It’s Time For A Rerun Of This

     Ahhh, the memories!

Cooling the Leftist Marks

There is a concept familiar to those who have encountered grifters – it’s the way that con artists (to use another term for those who prey on their fellow humans by deceit and trickery) manage not to be turned over to the cops for their criminal actions.

Rick Klein, Political Director of ABC News, is on The View today. He is providing a valuable service for overwrought Dems, explaining how they need to ‘take a chill pill’ and ‘get off the ledge’, in the wake of Trump’s victory in the Presidential race of 2024.

They really needed that. They came on, about 1/2 of them in funeral black, and did their usual invective against Trump, the MAGA supporters, and any who opposed the Leftist agenda, the Dems, and, particularly Kamala Harris (the ONLY potential reason could be they HATED minorities and women, and wanted to impose a Nazi state upon America).

I know, I know, it does sound nutty, doesn’t it?

The thing is, they are going so over the top because they are operating on the emotional side of the brain. There are no logical brakes to fatalistic thinking, as anyone who has tried to talk someone out of ending their life knows.

If you have someone like the Ladies of The View in your life, look for more moderate resources – OFFICIAL ones, that are not strongly on either side, but perceived as middle of the road, and look for someone who presents a view similar to that of Klein. The goal is to gradually move them from Extreme Anti-Trump, to a relatively moderate “He is still awful, but some of the things his administration has done are not that bad”.

Don’t expect a Bolt From On-High, like Saul/Paul experienced – they are rare, and won’t affect their extreme POV.

Instead, mention that you heard someone that they might have some trust in, who said something more moderating than rigidly anti-Trump. Just mention that you hear the person, and that they made you think. If they eagerly try to ‘convert you to reason’, say, “I didn’t want to have a big discussion, I just thought it was interesting and you might be interested.”

You don’t have to do this every day, just now and then.

Deprogramming the Anti-Trump will be a LONG process.

Who Will Learn From His Mistakes?

     There are quite a few citations on the Web of liberal pundits and editorial boards having “meltdowns” over the victory of Donald Trump and his favored legislative candidates. Those persons have made a lot of intemperate comments. I shan’t reproduce them here; they’re easy enough to find. And all schadenfreude aside, they tell a tale that embeds one of the oldest of all practical maxims:

Learn From Your Mistakes.

     While the one-dimensional Left / Right political spectrum is an oversimplification, nevertheless it serves adequately on occasions like this one. The Right has had to do a lot of self-examination over its defeats. It hasn’t always drawn the right lessons, but on balance it’s doing better than 50%. The Left is in stark contrast. Rather often, when it’s tried a tactic that’s proved harmful to its own prospects, it’s doubled down. It’s “turned it up to eleven.” It learns very reluctantly… when it learns.

     Those left-liberal “meltdowns” are a dead giveaway.

     Why does a candidate – or a party – come off the loser in an election? The answer is simple enough: not enough people voted for him / it. That’s where a lot of “analysts” start using one of my favorite words. It’s an important word: its improper use can actually harm the user by destroying his opportunity to learn what he needs to learn.

     The word, of course, is should.

     “We should have won!” rises the cry. Oh really? But you didn’t. Why not? Can you enumerate and explain the factors that led to your defeat?

     Let’s pause here for a citation from Robert A. Heinlein, the man from whom I learned about the mental and emotional toxicity of the word “should:”

     After an event, “possible” and “true” are equivalent ideas, whereas “probable” becomes a measure of one’s ignorance. To call a conclusion “improbable” after the event is self-confusing amphigory. [From Heinlein’s novelette “Gulf”]

     That’s a illumination of importance if ever there was one. However much it might pain him, an honest man will look for the reasons for his failure in his own decisions and actions. He’ll attempt to isolate specific ones and understand what they really did to his chances, especially those strokes in which he had the greatest confidence. He may not draw the correct conclusions, but as long as he’s looking at his own moves, he’ll be on the right track.

     A dishonest man? Oh, he follows quite a different star. He won’t consider himself to be the architect of his demise. He’ll be looking for “enemies,” including “bad luck.”

     Heinlein also had something to say about “bad luck:”

     “Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
     This is known as “bad luck.”

     [From Time Enough For Love]

     So the dishonest man will be looking everywhere but at his own decisions and actions – in other words, exclusively at things beyond his control. But like as not, all those things will remain beyond his control. Therefore, even if he’s correct that “enemies” and “bad luck” brought about his defeat, he will learn nothing useful from his efforts.

     The Left and its allies in the media are engaged that sort of pointlessness as we speak. They want to blame someone or something other than themselves. As for the candidates they chose, the policies they espoused, and the methods by which they campaigned, those will remain beyond serious analysis.

     The unwillingness to accept responsibility for defeat is its own punishment.

     Media commentators are largely ego-driven. They believe they possess superior insight. That’s practically a tautology, as without that conviction they’d keep their opinions to themselves rather than promulgating them in the papers and on the airwaves. Defeat shakes that conviction: the more serious the defeat, the greater the disturbance to their self-regard. Election 2024 wasn’t a minor setback but an earthquake that threatens their entire intellectual edifice.

     When one’s opinion about a subject is intimately connected to his self-esteem, it endangers him emotionally. Persons on the Left – and this is especially true of mainstream media pundits – regard themselves as morally superior because of their political positions. Thus, this morning they are all badly shaken, even if they’re unwilling to look critically at themselves and the ideas they espouse.

     I predict they’ll keep looking for someone else to blame. Perhaps Russia. All the same, we in the Right mustn’t gloat. Our turn in the dumpster will come – politics is like that – and with it will come our turn for a painful self-examination. We won’t like it any better than they do.

It’s Over

     And thank a merciful God for that.

     I have questions still, as I’m sure many Gentle Readers do. Foremost among them: Why did the Left’s vote-theft and vote-fraud efforts fail this time? Considering the Usurpers’ fears of Trumpian retaliation, they had to be as earnest as they were in 2020. At least the theft of 2020 can no longer be doubted. The total of votes counted in 2020 exceeded 156 million; the total of votes counted this year is only about 137 million. Where did those millions of ballots go? The shredder?

     The Senate will be Republican, but not by an un-filibusterable margin. The majority in the House is still undecided. President Trump will not have a guaranteed path to the enactment of his agenda, especially as there are powerful Republicans opposed to important aspects of it. Watch for carefully qualified statements from Republican legislators about immigration control, the completion of the Wall, and the expulsion of illegal aliens.

     In any case, four years is all President Trump will have to push his agenda. As it will require Congressional cooperation, he’s looking at a tough slog. And let’s not forget: Donald J. Trump is barely younger than Joe Biden. His age may prove to be a factor in his second-term performance.

     Among the symbolic and sentimental facets of the election just concluded, this one stands above the rest:

     Granted, it was essentially a state-level overreach, but it expressed the arrogance of political power in these United States better than anything since men armed with battle rifles seized Elian Gonzalez from his relatives and forced him to return to Communist Cuba. Do you remember that incident, Gentle Reader? It wasn’t as bloody an event as Ruby Ridge or Waco, but it spoke in tones of thunder. So did the seizure and execution of Peanut and Fred the Raccoon.

     Now, as my nerves have been abraded down to threads and my sleep deficit is approaching federal levels, I believe I shall return to bed for an hour or two more. Perhaps I’ll be back later.

Cross Your Fingers, But…

It looks Too Big To Steal.
I went to bed before 9 pm. I’d worked from 5:30 am to a smidge after 8 pm, manning the polls as an election worker. I was exhausted and in no frame of mind to watch the election countdown.
Not prestigious work, but a very important part of the process. I was in charge of checking IDs and verifying the information against the voters rolls.
Now, in Lorain, OH, it’s a slick system. The workers use iPads to scan ID, or, if necessary (not a drivers license, passport, or military ID, manually enter the data into the system. There is a QUICK check against the rolls, and the ID is either verified, or identified as a problem.
Most of the time, the problem is resolvable. When it’s beyond our level of expertise, we direct the would-be voter to our Help Desk. They can make the determination to allow the person to vote provisionally. I’m told that most of the provisional voters don’t return with needed documentation by the deadline, Friday.
Expired licenses are one of the problems preventing people from voting. A second, related one is the addresses not matching the registration.
Many of those hitting that barrier were not aware that their voters info was not automatically changed when they got a new drivers license. It should be. If the Departments of Motor Vehicles can register voters, they should be empowered to also update their voter records. Not directly, but sending an authorized change of address. This is especially important to younger voters, as they are most often the ones changing their living situation.

Closely tied to this, is the cost of changing a drivers license. Incorrect addresses often cause other problems, among them not getting notice of court appearances related to driving or parking offenses. It’s cheaper for the state to absorb the cost of the address changes, than to pay later for jammed up courts and the social costs of people losing their drivers licenses. This would be a good change to work for at the state level.

Just In Case You’ve Forgotten

     Gentle Readers in the Right: the “gentlemen of the press” hate you. They will do anything to smear you, the politicians, you support, and the ideals you uphold. But woe to anyone who dares to say anything to wound their enormous egos!

     Apparently, yesterday at President Trump’s campaign rally in Lancaster PA, he made a quip that did exactly that:

     Trump’s podium was strangely protected on just three of four sides with thick, bulletproof glass and large gaps between the glass. One side left him totally unprotected.
     “I’m just looking here, and I’m watching, and, this has nothing to do with corruption, but has to do with a little bit with intelligence. I have a piece of glass over here, and I don’t have a piece of glass there, and I have this piece of glass here [In front of his face at the front of the podium] but all we have over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news,” he shrugged, “and I don’t mind that so much.”

     Here, from that same article, are the press’s reactions to his jest:

     “Breaking: Trump Says He Wouldn’t Mind Someone Shooting Through ‘Fake News’ At Rally,” a Forbes headline reads.
     “Trump talks shooting at press, ramps up election fraud claims at Pa. rally,” NBC reported.
     “Trump misleads about voter fraud, jokes about press being shot at Lancaster Airport rally,” reported LNP, the left leaning local Lancaster newspaper that fired numerous reporters last month.
     The Atlantic gave readers, “Donald Trump’s Latest Violent Fantasy: The former president muses about reporters getting shot.”

     OUCH! The horror! Trump hurt their delicate feelings! They think a lot of themselves. Not so much of him, though. Which recalls to mind this interesting episode from Trump’s first term in the Oval Office:

     Ah, the glory of the Fourth Estate! We must all bow to them… even the ones that call us “deplorables,” our chosen president a “liar” and a “fascist,” and whose favored candidates routinely characterize us as “Nazis.”

     Pardon my Belgian, but fuck that shit. And the “gentlemen of the press” who excrete it.

     Trump 2024.

Human Foibles And Political Corruption, Not Global Warming

I’ve not seen it yet because I’ve turned on my BS filter to all “catastrophic anthropomorphic global warming” claims. But i’m expecting you all to be inundated with a flood of them following the Valencia catastrophe.

So here is some history accompanied by a visual that explains what and partially why it happened.

Now take a guess what land was least expensive to buy. Then allot that for only a few pesos more one could get zoning approved to build housing and businesses.
Farm land, that might benefit from controlled flooding as happens at the Nile, is so much more unreliable a return on investment.

Remember this page when your sister in law points to Valencia as proof of global warming and how our super genius politicians know how to protect us.

A Day Without News

     Do you know what day of the year – well, of the years, actually – is most frustrating to a public-affairs commentator? Election Day.

***

     The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
     He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
     The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

     It seemed a good idea to post those three paragraphs today. Yes, of course they’re Article II of the Constitution of the United States; congratulations on remembering. I posted them because I fear that many Americans won’t recognize them or appreciate their significance.

     My point is that constitutionally – “the supreme law of the land,” don’t y’know – the president’s authority is very straitly circumscribed. The president was intended to concern himself mostly with matters of war and foreign policy. It’s right there in black and white. Yet in this Year of Our Lord 2024, we’ve gone a little nutty about who is to be the president for the next four years, as if whoever is selected will be the most important factor in our lives for the four years to come.

     No, it’s not the first time. It’s been more than a century since the office of the presidency burst its constitutional bonds. Since then, the president has wielded powers over matters both foreign and domestic that many a dictator would envy. But the Framers didn’t intend that. They’d just finished liberating the thirteen colonies from a foreign monarch, and were unlikely to countenance the creation of a domestic one.

     Of course, the presidency isn’t the only federal office that’s been constitutionally naughty. Congress wasn’t granted anything like the powers that it wields today. Neither were the federal courts. The Constitution has ceased to limit Washington and its agents. What was born small and inoffensive has grown into the Leviathan the Founders feared.

     As a result, our lives have been thoroughly politicized. No sphere of wholly private activity remains. How could it be otherwise, when the president is allowed the authority to send drones into foreign lands to assassinate disliked individuals? When state governors have the power to close your business and lock you into your home? When bureaucrats in Washington have the power to cast you into prison and seize all that’s yours for filling in a puddle on your rightfully owned property? When Congress in its majesty determines what you may and may not own and how much of your income you can keep? When venerable, wholly private, social institutions such as marriage are redefined at the whim of the federal courts? When “law enforcement officers” can break down your door in the middle of the night on the strength of an anonymous allegation, and murder you, your spouse, and your children for daring to take up arms against the intrusion? When “environmental conservation” officials can raid your home to seize and kill your pets on a whim?

     Today, a quadrennial Election Day on which We the People exercise our sovereign power to be bamboozled by the “major parties” into voting a new Emperor into office, is a day that’s otherwise without news. All other priorities have been rescinded. All traffic has been halted to make way for the Imperial carriage. Nothing but the election will matter until some time tomorrow.

     And such is the depth to which we have fallen that even that oh-so-important election will be decided not by our votes but by which of the “major parties” proves more adept at manipulating the tallies.

***

     Yes, I’m in a bad mood. No, it’s not because I slept poorly. It’s because I too will be riveted to the election returns until a verdict has become clear.

     The late Joseph Sobran put it plainly. We have devolved from a constitutional republic to something formless and vile. Washington’s power has become absolute and unbounded. Though lesser, the powers of the states have swollen beyond all constraint as well. Political power, not the sacred rights of the individual citizen, is all that matters now. And every two or four years, We the Governed are told that our moment has come. It’s time for our regularly scheduled show of “consenting” to it. We’re told to “pull the lever and feel the power” – that it’s our duty to do so.

     Reflect, Gentle Reader, on who is telling you that. Ask yourself what interest they have in chivvying us all into polling places.

     I do not consent. Do you?

     To our British cousins: Happy Guy Fawkes Day.

This election

Can be summed up by one quote from one of America’s greatest philosophers: Robert A Heinlein.

“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”

I count myself in the latter, and proud of it. Tomorrow we’ll see who manages to succeed. And I think Heinlein was being far too kind to the former. But then, he wasn’t dealing with the modern Democrat party.

The Race To The Bottom

     For a while, Biden appeared to be the front-runner with his “garbage” comment. Then Obama edged up on him with his “Republicans are divisive” speech. And of course we could never count Kamala Harris out of the race, with all her “fascist” and “danger to democracy” chanting. Mustn’t forget the Great Has-Beens Bill and Hillary Clinton, either.

     But then, seemingly out of nowhere, a new contender for the title of Most Vicious Politician in America, 2024 arose and passed the rest of the field at a sprint:

     That’s right, Gentle Reader: the governor of the fourth most populous state in the Union openly condemned Republicans as “anti-American.” Why? Well, when the stakes are this high, a gal has to pull out all the stops, right? Besides, this is nothing new from Kathy Hochul. Two years ago, she counseled New York Republicans to move to Florida:

     Gov. Kathy Hochul sparked controversy Monday night by saying political opponents like Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin ought to ditch New York as she rallied with fellow Democrats ahead of a special election in Congressional District 19 in the Hudson Valley.
     “We are fighting for democracy. We’re fighting to bring government back to the people and out of the hands of dictators,” Hochul said at a Monday evening rally in Kingston alongside Democratic congressional candidate Pat Ryan, where she called out his Republican opponent, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, Zeldin and former President Donald Trump.
     “Trump and Zeldin and Molinaro – just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong. OK? Get out of town. Because you don’t represent our values,” added Hochul, who raised eyebrows last week for a dig against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a Manhattan event commemorating the Holocaust.

     But calling us in the Right “anti-American” does constitute turning it up to eleven. I suppose Hochul is vying for a place among the Democrat elite. Too bad, Kathy: there’s no room for a minor-league New York pol, an accidental governor, among the Democrat heavy hitters. If the Cuomos couldn’t leap that high, you surely can’t. (No, higher heels wouldn’t help.)

     New York has many problems, nearly all of them the product of too much government. New Yorkers outside the Big Apple media bubble know it well. Even here on Long Island, uncomfortably close to the Five Boroughs of Bedlam, the prevailing sentiment toward the state government and its works is Keep your distance. We want nothing from you.

     Under Democrat governance, New York has been losing population, business, and revenue. Much of that stems from New York City under super-nanny Michael Bloomberg, the Marxist regime of Bill De Blasio, and the incompetence of Eric Adams. Yet even inland New Yorkers have sensed that the state has become ever less hospitable to people who merely want to earn a living and be left alone. New York Democrats’ war on the right to keep and bear arms alone has accounted for a significant fraction of the outflow. Impoverishment through taxation and regulation, as company after company folds its tent and silently departs the land of Excelsior, accounts for most of the rest.

     I’m a lifelong New Yorker. I once contemplated moving, but too much of what I value is immovably here, including nearly all the people I love. So I too am desperate for a revival of what once made it the Empire State. But it’s not looking good. How could it, with the state governor going out of her way to alienate nearly half of us: the productive, civil, law-abiding half? Dare I say the better half?

     My one cheering thought is that if Hochul’s attitude is representative of the attitude among Democrat pols who fancy themselves “up and comers,” I might see the collapse of that thoroughly corrupt party before I die. And good BLEEP!ing riddance to it.

     Conservative New Yorkers: It’s time to take command of the Republican Party and make it what it should be, rather than a minor-league imitation of the Democrats that just promises to “do it cheaper.”

Patriots For Peanut And Fred

     The heartless seizure and slaughter of Peanut and Fred from the caring home of Mark Longo is the World Wide Web today. No other single topic has nearly as much clout. That deserves some thought.

     Go to Mike Miles’ place and savor the memes. He’s collected a fine bunch, as always. They deserve to be spread far and wide.

     And New York voters: if you’re a “lifelong Democrat” but you’re feeling a touch of nausea over the prospect of voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, today you face more than an ordinary choice between parties and candidates. You face a test of conscience. That’s all I’ll say on the matter.

     Enjoy your breakfasts.

Awakenings

     Yes, I’ve used that title before. Twice, in fact. But third time’s the charm, I hope.

     A word of warning, Gentle Reader. This one will get rough. Moreover, you may not sense it coming. But when it does, you’ll be in no doubt of it.

     If you can stand to have every cell in your body aflame with rage, read on.

***

To sate the lust of power; more horrid still,
The foulest stain and scandal of our nature
Became its boast — One Murder made a Villain,
Millions a Hero. — Princes were privileg’d
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
Ah! why will Kings forget that they are Men?

[“Death: A Poetical Essay” by Beilby Porteus, 1759]

     Every event of consequence points back at seemingly abstract and bloodless propositions: more abstract and bloodless, at least, than the participants in the event itself. Thus it may be – I hope so, at any rate – for the seizure and death of Peanut the squirrel.

     You already know the particulars. I shan’t waste time or keystrokes repeating them here. Besides, some very able commentators have already laid the whole thing out in unsparing detail.

     My hope is that this seemingly trivial event will prove to be the falling stone that unleashes an avalanche. An avalanche – a conscience-powered uprising against that foulest of all Man’s creations, the Omnipotent State – is what we need. At what better moment could it come? From what more worthy cause could it arise?

     Of course, such an uprising would have a few prerequisites:

  • That the seizure and execution of Peanut becomes a nationwide cause celebre;
  • That there arises a general comprehension of the premises under which it was effected;
  • That we have consciences capable of awakening to the horror of those premises;
  • That we are still men with some capacity for defiance and courage, not beasts conditioned to unthinking obedience to the State.

     Why did those arrogant bastards of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation seize and execute Peanut and his confrere, Fred the Raccoon? The rationalizations are plain: Mark Longo didn’t have a permit for them; there were allegations that Peanut and Fred were “unsafe;” there were anonymous complaints about “wildlife gone wild;” the state is responsible for “rabies control.” None of them hold water for five seconds. Here is the real reason:

BECAUSE THEY COULD.

     They could do so without fear for their lives, their fortunes, their careers, or their ability to sleep at night. Doing anything justifiable — e.g., tracking down some actual abusers of animals and hauling them before a court – would have involved a lot more work, and possibly some personal danger. Hey, officer safety! That’s the mantra, don’t y’know. It’s not just cops who chant it to themselves and one another.

     Mark Longo and Peanut were safe and easy targets. For one thing, Peanut had a social media presence. They knew where he lived. For another, Longo, a well-known animal-rescue activist, was highly unlikely to resist them with force. So they chose to go after the felonious squirrel rather than some more problematic target. Got to do something to justify their salaries and benefits, right?

     They could. So they did.

***

     Some things demand more of a justification than “because we could.” Sir Edmund Hillary could get away with that one, or an approximate equivalent, because he was risking only his own life and spending only his own money. But when inflicting death is the subject, more will be required.

     In On Broken Wings, I wrote:

     “[L]ook me in the eye, kid: is this the worst thing you’ve ever done?”
     As frightened as he was, it didn’t occur to Jimmy to lie. “I killed a squirrel once.”
     “To eat? Or for its fur?”
     “No.”
     The man’s face hardened still further. “That’s bad. Sometimes we have to kill. But you don’t kill for pleasure. Not ever again.”

     A man with a conscience – a functioning, awakened conscience – who kills even once will immediately grasp the seriousness of the act. He may sincerely believe it’s justifiable as he does it. Our bodies do need meat, and coverings that will ward off the cold. Even so, he’ll know that it was an act of such gravity that nothing could be said in defense of killing for pleasure. Is “I’m just doing my job” a better exculpation?

     Now that we’re there, if there’s a reader in favor of the execution of Peanut and Fred, give me your rationalization. From a good distance, and with your hands where I can see them.

     I’ll wait.

***

     I could go on, but such is the readership of Liberty’s Torch that I don’t see a need. Peanut and Fred were ripped from their homes and executed because the State decreed that it be done. It was an arbitrary exertion of an arbitrarily seized power that cannot be justified in any other way than “Because we could.” (Codicil: “And what are you going to do about it, punk?”)

     God is not mocked. He loves all His creatures. And while He will perform the final reckoning, you and I have a hand to play in the maintenance of justice here on Earth. Indeed, ours are the only hands in play, for God has surrendered all police power over temporal reality to us who live under the veil of Time. To men.

     That’s all, Gentle Reader. It’s time for Mass. Pray and reflect.

For Peanut And Fred

     There should be a special circle in Hell for people who mistreat animals. The DEC bastards who “euthanized” Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon — two fully domesticated animals – deserve an eternity of having their genitals gnawed by an assortment of God’s non-human creatures. But it’s odds-on that a year from now, no New Yorkers other than I and the C.S.O. will remember this incident

     Read Dave’s post below this one for more details.

RIP Peanut, and what government does best

Have you heard of Peanut the squirrel? If not, here’s the simplified recap: A man living in New York named Mark Longo ran an animal rescue, and he had both a pet squirrel and a pet racoon. The squirrel, named Peanut, was the star of multiple online videos that helped raise money for the man’s rescue agency. And the state of New York took both the squirrel and the racoon and killed them. Because they could.

Earlier this morning, I watched a video of a naked black ran running around New York City waving a stick and chasing people who caught his attention. While various passer-bys and random people walking to work ran to stay away from the naked black man. You have open air drug use in NYC. You have a huge problem with illegal aliens in New York. But the government, rather than trying to focus on things that would make life better for the average New Yorker, decided that they were going to kill two animals. Because they had the authority to do so! YOU WILL RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!

This is what government does best. It destroys your quality of life, making your life worse every step of the way, while taking your money and telling you to do what they say or else.

The streets of New York City are filled with criminals and migrants, billions are spent on hotel rooms for illegals, drugs are ravaging our communities, and lawlessness is spreading in ways that degrade our civilization. Those are big problems that are difficult to deal with, so the government turns its Sauron eye to Peanut because it can overwhelm the little guy with no problem. 

Improving people’s lives is hard. Killing a squirrel is easy

The reason Trump has a chance is because the government is spending their time getting rich and only doing the easy things. Vote accordingly. Pray.

And buy more ammo.

“What Happened To Him?”

     Most of us prefer that our enemies be consistent. That is: we don’t want to discover that someone we thought an ally has turned into an enemy. It’s upsetting, among other things. When it happens, we grope about for an explanation. If we fail to find one, our distress is magnified.

     Which brings me to the question of the moment: What happened to Jonah Goldberg?

     While he was prominent at National Review, Goldberg gave every appearance of being a sincere conservative. His book Liberal Fascism is an important contribution to the discussion of fascism and its representation among American liberals / Leftists. Yet he’s become one of the foremost detractors of Donald Trump, his allies, and his supporters. Yet Trump’s positions and actions while in power better represent authentic, no-compromises pro-freedom conservatism than anyone since Calvin Coolidge. Why?

     People do “sell out.” The lure of great(er) fame and fortune afforded by a regular page in a highly respected newspaper, or an ultra-prominent perch at a national network, has done so in the past. While not everyone “has a price,” quite a few people do. When the bidding reaches that level, they become purchasable.

     But there are coinages other than money and fame to be considered, as well.

     Imagine this: You’re a rising star in American conservative punditry. Your writing regularly appears in a well-respected, though modest-circulation, conservative publication. You’ve been accepted and welcomed by the older, more prominent luminaries of the Right: the Buckleys, the Bozells, the Buchanans, and others whose names glitter in the conservative firmament. You’re regularly asked to speak at their conferences and to contribute to their strategy sessions. You’re routinely invited to their soirees. You’ve made it.

     And you discover, not entirely to your surprise, that these folks have a higher priority than conservative principles and convictions. What they really value most is their status as the Keepers of the Flame. The promulgators and expositors of the One True Faith. The In Crowd. That status grants them positions of respect even from their supposed ideological adversaries, who attend a lot of the same parties.

     And that status is what they prize above all else.

     Then along comes an Outsider. One who has not been granted admission to the inner circle. Yet this maverick outshines the old luminaries. There’s no BS about him: he walks it like he talks it.

     Those aforementioned Keepers of the Flame are unhappy. They dislike being shown up. Actual performance will do that to a crowd of pontificators who, even when they’ve been granted access to the corridors of power, have failed to deliver on their promises. It makes them angry and resentful.

     You don’t dare to cross the old bulls. They’re dangerous. They still wield more clout than you. The thing they value most has been imperiled. It has them snorting fire and raking their paws across the earth. And you ask yourself, “What is it that I value above all else?”

     The answer may displease you. It may reveal to you that you’ve become insincere about the convictions you’ve spouted on the way up. Yes, you do really, truly uphold those beliefs, but… what about your position in the In Crowd? It’s the post from which your sentiments have the greatest range. With your admission to the circle of the Favored, your speaking engagements and book sales have tripled!

     There’s an invisible slip of cardboard stock in your wallet. Even you have overlooked it until then. Like any business card, it bears your name, your public telephone number, and perhaps your social-media monikers. Along with those items, it says Member in Good Standing of the Conservative Establishment.

     You want to remain one such, more than anything else in the world. That’s incompatible with embracing this upstart. If you join him, even by expressing qualified approval of his statements and actions in office, you’ll pay heavily. No more speaking engagements at conferences. No more access to strategy sessions. No more invitations to cocktail parties. What on Earth would your wife say? She just bought a new dress!

     Do you think I’m exaggerating, Gentle Reader? Hand on my heart, I’m not. The restrictions that arise from being admitted to an In Crowd are something most persons never ponder. That includes many before whom the bauble is dangled.

     It’s not just the barons of the Left who frown on deviationism.

Quote Of The Day

     “The closing arguments have been made. It’s not really about persuasion now. It’s about turnout.” – GOP strategist David Kochel

     Well, yes… if, under the umbrella term turnout, we remember to include fraud. There’s copious evidence that the Democrat vote-fraud machine is already humming furiously. No margin is safe from the ability of fraudsters to manufacture ballots, or to disqualify ballots cast for the Republican candidate.

     Here’s the only prediction I’m confident of: No one will get much sleep the night of November 5.

Drone Warfare

Here’s a link to an essay of appropriate measures to take down drones, should they prove to be a threat to us, either domestic or foreign.

China is putting a LOT of money, and personnel, into drones and their deployment. That might be just aimed at Taiwan, or it might be used against other countries.

Drones are best used fairly locally – yes, I do know that drones CAN be controlled at a distance, but most of the drones in wide production are meant for relatively short distances. That reach can be increased via satellite capability or repeater towers, but there is still a limit to their reach. You can check out the current status of the technology from these links.

Military drones are generally higher-end gadgets, and may have a reach of 4-10 miles. But the concept of sitting in your living room and taking out Russia’s military is a fantasy. Fun to imagine, but not gonna happen.

How drones MIGHT be useful is for relatively local defense – near borders, patrolling harbors, ASSISTING security in restricted installations. I mention ASSISTING, because humans – acting in the field – are your FIRST line of defense. We have multiple senses, and can assess situations with a sophistication that the machine/operator team cannot match.

Human intelligence, and the willingness to act on an informed hunch, is what makes the American combat soldier. I was reading about the social experiments of the Vietnam Era, that put unqualified, and often just not that educated or smart soldiers into the field.

The results were disastrous, both for those soldiers, and for the men surrounding them.

While SOME of them may have managed to handle some of the non-combat jobs, they were not suited for the boots on the ground positions. There is a reason that so many wash out of advanced training, such as the Rangers. You gotta be smart, respected by your peers, and able to sort through solutions and adapt your combat plan.

Not a job for dummies, contrary to what is widely believed on The Left.

Ultimately, it is not the machine that will make the difference in war, it is the trained operators.

The smartest thing (and one of the cheapest) that the military can do is to get some basic drones and organize training for them (comparable to that of commercial drone operators – my son-in-law received his license, and when I saw what the content of the training was like, I was quite impressed). Limit further drone training to the most proficient, and those that were able to come up with ways to use them in combat.

Don’t limit the drone pilots to that work only – they should maintain their other combat training. The drone capability is a TOOL, just as the many electronic instruments that they use in battle are.

We don’t need fat boys whose only experience with combat is World of Warcraft to be the pilots. Let the fighting troops use this as their spare-time hobby.

And, on America’s home front?

If the Rednecks don’t already have the drones, they oughta make it their mission to buy a GOOD one, and learn to use it. Local defense may be in their near future.

Social Media Manipulations

I found this site at the link on The Federalist. It details a social media manipulation scheme that The Left/Dems are employing to push their propaganda to the top, and smother any opposing message.

From CNN, not a friend or supporter of Trump, correcting the impression on The Left that THEIR guys are always on the side of The Saints.

The Times of India has an article on a similar issue, that of social media posts being both misleading, and not accurate, to opponents of the poster.

Folks, that piece from CNN might be one of the best indicators of how The Left perceives the election is going. If they thought Trump would lose, I doubt the article would have seen the light of day.

Instead, they are retreating.

And, you know what to do when your enemy starts to step back, don’t you?

Meme Creator - Funny I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED WE WERE ON RETREAT Meme ...

Flaws

     You’ve got ‘em; I’ve got ‘em. Everyone either of us knows has ‘em. But when a man ascends to public attention, those determined to bring him down will focus on his flaws – real or imagined, minimized or exaggerated – to the extent of everything else about him.

     So it is and has been with the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

     Does Trump possess a large ego? Why, yes. He’s earned it with his accomplishments. Is he somewhat cavalier about the bonds of marriage? Yes, to an extent. But others of far lesser stature have been equally so; remember Liz Taylor and Mickey Rooney? Does he occasionally exaggerate for rhetorical purposes? Again yes. But political rhetoric is almost always exaggerated when it’s not outright false.

     I could talk about several things at this juncture: media bias; the defamatory proclivities of the Left; the horror of the “gatekeepers” that such an outsider slipped past them. I could also enumerate the flaws of nearly every politician the United States has endured since 1900. But none of that is of any real significance. Politics attracts flawed men into its orbit… and tragically, it’s usually the most flawed who rise the highest.

     Even commentators who know perfectly well – and are willing to admit it – that between the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates, Trump is by far the better choice seem obsessed with the subject of his flaws. They feel compelled to mention that “Trump has flaws.” Some even say “many flaws.” Great God in heaven! From the relentlessness of the drumbeat, you would think that Jesus Christ is running on a third-party ticket.

     Enough already! One of these two candidates, Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, will be the next president. Neither is anywhere close to human perfection. Choose “the lesser evil,” if you must – and be very sure that you are clear in your mind what you mean by “evil.”

Some Music For The Lonely And Cynical

     One of the best of the previous century’s songwriters was the late Stan Rogers. Like the great Al Stewart, Rogers could take any subject and weave it into a song. His lyrics are poetry of an increasingly rare sort, though if called a poet, he probably would have demurred.

     This one is for those desperate for love on any terms, and all those who, whatever their current status, have been “through the mill.”

That one behind you on the padded velvet throne
Don’t turn around! You’ve seen that kind before.

Wolves hang around here and they hunt the woods alone
Waiting for hearts to wander through the door.

This bar has changed now that the hunter’s hunted too
Who is the prey, and who is the hungry mouth?

Go talk with strangers, only nothing said is true.
It’s, “Who do you know?” and “When did you last fly south?”

And it’s drink bought to catch the eye and make intentions known
The kind they would never buy if they meant to drink alone

And it’s soft words that make the play in warm and winning tones
The kind words they’d never say if they dared to sleep alone

But like you, I’m fascinated by the glitter of the flame
Watching wolves steal half of a heart away
Watching wolves steal half of a heart away

     Rest in peace, Stan.

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