Patton Would Be Proud!

Right all along

Posted on April 11, 2020April 11, 2020 by Mike

During the Republican primaries of 2015, I played a funny supercut of Donald Trump on my podcast. I had misjudged Trump then, fearing his flaws too much and appreciating his talents too little. The supercut put together all the times and tones in which he had said the word “China,” and backed it up with a jazzy bass. I found it hilarious.

Well, it was hilarious. But Trump was right about China. Right that its behavior was unprincipled and dangerous. Right that our trade imbalance with them represented a power imbalance that they could abuse. He was right about China when the Democrats and their press were distracting the country’s attention with trivial Russian trolling. And he was right to engage them even though the Wall Street Journal types screamed like a girl in a horror movie over how his “trade war” might affect their portfolios.

Do you remember Trump’s inaugural address when he spoke about the “American carnage” of closed factories and unemployment that was already causing an epidemic of deaths by despair? He was right about that, too. Right that it required attention when every Democrat and his pet journalist said it was “dark” to mention it. Right that it could be fixed when Barack Obama said it couldn’t. And right that it was a matter of policy when conservatives said he was interfering with the magic of global capitalism and, anyway, those lazy, oxycontin-chugging crackers kind of deserved it.

He was right that globalism could not thrive without a strong self-defending nation state, because nations are not just economic structures, they are also moral entities and some (like China) are wicked and some (like us) are good and deserve favor.

He was right that borders must be secured when blithering leftists were ready to virtue signal the west to death and high-minded right wingers like myself were shrugging off a slow-motion invasion, trusting to some imagined protective magic in our creed.

He was also right that the American news media has become corrupt and fake and needs to be regularly savaged until they are shamed into reforming and playing fair with the public. The Left, of course, loves it this way, though it destroys any chance of American dialogue. The Right underplayed the problem and was resigned to long-term death-by-culture.

The current pandemic has only underscored how very right Trump was: it was unleashed by China, exacerbated by globalism and weak borders, and has been endlessly darkened by the lies of a Republican-hating press.

The fact that he’s right on so many things is precisely why he’s hated so desperately by certain people.

Is this something?

Posted on April 10, 2020April 11, 2020 by Mike

I remain skeptical, but my skepticism felt a mite woozy for a sec just now.

AND I LOVE IT.

Laura Ingraham broadcasts the second part of her interview with AG Bill Barr (majority transcribed below). In this segment we can get a sense of where the DOJ is going with the ongoing investigations by U.S. Attorney John Durham into spygate and the current status of FISA against the backdrop of the prior administration abuse.

BARR – “I think the president did the right thing in removing Atkinson. From the vantage point of the Dept. of Justice, he had interpreted his statute; which is a fairly narrow statute that gave him jurisdiction over wrong-doing by intelligence people; and tried to turn it into a commission to explore anything in the government, and immediately report it to congress without letting the executive branch look at it and determine whether there was any problem. He was told this in a letter from the department of justice, and he is obliged to follow the interpretation of the department of justice, and he ignored it. So I think the President was correct in firing him.”

INGRAHAM – What can you tell us about the state of John Durham’s investigation? People have been waiting for the, the final report, on what happened with this, what can you tell us?

BARR – “Well I think a report y’know, may be, and probably will be, a by-product of his activity; but his primary focus isn’t to prepare a report, he is looking to bring to justice people who were engaged in abuses if he can show that there were criminal violations; and that’s what the focus is on. And, uh, as you know, being a lawyer yourself, building these cases, especially the sprawling case we have between us that went on for two or three years here, uh…, it takes some time, it takes some time to build the case.”

“So he’s diligently pursuing it, uh.. My own view is that, uh, the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness, there was something far more troubling here; and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law, and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.”

INGRAHAM – “The president is very frustrated, I think you, you obviously know that; about Andrew McCabe, uh, he believes that people like McCabe and others just were able to basically flout the laws, and so far with impunity.”

BARR – “I think the president has every right to be frustrated, because I think what happened to him was one of the greatest travesties in American history. Without any basis uh, they, uh, they started this investigation of his campaign; and even more concerning actually, is what happened after the campaign; a whole pattern of events while he was President. uh, So I, to sabotage the presidency; and I think that, uh, or at least had the effect of sabotaging the presidency.”

As I said, I remain skeptical, and will hold to my previous assertions that my faith that justice might be served will only be restored by seeing higher-level Deep State weasels frogmarched off for a stint in the greybar hotel wearing those pretty chrome bracelets with the short chain connecting them around their wrists, helped along on their journey by a close-packed phalanx of burly, unsmiling gentlemen in dark suits and sunglasses.

Admittedly, though, Barr made all the right noises in this interview, and he has been all along. Maybe it’s all just some sort of bait-and-switch, hide-the-sausage connivance or something, a ploy to keep stringing us all along for a while longer. But those are some pretty strong words, the parts I boldfaced especially, and they’re enough to keep hope a-flickering even yet. We’ll see, I guess.

Update! More support for cautious optimism.

First of all, it seems apparent that the Durham investigation has completed most of its evidence gathering–whether documentary or through interviews. That doesn’t mean the investigation is finished. There is also the question of putting together a prosecutive case, and that will probably involve complicated negotiations with the lawyers for the persons being investigated. That, in turn, could lead to further substantive investigation. But the bottom line is that at this point Barr appears confident that he knows what happened and, most likely, who was behind it. As Barr says, this is a “sprawling” case.

Second, Barr several times refers to things that “they” did. Not things that “were done.” So, multiple human perpetrators. That points toward the strong likelihood that a conspiracy case is being pursued that will encompass an attempt to “sabotage the presidency.” As Barr says, this is a “sprawling” case. And this case is very much focused on developing a criminal prosecution of the conspirators.

Third, Barr says that, while Durham’s “primary focus” is not on preparing a report, a report will “probably” result from Durham’s investigation. That’s important. IMO, the American people deserve a report that lays out the narrative of how a group of highly placed federal government operatives conspired to “sabotage the presidency.” Such a report would be unusual coming from a prosecutor, but this is an unusual case that goes to the heart of our constitutional order. The American people deserve to have a report that they can read and readily understand, rather than having to glean the narrative from complicated testimony, court proceedings, and documents written in bureacratic language and, possibly, released without full context. The release of the Papadopoulos interview is a down payment, as are no doubt the firings of corrupt Deep State operatives such as Dan Coats, Michael Atkinson, and others.

We can but hope. And then, should our hope prove vain, we can but head to Mordor On The Potomac en masse with pitchforks, torches, tar and feathers, and plenty of good, stout rope.

Trump FINALLY cleaning house?

Posted on April 9, 2020April 9, 2020 by Mike

Mucking out the stalls in the Deep State stables.

President Trump often refers to government waste as part of the Washington “swamp” he has vowed to drain – but the phrase has also become shorthand for bureaucratic resistance to his agenda and policies. Putting inspectors general, or IGs, under the microscope is the latest push in Trump’s post-impeachment purge of government officials whom the president and his conservative supporters say have worked to undermine his agenda and sabotage political appointees’ efforts to carry it out, several sources familiar with the discussions have told RealClearPolitics.

Heightened monitoring of IG investigations and their findings has yet to lead to anyone’s ouster, but key administration officials and Trump allies are urging the president to do some housecleaning and get rid of Obama-era watchdogs sprinkled throughout the administration. Several acting inspectors general appointed during the Obama administration are still operating at key government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Treasury Department.

“The federal bureaucracy has gone to war with the Trump administration, and their people have targeted and taken out many Trump’s officials,” a former White House official told RCP. “Those who are naturally responsible are the IGs, and they are complicit in their inaction.”

“The IGs, many put in place by the Obama administration, empower the deep state to go after the administration. … It’s absolutely nuts,” the former official added. “If [officials] were scared of the consequences of breaking the law, they wouldn’t go after the Trump administration like they do. That’s why you have the deep state gone wild. No one is watching the watchdogs.”

Note that this article is from March 10th. Now let’s have the author bring us up to date:

Breaking: Trump is firing 7 IGs in one fail swoop, sources confirm to @RealClearNews. Most likely will be the IGs that were appointed by Pres. Obama or beforehand. He wants his own people in those positions now. Trump during his briefing said he has "put in 7 names" for IGs.

— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) April 7, 2020

Good. At the risk of sounding like a broken record here, I’ll say it yet again: By now, there should not be so much as a single Obama stay-behind left in place anywhere in the Executive branch. Period. Hopefully, Trump is thinking of this as nothing more than a good, if way overdue, start.

Trump’s biggest blunder has been to let these ill-intentioned saboteurs keep their jobs; he shouldn’t have, and that mistake has proven very expensive indeed—not just for him and his agenda, but for the entire nation. Cristina reminds us that Reagan, at least, wasn’t suckered by the nefarious Deep State weasels:

Flashback: On day one of his administration president Ronald Reagan fired all IGs. The usual suspects were up in arms but the Reagan presidency went on just fine. Hiring or firing IGs is the president’s prerogative.

On Inauguration Day, Mr. Reagan sent notice to Congress that he had removed 13 inspectors general and two acting inspectors general in 15 agencies.

He said that the discovery of fraud, waste and mismanagement of Federal funds was an ”important priority” of his Administration and that it was essential for him to have the ”fullest confidence” in the ability and integrity of each inspector general.

Why, it’s almost as if the President thinks he might have some kind of influence over the Executive Branch or something, innit? But we know that’s a purely preposterous notion, risible on its very face. After all, no less an expert on the Constitution’s explicit separation-of-powers mandate than Adam Schitt says so.

Schiff: President Trump’s decision to fire Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson is yet another blatant attempt by the President to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 4, 2020

Quick civics lesson for partisan-axe-grinding shitlib ignorami: the “intelligence community” isn’t supposed to be “independent,” actually. It is but one subdivision of what is known as the Executive Branch. Its personnel serve at the pleasure of their boss—the President—one of whose job titles is Chief Executive. So in other words, Trump can fire any of ’em; he can fire none of ’em; or he can fire every single gott-damned one of ’em, entirely at his own discretion or whim. For any reason, or for no reason at all. And whichever route he chooses to go, the Congress has not one single gott-damned thing to say about it. Period, full stop, end of fucking story.

Or, cutting right to the chase: Fuck off and die, Shitthead. Five minutes ago wouldn’t be soon enough to suit me.

Birth of the Resistance

Posted on April 4, 2020April 4, 2020 by Mike

The heart of American liberty still beats in some places, however faint it may have become elsewhere.

Maine’s Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols has a strong message for the Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, who issued “stay-at-home” orders with threats of police punishment if not followed. Sheriff Nichols issued a statement on the Franklin County Facebook page saying in no uncertain terms he will not follow the unconstitutional order.

“We will not be setting up a Police State. PERIOD,” he wrote. “The Sheriff’s Office will not purposefully go out and stop vehicles because they are on the road or stop and ask why people are out and about. To do so puts our officers at risk. This is not Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia where you are asked for your papers!”

The sheriff’s announcement comes as a welcome sign to Americans who have been arrested for inane things like praying outside, surfing, or trying to drive to work. Someone has to stand up to the unconstitutional directives that are being handed down daily by government officials and it will fall on the sheriffs to uphold what they know to be their legal and lawful duties, none of which involve trampling the rights of citizens.

“Please use common sense during this executive order. We are more interested in the safety and well-being of the public as well as our officers at this time. With that being said, we are sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of the State – for any unlawful act/situation, arrestees will be taken into custody and transported for fingerprinting and bail.”

Nichols made it clear that he only intends to arrest for matters of law-breaking, and nothing else. Executive orders aren’t laws. He finished his announcement with words of encouragement for his constituents: “Most of you are doing a fantastic job – we appreciate that! Please look out for one another, especially the elderly and shut-ins. Please be a good neighbor/citizen always showing compassion. Please be kind especially on social media, negativity online only adds to the stress people are currently experiencing.”

Nichols signed this brave decree with his name and followed it with “Of the People, For the People.”

Fancy that: a government employee who fully understands what his job is, and is not. A man in a position of authority who recognizes that there are proper limits to that authority. A man who, in an age when our Constitution is used as toilet paper more often than not, nonetheless respects it as the supreme law of the land, and governs his professional actions with a determination to abide by it. In short, a man who has kept his head when everyone around him is losing theirs.

May God bless the honorable Sheriff Nichols; no matter how many like him there are out there, we’ll never have enough of them. I’d say he oughta be President, but could be that he’s needed more right where he is.

They’re getting the band back together

Posted on April 2, 2020April 2, 2020 by Mike

There they go again. But Trump, bless his stout heart, ain’t having any of it.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is doubling down on his call for President Trump to name a “czar” to oversee the production and distribution of coronavirus-related medical supplies.

Schumer sent a letter to Trump on Thursday saying it was “long past the time” to name a senior military officer to lead the effort, including allowing the individual to use the Defense Production Act “to complete and rapidly implement a plan for the increased production, procurement and distribution of critically-needed medical devices and equipment.”

“The existing federal leadership void has left America with an ugly spectacle in which States and cities are literally fending for themselves, often in conflict and competition with each other, when trying to procure precious medical supplies and equipment,” Schumer wrote.

The Hill, being just another Enemedia propaganda organ, minimized Trump’s scrumptiously scathing response to the tapeworm Schroomer. But I won’t.

Note Trump’s prominent mention of the failed Shampeachment hoax. There’s a reason he brought it up.

The team is back in action. On Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the creation of the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis. The new panel will have the authority to investigate any aspect of the virus emergency and the Trump administration’s handling of it.

Pelosi’s announcement came a day after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called for a 9/11-style independent commission to investigate “mistakes” in the virus response. Shortly after that, Schiff told the Washington Post that in Congress, House Democrats must investigate the Trump administration’s handling of virus testing and the government’s distribution of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.

“We need to make sure there’s no favoritism in terms of political allies, no discrimination against states or governors based on lack of presidential flattery,” Schiff said, indicating the probe would be aimed squarely at President Trump.

Less than three months after sending to the Senate impeachment articles to remove the president from office and less than two months after the Senate trial ended in Trump’s acquittal, the Pelosi-Schiff team is up and running again.

So after nearly FOUR FUCKING YEARS of refusing to accept defeat in the 2016 election instead of pretending to be grown-ups and abiding by the result, here we go with Round Four of the perpetual coup attempt from these scrofulous scoundrels.

Lemme see now, what was it I was just saying about how they never, ever stop? And didn’t I have something about bullets in heads lying around here someplace, too?

There is no way in Hell that the next Democrat-Socialist president should be allowed one single moment of peace from his/her/zxher/xxhis/its opposition after this outrage. He/she/zxher/xxhim/it should be hounded into a total schizophrenic break beginning the very instant the election results are announced, without surcease or pity. Full stop, end of fucking story.

“The future is not written”

Posted on March 28, 2020March 28, 2020 by Mike

Well, this is kinda cool.

‘He made it’: 101-year-old man who was born during Spanish flu pandemic survives coronavirus infection
A 101-year-old man reportedly survived a fight with the coronavirus as the pandemic continues to overwhelm Italy.

Gloria Lisi, vice mayor of Rimini, announced the news. She said the man, identified only as Mr. P., was admitted to a hospital last week after he tested positive for the flu-like illness. Mr. P. was born in 1919 while the world was grappling with the Spanish flu, a disease that killed millions.

“He made it. Mr. P. made it,” Lisi said. “Even at 101 years, the future is not written.”

She pointed out that, since being born during the Spanish flu, Mr. P. has seen the world change dramatically.

“He saw everything, Mr. P. War, hunger, pain, progress, crisis, and resurrections,” Lisi said.

So, a survivor of Spanish Flu and Chinese Yellow Peril Fu Manchu Wuhan Sino-Flu both, then. He’s a tough old bird for sure, and good on him for it.

The Teflon Don

Posted on March 21, 2020March 21, 2020 by Mike

Even in the current mess, the treacherous swine aren’t having things ALL their way.

A newly released ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that the attempts by the media and the Democratic Party to bash Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic have failed to sway voters. In fact, since the last time they polled the question, approval of Trump’s response to the pandemic has swung hugely in his favor.

According to the poll, which was conducted March 18-19th, 55 percent of voters approve of the way Trump “is handling the response to the coronavirus.” The poll shows a dramatic shift in opinion from a week earlier, when only 43 percent approved of Trump’s response to the virus.

This was not the only poll to show the public rally behind Trump during the pandemic. An Axios/Harris poll found virtually identical numbers in a survey conducted March 17-18, with 56 percent of Americans approving of Trump’s response to the pandemic, up from 51 percent in their previous poll.

In fact, the Harris poll shows Trump’s numbers have improved across the board. His overall approval went from 49 percent to 53 percent.

I saw a cheering sight earlier today, for whatever it might be worth. In the far corner of a local Wal-Mart parking lot, an enterprising middle-aged couple had set up a display table and awning to hawk miscellaneous Trump merchandise. They had “Trump 2020” banners flying over their little stand, with T-shirts, MAGA hats, and such-like paraphernalia on offer.

Now that was all fine and well, but better still was the gaggle of about fifteen or twenty customers queued up for their turn to plop down some hard-earned and grab themselves a souvenir. The crowd was chatting gaily among themselves, smiling and laughing, just generally enjoying a warm, pleasant Friday afternoon. Naturally, I honked and waved as I passed by.

Maybe I’m making a lot out of a little here, but I haven’t seen any impromptu Biden merch-purveyors around anywhere, and don’t expect to either. If I do, I don’t anticipate such a thing being any better-attended than Senile Grampy Joe’s campaign rallies have been.

Given the overwhelmingly negative coverage by the fake news media, complete with blatantly false stories, the fact that Trump’s approval in handling the pandemic is in positive territory is remarkable.

Au contraire, mon frere. At this point, all that “overwhelmingly negative coverage” is one of the things that’s driving those spiking numbers up. The peurile propaganda purveyors of Enemedia Inc, thanks to their own core dishonesty and doot-brained stupidity, have now created the situation they would very much like to have forestalled: the more they slam Trump, the harder his backers dig in their heels in support of him.

The horrid, hapless dolts have officially made Trump’s tongue-in-cheek campaign boast that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters” into something very close to literal fact. Personally, I wouldn’t be much fussed about it if he took a Sunday afternoon stroll down Fifth Ave with guns ablaze myself, so long as it was Enemedia “journalists” he was blasting at. In fact, I’d guess more than just a few of us would be happy to chip in on ammo if that were the case, so as to avoid any risk of his running dry while doing the Lord’s work.

That’s how awful, how utterly despicable these alleged “people” are. Their own burning hatred and contempt, for Trump and for every Real American alike, has flashed back to sear them so badly that real Americans are now perfectly willing to overlook a broadening spectrum of transgressions solely for the purpose of pointing and laughing when the smug, whiny pinheads get their panties all in a wad over it. Trump is Our Guy, period, and to hell with what the enemy might think or say. The more the libtards screech the better we like it, and the more we hope to see of it from our esteemed Preznit.

Ask yourselves why we hate you, pissants.

It’s like the moronic mandarins of the mainstream media – luminaries like Honest Dan Rather, Brian “Badass Like Buttigieg” Williams, and Zombie Cronkite – got together to create a plan to make people hate the media even more than they already did. It was a daunting challenge, since people view the mainstream media as something akin to syphilis without the upside. But it’s as if they finally succeeded, accomplishing, against all odds, something besides failure, leveraging this pandemic to destroy the media forever. The Chinese Coronavirus Bat Soup Syndrome has taken what’s left of the media’s reputation, poured gasoline on it, then lit it on fire before flattening it with a bulldozer and finally having a Scat Francisco hobo download last night’s free bologna sandwich on the remains.

This was the media’s time to shine, a moment when we needed clear, objective information delivered by intelligent people who asked the important questions people care about so Americans could protect themselves and their families. It was a critical juncture when the media could step up and show us all that yes, the media is still important. It still matters. It still deserves our respect.

Instead we got, “Mr. President, isn’t accurately pointing out that the coronavirus originated in China racist?”

Really.

That was a thing.

Pointing out that the Wuhan flu came from Wuhan is racist.

Yep. If there’s any silver lining to be found shining forth from the grim Chinese Flu dustup, Leftymedia’s most spectacular self-beclownment to date—along with the collateral damage they incur from it—would have to be it.

Justice delayed is justice denied

Posted on March 16, 2020March 17, 2020 by Mike

Just do it, Mr Prez’nit, sir.

So now it is reported that, after destroying his life & the life of his wonderful family (and many others also), the FBI, working in conjunction with the Justice Department, has “lost” the records of General Michael Flynn. How convenient. I am strongly considering a Full Pardon!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2020

More:

This can’t come soon enough. Who wouldn’t be outraged at public servants, with tremendous power over citizens’ freedom, being free to lose records as they please and still expect court systems to uphold their charges and recommendations? Incompetence fine for me, charges stick like glue to you?

It’s an absolute outrage that the FBI in this electronic age can “lose” a record at all. These people ought not to be able to file anything at all until all their notes are archived, documented, and backed up. That’s just basic. They’re required to follow the law, same as all the people they charge, and if they can’t keep a record, it’s time to punish them and throw each and every one of their claims in the trash. Keeping a record is basic; it dates back to the bureaucrats of the Egyptian papyrus era.

And here’s the real thing: nobody loses records like this anyway. What we are seeing is a cover-up. Got some records that make you look bad? Quick, lose them. How convenient to hide dishonesty.

I repeat: when all the “mistakes” conveniently cut in only one direction, to the detriment of only one side in a dispute, then they aren’t “mistakes” at all.

Backstory update! You’ll doubtless be shocked—SHOCKED!—at who’s behind the persecution of Flynn, and why.

The long suffering General Michael Flynn served briefly as President Trump’s National Security Advisor (NSA). In order to understand Flynn’s long legal journey over the last three years, one must be aware of the animosity President Obama and his top intelligence officials felt toward him.

Flynn had served as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) during the Obama Administration from July 2012 to August 2014. Throughout his tenure, Flynn found himself strongly and frequently “at odds with the administration’s policies on ISIS and the Iran nuclear deal, among other things, which put him at odds with the Obama-friendly deep state.” Following his ouster, Flynn’s public remarks deepened the rift. For instance, in November 2015 during an appearance on Fox News, ” Flynn called for an investigation into the ISIS intel-skewing scandal, recommending that it “start right at the top.”

SHOCKING! as all that is, you’ll be even more SHOCKED! to see that Paragon Of Moral Virtue James Comey rears his ugly, ugly head, as do others of his fellow Klown Kar Koup conspirators. In sum:

Okay, boys, so tell us again why the government continued to prosecute Flynn. Solomon explains that U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan, who has presided over the case has “so far has concluded that the exoneration of Flynn on the Russia collusion charge wasn’t relevant to his conviction since he pled guilty to a different crime, making a false statement to the FBI.”

Not relevant? He lied to the FBI about a crime he didn’t commit?

Flynn was caught in a perjury trap. The FBI had been looking for a way to charge him with a crime. Although they would have preferred Russian collusion, they settled for lying to the FBI.

So, ten days into Trump’s presidency, the FBI knows that General Flynn did not collude with the Russians. Yet via leaks to the media, the most notable being The Washington Post’s David Ignatius, Americans were led to believe the opposite. Ignatius published excerpts from Flynn’s conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition and presented a “false storyline of Flynn as a Russian stooge was broadcasted across the nation.”

As Vaughan says, the WaPo leak was an actual, by-God felony—“the only serious crime to have emerged in the Russia investigation“, according to Deb Heine way back in 2018. The disgusting denouement:

Solomon spoke to Powell and was told the DOJ provided her with “three sentences from the DOJ memo.” Powell “has been unable to get the full document.”

Uncle Peter, my smelling salts!!

“It’s just horrible,” Powell said. “They gave us a little three line summary of it and the letter and told us it existed but have refused to give us the actual document, which I know means there’s a lot of other information in it that would be helpful to us.”

I’d say that one’s about as safe as assumptions ever come, yeah.

This isn’t the totality of what General Flynn has endured over the last three years, but it provides a good understanding of what Obama’s lieutenants set in motion at the end of his administration. The Mueller team continued the farce, finally forcing Flynn into pleading guilty to one charge of lying to the FBI.

If anyone deserves a pardon, it is this man, who served this country for 33 years. But, at this point, it would almost be better to force the holdovers from the Mueller team to answer for the missing documents and all of their lies.

Now now, methinks you might oughta embrace the healing power of “and” there, Miss Liz’beth; t’ain’t no reason it can’t be both, you know. In truth, it MUST be both, if even the most infinitesimal degree of faith and trust in American justice and the institutions charged with upholding it is ever to be restored. At the very, very least, though, Trump MUST pardon Flynn, sans condition or caveat, and let the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Left howl itself bloody-throated over it. They’re going to anyway, which by itself is confirmation that it’s the right thing to do.

How it’s DONE

Posted on March 10, 2020March 10, 2020 by Mike

Greece nuts the fuck up.

The situation in the no-mans-land between Turkey and Greece is becoming increasingly more violent and desperate for the refugees. Reporters on a tour heard gunshots despite the Greek government denying the use of anything except tear gas to stop the refugees.

Daily Beast:

For over an hour, the sound of people trying to direct each other in multiple languages through farms, woodlands, and across riverbanks was punctuated by shots. First it sounded like single rifle blasts, then came bursts of three, and then longer, heavier automatic fire.

Encouraging, and way overdue. Greek officials, when confronted by wailing “journalists” and other hanky-soaking globalist cunts claiming to have heard gunfire, blithely responded No you didn’t.

However, when Papastathis appeared on Wednesday afternoon to direct us to the new location, he denied absolutely that we had heard what we heard.

“Only tear gas is being fired,” he insisted to a group of a dozen journalists on the tracks.

Turkey accused Greece of killing a Syrian man and wounding five other people.

My heart bleeds. Maybe shoulda stayed the fuck home then, no?

Fuck the goddamned treacherous Turks and their accusations all to hell and gone, by the way. The rationale for their even being in NATO at all escapes me completely. Then again, I feel the exact same way about the US, too.

The next day footage of Greek soldiers apparently firing in the direction of migrants on the border surfaced online. And more signs of the Greeks using live fire on migrants and asylum seekers could be found at a makeshift camp for people waiting to cross the Evros River near the Turkish city of Edirne.

As encouraging as the Greek gubmint’s properly hardnosed response to the de facto invasion of their nation by predatory Moslem rapefugees and perpetual dependents surely is, this next is even more so:

Greece is becoming more and more desperate to stop what has to be considered a Turkish-inspired invasion of its territory. And since the government has been ineffective, armed private citizens have taken matters into their own hands.

The BBC has encountered members of self-styled militias who carry out night-time armed patrols in Greek border towns looking for migrants.

“There are such militia along the entire region,” said Yannis Laskarakis, a newspaper publisher in the city of Alexandroupoli who has received death threats for speaking out against armed vigilantes.

“We have seen them with our own eyes, arresting migrants, treating them badly and if someone dares to help them, he has the same fate.”

And the vigilantes aren’t only going after refugees. Aid workers and the press have also been assaulted.

I bolded the best part so’s you wouldn’t miss it. Elsewhere, the Telegraph gets busy trotting out the usual boogeyman:

On Lesbos, young men have targeted reporters and NGOs because they perceive them as being sympathetic to the refugees’ plight.

It is not clear if they are local or outsiders from the mainland, possibly connected to far-Right organisations.

On Friday there were reports that members of German and Austrian far-Right groups had arrived on the island.

Yeh, yeh, whatevs. Moran deftly slices and dices that hooraw:

I doubt whether a lot of these simple Greek villagers are members of a far-right organization. Their motivations are simple; their families are at risk and their property is being invaded by foreigners. For them, there are no grand geopolitical issues involved. They are protecting theirs and their own from harm.

But with the rest of the EU cheerleading from the sidelines — while not lifting a finger to help except to open their wallets — Greece finds itself alone and facing a potential onslaught of 100,000 people.

Doesn’t matter a damned bit whether they’re “far-Right” or not; I’d bet the farm that none of those militia types give a shit about any of that, either. Let liberal “journalists” clang the “far-Right” tocsin to their hearts’ content; there is but one issue that matters here: when a national government fails to meet its most basic obligations—securing its borders, maintaining its sovereignty, and defending its citizens—then eventually its citizens will take matters into their own hands.

Nobody is obliged to sit passively back as hostile marauders invade their country, rain violence and destruction on its people, assault its culture and institutions, soak up its resources, and just generally run riot through the place. However complacent, peaceable, or over-civilized a population may be, sooner or later enough finally becomes enough. Then the lamp is lit, the ball has dropped, and it’s game on for reals.

Somebody really ought to give our own Democrat-Socialists a strongish heads-up about that lest they someday find their own precious butts caught in the blades, for some very similar reasons.

Pussified snowflakes triggered, piddle themselves in fwight

Posted on March 8, 2020March 8, 2020 by Mike

Too, too funny.

Colorado Congressman Ken Buck wanted to have a little fun and made a 2nd amendment video using a gun he mounts on his wall.

“I have just one message for Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke, if you want to take everyone’s AR-15s, why don’t you swing by my office in Washington, D.C. and start with this one? Come and take it. #2A,” he said.

Enter Congresswoman Haley Stevens who apparently felt “threatened” and called the Sergeant at arms on the guy.

“Your congressional office is not your private home. It is a public space. This behavior is threatening and unacceptable,” Haley wrote.

“I feel unsafe with this in my place of work. I have been in contact with the Sergeant at Arms to express my concerns,” she added and she was serious.

Beto O’Rourke decided to join in, and responded to Stevens’ post with his own message on Twitter.

“This guy makes the case for both an assault weapons ban and a mandatory buyback program better than I ever could. These are weapons of war that have no place in our communities, in our politics or in our public discourse,” he commented.

The wall ornament has been rendered entirely nonfunctional; the bolt has been removed, and even at that sports a trigger lock too, for some reason. In other words, the thing is as harmless as newborn kittens, unless maybe you snatched it off its hanger and used it as a club or threw it at somebody or something. Dana Loesch offers another damning detail before kicking Blotto’s ass up between his shoulder blades over that “weapons of war” horseshit:

Buck’s inoperable rifle has hung on his office wall since 2015 without incident — ever since the Capitol Police inspected it and gave him the all clear to hang it.

Oh for crying out loud. These aren’t “weapons of war” anymore than my .38 revolver is a “weapon of war” or a bolt action rifle is a “weapon of war.” Buck and his inoperable, wall-mounted firearm have threatened fewer people than O’Rourke drunk-driving his automobile down the highway, but you don’t see O’Rourke calling for “common sense automobile ownership.” Also — there is no such thing as a “mandatory buyback.” That phrase is BS for “stealing people’s lawfully-owned personal property and paying them off with their own tax dollars,” a.k.a. double thievery.

“Weapon of war”? Hell, Buck’s decorative installation isn’t a weapon at all, in any meaningful sense. It’s a statement is what it is—no more, no less. Admittedly, it should come as no surprise that cringing cunt-farts like Blotto, Stevens, and the rest of their pig-ignorant, cowardly gun-grabber compadres are crapping themselves over its mere presence despite its status as wall art. But it may well be that the idea of anybody freely making “statements” like Buck’s frightens them much, much more.

The fight is forever

Posted on March 8, 2020March 8, 2020 by Mike

Sundance quotes a bit from a classic old Mike Vanderboegh post, which I just had to track down and excerpt some of myself.

Are we not already two different countries, the liberals and we traditional believers in free men and free markets? If we cannot agree on something so philosophically findamental as the sanctity of life, what else can we agree on? Have we not just been agreeing to disagree on when the next American civil war will break out?

We must admit that the reason we are losing the world war for western civilization both at home and abroad is because we have elected not to fight it. And we will continue losing it until we do.

Those of us who long for the restoration of the Founders’ Republic are out of time. We cannot allow ourselves to pushed back from our God-given, inalienable liberties any longer. WE MUST REFUSE TO BE SUBJUGATED A THIN SALAMI SLICE AT A TIME. We must refuse to concede to our own enslavement. In the end, and it may come sooner rather than later, we must fight.

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

Along those same lines, Aesop is all in.

It cuts against the grain. Because when they’re enforcing just laws in a just manner, the police are doing Good. I am neither a copsucker nor a knee-jerk cop-hater, and my record in calling out the douchebadges when they royally screw the pooch is beyond reproach. But there’s still quite a lot of them doing God’s work all the time. (In Chicongo, not so much. But I digress.) If I were a bank robber, a rapist, or a murderer, caught red-handed, that would include shooting me in the face.

But when the only alleged “crime” is that some shrieking nancypants got the hebejeebees because I own a gun (or ten, or fifty, or whatever I’m up to these days), and anyone – president, congress weasels, governor, district attorney, hysterical mother, or some black-robed fuckwit too stupid to get into a STEM program – thinks that gives them the a priori right to circumvent Natural Law, the Constitution, and due process in one fell swoop, and send Officer Jackboots And His Merry Men to come take them, without any bill of indictment, witnesses, defense, or any other shred of due process in common law going back to Magna Carta, you’d better send your minions in their serious Kevlar underpants, with their insurance paid up and their wills up to date, and leave the married men at home. Because at that point, the range is now hot in both directions, I shoot Expert, and that red range flag means “No quarter given, nor expected.”

Now, go home and think about your wife and kids. Your friends, family, and hobbies. Everything you hold dear.

That’s what you’re risking for me, and for you, when you decide a paycheck trumps the Constitution.

So think long and hard about whether today is a good day to die, for treating me like a criminal, when we both know I’m not.

Doing that is the day you decide to become a criminal.
And you’ll answer for it, both here, and hereafter.

The war may well end, someday, and either my side or yours will win.

But you won’t live to see it, if I have anything to say about it.
So, do you really want to make all kinds of enemies out of the last people in the country who think what you do is something worth having?

Instead of being so tewwibly, tewwibly fwightened of all those big mean scary-looking guns, they probably ought to be afraid of guys like Aesop, and the millions upon millions more of us out here nodding our heads in quiet agreement with his sentiments. Because it’s as Heinlein’s Sgt Zim said: There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.

Aside: I’m going to put Vanderboegh’s hallowed halls into Ye Olde Blogrolle. Yes, I know Mike’s gone and the blog is defunct as of 2016, alas. But his stuff is every bit as pertinent now as it was back then, so I’m gonna provide myself with a handy reminder to go back and poke around in his archives now and then.

Ain’t skeered

Posted on February 24, 2020February 24, 2020 by Mike

Schlichter’s title contains an unfounded assumption. But other than that, he nails it.

The D.C. establishment and their media rump-kissers went into a full-on spazz mode when President Trump continued his unbroken streak of awesomeness by appointing Ric Grenell the acting Director of National Intelligence, thereby threatening the intelligence community’s unbroken streak of failure. None of our media idiot savants – a term which is only half-accurate – thought to ponder the question of exactly how Ric’s appointment could possibly make the IC worse. Its legacy of ashes is a national embarrassment. But then, the purpose of the currently-constituted intelligence community, the foreign policy community, and every wing of our incompetent, inept, and corrupt establishment is not to serve the people of the United States. Its purpose is to serve the personal interests of the currently-constituted intelligence community, the foreign policy community, and every wing of our incompetent, inept, and corrupt establishment.

Dead on the money so far. But then:

Its denizens fear that this fearless patriot is going to burn down their whole shoddy edifice, and we can only hope they’re right.

Flick that Bic, Ric.

We can hope so, yeah. No real harm in keeping a positive attitude, right?

On the other hand, when has anybody seen any evidence of fear on their part, really? I haven’t. Anger? Yeah. Narcissism? Sure. Assumptions of superiority and entitlement? Absolutely. Vengefulness, pettiness and spite, a strong determination to fight in defense of their presumptive turf? Yep, yep, yep, and damned skippy.

So what real evidence can be cited in support of Kurt’s contention that they’re afraid, they’re very afraid? Or even that they should be? Yes, the Deep State establishment is shrieking, all right. Along with the rest of their ideological confreres on the Left, when are they not? They’ve been shrieking about absolutely everything Trump has done or attempted to do since November 2016, even before. In the case of FedGovCo specifically, however, I do NOT take the anguished caterwauling as evidence Deep State termites are actually afraid of anything. I think of it more along the lines of battlespace prep. Or psyops, maybe.

Kurt goes on from there to laud Grennel for previous accomplishments and overall attitude, and rightly so. Grennel’s appointment bodes well for several reasons. And this bodes even better:

Today, we’re hearing that Kash Patel, a National Security Council staffer and former aide to Devin Nunes, has been tapped as a senior advisor to Grenell. Patel has also been a loyal ally to the President and to Republicans. Patel wrote the famous February 2018 “Nunes memo,” a document which alleged that the FBI used the phony Steele dossier as the basis of their application to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. In his December 2019 report, Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed the accuracy of the entire document.

The importance of having two loyal and like-minded Trump allies in place at the helm of the DNI cannot be overstated.

CBS News’ Catherine Herridge reported that Grenell has been given a mandate which is to “#cleanhouse including a “top to bottom” review of DNI operations.”

This is good news indeed. It appears that President Trump is starting the clean sweep of the government agencies he hadn’t known was so crucial early on.

It’s good news right enough, and I’m glad to see it. Nonetheless, where Kurt sees a glass at least half-full here, I can’t help but also see…well, this:

Three separate stories converged to drive home the obvious truth that America has a two-tiered justice system: the Justice Department’s decision to not indict the guilty-as-sin plotter Andrew McCabe, the attempt to give Roger Stone an outrageous jail sentence, and the Army’s decision to shrug that one of its officers attempted to orchestrate the removal of his commander-in-chief.

There are a couple of simple reasons for this. The most obvious reason is that the entire federal bureaucracy is one giant Democrat machine. This cannot be repeated enough. Nearly every member of almost every single department is a Democrat.

How bad is it? Back in 2016, 95 percent of campaign contributions for the presidential race went to Her Royal Awfulness. The Justice Department overachieved, coming in at 97 percent.

Liberal scolds are always lecturing Americans on how they are racist, imperialist, misogynistic, homophobic monsters, even if they don’t know it due to implicit bias. This is nonsense. But it is curious that these same fools see no problem with implicit bias when the entire government-media-academia complex is one giant exercise in leftist groupthink.

Daniels is talking about the DoJ here, but it’s still relevant; if anything, the IC is even worse. And, as he later cautions, “Identifying the problem is far simpler than coming up with practical solutions.”

It’s as I’ve said all along: a single President is never going to be able to force the Shadow Government genie back into its bottle; no, not even Trump, not even with two terms. The nation has been lured, tugged, and/or dragged—according to which MO seemed most practical or effective at the time—consistently Leftward for nigh on a century now, with a strident, near-continuous effort beginning in the 60s. Anyone seriously thinking that all this might be corrected in a scant eight years, by just one man, isn’t really thinking. He’s dreaming.

Your feel-good video of the day

Posted on February 24, 2020February 24, 2020 by Mike

Don’t thank me, thank Ace.

If you protest in the street, you deserve to get traffic coned. ???pic.twitter.com/3UzOisq8Kw

— Cari Kelemen (@KelemenCari) February 24, 2020

Some MLB team with a weak pitching rotation ought to track that hurler down and sign his ass up. That’s one HELL of a beanball.

Epstein didn’t kill himself update! Okay, have another feel-gooder.

The Epstein didn’t kill himself float. Cc: @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/1t7EUEoZUf

— Paul Blair (@gopaulblair) February 22, 2020

For the record, let me just get this one out there in advance: neither did Weinstein.

There walked a man

Posted on February 21, 2020February 21, 2020 by Mike

As big a fan as I’ve always been of the great Jimmy Stewart, there’s still a lot about him I didn’t know.

20 February 1966: Brigadier General James M. Stewart, United States Air Force Reserve, flew the last combat mission of his military career, a 12 hour, 50 minute “Arc Light” bombing mission over Vietnam, aboard Boeing B-52 Stratofortress of the 736th Bombardment Squadron, 454th Bombardment Wing. His bomber was a B-52F-65-BW, serial number 57-149, call sign GREEN TWO. It was the number two aircraft in a 30-airplane bomber stream.

Plenty more to the Stewart story, of which you should definitely read the all. I’ll just toss some more in for the heck of it.

Concerned that his celebrity status would keep him in “safe” assignments, Jimmy Stewart had repeatedly requested a combat assignment. His request was finally approved and he was assigned as operations officer of the 703rd Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group, a B-24 Liberator unit soon to be sent to the war in Europe. Three weeks later, he was promoted to commanding officer of the 703rd.

The 445th Bombardment Group arrived in England on 23 November 1943, and after initial operational training, was stationed at RAF Tibenham, Norfolk, England. The unit flew its first combat mission on 13 December 1943, with Captain Stewart leading the high squadron of the group formation in an attack against enemy submarine pens at Kiel, Germany. On his second mission, Jimmy Stewart led the entire 445th Group.

Following World War II, Jimmy Stewart remained in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a Reserve Officer, and with the United States Air Force after it became a separate service in 1947. Colonel Stewart commanded Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Marietta, Georgia. In 1953, his wartime rank of colonel was made permanent, and on 23 July 1959, Jimmy Stewart was promoted to Brigadier General.

During his active duty periods, Colonel Stewart remained current as a pilot of Convair B-36 Peacemaker, Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress intercontinental bombers of the Strategic Air Command.

During his military service, Brigadier General James Maitland Stewart was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leaf cluster (two awards); the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters; the Distinguished Service Medal; and the Croix de Guerre avec Palme (France).

General Stewart retired from the U.S. Air Force on 1 June 1968 after 27 years of service.

More stuff I didn’t know:

In World War II, Jimmy Stewart answered the same patriotic call as many men and joined the military. Even though Stewart was a working actor at the time, he felt the call to duty like anyone else and made it his mission to serve America in its time of need. For Stewart it wasn’t just about gaining the accolades and attaboys, he genuinely wanted to serve his country, but that came at a price. By the end of World War II he was suffering from PTSD, something that affected him deeply while filming It’s A Wonderful Life.

By the end of World War II Stewart wasn’t doing well. Men serving with him at the time said that he was suffering from battle fatigue, not in the sense that he was afraid of going into battle, but that he was worried about losing men while performing missions over Europe. This kind of “endless stress” is what grounded him for good towards the end of the war.

Both Stewart and director Frank Capra were dealing with their own personal demons while they were filming It’s A Wonderful Life, but Stewart was certain that he didn’t know how to act anymore. Biographer Robert Matzen writes:

If you watch that performance by Stewart, there was a lot of rage in it and it’s an on-the-edge performance because that’s what those guys were feeling — they were scared that this wasn’t going to work. That the audience wasn’t going to buy it. Donna Reed (playing Stewart’s wife in the film) is one of the eyewitnesses who said, ‘This was not a happy set.’ These guys were very tense. They would go off and huddle say, ‘Should we try this? Should we try that?’ And it proceeded that way for months.

Stewart’s pain and stress is evident in every scene of the film, it’s likely why the film is so affecting.

Stewart died in 1997, bless his heart. They sure don’t make Hollywood celebs like they used to, eh? Then again, they don’t make Americans like they used to, either.

(First link via Insty)

In defense of Trump’s Tweeting

Posted on February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 by Mike

Looks like I’m no longer the Lone Ranger on this.

(U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard) Grenell said, “It makes my job so much easier. We as diplomats have to be at the forefront of trying to solve problems. You don’t want to have a war. You want to avoid war, which means diplomats need to be able to talk. If you want to really solve problems, you better have diplomats who are really tough, diplomats who know how to push and know how to cajole. Because the alternative is to transfer the file over to the DOD. So, I like having a president who’s willing to be very tough. Look, we can also talk about whether or not the style of the president works. I think $400 billion in new defense promises for NATO members is one surefire way to point to the fact that the president’s style has worked.”

Well, yeah. For some, style trumps results; for some, the other way ’round. And then there are those of us who realize that, quite often, the style is what gets results. It’s certainly so in Trump’s case; his brashness, his bluntness, his cantankerousness are in no way obstacles or handicaps. They’re the very legs on which the race is run…and won.

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