You just had to ignore the fact that most rich people are just people living their lives as are most Jews. It is so much easier to find a scapegoat – that much everyone knows, almost instinctively. Anyone with sense knows that the problem isn’t caused by The Rich or The Jews…but by individual people. Such people might need to be hanged, but you don’t hang their second cousin with them just because they share a bank account or a religion. That’s just stupid – only an idiot would believe that. But even knowing this doesn’t protect a person from falling for it…because it really is so easy. It requires no thought. And if you join the Marxist or anti-Semitic camps (which are rapidly melting into one camp), you’re welcomed heartily and each assertion of Marxist or anti-Semitic thought is lauded and rewarded and you’re now part of the Club…with the new fear of being ostracized for dissent.

And this concentration on The Rich or The Jews or any other group deflects from our real problem: getting after those who actually have done things to destroy our nation and world…and those who propose to destroy us all. Some anti-Semite idiot ranting and raving about the Rothschilds is taking time away from looking into who is giving to the Tides Foundation, a major money launderer for the overall Left. The moron Commie on a tear about how much money Musk has is taking away time better spent asking how much Chinese government money is now invested in the USA, and which Americans – of all political stripes – are benefitting from it. If you want a conspiracy theory, then the conspiracy is people who donate to Tides and who take Chinese money trying to make sure we don’t notice it. That we talk about anything but it. That we hate each other with a passion rather than uniting to ask them uncomfortable questions.

And that is just it – all of it. The solution to our problems: going after those individuals who are causing them. Even though that is hard. Even though it will mean taking down some of our own. Especially even though it is so much easier to allow the problem people to distract us with nonsense conspiracy theories (and, yes, malevolent money goes into funding these things…these days, I’m quite confident a lot of Chinese, Russian and Iranian money is spent on line promoting the hatred and fear). Find the real enemy and then destroy him. Don’t get distracted. Do it. Trump is doing it. Bondi is doing it. Bongino is doing it. So, too, is DeSantis doing it. Plenty on our side are…hampered at every turn by supposed allies of ours who are actually, IMO, paid shills who want us arguing with each other about nothing. We do have enemies we must beat…but they aren’t The Jews or The Rich or a shadowy cabal…they are right out there, funding attacks on us and trying to sow division in our ranks. Don’t let them. Don’t get distracted. Don’t fall for nonsense.

Back At It Open Thread

Mark Noonan24 Comments

Well, wonderful time at Lake Tahoe. Totally exhausted and we had the fun of the last 100 miles home the AC in the car conked out. Still makes cold air but the fan system simply isn’t blowing it into the cab in sufficient force to counteract Southern Nevada sunshine! So, with more than 93,000 miles on the car, we’re already looking for a replacement as at that mileage cars always start to nickel and dime you to death (this is probably just a busted fan or, perhaps, some break in the venting…but I suspect the fan as I could still feel cold air right at the vent openings). Its been a good car but it is time for it to go to that great garage in the sky (ie, the high miles used car lot where some poor sap will pay three times what its worth on a 19% APR loan…on the plus side, the actual maintenance was done on the regular so it probably has 25,000 miles left on it).

Gabbard has referred the Trump case to the DoJ. About time! Everyone involved from start to finish was breaking a whole raft of federal laws day in and day out. There are a host of very serious federal laws regarding the improper use of intel and law enforcement powers. And every person involved is guilty of the conspiracy – even if, in theory, they didn’t know exactly what was happening. And for those thinking the statute of limitations applies because it started in 2015…bad news! These people kept on breaking the law right through the 2024 election. That is, the law breaking kept on going…so, if you entered into the conspiracy in 2015 and bailed out of it in 2018, you’re still on the hook.

It is hard to decide if this or Biden’s dementia is the biggest political scandal in history. Not just American history: world history. That officials sworn to uphold the laws failed to do so – and, indeed, deliberately broke those laws – isn’t unprecedented, but the staggering scale of it here is hard to imagine. And it cuts right through just about every institution…even MSMers could be caught in this net. Not because they wrote it up, but because they actively cooperated in advancing the scam. It is one thing to say “I’m just a reporting saying what I’ve been told”…it is quite another to rigidly adhere to what were clearly talking points all through the matter. Remember, they all refused to cover the Hunter laptop story…not one of them broke ranks and pointed out the obvious: it is real, it is Hunter’s and it details quite a large number of felony actions. There are coincidences, but none quite like that – and if we can prove they were part of the conspiracy (which doesn’t require forensic proof – that is, to charge someone with conspiracy we don’t need to prove they took orders), then they’re going down as well. And it was all of a piece – the same people and institutions which created and pushed Trump-Russia created and pushed the myth of Biden cognitive ability as well as Hunter’s innocence.

We’ll see how it goes. But this tells why Trump wants us off Epstein and the Democrats want to talk about nothing else. We all know what a complete slime ball Epstein was and that very large number of well-connected people were deep in with him…but the bottom line is that the man is dead and the more crucial law enforcement issue isn’t to go after those who covered for Epstein but to go after those who tried to carry out a coup against the elected President. Democrats would love to talk Epstein for a year – after all, Biden’s people had four years to destroy evidence in that case. And even if it singed some Democrats, that’s worth the price if it bogs down Trump. My view: I don’t think Trump has let Epstein go so much as back-burnered it. At all events, if we take down the people who tried to destroy Trump, we’re probably going after most of the same people who protected Epstein.

Democrats are saying Colbert was fired from his TV gig for political reasons – as someone pointed out on X, the truth of the matter is that Colbert was kept on the air for political reasons. His ratings were horrible from start to finish. He was just considered a useful took in the DNC propaganda machine…his usefulness is now at an end.

You can – in theory – be liberal and be funny as well as insightful (stop laughing! It is possible!). A liberal host could make a success out of a late night or other TV gig. But it must be entertaining. I’ve watched a few episodes of Guttfeld’s show on Fox – sure, he and the guests lean Right (or at least Libertarian) but the most important thing is that they are funny and have something interesting to say. Endlessly repeating variations of Orange Man Bad is, at the end, just boring. It might make Liberal trained seals happy but nobody else. Joe Biden was a gold mine for the host of any humor-centered late night show…they left him untouched. Meanwhile, Trump is actually a funny guy – and the key to getting a hit on him is to first laugh with him…then you can tweak. Heck, the guys at Babylon Bee do it all the time. Trump also rolls with a joke – liberals never do. At least, not in some decades. One thing for certain, if Biden had been mentally competent those four years he would have been furious at the slightest fun being poked at him – so, too, was Obama (he actually took people aside and scolded them for being other than laudatory in all respects about him). This is why anyone with an actual sense of humor these past ten years has gravitated to the Right…first off, we laugh. Secondly, we can take a joke – in fact, we tend to laugh harder at jokes at our expense. We know we’re the Stupid Party! There’s a goldmine just in the Senate GOP for laughs (one recent joke: Senator Graham had to call his doctor after we bombed Iran because his erection lasted more than 4 hours). Democrats just can’t get this – and their attempts at being funny just fall flat.

On Vacation (Again) Open Thread

Mark Noonan15 Comments

Ok, so I’m here or somewhere close:

If you’ve never been to Lake Tahoe, put it on your bucket list! It is just one of the most beautiful places in the world. That water is cold. All snow melt. But its so sunny and warm up there this time of year that the water doesn’t feel so bad after the first shock.

I won’t try to anticipate the future here – we’re on Trump Time so what was OMG!!!! today is “remember the Old Times?” in a few days. Confident Trump will continue to confound his opponents.

It All Comes Together

Mark Noonan5 Comments

In a little bit of a follow up to the last post: people on our side are getting ok with responding to violence with violence. Even saw a guy on X who suggested flogging for the more minor offenders…including, outside politics, those who shoplift and such. This is the way we’re going to have to go. Mostly because just like those attacking ICE, it is the stupid people who shoplift and vandalize.

If you catch an 8 year old trying to lift a candy bar from the store you understand the whole sequence: he saw the candy bars. How many of them! It is just one. And, wow, a candy bar would be nice right now!

The 8 year old doesn’t understand the amount of labor that went into getting that candy bar onto the store shelf. How razor thin the profit margins are on each candy bar sold and how the owner of the store has to sell quite a lot of them just to make ends meet. And we don’t get too angry with the 8 year old – sure, some punishment is warranted – and must be done – but an 8 year old lacks the knowledge and wisdom necessary to fully understand the action taken.

By the time we’re talking about a 28 year old, a different set of parameters come in. To be sure, that 28 year old shoplifter or vandal still might not understand the full ramifications of what is being done – but if that is so, it just means our actions must be even sterner than we might initially contemplate. A 28 year old should fully understand it all – if a person after nearly three decades of life doesn’t understand it, then we’d better make darn sure that they at least understand risk/reward and how very, very painful its going to be if they get caught.

The bottom line is that someone stupid enough to steal from a store or think that ICE should be attacked isn’t someone you can reason with. Such people are all impulse and emotion. They should have been taught very young to control that sort of thing but they weren’t. In fact, here in 2025, they were more than likely taught that impulse and emotion are the way to go. That the whiny shout is how you get your needs met. In a lifetime of shouting and grabbing and having a temper tantrum they’ve never once met someone who will say “no” and make it stick. We’re going to have to do that.

Right now the DOJ is applying current laws to the problem – with some success. You might note that its been a while since a Tesla was set on fire. But I’m concerned this is mostly due to people finding out that Teslas have cameras all over the place – that they haven’t learned their lesson so much as just shifted their target…to now throwing rocks at ICE agents figuring that masks and numbers give a good shot at getting away with it. Plus the MSM Propagandists aren’t talking to much about Musk and DOGE of late and the target audience has the attention span of a gnat. I suspect we’re eventually going to be forced to extreme measures.

This is because illegal immigration is the lynchpin of the whole Leftist operation. This is why right now the Democrat-paid “MAGA” influencers are going ape about the Epstein issue. Which we all do care about very much and would like to see unraveled but everyone paying attention realizes that Trump really hit the nail on the head with his emphasis on illegal immigration. The Democrats would love to have us talking about anything else but immigration and would also love to get MAGA fighting itself over the Epstein case. But here’s something to chew on: Trump repeatedly promised to release the JFK, MLK and RFK files…but he didn’t actually get up there and make a specific promise regarding the Epstein files. He alluded to the issue, but it was never central to his transparency program. And, of course, file releasing of any type was never as big a Trump campaign issue as illegal immigration.

Why?

I think we were all a little blind on the matter – we were all just thinking it isn’t good to have millions of foreigners wandering around. We knew about lots of other things involved – for instance, I have repeatedly said that Cartel involvement (and bribery of US officials) is a major aspect of it all. But Trump made it very central and we’re just now starting to see why.

Announced today is the termination of a Clinton-era (!) program which allowed taxpayer funds to pay for trade school for illegal immigrants. Think about that for a moment…since Clinton we’ve been forking over money for illegal immigrants going to trade schools. When did this happen? When was it debated on? Passed through Congress? Why didn’t W stop it?

It just sort of happened – Clinton ordered it. No debate. The funding was just included – year after year – in those omnibus bills of thousands of pages. Did W even know of it? Did anyone other than the people involved in dispensing and receiving the money? Who the heck knows. Main thing, the money flowed out – and has been flowing out for decades. All based on a self-perpetuating Executive order by Bill Clinton. And then the light goes off in your head: how much of that money actually made it to helping Jose from Chiapas learn how to be a plumber? We Americans didn’t know about it – how in heck would an illegal immigrant know about it? Oh, sure, there were people enrolled and money was dispensed…but how much – what percentage of it – actually educated an illegal immigrant? What percentage just went to line the pockets of politically connected individuals? What percentage eventually wound up kicked back to the Cartels who traffic the people into our country?

Start to see it?

Trump didn’t just see the millions flowing across the border – huge as that issue is – he saw it as a gigantic system of misappropriating tax dollars into the pockets of the criminals and the connected (often same/same). Untold billions – probably trillions over the years – has gone through this. Money for “trade school” is only a small part of it but it just one of ten thousand spigots tapping into the US Treasury…and it all has become an ATM for lots of people…from Senators to Mexican drug lords. And they’re big mad that Trump is threatening the gravy train. Now we also see the connection to USAID – cuts to which sort of caught us all on the hop but Trump new all along what he was doing.

And this is why we’re probably going to have to get very stern – and I think we’ve got the stomach as a people to get that stern. People who have access to hundreds of billions of misappropriated dollars per year will not give up on that without a fight. They’re around the edges of violence right now…but if Trump keeps going, they will get actually violent, with the stupid being the cannon fodder. And so we’ll have to treat the stupid very, very harshly. Making up for what they lacked in childhood…someone to knock some sense into their heads.

The Democrats are Inciting Violence (as Usual)

Mark Noonan16 Comments

There have been quite a lot of violence directed towards ICE of late. Attempted ambushes of ICE officers, attacks on their buildings. A man was killed in Los Angeles when he arrived, armed, to attack ICE officers (the LA Times that day, of course, ran with a story about how illegals are feeling “fear” over the ICE raids). These attacks are the direct result of Democrat rhetoric about ICE and the immigration enforcement efforts.

Keep in mind that ICE is made of American citizens – you and me, that is – who are merely trying to enforce long-standing American immigration laws; and these laws were passed in a bi-partisan manner as everyone agreed that we needed strict enforcement of our immigration laws. The Democrats are making out that ICE is a Gestapo-like organization of purely evil people who are “invading” America to snatch people at random off the streets and “disappear” them to nobody knows where. This is all very stupid rhetoric…but, remember, it isn’t designed to get to you and me. It isn’t even really designed to get to most Democrats. It is designed to get the most stupid people in America to commit violence. It is intentional – and it is having its intended effect.

Someone in Democrat-land has decided that the way forward here is to incite violence – likely on the theory that if enough violence happens, the American people will be intimidated into abandoning Trump on the immigration issue. Sure, they are still keeping up with the lawfare with ever more absurd court rulings from activists in judicial robes, but they know where this ends: the Supreme Court swatting it all down. Perhaps on 7-2 votes in the end. This is because there is simply no case to be made that removing an illegal is wrong. Heck, you’d be on thin legal ice bringing a case about a legal immigrant being deported – foreign presence in the USA is a revocable privilege. And the Executive has near-plenary authority on deciding who can come…and who has to go. So, the Democrats know that the system won’t back them – and this means it is time to wreck the system. That is, apply violence to it and hope that everyone runs away.

This is just like their anti-Trump rhetoric – calling him a Nazi and an existential threat to Democracy…it got shots fired and a man killed in Butler and nearly in Florida…and they do hope still for someone very stupid to get close enough to try again. This is why I am always worried when Trump does a public appearance. But the man has a yard of guts and simply won’t be intimidated. Will we?

I hope not. No matter what they do, remain firm. They are trying to terrorize us into giving up. Don’t give into it. Stout hearts! Once the fever breaks – and it will – if we remained strong we’ll win it all.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan16 Comments

In the immediate aftermath of the Texas flood the Democrats swung into action!

Going to help and raising funds for the victims?

Oh heck no! They got their talking points out and started blaming Trump! You see, because NOAA had some DOGE staff cuts a few months back, THIS WAS ALL TRUMP’S FAULT YOU MAGA MORONS!!!! Of course, if you read the articles about the NOAA cuts from the time they don’t actually list who was fired – sure, they say it was vital people but since they didn’t tell us which, exact, people were let go, you can rely on it was the Deputy Assistant Director for Diversity Affairs – not anyone mission critical. And, anyways, as the storm built up the NWS in the area called in the troops and so they were actually overstaffed at the time of the disaster.

I pointed out on X that after reading the articles about it, I got the distinct impression that nobody had messed up. The warnings were issued in a timely manner and people reacted responsibly to them – but it seems that the storm cell stalled in place for a bit and just dumped water…and in a particular place where the terrain ensured it was going to be bad. In short, it is a natural disaster…like an earthquake or tsunami and while we can all look back and wish this, that or the other thing had been done, there really wasn’t anything that was going to change the result. It is all just a horrible tragedy and Democrats are some sick, twisted people trying to wring political advantage out of it.

Elon has started his new American Party – which is going to be a bit interesting, mostly in who joins it. Most will be sheer lunatics. But what Musk will first find out is how difficult ballot access is. Here in Nevada it is fairly straightforward – but even here we require a new party to get the signatures of 1% of the voters in each House district. Each district: you can’t roll up the numbers in NV-01 and use that to make up for a deficit in NV-04…he’s going to have to hire people to wander around Elko trying to get signatures. Also, Nevada already has an Independent American Party (a last echo of Wallace’s 1968 campaign) and that will cause confusion. And other State’s have positively Byzantine access laws. Bottom line, it will be very difficult for Elon to get on the ballot in all 50 States by election day, 2026. And he’s already said he’s going to be very targeted…which translates into, “I’ll try to torpedo GOPers in tight races”.

Why is he doing this? Can’t say for sure: I can’t read his mind. But I did find out that one of the things OBBB did was terminate the sale of what amounts to carbon credits to meet CAFE standards. The CAFE standards still exist but the fine for noncompliance has been reduced to zero…Musk’s Tesla makes huge money – apparently the difference between profit and loss, by a lot – selling credits to other car makers who don’t meet CAFE standards. They won’t need these credits and so Tesla will lose money…lots and lots of money. If what I read is correct – and it seems to be – Musk is already selling each Tesla at a loss…and more than making up for it via Green New Scam provisions which will now no longer matter. As I said many times before, people who make the kind of money Musk has have a primary loyalty to their money. If Musk had just wanted to be rich then once he got to a couple billion dollars he would have kicked back at the beach…that he keeps going piling up more and more means that money (and the power it brings) fascinates him. You risk his money and he will be upset with you.

Also as I’ve said, Musk is no Conservative – he’s really rather all over the map and mostly seems to favor things which work out best for Musk. Heavily invested in solar, so he boosts solar. Heavily invested in EV’s, so he favor’s EV mandates and subsidies. Heavily invested in space exploration, favors big subsidies for that. Etc, etc, etc. I personally think that he’s simply trying to pressure Trump and the GOP into making concessions…that in the next reconciliation bill promised by Speaker Johnson, he gets back some of what he lost in the OBBB. Perhaps Trump will accommodate him? He is a deal maker, after all – but Trump holds the whip hand here: Trump is actually popular and he doesn’t need Musk for anything. In addition, we have the history of Trump – everyone who crosses him gets wrecked, usually by their own stupidity.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan2 Comments

I stayed up to watch the vote on the Rule for the OBBB…and it was all just so very irritating. I’m sick of these GOPers who play this game of chicken.

I get that everyone wants to maximize their political gain out of these things…but the place to do that is while the bill is being crafted, not when its up for final passage. It is like we’ve raised up a generation of Congresscritters who don’t know how to do it…and then as I mentally ranted and raved about it, I understood: they really don’t know how to do it. Do you realize how long its been since real politics took place in the Capitol? It isn’t a political field…its a stage. Its where you go to have an impressive background to state your talking points. Politics is done in staff offices…and for staffers, a bit of backstabbing at the crucial moment is probably what they’re told to do…and likely by Democrats (there is a poll of staffers for DC…and I’ll bet most of them are Democrats).

I don’t think these guys know how to horse trade and I’ve got the horrified feeling that they can’t horse trade because horse trading requires that you keep your word. In the old days of politics, a person’s word was their bond. You only rarely made a solid promise to do something but when you did, you kept your word. You had to. If you got a reputation for ratting out, you’d be finished. Nobody would trust you – the Party bosses would find a primary challenger because nobody likes a liar. Or, at least, nobody used to. Olden days valued honesty. Modern times seem to value the brazen lie – and the more brazen it is, the more it is admired. One of the GOPers causing the hold up last night just last year was stating that border security was the most important issue of our times…and there she was last night, objecting because the bill didn’t cut spending by an additional one percent. That isn’t principle – that is being a liar.

We really need to get people to understand that this isn’t a game. The fate of our nation is at stake – and while Democrats can gum up the works and prevent us from getting all we want, we still must get as much as we can. Trump must be able to rely on a solid GOP caucus…and if he can’t, then its time to primary until we do. We can’t make these people honest, but we can make them afraid.

Oh, Jeffries got up in the House to rant and rave against OBBB and he said, I quote, that the “deportation machine will be unleashed on steroids”. So, what we voted for.

Have a great and safe Fourth!

Open Thread

Mark Noonan18 Comments

The other day the UK voted to kill people to save on their healthcare budget. Of course, it wasn’t presented that way…it was all about “compassion” … where we compassionately whack granny rather than take care of her. After all, the old broad has been around a while and in her current condition she can’t bake a pie…so, here: take this $20 pill instead of this $20,000 medical treatment. It is all just horrific…but what is to be expected by people who don’t really believe anything any more. This is why I say the UK is doomed – and its not doomed by Muslims being imported, but by Brits not believing in God or, indeed, anything of note. The Muslims will take over the dead body of Britain…but someone would no matter because very soon there won’t be any British people left even if you do see some white guy with a Cockney accent. The only slight chance for Britain is the fact that – like a lot of places around the West – there is an ongoing revival of Christianity among youth. Still small in numbers, but growing rapidly…so, there might be a fight for Britain. But not over the current system – over who gets to replace it.

But I bring this up because there was this Lib-Dem MP who was rebuked from the pulpit by his priest. His Catholic priest. Had the guy been Church of England his non-binary priestess of color would have awarded him a medal for voting to kill. The MP was upset because the priest had made the public statement that he could no longer receive communion. That’s what bothered him – the public rebuke. Not the fact that he took his immortal soul in his hands and let it slip away because his constituents favor offing the elderly. The man goes to Mass every Sunday. Over the years the entire New Testament and most of the Old has been read out to him. He’s heard untold numbers of homilies expounding Catholic teaching…and he’s shocked and hurt that his public defiance of Catholic teaching led to a public rebuke of same. Catholic in Name Only! But that is the problem and if you wonder why we get some bad things happening in the Church – and, indeed, in all religions – it is just this: some people are only nominally in their religion. It is a sort of a hobby but it doesn’t touch their lives in any meaningful way…they live lives of practical paganism. And there are plenty of priests and pastors (and rabbis and imams) who are just as practically pagan as their wooden-headed congregations.

In case you wonder why I’m no longer in favor of universal suffrage it is really this: it isn’t that people are too stupid to vote but that people are too indifferent to be allowed to vote. If you don’t believe in anything, then why the heck are you even voting? For more welfare? To make some sort of social statement because you voted the “right” way? Well, that’s what gets us people like Obama in office so no thanks on that. I’d rather compete with people who hate me for a reason rather than people who hate me because TV told them to.

Canada tried to slap some BS tech tax on us retroactive back to 2022 and Trump terminated trade talks and Canada dropped the idea. It can’t be emphasized enough that access to the US market is the most valuable thing in the world…other countries might be richer per capita, other countries might have more people in them…but nobody has our combination of money and people. To sell in the USA is the most magnificent opportunity available…and people will pay through the nose for the privilege. That is what our Experts didn’t and don’t get and Trump instinctively knew all along. The tariffs are to get them to understand that there’s a price for doing business here and it’ll either be paid at the customs house or by a deal which allows us to sell in your country. Everyone gets to pick what they want but nobody gets a free ride any more.

Over on X a veteran posted about his experiences in the Muslim world during the War on Terrorism. It isn’t a pretty picture. It went viral. A lot. The guy has about 45,000 followers but the post is now up to 13.7 million views. Give it a read. What I believe is important about it is the fact that he’s just brutally telling us what it was like – with no condemnation of Muslims as Muslims. It is just what he saw – what he had direct experience of in a wartime situation in the Muslim world. I can tell it is true because it is a very extreme version of what I experienced in the peacetime Muslim world back in 1985-86. And do note that none of this sort of stuff was reported in the MSM…they’d be all over an American who shot the wrong guy but they never gave the actual context of what being there was like. It didn’t fit the Narrative.

First thing for all Americans to remember about Islam: it is different from the United States. This may come as a shock – especially for the fine people at Gays for Palestine – but they really aren’t just like us. Different language, different religious atmosphere, different historical development. The point being made in the post was that you can’t just willy-nilly transport these people to the USA – or the larger West – and expect them to simply fit in. Sure, self-selected people arriving via normal immigration process can be fine…and have been fine for ages…but waves of “refugees” being shoved in via NGO-funded human trafficking, not so much. The difference is that the Muslim who simply wants to live in, say, Germany and so does his best to live like a German is an immigrant…the Muslim trafficked into Germany is a combination of welfare bum and invader…who not only does not understand the West, but holds it in contempt.

We don’t want to have any more excuses for bad behavior – and it extends not just to importing people who don’t want to be here, but also to excusing Third World failure. I pointed out on X that Haiti is on the same island as the Dominican Republic and yet Dominica’s per capita GDP is more than five times that of Haiti. I asked, reasonably, just how could people louse it up as bad as the Haitians had? And then I got hit by The Excuse:

After independence from France – a quite brutal affair where the Haitians massacred all the white men and forced the surviving white women to marry Haitians – the French and Haitians reached a deal…and to be sure, it was a deal made with a French fleet off of Port au Prince. The French demanded an enormous sum of money as compensation for lost property and all the French who had been killed and, faced with overwhelming force, the Haitians agreed. These payment were enormous, especially on a poor country like Haiti, and the various financial means used to pay off the indemnity ended up working out to the last payment not being made until 1947. And that’s it, you see? Had that indemnity not been imposed, the Haitians would have had the economic sinews to build themselves up. There are serious calls for France to pony up $100 billion in reparations for all this.

I’d like to point out at this moment that 1947 was 78 years ago. Suppose Haitian development was negatively impacted by the debt – a reasonable assertion – this doesn’t explain why since the debt was paid there’s been no real improvement. Over the course of 78 years – a human lifetime – there should have been some movement towards economic prosperity and political stability. Instead we recently had some sort of bizarre cannibal gang rioting in Port au Prince. I get that Haiti has a legacy of slavery, colonialism and being treated unfairly by Great Powers…but lots of countries have that and aren’t basket cases. I start to suspect that there’s some fundamental failure in the Haitian people.

And we’re all done with that – and Trump revoking Temporary Protected Status for 500,000 Haitians has got the Democrats in an uproar and the rest of us asking, “does this mean we’ll get them all out? I’m sure there are more than 500,000 here”. It isn’t indifference to human suffering…it is impatience with endless excuse-making and explaining-away. The Haitians – and the rest of the people of the Third World – are human beings just like the rest of us. They are no dumber and no smarter than we are. They are as capable of building up a free and prosperous society as anyone…and we’re now suggesting that they get on it.

Democrats Go Full Commie

Mark Noonan13 Comments

Why was Mamdani chosen as Democrat nominee for Mayor of New York City?

Because he’s foreign born.

Because he’s Muslim.

Because he’s a Communist.

Because he hates America.

Because he’s an anti-Semite.

Don’t overthink this – he’s a quite ignorant person (though like all such upper class ignoramuses, very certain about everything) who hates everything the United States stands for. And he’s like this simply because he was told to be like this. His entire education was at elite schools – meaning schools for the social elite, not elite as education. He was told from preschool that the USA is inherently racist and evil, that white people are inherently racist and evil, that Christianity is malevolent, that “national liberation movements” are always the good guys. On and on like that – and given his social group, absolutely no one to dissent from the Leftist orthodoxy. He’s probably never had anything like a serious conversation with someone who disagree with him. And he wouldn’t know what to do if it ever happened – he’d just mindlessly retreat to Leftist slogans. The anti-Semitism probably came in late, unless he learned it at home. It was only about the time he was in college that it became Leftist dogma that Israel is an Apartheid State. But however he came by it, he just took it in stride – never thought about it. The Party said so – and everyone he knows agrees.

And who has propelled him forward? Upper class white people. You can see it in the heat maps of the vote in NYC – the poorer the area, the more votes for Cuomo. And I mean by a lot. Black Americans, Latinos, working class people – can’t stand this upper class twit. And he knew who was going to get him a win: those upper class white people. Everything he said as pitched at them…and they eagerly jumped in because of his biography and, of course, because it is a way to Resisting Trump. Nope, not kidding about that – a big reason for their vote was the perception that Mamdani will fight Trump. That Mamdani will be a city mayor – not even a State governor – and will have zero ability to fight Trump doesn’t matter. The people who voted for him don’t even know this…they are as credentialed and ignorant as Mamdani, after all. They’re just sure about it all – after all, MSNBC tells them that Trump is horribly unpopular and is falling apart by the day (not kidding, this is what they’re fed) and that the Leftist Resistance – all that fighting for illegals and Hamas – has been the ticket to beating Trump (who, by the way, wasn’t actually elected – Kamala was not less popular, it was just that Musk manipulated the vote to give Trump the win).

So, don’t get yourself too wrapped up in one particular aspect here – it doesn’t really matter that he’s Muslim or Communist or foreign born…it is all of it together which tells us our problem. Even 20 years ago this guy would have got 5% of the vote in a vanity run for the Democrat nomination. Yesterday, this clown got 44% of the vote. He’ll run against a worn out Eric Adams running as an Indy and Curtis Sliwa as the totally pointless Republican candidate. And it won’t take much for Mamdani to win – while more than three million people voted in NYC in 2024, this year it’ll probably be around a million…and those upper class people in Manhattan are slavering at the prospect of voting Mamdani. Perhaps Sliwa backing out and endorsing Adams could help, but probably not. NYC is about to go Full Commie…and that is the future the Left wants for us…for America to be ruled by people who hate her with a passion and who will dismantle the whole thing. Waiting in the wings on the national stage are AOC and Crockett…just waiting for their chance to get into senior positions, maybe even the White House one day.

The good news is we elected Trump last year. The defunding of the Left proceeds as does the deportations. America is being rescued as the Democrats go Full Communist…and in Mamdani is the perfect poster boy. The GOP is already lining up to make him the face of the Democrat party. And plenty of other far-Left kooks are looking to primary sitting Democrats (Schumer’s immediate endorsement of Mamdani was an attempt to keep AOC from primarying him). The Democrats will see in Mamdani the path to victory in 2026 and 2028. They will quadruple down on insane Leftism. If we’re even remotely competent (in know, we’re still the GOP!) we’re going to smack these idiots down hard.

Side note: Looking into the nitwit’s biography I found that his grandfather was a member of the Indian Civil Service during the late stages of the British Raj – much like Kamala’s grandfather. Making me wonder how many British Empire-educated people moved into the West after the end of British rule and decided to take revenge on the West via their children and grandchildren?

Open Thread

Mark Noonan11 Comments

There is still some debate about whether or not Hitler actually hated the Jews or if this was all just part of a program to amass power. Keeping in mind that Hitler was the creator of the Big Lie – the concept that if you brazenly repeat the most absurd lies, they’ll be believed. In addition to this, the doctor who unsuccessfully treated Hitler’s mother for cancer was allowed to slip out of Austria unscathed after the Anschluss. So, there are some indications that it was all drivel. Of course, massively more indications that it was sincere hatred. But in the end, it didn’t matter if it was real or feigned…what matters is what happened.

I bring this up because the Army 250 parade really showed the divisions in our country. While our side was quite delighted with the parade and enjoyed a nice, patriotic afternoon honoring the Army, the Democrats were out at their No Kings marches around the country…and shouting incoherently the whole time. It was like trying to eat your dinner when there’s a couple three tables over having a shrieking fight. I pointed out on X – on a couple different threads – that the protests are over nothing. There is no fascist threat of tyranny. There is nothing unjust going on. Everything is actually pretty nice in the USA right now and getting better. But there the Democrats were…out there getting all shouty. And quite proud of themselves! They really think they stopped fascism cold!

Let’s go over some of the things the Left believes:

  1. Trump is a Russian agent.
  2. George Floyd is a hero.
  3. Luigi Mangione is a dreamboat hero.
  4. The Butler Assassination Attempt was faked.
  5. There is a due process for deportations.
  6. The Judicial is superior to the Executive.
  7. Homo sapiens can be born in the wrong body.
  8. America was built by slaves.
  9. America is stolen land.
  10. Los Angeles is actually part of Mexico.
  11. The 2024 election was stolen by Elon Musk for Trump.
  12. Cloth masks can stop a virus.
  13. Banning gas powered leaf blowers will save the environment.
  14. There is no physical strength difference between male and female.
  15. Trump is a Nazi.
  16. MAGA is all racist all the time.
  17. A violent protest can be “mostly peaceful”.
  18. The Founders were less educated than a purple haired 2025 college grad.
  19. There’s a genocide in Gaza.

You could probably add another 50 to the list – and the common run is not just that its all wrong, it is that it is all laughably, stupidly false. They’re pointing at the sky and saying it is green…and shouting at us when we say, “uh, you know its blue, right?”. Do they really believe all this drivel? I don’t know – I’ll bet that at least some of them (especially in the leadership) don’t believe a word of it. But like with ol’ Adolph, it doesn’t matter if it is sincere or not – it is what is done as a consequence. And among the many things the Democrats would like to happen now is for ICE agents to be cornered by a violent mob so they have to shoot their way out of it…thus making a new George Floyd for them (this is why Newsom filed his absurd suit to remove Trump from command of the CA Guard – the Guard has been protecting ICE as it goes about its raids – which haven’t stopped for a minute – thus preventing the bloody confrontation Newsom and the rest of the CA Democrats were trying to orchestrate from the start). And keep in mind that there’s a violent mob to go after ICE because people believe the nonsense lie that there’s something wrong with enforcing immigration laws…that somehow picking up a drug trafficker illegal in Compton is the same as loading Jews up on the train for Auschwitz. The lies used to gin up the mobs are that stupid…and there’s the mob, at least acting like they believe it.

And once again it all comes back to lies: and the lies are killing people. Some day everyone will admit that I am right – until we start to punish liars, we don’t really get out of this.

Trump caused some tremors among MAGA when he announced a pause on ICE raids for agricultural and hospitality industry workers. From what I’ve learned, this is a bit of window dressing to get a few GOP wets on board with the Big Beautiful Bill. Don’t know for certain if this is the case, but it does make the most sense. Though I also offer the possibility that ICE is overwhelmed with the scale of the task and so this is merely prioritization of resources…while we want all illegals out, there are illegals we should get out, first…and as agribusiness is a generally GOP-friendly constituency why not give them a break? At least some time to readjust their labor pool…and perhaps revamp the guest-worker program? Bottom line is that Trump will not go soft on illegal immigration – but also good to keep in mind that Trump has never been anti-immigration. And he doesn’t want to be mean here – certainly not to some poor guy who is really just trying to make a few bucks working the fields in the USA…but the invasion of illegals is a crisis that must be addressed, very firmly. Until the border is totally secure and millions deported, it is a crisis we can’t let up on.