The title of the post is deceptive. Kelly is making the case that using the National Emergencies Act when there is an emergency is already a routine situation that and if it isn’t going to be used when an actual emergency exists then they might as well eliminate it altogether.
The worry many on the Right have is that it will be used by Democrats when they have the Presidency again for everything from Global Warming to Snowflake Bullying. To my mind that is hardly a reason to disarm ourselves against the one truly existential threat to America in our time. Grow up Republicans, you can’t win without fighting.
It seems everyone on our side of the fence was impressed with Tucker Carlson’s video monologue on what’s gone wrong in America. But in Julie Kelly’s post she finds the reaction of NeverTrump folks like David French and Ben Shapiro to be decidedly negative.
Well, I’m not surprised. Tucker must be doing something really right to have the friends he does and the enemies also. Let’s hope he can help President Trump get his message out and start reversing some of the damage that Carlson has highlighted.
The scary thing is that this is probably being developed somewhere as we speak. We can see where this will be possibly rather shortly. The US, Europe, China, Russia. This video is scary because within a short span of years, maybe this year, it WILL become reality. Then it will “fall into the wrong hands.” Imagine ISIS releasing 300 of those near Times Square on New Years Eve? Or the next Presidential Inauguration. Or the Super Bowl? If it is possible, it will be built. The appetite for these things will be so great you will not be able to suppress their manufacture or dispersal.
Technological advancement is coming so fast it will soon be out of our ability to control it entirely. Skynet. We can’t even secure the Internet, for crying out loud. Any nation with some money and the ability to grow their own or import technical expertise will be doing this sort of thing. Just as drug cartels bought and grew their own chemical engineering expertise, so will terrorist organizations (some of which are still well-funded). This is the future of terror, this is the future of asymmetrical war, this is the future of criminal cartels and groups to eliminate rivals and also politicians/ cops/ judges/ prosecutors with whom they have problems. The good guys could retaliate, but the faces of cops, judges, senators, prime ministers, etc are well known while most drug cartel members aren’t.
Major players in technology such as the US, China, Israel, Russia, India, Europe and South Korea probably already have the capability or will as soon as the art reaches that point. North Korea and Pakistan will not be far behind. Pakistan and the Chinese both will sell anything to anyone for enough money. Pakistan sold nuclear weapons technology and expertise to both Iraq, then later, Iran. Israel’s Mossad cannot kill them all. At least not until the Israelis, major technology players, make their own little death droids.
Any leader or any member of government can be killed almost assuredly. I could easily plan such an attack if the technology was available that would kill almost every member of congress, the President, VP, Supreme Court and anyone else in the chain of command of any of the three branches of government in one fell swoop. If I can, many more could plan it even better. We could end up with the Secretary of Agriculture in charge of the entire government and nation.
Defense? None that I know of if they are AI controlled and not in communication with a base station which could be jammed or hacked. Maybe all our politicians would have to wear Guy Fawkes masks 24/7? But the drones would simply kill anyone in such a mask. Besides, biometrics are already at the point where the face itself is not necessary to ID someone.
I was listening to the Z-Man’s Friday morning podcast this morning. It’s on the Ancient Greeks and since that is something that I’m more than somewhat steeped in it was quite a lot of fun to listen to. Lots of good comparisons between Ancient Athens and the United States. What was topical was at minute 56 of the podcast he mentions that broadcast that Tucker Carlson did recently. I linked to it a couple of days ago and said it sounded like Tucker was running for President. What the Z-Man said was that it sounded like Carlson was reading aloud some of the dissident right posts that he and the other writers have been putting out for six or more years.
What this reminds me of is Vox Day’s constant refrain that “the Alt-Right is inevitable.” Well, I don’t know if the Alt-Right or the Dissident Right’s agenda is inevitable but what seems to inevitable is that a very good chunk of the American Nation is waking up to the fact that they’ve been putting their faith in men who really couldn’t care less if they lived or died. In fact, it appears they’d prefer it if we just up and died as quickly as possible. Call it the shifting Overton window or the red-pilling of the normies or whatever you like but if a Cloud Dweller like Tucker Carlson is coming around to the nitty gritty of where we’re headed then it won’t be long before even the most brain-dead denizen of Squaresville, USA will be waking up to the realization that Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney do not mean them well.
What I’m curious about is what will be the next big step change. In the same way as Blue States practice civil disobedience such as Sanctuary Cities, will Red States start protecting their citizens against national policies that they object to? For instance, if companies like Master Card and Google continue de-platforming conservatives could state attorneys general begin legal proceedings against these companies to force them to relent? Maybe they’ll prosecute the local universities that indoctrinate kids and strip them of their legal rights.
Honestly, I don’t know what’s next. But it does appear that dissident ideas are getting mainstreamed at least to some extent. Reading about the Baltimore lawyer who is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center and attempting to have their tax-free status revoked for using illegal tactics to get him fired from the Baltimore City government sounds like maybe a first step to addressing the radical de-platforming. Hearing this week that Master Card may be joining forces with the crowd-funding companies to deny access to e-commerce to conservatives sounds like some kind of Maoist or Stalinist internal exile tactic. At lest in the gulag they fed you once in a while. In our cashless society, denial of access to a credit card is tantamount to being an exile from modern life.
And this all points to the paradox of how I feel about the current situation. A few years ago, I didn’t know just how bad it really was but I was almost in depression because I couldn’t understand why we kept losing when we seemed to have the upper hand. Now I realize just how bad it is and that most of our “leaders” aren’t really trying to help us and yet I’m actually strangely optimistic. I feel like knowing the problem makes it possible for me to take some actions and improve how I live my life.
Will the unrest on the right reach critical mass? It’s hard to say but I’m interested to see what Tucker Carlson ends up doing in the next year or two. He’s a popular journalist and could do a lot to persuade people. Stay tuned.
This is fifteen minutes long and a lot of it is familiar but it’s extremely well done. He must be running for President in 2024. This reads like a campaign platform. It makes sense and it will make you hate our so-called leaders even more. He even calls out Romney by name as the face of the uncaring mercenary.
Ken Masugi has a post on resurgent nationalism and uses as a proof that even “reliable liberal E.J. Dionne, … makes apologies on behalf of nationalism.” in an article that Masugi quotes.
Well at least we don’t have to click on Dionne’s post. This tells you that the 2020 Dem candidates will be touting themselves as populists. Hah!
Here’s my retrospective on 2018, completely subjective of course and whenever I can’t make up my mind or I don’t want to leave something out I’ll cheat and provide more than one choice. And that’s one of the wonderful things about being the boss, you get to break the rules and do what you want.
Best Quotes of the Day
Some are political, some philosophical and some just human nature. The order is just chronological of their appearance on the site.
“In the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained. Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.”
Aristotle
“No state will be well administered unless the middle class holds sway.”
Aristotle
“When there aren’t any smart decisions, I suppose you just have to pick the stupid decision you like best.”
Orson Scott Card
“No one likes the fellow who is all rogue, but we’ll forgive him almost anything if there is warmth of human sympathy underneath his rogueries. The immortal types of comedy are just such men.”
W. C. Fields
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
H.L. Mencken
Carpe diem! Seize the day! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.
Horace
“And this is the simple truth – that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce.”
Soren Kierkegaard
If civilization had been left in female hands we would still be living in grass huts.
Over the course of 2018 I read and reviewed all eight of the volumes in the main series (first volume linked above) and they only got better as the series went along. It was good old mil-sci-fi space opera. I assume I won’t live long enough to see the end of the series but so far that isn’t a problem. I look forward to the next installment soon and am in no way tired of this particular universe. Kudos to Anspach and Cole. Long may they stoke their dumpster fire at the Edge of the Galaxy!
Vega is an acquired taste for me and as I’ve written about him, “It’s for those who like gritty crime dramas with a staccato, post-modern, minimalist writing style.” Even though my tastes are a little more conventional I appreciate that there is an audience for the more unusual so I look around for interesting stuff. As I’ve said before, your call.
Non-Fiction
The two books listed below provide two different takes on the way to interpret the results of ancient DNA analysis.
“The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution” by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending
“Who We Are and How We Got Here; Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Past” by David Reich
David Reich being an academic embedded in the politically correct culture of the university system treads ever so gently around the edges of how the science of human genetic history should be interpreted. Cochran and Harpending are much more direct and sometimes possibly presumptuous in the conclusions they draw from the evidence. Both books together tell a fascinating story of how much we now know about the complex and diverse origins of the various human populations.
This is a kids’ movie but it far exceeds any of the other “superhero” movies for just plain entertainment value. I won’t say it was as original as the first installment but it mostly kept to the spirit of the original and provided a fun vehicle for parents (or grandparents) to enjoy a movie with their kids.
This is a twofer. For younger folks I’ll only recommend the new version by the Coen Brothers. For people who grew up on the John Wayne movies of old I recommend they view both movies back to back in chronological order. They each have facets to its advantage. Each differs slightly from the source material. But each is a fine movie. And I’ll also recommend the novel that is the source for the movies. It also has facets that aren’t available in either movie.
Music
Country Music
Album of the Year
Colter Wall by Colter Wall
Song of the Year
Pan Bowl by Sturgill Simpson
My music choices are very idiosyncratic so I won’t try to justify them. To paraphrase a recent annoying politician, they just reflect who I am Pan Bowl is an older song from Simpson’s 2014 album.
TV
The only truly notable television I watched in 2018 was the State of the Union address by the president. Everything else was at best just okay.
On – Line Articles
Here are the articles that I thought were informative on our political situation. There were many others that were intersting but these seem to encapsulate the developments in the political thinking this year. Basically it’s the red-pilling of the normies.
American Museum of Natural History, New York City, Sony NEX 5N, Sony 24mm F\1.8 APSC lensmacrophotography with Sony A7 III, Minolta 200mm f\4 macro lens and extension tubes, long horned beetleMonotropa uniflora, Indian pipe, ghost plant, corpse plant, Sony A7 III with Minolta 200mm f\4 Macro lensSony A7 III with the Sigma MC-11 Adapter and the Sigma 180mm f\2.8 APO Macro EX DG HSM OS for Canon
