Ohio

Open Thread

Mark Noonan32 Comments

Sorry I haven’t been around, but the Chinese Bat Flu finally got me – felt my first symptoms on Saturday evening and tested positive on Monday morning. Basically, I’m ok – but it is a miserable cold. I seem to be pretty much past the fatigue/fever/ache part of it and am now in the cough/nasal congestion area – which is what I always hate the most about any cold. Anyways, not much inclination to write.

The leak of the supposed overturn of Roe is, in my mind, a desperate, last ditch attempt by Democrats to keep urban woman on board…as prices and shortages continue, there becomes less and less incentive for any Democrat constituency to show up in November and I guess they felt that it was slipping away so badly they needed to move on this now rather than wait for the decision to come in June.

And I think this leak is worse than a crime, it is an error. Democrats have been able to sustain a significant level of support for abortion by making sure nobody knows that Roe legalized it to the moment of birth. Poll after poll shows that solid majorities favor restrictions or bans on abortion after the first trimester. And, so, you never hear that talked about in the MSM…because the Democrats can’t afford to have people know that their abortion position is radical. Heck, the Alabama law in question only bans after 15 weeks…which makes it roughly line with France…hardly a hotbed of Christian fundamentalism (and in France you have to have two medical consults before the abortion is performed – which, to me, is still wrong, but it is at least reasonable).

Trump endorsed candidates swept the boards in Ohio…which shows the continuing power of Trump within the GOP. The sensible part of Never Trump (there really is such a thing) has been so desperately hoping that Trump was at last fading…but I’ve been pointing out to them that for a lot of people, the worse Team Pudding Brain gets, the more Trump will shine in hindsight. I really got under their skin a week or so ago by suggesting this will even most people to believe 2020 was stolen as nobody will want to admit they were suckered by the anti-Trump media op.

Alex Jones and Stuff Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

I’ve only ever heard of Alex Jones – and run in to some of his supporters on social media. From what I gather, he’s rather out there, taking at face value any conspiracy theory you care to mention and then weaving even larger conspiracies of his own. I gather – I don’t know: I’ve never listened to word one from the guy. Basically, the guy is unknown to me. But, a lot of people love him and a lot of people hate him…and now he’s being deplatformed by the social media giants because he said The Bad Words that the SJW’s don’t like. None of that is unexpected – and neither is the TruCon, NeverTrump contingent offering a nuanced view which works out to “it’s ok the SJW’s got that guy off the web.” In other words, our Muh Principles Conservative betters are eager to surrender to the left, as usual.

Lots of heated rhetoric has been issued over this, but anyone with a brain knows what is happening: the left has chosen a marginal case to make their first move into overt censorship of non-left views. It is said that Jones has said some outrageous things, and I’ll bet that he has. And for the weak-kneed on the right, this makes it impossible to defend Jones. “I don’t want my Progressive friends thinking I’m like that! Icky poo! Bad, bad Non-Expert!”. But, I’ll defend him – I have to. As an individual, what happens to him is unimportant, but as a symbol – and a harbinger – we simply can’t let this one slide. If we do, then the left will just go to the next and the next and the next non-left opinion which is “too extreme” to be tolerated. Eventually, the only non-left opinions allowed will be the tame TruCon surrender-at-all-costs opinions (and don’t think this isn’t desired by the TruCons…its just what they want: all of us gone, them at the top of the Conservative heap, slowly surrendering to Progressive views).

The solution to this is to start putting the regulatory pressure of the government against the social media giants. This is a difficult step for small government Conservatives, but it is a pill we’ll have to swallow. The social media giants have deliberately turned themselves into an arm of the political left, and they must be treated as such. My preferred option is to break up the giants into several, smaller and competing entities…but, absent that, we need government rules ensuring that everyone has equal access to social media and, so, government prescribed rules for when an account can be deplatformed (you can see why this is my second option: eventually, the left might get the government power to make such rules…much better, in my view, to merely have smaller social media companies). For more opinion on this, here’s Legal Insurrection.

Democrats had been hoping for a special election win in Ohio and got disappointed…outside of the dollop of liberal tears this provided for us, I don’t think it means much. Democrats have done very well in the special elections overall, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into general election results. Thing about this one – it kinda sneaked up on us. I’m pretty observant about politics, but I don’t recall even hearing a whisper about it until special election day…I think the Dems and the MSM (but I repeat myself) were hoping to win this one quietly and then blast it to the rafters as proof that Trump is doomed…but an alert Trump and GOP pounced on it and made sure the GOP pulled out a low-turnout victory.

There’s a Twitter account called Sweet Meteor O’Death…a satirical account which had its very best days during the 2016 election when it was a candidate for President. Anyways, the account Tweeted out this:

Kill all the white people. And all the other people. And everything that’s alive. Except deep-sea, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria.

You get it. I get it. Twitter locked the guy’s account for 12 hours. Meanwhile, the New York Times’ new columnist’s racist rants are still there on Twitter for all to see.

Victor Davis Hanson is smart and everyone should listen to him. The thing is that everything has happened before. And if you don’t realize that, and also realize that everything can turn on a dime, you’ll always end up looking like a fool.