Supreme Court

Open Thread

Mark Noonan40 Comments

Starting a few weeks ago and now really gathering steam is a coordinated effort in the MSM to smear the Supreme Court’s Conservative majority. I’m sure most of you have seen at least bits of it but what the stories all amount to is the portrayal of business as usual (the Liberal Justices and families do the same things – and apparently the sorts of activities have been common in the Court for ages with no complaints) in the most lurid terms possible. With the smears comes the Solution: pack the Court for the more far Left voices, enact “ethics” rules for the seemingly reasonable part of the Left.

What it all amounts to, though, is an attempt to de-legitimize the Court as preparation for its emasculation. To make it something of no account in American governance. At least until such time as it regains a Liberal majority, then it will all be Holy Writ again. But, of course, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube…once the Court is de-legitimized it doesn’t get legitimacy back. It either becomes utterly powerless or a mere rubber stamp for the powerful. In neither case do you retain an independent branch of government able to halt unconstitutional actions by the other two branches. To nutshell it, because the Court is no longer a happy hunting ground for the imposition of grossly unpopular Liberal policy, the Liberals propose to destroy the Court…and in the process destroy the Republic.

While most Liberals, themselves, are too brainless to understand what is happening, we on the Right must very much be aware and seek to stop it. But here’s the real problem: just as polls now show majorities are fearful of the climate change hoax, so will majorities eventually hold the Court to be corrupt – if the MSM repeats a lie often enough, it gets believed and thus affects votes. Essentially, the MSM – at the behest of the DNC – is going to lie to the American people until the people say we have to “do something” to fix the Court…and the “something” will not have any connection to the Constitution. And if the Court strikes down the “something” that will be seen as proof that the Court is corrupt. Our problem isn’t Liberal desire here so much as Liberal lies – especially Liberal MSM lies.

The Founders knew full well that there would be lies. They were all men of the world and bleakly aware of the follies of mankind. They wrote the First Amendment so ensure that the truth would also be spoken. That with everyone getting their say, the lies would more often than not be exposed and people would support the truth. But what the Founders never envisioned was 90% or more of the means of speaking being under the control of liars serving one Party. What we can’t do is pretend that the uniformity of lies from CNN/MSNBC/CBS/ABC/NPR/Washington Post/NY Times/etc, etc is something protected by the First Amendment. The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

Starting on the local and State level and going to federal if as and when we obtain trifecta power, we should enact a series of laws removing all protections from those who lie in the MSM. The Sullivan ruling – made by a Liberal Court to empower the MSM to lie with abandon – must be jettisoned. And I think that we’ve now got a Supreme Court which has a vested interest in seeing it jettisoned. We must not ever get the government in the business of policing speech…but we must restore the pre-Sullivan criteria that if you lie about someone in public, you have defamed them and are liable for civil penalty. Keep in mind that Sullivan held that actual malice had to be shown and it is almost impossible for a person lied about in the press to prove actual malice (who can see into another person’s mind?). What we must restore is a standard of falsehood: if you lie, you must pay. Don’t want to pay? Then don’t say in public anything you aren’t 100% certain is true. I don’t see this as a burden for anyone. And I mean, at all. Tell the truth or shut your trap.

If we can do this, then we will be able to push back against the MSM. Remember, they lie all the time about everything. If they don’t lie all the time about everything then the Democrats will lose in landslides all across the country – including in Blue States. It is lies which sustain the Left, nothing else. Take away the ability of people to lie without fear…and we win.

Jim Cramer says the banking crisis is over. So, I suggest you invest in canned goods and shotguns given Cramer’s record of always being wrong.

Tom Brady reportedly done with dating models. Yeah, Imma call that Fake News. I mean, why do rich, good looking guys date super models? Because they can.

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.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

As I pointed out earlier, we’re governed by morons – yesterday, Pudding Brain shot his mouth off about removing Putin from power. We’re used to that sort of thing as ol’ Gramps forgets what he’s supposed to say…but when he said it, huge numbers of high end people were all “wow!” about it…here, at last, was the strength we need! America is saved! And thank God Trump isn’t in power. Of course, within minutes of Biden’s statement, his staff was out there pointing out that, no, we don’t seek regime change in Russia.

But it was astonishing how many people took what was obviously a gaffe and made out like it was the greatest oration of all times. They really believed it! People were comparing it to Reagan’s speech about tearing down the Berlin Wall!

The flip side of this was the Never Trump people who instantly saw it for a mistake but the only thing they could say was how mad they were – the helped install Biden because they had to get rid of Trump and his insane statements and this is what they got! Just stupid – Trump didn’t say insane things. He said outrageous things, but not insane. Everything he said was actually calculated for effect…Pudding Brain can only say what’s on the script and then only if his meds don’t wear off half way through.

Just a bunch of idiots – who have to pretend a clearly senile, old man (who was corrupt and stupid in his best days) is someone who could possibly replace Trump. And they have to try to sustain this Narrative – Trump was so bad that he had to be replaced and the only plausible replacement was good, old Joe who is a moderate and competent. It is theater of the absurd.

Ketanji Brown Jackson had her hearings this past week and some GOP Senators did hit some good points and a lot of people don’t like how soft on crime she’s been as a judge, especially as regards abuse of children but, in my view, nobody made the most telling statement about her: she’s a rubber stamp.

It doesn’t matter how smart she is or what credentials she has, the bottom line is that she’s where she is because Democrats are 100% confident how she’ll rule on any issue identified as crucial for Democrats. Some GOP Senator should have said just that: “look, Ms. Jackson, you’re a nice lady and all, but everyone here knows that when cases regarding things like gender, guns and immigration come before you, you’ll rule as the Democrats want regardless of what the law says. You’re not here to ensure Justice: you’re here to enforce a certain political ideology which you’ll dress up with legalese. All I’d like right now is for you to admit this: admit to the American people that your bias is firm and won’t be shaken and that for the remainder of your life all you’re going to do is try to advance the Democrat agenda via Judicial activism”.

The explosion would have been epic – and very useful. The main thing necessary for combating lies is to point them out. People tend to caution ( which often works out in practice to be cowardice): as long as they aren’t forced to confront an issue head on, they’ll go along with whatever drivel people are using to justify a bad thing.

The thing about Trump – the thing which most infuriated his opponents right and left – was his willingness to call things out. Recall his early speech on immigration which the Left and Never Trump cast as Trump calling all Mexicans rapists – we all know what he said and the reason his opponents twisted “they’re not sending us their best” into an insult to all Mexicans was because they knew it was true – our open border was used as a dumping ground for all manner of criminals. Everyone knew it – but nobody spoke it. But once Trump spoke it, it couldn’t be ignored…and, in general, even today the American people still go for Trumpist immigration and border security policies. Contrast this to someone like Jeb! calling illegal immigration an “act of love”: Jeb isn’t a bad guy. He was a very good, Conservative governor of Florida. The foundations of the current GOP dominance in Florida were laid down by Jeb. But we all knew from the first second he made that statement about immigration that it was bull – a lie, covering up the horrid truth. If we really want to beat these guys, we have to tell the truth. Not just about SC nominees, but about everything.

The Ukraine war does continue to grind on – I’ve mostly been using the Institute for the Study of War maps to see how things are going…and they show a very much stalled Russian offensive. OTOH, the maps put out by the Russian Defense Ministry show much more substantial gains…but, who can trust that? But then I saw a French Ministry of Defense map and it pretty much agreed with the Russian. And if the French and Russian maps are even partially correct, the Ukrainian position east of the Dnieper is turned north and south and the Ukrainians should be trying to extricate their army from the east.

Musk hopes to get an orbital test flight of his completely reusable Starship in May. My bet: it will slip. Various government agencies are foot dragging on final approvals – and the more Musk tweaks the Ruling Class, the more roadblocks they’ll throw up for him. The Starship with its heavy lift booster is certainly impressive – significantly larger than the Saturn V we oldsters remember. The payload it will lift is not just larger than anything launched before or today, but bigger than most space program plans for the future. It is a rocket which can, eventually, go to Mars. Musk will probably want to go as quickly as he can…but it is fraught with risks and expenses and, as I’ve pointed out before, until we can really work out the issues of gravity and radiation, there’s probably not much point in going except as a prestige “I did it first” sort of thing.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan25 Comments

Time flies when you’re painting the house!

Anyways, Mark Kelly (D-AZ) announced he will vote to kill the filibuster…which means his pollster told him he’s doomed in November and so now is going for the MSNBC gig. So far, Sinema and Manchin are firm in keeping it, but Schumer is going to keep trying. At least some people – but not nearly enough – are openly saying that this whole “voting rights” effort is merely an effort to secure Democrat voter fraud forever. They want to win by cheating. To become what the PRI was to Mexico for 70 years – a Ruling Party which engages in sham elections to lend itself a patina of legitimacy. We’ll see if they are able to do it. Their strategy right now is to call Sinema a white supremacist. Not sure this will work.

Absent this, it looks like the Democrats are in for a blow out loss in November. Think in terms of anything D+10 or less being vulnerable. So far, 28 House Democrats have announced they won’t seek re-election.

NPR reported that Gorsuch and Sotomayor were feuding over mask wearing. Turns out this was Fake News. Because that is all NPR does.

Commies on American campuses are removing statues. You know, just like Chinese commies are doing in Hong Kong. Birds of a feather.

Insane person pushes a woman into the path of an oncoming subway train and everyone is all shocked. How can you be? We decided (well, “we” as in a few lawyers and judges) back in the 70’s that being insane isn’t sufficient cause to place a person into protective custody. That really was the first shot across the bow on where we were heading…that sane people could not, except for a very short period, put restrictions on the insane was a signpost to societal destruction. We’re all sympathetic. We don’t want insane people denied due process, abused or left to rot in filth (as all too often happened in the past) but the answer to poor care at insane asylums was to improve the asylums…not let raving nutters out. People who cannot perform basic life functions such as maintain personal cleanliness and normal social interaction belong under care…not wandering through the streets. It is brutal and inhuman to let these poor people try to take care of themselves when their mental condition is such that they cannot.

UPDATE: Well, they failed – at the end of the day, both Sinema and Manchin stood up and voted very definitely against a rules change. This not only preserves the filibuster for now, it may retain it in our system for quite a long while…but mostly because we’ll probably have 54 GOP Senators come January next and then it is probably 3 or 4 cycles before the Democrats have a realistic shot at a Senate majority.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan47 Comments

They had the oral arguments for the challenge to Mississippi’s 15 week abortion ban. I read a lot of very smart takes on it, and some raving lunacy from the Left as well. Bottom line is that no one can say for certain how the Court will rule. Strike down? Narrowly uphold? Revoke Roe? Until the ruling comes down, we’re all guessing. Justice Thomas asked what is, to me, the key question: where is this in the Constitution? It isn’t, of course, and the Court’s decision to invent a right to abortion out of thin air was horrible…and it is a very key cause to the hatred in American politics these days. I do hope the Justices lance this boil. And some smart people think they might – that the lines of questioning have some thinking it will be 6-3 to strike Roe down…with Roberts merely going along with the majority. If it is struck down, I hope Thomas is the decision author. It will be his legacy to the United States.

Bank of America execs advise their staffers to “dress down” when they come into the office in NYC…to avoid being targeted by violent crime. This won’t, of course, stop BofA from being a reliable defender of the Ruling Class. The younger people don’t remember the crime wave of the 60’s to the 90’s…and this one is going to be vastly worse than the first because at least during the earlier crime wave, cops were trying to stop it. Now? A cop would be a fool to try and stop it…make the slightest mistake in making an arrest, and you’re life is ruined. The criminals know this. Criminals are cowards and they aren’t very bright – but they also know when it is open season.

Dr Oz announced he is running for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Conservative Republican…which is quite a surprise for a guy who got his start with Oprah. The bottom line is that he’s taken a large number of far Left positions over the years, most notably on gun control. This, naturally, caused the right to drop on him like a ton of bricks. Except for me: we’ve all had an education this past five years. All of us, no matter how knowledgeable or perceptive, have found that things we used to believe were false in whole or in part. Perhaps Dr Oz has had a bit of an awakening? I put it like this: I don’t care if you were wearing a Che shirt at an Antifa rally yesterday – if today you are saying the Left has to go: welcome to the party. I think we should listen to what Oz has to say and make the call on that…not hang him out to dry because of positions he took in the past.

Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio likened China disappearing people to being “a strict parent”. The video is nauseating – and if you still wonder why I stopped being a supporter of Capitalism, here it is. For every Elon Musk – who seems a decent enough fellow – there are a score of Dalios: amoral, money-mad creeps who don’t give a damn what happens to people as long as they can make money. The only way to stop them – the only way – is to confiscate their money. People like this warp our debate and prevent a clean, clear view of the world. They keep us shackled to China as we slip ever further down into a deindustrialized, drug-addled dependency. In the end, they go or we do.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan14 Comments

The DOJ has finally decided, four years later, that the attack on GOP Congresspeople which resulted in the wounding of Scalise was an act of domestic terrorism. Ace, though, points out that there are two things here:

  1. The DOJ carefully classifies things to ensure the lowest possible number of Leftist and Islamist terrorist attacks. Gotta keep that White Supremacist number looking good, right?
  2. The DOJ is probably getting ready to broaden the definition of terrorism to include you and me.

We’re heading towards the end game here: the time when we’ll either win and restore liberty, or lose and be destroyed.

Some people are saying they won’t give up masks even after being vaccinated. Then why the heck get vaccinated? I’ve seen threads on Social Media and it becomes clearer to me that some people simply don’t know what a vaccine does. The real problem here is that they get to vote.

I did not know we had a secret, undercover Army, nor that it is about 60,000 strong.

I’ve long had a bad taste in my mouth about Special Forces and I’ve despised the whole concept of espionage my whole life. The logic behind it is insane – because we have to engage in global skullduggery, we need our people to lie about who they are to keep their identities secret. And you just know they’re being used against American citizens. But, outside 4th Amendment concerns, the real problem is having secret agents and secret soldiers. The Law of War says that when you capture secret soldiers, you can pretty much shoot them out of hand. The Nazis we captured dressed up in American uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge were up against a wall about a week after being caught. That is what you do with people who sneak.

I know our Special Forces guys are brave and almost all are solid patriots – the man who recruited me into the Navy was a Seal and he was one of the wisest and nicest men I’ve ever met. But, end all this: no more spies, no more secret soldiers. When we fight, we come right at you and let you know it was us. As for gaining intelligence: when has that ever really helped us? Our intel agencies have routinely failed to get us vital, actionable intelligence. Dispense with all of them. Send the Special Forces back to the regular units. Train the regular units up to Special Forces standards. Call an end to secret government garbage. We’re a Republic; we do our business in the Forum, not the Divan.

Warrantless gun confiscation is illegal, per the Supreme Court. This is a real victory for liberty. And now the SC is picking up an abortion case and we’ll see if they can strike a blow for State’s rights.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan105 Comments

Looks like Joe will show for the debate tomorrow: though, of course, don’t think he won’t back out if his meds aren’t kicking in on time.

I’ve seen some prep work done in Bluecheck social media to allow Biden to go after Trump’s kids: this to deflect from Hunter Biden, with the most recent revelation that he got $3.5 million from the wife of the mayor of Moscow. As someone pointed out: maybe the Russian dossier was about Hunter and they just put Trump’s name into it?

Not only does Mitch have the votes to confirm ACB, it looks like they might move this one right along and allow Trump to swear her in before the election – which could be crucial if it is close. Personally, I don’t think it will be. I think that however it goes, it’ll be big one way or the other. Either people will reaffirm their rejection of the Establishment in big numbers, or they’ll reject Trump by big numbers. I’m hopeful for Trump, of course: and I still see voter registration and early voting numbers which indicate Trump might have this. But, we’ll see!

But, with Pelosi wondering if Democrats can control 26 House delegations, my view is that the Democrats know they are sinking fast and are desperately hoping for something so screwed up that they can fraud their way to the White House. And why 26 House delegations? Because if the House picks the President, then each State gets 1 vote. Right now, it is GOP 26, Dems 22 and 2 split. And this, mind you, is with a Democrat House majority – and even if the House remains Democrat, there is little chance that four delegations will flip.

Trump’s taxes – which, by the way, he paid millions; don’t buy the MSM lie that he only paid $750.00 – are just one in a huge series of “bombshells” which the DNC/MSM will drop on us now until Election Day. This particular one was likely timed so that the debate moderators tomorrow can dwell on it and thus not have time to discuss Hunter’s dealings.

Cindy McCain, fresh from spitting on us by endorsing Biden, has been named to Biden’s transition team. If Joe wins, maybe there’s a cabinet slot for her…the bottom line is this is who we used to have. And I’m glad their gone.

More evidence of water on Mars – which is cool and no matter how you slice it, it makes exploration of Mars a lot easier in the long run. But I still doubt humans can live there long-term: there are too many hazards for us to overcome. Until we can figure out gravity and a sure-fire way to block solar radiation, brief visits will be all we can do.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

With Romney’s announcement that he’ll vote for the nominee, it looks like Cocaine Mitch has the votes lined up to replace RBG…and I suspect he had it all along. I can’t imagine a scenario where Trump and McConnell hadn’t gamed this out twenty ways to Sunday. Everyone knew RBG was dying and so there were probably contingency plans covering every possible way that could come out.

I have seen some rather heated Twitter fights over just whom Trump should pick – who would be better in a political sense, who would be more reliable when it came time to rule. I decided not to have a dog in those fights because, in the end, it doesn’t matter: Trump is the guy who gets to pick and we’re all just going to have to swing in behind it when it comes. I think most of us are simply happy that a mindless vote for whatever is fashionable on the Left will be replaced with someone who might actually rule on what the Constitution says.

Democrats are threatening to pack the Court if we get this. Meh: I expect them, if they win it all, to not only pack the Court but add DC and Puerto Rico as States and then simply do whatever they want as they set up an unconstitutional electoral system which ensures we can’t win. The stakes really are high in this election: and only a crushing defeat of the Democrats will allow a chance for sane Democrats to recapture their party. Lose to them this year, and the insane Democrats will be fully in command.

Team DNC/Biden did have an awesome August for fundraising…and this generated stories of Trump/RNC being broke and desperate. Well, the Trump/RNC combo is doing fine and breaking fundraising records. Once again, never believe the MSM. They lie all the time about everything.

The Silent Majority is starting to find it’s voice. Let’s face it: stating in public that you support Trump is a risk. You could be physically attacked. Your property could be vandalized. Heck, you could even lose your job. But, now, more and more people are putting out the Trump sign and joining spontaneous rallies in favor of the President. The vote November 3rd might be very different from what we expect.

I don’t know if Kim Klacik can actually win in her overwhelmingly Democrat district – but she should.

The policies she advocates are not only Conservative, they are almost Distributist, as well. Only an insane person – you know, a Democrat – could object to them.

No More Racist Syrup Open Thread

Mark Noonan9 Comments

They cancelled Aunt Jemima. Why? Who the F knows or really cares? Because the picture is of a black woman and that’s racist, or some drivel. From what I’ve been able to learn, the original subject of the picture was a lady born into slavery who actually made a pretty good life for herself…but, she’s out. And Uncle Ben is on the chopping block, as is Mrs Butterworth. I guess black people can’t appear in advertisements…because Black Lives Matter or some such.

Meanwhile, the cop who killed that guy in Atlanta is being charged with capital murder: which is utterly ridiculous. Even if the use of force wasn’t justified, he still didn’t intend to murder someone. Why should a cop do his duty at this point? I can understand why a police officer would quit – and a lot have; but I can also see why they’d just become time-servers until they can collect a pension. Just look the other way and clean up the bodies. And there’s no way any sane person would want to become a police officer at this point.

Senator Durbin (D-IL) insults Senator Scott (R-SC): but there won’t be riots about this even though its a white guy using racially-charged terms against a black guy…because only some black lives really matter.

Trump shows once again why we love him: he’s saying that Kaepernick should get another shot in the NFL. This is grand-master level trolling. Gonna miss the guy when he’s out of office. Some team is going to have to take him – he was a flash in the pan who had serious accuracy problems, and he’s been out of the game for years…but some NFL team is going to have to offer him an iron-clad, golden contract. In the end, Kaep will suffer an “injury” during practice…because there’s no way he is going to subject himself to a choke-athon in front of a national audience. As for me: I won’t even watch a game this year: the NFL has decided that being woke to please a few jerks is more important than me. Cool. I’ve got other things to do on Sunday.

NBC and Google got caught doing what we already knew they were doing: working together to censor dissident voices. I am completely done with protecting large corporations: in fact, I want them severely punished…driven out of existence, actually. Tax and regulate these bastards into bankruptcy and then let something else emerge…something which will be wary of engaging in politics.

The SCOTUS decision on transgender rights was…a little surprising, but only a little. Gorsuch merely joins a long line of people whom we pour out blood and sweat to get on to the SC only to betray us at the first opportunity. Gorsuch is another one of the libertarian Judges that we became familiar with in Justice Kennedy. So while we might get a favorable religious liberty ruling out of him from time to time, on the really crucial issues of the times, he’s going to side with the far left because libertarians always side with the far left when push comes to shove…because they are far leftists who merely want low taxes. We can’t rely on the Courts – we’re going to have to do this legislatively and simply assert that Congress’ ability to regulate how cases come before the federal courts means we can simply exclude cases about certain issues. That and simply insist that Justices we appoint commit to voting how we want.

Don Surber notes that we no longer have a debate in the United States – it is all about the raw exercise of power. Either we have it, or they do – and if we do have it, we’d better just ram through what we want because we can rely on the Left doing that if they have power. I agree with this: I don’t debate liberals any more. If they decide to comment on my social media posts, I block them. There is no point. They won’t convince me (because I’m not stupid) and I can’t convince them (because they are stupid). All I want to know is how do we obtain power and then how do we quite ruthlessly use whatever power we have. Anything else is a waste of time.