Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Trust In Government Erodes When Government Not Trustworthy


One of those "News at 11" healines. 

"The Party" (TP-D) controlled, and in some cases funded (NPR) media often sheds huge tears over "loss of trust in government". They hate to see the sheep not have tons of trust in their increasingly lavishly paid, gold class benefited plus wined and dined at public expense bureaucrat "shepherds"  just because the bureaucrats whose salaries they pay call them "deplorables" and fail to do their jobs.

As Reynolds puts it:

Politicians have a short-term focus, seldom looking past the next election. But for those of us with a longer view, this is a serious problem. As The Atlantic recently noted, trust in government is collapsing around the world. The reason for this, I’m afraid, is that government isn’t trustworthy. We used to try to do better in the United States, but lately the powers that be seem to be rubbing our noses in their untrustworthiness and their ability to avoid the consequences. This, I predict, will not end well.

This is anything but a new problem. OT era rulers in Egypt in Babylon had lots of problems with their feckless beauracracy and often ended up choosing advisors from the Jews ( Joeseph, Daniel, etc). The reason that Rome lasted so long is that they effectively worshiped the Greeks, who were the philosophic parents of the idea that "this is NOT all there is" ... eg. there is a dimension beyond our dimension in which perfection is reality, and what we see is a mere projection ... "shadows on the wall of the cave".

The job  of the true "elite" -- the priest, philosopher, royalty, upper class, etc, was to see this transcendent dimension and use it to rule with true justice. As with most things, Christ said it best in Matt 20:26 "Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant."

Without transcendence, it is all POWER, which in this context means POLITICS. The linked is not very long and Reynolds is an excellent writer ... it's a sad litany if you care about competent government,  here is a teaser:

The FBI had interviewed Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, after being warned by the Russian government that he was a threat, but still did nothing. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured as a result. The FBI also investigated in advance but failed to prevent mass killings by Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan and Arkansas shooter Carlos Bledsoe.


'via Blog this'

Monday, July 10, 2017

Most Republican Part of the Bible

Politico Attacks Rubio, 'Social Darwinist' Book of Proverbs:

Politico took Rubio to task for tweeting verses out of Proverbs because it was allegedly the "most Republican part of the Bible", since it asserts that good character and hard work are more likely to bring riches than wickedness and sloth.

The article is pretty funny, though I suppose not for Democrats -- I have to admit that I'm always impressed with a Democrat that knows a Bible verse beyond Matt 7:1 "Judge not lest ye be judged".

Naturally, they usually use that verse in their judgement of what they see as someone elses judgement, however it IS still actually in the Bible. If they read more of it, I have faith that God would show them the light. Complete verses are good too ... Slick Willie quoted Prov 29:18 in his inauguration, "Where there is no vision, the people perish", but neglected to quote the second part of the verse ... "but he who keeps the law, happy is he".  I wonder why?

I find the most Republican verse in the Bible to be Ecclesiastes 10:2 "The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."

;-)

'via Blog this'

Sunday, July 09, 2017

Gray Lady "Mistaken" Relative to Attractive Lady

NY Times: Hey, blaming Sarah Palin for that shooting was "an honest mistake" - Hot Air Hot Air:



Hey, it was an "honest mistake" to connect the Gabby Giffords shooter to Sarah Palin, TRUST US!



'via Blog this'

Hamilton vs "Hamilton"

The Hamilton Hustle - Why Have Liberals Embraced America's Most Reactionary Founder? | Zero Hedge:



Anyone with a passing knowlege of the founding knows that Hamilton was totally against democracy. So why do the current "Democrats" love him? Well, it isn't very surprising to readers of this blog, because we know that "The Party" (TP-D) is about POWER, no matter by what means it is achieved. "Democracy" is great as long as it gives your side power -- when it doesn't, it is bad!



Good article if you need a refresher on reality. See if the closing paragraph sounds like any political party you are familiar with:



Set in contrast to the actual life and career of its subject, the play Hamilton is a feat of political alchemy - as is the stunningly successful marketing campaign surrounding it. But our generation’s version of Hamilton adulation isn’t all that different from the version that took hold in the 1920s: it’s designed to subvert democracy by helping the professional class to associate the rise of finance with the greatness of America, instead of seeing in that financial infrastructure the seeds of a dangerous authoritarian tradition.











'via Blog this'

Russia Out, America In, Germany Down



The title is the famous assessment by Lord Ismay of Britain as to the purpose of NATO after WWII. Churchill and Ismay understood that "peoples" tend to have a character. (Churchill called them "races" as in the English race, the German race, etc)


In Ismay’s time, such aggression was different from lesser Fascist movements in Italy and Spain, largely because of the central geographic position of a unified young German nation-state, its sizable population, its national wealth, and what we reluctantly in today’s politically correct landscape might call “German character.” That stereotype originates from the time of Caesar and Tacitus: the ability of the German people to create economic, military, and cultural influence well beyond what one might expect from the actual size of even an impressive German population or geography. And such dynamism is often expressed by eyeing neighbors’ spiritual or concrete territory.
In science, if a "stereotype", like "temperatuire getting warmer" holds from say 1865 to like 2K (150 years), it tends to be called "a fact". Since the "stereotype has held since the time of Tacitus (100 AD), or basically 2000 thousand years ... ???



Recent Pew international polls reveal that Germany of all the countries of the European Union is by far the most anti-American, with scarcely 52 percent expressing a positive appraisal of the United States — well before Donald Trump ran for office. Media polls show that the German press ran the most negative appraisals of Trump of all global news (98 percent of all coverage was critical). A fair summary of current German views of the United States would be not much different from the stereotypes of the 1930s: undisciplined, prone to wild swings in policy, a bastardized and commercialized culture of poorly informed and highly indebted consumers.
Germany has tended to have a pretty low opinion of the US for ages. I tend to generally agree with their opinion of current Americans, the big question is if push comes to shove, will that opinion be wrong 3 our of 3 times, or only 2 out of three since the WWI and WWII opinions fell on hard times relative to military prowess.


No one quite knows the strange driving force behind Angela Merkel’s demand that the European Union open its borders to millions of mostly young men from the war-torn Middle East and the chaotic lands of North Africa. Cynics might suggest that a shrinking Germany wants young, cheap manual laborers. Post-war guilt may play a role as Germany’s cure for its past becomes nearly as obsessive as the behavior that led to the disease in the first place.
I think the developed world elite is of the opinion that Islam will fall to western decadence just as Christianity largely has -- they assume that those young male imports will indeed be cheap manual laborers, and they will suffer along in stagnation -- as have blacks in the US and increasingly the abandoned red state lower class whites. Maybe.

Could also be that they are look at the US miltary being currently 40% minority with the percentage rising, remember that a lot of Germany's WWII army was conscripted from conqured countries, and dream of a largely Muslim force under the command of "real Germans". 

As the column closes we are reminded that those who fail to study history often get to repeat it. 

He would warn about what happens when NATO withers on the vine: Russian is a bit in, America is somewhat out, and Germany more up than down — as Ismay feared when he helped offer the remedy of NATO at its creation.


'via Blog this'

Sowell of A Sage



Definitely one of the heroes that I worship just a bit too much. Now 86 and no longer doing a column, interviewd here by WSJ. A sage indeed.



"How has America changed over Mr. Sowell’s lifetime? “Oh my God,” he responds, “that is truly a depressing subject.” He laments the “huge degeneration” and what he sees as the spread of “the grievance culture to low-income whites—and even to places like Great Britain.” 
An idea has taken root “that you’re entitled to certain things, that you don’t necessarily have to earn them,” he says. “There’s a belief that something’s wrong if you don’t have what other people have—that it’s because you’re ‘disadvantaged.’ A teenage dropout mother is told she has a disadvantage. But if you’re going to call the negative consequences of chosen behavior ‘disadvantage,’ the word is corrupt beyond repair and useful only for propaganda purposes.”"
Excellent discussion on school choice and how it could move blacks that care about their kids to the R colum.



READ IT! I hope he lives to a 110 with all his faculties intact, however I intend to keep listening to him as if this was his last day!



'via Blog this'

Gettysburg, Brandenburg, Warsaw -- Historic Speeches

Remarks by President Trump to the People of Poland | July 6, 2017 | whitehouse.gov:

When we live through history, we tend to not notice the major mileposts until they are well in the rear view mirror. I'm not going back to Gettysburg today, although I have been there both physically and intellectually. I will return to Brandenburg for a bit, because I think it is the most recent model that helps us understand the potential parallels to Trumps speech in Warsaw.

Reagan and his battle against the forces of socialism and communism had a very happy ending for those of us who believe in God, Family and limited government. I covered a good book on the subject here, a key quote from that book is a message between an East German leader and the leader of the USSR, Khruschev:

"The experience of the last years have proven that it is not possible for a socialist country, such as the GDR to cary out peaceful competition with an imperialist country such as West Germany with open borders".
My contentiion is that the forces of "progressiveism" are generally intelligent, (or at least their leadership is). There have been WAY too many historic (USSR, East Germany) and current (Venezuela,  North Korea) examples of the failure of Godless Socialism to provide anything but both physical and spirital poverty to the bulk of the people under its control, but they feel their superior intellects are just too great a blessing to deny the masses their" benevolent" authoritarian rule. They know what the common man needs, FAR more thant he common man.

Trump calls out these adversaries here:

Finally, on both sides of the Atlantic, our citizens are confronted by yet another danger -- one firmly within our control. This danger is invisible to some but familiar to the Poles: the steady creep of government bureaucracy that drains the vitality and wealth of the people. The West became great not because of paperwork and regulations but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies. 
Americans, Poles, and the nations of Europe value individual freedom and sovereignty. We must work together to confront forces, whether they come from inside or out, from the South or the East, that threaten over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are. (Applause.) If left unchecked, these forces will undermine our courage, sap our spirit, and weaken our will to defend ourselves and our societies.
Trump is making Trumpism, which is essentially a return to Western civilization, very clear in the above -- and here as well:

We have to remember that our defense is not just a commitment of money, it is a commitment of will. Because as the Polish experience reminds us, the defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail and be successful and get what you have to have. The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?   

 Our elite generally hates Western civilization, covered well here. Their attacks on this speech are largely along the lines of "Western civilization is Christian and white, and therefore exclusionary and racist, and it, along with Trump, must be repudiated".

The whole speech is WELL worth taking the (fairly short) time needed to read it. It also covers the little reported fact that we are now deploying Patriot missles in Poland.

'via Blog this'

Who Loves Russia? Poland, Missles, Obama, Trump

Our MSM tells us that the Russians love Trump -- always have, helped get him elected, he is in their pocket -- lots of MSM stories on that narrative. Reminds me of when Reagan was totally dangerous buffoon for suggesting that the USSR would be "consigned to the ash heap of history". Gotta love our media -- always certain, frequently VERY wrong. They do however really understand that everyone needs a narrative. Push theirs, block their opposition -- anyone not worshiping at the progressive altar. Simple.

Here we have a quote from a former Czech official decrying Obama's 2009 decision to abandon a missle defense system which included missles in Poland.

Alexandr Vondra, a former Czech deputy prime minister and ambassador to Washington intimately involved in the negotiations with the Americans, said he was surprised. "This is a U-turn in US policy," he said. "But first we expect the US to honour its commitments. If they don't they may have problems generating support for Afghanistan and on other things."

BO was certainly a reliable enemy to our friends and a reliable friend of our enemies.

Here we have an article covering Patriot missles being deployed in Poland, and a quote from Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has called the missile defense systems in Eastern Europe a "great danger." Putin also threatened to enhance Russia's own missile strike capability in response.
I have no doubt that Russia is always happy to cast doubt on our elections by any means possible -- leaking actual emails showing that Democrats rigged their primaries, colluded with the media on the debates,  and colluded with the media to have Trump as their opponent certainly doesn't make our poltical system look "fair and balanced". Those of us not in thrall to "The Party" (TP-D) pretty much knew that already.

My contention is that the Russians fully expected Hillary to win like everyone else. My guess is that they were much happier with that prospect than with Trump winning because of things like the above and the fact that his policies are much more likely to make them have to confront a srtonger BOistan.

No doubt what they are REALLY unhappy about with Trump is that he is certainly going to "drill baby drill", "frack baby frack", and even put in pipelines to transport the oil! As one of the big energy producing nations, Russia HATES competition, and has spent millions of dollars trying to stop fracking.

Their main mission on this front (and ours in reverse) is to make us weaker -- and making it look like our elections can be "manipulated" is a great way to do that. So relative to elections, Russion mission accomplished. Relative to actual interaction on the world stage, not so much.

A little more detail on the whole Russian nothingburger here ... obstruction of "justice" (witch hunt) is really all that remains.


Saturday, July 08, 2017

Lizard At White Castle

Gov. Dayton, don’t honor Philando Castile | Power Line:

If a white Castile was high on pot, stopped, yelled out "I have a gun" and started reaching for it, he would be dead and outside of friends and family, nobody would know or care. Let's call him "White Castle".

Naturally, lefties will claim "profiling" ... the description of the robbery suspect was that he was black (eg black and male), so until we get to descriptions like "subject was humanoid, certain height, weight, etc", that will be a problem.

When people select their race, gender, and sometimes species, how can any observer make descrptions like "black, male, large, etc" ... I personally identify as 5'10", 180 lbs with a full head of hair. Certainly nobody in society would disrespect my right to identify as such -- however, it is quite likely that they might err in describing me were they not to check out what I identify as!

Perhaps we could name a program at the U to study this important area after Castile -- however, I'm afraid the combo of being stoned, smoke rolling out of your car and saying out of the blue "I have a gun" then reaching for it is likely to cause problems no matter what you may think you are.

Perhaps if he had yelled out "I'm a lizard!"?

In honor of the general surrealistic state of our world today, I vote we name the new program "Trans Lizard At White Castle" -- in honor of, well, the "reality" which our times have created.

Defending Civilization


I'll start out with two quotes from the linked article:

"The West is a racial and religious term. To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white. "
The most shocking sentence in Trump’s speech—perhaps the most shocking sentence in any presidential speech delivered on foreign soil in my lifetime—was his claim that “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.”
This is the Atlantic, so naturally the conclusion is that Trump is a racist using religion to increase paranoia. If you want that view, go read the article.

First, what is "Western"? At one time we would have all agreed it was "Western Civilization" ... Judeao-Christian, Greek, Roman, Enlightenment, England followed by the US as leadership in it's latter centuries. Now? Well, we will get to that, but "the modern enlightened" ("liberal", "progressive", etc)  know they hate it. This is from this excellent article, "Yes They Really DO Despise Their Civilization".

I mean, really, how ignorant and provincial do you have to be, Messrs. Beinart and Bouie, to hear Trump’s speech and think of it as a #MAGA version of a Nuremberg Rally Address? Is the degree of self-hatred of the West required to be a virtuous, woke person such that you cannot tell the difference between Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and the Horst Wessel Song? Do they really think Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation (all of which is available on YouTube, starting here) is a plummy version of Triumph of the Will? If standing against this kind of liberal insanity means I have to stand with Donald Trump, well, okay, I’ll stand with Donald Trump. I won’t like it, but at least Donald Trump doesn’t hate his own civilization.
So if you hate your own civilization,  where do you go? We need a cartoon reminder:



What "other civilization" are they after? One without Trump and his "supporters"? They make it pretty clear that it IS NOT "Western Civilization", because that is "Christian and white". So what is it? Islam? Marxism? Black Lives Matter? I suspect they would vaguely say it is "A new fully tolerant, equal, secure, well educated (with progressive education), environmentally friendly, gender free, priviledge free, moral judgement free, etc ... culture/civilization".

I've not really heard them say in any detail though, and certainly not with any discussion of "how" -- essentially, the message of the left continues to be "pull the trigger, we will figure something out on our descent into the abyss" ... trust us. The police are playing the role of Western Civilization, the Terminator is "progressivism" ... they don't tend to honor their "promises", and they have some BAD feelings about Western Civilization!



As the quoted paragraph says -- it is pretty damned easy to support Trump as opposed to people that hate their own civilization, and maybe worse, consider civilization to be their enemy, and VERY disposeable in  order to reach their goals.

The Trump Warsaw speech is WELL worth reading the whole thing -- here is my take on it (Hint, think Reagan at Brandenburg gate!)

'via Blog this'

I Still Love America, I Just Miss Her


Jonah Goldberg is having a tiff with the editors of NR over "What is America" (Rich Lowrey is editor in chief). The editors declare they would still love America even if it had a completely different set of ideals -- and Jonah apparently doesn't realize that the area of N America where the nation of America used to exist DOES have a completely different set of ideals -- which is why I call it BOistan.

Rich started by saying that America is a nation, not an idea. He then went on to demonstrate the ways in which America is a nation (it’s got borders and a people and a culture and the like). That’s fine with me, I suppose. I concluded a while ago that the “Nation vs. Idea” argument is poorly framed. If all you have to do is cite borders, roads, and a post office to prove it’s not an idea, then what’s the point?
Every philisopher understands neccessary vs sufficent. Philosophers all breathe, sweat, defecate, etc -- which are neccessary conditions. NONE of those is SUFFICIENT to call yourself a philosopher. All nations have borders, people, culture, post offices, etc -- those are neccessary conditions, not sufficient to being called "America".

"Idea, ideals, values, principles" -- The TRUTHS that America held  to be self evident and endowed by GOD. To believe in America is to believe in divine founding -- else there are no transcendent truths, and America could not exist without transcendent truth. The founders certainly allowed people to live in the territory of America (the neccessary but not sufficient borders) without acknowledging God -- they were just to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and declare that the founding principles were self evident "just cuz" ... like created equal without any creator, rendering "equal" just another man made thought changeable by the only remaining moral authority when God dies -- power. "Might is right" with a ballot or a bullet.

Roe V Wade, Obergefell, BOcare, not impeaching Bill Clinton, 20 trillion in debt and a few hundred other things finally convinced me that "We weren't in Kansas (America) anymore".



The unwillingness of someone of Goldberg's stature to even recognize that we are fish swimming in a BOistani rather than American pond is traumatizing -- failure to recognize and accept reality is not a good sign for ability to remedy our situation. Jonah ends his column rather whimsically for such a serious matter.

Imagine one person tells you that his ideal form of government would be to get rid of the Constitution and make Kim Kardashian queen. You’d think that person is silly, probably even deranged. Now imagine that 270 million Americans believed that and, having the necessary supermajority to pull it off, voted away our Constitution. As the coronation of Queen Kim, First of Her Name, unfolded on every channel, would you not change your view of America, her culture, and her people? Might you not fall out of love with America as it is? 
My hunch is Rich et al. would still love America, but you know what America they would love? The America That Was. They might even join the resistance to the regime of Queen Kim (I’m fairly certain Charlie would) in an effort to restore self-government to America. And here’s the funny thing: They’d be fighting against the American nation in the name of that great and glorious cause, the American Idea. And that’s the crucial difference.

It would really be nice to have a discussion about what ideas/values/truths/etc that we seek to return to -- I think we need a much clearer picture of the America that we see receeding away from us ... sort of a philosophical version of this shot of Queen Kim ... only in this case a picture of  "The America That WAS" (TATW) receeding -- what would she look like in your mind?






'via Blog this'

Thursday, July 06, 2017

Prayers For Scalise

Rep. Scalise readmitted to intensive care unit | Power Line:



Steve Scalise is back in intensive care listed as "serious" with infection concerns. While the MSM has pretty much forgotten the politically motivated assassination attempt because it is not "their team" that got shot, it would be nice if there really was still something more important that politics in BOistan.



We all heard that he was shot in the "hip / pelvis / bullet went through him / etc". Depending on just where, there is a LOT of bone, nerves, blood system and unfortunately bowel to increase the infection concerns.



Heavenly Father, God of all, we humbly pray for healing for our brother Steve Scalise, wisdom for the doctors attending him, and peace for his family. Please heal Steve and help our nation to see that only in you can we hope to continue on. In Jesus holy name, amen.



'via Blog this'

Ban Fireworks, Legalize Weed!


Along with the belief that ANYTHING can be legislated by government -- from health, to wealth, to happiness, to peace; -- the faith that what I like ought to be mandatory, and what I don't like should be criminal, is deep in the liberal psyche.

Philando Castile, high on weed with a gun, a girlfriend and kid in the back of a car has a traffic stop that isn't as fun as the Cheech and Chong version in "Up In Smoke".


In the big liberal spinner of "who / what to blame, cuz we are never responsible for even our own actions", this time the spinner came up "racist cops". This one happened to be hispanic, which seems inconvienient, but never mind -- that was the story, and they have stuck to it.

Weed causing a problem? Uh, like was I speeding man? ... You are parked! ... Wow, heavy man!

Back in the '70s, college kids liked to get stoned and listen to "Firesign Theatre" ... lots of speaker to speaker, foggy background stuff, odd interruptions -- just the stuff to make people stoned out of their gourd (and I use that term with apologies to gourds) giggle and laugh uncontrollably.


Without the "benefit" of mind altering substances, it seems a little well ... "odd", however the fact that is HILLARIOUS to stoners, might give some insight to the thought that driving while stoned and carrying might not be the safest way to go.

My suspicion is that the liberal brain is pretty much like Firesign Theatre 24x7  -- here is the "important part" of the fireworks ban column ...

I get that this might be annoying because this land is your land ('Merica!), but this land is also my land; it was made for you AND me (and our pets and veterans, and the people who want to go bed before you're done celebrating). So, regardless of how much we might love fireworks, I think it's time we find new ways of celebrating the Fourth and 24th of July.
There we have it ... fireworks scare dogs and veterans, so we need to ban them nationally and find "new ways" to celebrate the "4th and the 24th of July" -- hey, one day is pretty much the same as the next when you are stoned. Perhaps we could all go out, drive around with our guns while stoned and yell out "I've got a gun!!" to scare the cops if we are stopped.

Weed is safe, guns and fireworks are dangerous. Guns and fireworks give people weird ideas and cause them to do bad things. Weed has no such complications.

Everything you know is wrong.

'via Blog this'

Wednesday, July 05, 2017

These Are Not the Tweets You Are Looking For

Here's How To Deal With Trump's Tweets: Stop Caring About Them - Kurt Schlichter:

Ah, Washington DC, never will we find a more wretched hive of scum and villany.



I've come to believe that Trump's Tweets are the way that he beats the media at it's own game -- it allows him to keep them constantly chasing squirrels. However, if anyone actually is REALLY bothered by them, then quit being weak minded -- IGNORE THEM!

In this fake world we live in however, honesty, even with ourselves is rare in the extreme. "The Party" (TP-D), the media, the Deep State, the RINOs, etc hate Trump independently of mere tweets. They hate him vicerally and spiritually -- we are not talking mere "policy" here, we are talking metaphysical hatred at an existetial level. It is their hatred that gives him the primary power over them -- they simply CAN'T ignore him or anything he does -- no matter how small and meaningless it might be.

He tasks them -- he sticks in their craw. They will stop at nothing to destroy him -- and there, is the only slight advantage that he has. Their hatred has made them blind -- they are certainly more powerful, but while hate has a lovely way of making one feel "wise, moral, justified, proud, etc", it has a strong tendency (as does love in the opposite direction) to drive otherwise rational people deep into the ditch of emotional reasoning.





'via Blog this'

Kill SALT (State And Local Tax deduction) NOW!

Will Democrats Pound SALT? – WSJ:

If the Republicans can't get this done, they don't deserve to lead!

SALT is a $100 billion YEARLY tax break to high tax states and cities. Surprise surprise it goes to the blue state wealthy. A full half of the break goes to California, Illinois, New York, Maryland, Massachusets and New Jersey! What's more, the richest 20% of taxpayers get 14x the benefit!

This is nothing but encouragement for higher state and local taxes -- low tax red states get to subsidize high tax blue states. KILL IT!

Government is a WHOLE lot more voracious than a T-Rex crossed with a velocirpator! Keep throwing it the life blood of your "enemmies" (how "The Party" views red states), and it just gets HUNGRIER!

SHOOT HER!




'via Blog this'