Home » Roundup

Comments

Roundup — 52 Comments

  1. DHS, like the Department of Education, should never have been established, and now, in the malign hands of the ineffably loathsome (and grotesquely mendacious) Mayorkas, it also fully merits being eliminated, with all of its considerable resources being brought against its domestic opponents (i.e. those who dare to question this illegitimate regime) and against imaginary foes such as “insurrectionists” and “white supremacists”. As for opposition to Musk, Occasional-Cortex cannot possibly match him in any game of wits, and the aspiring “Mary Poppins” of the actual Ministry of Truth should not only abstain from TikTok but also disavow all the “disinformation” she has herself promulgated.

  2. RE: Student loan debt “forgiveness:

    Neo: “Just to take one example, won’t people who already paid off their debts at great sacrifice to themselves be spitting mad?”

    Just the talk of forgiving such debt makes me spitting mad. I struggled through college working to pay for college. My parents and grandparents made many sacrifices for me (the first and only of 4 children) to go to college.

    Just think of all those who made the responsible decision to NOT attend college and will be spitting mad that they could have taken out a loan that they wouldn’t have to pay back!

    And if they forgive student loans then they had better start doing something about my mortgage and taxes to be “forgiven”!

    But, I don’t expect the Democrats to even care how mad I get since in their eyes I’m nothing but an “over-privileged white male” who doesn’t vote for them anyway.

  3. The purple-ization of NH has been amazing to watch over the last 25 years. I moved from Boston to southwestern Maine explicity to get away from the lefty madness and wrongly assumed everyone following would be doing the same. Now I don’t think the NH-1 and ME-1 districts will ever be in political play again.

  4. “Homeland Security”—together with the latest “Disinformation Law” means
    1. Massive intimidation of those who might disagree with the government and its policies.
    2. Making ALL elections “secure” for institutionalized electoral fraud leading to Democratic Party victory:
    ‘Key senator says liberals using race, lawsuits to facilitate election fraud
    Former DOJ official calls Biden coordination with liberal groups “a very incestuous circle.”‘
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/key-senator-says-liberals-using-race-lawsuits-make-it-easier-commit

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senator-demands-biden-scrap-creepy-disinformation-unit-dissolve-monstrosity-immediately
    Key grafs:
    ‘Heading the opposition to what has been compared to the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s 1984, Senator Josh Hawley wrote to DHS Secretary Mayorkas noting “I confess, I at first thought this announcement was satire.”
    ‘“Surely no American Administration would ever use the power of Government to sit in judgement on the First Amendment speech of its own citizens,” Hawley continued.
    ‘“Sadly,” he added, “I was mistaken. Rather than protecting our border or the American homeland, you have chosen to make policing Americans’ speech your priority. This new board is almost certainly unconstitutional and should be dissolved immediately.”…
    “It can only be assumed that the sole purpose of this new Disinformation Governance Board will be to marshal the power of the federal government to censor conservative and dissenting speech,” the Senator concluded, urging “This is dangerous and un-American.”’

  5. The appellate judges aren’t afraid of riots. The professional-managerial class is by default hostile to people like Derek Chauvin and Ashley Babbitt and anyone in their circles. They do what they can to injure them. The Democrats have held the Governor’s chair in Minnesota for 15 years, so any dissent from the dominant culture in the legal profession is likely to be a minority viewpoint on any appellate panel.

  6. ‘Heading the opposition to what has been compared to the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s 1984, Senator Josh Hawley wrote to DHS Secretary Mayorkas noting “I confess, I at first thought this announcement was satire.”

    George Will has recently penned a column savaging Sen. Hawley. In case you were wondering what ‘muh principles’ were all about.

  7. “…They do what they can to injure them…”

    “New Jan. 6 Bodycam Videos Show DC Police Officer Assaulting Unconscious Protester”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-jan-6-bodycam-videos-show-dc-police-officer-assaulting-unconscious-protester
    Key grafs:
    “A District of Columbia police officer used a large wooden stick to strike the body and head of protester Rosanne Boyland three times as she lay motionless on the ground on Jan. 6, 2021, according to bodycam footage from several officers obtained by The Epoch Times.
    “Use-of-force expert Stanley Kephart, upon reviewing the previously unreleased footage, concluded that the three full-force blows by D.C. police officer Lila Morris constituted a felony assault with intent to cause great bodily harm….”

  8. DHS, like the Department of Education, should never have been established,

    It was an assemblage of already existing agencies. The one new thing added in 2002 was the TSA, which took a function formerly undertaken by local airports and assigned it to federal employees (and added the air marshals).

    The Department of Education was also an assemblage of already existing programs.

    (1) Identify the agencies and programs you want extinguished; (2) identify an organizational architecture you think would be closer to some optimum.

  9. 1) The precariousness of riding upon the tiger’s back has forced the democrat party to support the psychological damaging of children. Given its ideological dogma, the progressive party cannot back down. So every liberal parent must now either abandon their support for the democrat party or support the abuse of their child.

    2) $10k of ‘forgiveness’ isn’t that impressive when “More than half (65%) of college-educated adults have student loan debt, owing an average of $39,351.” so the great majority of those holding student debt will continue to be unhappy with their prospects in an increasingly problematic economy.

    3) Yeah, screwing over veterans and rewarding criminal invaders is going to gain votes… right. “Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Napoleon Bonaparte

    4) The martyr Derek Chauvin has received a modern day crucifixion by the Left. May they receive their just reward in the afterlife.

    5) Those who embrace false witness fear nothing as much as the light of truth.

  10. Just the talk of forgiving such debt makes me spitting mad. I struggled through college working to pay for college. My parents and grandparents made many sacrifices for me (the first and only of 4 children) to go to college.

    1. One problem with the current regime has been identified by Megan McArdle and also by Donald McClarey (Catholic blawger and bankruptcy lawyer). The circumstances under which student loans can be discharged in bankruptcy are abnormally narrow. We should be attempting to discern what the market rate might be on student loans were the options for discharging them more extensive.

    2. Another is that the signaling function of a college degree has been such that you have an arms race among families to obtain one. Fifty years ago, about 1/4 of each cohort was awarded a baccalaureate degree; now it is close to half.

    The charges to obtain a degree tend to increase pari passu with nominal personal income. (Economists use the term ‘Baumol effects’ to describe this phenomenon in other sectors. Higher education is also extensively subsidized).
    The ratio of the servicing charges to nominal personal income per capita may be unchanged over time. However, in relation to their own era, the set of people servicing those loans is less affluent than was the case 50 years ago, Fifty years ago those servicing were drawn largely from the most affluent 25% and now they are largely drawn from the most affluent 45%. The most affluent 25% are on average more affluent than the most affluent 45%.

    One thing we need to do is craft a means of training people and sorting the labor market which is more economical. The current system stinks.

  11. Forgiving student debt and using VA money/personnel to care for illegal immigrants are two items that +should+ cost the Democrats in coming elections.

    The first is not only elitist, it also benefits a minority who will vote D anyway, so gains the left little at the expense of the larger number of voters who either did not go to college or did not take loans, and who will be asked to subsidize the loans/education of the select few. Ham-handed at the very least.

    The VA, particularly the medical care offered under the VA, has been criticized by veterans for many years as being overloaded and slow. Cutting into that to care for people who have come here illegally, and who cannot legally vote, is another way to offend select voters in return for few votes.

    Both these policies strike me as stupid on the part of the Ds. And I thought the Rs were the stupid party.

  12. Imagine dooming and glooming over the “threat” of free speech. Imagine diverting VA funds to facilitate illegal immigration. Imagine teaching “gender fluidity” to elementary school kids.

    The entities doing these things may claim to be human, but do not seem so to me.

  13. Neo: “Just to take one example, won’t people who already paid off their debts at great sacrifice to themselves be spitting mad?”

    Ya think? I wonder at this aspect, and how –despite diligent efforts to illuminate it–it seems yet to be obscured. Explain to me, I beg you, how anybody involved in the student loan system will find it to be remotely satisfactory when (1) those who have honored their debt obligations, find they are the chumps of this move; (2) those who are about to sign up for NEW loans to be paid in the future, ask why they, too, should not have a similar accommodation.

    To grant an indulgence here and there, for one or another “most deserving” case, on the odd leap year, is perhaps OK. The POINT of such a system is to retain the randomness (“discretion”) that defeats any simplistic logic about who should get this windfall. And that randomness adds a certain piquancy, excitement, drama, to the event: who will enjoy the monarch’s grace this time?

    But when the indulgence is applied mechanistically, as here, it moves from an act of grace to a goddamned entitlement. And very very quickly the upside buzz is displaced by a coarse demand for being paid off.

    This will not end well.

  14. “To grant an indulgence here and there, for one or another “most deserving” case, on the odd leap year, is perhaps OK. ”

    I disagree. Sounds illogical.

  15. I graduated college over 50 years ago (OMG!) but I too am spitting mad, because I paid off my grandson’s rather hefty student loan as a wedding present to he and his lovely bride.

  16. Grandpagrumble,

    I understand the sentiment of a loving gift.

    That said, we all would do well to reflect upon the wisdom herewith, “Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy.” Robert A. Heinlein

    Perhaps the Greatest Generation’s worst mistake was in doing their best to make their children’s lives far easier than theirs had been.

  17. Barry Meislin,

    The treasonous Biden Administration’s new “Disinformation Governance Board” aka America’s own Ministry of Truth will create a level of political blowback they cannot yet imagine. Rather than intimidate, the more fiercely they employ it, the greater will be the consequential repercussions.

    And this is treason for a more direct and malevolent attack upon Constitutional principles could not be imposed upon a free people. As, when a governent declares that we haven’t the right to speak our minds as we see fit, that government has in effect declared that we have no right to liberty itself.

  18. Over at American Thinker, Regan connects some of the dots in this post (Neo’s #3) with others we’ve seen.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/why_biden_pursues_politically_suicidal_policies.html

    The politically insane plan to divert resources away from the Veterans’ Administration to care for illegal aliens is only the latest example of the unpopular policies that have driven Biden’s approval ratings into the toilet.

    But it’s not insane if the endgame is to “fundamentally transform” the country in such a way that it can’t be reversed, and politics will no longer play the same role.

    Once geopolitical alliances and relationships have been altered as they’re being since Obama’s first term and now on steroids;
    Once four years of an open border with possible 6–10 million illegal aliens flood in and alter demographics and domestic policy, including drugs, crime, welfare, education, housing, and of course voting;
    Once you destroy every major institution from academia and the media to the Democrat party and Executive Branch departments like State, DHS, IRS, DOJ, etc., not to mention the military…
    You can’t just reverse it.

    So perhaps the endgame, after Obama (and his handlers) realized that eight years of slow change was the wrong method, is four years on steroids while gutting every constitutional protection that’s kept us the greatest civilization in the history of the world.

    This could be accomplished only with the past several decades of the left’s infiltration, indoctrination, and money directed at all of this.

    I’m not generally a conspiracy theorist and hate them, but there’s no logical explanation for what we’re seeing from a political standpoint. It seems far more nefarious.

  19. I know we aren’t following the Depp-Heard Hollywood Drama, but this is stunning.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/aclu_admits_it_ghostwrote_the_oped_by_amber_heard_that_johnny_depp_is_suing_her_for.html

    Why is a tax-exempt charity ghostwriting a newspaper column for a Hollywood star? And why did it time publication of the op-ed to coincide with the release of her high-budget movie? Could it have anything to do with the pledge that star made to donate millions to it?

    These are all legitimate questions for the ACLU, which revealed that the ghostwriting in a recorded deposition by chief operating officer Terrance Daughtry that was played in court Thursday.

    Sordid and sleazy is the nature of the Depp-Heard marriage, as revealed in testimony, and the same adjectives apply to the ACLU, it is quite evident.

    I wonder if Depp will sue the ACLU as well. I bet they have deeper pockets than Ms. Heard.

    Another interesting snippet – but Elon donating to ACLU could have nothing to do with Heard’s deal.

    The organization also contends that Heard’s ex, South African billionaire Elon Musk donated $500,000 of the money that Heard gave to the ACLU, according to the Daily Mail.

  20. “…So perhaps the endgame….”

    No perhaps.

    This latest scam is just another F*** YOU to America.
    Just another instance of “Biden”‘s (i.e., Obama’s) “famous”, if wearisome, sense of humor.
    Just another way to—they hope—confuse and demoralize anyone who cares about the country.

    It’s how these people click.
    The Moskva is sunk? Well, then send a few bombs to Lviv. That’ll show ’em!

    Musk threatens to buy Twitter and remove censorship? Well, then we’ll let in a few million more refugees and pay for their room board and entertainment.
    That’ll show ’em.

    “Biden” and Putin have the exact same MO.
    Are on the same wavelength.
    Destruction and desperation (i.e., they gotta destroy as much as possible before they’re stopped…even while they have no intention of being stopped).

    And BTW, “Biden” enjoys it this kind of payback game!
    IOW, it’s how “Biden” gets “his” kicks.

  21. Oops.
    “…Well, then we’ll let in a few million more refugees and pay for their room board and entertainment….” should be
    “…Well, then we’ll let in a few million more refugees and pay for their room, board and entertainment…and ENSHRINE censorship as the law of the land….”

  22. Neo’s Point #5: why freeing Twitter makes a difference.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/this_scary_experiment_explains_two_years_of_covid_hell.html

    In case you were wondering why all views contrary to the Official Narrative have been canceled, it’s because of the Asch Conformity Experiment.

    We have just gone through a nationwide, and actually a worldwide, Asch Conformity Experiment. As implied, the goal of the experiment was not to get to the truth. It was to get conformity. Only conformity is allowed.

    Asch showed that people will actually believe things that they know to be false if they think everybody else believes those things. That is the point of the COVID nightmare experiment we just lived though.

    However, no dissent can be allowed because the Asch Conformity Experiment showed that if one person stands up to the narrative, it is easier for the second one to dissent. Then another and another stand up, and then control is lost.

    The Asch Experiment, conducted by Solomon Asch, found out that most people, when seeing a “consensus” of participants agreeing on something that is fairly obviously false, actually ends up agreeing with those false opinions just because everyone else seems to think so.

    The critical element of the experiment was that eight college students were included in an experiment where seven of them were actors and one was actually the real subject. The seven actors would go first and agree to a falsehood that was obvious to the real subject.

    Overall, 75% of participants gave at least one incorrect answer out of the 12 critical trials. In his opinion regarding the study results, Asch put it this way: “That intelligent, well-meaning, young people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern.”

    In studies that had one actor give correct responses to the questions, only 5% of the participants continued to answer with the majority.

    As Asch showed, if only one person stands up, the sheep aren’t sheep anymore.

    Constant bombardment of the narrative from every direction was critical. If only a few cracks in the wall develops, or even one, it all falls apart. To ensure conformity, all sources must push the same narrative. And they did. Since all followed along, it also means they (Big Media/Big Pharma/Big Government/Big Business) were all in on the scam. They created the appearance that everyone else believed the lie, and great masses went along with it.

    If you think this is some esoteric thought experiment, try Googling some thought counter to the narrative. Google knows that if the first three search items are positive (such as Hillary is great) or negative (Trump sucks), a high percentage of their users will adopt that position — often without even reading the articles. Thank you, Mr. Asch.

    That is why no dissent by the heroes of the resistance, such as Drs. Malone, McCullough, Koury, Urso, Cole, and Alexander; the Barrington great three; and the incomparable RFK Jr., was allowed. They were censored and vilified not because what they said wasn’t true. It wasn’t the facts. It was the acts.

    The old adage “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down” is true, and all of the heroes mentioned have been hammered. But you don’t even need to hammer down any nails, if you don’t let any stick up in the first place. Again, no dissent is allowed.

    So now we know. The whole COVID narrative has been an Asch Conformity Experiment. So has been the climate scam, the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, and the Critical Race theory hustle…Ukraine…

    If you don’t think one man can make a difference, let me quote from Thomas Fleming’s Liberty! On December 30, 1776, George Washington was going to lose most of his army as their enlistments were up. He pleaded with them to stay only another six weeks.

    He admitted they had done “all I asked of you and more than could be reasonably expected.” But now their country’s future was at stake. Every man who would stay and serve — step forward now.

    The regimental drums rolled. Not a man moved. Washington rode down the line, asking, even pleading with them to stay. Friends exchanged glances. The total sincerity, the absolute commitment of the man before them reached deep into their souls. The drums beat again. One man stepped forward, then another. “I will stay if you will,” said a man to a friend beside him. In a few minutes everyone except the invalids volunteered.

    They went on to win the battle of Princeton, the War for Independence, and your freedom.

    Tell all your friends, before it is too late. One dissenter can have a huge impact on getting the truth out. Step up. History is calling. You can make all the difference.

  23. Heckuva post, AF.

    One quibble with Prof. Asch, though:

    “Asch showed that people will actually believe things that they know to be false if they think everybody else believes those things.” (italics mine)

    This may well be true, but it would probably be better to say “suspect to be false”.

    Even better for the perpetrators of the deception is if the audience/victims doesn’t know much, or anything, about the topic; or doesn’t know enough to take a decision, and then makes the—default—judgment to “listen to the experts”, IOW opening themselves up to being totally bamboozled.

    Which the “experts” (Government/authorities/etc.) exploit to the hilt).

    So not necessarily “know not to be true…”

  24. This post at PJM hits all the points Neo made, which I have indicated in the excerpt.
    Has Godwin’s Law been officially repealed, or is it just in de facto suspension these days?

    IMO, mixing fund-raising and campaign appeals into the Rabbi’s post dilutes its power, but there are still a lot of important things to consider.

    https://pjmedia.com/columns/rabbi-michael-barclay/2022/04/30/nazi-comparisons-n1594179
    BY RABBI MICHAEL BARCLAY APR 30, 2022

    A criminal is wrongfully killed, and “peaceful demonstrations,” which are actually violent riots, break out nationwide. The flag of a radical and violent group is placed next to the national flag on government buildings. Out of fear of being canceled and losing business, individuals and corporations succumb to publicly supporting this violent organization. Mandated behavior is compelled upon threat of arrest by the political elite and leadership. Despite objections from parents, schools begin teaching an alternative “history” and embrace prejudice, anti-Semitism, and sexual permissiveness as part of the school curriculum.

    A President overreaches and takes on “emergency powers,” which create an authoritarian regime that demands supportive behavior and calls any criticism “disinformation.” A new agency of the government is created to “fight this disinformation”… an agency that even has access to armed personnel. This new agency is led by a fanatic who is arguably delusional in their own self-perception and fully committed to stopping the dissemination of any information that is not part of the authoritarian narrative. And through it all the media is a willing accomplice, even striking against other media outlets that try to present opposing views.

    Sound like a brief recap of the recent past in this country?

    The challenge is that this is actually a description of the development of the Nazi regime in Germany almost a century ago.

    If this scares you, it should.

    What we have recently been experiencing is a direct copy of what brought and kept the Nazis in power and nearly led to the destruction of freedom in the world.

    [Neo #4] Like the death of George Floyd, Horst Wessel was the spark that Goebbels and Hitler used to motivate “peaceful demonstrations” that were in actuality violent riots funded and planned with the intention of gaining national power through violence and fear. In the same way that the Nazis pressured the German government to fly the Nazi flag next to the German tri-color flag, our State Department has done the same with the acceptance of the BLM flag being flown over federal buildings. [and other left-wing-organization flags]

    [Neo #1] Teaching CRT, the 1619 Project, and values in contradiction to Biblical ethics is not the behavior of only current leftists.

    [Neo #2 – because this has been the result of the slush-funds tossed at the universities]
    “After the Nazis came to power in 1933, they quickly passed new laws to make public education reflect and teach their nationalist and racial ideologies.” By 1936, 97% of German teachers were members of the National Socialist Teacher’s League and changed the school curricula to reflect Nazi values. Any teacher who disagreed lost their job.

    Yet another parallel is the advanced age and questionable competency of Hindenburg and Biden: Hindenburg was 84 when he seized this power and destroyed democracy in Germany.Even the agenda-driven Wikipedia recognizes how democracy was lost due to President Hindenburg’s seizure through emergency powers. “After the Reichstag Fire Decree, the Enabling Act of 1933 amended the Weimar Constitution to allow Hitler and his government to enact laws (even laws violating the constitution) without going through the Reichstag. Nazi intimidation of the opposition resulted in a vote of 444 to 94.”

    [Neo #3 is part of this] But the latest actions of the DHS and Biden administration in the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board is an even more frightening step towards the fascism of the Nazis a century ago. It is almost identical in purpose and presentation to Joseph Goebbels’ Nazi Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, which Goebbels originally wanted to call “The Ministry of Culture and Public Enlightenment”. Its purpose in the Nazi regime was to ensure that all media and education were controlled by the Nazi state, and it had the full support of the Nazi government to enforce its control.

    [Related post: Biden’s New Disinformation Governance Board Is ALREADY Expanding Its Scope]


    As a Rabbi, I have always enjoined all people to be extremely careful about ever making any comparison of modern times with the true evil of Hitler, Goebbels, and Nazi Germany. But even the kind-hearted and compassionate person who always wants to see the best in people (a category in which I include myself) must now recognize these parallels and choose to become active in preventing the Nazis of today, known as “progressive Democrats,” from their quest for total power.

    For those people who already embrace liberty and have seen and understood the parallels for a while, it is important that each of us become extremely active in stopping the path that the progressive Democrats want to take us down. …

    And there is one more task that each of us needs to do in order to wrest power away from the would-be Nazis of the 21st century.

    Learn and be able to teach the parallels between the development of the Nazi regime and the pathway of the progressive leftist Democrats. Be able to cite the parallels to liberals and Democrats that you know. Most people, including political liberals, are good people who want a nation of peace and ethics.

    [Neo #5 makes a start] They simply are unaware and don’t know the similarities between the rise of the Nazis and the current situation. Without getting angry, teach them this history. Use the links and citations in this article and other pieces here on PJ Media to enlighten them about the realities and potential dangers facing all of us. Each liberal you affect with this information is a vote against the progressive Democrats and for a unified nation based on the shared values expressed in our Constitution.

    It is dangerous for a Rabbi to compare anything and anyone to the Nazis, but if not a Jewish leader, then who can? It is difficult for anyone to stand against authority, but if we do not, where will be in a few years? What country will be left for our children? It is true that if we do not honestly remember history, we will be doomed, God forbid, to repeat it.

    My prayer for all of us is that we have the courage and compassion to stand for what is right, be proactive in making a change for the better, and help others to see the necessity to reclaim the values, practices, and mutual respect this country was founded on.

    Be the first on your block to be the Asch Non-Conformist.

  25. @ Barry > “Heckuva post, AF.”

    There was a lot of good material on the webz today.

    “One quibble with Prof. Asch, though:

    “Asch showed that people will actually believe things that they know to be false if they think everybody else believes those things.”

    So not necessarily “know not to be true…

    Agreed.
    I think I would have rephrased the sentence as “Asch showed that people will actually [say that they] believe things that they know [or suspect] to be false if they think everybody else believes those things.”

  26. All very true. Thanks again for another great comment.

    FWIW, seems this is the same Rabbi Barclay who pleaded publicly with Adam Schiff (in April 2019) to “put a sock in it”, if to no avail.
    “An Open Letter to Rep. Adam Schiff: Stop Spreading Accusatory Gossip about Trump”
    https://pjmedia.com/faith/rabbi-michael-barclay/2019/04/03/an-open-letter-to-rep-adam-schiff-stop-spreading-accusatory-gossip-about-trump-n102772

    Regarding the quotations above, though, I did not see any mention of the Democratic Party-planned and contrived January 6 so-called Capitol “Insurrection”, which should be considered in its essence (and has already been characterized as such by a variety of commentators, e.g., Dennis Prager) a clear equivalent of the 1933 Reichstag Fire, especially in the manner the Democratic Party (and allies) has so wickedly milked it—and will, especially now, continue to milk it—for all it is worth.

    Maybe I missed something, though. (Or maybe it’s just too obvious….)

    The battle lines are being drawn.
    One thing should be clear: A political party that smears, demonizes and frames a sitting president; a political party that steals an election…WILL STOP AT NOTHING.

  27. Thanks so much Neo and AesopFan, I don’t know when I’ve read a post that’s so dead on and encapsulates so much of what’s been happening.

  28. Free Derek Chauvin.

    A good cop railroaded for restraining a bad man resisting a well-deserved arrest.

  29. AesopFan and Barry: correct. The goal is to destroy or irreparably damage the United States while they can. Cornhead and others who apparently still believe that these people can be deterred by negative publicity, scathing editorials, or well-reasoned argument: please take note.

    Another spot-on piece in The American Thinker, this time about Pelosi & Co.’s visit to Ukraine and meeting with Zelensky(y–Marisa, please ignore the second “y” if it bugs you):

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/pelosi_schiff_mcgovern_bring_a_bad_smell_to_ukraine.html

    “What a foul smell this leaves in Kyiv.” Indeed. Clearly, this is part of an attempt to leverage the war in Ukraine and Zelensky(y)’s stature to criminalize political opposition (Trump, DeSantis etc.) in the United States. That’s what I’m really worried about. It’s also why I share some of Geoffrey Britain’s reservations about our response to the war, even though I disagree with him on its causes. Less crowing and ball-spiking on this forum about who’s right and who’s wrong, please, and more focus on these extremely sinister (literally) developments at home.

  30. Correction: I should have said that the goal of the Obama claque and the Democrats is to seize power and eliminate political opposition. Completely. If the country is destroyed in the process, well, that’s a bonus. Serves us right.

    A necessary first step in building an effective opposition to this project is recognizing how deeply and sincerely Obama hates this country. If you’re expecting the GOPe to rise to the challenge, forget it.

  31. Higher education in the US is essentially a jobs program. In every state, the largest share of state employees is in the state higher education system (and the highest paid state employee is almost always a football coach). Some of these are faculty and administrators, and the rest are people who fix cars, cut grass, run the power plant, etc. All these people vote, mostly D. Those Ds need to turn out in 2022.

    This is why student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy: higher education needs butts in seats. The butts filling those seats need checks to pay for the seats, and to justify the support of state and Federal tax dollars. Students are terrible credit risks and have no assets. If the loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy, then banks would be much more likely to lose money and so student loans would be harder to get, and the butts could not fill the seats and the tax money would not follow them. (This is why there is so much propaganda about the value of college.)

    The students and ex-students getting the debt forgiveness are not the primary target being bought by the offer of debt forgiveness. The state higher education systems and the private colleges and universities with their large numbers of D voters are being bought, because the Dems are saying they are looking out for their bottom line by seeing to it that the student loans will continue to be offered; that students will know that there is debt forgiveness in play and be more likely to take out more loans even if they aren’t sure they can pay them back, and so higher education will keep getting its money.

    The media narrative of course chooses to focus on students: left-leaning media on sob stories of sympathetic students, right-leaning media on idiots who spent $100K on SJW degrees and work at Starbucks. Both distract you from what is really going on.

  32. “…rise to the challenge…:

    Actually, I would expect the GOPe to do so simply because this continuation of the Democratic coup, begun in mid-2016 is far and away far too treacherous, outrageous and brazen for—even?—them to take lying down. (But, heh, I’ve been wrong before…)

    Meanwhile, here’s Prime-Time “Biden” in all his peculiar, “jocular” perversity, and adulated by the usual suspects, equally digusting….

    ‘Biden Jokes About Low Approval Ratings At Correspondents’ Dinner, Says “Some Guy Named Brandon” Is Having A Really Good Year’—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-jokes-about-low-approval-ratings-correspondents-dinner-says-some-guy-named-brandon

    OTOH, gotta admit that “his” program of national destruction and general desperation and impoverishment is moving right along, if with a few speed bumps en route…so there is, in fact, quite a bit for “him” to crow about….

    (Though who knew that causing American suffering was such a rip-roaring laugh….)

  33. LeClerc is mostly right: a) Free Derek Chauvin, b) he was railroaded for restraining a bad man, on drugs, and COVID, who was resisting arrest.
    However, I believe he was a bad/ mediocre cop, and brutal but usually on the legal side, including with Floyd.

    The Woke lying Dems don’t want folk who believe this, or other nuanced truths, to be on Twitter.

    One of the Twitter fears: “arguments that women are intellectually inferior,”.
    Did you see how MIT won all 5 of the top 5 spots in the math Putnam exam?
    https://math.mit.edu/academics/undergrad/opportunities/putnam.php

    The sixth MIT student won as the top woman – she was “in the top 15”, implying not in the top 10.

    All of these winners are Asian – the actual “model minority” (so far – maybe except for the massive pro CCP syping?).

    Larry Summers was right about the very top physicists NOT generally being women – but he was cancelled from Harvard for this truth.

    None of the Putnam winners will ever be pro athletes – and I’m pretty sure there are almost no Hispanics in the NBA, and very few Asians. Far less than their population proportion.

    Genetic gifts are real, and distributed unfairly. Especially individually – see how many more Asians commit suicide for bad test scores as compared to Black suicides for failure to turn pro from college, or for failure to get college scholarship to play after HS.

    We need to be honest and accept this reality about individuals and group averages. Free Speech Twitter might help.

    Dems do NOT like the truth.

  34. However, I believe he was a bad/ mediocre cop, and brutal but usually on the legal side, including with Floyd.

    He wasn’t brutal at all with Floyd. He had about one complaint against him per year during his time on the force.

  35. Higher education in the US is essentially a jobs program.

    There’s scads of corruption, but recall that the revenue stream of higher education is less than 2% of gross output in this country. Post-secondary teachers account for about 1% of the workforce and work about 70% time on average.

  36. “Dems do NOT like the truth.”

    NO; and as part of their extreme distaste for it they’ve gone ballistic against Freedom of Speech.
    I suspect the reason is that this basic Constitutional right does not allow them to fully control the Narrative…so they’re forced to fiddling around with false definitions, bizarre rationalizations and elaborate lies.

    Here’s Turley on the latest Leftist salvo against the Bill or Rights (courtesy of one of Time Magazine’s stalwart, if pathetic, defenders of Leftist autocracy, who—par for the course, since it’s really the ONLY “argument(!) they appear to understand—must transform freedom of speech into a racist and sexist issue…IOW bait and switch using the required jargon ):
    ‘Time Columnist Denounces Free Speech As A White Man’s “Obsession”‘—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/time-columnist-denounces-free-speech-white-mans-obsession

    Key grafs:
    ‘…What is most striking about the column is [columnist] Alter’s apparent confusion over why anyone like Musk would even care about the free speech of others. She suggests that Musk is actually immoral for spending money to restore free speech rather than on social welfare or justice issues.
    ‘She suggests that supporting free speech is some disgusting extravagance like buying Fabergé eggs.
    ‘ “Why does Musk care so much about this? Why would a guy who has pushed the boundaries of electric-vehicle manufacturing and plumbed the limits of commercial space flight care about who can say what on Twitter?”
    ‘The answer, not surprisingly, is about race and privilege….’

    RTWT

    File under: The degeneracy of the Leftist pseudo-intellectual…

  37. Too good to pass over….

    https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/E86_fLPXEAYVnxQ.jpg?itok=vyZESCNA

    …where “this president” is, of course, Trump…
    (To be fair to Joe Biden—and one must be fair(!)—it’s entirely probable that he forgot he even said it…)

    …from:
    “Biden Price Hike: Most Americans Blame US President For Higher Gas Prices”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-price-hike-most-americans-blame-us-president-higher-gas-prices

  38. An analysis that describes just how SUCCESSFUL “Biden” has been…and how much MORE SUCCESSFUL “he” is about to be:
    ‘ “The US Destroyed Trust” Jim Rickards Says “The World Is Turning To Gold” ‘—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-destroyed-trust-jim-rickards-says-world-turning-gold
    Opening graf:
    ‘Five-time, best-selling financial author James G. Rickards says, “We could be in a recession right now,” but the title of his most recent book “The New Great Depression” says where we are definitely going soon.
    ‘Rickards says, “The current crisis is not like 2008 or even 1929. The New Depression that has emerged from the COVID pandemic is the worst economic crisis in U.S. history…”…
    ‘…Inflation, according to Rickards, is very serious, and he explains, “It is the worst inflation in 40 years. You can’t argue about it, it’s there…”…’
    ‘…Rickards contends, “The world could not destroy the dollar, but we could…”….’

    “Biden” hopes Rickard’s absolutely right.

    Let’s hope he’s wrong…

  39. Someone’s been paying attention:
    “Tulsi Gabbard Suggests Obama Devised Biden’s ‘Ministry of Truth’ Disinformation Board.”—
    https://instapundit.com/518086/

    (OTOH, it’s not really that hard to miss….)

    Alas, Gabbard seems to have neglected to mention that Hillary Clinton echoed the Great Man’s thoughts almost as soon as they left his megaphone…

  40. Let’s hope he’s wrong…

    He’s produced six books of panic porn in eight years. It’s a business with him.

  41. }}} New Hampshire is not a red state anymore, either; it’s quite purple and is currently blue on the national level and red on the state level.

    It’s the Massachusetts version of Arizona. All the people fleeing the consequences of the idiotic things they voted for in Massachusetts… who then vote for more of the same idiocy there.

    SMH: I assert, once more — the problem with liberals is not that they are stupid, they are fools.

    A subtle, but important distinction. “Stupid” is technically about intellect (though it is often misused). It suggests a lack of intellectual capacity (best described as “the capacity to learn from books”).

    “Fool” is about wisdom. It suggests a lack of wisdom, perhaps more clearly described for this context as “the capacity to learn from experience”.

    Liberals are largely incapable of learning from experience. From their mistakes.

    This is why they continually vote again and again for the same idiotic failed policies, most particularly their endless support for some form of Marxism.

    I’ve always been a huge fan of an aphorism cited by Otto von Bismarck:

    “Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”

    Liberals are exponential fools, by this assertion. 😛

  42. }}} But I have my doubts about whether it will have the desired effect. Just to take one example, won’t people who already paid off their debts at great sacrifice to themselves be spitting mad?

    More importantly, those stupid tools are already in their pockets, so they’re stupidly trying to buy the votes of those whose votes they already own, lock, stock, and barrel.

    No, this is as much about destroying the economy as anything else.

  43. Neo: Your link in #3, to the hotair piece, appears to be malformed. You can “correct” it if you are paying attention, but it points for some reason to your page not to the hotair piece directly.

  44. @Obloodyhell:those stupid tools are already in their pockets,

    That’s what the national GOP thinks of conservatives. And McCain and Romney lost. You have to turn out your own base as well as appeal to some of the middle. If the Dems won’t make enough socialist noises, the base won’t turn out in the numbers they need. But the national Dem party is Lucy, socialism is the football, and the progressives are Charlie Brown, much in the same way it happens for the national GOP on issues like securing the border.

    Fundamentally no matter how nuts Dem voters may get, the national level Dem politicians are fundamentally in favor of paying their friends, patrons, and clients with our tax money. And it’s important to remember that the most “locked-in” constituency on the Dem side is a) very religious and b) very concerned about patronage.

  45. Hmm…Manchin Unbound….
    “Manchin endorses Republican, slams Build Back Better, in West Virginia GOP primary ad”—
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/manchin-endorses-republican-slams-build-back-better
    – – – – – – –
    While the elusive Marc Elias is finally getting the attention he so richly deserves… (And if there is any justice in the universe he will be getting much more….):

    “How a top Democrat lawyer undermined both sides’ confidence in U.S. elections;
    “Marc Elias was central player in both 2016 Russia collusion hoax and 2020 campaign to upend voting laws in midstream.”—
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/how-top-democrat-lawyer-caused-both-left-and-right-lose-faith-us

  46. Frederick, that may be an accurate description of years past.

    But it may no longer describe the current reality: the deep partisan divide and ideological chasm that the Democratic Party has worked overtime to create over the past 12 years, but especially over the past 16 months.

    Proof of this transformed reality is the Democrats’ absolute and desperate need to cover up their massive number of lies and crimes on the one hand, while making it ENTIRELY ILLEGAL—under their self-defined rubric of “DISINFORMATION”!—to challenge those lies (IOW making it illegal to utilize the TRUTH to counter those lies and to publicize their crimes)—since according to the recently rammed-hrough “Disinformation” “Law” the Democrats themselves—with their media and info-tech hordes in support—will decide what is and what is not disinformation.

    And they will use this “law” to cover up their crimes and their lies, while protecting themselves from any evidence-based accusations that they’ve committed any crimes or mouthed any untruths…while turning the power of the new “law” against those who make such “FALSE” claims….”false” because they must be false, BY DEFINITION. MUST be “disinformation”.

    Thus, although unable to pack the Supreme Court, at least not yet, the Democrats have achieved the dreamed-for “power”: heads I win, tails you lose “power”! Perfection!
    And have catapulted themselves along the the road of achieving total power.

    Why NOW?
    Their recognition that they’re losing control of the Narrative—and, thanks to Elon Musk, losing control of their ability to censor truthful information regarding their utter depravity—is what has led them, desperately, to acknowledge that they are in serious political trouble; and it’s the reason why the “Disinformation” “Law” had to be passed ASAP.
    Related:
    Victor Davis Hanson…
    “The New Disinformationists;
    “We have seven more months before the midterms. Expect more disinformation ministries, censorious czars, and hack grandees to emerge.”—
    https://amgreatness.com/2022/05/01/the-new-disinformationists/

  47. Another slap in the face for our veterans, the brave men and women who sacrificed to serve their country and fight for freedom all over the world at the beck and call of our government. The VA is already stretched to provide for those who sustained physical and psychological problems as a result of combat. They should come first before all else.
    Is Mayorkas a veteran? We all know Biden was a draft dodger, five times.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>