Archive for the 'Politics' Category

I often criticize the politicians from other states.  North Carolina isn’t immune from worms that eat rotten flesh either.  Richard Burr is one such worm.

Earlier today it was widely reported that North Carolina Senator Richard Burr was not happy with Ted Cruz. That doesn’t make him a special snowflake. Most of the practitioners of crony capitalism and Failure Theater in the Senate are not happy with Ted Cruz. But Burr was not content to merely take a number and get in line. Burr had to make a point of how pissed he was at the idea of Ted Cruz winning the nomination. (Burr’s Heritage Action score is 45%, which is the same as arch-conservatives John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell.)

Cruz has become such a pariah that one of his colleagues, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, told supporters at a campaign fundraiser for his own re-election that he would vote for liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders for president before Cruz, according to one person who attended the event. Burr did not appear to be joking, said the person, who demanded anonymity to discuss the private gathering.

Robert Pittenger is another worm.

“We must continue to protect privacy,” said Republican Rep. Robert Pittenger of North Carolina, who wants to draft bi-partisan legislation to improve the flow of information. “But there should also be enough room for law enforcement to be alerted to specific concerns about those with mental illness and have the opportunity to investigate and determine if further action is necessary.”

He said an unintended consequence of federal privacy laws is that it’s “nearly impossible to share potentially life-saving patient information with law enforcement.”

Robert buys into the false religion of mental health professionals being able to be predictors of behavior, like a bad version of Minority Report.  But he should instead believe what commenter Menckenlite says.

Control freaks love psychiatry, a means of social control with no Due Process protections. It is a system of personal opinion masquerading as science. See, e.g., Boston University Psychology Professor Margaret Hagan’s book, Whores of the Court, to see how arbitrary psychiatric illnesses are. Peter Breggin, Fred Baughman and Thomas Szasz wrote extensively about abuses of psychiatry. Liberals blame guns for violence. Conservatives blame mental illness. Neither have any causal connection to violence. The issue is criminal conduct, crime. Suggesting that persons with legal disabilities are criminals shows the nonsensical argument of this politician and his fellow control freaks. Shame on them.

They’re worms, all of them.  Well, not all of them.  I have respect for Ted Cruz, Jeff Sessions, and Representative Walter B. Jones of North Carolina.  For the rest, I’m a gracious and kind man.  I say we give them their choice.  Hemp rope and lampposts, or tar and feathers.

Sweden goes bonkers.

The Swedish state is funding a “sniper” training course for recently-arrived Third World “refugees” as part of their “integration program”—despite the ever-growing refugee-terrorist attacks across Europe.

The almost unbelievable plunge into insanity—started two years ago already—was reported—in a positive pro-refugee light—by the Allehanda newspaper in Sweden, under the title “Fired up for Sniping,” (Laddade för prickskytte, literally “Charged up for Sniping”) and shows a large number of Third Worlders being taught how to target shoot with “sniper” target rifles on a formal shooting ground in Sollefteå, central Sweden.

Marco Rubio effectively ends his campaign and informs us that he never really wanted to be president.

Sen. Marco Rubio says people who immigrated to the U.S. illegally but haven’t committed any major crimes could be allowed to stay.

In an interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Florida contender for the Republican presidential nomination said felons shouldn’t be allowed to stay, but those who commit lesser crimes could still qualify. In this interview, he didn’t specify whether those allowed to stay would ever be able to become citizens.

“If you’re a criminal alien, no, you can’t stay. If you’re someone that hasn’t been here for a very long time, you can’t stay,” he said. “I don’t think you’re gonna round up and deport 12 million people.”

Ah, there’s that reflexive, well-trusted, tried and true (or false) red herring.  No one has ever suggested that we round up 12 million immigrants and ship them home.  The only thing you have to do is make it illegal to hire persons who aren’t citizens, put a few CEOs in prison when they try, and presto, you have an immediate exodus of immigrants.

But they won’t do that because the very reason they want illegals here is to perform work for low wages, the difference being made up by the middle class who pays for health care, SNAP and welfare.  It helps those high level managers, VPs, and members of boards to dine in style, go on their junkets and buy those homes on the lake.  We all know the gouge.  We’re very familiar with it – my daughter is an ER nurse who treats immigrants on a daily basis who use the hospital as their routine medical provider, and they can’t legally be turned away.

The average taxpayer would be hunting for hemp rope and lampposts to hang politicians if they knew the thousands of dollars wasted on expensive tests for low paid workers so that big corporations can turn big profits.  But Americans know enough, and that’s why there is open rebellion within the ranks, and why the GOP will cease to exist without fundamental reformation.

As for Rubio, he’s telling us that he never really wanted to be president, and I guess he doesn’t want to be a senator either.  Very well.  Good riddance.

Donald Trump calls Ted Cruz’s remarks about “New York values” disgraceful.  Even Rich Lowry says “It’s hard to exaggerate how good Trump’s New York answer was: No politician in either party could do it better.”

Oh sure it is, and the exaggeration was virtually ubiquitous last night in the media coverage, much of it coming from New York.  As for New York values, I cannot carry a weapon in New York.  In fact, I cannot legally own the magazines I currently do for my guns because of the so-called SAFE act, upheld with rulings from New York judges that utilize tactically ridiculous arguments such as the law making it more difficult to engage in spray-firing from the hip.

As for federal judges in New York, they have upheld New York’s gun laws on numerous occasions, and the people of New York, despite some good folk in the countryside, are beholden to the big city, and continue to vote in totalitarians like Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Mario and Andrew Cuomo.

Don’t be deceived.  We know all about how the effete, New York elitists look down their collectivist noses at conservatives.  Andrew Cuomo can even tell conservatives that they have no place in New York and need to leave, and most Manhattanites never skip a beat.  As long as the great, unwashed masses who tote guns, attend church and get their hands dirty on a regular basis stay “out there” somewhere, truck in food and goods, and vote for politicians who will continue to enable the world financiers in New York to play their high stakes gambling games, the world is right.

But it’s not right, not really, and the unwashed masses aren’t as ignorant as you think.  As I’ve said before, I don’t feel one iota of brotherhood with Manhattanites, not in ideology, not in theological views, and only barely in language.

Trump comes from a background of liberalism.  He is only new to gun rights, he has always been and continues to be in favor of a single payer health care system, and continues to believe that TARP and bailout were good ideas.  For the record, I hate New York values.

The Federalist:

The author, Mollie Hemingway, goes on to explain that this couldn’t possibly mean that Ted Cruz wants Jesus to rise from the grave to endorse him, because Christians believe Jesus is alive.  He is the only risen Lord, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.  Death couldn’t defeat him.  And of course, all of that is true.

But the most ridiculous assertion made by this idiot, Kathleen Parker, is that Ted Cruz wants the body of Christ to endorse him, as in the literal body of Christ!  How such a thing could happen, Kathleen doesn’t say.

Seriously.  This was said on national TV, apparently.  I’m glad that someone watches this shit because I don’t and from time to time we actually need to know how ignorant people are, especially folk inside the beltway.  I do not know who Kathleen Parker is and I don’t read The Washington Post, but it’s a shame that she works in a position of influence.

Of course as most school children know, the “body of Christ” refers to the church.  And Kathleen needs to attend Sunday School a bit to ameliorate her ignorance.

David Codrea:

At least in this case, the Bloombergians used real NBA players, although how much of a “role model” that organization provides is questionable.

Yea.  I saw that about the NBA.  David also covers NFL and other sanctioned sports and how they treat guns.  As for me, I laughed when I saw the thugs in the NBA co-opted by the anti-gun crowd.  They deserve each other.

John Jay has a GREAT piece on the standoff in Malheur.  GREAT article.  You need to read it for perspective.  Now that I think about it, John must be right concerning the roots of all of this.

As I’ve said, the TSA is a jobs program for hicks, goobers, rednecks, perverts and child molesters.

WSBTV.com:

On Monday, Gov. Nathan Deal rescinded an executive order that prevented state agencies from any involvement in resettling Syrian refugees, clearing the way for newly arrived transplants from the war-torn nation to receive food stamp benefits.

This comes days after Attorney General Sam Olens said in a formal opinion that Georgia can’t legally resist the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

Deal joined more than two dozen other Republican governors who raised concerns about President Barack Obama’s administration’s resettlement program in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris in November.

“We’re ready to defend it if we have to. I’d rather not spend taxpayer money defending something that can be avoided,” he said in December. “I just don’t know why the federal government wants to do this behind closed doors in total secrecy and don’t even trust state leaders charged with the security of our states with basic knowledge.”

Olens wrote that he is “unaware of any law or agreement that would permit a state to carve out refugees from particular countries from participation in the refugee resettlement program, no matter how well-intended or justified the desire to carve out such refugees might be.”

“Accordingly, it is my official opinion that both federal law and the State’s agreement to act as the state refugee resettlement coordinator prevent the State from denying federally-funded benefits to Syrian refugees lawfully admitted into the United States,” he wrote.

Follow the money.  There is a lot of it being sent by the state to the federal government, and the federal government sends it back with strings attached.

It’s pathetic, really.  All that has to happen is for a lawyer to throw his shirt up, flash his belly, and say someone can or can’t do something, and everyone cowers.

The governor can do what he wants to do, and for whatever he’s willing to send the state police and national guard to back him up.  Deal doesn’t want this fight, and he would rather saddle his own state with Syrians than resist the *.gov.

Under this schema (where the feds control the states because they force taxes and control the money flow), no state has the power do to anything or resist any act, pronouncement or ruling.  I believe in common parlance this is called a monarchy.

Sad, very sad.

This commentary assumes you are aware of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters standoff, where supporters of ranchers in Oregon are ensconced on a small building called a “headquarters.”  The lede is rather silly if you ask me, but it’s being carried that way in the main stream media.

I think myself unqualified to address the specifics of the claims made by the ranchers.  Apparently, the Hammonds say they set the fire to clear invasive plant species, and the fire got somewhat out of control and burned some innocuous federally controlled land.  Thus the charges, although the specific charges are ridiculous, relating to being domestic terrorists.  This is an overreach by the prosecutors.

Every man has his own threshold at which we will tolerate no more.  I realize that I have readers who would not tolerate having a concealed handgun permit because it is an infringement of God-given rights to self defense, an abdication of said control to the state rather than to God who issues the ruling on self defense to begin with.

I have a CHP, and my reaction is, “that’s right!”  I suffer the infringement of this God-given right because my threshold has no been crossed yet.  I am not ready to take up arms against the government, not because I believe my views are wrong, but because of other reasons.  I have a family to support, I have a job to keep, and keeping that job and supporting my family requires that I stay out of prison.  Those are the facts, like them or not.  If I want to carry a weapon and support my family, I need to have a CHP.

As for the American founders, and I consider them to be better men that I.  But again, every man has his threshold.  I will not criticize another man for his, and he shouldn’t criticize me for mine – as long as we have a reasonable threshold.

Enter men without thresholds.  What’s happening in Oregon is nothing less than armed sedition.

This is an act of armed sedition against lawful authority. That is all that it is, and that is quite enough. This is not “an expression of anti-government sentiment.” Flipping off the governor as he drives by is “an expression of anti-government sentiment.” What Alex Jones does every day is “an expression of anti-government sentiment,” and god bless them all for it. That’s what the Founders had in mind. This is not an “occupation” following “a peaceful protest.” That would be all those folks who got bludgeoned and pepper-sprayed out of Zuccotti Park a couple of years back. (And when exactly did ABC News decide it wasn’t a news organization anymore?) These are men with guns who have declared themselves outside the law. These are men with guns who have taken something that belongs to all of us. These are traitors and thieves who got away with this dangerous nonsense once, and have been encouraged to get away with it again, and they draw their inspiration not solely from the wilder fringes of our politics, either. Ammon Bundy and his brothers should have been thrown in jail after they gathered themselves in rebellion the first time.

[ … ]

There is no actual tyranny in this country against which to take up arms. There is bureaucratic inertia. There is pigheaded bureaucracy. There even is political chicanery. But there is no actual tyranny in the Endangered Species Act, or in the Bureau of Land Management, or in the Environmental Protection Agency, or in the Affordable Care Act, or in IRS dumbassery, or even in whatever it is that the president plans to say about guns in the next week or so. Anyone who argues that actual tyranny exists is a dangerous charlatan who should be mocked from the public square. Anyone who argues that there is out of political ambition, or for their own personal profit, should be shunned by decent people until they regain whatever moral compass they once had.

To reflect back for a moment on the situation, if the fire had been set to provoke the *.gov, it worked.  I won’t criticize that, although my threshold might not be the same one.  The EPA is a terrorist organization, just like the Bureau of Land Management.  Furthermore, the federal government has absolutely no business owning land.

But if the fire was set and a plan for containment to ensure that it was a true “controlled burn” was not in place, or if a professional had not been consulted to ensure that it was well done, the perpetrators are goobers.  Yes, goobers.  Not terrorists, but witless goobers.  They chose to go out and set a fire all … by … themselves … without the assistance of professionals like a fire engineer.  Yes, the EPA, National Park Service and others are full of witless goobers as well, with “controlled burns” being set near the Los Alamos National Laboratory that ended up requiring evacuation of the lab for one month, the Animas river spill in Colorado perpetrated by the EPA, and other examples.  I’m being gracious, goobers they’re not in some instances.  Terrorists they are (witness the control over wood burning stoves), and yet, they have the power at the moment.  So we’re back to that issue.

The best reaction to this comes from a tweet.

But regardless of the fact that only goobers set “controlled burns” that aren’t controlled, we are where we are with this.  And David Codrea takes the temperature.

So what are the administration’s options?  Assuming functionaries had their New Years weekends cut short, you can bet they‘re focus-grouping and war-gaming, and weighing scenarios and options. You can also bet special tactical teams are on alert, if not on their way — and if DOJ approaches this as domestic terrorism, the feds will totally marginalize the local sheriff.

They could talk the guys down, although from the rhetoric of the takeover leaders and Bundy’s conviction that he is carrying out the Lord’s will, that doesn’t sound likely. If they do come out, don’t expect the Justice Department to show leniency.

They could lay siege and wait them out, turn off all power and water, and see if a week or two might soften some resolve. On the other hand, depending on how many answer Bundy‘s call, the enforcers could find the greater cause for their concern is amassing outside their perimeter.

The third option would be to go full Waco, making sure the media is kept back so the narrative could be whatever they wanted to put out through a spokesman. It’s been done before.

That’s why an analysis by Mike Vanderboegh on his Sipsey Street Irregulars blog is important for the government (and for all of us) to understand, so that people with access to decision-makers know, in no uncertain terms, the precipitous situation a brutal reaction will produce — for everyone.

If things blow up in Oregon, things could quickly get out of control everywhere, and while we can only imagine what that will look like, the certainty is things would be ugly and prolonged. The government will act and affected people who will not comply will react. It’s an incredibly dangerous situation, where a shot, whether intentional or an “accidental” discharge — and it may not even matter which “side” fires it — could be the “Time’s up” spark that changes all the rules.

The fact that those occupying the federal building are being labeled as seditionists and insurrectionists should be a badge of honor, whether those doing the occupying deserve it or not.  The writer at Esquire forgets (or never understood) America’s rich relationship with sedition.  We began that way, we will live that way, we will embrace change when the threshold has been crossed.

If you have no threshold, like the writer at Esquire, you believe that if the government says to kill every person named David who is born on the third Thursday of every month as a sacrifice to Molech, then it should be done and enforced by the power of the state.  There is no difference between you and a Nazi or Fascist or their rightful heirs, Margaret Sanger and the eugenicists and abortionists.

We are where we are.  This won’t go away, this will continue until one party backs down, the *.gov, or the people.  It may occur by preemptive surrender, but I seriously doubt it.  That means that at some point, whether this is it or just one more skirmish, it will all come to a head.  The *.gov is playing with fire, even if it doesn’t know it.

David Codrea – drinking tea, shopping at a gardening store is justification for a SWAT raid.  How about being a black-robed Fascist like the asshole U.S. District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum?  Then we could send the SWAT team after him.  No, I’ve changed my mind.  I don’t like SWAT teams.  Hemp rope and lampposts will do just fine.  Or tar and feathers.  Sometimes I have such a hard time making my mind up.

Ha!

I also find it very disturbing that gun owners in North Liberty feel they have the right to carry their guns … [More]

I guess the irony of that statement doesn’t occur to her.

Mike Vanderboegh is commenting on the Harney County, Oregon standoff, here, here and here.

We’re not trying to shoot to kill.  Um, why else would you shoot?

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts urged trial judges on Thursday to manage cases more efficiently and advised lawyers to avoid “antagonistic tactics” … He suggested that lawyers often tried to wear down their opponents and implicitly advised against “antagonistic tactics, wasteful procedural maneuvers, and teetering brinkmanship.”

Oh good.  With all of my confidence in the American judicial system, I was beginning to fear the overreach of lawyers in defending the rights of the accused.  I’m glad the chief justice set us all straight.

David Codrea:

A man was viciously assaulted and robbed on a St. Louis MetroLink train by “several young men” who held him, beat him and went through his pockets, KTVI Fox 2 Now’s “You Paid for It Team” reported Monday. The attack happened days after a student “was terrorized on the train.”

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?  No.  Only an idiot would think so.

Bruce Hanify laments pajama boy and misses the world of sergeants.  My father served in the 82nd airborne division between the Korean war and War in Southeast Asia, and I had four uncles who fought in WWII, while two of those were drafted again for the Korean war.  Today’s men play fantasy football and watch nighttime TV shows.

Paul Ryan on guns.

“People with mental illness are getting guns and committing these mass shootings,” said Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, after the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., early this month.

I see.  So mental illness is the raison d’etre of the two shooters, not a committed and systematic belief in a death cult?  Good grief.  Ryan is a bad as the jackass he replaced.

Valets stealing guns.  Be careful out there folks.