The Benedict Option, Rod Dreher

Link to The Benedict Option, "A strategy for Christians in a post-christian nation".

About 1/3 of the way through the book I realized that I had read another book by Rod Dreher, "How Dante Saved My Life". I enjoyed that book, and my wife actually enjoyed and made it through it as well, which is RARE for "Moose Books". I hope to blog on that book in the future as well, however this one is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL for anyone who believes that they are a Christian to read.

Rod agrees with me, and I think millions of Christians in the US that we are officially and totally in a post-Christian nation, as well as post Western civilization. This is a new "Dark Age", and as St Benedict, born in 480 decided sometime around 500 as he journeyed to the shadow of once great Rome, now ruled by barbarians, it was time to found a "remnant" to keep the core of the faith, which he did at Norica, and in his "Rule of St Benedict".

As Dreher says; "Professing orthodox biblical Christianity on sexual matters is now thought to be evidence of intolerable bogotry, Conservative Christians have been routed. We are living in a new country" ... one which I label as "BOistan", but the label makes no difference, it is a barbarian nation.

On page 154, Rod quotes from Phillip Reiff: "Barbarians are people without historical memory. Barbarism is the real meaning of contemporaneity. Released from all authoritative pasts, we progress towards barbarism, not away from it.".  I've covered this fact a number of times ... "Closing of the American Mind", "Ideas Have Consequences", and others. Technology is not "advancement", it is just giving monkeys nuclear weapons without theology, philosophy and history. The beginning of wisdom is humility ... and barbarians have none of that!

One of the topics that is explained very well in this book is nominalism, as opposd  to metaphysical realism (see pages 26-29). Metaphysical realism tells us that EVERYTHING that is created has MEANING -- as Charles Taylor would say "It is Enchanted" ... or in philosphical terms "teleological".

This ought not be so hard for us to understand today ... one by one, from phones, to watches, to locks on doors, to thermostats, to labels on products (RFID), more and more of our "objects" have built in "smarts", and are often even "connected". Does it REALLY seem so "magical" that an all powerful God can and does imbdue his creation with sacred meaning ?

Well, everyone thought that was reality up until William of Occam in the 1300s. Strangely, Occam thought he was "letting God off the hook" because being linked with his meaningful universe of laws "limited him" ... so Bill (William) decided that the Christian God was to be like the Muslim "god" ... able to call evil good and good evil at his whim -- an issue covered really well (and a bit ironically) in a great book based on a speech by Pope Benedict, "The Regensburg Lecture".

Occam convinced the west that "matter is just matter" -- it has no meaning except that imposed from outside it, so "parts is parts" ... matter (including life) only means whatever we decide -- and as we became atomized individuals, each supposedly "the measure of all things", we arrived at; "my view is just as good as yours" and of course I think BETTER, so I'll call it whatever I want -- cells, tissue, a baby, etc ... it's ALL UP TO ME!

This book is WAY too rich for me to cover the MANY great points that are well made, so a couple key points ...

• We are in a post-Christian, post-virtue post-civilization age. A "dark age", likely to be FAR worse than the previous one. The World Wars and the Holocaust are likely just "warm ups" -- the ONLY thing our "culture" worships is gratification of the self!, and that has never ended well.
• "To live "after virtue", then is to dwell in a society that not only can no longer agree on what constitutes virtuous belief and conduct, but also doubts that virtue exists. In a post-virtue society, individuals hold maximal freedom of thought and action, and society itself becomes a collection of strangers each pursuing his own interests under minimal constraints". (p16)
• People feel they MUST "do things" ... have an affair, have a same sex relationship, etc because they would not be "true to themselves" if they did not. "It is in carnal desire that the modern individual believes that he affirms his individuality. The body must be the true 'subject' of desire because the individual must be the author of his own desire". (p43) 

In the end, this book also gives us at least the start on a "blueprint" to save Western civilization. We don't need to worry about saving Christianity ... God will do that. It just may well not be in "the west' -- as I increasingly believe from books like "The Divine Conspiracy". 

God REALLY means that we have free will! He is NOT going to be giving this or any other generation any huge "signs" to save us -- he gave us Christ and the Bible, as well as his divine and teleological creation pregnant with meaning. If we seek him, we WILL find him -- because as long as we are not actively turning our back on him as our current civilization is, it is absolutely not his will that ANY should perish -- UNLESS THEY ABSOLUTELY WANT TO! ... and it seems abundantly clear that the bulk of the people in the west DEARLY want to perish on their own terms, and in many cases, as rapidly as possible! 

I'll reluctantly close with this from page 234 ... 

"The mind of technological man cannot resist his heart's desires, because he has been trained by his culture not to question them. .... The Christian must rebel against this. The only impregnable fortress is metaphysical, the conviction that meaning transcends ourselves and is grounded in God. There are boundaries beyond which we cannot go if we want to live." 

We Christians need to build a lot of small communities following something like the Rule of St Benedict. Please read this book, contact me, and let's try to be the leaven ... Dreher gives us many ideas on on existing heroes of God already doing this work. 

Barbie, Legos, Open Source, and "Assault Rifles"

Why millions of Americans — including me — own the AR-15 - Vox:

A rather long but well done article that will clue you in on in on all (and maybe more than all) you want to know about "Assault Rifles".

Like most things on the left, "Assault Rifle" is a complete misnomer, the AR stands for "Armalite Rifle" and was designed by Eugene Stoner ... who one of my old neighbors got to work with at one point. "Assault" vs "Defense" is also a ridiculous distinction. The AR is THE modern sporting rifle platform, as the article goes into in detail. It is NOT "full auto", but rather semi-auto like pretty much all modern hunting rifles (and handguns).

I own a Bushmaster AR as well as a Kel Tec that are "black guns". I also own a couple Ruger 10-22s (one of the most common .22s) as well as a Remington 742 woodsmaster 30-06. Other than "styling", they are all the same, but as any current or previous owner of a Barbie will tell you, styling IS important!

As in Legos or Open Source software, the "styling" lets one mix and match parts between ARs allowing one platform to be used for a brush gun, long range prairie dog gun, or with a different caliber barrel setup, even a real BIG game rifle like grizzly. PLUS, since it "feels the same", you have the muscle memory to be at home with any of them as soon as you pick them up ... my 742 30-06 "feels" a lot different than an AR, but I can put a 30 round or more magazine in it just like my Bushmaster.

"Why does anyone want to own an AR?" ... like why do you want to own a flat screen TV or a car with a backup camera? The AR is the standard modern sporting arm for very good reasons -- MODULARITY being a huge one. The article covers all that if you care. If you don't shoot, or just shoot trap or deer hunt with your pops 30-30, you may just not know -- like your typical Windows user has no clue about Open Source.

News at 11, the current "discussion" is all politics and virtue signalling, which are increasingly the same thing. No such discussion after Vegas, because let's face it, Country Music fans are largely "deplorable", so nobody really cares. Drug ODs and suicides are at record highs, but again, nobody cares -- "The Party" (TP-D) and it's wholly owned media could care less about those deaths, let alone the 4-6K black youth who kill each other in our 20 or so TP controlled major cities each year. No story there folks, move along ... instead, we have a bunch of kids being used as props rather than eating Tide Pods this week.

Is it a tragedy that 17 kids are killed by a mentally ill kid that did pretty much everything up to and including screaming to authorities "I'm really sick and I'm going to shoot up a school!!!". Well yes, but when we live in a country where the cops wait in the parking lot for the gunfire to die out,  and the FBI is too busy texting about how much they hate Trump, it doesn't really seem that we REALLY need to blame the NRA for any reason other than they are "the usual suspects" for the left.

If TP cared about lives, they could stop abortion and have a few more million kids to trot out and whimper about how much they care ... oops, those kids are dead already, but we don't care about them!

Keep your minds right sheeple!

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FISAgate, "No Reasonable Prosecutor"

Grassley Graham Memo Affirms Nunes Memo on FISA & Steele Dossier | National Review:



The jury is in on the FBI branch of the DNC deciding to go after Trump to hopefully defeat him in the election, and failing that, to remove him from office as they are working on now.



The column goes into detain on exactly WHY it is completely insane to assume that you can wiretap a private citizen based on the "evidence" put forward by the FBI to FISA. In America, we had STANDARDS of justice that allowed people of multiple political viewpoints to believe that they would be treated fairly by our law enforcement and judicial branches INDEPENDENT of their politics.



The whole concept of the "Red Scare" and the dreaded "McCarthyism" was that Communists were supposedly being treated differently on the basis of their "politics", that isn't TOO hard to understand, given that their "political beliefs" tended to include the "total overthrow of the corrupt US Capitalist system and it's replacement by a system safely under Communist control". Which is pretty hard to distinguish from treason. Never mind, Saul Alinsky, the founder of Community Organizers  (BO's previous gig) and the role model that Hillary Clinton based her masters thesis on shared that view of what ought to happen to the US.



At one level, it is easy to understand that after the destruction of America, the powers that be in BOistan would view anyone not holding membership in "The Party" (TP-D) to be a "subversive". Why, there is no limit to the kind of horrors such people could wreak on innocent BOistanis ... allowing prayer in school, protecting the unborn, rewarding work for a days pay, maintining some sort of borders ... the list is endless! BOistan could be destroyed!



The thing about centralized state control though is that (amazingly), pretty much everyone working for the centralized state and paying into the appropriate government unions is quite saavy about being on board with lots of state power (and money) right away! We humans have a sixth sense for knowing which side our bread is buttered on!



The whole article is worth a read for sure, but the following quote is key -- in America, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to get a FISA warrant given the lack of evidence. The fact they got it means that THIS IS NOT AMERICA!

 "This is not esoterica. In the investigations biz, this is so basic that to call it “Warrants 101” doesn’t do it justice. If you don’t have witnesses with verifiable, first-hand knowledge, you don’t have anything. Without them, to borrow Director Comey’s notorious dictum, no reasonable prosecutor would bring a warrant application to a federal judge, and no reasonable judge would issue a warrant."

It is hard for most people, never having realized that their country died and was replaced while they were watching TV and texting to imagine what has happened here. I see a good analogy as being the neighbors 6 year old kid comes over and says that "My mom and dad have turned into zombies", so you believe him, and go over and shoot them dead. When the cops show up, they say "oh, zombies again, just keep quiet about it, we don't want to alarm anyone", and nothing ever shows up on the news.



Just replace "zombies" with "republicans" and that is pretty much FISAgate.



Andrew McCarthy, the author of the linked article is an honorable guy -- a guy that apparently believed well beyond me that the FBI and FISA court could not possibly be as corrupt as it looked. He closes with this ...

I spent many months assuring people that nothing like this could ever happen — that the FBI and Justice Department would not countenance the provision to the FISA court of uncorroborated allegations of heinous misconduct. When Trump enthusiasts accused them of rigging the process, I countered that they probably had not even used the Steele dossier. If the Justice Department had used it in writing a FISA warrant application, I insisted that the FBI would independently verify any important facts presented to the court, make any disclosures that ought in fairness be made so the judge could evaluate the credibility of the sources, and compellingly demonstrate probable cause before alleging that an American was a foreign agent. 

I was wrong.

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Beliefs Are Dark And Terrifying

An insider explains how rural Christian white America has a dark and terrifying underbelly:

In the eternal sense, my title is REALLY true. Every one of us carries a VERY fundamentalist belief that either:

1. We have an eternal soul, and the issue of eternity is far larger than whatever comes up in our short stay in this mortal coil.
2.  No soul, no god, no meaning -- whoever is smartest, most smug, gets the most votes, has the most fun, etc is "king". It really doesn't matter -- "grab for all the gusto you can". Most of all, be smug while doing it! If it starts to "feel bad", drug yourself, distract yourself, or kill yourself. "Without God, everything is permitted." 

The author of the linked column is clearly in the #2 option big time -- his belief is very strong, and there is no way he is buying into "the fear of God is the BEGINNING of wisdom". He has reversed the Biblical injunction that "a fool says there is no God" to be "a fool says there IS a God!".

Par for the course for human behaviour -- this guy doesn't say it, but I heard it again recently, "to think you have an immortal soul is the height of hubris". Possibly ... the "height of human hubris" is a big stinking pile, that is for sure. Thinking that YOU can define the "height of human hubris" doesn't really sound all that humble. Peak hubris? It certainly begins with "KNOWING" that "man is the measure of all things' -- and if that is so, why not make yourself "the man".

The column is all about those dangerous, racist, Christian Fundamentalist, angry rural whites, and their "closed systems". Certainly American university campuses that are creating rules to label anything that doesn't agree with them as "hate speech" are "open minded"? Again, "closed minded" people are really not a trick to find in any crowd -- they tend to be every bit as common as hubristic people.The norm is "anyone that doesn't agree with me is closed minded!"

The key is naturally LABELS ... your hubristic closed minded "whatevers" are of course "right" and "ok" ... "righteous even", while the other tribe ... well, not so good. Let's just say "deplorable".

I'm absolutely certain that the author can find white Christians in fly-over country that DO meet every single negative stereotype he has to pile on them. To the extent they are Christians, they would be less than perfect ones -- which is the unfortunate state of 100% of us, because loving our enemies is a REALLY high bar.  However, when it comes to seeking to be like the only divinely perfect human in history (Jesus), the height of the bar should be at least checked! We all fall far short, and making that bar MUCH higher, Christians are admonished not to judge!

Do not judge lest ye be judged, and love your enemies would be good places to start for Christians. For the column author, clearly he feels clear qualification to judge!

Let's use alcoholism vs being gay as an example ... sin is sin, it makes no difference. It is possible to love your alcoholic spouse, sibling or child and hate their sin?  It is even possible for realize that controlling their sin is HARD ... they have a strong desire of alcohol, however it is killing them. You DON'T have to judge their behavior ... you can just love them and do all you can to help (rather than enable) them.

Even if the alcoholic is your "worst enemy" ... the author of the column for example (I'm joking), or a jihadist wearing a bomb -- they are fellow humans with eternal souls and in light of eternity it is almost believable that they are possible to love (for Christians)! Without eternity, the author is right. Why would anyone even consider "loving" a deplorable that is obviously "wrong, evil, racist, etc"?

That's the bar for Christians on how to think about folks like the author of this column. What is the "bar" for his closed tribe? "Might is right" seems like the most real answer. I'm guessing he might say something like "commonly held standards of decency by reasonable, well educated, "woke" people ... naturally, if tomorrow, the "standard" of "woke" includes pedophia as a disorder vs a crime, a new group of people will become deplorable. (the ones that will then be deplorable are the ones that still see pedophia as criminal/punishable/wrong).

 I don't mean to be demeaning, ALL people are closed minded about their beliefs (including me)! I had some folks get REALLY nasty with me in the early '80s when I told them that I agreed with the then evil "Ronnie Raygun" and thought the USSR would be "consigned to the ash heap of history". Their certainly that I was completely insane was at least as certain as the column author of his rightness. The "experts" had all spoken, how dare I, a mere computer programmer question them!

In deep-red America, the white Christian god is king, figuratively and literally. Religious fundamentalism has shaped most of their belief systems. Systems built on a fundamentalist framework are not conducive to introspection, questioning, learning, or change. When you have a belief system built on fundamentalism, it isn’t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power. The problem isn’t that coastal elites don’t understand rural Americans. The problem is that rural America doesn’t understand itself and will never listen to anyone outside its bubble. It doesn’t matter how “understanding” you are, how well you listen, what language you use…if you are viewed as an outsider, your views will be automatically discounted. I’ve had hundreds of discussions with rural white Americans and whenever I present them any information that contradicts their entrenched beliefs, no matter how sound, how unquestionable, how obvious, they will not even entertain the possibility that it might be true. Their refusal is a result of the nature of their fundamentalist belief system and the fact that I’m the enemy because I’m an educated liberal.

'The author is too modest in his application of  "belief systems". ALL beliefs, held by ANYONE are resistant to change! His, mine, EVERYONES! Trying to convince an atheist there is a God is at least as hard as trying to convince a believer that there isn't. Trying to convince BO that fracking was drastically going to lower gas prices was just as hard in 2012 as trying to convince this guy that there are many Bible believing Christians that are every bit as "well informed" as he is! ALL of our belief systems are built on SOMETHING that we consider to be "fundamental".

Philosophy says that science MUST be falsifiable, or it isn't science (it can only be inductively true ... as fragile as the next experiment)  ... which means that if you are a true scientist, you can't use science to support ANY "belief" at all! (it is never "settled")

Oh, and BTW, if your belief system says that there is no meaning to the universe beyond pleasure, deciding that adultery is OK, gay sex is OK, transgenderism is OK ... and whatever they think of next is not "change", it is "more of the same". Much of what the left calls "progress" is the same as "I was drinking pint a day, now I'm drinking a 5th! See, I'm making PROGRESS!"

For us “coastal elites” who understand evolution, genetics and science, nothing we say to those in flyover country is going to be listened to because not only are we fighting against an anti-education belief system, we are arguing against god. You aren’t winning a battle of beliefs with these people if you are on one side of the argument and god is on the other. No degree of understanding this is going to suddenly make them less racist, more open to reason and facts. Telling “urban elites” they need to understand rural Americans isn’t going to lead to a damn thing because it misses the causes of the problem.

Nobody "wins" a "battle of beliefs" -- that is what we have elections and wars for. If you want to NOT have to have wars, having a shared set of transcendent beliefs that we all agree on, like "all men are created equal" (before God), endowed by their CREATOR with certain UNALIENABLE rights, and a written and FOLLOWED Constitution is what worked for 200 years.

Your "god" may be the sanctity of gay sex, killing babies in the womb, legal pot for all, or just "if it feels good do it", but it is YOUR GOD ... you are exactly as "open minded" to changing your view on those things as I am willing  to decide that a few thousand year old religion which billions have based their life on is "wrong". You have your pleasure to worship, I have my God to worship that I "bitterly cling to". In my system, I need to attempt to love you, in yours, however you run over me is A-ok ... as long as "it feels good". Those are very different belief systems, and it is very easy to see why they are in increasingly violent conflict.

No God, nothing "unalienable" ... all just POWER. Ballot box or bullets, take your pick -- and guys like this author are not very excited about accepting the outcome of elections that don't go their way these days!

When a 2,700-year-old book that was written by uneducated, pre-scientific people, subject to translation innumerable times, and edited with political and economic pressures from popes and kings, is given higher intellectual authority than facts arrived at from a rigorous, self-critical, constantly re-evaluating system that can and does correct mistakes, no amount of understanding, respect or evidence is going to change their minds and assuage their fears.

Yes, godless human systems have made a few "mistakes" (say 100-200 million killed by Communism), but hey, that is a FEATURE! All fixed now ... well, unless you are one of the 60 million aborted babies so far and counting.

Nazism did in 6 million nasty Jews that were one of those "old closed system" people ... one wonders if the column author sees that as a bug or a feature? Perhaps just something needing a "correction"?

Communism did in over 100 million in the last century ... many of those that had to be killed there were "closed minded", unwilling to see the brilliance of "the state" ... again, lots of Jews and Christians. If you read the whole column you really get the feeling that there just isn't much way to deal with people who won't bow to "science".  (Lysenkoism is a worthy remembrance of always listening to your state sponsored "experts") Perhaps forcing closed minded religious people to work on top notch state science projects like Chernobyl would open their minds?

Mao's "Great Leap Forward"? North Korea's nuke program? Godless humans have such a wonderful track record. Why in the world are  the hicks in fly over country so untrusting of the coastal elites expertise? Abortion is one of the current shining examples of how godless elites respect "the least of these".

Yes, beliefs CAN be "dark and terrifying". It is really a matter of what you see as a "nightmare".

Gulags, death camps, 60 million aborted, or some states not forcing everyone to celebrate gay "marriages" and celebrate 57 genders and counting?

Sadly, in a Godless world, it is all a question of power for those in power -- how many voters, divisions, state agencies, media pundits, dollars, etc.




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BO In The Know

FBI lovers' latest text messages: Obama 'wants to know everything' | Fox News:

Watergate was about "What did the president know and when did he know it?" ... Since there was 20 min of tape missing it was ASSUMED that he was covering up that "he knew". Oh, and the media as well as the then much less willing to be obvious Democrat State hated Nixon, so he just had to go.

At least we don't have to wonder if BO was inolved in using the FBI to attack the opposition party during the 2016 election ... we have it on text!

Newly revealed text messages between FBI paramours Peter Strzok and Lisa Page include an exchange about preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama, who wanted “to know everything we’re doing."

Naturally, anyone paying attention has only know that the FBI (and all government) - media collaboration is "business as usual". No reason to call it "collusion" -- come on, it has been obvious since Watergate, but if you are old enough to remember Dan Rather destroying his career using fake documents to "prove" the fake story about how good a fighter pilot W may have been 30 years ago.

The BO birth certificate and the story that W was supposedly not a very good fighter pilot  were similar, however one is NOT requiured to be a "good fighter pilot" to be president, but one at least used to have to be an American citizen to be president!

In the world of fake government agencies and fake news however, "what difference, at this point, does it make?" That was "Herself" Hillary responding to a question about 4 dead, including the US Ambassador to Libya being killed on her watch. Let's face it, relative to the government bureaucracy and the US media, she was right! Nobody cares about US Ambassadors and Navy Seals relative to Hildebeast getting what she wants -- the elite having their way is what BOistan stands for.

What is "new" is how obviously it is now all done. They are STILL certain they hold all the cards and have all the power, players like HillBilly and BO. So they broke all sorts of secrecy laws, obstructed justice, and used federal law enforcement agencies to attack their political opponents? Why not? "Rules" are for the little people ... not the Hillarys and BOs of the world!

The biggest "news" in all of this to me is that we all KNOW how Democrat Party, Administrative State and Media collaboration work against the opposition party. It happens EVERY DAY! Just look at the markets the past few days and think back to '09.

In '09, BAD news was always due to W and GOOD news was always due to BO. Market down, BUSH! Market or anthing else up/good, BO!

Now it is simply the opposite. Markets DOWN (or anything bad), TRUMP! Markets UP (or anything good), BO!

Try to even imagine Trump ordering the FBI to investigate the Democrat candidate in 2020. First of all, like Nixon trying to use the IRS against his political enemies, they would REFUSE ... as well they should! But when BO had the IRS attack conservative groups, they did not refuse -- they DID IT, and then took the 5th and everybody walked away.

Between Watergate and BO, at least the Democrat - Deep State - Media triumvirate had the decency to throw some fig leafs on and deny that they were collaborating! It's in the open now, and neither Democrats at the party or support level care -- they WANT a one party state. They no longer see any advantages in any diversity of ideas -- they are openly shutting down any dissenting ideas being discussed even at a university.

We are ALL largely brainwashed at this point. As evidence, I ask you; What exactly did the Russians **DO** to influence the election????

A few fake Facebook Accounts? Some fake news stories more fake then the many 10's of fake stories that have been exposed on CNN? Which and how many people saw those and were "influenced by them"? Trump supposedly "colluded" to do what? To get more emails from some unsecure Hillary or DNC server released? The Democrat/Deep State/Media triumvirate tells us that "Russian influence in our 2016 election" is a most grevious FACT!

What was that influence, and how many votes did it affect?

The base charge is a JOKE, it is like making an issue about how good a fighter pilot W was. It's a McG
uffin! ... a device to create a story that all the brainwashed will follow.

Here is what REALLY happened!


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Working of Democrat State, Clinton - Obama Emails

Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama Emails: Key to Lack of Clinton Indictment | National Review:

In reading the attached, it is important to understand the obvious -- the FBI, other government agencies, elected Democrat officials and "the media" are one seemless entity under Democrat Party control.

Obama had his email communications with Clinton sealed. He did this by invoking a dubious presidential-records privilege. The White House insisted that the matter had nothing to do with the contents of the emails, of course; rather, it was intended to vindicate the principle of confidentiality in presidential communications with close advisers. With the media content to play along, this had a twofold benefit: Obama was able (1) to sidestep disclosure without acknowledging that the emails contained classified information, and (2) to avoid using the term “executive privilege” — with all its dark Watergate connotations — even though that was precisely what he was invoking.

This is the day in and day out operation of the Democrat / Administrative State  / Media  team. All work together to advance THEIR interests as one big happy team dedicated to doing "the right stuff", with "right" defined as "increasing government bureaucratic power, electing more Democrats, and assuming the MSM is the ONLY source of "truthful information".

Now, with an R in the WH, the media / Administrative State teams focus on removal of the R from the WH. It's really a pretty simple operation!

Facing The Democrat State, FBI Edition

A Reckoning for the FBI - WSJ:

It is sad to see that truths that I have been talking about since the '80's have been fully validated and even at this late date, are being summarily denied by "The Party" (TP-D) and it's fully controlled media and Deep/Administrative State.

The point needs to be made loud and very clear. ALL of our federal, state and local agencies have been completely corrupted by the unholy connection of unionization and single party partisan politics! If you are not able to see this to be true, you are willfully blind to it, or have simply paid no attention to events for a VERY long time! ("willfull blindness" in my book includes using only "mainstream media news" as your information source, and "news" in this context must be taken VERY lightly)

Whatever your opinion on unions, one thing is very very clear, they are a construction of left wing ideology. They assert that "workers of the world must unite!", no matter who they work for! The original idea was "labor vs capital" -- employers were "capitalists", thus "expoiting" workers making a free choice to work for pay, so the workers needed to unite to "collectively" become a greater "force".

That force involves strikes and often violence. Picket lines are created; people who are more than willing to work at the jobs which the strikers are refusing to do are called "scabs", threatened and sometimes even killed. How you feel about unions is strongly influenced by what you have been taught -- as you think of that, realize that pretty much 100% of the teachers at all grade levels including university in the US are union members. Unless you have had a VERY unusual teacher, or done some significant work on your own, you no doubt believe at a minium that "unions are neccessary".

I'm not going to make a full treatsie of the whole history of unions here -- they are left wing, they are collectivist, I think we can leave it at that. As long as it was "capital vs unions", it was a battle that was at least understandable, but "government vs unions"? Government is ALREADY a collective, and at least in theory, working for the government was once a matter of "service". Like becoming a missionary for your church, you "believed" in "the call" of government service, so you unselfishly signed up, knowing that you would be living on your neighbors dime, and would thus always be on the lower side of a middle class lifestyle.

No longer.

Overall, total compensation for federal workers was 17 percent higher, on average, than for comparable workers in the private sector during 2011-2015, CBO found. It was 16 percent higher for the period of 2005-2010, the budget office found in its earlier study.

There is no question that "collective action" can work, and work extremely well ... organized crime, drug cartels, OPEC, The International Communist Workers Party, and our subject for today, The FBI Agents Association , have been and are, EXTREMELY effective! The question is how many different organizations should be allowed to do collective shakedowns, and if those shakedowns should have any limits.

Who do unions support? According to Open Secrets, DEMOCRATS ... $60 millon to $8 million in 2016, but anyone that doesn't know that already is so willfully blind that they have stopped reading by now.

How about the media? According to Politico, a not particularly partisan news outlet, 7% of journalists identify has Republican. BTW, the linked article is very good on WHY the media bubble has swung more and more leftward, even recently -- answer, more efficency do to cost constraint, so localizing media people in big urban centers has increased, with expected results.

Nothing in "the memo" is new to people that have been paying attention. The FBI went out of it's way to not prosecute it's own candidate Hillary, then moved many of the same hyperpartisan "investigators" over as "insurance" that Trump would not be elected, and if he was, they could at least hamstring him with being put under immediate "investigation", if not impeached. The memo is another piece of documentation of the obvious -- TP controls the internal structure of the government and 90%+ of the media that "reports" on it. TP is at war with Trump and anyone who fails to bend their knee to TP.

The ONLY way out of this is:

1. SMALLER GOVERNMENT -- government is inherently left leaning. Our founders created a constitution to resist the constant growth of government until if choked out the last vestiges of liberty. 
2. Outlaw government unions -- Even FDR was not a fan of public unions. If government workers don't trust the government to be "just", then they really ought not work there. 
3. Re-establish a strong centrist media -- people that ACTUALLY believe that an informed rather than propagandized public is critical to returning to a Democratic Republic from the failed state of BOistan. This is a HUGE undertaking!
4. Kill the "consumer" identity and establish our core value as excellence, competitiveness, goodness .,.. something, ANYTHING other than "consumers". 

If there is hope, it is hope of the very long haul! Much as the election of Trump, let us hope that "the memo" is one more small step on the trail.

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Groundhog Day, Again

http://www.moosetracksblog.com/2016/02/groundhog-day-again.html

The moose is a forgetful traditionalist -- I started this "tradition" in 2016, than apparently failed to do it in 2017. Groundhog day is a celebration of repetition for me -- with subtle modifications. I make some updates to the old post that are hopefully improvements ... I do that regularly to many posts in my blog. It is a labor of love for me, not a historical record.

Follow the link, and read / re-read the old yet slightly new post, and certainly the base Goldberg post as well at least if you never have. Oh, if you have not watched the movie, DO IT!

Bless this Groundhog Day, as Bill Murray finally learned to bless the day and thus moved forward to the next.

The Way Of The Toady

Expected Clinton Victory Explains Federal Employee Wrongdoing | National Review:

The original "toady" was supposedly the assistant who ate a toad asserted to be poisonous, so his master could display his acumen at "bringing the toady back to life". I'd rate the true magic as eating the toad and keeping it down ... ribbit!

The linked article is a litany of how each action that appears "strange" to us as taken by various syncophants, boot lickers, ass kissers, and other assorted bureaucratic vermin from the Deep State of the BO years, would merely have been "smart career moves" -- if wicked witch Hillary had just taken over the BO swamp as expected.

How could Lynch in the middle of an election have been so silly as to allow even the appearance of impropriety? Answer: There would have been no impropriety had Hillary won — an assumption reflected in the Page-Strzok text trove when Page texted, about Lynch, “She knows no charges will be brought.” In fact, after a Clinton victory, Lynch’s obsequiousness in devising such a clandestine meeting with Bill Clinton may well have been rewarded: Clinton allies leaked to the New York Times that Clinton was considering keeping Lynch on as the attorney general.

Things were going GREAT in the middle of '16 for BO, the Clintons and the entire Adminstrative / Deep State .... Trump was the candidate they WANTED to run against. They PICKED HIM ... in the judgement of the apparatus of "The Party" (TP-D) , running against Trump was a GIFT! My view is that Slick met with Lynch in Phoenix to show off the power of the Clinton machine. "Yes we CAN have a meeting between the former president and the sitting AG who is (supposedly)  investigating the former first lady now running for president! See what kind of POWER we Clintons have? It is only going to grow when the Hildebeast wins, so PAY YOUR BRIBES NOW! to the "Clinton Fund" ... funds, for Clintons!"

"Herself" winning was a forgone conclusion, settled science, a metaphysical certainty ... EVERYONE who "had a brain" and was a member in good standing of TP "knew it to be so".

Needlessly weaponizing the Obama FBI and the DOJ was akin to Hillary Clinton’s insanely campaigning in the last days of the 2016 campaign in red-state Arizona, the supposed “cherry atop a pleasing electoral map.” 

In short, such hubris was not just what Peter Strzok in August 2016 termed an “insurance policy” against an unlikely Trump victory. Instead, the Clinton and Obama officials believed that it was within the administrative state’s grasp and their perceived political interest not just to beat but to destroy and humiliate Donald Trump — and by extension all the distasteful deplorables and irredeemables he supposedly had galvanized.

I don't believe that BO so much did the "weaponization" as he allowed it to beconme obvious. There was no need to hide it anymore. He was "The One", and his handpicked successor was taking the reins of power from his royal hand. He and the Clintons pulled all the strings and the folks in the Adminstrative / Deep State were just manuvering for better jobs under the new assumed new Dark Lord.

So is Trump the "anti-TP"? Able to actually win over the  "Agents" of the Deep State? No idea ... but it is an idea worth savoring once in awhile.

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Who Reads The Papers?

Today’s Classroom Lesson: Who Reads the Papers? | Power Line:

The punchline from the linked ... might add MSNBC, those who gave up thinking for drugs.

It is not too hard to translate this into a contemporary American equivalent:
--- The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country;
--- The New York Times is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
--- The Wall Street Journal is read by people who own the country;
---  CNN is watched by people who think the country should be run by another country;
--- and Fox News is watched by people who think it is

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Single Party Rule, Sultan Knish

Sultan Knish: This Civil War - My South Carolina Tea Party Convention Speech:

Readers of this blog know we are in a civil war and it isn't going very well for those of who are not card carrying members of "The Party" (TP-D). I think the linked blog post is excellent and generally on target -- it is weak on the true power of the Administrative / Deep State and the true power of TP ... but it gets the basics right.

Yes, I realize it is going much better than if Hillary had been elected -- If Hillary had been elected, the corpse of America would have been immolated and the ashes scattered by now. As it is, maybe it is lying comatose after having no pulse for way too long and Trump is going to give it a try with the paddles and hope for a restart / minimal brain damage.

TP is done honoring elections that they don't win.

The Mueller investigation is about removing President Trump from office and overturning the results of an election. We all know that. But it’s not the first time they’ve done this.
The first time a Republican president was elected this century, they said he didn’t really win. The Supreme Court gave him the election. There’s a pattern here.

Trump didn’t really win the election. Bush didn’t really win the election. Every time a Republican president won an election this century, the Democrats insist he didn’t really win.

As Reagan said "Liberals will defend your right to agree with them to their dying breath".

Oh, and while they are trying to remove the duly elected president, neither he nor the other branches of government that they don't control ought to have any power.

Our system of government is based on the constitution, but that’s not the system that runs this country. 

The left’s system is that any part of government that it runs gets total and unlimited power over the country. 

If it’s in the White House, then the president can do anything. And I mean anything. He can have his own amnesty for illegal aliens. He can fine you for not having health insurance. His power is unlimited. 

He’s a dictator. 

But when Republicans get into the White House, suddenly the President can’t do anything. He isn’t even allowed to undo the illegal alien amnesty that his predecessor illegally invented.

As I've said before, the Constitution has been DEAD for the left since at least Wilson -- the only thing they "honor" is POWER ... forget "truth, decency, the American way, etc". Rightist bullshit -- like saying your prayers, honoring your father and mother, working hard, integrity, etc -- the kind of thing that TP and it's NEA / alphabet government agencies work day and night to stamp out.

The columnist thinks that Trump has a chance -- I sure hope so. because BOistan is VERY close to being CA already!

I live in the state of Ronald Reagan. I can go visit the Ronald Reagan Library any time I want to. But today California has one party elections. There are lots of elections and propositions. There’s all the theater of democracy, but none of the substance. Its political system is as free and open as the Soviet Union. 

And that can be America.

The Trump years are going to decide if America survives. When his time in office is done, we’re either going to be California or a free nation once again.

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Porn Adultry PRIDE Week , Christians and Pharisees

Trump & Stormy Daniels: Social Conservative Hypocrisy | National Review:

So the media tells us that Trump had a dalliance with a porn star named "Stormy" at "sometime", for which he paid her off to keep quiet about. You can trust the media, they would never be anything less than truthful about Trump, and we all know they are nothing but honest.

Jonah Goldberg is shouting "hypocrite" because "social conservatives" that didn't like Slick Willie lying under oath about asking an employee to service his wee willie in a hotel room (Paula Jones), as well as presidential "emissions" being found on the blue dress of an employee, are not concered about the alleged Trump - porn star alleged liasion / alleged payoff.

Some discussion. "Christians" are actually NOT to be judgemental about others. Jesus is famously not judgemental about the woman at the well, the prostitute washing his feet with her hair, or even the adultress who was to be stoned until Jesus drew "something" in the dirt and everyone who was supposed to stone her walked away.

HISTORICALLY, back in the old days of "America", which was a Christian Nation, Christians felt that the leader of the country ought to be a professing Christian. BOistan is clearly NOT a Christian Nation as has been well covered here and elsewhere. Much as Christ once had little to say about Pontius Pilate and Caesar, Christians have little to say about Trump -- he leads a pagan nation where they happen to live. He is not their MORAL leader, he is the leader of BOistan. In a pagan nation, you need to support the pagan least likely to crucify you.

Slick Willie was actually president during the blue dress affair, and governor at the time of the whipping it out and asking for "service" with Jones. AFIK, the "Stormy" thing (if it IS a "thing") happened when Trump was a private citizen .. AFAIK, nobody has ever went after Slick about anything prior to him being at least governor. (and I pray they don't, I REALLY don't want to hear the details!)

So what is the "issue" here? Has Goldberg confused "Christians" or "Social Conservatives" with Pharisees? My understanding is that social conservatives are against abortion, gay "marriage", and forcing communities to allow "men" into womens bathrooms and locker rooms. Most of them are probably not in favor of adultery with porn stars as a general rule, however given the rather lax morals in BOistan, if private citizens indulge and cover it up, it seems more of a "Pharisee charge" than a "Social Conservative" or "Christian" one.

It doesn't sound to me like Trump was holding "Adultry with a porn star PRIDE week". I don't believe he was in any way saying "hey, bake me a cake! My morals are YUGE and you ought to be forced to CELEBRATE them!" If Trump is seeking sexual favors from interns in the Oval Office, or paying off porn stars for dalliances while he is serving as president, then it seems that a charge of "hypocrisy" is somewhat warranted. As it is, isn't it the "PRIDE" folks that ought bear the "hypocrisy" charge for trying to claim that someone ought have "morals"? (excuse me? What is "moral" in BOistan? Forcing a pro-lifer to bake a cake celebrating your abortion?)

Do I "approve" of sex with porn stars not your wife? Certainly not! However, Jesus also did not pass judgement on the woman at the well who had five husbands and was not married to the man with whom she was currently living. My "approval" or lack thereof not the point! I believe that Christ will be the ultimate judge -- in general, he was MUCH more direct in condeming the sin of judgement (eg. "you brood of vipers") than he was for your standard, or even "significantly" sinful person. Mathew was a tax collector, and in those days, that was about as bad as it got! (our "morals" seem quite different today!)

If Trump violates LAWS while he is an elected official, than he ought to be removed -- as Slick Willie ought to have been removed for doing just that. IMHO however, the bar is MUCH higher now -- Slick WAS NOT removed, and his party was in no way interested in removing him for obvious sexual harrassment, perjury, and likely rape, as well as a long list of financial and other improprieties. BO used the IRS against conservatives and did all sorts of extra-constitutional things including funding parts of BOcare without congressional approval. These are now the new "standards" estabilished by "The Party" (TP-D). Certainly I understand that TP, and apparently Jonah, think it is somehow incumbent on "Christians" to hold their political leaders to higher standards than the "other sides" political leaders in a pagan nation.

What even is "the other side" in BOistan? As near as I can see, many in the R party would certainly be just as anxious to be rid of the pesky "Christians" or "Social Conservatives" ... I'd put Jonah in this camp. I suspect they would likely be rather happy to see those "deploreables" thrown to the lions, and would likely pay good money to sit up with Chuck S and Nancy P to watch the "festivities". ( "I've tithed my cumin today, how about you Chuck? Wow, those Lions really enjoy Christian meat")

Christians have PERSONAL standards -- to the extent we lived in a nation where those standards were shared by BOTH political parties, it was reasonable to expect politicians of BOTH SIDES to follow them. News at 11, we don't live there anymore! Where we live now, there are officially NO RULES .... which means that POWER is the only "rule".

If you like to judge others behavior, the sort of religion you are looking for has Pharisee positions ... it isn't Christianity.

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Nixon Cleared of 20 Minute Tape Gap

FBI did not save officials’ texts during key period in Trump probe, senator says - The Washington Post:

Being an avid NPR listener, I've OFTEN been reminded of the HORROR of Nixon possibly erasing a WHOLE 20 MINUTES of tape! The man was simply evil.

For decades, most "conservatives" harbored the belief, that increasingly became a "hope", that eventually became a "memory", that people on the left actually had "standards" that they would apply with some reasonable semblance of similarity to ANYONE, independent of political party. That was in America. BO was finally the proof that we no longer live there, thus BOistan.

In BOistan, we know that all sorts of documents relative to various Clinton escapades from Arkansas, up to and including many thousands of e-mails while she was Secretary of State, are just "missing" ... they must have been "wiped, like with a cloth".

If you are on the left, this bothers you not at all -- it is considered "smart" even. "They have never been able to PROVE anything on the Clinton's"! Politics has become such a "team sport", that people act like fans rather than the voting EMPLOYERS of temporary politicians that we at least once kidded ourselves would be held to "standards" ( that used to be a word in America ).

The conservative way up through Slick Willie, and even attempted with BO on Gun Runner, Benghazi, Lois Lerner IRS, etc, was to still imagine this "standards thing" worked both ways -- which it became increasingly obvious it did not. The IRS scandal is really the most troubling, along what was seen in Wisconsin. These cases show the Administrative / Deep State is certainly part of "The Party" taking direct action against the opposing political party. Actions which VERY much echo how the National Socialist party in Germany and the Communist party in the USSR operated.

The linked article lets us know that hundreds of text communications between Democrat political partisans who first worked to exhonorate Hillary, and were then moved over to smear Trump, "were not retained". Shocking! Round up the usual suspects!

The FBI did not retain text messages exchanged by two senior officials involved in the probes of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for a five-month period ending the day a special counsel was appointed to investigate possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to a new congressional letter.

How do nations become totalitarian? You grow the government to the point where it's employees are a major political force on their own. Then, if you are really really stupid, you allow them to be unionized so that their union can be a huge source of funds and shock troops for the dominant party of government. You make it totally OK -- encouraged even, and eventually a de-facto requirement for all government employees to be members of "The Party" (TP-D). "Joining The Party" becomes a rite of passage for those seeking jobs with the government.

Eventually you get to where we are now -- even supposed "enforcement" parts of government are just organs of TP. We all KNOW this of course, we just don't want to see it made as obvious as Lois Lerner, the Wisconsin Kristalnacht, and now this example from the FBI makes it. Most would like to kid themselves that TP ( "The Party"-D) is "different" than what the National Socialist or Communist political parties were. Certainly -- and the Nazis / Communists were and are "different" from each  other too, however what they had in common and do with TP, is POWER ... raw, amoral / immoral lust for power. The only TP ideology that matters is POWER ... "diversity, welfare, equality, abortion, free sex, attacking religion, open borders, not IDing voters, etc" are merely tools to increase power.

The shared purpose of all our alphabet agencies at this point is REMOVE TRUMP! -- if they happen to get any other things done, it's accidental. The FBI, NSA, Justice Department, CIA, etc are merely wholly owed subsidiaries of the D party, just like the media.

BOistan is a simple, and increasingly dangerous place to not be a member of TP!

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Jaguars Vikings:, Trump Oprah

Jaguars vs. Vikings: The Super Bowl We Don't Want but Probably Deserve | Bleacher Report:



I haven't watched an NFL game this year since they started kneeling. The two biggest reasons are Aaron Rogers and complete lack of cultural / historical awareness.



On Rogers, he is a smart and talented FOOTBALL player. If he was smart about anything else, he would have known  that telling people what to do about a protest is WAY beyond his pay grade, no matter how much he makes.



Americans salute the flag and kneel before NOBODY but God! Certainly not royalty. You want to protest? Stay in the locker room, put a towel over your head, or just SIT. Kneeling only shows that you are completely clueless.



Some things  (maybe EVERYTHING?) are bigger than football. I've really enjoyed not watching and caring this year -- certainly the Pack stinking helped that, however I really feel like "it's over". As long as it was "mindless entertaining fandom", it was fine -- pure fun, no harm no foul.



Once I moved to the sidelines however, the endless carping about calls, trolling of fans from other teams, and just downright NASTY exchanges over a GAME being played in billion dollar stadiums by often blank-brained "stars" making millions and tens of millions of dollars off the fat of what had once been a great land, while "taking a knee" rather than showing even mock respect, says that I want to deny them any of my money or attention.



I'm glad the Vikings finally got their "big play", however after witnessing 10's of similar plays, and at least 10's of similar bad plays from the defensive side ... the 4th and 26 in Philly in 2002 is a biggie, but there is a whole handful of them in the Seattle loss in 2015 ... none of which would have even mattered if McCarthy had not gone Amish conservative in the 2nd half and let Rogers play like a "liberal" Mennonite! But I digress.



Vikes - Jaguars and Trump - Oprah is exactly what we deserve in BOistan because we have totally lost touch with what matters and succomed to the "lowest common denominator" that is so low it is hard to imagine!



Let the Vikes and Jaguars fight it out in the over a billion dollar glass "Viking ship" of a "football stadium" and let somebody else care who wins.



We have jumped every shark possible at this point -- even our "entertainment" is polititicized, debauched, and completely uninteresting -- it is the "post caring BOistan", and Vikes-Jaguars would be the perfect "super" whatever for the has been NFL





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Armchair Media Sanity Assessment

Cognition of a Conservative - WSJ:



Let's face it, the media is having an absolutely horrible terrible week! After months of spectulation about "The 25th Amendment", and the clear evidence (according to them) of Trump's mental and physical unfitness for office, he gets a clean bill of both mental and physical health -- and they are HORRIFED.



I know many people, me included that found BO to be completely abhorrent as a president for policy and temprament reasons (taking condescention to a new level), but I don't recall any claiming he was "unfit for office" ... perhaps drug addicted? That would fit a popular stereotype and of course be "racist" One of the reporters wanted to find out what Trump could do to be as healthy as Obama -- the answer that should have been given was "take up smoking"?



The article is worth the read, it closes thusly ...

The press is always free to raise questions, even after they’ve been authoritatively answered. Media bias is an old story and readers and viewers are free to seek other news outlets if they’re looking for something more than a howl of rage against Mr. Trump.

But anyone issuing long-distance diagnoses contradicting the available medical evidence can hardly complain when reasonable people call it fake news.

Unfortunately for the media however, that was only PART of the horror that is this week. The DOW blasted through $26K for the first time in history and streams of good economic news just kept "leaking" ... the Apple news of bringing $250 billion in overseas money back to the US and building a new facility with 20,000 jobs was covered to near tears on NPR while I happened to be listening.



To their immense credit, they DID manage to do the whole story without mentioning "Trump" once ... and only referenced "tax reform" second hand when they said that Apple CEO Tim Cook has long been a critic of US corporate tax policy and had been stung by criticism of Apple's "tax avoidance". NPR can get pretty morose when it seems that things are going the least bit well under an R adminstration, specially when the story is big enough that they can't see how they can NOT report it!



My analysis is that the BOistan media is obsessed with Trump -- they are unable to accept the fact that he is president, and in their obsession they imagine that by creating and spreading stories that are gradeschool taunts ( "He said shithole!!!!"), somebody other than them will rise up and demand that he be removed from office for SOMETHING ... anything. Their belief in their own power is so irrational that they continue throwing themselves against Trump like a 3 year old against daddy, assuming that certainly he will be toppled by their next effort!



The fact that media in this country has been horribly biased for a VERY long time is not news. What seems to increasingly be more newsworthy is that they are also delusional as to their power, which we can dearly hope will eventually result in the demise of at least the most biased and delusional of their outlets.



Perhaps the annual Fake News Awards show can replace the Oscars, Globes, Emmys, etc as a "must watch awards show" in the near future!



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