Author: photog

FISA Reauthorization – The Real Test of the House

photog Current Events , , , ,

Want to know whether Republicans have any legitimacy as a conservative entity?  The FISA  program expires on December 31, 2023.  Just wait to see if they reauthorize it or not.  The FBI has been documented by the Inspector General for the Justice Department to have abused this program systematically.

“On April 27, Inspector General Michael Horowitz gave a statement before the committee that stressed the need for “transparency and oversight” to avoid or mitigate the repetition of “mistakes, errors, and abuses.” Horowitz explained that factual accuracy when showing probable cause was a pervasive problem among bureau agents before 2021.”

The abuses of the FISA court during the Russia-gate actions proved that partisan elements in the FBI and the Justice Department routinely abused the FISA process at will.

Why would the Republican House renew it?  The only reason possible would be cowardice.  They fear that if they allow it to lapse the Deep State will allow a foreign government to launch an attack on the US homeland and then blame the Congress for the attack.  But if that’s the case then nothing will ever get fixed in our system and the intelligence agencies will have free rein to spy on us and persecute anyone that speaks against them.  From my point of view, this reauthorization deadline is the acid test of whether there is any hope of ever reining these people in.

Put it on your calendar and on January 1st see whether our conservative warriors stood their ground or caved in.  I’m dying to know.  And if they fail it just confirms what all of the “conspiracy theorists” have been saying all along, that the FBI controls the Congress and not vice versa.

Mark the date.

 

Homelessness Addressed

photog ArthurinCali, Current Events, Guest Contributors , , ,

Arthur has a short post on a solution to homeless encampments that are metastasizing across our cities.

We Interrupt This Rant.  Moving Forward, Getting on With It, Recalibrating

photog Current Events, OCF, photog's Corner , , ,

We all have to get used to the new reality.  It’s a different world we now live in and some things are no longer news and other things are still useful.  And priorities change.  In 2015 and 2016 Donald Trump opened up a new way of looking at the world and that change filled up the internet and mesmerized the Right for eight years.  Well, now that outlook has spread to everybody it can reach.  And that news isn’t news anymore.  And the Left has asserted itself and plugged up the holes in its walls and stopped the peasants from crashing the castle gates.  The party’s over.  It’s time to adjust.

For me the adjustment is to dividing up my time differently.  A daily blog post can’t be only about the war between the Left and the Right.  That will be too repetitive.  Even taking events from the news and reacting or critiquing them cannot be a daily occurrence.  There’s just too much overlap from story to story.  Too much, Joe Biden, too much Deep State, too much woke capitalism, too much fake news.  Same old, same old.

Now I’m not going to abandon these things.  I’m just going to cut back on the frequency and pick my opportunities judiciously.  I’ll look for an occasion when the example has some special emphasis.  As an example, the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action would be an occurrence that merits a discussion.  It’s more than the usual background noise, it’s a significant story.  But it’s exceptional and it will be treated as an exception.

So then, what will I fill up my time with?  Well, two buckets.

One will be public interest.  And that can be anything that might interest people who read this site.  For instance, I like science fiction and fantasy.  Reviewing movies and books is something I like to do.  And not just sf&f.  I like all kinds of books and movies and I like to share things I think are good.  And I’ll share businesses that I find that are run by folks on our side of the culture war.  I’m hoping that will become a bigger part of the world we live in.  Hopefully one day there’ll be an ad on this site for a every product that I believe in and can recommend.  Who knows?  Maybe it’ll be for a right-wing beer company that Dylan Mulvaney won’t ever be asked to “partner with.”

And the other bucket is writing my book.  Currently I’ve got slightly more than 49,000 words finished.  But last year I thought I’d be completely finished by this July.  Obviously, I need to get religion.  And by that, I mean make fiction writing the first priority of my available time.  Now for the last few weeks I’ve been pulled in multiple directions and I can forgive myself for getting behind on everything; posts, pictures, quotes and fiction writing.

But I have to start somewhere and so I’ve been prioritizing the fiction writing this week.  And I’ll continue with that plan going forward.  So, while I’m adjusting there may be some dry spells on the site.  Nothing drastic just some less busy periods.  But once I get the hang of this new routine, I expect things will return to about the same output in terms of posts and other content.  The only difference will be that repetitive rants should be way, way down.

But that won’t change the fact that Joe Biden sucks.

And now having said that I return you to end of western civilization already in progress.  Have a nice day.

On Parenthood

photog Current Events, Reclaiming the Family ,

Matt Walsh got into an argument with some randos that wanted to make the point that being a parent was hard work and totally a bad deal.  Well they long ago have blocked the thread from their side.  Walsh has made some good points about the value of being a parent and many people have reinforced his statements with equally mature and measured opinions.  I think it’s true that some people shouldn’t be parents.  But I base that on the well-being of the children who end up with immature and selfish parents.  That is a sin.