Where Do We Go from Here?

“When are Local and State Governments Illegitimate?”

Posted on August 22, 2020August 22, 2020 by Mike

Oh, right about, umm, NOW, in my estimation. Have been since March, in fact.

Should we shrug off crises in blue cities as the fault of voters? The “They’ve made their bed, let them lie in it” trope misses a key point. Did voters in any of these cities really bargain for what they’re getting now? Yes, most claim to be progressives, but did they expect their votes to result in the sacking of their communities? The menacing of their neighbors and themselves? Did they really desire or expect a leftist dystopia?

In our federal system, it falls first upon the states and localities to uphold the mandate of the Constitution’s preamble. But when states and localities fail — by cowardice or design — to fulfill their basic duties, then isn’t it incumbent upon the national government to act?

Day in and day out, we’re told by the MSM not to believe our lying eyes. The leftist-provoked mobs running wild in blue cities are merely protesters, registering grievances and questing for justice in an endemically racist America — an America unjust beyond race, anyway, and from its inception. The cancers growing in blue cities are meant to metastasize across the nation, have no doubt.

To excise these cancers, to reestablish justice and restore domestic tranquility, the national government must act. Leaders in afflicted blue cities, bolstered by their states’ governors, are in rebellion and are trampling the constitutionally guaranteed rights of their citizens, while gestating wider rebellion. If the national government doesn’t act, then it rests upon the citizens to exercise “their right, [snip] their duty, to throw off such [state and local] Government[s], and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Don’t know as I’d be holding my breath waiting for that, bub. Any appeal to the Constitution seems futile at best anyway, especially when you’re pleading with people who hold the Constitution and every ideal it represents in utmost doot-brained contempt in the first place.

Not that I’m saying there’s no recourse, or no solution, mind you; I assure you, there is.

Spicy time countdown

Posted on August 20, 2020August 23, 2020 by Mike

This has been my own thought for a fair bit now.

Regardless of who is elected, it’ll be civil war
I’m not going to say that what we’ve been experiencing over the last three months have been the first salvos of a civil war, but it sure looks like it. While hard-line socialists in the Democratic Party are working within the political infrastructure and behaving as though they are conducting the business of governance according to the rule of law and constitutionally established procedures, they are in fact in the process of fomenting civil war – or at least, they have made it apparent that they are willing to go that far if they are not able to gain ascendency via political means.

One of their prerequisites for standing down appears to be the removal of President Donald Trump, whether this is achieved via the general election in November or by some other means. It is clear – and should be clear to historians in the future – that the impeachment proceedings that took place in 2019 and early 2020 were nothing more than an attempted coup against our president.

Failing that, elected officials in Washington (both Republican and Democrat), their supporters, powerful Democrat donors and far left activists in the streets and corridors of power orchestrated violent demonstrations on the pretext of widespread racism on the part of police agencies across the country. Elected officials in Democrat-controlled enclaves have allowed these to persist in order to serve their greater agenda.

And make no mistake: The two-party system in America has been an illusion and a deception for quite some time. Most Republican elected officials who support the president are only supporting him because of his popularity amongst Republicans and swing voters. Nearly all of them hold allegiance to the Washington establishment and have been vehemently opposed to Trump’s housekeeping efforts from the start.

And although we know that political rhetoric has had a tendency to get nasty and hyperbolic during election cycles since our nation’s earliest days, the magnitude of the lies and the level of projection being proffered by everyone from Black Lives Matter and Antifa thugs to Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have truly pushed the boundaries of the surreal. I mean, when Bill Clinton has the nerve to criticize President Trump’s behavior in the Oval Office as he did this week at the Democratic National Convention, it becomes clear that these people have no sense of shame, and have cast both decency and reality to the wind.

It is entirely possible that if President Trump secures reelection, the left will escalate and extend the scope of the violence, touching off a full-blown, costly civil war. I believe it is equally possible that if Joe Biden wins the election, heretofore law-abiding Americans will determine that enough is enough, rise up and take decisive action against leftist dissidents, with the same unfortunate result.

Should this occur, it will be a civil war such as we’ve seen in many other nations over the years, rather than what transpired during the Civil War: Potential enemies will be present in our cities and towns, in our neighborhoods and occasionally in our own homes. Lines between enemy combatants will be blurred, as will those between police, the military and the militias that will inevitably rise up. BLM and Antifa thugs will continue to ply their trade until they are beaten back, or they prevail.

It should be clear by now to all but the intellectually indolent or deficient that those on the left thrive on the suffering of the citizenry at large. In fact, it was the deep suffering generated by the Obama administration that led to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Now, like spoiled but very dangerous children, the left intends to prolong the pain of civil unrest until we get rid of him.

I shouldn’t have to point this out, but people who thrive on the suffering of others are inherently evil. Prudent individuals do not concern themselves with decorum or even fairness when dealing with evil people.

Nope, nor should they. Instead, they fix the evil people’s breathing problem—the problem being, they still ARE breathing.

In fairness, though, we should probably grant that not all of them are in fact evil; some of them are just stupid. Either way, we’ve conceded the Left’s presumed “right” to rule over and control us for much too long now. It’s long past time we rescinded that misguided concession, by whatever means we must.

War to the knife, knife to the hilt: I don’t see any way it can possibly be averted now, and that’s a terrible, terrible tragedy. But our differences are irreconcilable; we have here a chasm that cannot be bridged in any honorable fashion. There is no resolution in which any semblance of liberty can be preserved. The Left has made it clear that they will not relent until every last Real American submits and is brought fully and firmly to heel. That is, quite simply, unacceptable. So if war it must be, then let’s win the thing, by God.

(Via WRSA)

Asking the tough questions

Posted on August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 by Mike

Ones with scary answers, too.

Would the Military Side with Leftist Tyranny or with America?

Offhand, I’d say the answer depends on which military we’re talking about here. Is it the higher-ranking officers put in place by the Obama junta after Jugears McNoChest had spent purging the military of nearly all its actual military types and replaced them with PC dweebs, FOBbits, REMFs, and Blue Falcons uninterested in, y’know, winning wars—preferring instead to humiliate its enlisted ranks by forcing them to march on parade in stripper-pumps? Or would it be the crusty old lifer Senior Chiefs, Gunnies, and Command Sar-Majors, who must be scratching their heads in puzzlement by now over the atrocity that’s been wrought on what was once, long ago, the most effective, well-trained, and just plain dangerous military in existence?

Because one of those things is NOT like the other.

Between the perma-coup against the American people, the mainstream media’s myriad and shameless lies, and the Democrats’ election fraud agenda (including the Golden Ticket to anarchy that is mail-in voting), it is absolutely clear that the Democrats will not accept Donald Trump’s impending victory. It is also clear that their plan is to sow chaos when they lose, with outright ballot box-stuffing, riots, and endless counts and recounts, so that they can obscure Trump’s win enough to create a patina of fake doubt about the result. Then they will rush into some Hawaiian courtroom and get some Hawaiian judge to announce that the Delaware Basement Crustacean won the election. The idea is to then have a deus ex militaria where somehow the establishment gets reestablished forever at gunpoint. And the liberal elite is said establishment.

Look at CNN and see the endless parade of fully semi-automatic Obama generals babbling like idiots about how Trump is ruining their sweet gigs, though they don’t put it quite that way. Look at the appalling Chairman of the Joint Chiefs apologizing for following the elected president’s lead. And, especially, look at their horror that America is ending those endless wars.

Those are the generals, and they have the elite’s back, not yours. A general who said “all lives matter” or refused to buy the ridiculous but fashionable notion that America’s greatest strategic threat is the weather a century hence or uttered some other heresy would not be a general much longer – and certainly not cash in on a sweet post-retirement gig at Boeing.

But most Americans don’t see that. Because America remembers the military of 30 years ago that could actually win a war in a reasonable period of time (as we did in Desert Storm), today’s generals benefit from residual respect for yesterday’s Cold War military. Americans are unaware of the devastated culture cultivated by our military senior leadership. Here’s the ruinous legacy of today’s generals: Afghanistan is a disaster and still not won, ships colliding and catching fire due to gross failures of leadership, boats of sailors on tape whimpering as they surrender to the Iranian Navy, senior officers leaking to the media, colonels, generals and admirals getting court-martialed, massive prosecutorial misconduct by JAGs, woke West Point (which recently graduated an open communist), and troops kneeling before rioters. It’s a military that puts Diversity Day before D-Day.

We know we cannot trust this generation of generals to stand up for freedom, but I’d like to think that a good portion of the troops would refuse to enter civilian politics in favor of the anti-American left. Yet, I would have also liked to think that we’d never see law enforcement officers eagerly obeying the fascist decrees of liberal poohbahs. The sight of overeager Barney Fifes hassling citizens about piehole thongs made it clear that for some people oaths come behind the giddy joy of power and keeping their pensions.

And yet here we all are, alas. The really scary part comes at the very end:

Sadly, we cannot rely on the generals to not make the error. Let’s just hope that the danger is mooted because Trump’s margin of victory is so great that the Democrats cannot cheat.

It won’t be, I assure you; mail-in voting will see to that all by itself, plus whatever other fraudulent skullduggery the megalomaniacal Democrat-Socialist flim-flam men can dream up too. Not a single peep from any of you people claiming that “they can’t” do this or that “they wouldn’t dare” do that, either. They’ll be “finding” and counting “votes” behind closed doors for however long they need to—even into early January if necessary—until they have enough to “prove” they won.

Doubt me? Don’t. See Al Franken, election of, just for one example. Small potatoes though it may seem now, remember ye well that the election of “Senator” Franken ended up being decisive in snaking Obamacare through the Senate and driving a stake through the heart of American health care forever.

Even if Trump should somehow pull off a true miracle and win so overwhelmingly that his victory is impossible for the Left bunco artists to deny or subvert, the rioting will intensify by orders of magnitude until we’re all so fed up we just start gunning Libtards down on sight. No matter how the Last American Election shakes out, things are looking to get mighty sporty indeed in its aftermath.

The truly dismaying thing to me is that I can remember a time when to so much as pose such a question would seem utterly preposterous on the face of it, dismissible with a snort and an airy wave of the hand. Not now, though. We’ve come a long way, baby.

Time, and past time

Posted on August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 by Mike

A stirring, if bleakly realistic, call to arms.

America is at a crucial moment in history when one system has failed and all wait and wonder what the new system will be. Very likely, with all of the momentum in the direction of tyranny and force, it will be an ugly, miserable system. While they might hope for a resurgence of American freedom, the opposite has been steadily built on top of that very freedom, smothering it for decades, piling rules and regulations on top of one another until their weight is so great that freedom is no longer known, much less imagined or brought into the light.

It is not enough to win an election. It is not enough to reverse the ruthless penalties brought onto the heads of those laboring to survive not only the pandemic, but the economic disaster it wrought. It is not enough to beg for what little freedom is left. One must be rabidly anti-communist. One must thirst for freedom, demand it beyond all restraint, settle for nothing less than an eradication of the small ministerial laws that sneak communism into every corner of the republic, for that is the root of all we see today. That is the root of Antifa/BLM and Revcom. It is the normalizing of force, the institutionalizing of extortion. Even one law that places the state above the individual is one too many. That one law becomes a guidepost for imprisoning a barber for cutting hair. To imagine that possibility is an affront to American freedom. It still rings with the sound of a thousand chains in the patriot’s head.

What comes to America after the election, no matter which way it goes, is a fight for the survival of American freedom. It is not something that can be done through elections. Each law that allowed petty tyrants to destroy the livelihoods of fellow citizens must be ripped out by the roots. Communist actors that enter the neighborhood must be forced out. If anything has been made abundantly clear over the past few months it is that the police will not help. They have lost the understanding of their oaths. They are subject to the whims of heretical politicians and that makes them dangerous to freedom, because they have no reasoning, no understanding of right and wrong, just instructions, whatever those instructions might be. They rely on no laws, no legislation, but respond to the orders of tyrants and dutifully obey. Breaking that relationship should be high on the agenda as well. There is room for reorganizing the police as so many communists demand, but reorganizing them to fit a model of freedom is just as easy and more necessary.

There will be a lot to do in the coming months. It will be an uphill fight with every institution against one’s efforts. Not even those on the side of freedom know what that means, they repeat it like a parrot, but do not know. Show them. The world waits your every move.

We can only hope it’s not already too late. But TL is correct right down the line with this one, of which you should read the all.

Letter to America

Posted on August 8, 2020August 8, 2020 by Mike

From a good and decent man, a man of courage and integrity, who also happens to be one of Amerika v2.0’s first true martyrs.

We are witnessing a vicious assault by enemies of all that is good, and our president is having to act in ways unprecedented in decades, maybe centuries.

The biblical nature of good versus evil cannot be discounted as we examine what is happening on the streets of America.

It’s Marxism in the form of antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement versus our very capable and very underappreciated law enforcement professionals, the vast majority of whom are fighting to provide us safe and secure homes, streets and communities.

We can no longer pretend that these dark forces are going to go away by mere prayer alone. Prayers matter, but action is required.

This action is needed at the local, state and federal levels. Action is also required in the economic, media, clerical and ecclesiastical realms.

Decide how you can act within your abilities. Stand up and state your beliefs. Be proud of who you are and what you stand for. And face, head-on, those community “leaders” who are willing to allow dark forces to go beyond peaceful protests and destroy and violate your safety and security.

Read all of it—and acknowledge, if you haven’t by now, that this is indeed war: REAL war, war to the knife, war for all the marbles.

If you haven’t noticed yet, our political life is rapidly descending into a series of charades with the potential for catastrophe. In case you think that a “charade” is just a parlor game, here is a dictionary definition: “an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance.” The peril created by false appearances in the current political climate is blindness in the face of the evil that threatens us.

…Republicans collude in these dangerous charades. Democrat leaders like Pelosi call Republicans Nazis, Russian agents, traitors. And Republicans respond: “Democrats are playing politics.” No they’re not. This is not the language of politics; it’s the language of war. It’s designed to destroy you. From the moment Trump emerged as victor in 2016, Democrats declared war on the president and therefore America, whose duly elected commander-in-chief he was. They also declared war on everyone associated with the White House and supporting its agendas. Republicans need to wake up. The most important decision they can make as we approach the November elections is to end the charade, accept that it is a war we are facing, and return the Democrats’ fire with fire.

Damned skippy, right down the line. Read all of this one too. It’s a short ‘un, but there’s some very sobering stuff tucked between my ellipses.

Just stay home!

Posted on August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 by Mike

Shhhhhh.

If you are, like me, stuck in a state where coronavirus restrictions have turned your life upside down, bankrupted your business, and traumatized your kids, and there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, you might be considering a big relocation. There are plenty of states that are retaining liberty in spite of the Chinese flu virus that has a 99% recovery rate. If you are considering fleeing your state for a new one, then look into the following five states that scored the highest in a data-collection study by the financial site WalletHub, showing which states have the fewest coronavirus restrictions. (Please note that coronavirus restrictions change daily. It is possible that by the time this is published one or more of these guidelines will have changed so verify before you pick up and move.)

After the list, she appends a “Whither Texas” update at the bottom that is, frankly, quite depressing.

Sadly, shockingly, Texas does not make the list of places I would move anymore. The left has taken over the major cities in Texas. Invaders from California, bringing their politics with them, have made Texas a place that needs major rehab. Coronavirus restrictions are also quite stringent and Texas ranked as the 46th-worst state for restrictions on freedom in the WalletHub study. That’s hard to believe, isn’t it? We should all consider that winning a presidency without Texas is going to be damn near impossible. So for that reason alone, it might be a place to move if your goal is moving to politically strategic places. But don’t expect an abundance of freedom in Texas. Those days are over.

It would seem so, alas. Progtard locusts have the most amazing ability to destroy our liberty, independence, and dignity no matter where the swarm ends up.

How Big Government ruins everything

Posted on July 30, 2020July 30, 2020 by Mike

By just being what it is, doing what it does: metastasizing and expanding; strangling creativity and innovation; introducing unneccessary and exorbitant costs through bureaucracy, overregulation, and outright corruption.

Government is needed for some things, a necessary evil for certain strictly-defined functions. But it never stops grabbing for more, and therefore must be constantly monitored and reined in. Like any other noxious weed, if it is allowed to flourish unrestrained the garden will eventually become overrun, and will soon perish.

Meanwhile, the private sector leads the way.

This week, American astronauts returned to earth. Their trip to the space station was the first manned launch from the U.S. in 10 years.

By NASA? No. Of course, not.

This space flight happened because the government was not in charge.

An Obama administration committee had concluded that launching such a vehicle would take 12 years and cost $36 billion.

But this rocket was finished in half that time — for less than $1 billion (1/36th the predicted cost).

Meanwhile, NASA has become just another hapless, bloated bureaucracy, pathetically incapable of performing its own core mission, slowly fading into a sad irrelevance. Stossel’s closer:

The private sector always comes up with ways to do things that politicians cannot imagine.

The government didn’t invent affordable cars, airplanes, iPhones, etc. It took competing entrepreneurs, pursuing profit, to nurture them into the good things we have now.

Get rid of government monopolies.

For-profit competition brings us the best things in life.

Amazing how, in a nation supposedly founded on those very ideals, we keep having to relearn that basic truth over and over again, innit?

So what’s next?

Posted on July 29, 2020July 29, 2020 by Mike

This.

Americans can’t seem to handle wearing masks to stop the coronavirus. Now, imagine if the CDC changed its guidelines to also call for “eye protection” like medical goggles to stop the spread of the virus (and protect your neighbor, as well as yourself).

Well, Dr. Fauci is apparently preparing to do just that.

During an interview with ABC News, Dr. Fauci said Wednesday that he may soon advise Americans to wear ‘eye protection’ to avoid being infected by COVID-19 as deaths along the Sun Belt climb to record highs.

“If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it,” the doctor said, before adding that it’s not universally recommended, “but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can,” he said.

Fine by me, just do it already. I won’t wear your silly-assed face diapers, and I won’t wear your fucking silly-assed goggles either, asshole. Another directive I won’t be complying with, from a piece I linked about a month ago:

A new pandemic is raging. Even before the Covid 19 pandemic has subsided, the WHO has now warned that a virulent form of Hoof and Mouth disease has “jumped” species in record time from horse to humans and is threatening to devastate the planet. It is even more deadly than the original. An appropriate name for the pathogen is being considered, as we speak.

Curiously enough, the pathogen has an affinity for the right foot of its human host. At this early stage of the pandemic, we can already state, with confidence, that the microbe can be detected by the application of a simple laboratory test to the right foot.

Now that we know what we are dealing with, what do we do to prevent the spread? We cannot simply wait for the vaccine. Patience is not an option. There is no time for that. We must act now!

It seems that pressure on the right foot creates a veritable explosion in the number of microbes. The tissue on the bottom of the right foot is suited to hold the weight of the entire body with every step. However, the act of stepping causes the microbe to multiply. Perhaps it is due to the pressure exerted on the big toe of the right foot. Perhaps the skin on the right foot is more attractive to the pathogen than the skin on the left foot which seems inhospitable to it. These are good questions to which the answers, at present, are unknown. Nevertheless, once the microbe is embedded in the right foot, it oozes out, microscopically, through the skin and into the shoe. But, as these are among the smallest of microbes, the story does not end there. The motion of the foot in the shoe, after the pathogen has been released from the skin, causes it to be dispersed upward and outward, diffusing into the atmosphere. Of course, the condition is far more lethal when one wears sandals as opposed to a closed shoe. Nevertheless, the pathogen cannot be contained even in a shoe that is closed. Therefore, we must avoid excreting the pathogen through the action of our right foot, and, more specifically, through our big right toe.

Anyway, along with our Covid 19 lifestyle, what are a few more mandates if the reward for our efforts is the conquest and elimination of yet another new disease? The following rules have been thoughtfully formulated and could easily be incorporated into what we are already doing to combat Covid 19.

First, let us talk about the mask. I recommend that we jettison the shoe or sandal that we wear on our right foot. With all due respect to the shoe industry, this is for everyone. Not only those with a positive or false positive diagnosis. Why? Because we can be a carrier whether we know it or not. Healthy people can make other healthy people sick! Got that? So that means we wear a mask adapted to our right foot—a mask that is impermeable to the pathogen. Even though such a mask does not yet exist, wearing a mask on your foot is a symbolic act that communicates your understanding that the situation is dire and that 50% of us will be goners if we refuse to comply.

Secondly, and this is the final guideline, and, perhaps, the most important one: we must stop proliferating the pathogen when stepping on our right foot. We must stop walking and start hopping!

Yes! I said hop! On our left foot. Now, you might object that hopping on one foot will not get us very far when we have someplace to go. You are right. Therefore, enough said about that! However, I do acknowledge that hopping is tiring, if not tiresome. Especially if you have no alternative, and surely there is none. That is why I recommend, in fact, mandate, that we always carry a cane or a stick in our right hand, or lodge a state-of-the art crutch under our right shoulder to keep us in balance and to prevent us from falling. An implement of this sort will also be of great value in maintaining our social distance and thus enable us to avoid close body-brawling when our fellow human violates our six-foot social space.

Please, let me be very clear as to dispel all misunderstanding: I do not advocate that you employ your hopping-aid as a weapon. However, the violation of one’s social distancing space is an act of wanton aggression that is a menace to the health and safety of society. Law enforcement cannot respond to each, and every infraction–as recent and current riots attest. Therefore, it is up to us to look after our neighbors and to gently remind them that the common good is their good. As we have all experienced under Covid 19, obedience is its own reward.

Seems pretty funny now, but it won’t for long. So where does this leave us? Where does it all end? Clue: it doesn’t—EVER.

Tucker Carlson calls the rioters “Biden voters”—an expression that seems to be catching on and may not bode well for the Left. As Thomas Lifson at American Thinker reports, “some Democrats are openly expressing their fear that the rioters are helping Trump,” concluding that the Democrats “are riding a tiger. If they attempt to dismount, they will be eaten by the tiger.” Perhaps the strategy of colluding with the violence-prone “protesters” may backfire; nonetheless, the majority of Democrat operatives seem to be in it for the long haul.

And why not? Democrat officials from local to state survey the national scene and see sports teams changing their names to appear inoffensive; people lobbying to replace the national anthem; Hollywood celebrating its anti-Americanism with slanted, godawful movies; wealthy corporations subsidizing domestic terrorists; outright traitors to the flag sitting in Congress; generals embarrassing their President; police chiefs kneeling before the mobs and religious leaders washing the feet of those who would depose them; public schools and universities churning out hordes of Leftist hoplites; and the mainstream media and big digital platforms practicing censorship, swaying elections and promoting insurrection.

In brief, what these so-called public representatives observe is a country submitting to the lure of Cultural Marxism, which views the world in terms of interest groups, power relationships, systemic oppression and endemic inequality, victim categories and identity politics, with socialists as the great healers and redeemers. From the perspective of the commissars, what’s not to like?

Add to this political scenario the Leftist COVID-mongers who, as Angelo Codevilla shows beyond the slightest doubt, are engaged in the usurpation of arbitrary political power by stoking public panic, prolonging the lockdowns, constantly “moving the goalposts” even when the famous “curve” has not only flattened but become catenary, and collapsing the nation’s economy in order to unseat President Trump. These blue state authorities and their comrades in a Democrat-controlled Congress are dedicated to establishing the new “new normal,” which is to become the default position of everyday life leading us, as Paul Gottfried writes, into the “new frontiers of madness.”

In a 1965 radio broadcast titled “If I Were The Devil,” Paul Harvey foresaw the socialist plan to take over America, which was as simple as it was methodical. The devil would begin by subverting the churches and proceed, among other steps, to educate authors to produce lurid literature, lard TV with dubious movies, peddle narcotics, tranquilize the public with pills, corrupt the schools, deify science, take from those who have and give to those who wanted in order to kill incentive, and caution against hard work, patriotism, moral conduct, and marriage. And presto! We find ourselves living in the hell that is socialism.

The devil’s program seems poised to bear fruit. Should this be the case, and I suspect it is, we have a plausible explanation for blue state public figures unafraid to violate their mandate, estrange a portion their voters, and act in full view of the nation like the petty tyrants they always essentially were. They are the purveyors of the new regime of American socialism of which, as Dinesh D’Souza baldly states in his recent The United States of Socialism: “In principle, no less than in practice, socialism is the ideology of thieves and tyrants. As for the people who fall for the temptation, they are connivers attracted by the rip-off scheme.”

These thieves, tyrants, and connivers have every confidence that they will shortly possess full control of their fiefdoms in the newly-formed Socialist States of America. After all, if the plot succeeds, it is soon to be their home.

From here, it looks more like the socialists won already, and America That Was is conquered at last. Now they’re just walking the battlefield to shoot the wounded.

The Peltzmann effect

Posted on July 22, 2020July 22, 2020 by Mike

Unintended consequences.

In the 1960s, numerous countries (including the United States) began adopting laws that mandated the use of seat belts. The hope was that this would reduce mortality in motor accidents.

However, economist Gordon Tullock once quipped that “if the government wanted people to drive safely, they’d mandate a spike in the middle of each steering wheel.” Why would that be? Because of how we respond to risks. If we know that even the slightest accident might impale us on our driving wheel, we would all drive more safely. While it is a strange thought experiment, we can run it in reverse. If one driver knows that all the other drivers are wearing a seat belt while he also wears a seat belt, that driver faces a lower risk level. As a result, feeling safer, that driver acts more recklessly. He exceeds the speed limit, accelerates at a yellow light etc. This greater recklessness, in turn, increases the risks of an accident.

As a result, there is an ambiguous effect from the regulation. On the one hand, the law reduces risks but it also induces a behavioral response that increases the likelihood of an accident happening. Thus, we must wonder which effect dominates the other.

The same logic applies to face masks. Imagine a fictitious Canadian economist who, fearing the risk of bringing the virus to a loved one or catching the virus himself, avoids situations that would be too risky for his tastes. He avoids going to the coffee shop for a latte and limits himself only to doing groceries. With everyone being forced to wear a mask, he may decide to go pick up that latte. Technically, the activities of shopping for coffee and groceries are individually less risky with mandatory face masks. However, that fictitious economist now exposes himself to two activities that carry a risk rather than a single activity and so he faces a higher likelihood of catching the disease. Just as with seat belts, we must ask which effect dominates: the risk reduction of masks or the behavioral response?

In the end, the answer is an empirical one. Yet, the case of seat belt laws suggests that the precise answer might be elusive. The first paper of importance on the effect of seat belts was published in the 1970s by Sam Peltzman who found that the behavioral response by American drivers completely washed out the effects of the law. Since then, numerous papers on the topic have been published. Some confirm the findings of Peltzman while others infirm them. All these studies confirm that there is some offsetting behavior. They simply cannot agree on how strong it is.

However, let us take one important fact in consideration: the first laws mandating seat belt use were adopted in the 1960s. This is more than fifty years ago. Yet, there is still a discussion among experts who try to design the most convincing statistical tests. If there is uncertainty about the past, how can experts today be certain that compelling the use of face masks will not result in a greater level of risk taking? What if the offsetting behavior is stronger? Experts and policy-makers probably do not know this information (and I believe that they cannot reasonably be expected to know this). As the damages from faster propagation are exponential (given the nature of the virus), there is a real risk of backfire!

The question of whether or not seat belts, motorcycle helmets, masks, suits of medieval armor, etc save lives might be a fascinating one. It’s probably worth the ongoing research it inspires, I suppose. Ultimately, though, it’s the wrong question. What any and all Americans SHOULD be asking themselves, and constantly, is this: in a supposedly “free” country, with a government whose reach and scope is confined within very explicit limits set by the US Constitution, are ANY such mandates in accordance with those limits? Or do they so flagrantly breach them as to do far greater harm to the Constitution’s continued authority and relevance, thereby harming the nation entire?

Tragically, most of us long ago forgot about just how important that question really is, and no longer care anyway. If they think about them at all, they consider such notions quaint, antiquated, and hopelessly silly—the exclusive province of cranks and fools who are completely out of touch with reality, too thick to really comprehend what government’s true purpose is: to solve every problem, grant every wish, scratch every itch, safeguard every life, and abolish all risk, forever.

Defend your home, go to prison

Posted on July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 by Mike

Anybody out there who didn’t see this coming?

As we reported earlier, in a very disturbing move, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who displayed guns on their property to defend themselves from a huge group of BLM protesters, had a warrant served on them and had the AR-15 Mark McCloskey displayed in that incident seized.

It’s not yet clear why the weapon was seized and there have been no charges lodged against the couple.

People who care about the Constitution were very troubled by the action against the McCloskeys.

As attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon explained, “Missouri is a Castle Doctrine state, permitted among the broadest latitudes of any state in using even deadly force to protect yourself or your property. This couple used NO force, despite the imminent threat from a trespassing mob. The seizure of weapons is government overreach.”

I appreciate the courage it took to make a statement like this under the circumstances, really I do. But this goes way, WAY beyond mere “government overreach.” This is thuggish revenge-seeking by a petty little dimestore dictator, for one thing. But to put the thing more directly: this is tyranny, straight up. No more, no less.

Because the couple dared to defend themselves, about 300 protesters then came back on Friday, screaming and harassing the couple again. This time, the McCloskeys had private security backing them up on their balcony.

Why wouldn’t the mob return to threaten, harrass, and terrorize these poor people again? They’re aware now that they have the sanction and support of local authority, total carte blanche to do whatever they like.

Really, though, why would any of the rioters, looters, and violent savages all across America stop the mayhem? Their every demand is being met, their every desire satisfied. People are taking the knee, washing the feet, apologizing, groveling, and generally abasing themselves at the rioters’ direction. Those few of them who DO get arrested are quickly cut loose, to go out and do the same thing all over again.

Meanwhile, a perfectly peaceable and innocuous couple defend their home and their very lives—in perfectly legal fashion, guilty only of exercising the “rights” supposedly guaranteed them by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, mind— against a demonstrably violent, aggressive mob…only to have their legally-owned property stripped from them, left defenseless by the order of a slightly more subtle brand of thug.

Ahh, but there’s somewhat of a happy ending here, thanks to the heroic Real Americans at local gun shop Alien Armory Tactical, who grok what it’s really all about:

( IF ANYONE KNOWS THE ST.LOUIS COUPLE PLEASE PASS THIS POST ALONG TO THEM ) Let me say this to all the St.Louis city cops. You should of protested serving this warrant! This couple did what they needed to do to protect private property as the property was being ambushed. I’ve seen videos and some of these so called protesters were carrying firearms and they clearly broke the gate to make way on to the private property ( A THREAT ) To the couple that had this warrant served, please come on by our shop and we will gladly rearm you with a brand new ar15 for ( FREE ) thats right if you see this post contact our page and we will gladly assist you with a replacement for you to protect your private property for FREE! Also we will assist you with some FREE firearms training so if anything were to happen you will be better prepared, we will take you with your brand new ar15 and show you how to be better prepared! Thank you from your friendly neighborhood watch?http://dlvr.it/RbNdXQ

Bless their hearts. Oh, and lest anybody wonder about what or who might be putting wholly despicable Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the putrescence responsible for the ongoing government persecution of the McCloskeys, up to it:

Gardener received funding in her run for the job from George Soros. Soros has helped back people for district attorney/prosecutor positions across the country to help transform the criminal justice system.

Ol’ George sure knows how to get his money’s worth, don’t he? When he buys a scumbag-Left politician, by God they STAY bought.

Update! This may not seem so heroic, perhaps. But given the overall shitty climate these days, I’d say it still counts.

Five Guys employees in Daphne, Ala., who reportedly denied three police officers service have been fired or suspended, the restaurant said.

“Five Guys and the Daphne, AL franchise want to thank the Daphne Police Department for their support in working together toward a resolution,” Five Guys said in a statement Friday. “The actions the Daphne, AL franchise have taken include termination and suspension of the employees involved.”

A local Fox 10 news outlet reported that police officers were refused service Tuesday night by several Five Guys employees.

The officers claim that six or seven employees in the establishment turned their backs on the officers as they entered the restaurant chain. One officer reportedly heard an employee say, “I’m not serving them.”

The officers then left and went to another restaurant.

“The Daphne Police Department appreciates the outpouring of support from our community and from supporters of Law Enforcement across the country,” Daphne Police said in a statement earlier this week. “We also want to thank Five Guys on a corporate and local level.”

Five Guys has the best french fries on earth, bar none. After this, I plan to be eating a lot more of ’em.

It ain’t over till the fat transgender nonbinary wymrynzzz screams

Posted on July 10, 2020July 10, 2020 by Mike

It’s always hard to excerpt one of John Wilder’s pieces. There’s just too much rich, thoughtful stuff in ’em to trim it down without losing the thread. But there are times when you just gotta buckle down and do it.

Can you imagine if the Right was united? I can.

The corollary is obvious: quit fighting each other in the right. Stop. People don’t believe in your exact brand?

You can’t stand Libertarians? You can’t stand Lutherans? Baptists? Catholics? Vox Day? That atheist friend that doesn’t mind Christianity but still believes in freedom? The idea to fix our situation isn’t exactly yours?

Too bad.

We are in the same foxhole. Stop (metaphorically) shooting each other. Now. If you’re not with us, you’re against us. And if you’re fighting us, you’re against us.

How do you know if you’re with us?

We like building statues, not tearing them down.

We like building civilization, not tearing it apart.

We like the reason of facts and truth, not the politically correct statement of the moment.

We like justice based on law, not the social justice of the mob or judges that twist “shall not” into “sometimes.”

We like a culture of honor, not a culture of victimhood due to the self-imposed prison.

And that is the difference. The Left is bitter. The Left is seething. The Left is angry.

Why? Because, just like the foal with the cattle guard, they’ve made themselves prisoners. They’ve forgotten that becoming a prisoner might not be a choice for a horse, but it is for a person. But for the Left, that prison mentality is preferred.

The prison mentality is the chosen mentality of the Left. They see themselves as weak. Since they see themselves as weak, there is no choice but to hate themselves for that weakness. But outwardly, the Left rationalizes that weakness as being, somehow, good. They have to, because that’s all that stands between them and the unending self-hate. The Left raises an “anything goes” sexuality and sensuality to the highest plane because they are rooted in the Material, and cannot understand the Spiritual, the Transcendent.

The Right rejects that. All of it.

The Right is not evil. We hold the light of Freedom, of civilization, of the future of mankind in our hands. Why? Because they could never build it. The Left seeks to delegitimize our moral achievement, because they feel small and envious next to those that compete and create.

Remember, the Soviets never looked stronger than they did immediately before they collapsed.

I don’t think we will win.

I know we will win.

Not if we don’t recognize that we are indeed going to have to fight them, we won’t. And it looks more every day as if that’s going to mean actual, literal fighting, with more than just words, boycotts, and votes. But as pessimistic as I can be at times, actually I’m mostly inclined to agree with John’s take, providing the Sleeping Giant hasn’t been too slow to awaken this time. His post is certainly stirring, and heartening. A bit more:

I feel sorry for those who stand against the Right when we find our backs are to the wall. We have created the most powerful and free and prosperous culture in history. The Right doesn’t know its own strength. But it will learn, and the Left is afraid.

We will win. Maybe not this year. Maybe not next year. Maybe not even in the next decade. And the future won’t look like the past – that past is what led us to this crisis. We have the opportunity to remake our civilization, to remake America and to make it better.

And we will make it better.

And we will win.

We always have.

Oh, I can’t say I feel at all sorry for them, myself. I want them to reap exactly what they’ve sown, to get what they truly deserve, to be punished for their innumerable crimes, to pay in full measure for what they’ve done to this nation and the world. And like Wilder, I have to believe that, be it soon or late, they will. To think otherwise is to sink into a slough of despond that is bottomless.

Independence Day, or something like it

Posted on July 4, 2020July 5, 2020 by Mike

This is gonna be a long ‘un for sure, with some twists and turns y’all might find surprising. I’ll probably still only manage to get around to a fraction of all the things I want to say even so, and I’m thinking I’ll just go ahead and dump half of it below the fold under the “More” link.

First off, a real gem from the inimitable John Wilder.

Boston, Massachusetts: 122 killed, 211 wounded in a daybreak raid by troops sent to confiscate privately owned weapons and ammunition. “Patriots” claim government troops fired first.

It has been reported that at dawn a group of self-styled “Patriots” engaged a heavily armed troops sent to confiscate guns and ammunition. These “Patriots” though initially outnumbered, stood by the side of the road, fully armed with modern assault weapons at the ready. The “Patriot” leader at the site, John Parker, claims to have been only standing there with the other “Patriots”. It has reported that Parker said, “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

According to Parker, the soldiers ordered the “Patriots” to disperse, and he ordered his men to “disburse and go home,” but “the soldiers were yelling,” and there was confusion. There was a shot, fired, but both the “Patriots” and the spokesman for the troops claim the other side fired the first shot. Badly outnumbered at first, the “Patriots” were reinforced by the local members of their radical libertarian movement as the firefight wore on. House-to-house fighting was reported.

Sources to this blog have indicated that the “Patriots” had been tipped off to the troop movements and were aware the gun confiscation was coming. The troops were forced to withdraw under fire, although rescue from a larger detachment of troops from Boston was required for their safe evacuation.

A local lawyer, John Adams, viewed the battlefield the next day, “The die was cast. The Rubicon crossed.” Pressed by this blog for an explanation of these cryptic comments, he referred us to our previous post (American Caesar: Coming Soon To A Country Near You?).

The events listed above happened 245 years ago, except John Adams being snarky to me, yet somehow the concepts behind them are fresh in American life in 2020. The battles of Lexington and Concord, though small by today’s standards, produced the “shot heard ‘round the world” as the American Dream and American Identity were formed.

Why yes, you WILL want to read the rest, why do you ask? John’s closing question is piercing; its pertinence is everlasting, and will never fade.

Next, via Ed Driscoll, a 4th of July speech from the greatest President America ever had, or ever will have.

It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance. This is especially true of the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Three very definite propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the consent of the governed.

Placing every man on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors, where no one possessed any right to rule over him, he must inevitably choose his own rulers through a system of self-government. This was their theory of democracy. In those days such doctrines would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread in any other country. This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the Colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.

If this apprehension of the facts be correct, and the documentary evidence would appear to verify it, then certain conclusions are bound to follow. A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.

We are too prone to overlook another conclusion. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

Under a system of popular government there will always be those who will seek for political preferment by clamoring for reform. While there is very little of this which is not sincere, there is a large portion that is not well informed. In my opinion very little of just criticism can attach to the theories and principles of our institutions. There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes. We do need a better understanding and comprehension of them and a better knowledge of the foundations of government in general. Our forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We must think the thoughts which they thought.

A wonderful, insightful speech that, to those among us of a certain raddled decrepitude, probably sounds at least somewhat familiar. But then, we old fogies came up in a time when Civics was still a class taught in the schools.

As beautiful, as uplifting as Coolidge’s speech most certainly is, however, it is also profoundly depressing—downright heartbreaking, in fact, when you contemplate how very much we’ve either allowed to be stolen from us or just flat given away with nary a thought.

Continue reading “Independence Day, or something like it” →

Yeah, happy whatever

Posted on July 3, 2020July 3, 2020 by Mike

I was all set to uncork my annual rant about how the 4th of July should be a national day of mourning rather than a celebration of “freedom” we longer enjoy, but James Bovard raised the bar on me this year.

How many Americans will greet July 4th Day with gratitude that their governor is no longer compelling them to “shelter in place” or “stay at home” so they can celebrate their freedom? Most of the media is ignoring the fact that this Independence Day is occurring under the most dictatorial restrictions of the modern era. But anyone who values their liberty must recognize the Great Political Unleashing that has occurred this year makes a mockery of the Founding Fathers’ intentions.

Do America’s politicians and media have any special suggestions on how the tens of millions of people who lost their jobs due to the shutdowns should celebrate Independence Day? How should small business owners who have been bankrupted mark July 4th?

The media and many politicians heaped derision on people who publicly protested against the lockdowns that were destroying their livelihoods. But after a Minneapolis policeman brutally killed George Floyd, politicians cheered as mass protests exploded in cities across the nation. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio sent police to disperse attendees at an Orthodox Jewish funeral for violating his restrictions on public gatherings but endorsed mass protests against police brutality.

Twelve hundred health professionals signed a letter declaring, “We do not condemn these gatherings as risky for covid-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health.” Any tattered remnant of credibility retained by public health officialdom was shattered when they declared that supporting protests against police brutality “should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders.”

Who knew that COVID-19 only infects “deplorables” and reactionaries?

At the same time that politicians joined and cheered mass protests against the police, many states continue effectively outlawing religious services. Would church services be permitted to resume if parishioners promised to cuss the police? The “experts” might also permit a vast rally to confer sainthood upon Anthony Fauci, the media’s favorite lockdown hysteria monger.

The pandemic pried open authoritarian Pandora’s Boxes at all levels of government. Trump’s Justice Department asked Congress to approve suspending habeas corpus for the duration of the pandemic. Norman Reimer, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, warned, “You could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over.” The same type of pre-arrest power could be exercised to detain anyone suspected of being infected or failing to obey lockdown orders. Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, one of the most principled members of the Senate, tweeted in response to the news of the power grab: “OVER MY DEAD BODY.”

I could easily (and happily) excerpt a hell of a lot more, but you really need to go read it all; his closing line is as forthright a call to resistance in the spirit of our revered Founders as one can imagine. And be sure to get out there and celebrate your “freedom” on the 4th—if your state or local government will allow that sort of thing, that is. Don’t forget to wear your Humiliation Mask. No fireworks, of course. Too scary.

It’s always darkest just before the dawn

Posted on July 2, 2020July 2, 2020 by Mike

And right now, it’s pretty danged dark out there.

Let me tell you why I believe the polls… Because in 2016, the polls were accurate. No, not the state polls. The state polls were way off. The average of the national polls, however, was almost exactly correct.

President Trump lost the national popular vote in 2016 by 2.1 points — and just barely beat Hillary Clinton.

The average of the national polls in 2016 had Trump behind Hillary by 3.2 points.

So, as you can see, the average of the 2016 national polls was only off by 1.1 points. That’s what you call some damn fine polling, and right now, those very same damn fine polls have Trump losing to Joe Biden by 9.2 points.

And these polls were all taken before the president stupidly tweeted out video of an idiot yelling “White Power!”

Donald Trump is not only losing this election, if the election were held today, his loss would possibly be catastrophic, would be remembered as one of the most humiliating in history. He’s not only facing a landslide rejection of epic proportions, he’s losing to a 77-year-old imbecile and racist who’s hiding out in his basement.

How is this possible?

How is it even remotely possible Joe Biden is kicking Trump’s butt?

Don’t know how much of what Nolte writes here I actually agree with; Nolte was originally a NeverTrumpTard who eventually came around, and for all I know he might be eagerly reverting to type. But the dismayingly-successful COVIDIOT gambit, followed by the sacking and burning of pretty much every city in America with no response from Trump besides unfulfilled Twitter threats, has undoubtedly shaken his support more than anything the Marxist-traitor Left has been able to come up with so far. And, well, here we all are.

Despite their roots in reality, there is no doubt that these crises — and the White House and Senate’s attempts to tackle them — would be reported differently if Hillary Clinton were president.

The Federalist’s exclusive Friday Oval Office interview revealed a president and West Wing that are happy and optimistic, while realistic about the political danger they face — a stark contrast, publisher Ben Domenech notes in Monday’s Transom newsletter, with his “interviews in the dark days of George W. Bush’s second term.”

“The president clearly believes he is down, and that he has been prevented from using ammunition curtailed by the continued challenge of the virus and without Joe Biden doing things like walking outside and talking for more than 30 minutes,” Domenech writes. “But the president clearly is not of the opinion that Biden’s lead is insurmountable.”

And it isn’t. But a corporate media that have struggled for years to achieve their openly stated goal of defeating the president finally have a working plan. The president and his Republican allies had better get ahead of it, or Democrats will win the Senate –and Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.

And that there is the problem, really: despite his own natural inclinations, Trump appears now to have shifted—been maneuvered, more accurately, with an unwitting assist of every panic-ninny currently berating sensible people for refusing to don the Mask Of Submission—from the offensive to the defensive. That’s a defeat in and of itself, and I’m unsure how it might be reversed. But it must be, that’s all there is to it. Charles Hurt warns that complacency is the real enemy:

Mr. Trump’s fourth year in office has been an unusual one, to say the least. But even that gives his supporters unwarranted reason to be complacent. They see a president in a time of national threat trying to unify the country while his enemies in Washington and in Congress only work to weaponize every tragedy for their own personal political advantage. With dishonest, evil vermin like this against him, how could Mr. Trump NOT win?

To be clear, any such complacency among Trump supporters is badly misplaced. The only difference between 2016 and 2020 is that this time, Democrats, the political media and the so-called “Deep State” now know that Donald Trump can win. This time, there is nothing they will not do to destroy him.

Something decides every election. oftentimes, it’s the economy, Stupid. Other times it is security. It can even be personality that determines the outcome of an election.

The 2020 election is shaping up to be the “Make it stop!” election. Ardent Trump supporters love Mr. Trump and will walk through fire over broken glass to vote for him. Rabid anti-Trumpers despise the president and will loot and riot through tear gas to vote against him.

This election will be determined by an altogether different group of voters. These voters don’t particularly like Mr. Trump, but they also aren’t crazy haters. Many of them voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and are open to doing so again.

Today, they see rioters in the streets, smashing store fronts, torching police cars and toppling statues. They are appalled, and they just want it to stop.

Mr. Trump claims to be the “law and order” guy, but the mayhem continues under his administration. Mr. Biden is desperate to curry favor with the peaceful protesters so he cowardly declines to forcefully condemn the lawlessness and rioters.

The average voter is watching it all and just wants it all to stop. If a vote for Mr. Biden would make it stop, that’s what he will do. Same with Mr. Trump.

It’s kinda tough for Trump to run on “law and order” when he’s the guy ultimately responsible for seeing to it that law and order is maintained…and anyone can see that he has failed to do so. To wit:

Trump’s campaign has suggested that riots and more disorder will happen if Biden is elected. The problem with this argument is that disorder is already happening now under President Trump.

Admittedly, Trump has had a difficult fight from the beginning. He has been hamstrung by investigations, a hostile deep state resistance from career civil servants, and a nakedly partisan propaganda campaign by the media. Nevertheless, he has a job to do. He’s not merely citizen Trump. He’s not just an observer. It’s his FBI. It’s his government to run. It’s his military to command. If he can’t run it, he needs to fire people until he can get the right people where they belong.

It’s not entirely clear whether Trump’s reluctance to use force is a cynical calculation that this chaos works to his advantage, or a vague instinct that anything he does will boomerang. It does not matter; there is a job to do regardless of electoral consequences.

As it stands, the country and the president are diminished in the face of extended disorder. A strong and swift response, while controversial, would restore the sense that the nation is not up for grabs. It would also do much to restore Trump’s prestige. Impotent tweeting and inaction encourages more assaults, demands, and brinksmanship.

Voters need to understand that ejecting Trump will not lead to a restoration of order. But Trump needs to understand that inaction will not bring it about, either.

Here’s hoping it does. But there IS at least a feeble ray of hope amidst all this gloomy darkness.

President Trump has told people in recent days that he regrets following some of son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner’s political advice — including supporting criminal justice reform — and will stick closer to his own instincts, three people with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking tell Axios.

Behind the scenes: One person who spoke with the president interpreted his thinking this way: “No more of Jared’s woke s***.” Another said Trump has indicated that following Kushner’s advice has harmed him politically.

…Several conservative allies of the president have reached out to him and advised him to reduce Kushner’s influence over his re-election campaign.

For God’s sake listen to ’em, Mr Preznit, sir. They have a much better idea of where your best interests lie than any damned liberal ever will, however highly your liberal daughter might think of him.

‘Trump has a Jared problem,’ is how one conservative activist who works with the White House on immigration puts it. ‘Jared is a total fuck-up. Everything he touches turns to lead.’ Others groan about ‘four more years of Jared’ should the President be re-elected in November.

And if Trump does, we all do. Dump him. An hour ago wouldn’t be too soon.

Various sources in, or connected to, the administration are stunned by the amount of power Kushner wields. He is a 39-year-old rich kid who had no experience in government before 2016, yet he is in charge of Middle East diplomacy, police reform, a major immigration reform package, criminal justice reform, PPE procurement during COVID-19 and construction of the border wall.

Kushner’s inexperience might be excusable if he were particularly brilliant. People who have sat in meetings with him, however, describe him as ‘slow’, ‘a moron’ and ‘not really that bright’. He struggles to master detail. One official suggests he doesn’t have the acuity to master one, let alone all, of the tasks the President gives him. For instance, he was in charge of producing the 600-plus-page immigration reform package, but conservatives were horrified at how little he knew about the issue he was leading on. He didn’t even seem to know what was in his own proposal; others had to step in when he was unable to answer the more technical questions.

One conservative source who attended a briefing on the plan led by Kushner told The Spectator he was shocked that Kushner seemed to have no sense of how to answer basic questions about chain migration and the diversity visa lottery. ‘He presents as someone very knowledgeable and in the know until he faces questions,’ the source said. ‘He goes off the record or on deep background so people don’t realize he’s a fucking idiot.’

Some assign sinister motives to Kushner’s missteps. His negative influence on the administration, it’s whispered, goes beyond incompetence and veers toward deliberate sabotage. Several individuals close to the administration claim Kushner’s history as a rather progressive Democrat makes him far more ideological than he lets on, and this causes him to subvert Trump’s populist agenda. ‘The depths and lengths Jared is going to to stab Trump in the back [are] quite profound,’ one source claimed. ‘Trump’s been burned by Jared so many times,’ said another.

Naturally. What we’re all pleased to misnomer “liberalism” isn’t a set of political opinions, nor a mere ideology. It is a religion, and its faithful acolytes will always and forever put advancing the agenda way before friendship, family ties, decency, and common sense six days a week, and twice on Sunday. If Trump doesn’t realize this by now, he’d better wake the fuck up, and fast. He has no more than three and half months to turn this out-of-control bus around, before we all wind up bleeding in a ditch on the Left side of the road, dazed and wondering how the hell we got there.

It’s clobberin’ time

Posted on June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 by Mike

Tucker rings the tocsin.

During Thursday’s airing of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the host, a supporter of Trump, said that it may be “tough” for Trump to win reelection if he does not adequately respond to civil unrest in the country.

“Not many people are saying it out loud on the Right. But the fact is that President Trump could well lose this election. In fact, unless fundamental facts change soon, it could be tough for him to be reelected,” Carlson said in his opening monologue. He said if former Vice President Joe Biden wins in November, the White House will be controlled by “radicals” who will “remake the country.”

“We’re fully aware that virtually nobody watching this show tonight wants to hear that, but it’s true, and key people around the president know that it’s true. They’ve seen the numbers,” he added. All the while, the chyron banner that appeared on the bottom of screen blared in all capital letters: “President Trump may lose this election.”

Carlson asserted that social cohesion in the country is eroding after nationwide protests have occurred following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“An awful lot of people voted for Donald Trump precisely to avoid a moment like the one we’re now in,” Carlson said, stating that Trump’s instincts were on the side of order, tradition, and stability, but Carlson later remarked that during the rioting, Trump “said little” and “did less.”

Doc Zero sees it too:

Trump's big political problem right now is that he talks about "law and order," often with all-caps tweets, but he isn't delivering any. He's running like a challenger, not an incumbent. Even people who agree with him aren't excited by this "hapless but loud bystander" routine.

— John Hayward (@Doc_0) June 26, 2020

Bonchie, too, is shaken:

Tucker Carlson took to the airwaves last night and delivered a message some don’t want to fathom. Namely, that Trump could actually lose the 2020 election. Later, he would make his case by laying out the current chaos engulfing the nation, the shifting public sentiment against the President, and by playing audio of a woman having her car attacked by rioters. She was told by the 911 dispatcher to “call city all” and that she was in the middle of a “sanctioned event.” Eventually, the mayor of her city would apologize, not to the terrorized woman, but to the rioters.

It was a powerful reminder that people are being abandoned across the country, whether it’s business owners in the “CHOP” or residents in Democrat cities in red states. Governments are failing their people out of a fear of retribution, or in some cases, direct support of anarchy. But perhaps more troubling, and something Carlson brought up, is that so many voters seem to agree with or sympathize with the chaos.

There’s simply no “seem” to it. Not when they’re in your face, burning your city, and beating you about the head and neck with skateboards, there isn’t. Then again, anybody who, after having Proggy throw a brick at his head and cave his skull in with it, nonetheless still refuses to face up to what Proggy is deserves what he’s surely going to get. Because Proggy doesn’t stop. He never stops. He doubles down.

Like the “security moms” of the Bush era, many voters put Trump in office, not because they are enamored with his personality, but because they saw him as strong. He’s not currently living up to that image. To many on the right, that’s not a bad thing. They want to see people in these Democrat run cities reap the consequences of their voting patterns, with the assumption that they won’t like it and will turn back.

But what if there is no backlash coming? Carlson points that possibility out by noting that GOP leaders in Congress, in all their fecklessness, have said little about the current chaos except that it’ll blow back on Democrats. Everyone keeps thinking we’ll reach the end of the track on crazy train, but the truth is, the train never gets there. People just end up giving ground and becoming more and more conditioned to the current reality. The only real way to not let this become the new normal is to stop it.

That means Trump has to retake the initiative. The case for Trump was never to sit back and watch the country devolve into chaos. Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz could have done that with a lot less consternation about their tweeting. Trump was not elected for his awesome personality or ability to bring the country together. People know that, and I don’t think anyone is pretending that’s who he is. He was elected precisely to avoid moments like we are currently in. It’s not a coincidence that his failure to take action over the last month has led to his worst approval ratings in recent memory. Meanwhile, Trump was tweeting about Carly Fiorina yesterday, someone most swing voters don’t even know exists.

The Left has continually wailed about Trump being a dictator since 2016, then wilfully acted in such a fashion as to require dictatorial measures to reign in their madhouse excess lest it destroy the nation. Well, so be it, then. They’re going to wail and call him “Hitler” no matter what he does. So give them something to wail about for real. Crush them. Crush them utterly.

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