The Committee plotted with JPMorgan and its lawyer, former Obama AG Loretta Lynch, to obtain a citizen's financial records with no possibility of judicial review.
Aha! A most clever and cunning reply, guvna, evident immediately from the introductory, push-of-the-glasses-back-on-the-nose "akshully!"
I should have expected no less from the genius Scotland Yard once likened to Nathan Leopold (because of the 200 IQ, of course, not the sociopathy no no perish the thought). Though your riposte was near-perfect in every way--and equally persuasive--I shall offer up the rejoinder of "Actually, it is the right answer," and await with baited breath your next Kasparov-like move on the intellectual chess board. The game is afoot!
Ahh, a virtue voter. Tell me, what good would it do to vote third party when there is zero shot that they will win? Last time you had a mass third party was in 1912 when Wilson won the election because of Teddy Roosevelt's arrogance. Think what you want of Taft, however he would not have segregated the federal government, nor allowed the KKK to air a film in the WH.
I believe that the right answer is to vote to prevent either party from controlling both the legislature and the executive branch. If that requires voting with extreme distaste for either party (at least per my tastes), then it is the only way I can think of to prevent either of two parties that have become equally extremist in their own ways from destroying what legal protections exist.
About the only reason things aren't worse is best summed up in the last paragraph of that article:
"This is why Americans cling to their guns. It has nothing to do with hunting. It has nothing to do with self-defense against the common criminal. We cling to our guns so that, when our neighbors show up and say, “We’re going to take you to the camps now, because you’re a danger to society,” we can look back at them and say, “Like hell you will.”"
Ha! That pesky 2nd sure makes lions out of sheep, doesn't it. Here, 234 years later its still working as planned, putting the fear of the People in every Statist's rotten, quaking heart.
The enemy of the rapacious State is the armed Peeps. No other issue comes close to defining this eternal and necessary state of affairs. By default, we are grovelling, powerless slaves without the 2nd. And I do not need to own a gun. All I need is the right, which I claim, even without a Constitution (It sure looks nice, though, framed on my wall. Let's my guests, polite or not, invited or not, peg me with precision.)
A little history about firearms and overreaching government. In 1971 in Corona, Queens, NYC, a small group of 69 homeowners was scheduled to have their homes knocked down to provide a ballfield for a local high school. They were Italian Americans and were represented by Mario Cuomo, a young lawyer trying to make a name for himself, which he did. He was not the reason that the homeowners won, however. They grouped together and sat on their porches with shot guns when the bull dozers approached their homes on the scheduled day for demolition, The NYC police were called in to deal with the uprising but refused to attempt to use force against the homeowners. Needless to say, an agreement to let the homes remain in place was soon reached, and Mario Cuomo, of all people, had cemented a reputation as a defender of common people, especially Italian Americans, in a city of former immigrants and working people.
As long as local policing is not federalized, we are our own masters. As my Russian Grandfather used to say, when they send the Cossacks into your village, it's too late.
Nope. That just results in landslide Democrat (read: Statist) victory.
There are only 2 (two) solutions to (Statist) rigged elections:
Massive, overwhelming, voting for whichever Party is CURRENTLY opposing the insidious and ever-creeping Authoritarian Socialism of the Party CURRENTLY controlling the State. Sometimes over and over again until the over-bearing State is beat down and forced back into its Constitutional corral.
A popular (and must I mention bloody?) uprising.
If voters follow your advice and throw up their hands, the latter is inevitable. Is that what you really want, M. Basil?
I think you make a compelling case there, Tim. Though I am quite sympathetic (empathetic, even) to Basil's disdain for both parties and what I read as a certain black-pilled sense of futility in participating in a rigged-game, lesser-of-two-evils, Gozer-esque "Choose your destroyer" dilemma.
I am genuinely curious if our friend Basil has a practical, third alternative to those you presented to get us out of this mess. For example, I respected Bret Weinstein for at least proposing his Dark Horse, Unity ticket, so I am all ears for novel solutions--not so much for any proposal that basically advises those of us who enjoy luxuries like free thought just to pack our bags and wait for the next train to the gulag.
OK, regarding Tim's stupid anti-vax link, I suggest that everyone listen to This Week in Virology (at microbe.tv/twiv), watch Vincent Racaniello's Columbia University virology lectures and his live stream at his youtube channel.
Anti-vaxxers are stupid people and stupid people are THE problem in this country as a democracy demands an enlightened electorate and that we have so many ill informed and openly conspiracy theory informed people has made this mess. I think that it's more the nature of people, but if enough Americans actually educated themselves, then we could dig our way out fo this mess.
I am 1) extremely PRO-vaccine, 2) extremely PRO-science, and, most importantly of all possible worlds, 3) extremely ANTI-public-mandate-including-and-especially-those-that-involve-the-bodily-integrity-of-the-individual.
OK, I'll bite. You stated that people should vote GOP to fight the Nazi Democrats ("The Nazi Next Door" opinion piece) who are pro-vaccine and mask mandates. So, you think that the party who politicized the pandemic and ultimately is responsible for many of those >850,000 American deaths from Covid-19 is a better choice than the party that didn't and tried to enact certain mandates to reduce those deaths?
The fact is that zero public official, Democrat or Republican, had any understanding of the facts as discussed on TWiV and the myriad research papers that they discussed and so we ended up with an incoherent mess due primarily to the GOP and their anti-science and politization of the pandemic.
As supported by the information presented on TWiV, mandates are unnecessary because we have vaccines that work, so we need to move on. This is based on solid, objective information that the GOP has never accepted, they argued only for "freedom" and "liberty", while the Democrats erred on the side of overzealous safety. The GOP has not listened to any science by choice and fucked up the system such that so many Americans don't either.
LOL! The GOP is actively suppressing the vote. The GOP is openly anti-fact, as in their politicization of Covid-19 proves. The GOP actively suppresses local authorities to act, such as in making mask mandates or solar panel installations illegal at the state level.
Great conspiracy site. Anyone who questions the vaccines' efficacy and safety are stupid people, period. People like that are THE problem in this country, stupid, anti-intellectuals. A democracy requires an enlightened electorate, not idiots.
Thank you, Jeffery; this post reminded me I wanted to write an article called "Shitlib Mad Libs," where you fill in the blanks with vapid buzzwords (definitions updated daily!) like "anti-vaxxer" and "conspiracy theory" (prior to your edits), while blithely shilling for lawsuit-loss-leader Pfizer and the Shitlibs' beloved Trump's "Operation: Warp Speed." Of course, they will all start with "LOL!" rivaling even "Actually..." as the hallmark of a true sophisticate.
The primary is what will end Liz Cheney's political career. The polling in Wyoming shows 20% of Republicans would back her...in a state that is 70% Republican.
If she were to run as an independent, combining that 20% along with every independent and democrat vote, the best she could possibly do is get 44% of the vote. Of course, she could retain power if there were enough moronic virtue voters out there though I doubt it given the political climate in Wyoming.
It's January, and the primary is in August. In that window of time, there is no candidate in the world who cannot be defeated by the Establishment spin machine in concert with low-information voters.
Why thank you, Timothy. And wonderful to see you here again! It seems like ages--I, too, have been away--but I always appreciate the kind words and support, and I look forward to reading more of your insightful commentary (and hopefully finally updating my own Substack again finally haha)
uni...i don't know, but McCarthy went south thru the Media hounds. As things turned out, once we could see the Soviets files, McCarthy was right on the money, so says the recent books on the subject.
Janine...not sure here, since the Dem party has been in control at the start of most US wars. but Lizzy could be a Dem, but she is going south, no leader what-so-ever. thanks
Uh huh--god the Jedi mind tricks of leftists--don't vote for either of them! It's just an operative trying to suppress conservatives and libertarians from voting against the totalitarian ambitions of the democrat left and their puppet masters like Soros. Vote for =whoever= will staunch the flow of totalitarian socialist dictatorship, even that f'ing bitch Liz Cheney if your alternative was AOC.
The "we are empire now" instigators at the root of this sh*t are simply never going to just fold up tents and admit, red-faced, "we goofed!" We must face it. These are the *actual* killers of democracy, bit by bit, going on for two decades now, and they play the game very, very well.
Question is, what do we think they're capable of -- and how do we really prepare, beyond just talking about? The Jan 6 participants certainly found out how *not* to ask for "a redress of grievances" in the 2020s.
Why "eventually"? These ass hats just asserted unlimited power, independent and irrespective of the Constitution. That means that they recognize zero legal constraints on their power - they have declared it to be absolute. How long do you think the "corrupts absolutely" part takes? I would guess it follows almost immediately.
Agreed about their chutzpah and sociopathy. They're certainly there mentally now, and have been for a long time. My point is simply that they still need to apply more creativity to justify actual "gulags" and "firing squads" without waking people up.
They have already started with classifying points of view they deem threatening to their power as subversive and anti-American. This give them justification. They also created a Domestic Terrorism Task Force as an enforcement arm! And if they deem you a Domestic Terrorist will they ship you to Gitmo?
For me, it does not take much of a stretch of imagination to see where this could end...
Of course, gulags and firing squads (like, "God and guns") is a bit of hyperbole. But the nonchalant and self-satisfied manner in which the billionaire said "nobody cares about the Uyghurs, okay," sort of gives me a cold chill.
2.3 million Americans are in cages. That's higher by rate, and numerically, then any regime in history, including Stalin.
Most of them are poor, POCs or both. The conditions in these prisons are utterly brutal. More men are raped in America than women. That's applauded too. Shower jokes are perfectly acceptable discourse.
Just a quibble about the "rate" there. Our "rate" of imprisonment is artificially inflated by our squeamishness wrt just flat-out murdering political opponents. Thus far.
Give the Dems their head and that imprisonment rate will come down. Though our "imprisoned or buried" rate will probably stay pretty high.
The real sociopathy and psychopathy concentrates at the top -- but especially, out of sight. Only the congressional long-termers are potentially such.
In terms of maintaining loyal constituencies, the members of The Squad, and The Squad as a group, are powerful. Are they sociopaths? Same with Trump. He is still powerful. He is certainly a narcissist, but is he a sociopath? I'd argue none of them are.
Hillary, Bill, Biden, McConnell, Schumer, Pelosi, etc., on the other hand, long ago joined the true Big Club. It works just as Larry Summers warned Elizabeth Warren, about making the necessary Faustian (i.e. sociopathic) bargain.
Agreed. That's why we need to be extremely creative and careful with what we do as much as we can.
Jan 6 was a trap. This was obvious from the weirdly specific and wordy assertions of "insurrection" given out *that day*, well before it was possible to have contemplated enough evidence -- much less gathered it -- to characterize it as anything but a spontaneous riot. That was a tip-off for me.
A parallel thing happened in the discourse on 9/11. (I say that while still recognizing that these were far more serious events, to put it mildly.)
Ironically when I first saw the news when Jan 6th was going on, I said "Damn idiots, you've shot yourselves in the foot and are playing right into left's talking points."
One of the biggest problems with media (which as we know is now fully owned by the totalitarian/Leninist "Left") is that its second-millenium, daily-cycle, story-based format is wholly unsuited today to educating the public about the nature of the world, as its MO is making the specific general. So, one's POV, if not agenda, always drives which specifics become "representative" of the world. Showcase the Right's idiots, ignore the Left's idiots, and ... voila!
Yet with today's computing, networking, and big data, it is totally possible to make a far more representative map of the world, and learn how to use it ... if TPTB would permit it.
Aye, the media runs based on ratings and to further their own interests, they bend the truth, pull facts out of thin air and more and more frequently, outright lie. To keep the ratings high, they beat the same drum all the time...and people wonder why politicization has increased...
By Jove, you've done it! Well played haha that is indeed the quote. I think I actually came across it secondhand, I must confess, so it's great to see where it actually originated.
As I am fond of pointing out, when Democrats and the American "mainstream" media (but I repeat myself) say "democracy" , they do not mean rule by the δῆμος, they mean rule by Democrats.
They don’t even mean that, shitty as it would be — they mean that literally the only legitimate government is a Democratic one, that’s why President Dumbfuck was going on about how 2022 elections won’t be legitimate (if they lose of course).
To your point about the increasing warnings from Democrats about "22 and '24, they were knocked for a loop by the minor uprising concerning Democrat malfeasance in '20, decided to adopt the charges as a tactic, and are laying the groundwork to cancel certain elections.
'22 and '24 BETTER be Republican landslides, or we're in for a Dem "stealth" coup.
Which right now looks bad, since it looks like the replacement is a fascist technocracy, but could be good: we could go back to being a constitutional republic, instead of a democracy.
The Voting "correctly" bill would further nationalize elections and end the last vestiges of federalism, denuding States of ANY differentiation, and making them nothing more than administrative districts.
On the other hand, here's what Mr. McConnell SHOULD have told Bret Baier that Republicans are FOR, refuting the absurd rhetoric of our POTUS:
1) Rescind the 17th Amendment which democratized Senator selection, took the "re" out of "republic," and gave us a stealth UNI-cameral legislature (yes, we do still have a "double-vote" hurdle/check).
2) Take the 10th Amendment seriously, finally.
3) Stop abusing the Commerce Clause.
Look, I smoke good shit, but these are NOT pipe dreams. They are attainable by a free and determined People, now that an un-capturable (even if un-aware) outsider has exposed the Party establishments (neolib AND neocon Statists alike). The Republican party is slowly changing, and starting to listen to its Classical Liberal, but historically quiet, base.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are doubling down on their Authoritarian Socialism (what a nice term for Fascism/Communism).
Well, I think your hopes, re: the Republicans, are a bit optimistic...but who cares? The Dems HAVE to pay for their frightening overreach, and if the Repubs show themselves to be the avaricious amoral cowards they have been in the past, well...that will be a problem for another day, eh?
It's as Mencken said of capital punishment:
"Some would argue that the death penalty does not deter others from similar crime. Well what of it? At least the first is well disposed of."
You may be right about the Republican Party, and you certainly have much more historical evidence on your side, than I have on mine (one could say I bitter-cling my hopes; they will be the last to die, as they say), but let me add two comments:
1) That I am a "lesser-of-two-evils" voter should be enough, I think, to explain my voting record (Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Bush, Dole, Bush, Bush, McCain, Romney, Trump, Trump). I apologize for nauseating my fellow Classical Liberals in this most wonderful of all forums here (as only one of those candidates even came close to qualifying, and he had the audacity to name Mr. "Voo-doo Economics" as VP), but at least I hope (there's that word again) those that have come to know me a bit with my over-posting would understand how much my nose hurts from holding it in the voting booth over the decades, and that I would vote (and would have voted) Democrat in a freedom-loving heartbeat IF.... And,
2) As I have posted elsewhere, would that Henry Louis Mencken be alive to Substack today. (Shade NOT thrown to others, including, of course, our host, who I consider to be today's pre-eminent Classical Liberal, uniting the lost strands from both sides of the political axis that have been torn asunder for 2 (two) centuries by Statist double-speak, democrats, and Democrats.)
Let’s call it what it is - America has become a police state with political prisoners. There are no consequences for government misconduct/overreach - say anything and do anything and get away with it.
Adam Schiff is a classic example of how untouchable our politicians have become - he pushed a Russia-gate narrative that never existed - now he’s at the front of the line again.
"Adam Schiff is a classic example of how untouchable our politicians have become - he pushed a Russia-gate narrative that never existed - now he’s at the front of the line again."
Exactly. Just like the neocons who pushed and ran the Iraq War, and now beat the war drums for provoking Russia re Ukraine (and, perpetually, a dozen other things).
And, for God's sake -- Henry Effing Kissinger is Hillary's pal!
Colbert used to have great commentary on Iraq. These days he would ride the bomb over Russia like in Dr. Strangelove. Incredible how they turned supposed liberals into warmongers.
Well said. Always up for a Kubrick ref, and I felt it in my bones when Jimmy Dore lamented, "I cannot think of a bigger letdown in my life than Stephen Colbert." Haha
You and me. Would that I knew then what I know now. Perhaps we represent the best change of all: my sense is that not only are we not alone, but that our numbers are growing. The peeps seem to be waking up from a woke nightmare, albeit at sloth-like speed (hey, 100+ years of creeping, and creepy, Statism can't disappear without a hell of a long struggle).
Will the Republican Party purge its neocon warmongers? Will the Democrats be denied their dream police State enforcing wealth-destroying "equity"?
I say they will, even if not on my watch.
And I've thought for decades that things would have to get worse for enough peeps to wake up and firmly demand their Constitutionally-affirmed birthright of freedom from an over-bearing, wealth-destroying State.
Maybe I was right, and the "quickening" has begun.
All while the democrats keep lamenting "the end of democracy".
Ya jus can't make this shit up
The Elites literally project with their accusations - whatever they claim their enemies are doing . . .THEY are doing.
And the elites are both Democrats and Republicans. Both wings of the Business Party are thoroughly reprehensible. Don't vote for either.
No. Vote Republican to counter the Fascism of the Democrat lay voter.
https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/18/the-nazi-next-door/
Right now, this is the correct answer.
Actually, it's the wrong answer.
Aha! A most clever and cunning reply, guvna, evident immediately from the introductory, push-of-the-glasses-back-on-the-nose "akshully!"
I should have expected no less from the genius Scotland Yard once likened to Nathan Leopold (because of the 200 IQ, of course, not the sociopathy no no perish the thought). Though your riposte was near-perfect in every way--and equally persuasive--I shall offer up the rejoinder of "Actually, it is the right answer," and await with baited breath your next Kasparov-like move on the intellectual chess board. The game is afoot!
Ahh, a virtue voter. Tell me, what good would it do to vote third party when there is zero shot that they will win? Last time you had a mass third party was in 1912 when Wilson won the election because of Teddy Roosevelt's arrogance. Think what you want of Taft, however he would not have segregated the federal government, nor allowed the KKK to air a film in the WH.
I believe that the right answer is to vote to prevent either party from controlling both the legislature and the executive branch. If that requires voting with extreme distaste for either party (at least per my tastes), then it is the only way I can think of to prevent either of two parties that have become equally extremist in their own ways from destroying what legal protections exist.
A vote for a third party is a vote for Democrats. I remember this logic from somewhere…
What's the right answer?
If you ask me, and perhaps you haven't, it has always been and always shall be act on your conscience.
That can be left, right, third party, Bongo the Clown, or not at all.
Sorry that I just tell you this but you are an idiot.
Thx for sharing . Its agreat article
About the only reason things aren't worse is best summed up in the last paragraph of that article:
"This is why Americans cling to their guns. It has nothing to do with hunting. It has nothing to do with self-defense against the common criminal. We cling to our guns so that, when our neighbors show up and say, “We’re going to take you to the camps now, because you’re a danger to society,” we can look back at them and say, “Like hell you will.”"
Ha! That pesky 2nd sure makes lions out of sheep, doesn't it. Here, 234 years later its still working as planned, putting the fear of the People in every Statist's rotten, quaking heart.
The enemy of the rapacious State is the armed Peeps. No other issue comes close to defining this eternal and necessary state of affairs. By default, we are grovelling, powerless slaves without the 2nd. And I do not need to own a gun. All I need is the right, which I claim, even without a Constitution (It sure looks nice, though, framed on my wall. Let's my guests, polite or not, invited or not, peg me with precision.)
I love this. Yes. So true. (Also why our boys know where the flanking positions are.)
A little history about firearms and overreaching government. In 1971 in Corona, Queens, NYC, a small group of 69 homeowners was scheduled to have their homes knocked down to provide a ballfield for a local high school. They were Italian Americans and were represented by Mario Cuomo, a young lawyer trying to make a name for himself, which he did. He was not the reason that the homeowners won, however. They grouped together and sat on their porches with shot guns when the bull dozers approached their homes on the scheduled day for demolition, The NYC police were called in to deal with the uprising but refused to attempt to use force against the homeowners. Needless to say, an agreement to let the homes remain in place was soon reached, and Mario Cuomo, of all people, had cemented a reputation as a defender of common people, especially Italian Americans, in a city of former immigrants and working people.
As long as local policing is not federalized, we are our own masters. As my Russian Grandfather used to say, when they send the Cossacks into your village, it's too late.
If you want to counter fascism, vote neither D nor R. Nothing meaningful will ever again be achieved at the rigged ballot box.
Must I repost?: https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/18/the-nazi-next-door/
When it comes to Fascism, Republicans are pikers by comparison.
So you are down to defending facists against facists huh?
Ideology is blinding you.
Nope. That just results in landslide Democrat (read: Statist) victory.
There are only 2 (two) solutions to (Statist) rigged elections:
Massive, overwhelming, voting for whichever Party is CURRENTLY opposing the insidious and ever-creeping Authoritarian Socialism of the Party CURRENTLY controlling the State. Sometimes over and over again until the over-bearing State is beat down and forced back into its Constitutional corral.
A popular (and must I mention bloody?) uprising.
If voters follow your advice and throw up their hands, the latter is inevitable. Is that what you really want, M. Basil?
I think you make a compelling case there, Tim. Though I am quite sympathetic (empathetic, even) to Basil's disdain for both parties and what I read as a certain black-pilled sense of futility in participating in a rigged-game, lesser-of-two-evils, Gozer-esque "Choose your destroyer" dilemma.
I am genuinely curious if our friend Basil has a practical, third alternative to those you presented to get us out of this mess. For example, I respected Bret Weinstein for at least proposing his Dark Horse, Unity ticket, so I am all ears for novel solutions--not so much for any proposal that basically advises those of us who enjoy luxuries like free thought just to pack our bags and wait for the next train to the gulag.
No, they BOTH run these games on you.
Wake up already.
OK, regarding Tim's stupid anti-vax link, I suggest that everyone listen to This Week in Virology (at microbe.tv/twiv), watch Vincent Racaniello's Columbia University virology lectures and his live stream at his youtube channel.
Anti-vaxxers are stupid people and stupid people are THE problem in this country as a democracy demands an enlightened electorate and that we have so many ill informed and openly conspiracy theory informed people has made this mess. I think that it's more the nature of people, but if enough Americans actually educated themselves, then we could dig our way out fo this mess.
For the umpteenth-millionth time:
I am 1) extremely PRO-vaccine, 2) extremely PRO-science, and, most importantly of all possible worlds, 3) extremely ANTI-public-mandate-including-and-especially-those-that-involve-the-bodily-integrity-of-the-individual.
OK, I'll bite. You stated that people should vote GOP to fight the Nazi Democrats ("The Nazi Next Door" opinion piece) who are pro-vaccine and mask mandates. So, you think that the party who politicized the pandemic and ultimately is responsible for many of those >850,000 American deaths from Covid-19 is a better choice than the party that didn't and tried to enact certain mandates to reduce those deaths?
The fact is that zero public official, Democrat or Republican, had any understanding of the facts as discussed on TWiV and the myriad research papers that they discussed and so we ended up with an incoherent mess due primarily to the GOP and their anti-science and politization of the pandemic.
As supported by the information presented on TWiV, mandates are unnecessary because we have vaccines that work, so we need to move on. This is based on solid, objective information that the GOP has never accepted, they argued only for "freedom" and "liberty", while the Democrats erred on the side of overzealous safety. The GOP has not listened to any science by choice and fucked up the system such that so many Americans don't either.
LOL! The GOP is actively suppressing the vote. The GOP is openly anti-fact, as in their politicization of Covid-19 proves. The GOP actively suppresses local authorities to act, such as in making mask mandates or solar panel installations illegal at the state level.
Great conspiracy site. Anyone who questions the vaccines' efficacy and safety are stupid people, period. People like that are THE problem in this country, stupid, anti-intellectuals. A democracy requires an enlightened electorate, not idiots.
Thank you, Jeffery; this post reminded me I wanted to write an article called "Shitlib Mad Libs," where you fill in the blanks with vapid buzzwords (definitions updated daily!) like "anti-vaxxer" and "conspiracy theory" (prior to your edits), while blithely shilling for lawsuit-loss-leader Pfizer and the Shitlibs' beloved Trump's "Operation: Warp Speed." Of course, they will all start with "LOL!" rivaling even "Actually..." as the hallmark of a true sophisticate.
So, you have nothing to refute my post. Don't bother posting if you don't.
Vote in the primaries.
My congressman is Dan Crenshaw. I voted for him in the last general election.
Since he was elected, he's let his arrogance show. I'll vote against him in the primary, no matter who's running against him.
If he makes it past the primary, won't vote for him in the general election.
The primary is what will end Liz Cheney's political career. The polling in Wyoming shows 20% of Republicans would back her...in a state that is 70% Republican.
If she were to run as an independent, combining that 20% along with every independent and democrat vote, the best she could possibly do is get 44% of the vote. Of course, she could retain power if there were enough moronic virtue voters out there though I doubt it given the political climate in Wyoming.
Let's trade Ms. Cheney for Ms. Sinema.
(In other words (read: let me spell it out for you), Ms. Sinema should pull a Jumpin' Jim Jeffords.)
It's January, and the primary is in August. In that window of time, there is no candidate in the world who cannot be defeated by the Establishment spin machine in concert with low-information voters.
True. Please continue to help minimize the latter, M. The Anti-Hip.
The uniparty
Elementary, my dear Watson!
Perfect response. Watson, of course, was just a communication device, but he seldom saw the truth.
(Hey, M. Lyre, sorry I've been away, and thanks for subscribing me. I love your writing.)
Why thank you, Timothy. And wonderful to see you here again! It seems like ages--I, too, have been away--but I always appreciate the kind words and support, and I look forward to reading more of your insightful commentary (and hopefully finally updating my own Substack again finally haha)
Thanks back. And no pressure, just fun with words!
Yah...Basil...divide yourself up, then you will really be strong
I say, double team the 1/6 committee, after you bring THEM down, using legality, THEN you go for whatever else you suspect.
They'll need a committee to get rid of the committee, right?
uni...i don't know, but McCarthy went south thru the Media hounds. As things turned out, once we could see the Soviets files, McCarthy was right on the money, so says the recent books on the subject.
In fact, judging by how right he was, either side should think twice before pointing fingers and shouting, "McCarthy-ism!"
You mean the war party -- in which leadership includes Liz & Dick Cheney apparently as far as the Democrats are concerned
Janine...not sure here, since the Dem party has been in control at the start of most US wars. but Lizzy could be a Dem, but she is going south, no leader what-so-ever. thanks
Uh huh--god the Jedi mind tricks of leftists--don't vote for either of them! It's just an operative trying to suppress conservatives and libertarians from voting against the totalitarian ambitions of the democrat left and their puppet masters like Soros. Vote for =whoever= will staunch the flow of totalitarian socialist dictatorship, even that f'ing bitch Liz Cheney if your alternative was AOC.
Exactly. Vote "lesser-of-two-evils-in-your-individual-judgment."
All about accusing others of the thing you're doing first. They are good at that.
Absolute masters of projection. Especially the claim of insurrection.
And Russiagate...never forget (or forgive) the Russiagate...
Uranium One deserved a lot more attention than the fake pee tape
Hell, yeah.
("the" Russia-gate! I love that!)
It's like, for decades (centuries?), they practice so they can use it in phony attack. It's the very definition of insidiousness.
The "we are empire now" instigators at the root of this sh*t are simply never going to just fold up tents and admit, red-faced, "we goofed!" We must face it. These are the *actual* killers of democracy, bit by bit, going on for two decades now, and they play the game very, very well.
Question is, what do we think they're capable of -- and how do we really prepare, beyond just talking about? The Jan 6 participants certainly found out how *not* to ask for "a redress of grievances" in the 2020s.
There is no question in my mind they are capable of gulags and firing squads.
Eventually. Just as Archimedes could move the Earth with a long-enough lever, any story can eventually be walked to any conclusion for any purpose.
Why "eventually"? These ass hats just asserted unlimited power, independent and irrespective of the Constitution. That means that they recognize zero legal constraints on their power - they have declared it to be absolute. How long do you think the "corrupts absolutely" part takes? I would guess it follows almost immediately.
Agreed about their chutzpah and sociopathy. They're certainly there mentally now, and have been for a long time. My point is simply that they still need to apply more creativity to justify actual "gulags" and "firing squads" without waking people up.
They have already started with classifying points of view they deem threatening to their power as subversive and anti-American. This give them justification. They also created a Domestic Terrorism Task Force as an enforcement arm! And if they deem you a Domestic Terrorist will they ship you to Gitmo?
For me, it does not take much of a stretch of imagination to see where this could end...
Of course, gulags and firing squads (like, "God and guns") is a bit of hyperbole. But the nonchalant and self-satisfied manner in which the billionaire said "nobody cares about the Uyghurs, okay," sort of gives me a cold chill.
You might well think that is a limitation, but do they recognize it?
Remember, we're "The Land Of The Free!(R)"!
Because if we don't shred the Constitution, the Bad Guys might win.
They had to destroy the Constitution to save it don’t you see
2.3 million Americans are in cages. That's higher by rate, and numerically, then any regime in history, including Stalin.
Most of them are poor, POCs or both. The conditions in these prisons are utterly brutal. More men are raped in America than women. That's applauded too. Shower jokes are perfectly acceptable discourse.
The gulags happened. That was bipartisan too.
Yes, absolutely, this.
But you also know Cathie's talking about a whole new level on deck, and I agree.
Just a quibble about the "rate" there. Our "rate" of imprisonment is artificially inflated by our squeamishness wrt just flat-out murdering political opponents. Thus far.
Give the Dems their head and that imprisonment rate will come down. Though our "imprisoned or buried" rate will probably stay pretty high.
Anyone in power is. Power knows no ideology or morality.
The real sociopathy and psychopathy concentrates at the top -- but especially, out of sight. Only the congressional long-termers are potentially such.
In terms of maintaining loyal constituencies, the members of The Squad, and The Squad as a group, are powerful. Are they sociopaths? Same with Trump. He is still powerful. He is certainly a narcissist, but is he a sociopath? I'd argue none of them are.
Hillary, Bill, Biden, McConnell, Schumer, Pelosi, etc., on the other hand, long ago joined the true Big Club. It works just as Larry Summers warned Elizabeth Warren, about making the necessary Faustian (i.e. sociopathic) bargain.
Absolutely agree with you.
The... i suspect that the 1/6 participants are Not yet done. This committee is so wrong, Boss Tweed Law-suits will follow.
Agreed. That's why we need to be extremely creative and careful with what we do as much as we can.
Jan 6 was a trap. This was obvious from the weirdly specific and wordy assertions of "insurrection" given out *that day*, well before it was possible to have contemplated enough evidence -- much less gathered it -- to characterize it as anything but a spontaneous riot. That was a tip-off for me.
A parallel thing happened in the discourse on 9/11. (I say that while still recognizing that these were far more serious events, to put it mildly.)
Follow the nonviolent example of MLK and his followers in pushing for Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s.
Ironically when I first saw the news when Jan 6th was going on, I said "Damn idiots, you've shot yourselves in the foot and are playing right into left's talking points."
Yes, and in any group, there are always idiots.
One of the biggest problems with media (which as we know is now fully owned by the totalitarian/Leninist "Left") is that its second-millenium, daily-cycle, story-based format is wholly unsuited today to educating the public about the nature of the world, as its MO is making the specific general. So, one's POV, if not agenda, always drives which specifics become "representative" of the world. Showcase the Right's idiots, ignore the Left's idiots, and ... voila!
Yet with today's computing, networking, and big data, it is totally possible to make a far more representative map of the world, and learn how to use it ... if TPTB would permit it.
Aye, the media runs based on ratings and to further their own interests, they bend the truth, pull facts out of thin air and more and more frequently, outright lie. To keep the ratings high, they beat the same drum all the time...and people wonder why politicization has increased...
The ONLY positive of the Biden presidency has been that I haven't had to consider how lame, amoral and gutless the Republican alternative is.
But I know that the Dems have to be voted out. This is dangerous stuff, and we can worry about the poltroons and quislings in the Repub party.
* +2, used "quislings" and "poltroons" in the same sentence lol.
Remember that Democrats mean Democracy in the same way that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea mean it.
Their complete, unbridled, and totalitarian rule.
Or the National Socialist German Workers' Party! I know, no "democracy" but you get the point.
Or the German Democratic Republic.
I forget who said: "When they say 'our democracy,' they mean their oligarchy."
The wonderful Roger Kimball, I believe.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/10/31/the_january_6_insurrection_hoax_146663.html#!
By Jove, you've done it! Well played haha that is indeed the quote. I think I actually came across it secondhand, I must confess, so it's great to see where it actually originated.
As I am fond of pointing out, when Democrats and the American "mainstream" media (but I repeat myself) say "democracy" , they do not mean rule by the δῆμος, they mean rule by Democrats.
They mean tyranny of the "majority," as if tyranny of the majority (pure democracy) was and is a GOOD thing.
(And they don't HAVE a majority, thus the scare quotes.)
They don’t even mean that, shitty as it would be — they mean that literally the only legitimate government is a Democratic one, that’s why President Dumbfuck was going on about how 2022 elections won’t be legitimate (if they lose of course).
And that's even scarier.
To your point about the increasing warnings from Democrats about "22 and '24, they were knocked for a loop by the minor uprising concerning Democrat malfeasance in '20, decided to adopt the charges as a tactic, and are laying the groundwork to cancel certain elections.
'22 and '24 BETTER be Republican landslides, or we're in for a Dem "stealth" coup.
Just a tip of the cap to DNY, Tim, and Coco because I think this was a really good breakdown.
"We have to spend more money to avoid bankruptcy" Below Average Joe Biden.
Sadly you can't make it up.
Democracy in America is so over.
Which right now looks bad, since it looks like the replacement is a fascist technocracy, but could be good: we could go back to being a constitutional republic, instead of a democracy.
I share your excellent optimism.
The Voting "correctly" bill would further nationalize elections and end the last vestiges of federalism, denuding States of ANY differentiation, and making them nothing more than administrative districts.
On the other hand, here's what Mr. McConnell SHOULD have told Bret Baier that Republicans are FOR, refuting the absurd rhetoric of our POTUS:
1) Rescind the 17th Amendment which democratized Senator selection, took the "re" out of "republic," and gave us a stealth UNI-cameral legislature (yes, we do still have a "double-vote" hurdle/check).
2) Take the 10th Amendment seriously, finally.
3) Stop abusing the Commerce Clause.
Look, I smoke good shit, but these are NOT pipe dreams. They are attainable by a free and determined People, now that an un-capturable (even if un-aware) outsider has exposed the Party establishments (neolib AND neocon Statists alike). The Republican party is slowly changing, and starting to listen to its Classical Liberal, but historically quiet, base.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are doubling down on their Authoritarian Socialism (what a nice term for Fascism/Communism).
The two parties are fakes - https://www.fff.org/2020/12/11/the-national-security-establishment-is-in-charge/
Gee whiz, DJT is just one man.
Well, I think your hopes, re: the Republicans, are a bit optimistic...but who cares? The Dems HAVE to pay for their frightening overreach, and if the Repubs show themselves to be the avaricious amoral cowards they have been in the past, well...that will be a problem for another day, eh?
It's as Mencken said of capital punishment:
"Some would argue that the death penalty does not deter others from similar crime. Well what of it? At least the first is well disposed of."
You may be right about the Republican Party, and you certainly have much more historical evidence on your side, than I have on mine (one could say I bitter-cling my hopes; they will be the last to die, as they say), but let me add two comments:
1) That I am a "lesser-of-two-evils" voter should be enough, I think, to explain my voting record (Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Bush, Dole, Bush, Bush, McCain, Romney, Trump, Trump). I apologize for nauseating my fellow Classical Liberals in this most wonderful of all forums here (as only one of those candidates even came close to qualifying, and he had the audacity to name Mr. "Voo-doo Economics" as VP), but at least I hope (there's that word again) those that have come to know me a bit with my over-posting would understand how much my nose hurts from holding it in the voting booth over the decades, and that I would vote (and would have voted) Democrat in a freedom-loving heartbeat IF.... And,
2) As I have posted elsewhere, would that Henry Louis Mencken be alive to Substack today. (Shade NOT thrown to others, including, of course, our host, who I consider to be today's pre-eminent Classical Liberal, uniting the lost strands from both sides of the political axis that have been torn asunder for 2 (two) centuries by Statist double-speak, democrats, and Democrats.)
Can you also imagine Ayn Rand's Substack?!
It's true that great change can only occur after a great disaster. And you are correct, as it stands now, that change will not be for the 'better'.
It already occurred. See: Covid (never let a good crisis go to waste)
Yes and no. We are now *discovering* it's over. That's a positive thing.
The...strong point
Stop Being...soooo beautiful...for now i am crying. thanks
I never want to hear another f*cking liberal democrat utter the words “civil liberties”.
Or complain about 'oppression.'
Sure, as long as the Republican stop it as well.
Get on the disappointment train.
I never want to hear another duopolist nitwit claiming their side of the one war party is different.
💥
I never want to hear a Republican babbling noise about how their party isn't EXACTLY the same.
Guess we are both going to be disappointed eh?
Well, maybe one at a time, taking turns, faster and faster, like the magnetic field of an electric motor.
Let’s call it what it is - America has become a police state with political prisoners. There are no consequences for government misconduct/overreach - say anything and do anything and get away with it.
Adam Schiff is a classic example of how untouchable our politicians have become - he pushed a Russia-gate narrative that never existed - now he’s at the front of the line again.
"Adam Schiff is a classic example of how untouchable our politicians have become - he pushed a Russia-gate narrative that never existed - now he’s at the front of the line again."
Exactly. Just like the neocons who pushed and ran the Iraq War, and now beat the war drums for provoking Russia re Ukraine (and, perpetually, a dozen other things).
And, for God's sake -- Henry Effing Kissinger is Hillary's pal!
Colbert used to have great commentary on Iraq. These days he would ride the bomb over Russia like in Dr. Strangelove. Incredible how they turned supposed liberals into warmongers.
Well said. Always up for a Kubrick ref, and I felt it in my bones when Jimmy Dore lamented, "I cannot think of a bigger letdown in my life than Stephen Colbert." Haha
gimme a break - almost every member of Congress voted for the Patriot Act, to invade Iraq, etc.
20 years can change many things. A lot of truth can come out, eh?
Indeed it can...and I speak as one whom has had a profound shift in outlook over those 20 years of truth slowly coming out.
You and me. Would that I knew then what I know now. Perhaps we represent the best change of all: my sense is that not only are we not alone, but that our numbers are growing. The peeps seem to be waking up from a woke nightmare, albeit at sloth-like speed (hey, 100+ years of creeping, and creepy, Statism can't disappear without a hell of a long struggle).
Will the Republican Party purge its neocon warmongers? Will the Democrats be denied their dream police State enforcing wealth-destroying "equity"?
I say they will, even if not on my watch.
And I've thought for decades that things would have to get worse for enough peeps to wake up and firmly demand their Constitutionally-affirmed birthright of freedom from an over-bearing, wealth-destroying State.
Maybe I was right, and the "quickening" has begun.
You and me both, Steve!
So what yoiu are saying is that all of them are warmongering fools and corrupt schills fo the MIC.
Yup, good to see I am not the only one who recognises this.
Barbara Lee speaks for me!
Would she have so objected if the POTUS had a D next to the name?
Yes, those neo-cons sure can take advantage of a crisis. Who taught whom this skill?
Of course she would have objected. She objected to Obama's drone strikes and tried to get them declared illegal.
He's talking about the neocon agenda that had an agenda to take out Iraq, but that was just the beginning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mNr1aaDiNw
Q: How are neo-libs exactly like neo-cons?
A: In their minds, nothing can solve a "situation" like war can.
And here comes.....Ukraine! (Neo excitement is palpable.)
All when there is no reason for one....and no support for one.