Trump-Russia

Open Thread

Mark Noonan43 Comments

I got a Parler account. It advertises itself as the alternative to the left social media giants – we’ll see how it goes; a few teething problems as masses of people sign up, but it works pretty well and may do fine.

As more information comes out about the Mueller Report, it seems clear to me that it is a pack of malicious lies. I noted before it came out that it would be as lurid as possible, but also wouldn’t have anything on Trump, and that is proving correct. What is amazing, though, is how badly they constructed the lurid lies: they’re being easily knocked down, one after another. Ace – and others – have theorized that the report, itself, was meant as no more than a hook to hang Trump on. Make the report; turn it in; make it difficult for Barr to release it quickly and then selectively leak the lurid bits to build a public case that Trump has to go. Barr stopped that cold with his summary pointing out that there was no collusion or obstruction.

As for Barr, I suspect he’s further along in his efforts to find out what really happened than we think. What will come of it? I don’t know: it could be that some of the worst players in all this kept their hands legally clean…and to really unravel it we would need people willing to testify against their co-conspirators in return for reduced sentences…but, if the big boys kept their act together, we might only be able to go after some small fry who won’t be able to explain the totality of the coup attempt. I do hope that a lot of people wind up in jail over this – but I’m not sure it will be possible.

There’s a poll out which asserts Americans are more worried about Fake News than terrorism – which is a correct assessment. Terrorists can kill, but the lies in our MSM could trigger a nation-destroying civil war. 100% of the credit for people really waking up to how dishonest the MSM is goes to Trump…without him relentlessly hammering the MSM for their lies, they’d still largely be getting away with them.

RSM notes an anti-lesbian hate crime in Tennessee which, for some bizarre reason, hasn’t become a national news story. Watch the video, and you’ll see why.

Here’s a poll which is part of the Democrats’ battle space prep for 2020: allegedly shows Biden beating Trump in Texas by four percentage points. Trump beat Hillary by nine percentage points in 2016. Ask yourself: is there one thing – one thing, at all – which has Trump has done since 2016 which would make Texans sour on him to the point that the Texas vote for the Democrat would go from 43% to 48%? Of course there is no such thing – and the Texas economy is booming. There is zero – and I mean absolutely zero – chance that any Democrat beats Trump in Texas in 2020. And everyone involved in politics knows this. But, here’s the poll…and Democrats will tout it and GOPers in Texas (some, anyways) will wring their hands…but it is a garbage poll designed to deflate GOP spirits; that is all it is.

New York City is, like Los Angeles, developing a very bad rat problem. All part of the Progressive program to bring back bubonic plagues.

AOC asserts that Manafort should be released rather than kept in solitary at Rikers. Tip of the hat to the Commie on this one: she’s better, at least here, than most of her fellow Progressives. The bottom line is that Manafort was transferred to Rikers to pressure him. The Democrats need someone – anyone – to testify under oath that Trump broke a law. Treating Manafort like he’s some sort of crazed killer is an excellent way to break him. Trump should pardon Manafort (of course, another theory put out there is that they’ve done this to get Trump to issue a pardon so they can say “aha! That’s why Manfort didn’t talk!”. Even so: pardon him).

Mueller is a Coward

Mark Noonan25 Comments

I watched Mueller’s statement today and I was nauseated. Here we have a guy who has spent his life in the top echelon of American law enforcement, and he’s a coward. A completely gutless man. A liar, too. He is simply, in my view, running scared – and on his way out the door, twitching down a chair in front of his pursuers.

The crucial thing he said was that he won’t testify under oath – and that if compelled to do so, is just going to keep referring to his bogus report, which is filled with innuendo (as was his statement) against Trump, but without any proof – or even a logical chain of reasoning to back it up. Mueller was set to destroy Trump, and found there was no means to do so. Now, he’s just trying to get out of it – and by fueling the fires of Democrat impeachment talk, he probably figures that if there’s an impeachment, at least then people won’t pay attention to what Barr is doing, and that any indictment by Barr of Mueller or his people will appear politically tainted.

Now, why doesn’t Mueller want to testify? Because he’d have to lie. As Roger Simon points out, one of the key questions any GOPer would like to ask Mueller is “when did you know there wasn’t collusion?”. The answer to that is, probably, “within days of starting”. Had Mueller made that point early, then the whole thing would have fizzled…but, he didn’t. Why, not? Well, that would bring us to the second important question we’d like to ask: “why did you bring charges entirely un-related to the 2016 campaign?”. The answer to that is, almost certainly, “because we hoped by so doing to scare Trump people into lying about Trump”. Mueller simply can’t answer those questions truthfully – and while he would try like heck to dodge any such questions, it would eventually come out that his whole motivation from start to finish was political: to annul the results of the 2016 election.

Pelosi is now going to come under massive pressure to approve of impeachment hearings. So, Mueller might well have accomplished his primary task today: get himself and his troops off the hook. But I think that an impeachment will end up being a disaster for the Democrats and will go a long way towards re-electing Trump next year. There is nothing there: Trump didn’t break the law, and so couldn’t have obstructed an investigation into the law which wasn’t broken. Democrats control the House and can get their bill to say whatever it wants, and Democrats can get up on the House floor and say whatever they want…but, in the end, they’ll have to go before the Senate and prove their allegations and they simply can’t do it. At least the GOP in 1998 could prove their case against President Clinton…Democrats can’t do that against Trump. And while there may be one or two GOPers inclined to vote to convict simply because they hate Trump, they’ll shy away from it absent proof…while there are a couple three Democrats who will take their political life in their hands if they vote to convict. A majority Senate vote to acquit will be Trump’s exoneration. No doubt about it: the people will believe he’s innocent, and will really wonder why we were put through all this for nothing.

Things Happening Fast Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

Legal Insurrection wonders: who will be the first to cut a deal? Thing is, until just now, there has never been that worry among the Left/Ruling Class. They don’t have to cut deals because they’ve already got them: if you have the right friends, nothing will happen to you no matter what you did wrong…and even in the rare instance where you have to face some jail time, it won’t be much and your friends will see you come out all right on the other end. But, now, we might have some people in power who won’t allow the powerful to skate…and, if so, then eventually, one of the people involved in the attempted coup will spill it.

Related: Democrats start to realize they are facing a debacle in 2020.

Also related: don’t get cocky, kids. Long way to go.

The national debt: it is still a problem. Trump won’t deal with it unless forced to by circumstances, and if he’s re-elected, that might happen. But, basically, no one really wants to deal with it in advance. It is not a problem of immediate concern in Americans’ day to day lives, and the pain of dealing with it would be politically unpopular. But, that which can’t be repaid, won’t be: we’ll have to do something about this, and maybe sooner than we think. OTOH, if Trump really can engineer consistent 3% growth, we might get out of this fairly easy.

Alabama has effectively banned elective abortion. Naturally, the left and the FredoCons are up in arms over this. As we wait for the inevitable lawsuit and injunction, I’d just like to restate my views. Elective abortion is always wrong – it is a grave evil which puts anyone involved at risk of their immortal soul. Outside that, it is also entirely unjust – there is no rational circumstance in which one can justify the deliberate taking of an innocent human life. Even the rape exception is wrong: because dad was a beast doesn’t justify killing the kid. I fully understand the pain that some go through over this – but you can’t fix pain by doing a wrong thing.

Bill DeBlasio, mayor of the increasingly anti-Semitic New York City is blaming Trump for all the Julius Streicher wanna-bees he’s got in his town. This is because he’s a liberal and thus full of sh** (Hat Tip: Ace).

Mitt Romney is doing his best John McCain impression. I hereby un-cast my vote for Romney in 2012.

Is Trump About to Drain the Swamp?

Mark Noonan

This could be the biggest news in politics for the past 50 years:

Attorney General William Barr has reportedly tapped the U.S. attorney for Connecticut to investigate the origins of the Justice Department’s Russia investigation.

John Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, will examine the FBI’s decision to open a counterintelligence investigation into the 2016 presidential election and its probe of possible links between the Kremlin’s efforts to interfere in the election and members of President Donald Trump’s campaign team.

Its not just investigating the coup attempt which is important – it is where such an investigation will lead, if the guy in charge of it has no fear and is seeking no favor. And Durham may be that guy – he’s been used by politicians of both parties to look into things and so has a bi-partisan reputation as a good guy and he’s clearly not ambitious – he’s at the tail end of his career and he never seems to have sought top jobs in DC (or, he was denied them because DC didn’t want an honest man). If we have an AG who is willing to let corruption investigations go forward no matter where they lead, then what we might be witnessing is the beginning of the end for our corrupt Ruling Class.

We’ll see what happens – but I’m encouraged.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan38 Comments

Not one Democrat Presidential candidate has condemned the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. Only two Democrat Senators have condemned the attacks (Rosen D-NV and Sinema D-AZ: and tip of the hat to both of them). The Democrats have made the choice that joining up with Islamists is a better future than defending Jews.

Side note: this conflict goes on until one side wins, and the other loses. The Palestinian leadership – which makes its money off of war and suffering – will not quit until forced to quit. Only the massive application of firepower upon the Palestinians until they all come out, hands in the air, will end this.

Feminists and Conservatives are joining forces against the misbegotten “Equality Act”:

The Equality Act just passed the House Judiciary Committee last week, and it threatens to erase protections for women — protections that benefit women and society as a whole. Legislative and policy “reforms” proposed in this dangerous bill will lead to blatant violations of our safety, privacy, and dignity.

Under this bill, men and boys will take away women’s small business grants and hard-won spots on sports teams; they will be allowed to live in women’s domestic violence shelters and use our locker rooms. And united as women, we are just not going to stand for it.

To illustrate their case, they note the story of a man who identifies as a woman being seen naked in the women’s sauna (by teenaged girls): when the incident was reported the power of the State was brought forth to force everyone to apologize to the guy exposing himself to little girls. It is good that there can be a united fight against pure insanity – but Feminists should think a bit deeper into this. It is the tearing down of societal norms – including the norms which say that certain tasks are for men, others for women – which lead us here. As far as allowing anyone – of any condition – to do whatever their talents allow, no one can have any complaint. But thinking that a woman can be a successful infantryman is just as absurd as thinking a man who identifies as a woman should be allowed to parade around the girls locker room. Men and women are different; they bring in many cases entirely different things to the table; it is the cooperation of the feminine and the masculine, as distinct things, which makes humanity human.

The Daily Caller has a story about how the money (about $100 million) provided to Flint, MI to remediate it’s water issue is being relentlessly misused – the most egregious thing, in my view, is the awarding of high priced contracts to a company with no experience in the work, while more experienced companies were denied contracts. It is a grift: the people who run Flint – ie, the criminally negligent people who created the water crisis – don’t give a damn about the people, and are merely using the bonanza of government dollars to line their own pockets. All of these are Democrats – and all of them will be “re-elected” or, at least, replaced with people who are just like they are. We need to start thinking about what to do – consistent with our federal values – about States and cities which are so badly misgoverned that we can’t rely on sane policy being pursued.

Trump’s counsel has sent a letter to AG Barr ripping the Mueller report pretty hard – on the grounds that Mueller didn’t follow the special counsel rules in writing his final report. I had noted that Mueller would make his report as lurid as he could, and he did. What Democrats are latching on to right now is Mueller’s statement that he couldn’t conclusively prove that Trump didn’t break the law. But Mueller’s job wasn’t to say one way or the other about that – his job was to see if there was a crime, and if there was, then to prosecute it. As he’s not prosecuting Trump or any Trump associate for collusion or obstruction of justice related to the 2016 campaign, Trump has been exonerated. Mueller deliberately muddied that fact.

A pro-baby killing Pennsylvania Democrat is proving himself to be just about as much an a**hole as you’d think.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan38 Comments

The New York Times is worried that the revelation that the Obama Administration spied on Trump will lend credence to Trump’s claim that the Obama Administration spied on him.

The MSM – all at once and all together – decided that Louis Farrakhan is a far right person. It was when Farrakhan got banned by Facebook along with some other people, some of whom were actually of the right. You might recall the time the MSM labelled George Wallace a Republican. So, like that; but, also, different. A very large number of major MSM outfits called Farrakhan far right…almost as if there was a memo that went out and the MSM just transcribed it as news.

A ten month old child died when the raft she was crossing the Rio Grande on tipped over. This is 100% of the fault of American liberals who encourage people to make these dangerous journeys.

1938 video of Civil War veterans.

We’re going to need a bigger Navy. A lot bigger. I think Trump instinctively understands this, but I don’t see any admiral out there ringing the alarm bell and really pushing a naval buildup. We need a Jacky Fisher.

California High School is thinking about removing a picture of George Washington because it is too traumatic for some students. The name of the school? George Washington High School.

Yeah, our government is still spying on you.

President Trump proposes to give the Border Patrol power to decide asylum cases on their own. Makes sense: make a fast judgement on their asylum status. If they’ve got a good case, let them stay…if not, back home they go.

Trump’s magic wand at work again as US Steel gets ready to invest a billion dollars in a new Pittsburgh steel plant.

Liberal Democrat justifies abortion by suggesting if we don’t kill them in the womb, we’ll just have to kill them when they are adults.

Pre-Mueller-Mageddon Open Thread

Mark Noonan39 Comments

Tomorrow is The Day of all Days: the Mueller Report gets released. Whole thing is a waste of time, of course, but that won’t stop Democrats. If they are at a loss, they’ll just bald-faced lie and make up stuff about it. I think, though, that the pivot they’ll revolve around is whatever is redacted – they’ll assure their suckers viewers that in those areas is the proof that Trump is a Russian stooge. What I’m hoping for is that as we ring down the curtain on Mueller, Barr starts to raise the curtain on a general investigation into government corruption.

Robert O’Rourke (D-Never Be Caught Dead in Texas Again After This) says that he doesn’t give to charity because he gives himself to us. Seriously: I’m not kidding. That’s what he’s asserting. And the Democrats claim that Trump is a narcissist.

Jazz Shaw has an interesting bit on the UAW’s continuing efforts to unionize the VW plant in Chattanooga. It’ll probably fall flat: but, I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t time for us on the right to become Unionists? What I mean is that there is a real need for worker unions – trouble is, the worker unions we have these days mostly represent government employees and are the merest tools of the Democrat party. But suppose we started up a union which represents only private sector employees and remains strictly non-partisan while pushing for various worker protections? Think about it: we’re all starting to feel a grip of fear that one unguarded comment on social media could get us fired; might be nice to have union protection against that. So, too, might the cubicle workers (mostly customer service of various types) like some protections against stupidly absurd work schedules (serious, guys: I know whereof I speak…some times they have these poor people working mornings one day, evenings the next and then take their two days off and split them up)? Might also be nice to have unions which work against government regulations which are designed to restrain trade. We should ponder this.

RSM wonders if Soros is funding Democrat anti-Semitism.

Trump son-in-law Kushner is apparently working on a Middle East peace deal to be unveiled later this year – naturally, the Palestinian leadership is opposed before the plan it is even presented. What people won’t admit – because they are cowards – is that the PA is a mafia-like organization and if they made peace, there’d be no place for the current mafia bosses. It doesn’t matter that the Palestinians suffer under poverty and corruption. It certainly doesn’t matter that a few Israelis are killed by the guys in Gaza (matters even less that Palestinians are killed in response). All that matters is that the mafia bosses continue to live well and siphon off foreign aid money to their Swiss bank accounts. Until people confront this fact and kill the Palestinian leaders, there will be no peace.

Gotta love the Poles – they propose to name a new, American military base in Poland, “Fort Trump”. Of all the Europeans, the Poles are about the only ones worth an American’s attention…though the Czech’s and the Balt’s are ok.

I Think I Was Bit by a Spider Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

So, I sit down to dinner on Wednesday night and just as a I start eating, I feel a pain in my stomach. Couldn’t be the food, I was literally on my first bite when I started to feel it. After a couple hours, the pain becomes agonizing, but not constant. It is a series of very painful spasms in my abdomen. Naturally, being a guy, I pretend it isn’t a problem. But, all night long I’m unable to sleep because the spasms keep coming. By morning, I’m exhausted. The spasms have lessened in intensity, but now I feel nausea and I’m chilled to the bone, even on a warm Nevada day. But as the pain is less, I still pretend its nothing. I took a couple Tylenol before bed on Thursday night and I slept pretty well, but still woke up tired. Hardly any pain left but still just generally weak. At last, I start thinking that something might be up and perhaps it is related to that nasty red spot on my arm which is now itching like the Dickens. A quick look at photos and various bug bite descriptions and I narrow it down to either a black widow or hobo spider. As it turns out, I should have seen a doctor right away. I’ll keep an eye on it – but the swelling in the bite area does seem to be going down.

Abortion Barbie may seek a Congressional seat.

AOC (D-Marxist Study Group in the Village or some such)did the Hillary thing (“I ain’t in no ways tard”) while speaking to a largely African-American audience. There are many obvious marks of the Left, and one of the most prominent is complete contempt for their own supporters.

Some polls (FWIW) show that the public is starting to believe there was Collusion…but between Hillary and Russia. As there was (or, at least, Collusion between Team Clinton and foreign intelligence services), this is good news.

Looks like Mueller might have just made stuff up in his attempt to get Trump. This surprises none of us.

Rep. Eric “Nuke ‘Em” Swalwell (D-People’s Republic of North Mexico) is going to run for President. Shortly, it’ll be easier to list the Democrats who aren’t running.

Weaponized Pouncing and Seizing Open Thread

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Hey, Liberals, can we talk for a sec? There’s something you ought to know: Trump is the morally superior guy here.

Now, don’t get me wrong: he’s not exactly a candidate for sainthood – he’s done some things in his life as he shouldn’t. But your fundamental problem, all along, as been assuming he’s as garbage as the people you look up to. All those Hollywood types, career politicians, permanent activists…nearly all of them are pure filth. I know you just assumed that Trump was like that, but you should never assume. And, as it turns out, at least in legal matters, he’s clean as a whistle.

Now that’s out of the way…

This was as if we got to watch Hillary lose. Twice. In one day. When the Avenatti news broke, I was at my desk at work and had a very hard time suppressing gales of laughter. This guy, remember, was part of the smearing of Trump and the smearing of Kavanaugh. He was being talked up last year, by a lot of people, as a 2020 candidate. He preened himself as some sort of Tribune of Decency…well, creepy porn lawyer is now creepy extortionist. Is there a better symbol of our corrupt Ruling Class than this clown? A man so morally decrepit that the porn star he used to represent won’t have anything to do with him any longer. And let’s all face some facts – all of us would have Stormy over for dinner long before we’d let Avenatti cross our threshold. We have standards, you know?

President Trump and Team are taking some victory laps – and it is glorious to behold. Think about it: for two years not just Trump, but everyone associated with him has essentially been accused of being traitors. Now, they are vindicated – and they aren’t letting bygones be bygones. One of the best things was a letter from Trump’s re-election campaign to TV producers pointing out that they shouldn’t have back on the clowns who all accused the President of treason.

Meanwhile, some people are starting to look into whether or not Hillary colluded with a foreign government. This is as good a place as any to start. This was a coup attempt, make no mistake about it. Various elements of government and media decided to annul the free and fair election of 2016. Lots of people should wind up in jail over this. But, we’ll see where that goes. I hope it happens – Trump can do no better service to our nation than taking these people down.

Mueller Time Open Thread

Mark Noonan39 Comments

The long-awaited report dropped today – which I think rather odd as this could have been wound up six months ago, or six months from now. I suspect the timing has to do with our new Attorney General, who seems to bear no feelings of loyalty to Mueller. Be that as it may, no one outside of high, official circles knows what is in it…but in keeping with Team Mueller, leaks abound. Apparently, there are no more indictments coming down. And, so, we’ve finished with Mueller and no one (other than an alleged Russian bot-farm) has been indicted for things relating to the 2016 campaign. We’re done here – not that liberals will take it that way.

Looking around Twitter, I had a ball – liberals in tears or trying to buck themselves up with ever more bizarre theories about how all of this will still work out to Trump being arrested any day, now. As I noted – and so did a lot of other people, including our Matt – this is just like Election Night, 2016, all over again.

The Democrats will keep this going, because their base is going to insist – but the longer they go, the more I suspect it’ll backfire on them. Unless absolute, rock solid proof of Trump illegality comes up, the people outside Democrat fever swamps will grow increasingly impatient and sympathetic to Trump.