Month: December 2024

An Object Lesson in Civics

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I was getting together with some New York City friends.  We were at a local Chinese restaurant that we have been known to frequent.  Full disclosure, I had the chicken chop suey because the kung pao chicken is too spicy so soon after my Christmas gorge fest.

We eventually got around to talking about Daniel Penny and his surprise acquittal by a New York City jury.  And then we talked about mayor Eric Adams and his trouble with the FBI.  It was agreed that he was being targeted not because he was guilty of the crimes he probably did commit but because he had complained about the outrageous scourge of illegal aliens that the city was being forced to house and feed.

I said I thought that maybe after Trump takes office, he might cut a deal with Adams to have pressure put on the judges and prosecutors persecuting Trump in exchange for a pardon on the charges the FBI has brought against Adams.  Of course, I said this tongue in cheek.  New York Democrats will never stop attacking Trump until he cuts off federal funds to New York.  So, if he helps Adams, it will only be because he wants to make a deal with Adams to deport the New York illegals.

And then we talked about New York City’s future.  Basically, the crime and dysfunction has gotten so bad that even “safe” neighborhoods like Shore Road in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn were experiencing levels of violent crime never seen before, even in the 1990s.  And outrages like the illegal alien who set a female subway rider on fire and watched impassively as she burned to death.

I asked whether it seemed likely that the disastrous conditions would elicit a powerful reaction to restore law and order and save the city.  The answer I got was no.  They felt there wasn’t the will to fix things.  The elites who sponsored Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams as mayors wouldn’t change course no matter the consequences.  The were intent on enforcing progressive policies regardless of the consequences.  Of course, my friends freely admit that these elites will eventually abandon New York City for safer suburbs once their families are at risk in the city.  And once the people with the money abandon New York City it will begin to look like Philadelphia and Newark and eventually Detroit.  So that was their take.  New York City is in its death spiral.  The crime that the Democrats unleashed after the summer of George Floyd will be the cancer that kills Gotham by the sea.

It’s a funny thing.  Several years ago, I returned home to my old neighborhood.  And it was basically unrecognizable.  The new immigrants there had taken over and made the place their own.  Well, even if it made me a little sad to see my childhood memories thoroughly erased, I could understand that it was the nature of cities like New York.  But knowing that the city would be utterly destroyed is different.  It’s completely unnecessary.  A city full of immigrants from all corners of the earth needs law and order even more than some homogeneous ethnic enclave.  Everyone needs to feel like the law is there to protect them from chaos.  The fact that the progressives have declared law and order racist is proof that they don’t deserve to govern.  But it may take the destruction of every blue city to prove to everyone in this country that fact.  Oh well.

29DEC2024 – Quote of the Day

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[Isaiah’s Job; The Atlantic Monthly (June 1936) (Part 5)]

Why, if all that were so — if the enterprise were to be a failure from the start — was there any sense in starting it? “Ah,” the Lord said, “you do not get the point. There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it.”

Albert Jay Nock

Looking Out Through the Overton Window

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Here I am at Friday.  Now all that remains of my holiday week is a measly weekend.  But I won’t grouse (much).  In the afterglow from way too much rich food and late nights watching old movies I muse on the current political situation and wonder what the future holds.

And I’m reminded of something that has been said a number of times about Trump.  It’s not so much what he finishes as what he normalizes.  Before Trump the Republicans were so cowed by eight years of George Bush and eight years of Obama that their idea of innovation was volunteering to capitulate on citizenship for illegal aliens.  Was it Jeb Bush who declared it not a crime but an act of love?  And then Trump comes along and says he’ll build a wall and now eight years later Latinos vote him into office on the strength of his promise to deport millions of Latinos!  So, what is the lesson?  Stop being afraid of what your enemies will call you and instead worry about what your friends need.

And imagine if Trump applies that same idea to all of the problems that beset his constituency.  And who is his constituency?  I would say it’s everybody that isn’t in the elite or working directly for the elite.  That gives him a lot of ground to choose from.  There is an enormous opportunity to punish corporations that hire illegal aliens and/or off-shore their manufacturing plants.  Forcing these corporations to hire Americans should be job two (directly after deporting the illegals).

And another big population that voted for Trump was men.  Men broke for Trump.  Even a lot of non-white men voted Trump.  Well, how about he has our back by striking down feminist affirmative action everywhere it is found.  Women have been advantaged by the law and the bureaucracy for long enough.  Stop whining about being held back and just stand on your own two feet for a change.  No more quotas and no more special dispensations around physical requirements for things like fire-fighting and the military.  If you’re too weak for the job find an easier job.

And finally, finishing off the race hustlers who scream racism when they discover that equal opportunities don’t result in equal results is probably the most important thing about which Trump can shift the Overton Window.  I don’t expect Trump to achieve all of his results.  He may only deport a fraction of the illegals and only punish a fraction of the companies employing illegals.  He may only drain half the swamp.  But what he will do is change the argument from how quickly the Republicans should capitulate to the Left, into how to primary the RINOs that don’t follow his lead.

All of the old guard pundits who mocked Trump for the last eight years and declared him a fluke who won’t get anything done have been proven wrong.  Even the stupidest and most dishonest admit this is the Age of Trump.  He has tapped into an angry populism that can fuel major change if it is channeled skillfully.  Trump has four years to fix things.  If he comes close to doing that, his successor can follow in his footsteps and continue the job.  Namely, give us back our future.

28DEC2024 – Quote of the Day

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[Isaiah’s Job; The Atlantic Monthly (June 1936) (Part 4)]

In the year of Uzziah’s death, the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come. “Tell them what a worthless lot they are.” He said, “Tell them what is wrong, and why and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten up. Don’t mince matters. Make it clear that they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them good and strong and keep on giving it to them. I suppose perhaps I ought to tell you,” He added, “that it won’t do any good. The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you and the masses will not even listen. They will all keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life.”

Albert Jay Nock

A Better Grip

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In the aftermath of Christmas I’m lazing around the house eating leftover desserts and reading whatever news and commentary appears on-line.  All things considered that’s a pretty relaxing way to end off Christmas week.  There were a few dominant buckets of news and opinion.  There were the, “What’s the first thing Trump will do?” and, “How can we stop Trump from doing anything?” and, “What will be Joe Biden’s legacy?”  Well, that last one will be easy to answer.  A VHS copy of “Weekend at Bernie’s” for the Biden Library.

But one of the more interesting things I listened to was Al Franken talking to some journalist about why Trump won or more exactly, why Harris lost.  So, this investigative reporter tried to explain to Franken that people voted against Harris because they didn’t like how their values were demeaned by the Democrats.

Now this idea had to rattle around in Franken’s head for a good long time.  His guest reminded him several times about Hillary calling people deplorables and even Obama lecturing working class people about clinging to God and guns.  And, of course, the idea of criticizing Obama disoriented Al Franken, “Are we allowed to say that?”  Eventually Franken even began to see how Latino men and even black men might eventually get tired of voting for a party that disrespects men and then actually vote for the white guy.  Of course, all this crazy talk had to be toned down and they both started genuflecting to Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris and howling and shrieking Trump’s name because he’s evilll!

But it’s interesting.  They were devilishly close to uttering the statement that the Democrats have become the party of rich white people and Trump is the man of the people, even people who aren’t white.  Now that’s funny.  Al Franken was cast out during one of the #metoo pogroms because back when he was a comedian for Saturday Night Live, he committed some practical jokes against women that were sexual in nature.  If I remember correctly, the jokes were at about the maturity level expected of sixth graders.  For this he was cast out of the United States Senate.  This makes him one of the most severely punished Democrats falling afoul of cancel culture.  I wonder how this makes him feel about the whole left-wing culture project?  Losing a senate seat must really, really sting.  But I guess he still gets his money from the Left and money talks.

Well, anyway, it is interesting to see how even leftists can recognize obvious facts even if they defy all the tenets of their faith.  They may not be able to admit the consequences of those facts if they’re particularly blasphemous but they can tentatively poke at the facts with a stick and point out how they remind them of this or that thing that would make sense if it wasn’t so frighteningly close to admitting that Kamala Harris is an idiot and the Biden Administration was a dumpster fire.

So, you see, the Democrats have been working their way through the seven stages of mourning.  They may not be all the way to acceptance but they’re darn close.  What will come next is the search for a savior.  The most amusing name I heard floated was … Kamala Harris!  Of course we couldn’t get that lucky.  Even the crazy cat ladies of the Democrat establishment and their loyal eunuchs wouldn’t allow their political correctness to permit Kamala anywhere near the 2028 election.  Josh Shapiro or Gavin Newsom or even Bozo the Clown could get on the primary ballot but Kamala has chewed through (supposedly) $2.5 billion.  From what I’ve heard, the donors are kinda mad.  There are probably as many hit squads trying to get her as are after Trump.

So today was a relaxing day and although I am a little embarrassed to have bothered with the goofy stuff I read, it was a way to catch up with where the world is currently floating.  And it made me think.  Right about now Trump must be saying to himself, “Less than a month to go.  I better get a better grip on this tiger’s tail because I’m about to get a hell of a ride.  And so are we all.

27DEC2024 – Quote of the Day

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[Isaiah’s Job; The Atlantic Monthly (June 1936) (Part 3)]

This story is much worth recalling just now when so many wise men and soothsayers appear to be burdened with a message to the masses. … I can not remember a time when so many energumens were so variously proclaiming the Word to the multitude and telling them what they must do to be saved. This being so, it occurred to me, as I say, that the story of Isaiah might have something in it to steady and compose the human spirit until this tyranny of windiness is overpast. I shall paraphrase the story in our common speech, since it has to be pieced out from various sources; and inasmuch as respectable scholars have thought fit to put out a whole new version of the Bible in the American vernacular, I shall take shelter behind them, if need be, against the charge of dealing irreverently with the Sacred Scriptures.

Albert Jay Nock

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 26DEC2024 – Elemental

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war pig

Given the choice between kids with simple toys and physicists, I’ll take the children every time. There is something elemental about children learning a new skill. They have to understand trajectory, momentum, judging speeds & accurate distances, bound orbits; and then teach their bodies to react precisely to intercept a bound orbit vector at speed and to furthermore cushion the landing of the ball to prevent it bouncing out of the cup again.

Small wonder we have so much trouble programming humanoid robots to do simple things children can do.