Archive for the 'Politics' Category

David Codrea:

It’s unclear what the president hopes to accomplish by alienating his strongest supporters at a time he is being closed in on from all sides by powers intent on destroying him. If he believes this will satisfy the gun-grabbers and make them go away, that ignores everything about their incremental tactics. Experience shows they will take a piece here and a “compromise” there, and then use that position to launch their next demand for more.

And if you don’t think this will alienate his allies, just spend a few minutes reading the comments at Breitbart.

Trump has little real political sense concerning his base, and he’s being led by people who are the same.  And David is right.  This isn’t just about bump stocks – it’s more about the incrementalism this catalyzes.

CNN:

Deutch said implementing universal background checks, a “gun violence restraining order,” which allows law enforcement to ask a judge to temporarily take guns away from people who are deemed a threat, and banning so-called “bump stocks,” are at the top of his list, along with other school safety and mental health initiatives.

With Democrats in control of the House, they can also hold hearings on gun violence, which they tried to pressure Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, the Republican Congressman of Virginia, to do last year. In March, Rep. Jerry Nadler, the New York Democrat who will take the gavel next year, said “it is long past due” that the committee address the nation’s gun laws.

Get ready for a flurry of gun control bills, but don’t blame the democrats when they get signed into law.  A good number of the republicans will also go with the democrats, and my bet is that Trump will sign anything that isn’t directly opposed by the Fudds.

As long as any new controller initiative doesn’t affect bird shot and bolt action deer rifles, the NRA and company won’t oppose it.

Ted Cruz had so much trouble wining Texas and Broward County is creating votes because of immigration.  Immigration from south of the border to America, immigration from Puerto Rico to Florida, immigration of Californians to Colorado, Nevada, Washington and Oregon.

When I sat in Johnston hall at Clemson in a room with 20 other guys and watched the debates between Reagan and Carter (and we all cheered for Reagan, to a man), I knew Reagan would win big, and he carried California.  California used to be a solid red state.  Texas would have been out of the question for democrats thirty years ago.  Florida and Virginia used to be solid red states.

It has all happened because of immigration, and we are watching the beginning of the end.  You all understand that, right?

Take advantage of this as a free thread to discuss the mid-term elections.  I’ll kick it off to observe that we always knew that Trump gave us more time, an oasis in what is still a very dry desert.

Remember that approximately half of the country is still collectivist and thinks of the state as god.  Marx and Freud did their jobs well in the colleges, as did Horace Mann in the public school system.  Coupled with an anemic and powerless church who refused to teach their congregants theology and instead fed them crumbs and sweet snacks, and it makes for a country that cannot be turned.

America is divided, and it will remain so.  Even now, the lines are hardening.

David Codrea:

The documents from the Advance America et al. v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. et al. lawsuit “show that top leadership at the [Federal Deposit Insurance Commission] held strong personal biases and began a ruthless targeted campaign against the small-dollar lending industry [and that] These industries include local small businesses like fireworks and firearms companies…”

It’s instructive at this point to review some of the documents, particularly this appendix, and do a “find” search for the term “firearm.”

Until the actors have all been charged and tried for treason, convicted accordingly and punished as traitors, the book on this is still very much open, and justice has not been served.

I wouldn’t expect either Trump or Sessions to even bring this up to the American people.  Because laws are for little people, and when America elects an administration, we all understand that we’re electing our own law breakers to break whatever law they wish with impunity.

For Obama, it was Fast and Furious, Operation Chokepoint, and a host of other things.  For Trump, it’s bump stocks.

News from dystopia:

We listened to people talk about the longstanding disproportionate struggles they continue to face. Much of it I agreed with. And in “Any City, USA,” we should focus on our most impoverished communities and work to transform them. But we can’t transform them by simply flooding money and programs in with no oversight or accountability. The investment should include a significant focus on schools and education, community beautification projects, the demolition of dilapidated housing, reinvestment in affordable housing with first right of refusal to those who currently reside in the community and in good standing, green space, accessibility to public transportation and accessibility to fresh foods.

While capitalism is the American way, we must limit the number of unhealthy options in impoverished communities. Imagine a community that has better access to a library, fitness center, community center, grocery store and good schools compared to one in which every other home is boarded up, trash lines the streets and the four corners of the intersection consist of a phone store, carry-out, liquor store and a mini-mart that also sells drug baggies and acts as a safe haven for drug dealers. It’s not impossible to fix, but it requires a focused investment, courage, oversight and follow-up.

We can’t expect a law enforcement solution alone to solve these catastrophic, systematic socioeconomic failures. Flooding an underserved community with law enforcement only serves to further exacerbate the already strained police and community relationships. The only way we can effectively “pull back” from the law-enforcement-only approach is to transform the communities from the historic failures that put them in that situation in the first place.

I agree that policing along can’t fix their problems since I don’t believe that policing fixes anything at all.  But make sure you hear his solutions.

Capitalism is the American way, says he.  Instead of saying “but,” he says “while,” which is a difference without a distinction.  We must rectify the problems that put them where they are to begin with.

Meaning, distribute more money, goods and services to them.  Never mind the destruction of the family unit this approach has wrought, bring it on.  We need more of the same thing.

This all says absolutely nothing about Baltimore or poverty and crime, but everything about the world and life view of those in positions of power and authority and their lack of understanding of the destruction of the moral foundations of the country.

NBC News:

Authorities in southern Mexico disarmed and placed under investigation the entire police force in the once-glittering resort of Acapulco on Tuesday, claiming the local cops were infiltrated by drug gangs.

Officials in Guerrero state issued arrest warrants for two top Acapulco police commanders, accusing them of homicide. It was the latest fall from grace for Acapulco, which was a favorite haunt of movie stars in the 1960s but has since fallen victim to warring drug gangs.

The state government said it took the step “because of suspicion that the force had probably been infiltrated by criminal groups” and “the complete inaction of the municipal police in fighting the crime wave.”

The rest of the police officers were stripped of their guns, radios and bullet-proof vests and taken for background checks. Law enforcement duties in the seaside city of 800,000 will be taken over by soldiers, marines and state police.

But they seem like such nice people, doing the jobs Americans won’t do!  In other news, a majority of Latinos believe that Brett Kavanaugh should withdraw from consideration for the Supreme Court over unproven and unsubstantiated charges that are obviously taken from lurid magazines.

Well, diversity is our strength, and if you don’t want drug money corruption and a progressive Supreme Court, you’re just a racist.

Of course, there’s another way to look at all of this.  None of the charges against Judge Kavanaugh ever happened.  None of them.  This whole ridiculous thing is fabricated to save the death cult of abortion and defeat gun rights.  Because “All Mother” must have her sacrifice of children just like Baal, and guns empower men.  When men are empowered, the state must decrease.

The Federalist:

… the Nazis were firmly on the left. National Socialism was a collectivist authoritarian movement run by “social justice warriors.” This brand of “justice” benefited only some based on immutable characteristics, which perfectly aligns with the modern brand. The Nazi ideal embraced identity politics based on the primacy of the people, or volk, and invoked state-based solutions for every possible problem. It was nation-based socialism—the nation being especially important to those who bled in the Great War.

The Nazi charter published a year later and coauthored by Hitler is socialist in almost every aspect. It calls for “equality of rights for the German people”; the subjugation of the individual to the state; breaking of “rent slavery”; “confiscation of war profits”; the nationalization of industry; profit-sharing in heavy industry; large-scale social security; the “communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low costs to small firms”; the “free expropriation of land for the purpose of public utility”; the abolition of “materialistic” Roman Law; nationalizing education; nationalizing the army; state regulation of the press; and strong central power in the Reich. It was also racist and anti-immigrant.

In some areas, the Nazis followed their charter faithfully. They treated children as property of the state from the earliest age and indoctrinated them at government schools and clubs. The individual had limited rights outside the volk. German lives were for the betterment of the people and state. One’s group identity determined his rights and social hierarchy.

[ … ]

When told of Schutzstaffel (SS) Chief Heinrich Himmler’s flirtation with the occult, Hitler fumed: “What nonsense! Here we have at last reached an age that has left all mysticism behind it, and now he wants to start that all over again. We might just as well have stayed with the church. At least it had tradition. To think that I may some day be turned into an SS saint! Can you imagine it? I would turn over in my grave…”

[ … ]

“Once I have settled my other problems,” he occasionally declared, “I’ll have my reckoning with the church. I’ll have it reeling on the ropes.”

It wasn’t only theoretical. Hitler repeatedly praised Marx privately, stating he had “learned a great deal from Marxism.” The trouble with the Weimar Republic, he said, was that its politicians “had never even read Marx.” He also stated his differences with communists were that they were intellectual types passing out pamphlets, whereas “I have put into practice what these peddlers and pen pushers have timidly begun.”

The Nazis were statists of the highest and worst caliber.  Of interesting note, Richard Spencer said this.

“No individual has a right outside of a collective community. You have rights, not eternally or given by God, or by nature.”

I don’t align myself with men.  I don’t join clubs.  I don’t join movements.  I don’t call myself by names, except Christian.  And everyone who believes in the collective doesn’t believe in God.  And vice versa.

Matt Bracken on diversity being out strength, multi-culturalism, political correctness and social media.

Jeremy D. Lawhorn writing at SWJ.

The Pew Research Center suggests that political polarization in the United States has reached a dangerous extreme. Divisions on fundamental political and social issues reached record levels during President Obama’s term in office. And the gaps have increased even further during President Trump’s first year. This polarization is caused by political and social entrenchment combined with a general reluctance to compromise creating extreme fractionalization. Fissures have opened up along every major demographic line including race, ethnicity, religion, place of origin, gender, and along every major political and social issue including immigration, national security, gay marriage, religious freedom, structural inequalities and many others.

The extreme fracturing along these fault lines has wide ranging social, political, and security implications for the United States. Today, the single greatest challenge to the United States national security is the growing threat posed by people that are being forced to join factions that align, if only loosely, with their beliefs, creating deep fractures and eroding the internal cohesion of the country.

[ … ]

Understanding the U.S. center of gravity’s current strengths and weaknesses is crucial for accurately assessing the U.S. national security. The Pew Research data on political polarization suggests that the U.S. center of gravity is critically weak. Analyzing these critical vulnerabilities, exposes the dangers posed by expanding fractures that are ripe for exploitation. As the population continues to become more polarized and deeper fractures emerge, the nation loses its cohesion which is one of the critical requirements. As each of the critical requirements disappear, America’s center of gravity becomes weaker. If not properly addressed, these fractures will continue to present significant challenges and have potentially devastating consequences for national security.

[ … ]

These historic lessons of entrenchment are instructive for leaders today. The difference is, that the speed at which information travels today exacerbates political polarization. As a consequence, the United States is once again at the precipice of self-destruction. While the United States is currently addressing threats to national security all over the world like those posed by violent extremist groups, a greater threat is looming at home. The homeland is primed to implode; at present, the political polarization and fractionalization driven by growing resentment over unresolved internal problems is becoming a significant vulnerability as more people are becoming radicalized along major fault lines. As people become more radicalized in their views, they become reluctant to engage in debate and prefer to take action.

The author goes on to explore race, social and economic strata.  This is an interesting essay in that it is the first I can remember from the professional military in which these admissions are made.  They all know it, but no one talks about it.

The problem with the essay is that it doesn’t even begin to address or identify the root causes of these “polarizations.”  Barack Obama didn’t polarize America.  Donald Trump isn’t polarizing America.  They are symptoms, not the disease, branches, not the roots, effects, not the causes.

These divisions have been deep in America for quite some time.  In the old South, men like James Henley Thornwell, Robert L. Dabney and Benjamin Morgan Palmer were the philosopher-theologians, and their pulpits and classrooms were the center of culture and philosophy.  They didn’t just exegete the Scriptures, they conveyed a holistic world and life view throughout not only their congregations but to the entire South.  The notion that proper governance, economics or plowing the fields for crops could be divorced from the edicts and laws of the Almighty would have been preposterous.

In the Nineteenth century social Darwinism saw it’s ascent to throne of American culture, leading to the temperance movement and in no small part the war between the states.  Forgotten was the old hymns of the church, so even though theology was undercut and infected, it took a while (decades) for the church members to begin relinquishing their beliefs.

Eventually though, it happened.  It was in no small part aided by the pagan philosophy of the American educational system promulgated by William James and Horace Mann.  If students at American universities relinquished their theology, they replaced it with something else.

In the mid-twentieth century the hippies were reading Marx, Sartre and Camus.  Several decades ago they were studying Jacques Derrida (does anything good ever come out of France?).  Today they wear Che Guevara tee shirts and take to the streets to advocate fourth wave feminism.  The self loathing is nearly complete.

The election of Barack Obama was a catalyst at the very most, and possibly just an opportunity for these divisions to manifest in the public life to an extent that would cause the writer to pen an essay discussing the fracturing of America.  It’s a quaint notion, this idea suggested by the author that we do something about this.  But the destruction of a society has taken more than a century to effect, and it will take longer to undo.

It might be tempting to simply observe that we’re adjusting and preparing for a separation.  But a separation from what, and to what?  There are two problems.  The first is geographical.  From the town council in Jackson, Wyoming, to lower state South Carolina where their ideas still hold sway locking the state into union with California, Hawaii and New York as prohibiting open carry, from the so-called “Northwestern Redoubt” to Appalachia where many still vote for the party that will give them the largest welfare check, America is in trouble.  There is an admixture of ideas, political beliefs, self interests and no beliefs at all, making a division based on geography impossible.

Deeper still is the problem with world and life view.  Even if a division based on geography was possible, with beliefs so scattered, fractured, disjointed and disconnected, with the concept of social covenant and contract outdated, and moral scruples so out-of-favor, it’s unlikely that there can be a national agreement on much of anything, much less something so significant as a covenant under which we must all live and work.  Even if there could be agreement, that doesn’t ensure fidelity to the promise.

Unlike the author, I have hope, but it is not in addressing grievances or coming together as a nation.  My only hope is in an American reformation not unlike the European reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  But take careful note – the first one was rather hard, required centuries to effect, required the leadership of fearless men, and wasn’t bloodless.

Via WRSA comes this stunning documentary.

David Codrea takes note of several comments on the state of affairs.

Double negative = a positive. Land stolen from from the natives and then stolen back … I hope this goes continent wide, including the De beers factory … I don’t feel sorry for this man at all. He profits off hunting large animals. Karma is truly at work here! … Hmmm, so, like the Dutch grabbed the land from the native south Africans … No it’s not theft. And you can defend all you like it won’t help …  Go home mate … At first I had sympathy… but then I read “hunting” farm….. A HUNTING farm??? Sorry farmer, NO sympathy here! Murdering animals for “sport” is VILE! … If you kill animals they will get you back somehow…

So I hate to be all logical and everything because I know it’s dreadfully boring.  But you know me – I don’t believe that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

If the commenter has no sympathy for the farmers because they allow hunting and charge for it (like many Americans do with their land), I’m wondering if the commenter will see the necessity of having no sympathy for the indigenous population when they, like savages, kill and steal the land from the farmers, only to starve to death in short order?

No, it’s not likely.  What is more likely is this (here, I’m making a prediction for my progressive readers on which you can test me – I do have at least some progressive readers don’t I?).  When people begin starving to death because they have no civility, cannot run farms, cannot operate machinery, cannot supply power and fuel because they have no idea how to run power plants, etc., it will become a litmus test and a point of doctrine for the progressives that the U.S. must send aid, even if it means increasing taxes on Americans.  Watch it in the upcoming debates.

Furthermore, they will even demand that a Marine Corps MEU be dispatched to “keep the peace” and supply “much-needed aid.”  They will make these same demands of the United Nations, who will lean on America for this responsibility.

But starve they will.  And they will deserve it.