Cuts Both Ways, Assholes

Apparently, we conservatives are Beyond The Pale.  Saith Jennifer Rubin:

There is no way to “understand” MAGA voters, nor is there is any possibility of reaching political agreement with them. They are beyond the bounds of rational political debate.

Hey, Jen:  substitute “socialist voters” for “MAGA voters”, and you’ll have an idea of what we think of you lot.  The only thing you need to understand about us is that we hate your putrid political philosophy and your criminal voting practices.

And then some other Lenin-lickspittle chimes in with:

There is no longer any reason to try to “understand” these people. Nor should there be any compunction about doing whatever we can to read them out of American politics…

…by any means available, you mean?

Noted.

Closing Fast

Interesting take by ZMan over at Taki’s Mag:

One of the remarkable things about the collapse of the Soviet Union is that it just melted away without a struggle.  It was as if everyone could not think of a reason to keep it going.  The reason for that is the trust in the key institutions had drained away.  There was no reason to defend them or participate in them.  The people running the institutions had used up all of the social trust to maintain their positions.  When it was gone, the institutions collapsed.
Something similar is happening in America.

Many years ago, a dystopian novel entitled The HAB Theory  was published, whose premise was that as the ice caps grew larger, the added weight would create an imbalance in the Earth’s rotation — and when the “wobble” became too much to support, the Earth would upend itself, the heavy poles would realign along the equator (and eventually melt), whilst new ice caps would naturally form in the northern and southern latitudes, as before.

While that theory is (rightly) regarded as nonsensical now, what was interesting was that when the tipping point arrived, the collapse was very sudden — anyone who’s ever spun an old-fashioned top with string can attest to that.  Everything’s fine when the top is spinning fast, but as it slows it begins to wobble — and in less than a second, it’s flying all over the floor on its side, still spinning uselessly in its death throes.

I just wonder, given ZMan’s hypothesis, how close we are to that point in the U.S.

 

Interesting, If True

Like many a denizen of a MAGA Red Trump State, I’ve been apprehensive about the hordes of Californicators, Noo Yokkers and similar refugees from their respective hellholes pouring into Texas.  It seems, however, that my fears (and that of others of my ilk) of Bluestaters turning our state purple if not Blue may be a little too pessimistic.  Here are some numbers:

The results of the 2020 census are in, and the Democrats are looking very nervous. It turns out that red states are growing and blue states are shrinking. Red States are gaining three congressional seats while blue states are losing three. In fact, California will lose a seat for the first time ever. Legislative and Electoral College power is shifting in favor of the Republicans.
But the propaganda ministry is trying to convince us that this is all good news for the crime family that calls itself the Democrats. The narrative is that liberals are moving from blue states to red states and will eventually turn them blue. But as we’ve learned, if the talking heads are talking, they’re most likely lying. So, let’s examine what they’re saying.

He looks at his (new) home state of Idaho:

Between 2013 and 2019, the percentage of voters who registered as Republican went from 32.4% to 50.8%.  Democrats added 52,300 voters to their rolls, but Republicans added a whopping 200,000 to theirs!  Idahoans are becoming more engaged in politics, and their political proclivity is clearly conservative.

His conclusion?

The reality is that conservative states are becoming more conservative, and they are gaining political clout at the same time.  The people moving about the country aren’t missionaries going forth to spread socialism, any more than those fleeing Cuba in the last century were trying to bring communism to Florida.  They’re escaping the blue states in search of the America of their youth.

To paraphrase the title of this post:  I sure damn hope it’s true, and all this isn’t wishful thinking.

From another American Thinker article, here’s what happened in Texas recently:

Back on Election Day 2020, the Democrats were convinced that it was their year.  After all, didn’t Beto O’Rourke break the ice when he got 48% against Senator Cruz?  On the Friday before the election, a poll had Biden up and Senator John Cornyn in a tie.  As you know, President Trump carried Texas, and Senator Cornyn had a landslide re-election.  Wonder if anyone asked for a refund from that pollster?
It was going to be their year until they counted the votes.  Then suddenly it was good old Red Texas all over again.  The Democrats went 0-10 in congressional districts despite putting lots of resources and TV ads into tying every candidate to President Trump.  In the end, the TV ads tying Democrats to “defund the police” turned out to be more persuasive.

And:

First, the Democrats are finding out that a growing Hispanic population does not necessarily mean more Democrats elected.  President Trump did well in South Texas in large part because Hispanics like a strong economy and do not believe that the border should be open.  After all, most of those Hispanics were born here or respected the law to come in.  They don’t understand why other people cannot do the same thing.
Second, the Democrats have a San Francisco message that does not play well in Texas.  From “abortion on demand” to gun control, the Democrat message is not turning on voters.  The abortion issue (the new heartbeat law) will be a problem for Democrats with Hispanic women.  As a Hispanic lady said to me: “How can you abort a heart beating?”  My guess is that most Hispanic women agree with that.
So what do you do when your voters don’t turn out or your jingle doesn’t get clicks?  You blame the other side for “suppressing” the vote.

I’m not so sure that the Socialists are going to do that well with their precious Black voters, either.  At least, if this guy is at all representative.  (Loud, epic video)

And if you don’t break out in giggles like a ticklish schoolgirl, I don’t wanna talk to you no more.

Tandem

Two articles have surfaced, and I believe they should be read one after the other.

The first is by Victor Davis Hanson, and of course is therefore worth reading all by itself:

[U]ntil recently there were still a few institutions we considered sacrosanct, incorruptible, and invincible amid faith-based assertions, toxic woke fads, civil dissension, and hatred of the past. One certainly was the military. Another was “science,” or rather the scientists, researchers, and investigators who devoted themselves to disinterested empiricism. And, a third, was the sacred idea of the “law,” or the idea that Americans respect our statutes because they were crafted by ourselves and applicable to all, equally, and without exception.
All three have lost their luster. Americans do not trust them, at least not in the old way. Perhaps it was the 2020 perfect storm of plague, quarantine, recession, riot, a contentious election, and red/blue antipathies that ripped off the scab and exposed beneath something far different than what the public had assumed.

Read it all, then follow up with this one:

It isn’t just BLM against bikers, or school systems against parents, or black against white, or Hispanic against Asian, or young against old, or left against right, or gay against straight, or vaxers against anti-vaxers, or mask wearers against mask refusers; it is the intent of government officials to inflame these conflicts to the point of violence that is the concern. His response was a slow shake of the head, a shrug of the shoulders saying what he preferred not to say.
The fact is, there is no D-Day, but rather the slow accumulation of grievances until the load can no longer be carried. His words came back to me over the whole conversation. “We’re not that stupid.” The trouble with combat veterans, like my father (Korea), is they tend to be non-confrontational in such situations, because they can smell an ambush, not because they fear engagement, but half measures won’t suffice and until they are ready to go full-on, all other responses seem tepid, but the rage builds.
This climate is being manufactured. Those who are sure they will win are goading on the conflict. Those who are not sure they will win, refuse to fight at half measure, harming only their families and friends, enraging a brutal enemy without the resolve to complete the mission. What the enemies of the people should be afraid of, if they had any sense, is a fighting force having put it off until there was nothing left to lose, but coming out dedicated to the eradication of their enemies as the only possible solution.
Caught in the middle of this brewing conflict is law enforcement. This is something they should recognize, but they have not thus far. They seem willing to be the fodder; the useful idiots of the tyrannical regimes. If they could only look into the face of what confronts them, they might choose differently, but I doubt they would. Most of them agree to impose tyranny as a means of securing their pensions, as if they can suspend their duty as American citizens while in uniform and pick it back up when they shed it. Consciously or sub-consciously they are making a decision to violate their oaths in order to receive their shekels from tyrants.

This situation, by the way, seldom turns out well for the camp followers.  At best, they’re treated as collaborators and shunned, or else they lose everything — rank, prestige and respect — and at worst they’re killed, either by the resistance in situ  or by the regime that follows.  “Just obeying orders” has held no water ever since 1945.

Both the above are bleak theses;  but these are bleak times we live in.

Corporate State Tyranny

…a.k.a. Fascism is upon us.  Joel Kotkin explains how and why.

Local banks have disappeared and been replaced by online and large national financial institutions. Between 1983 and 2018, the number of banks fell from 11,000 to barely 4,000. This is not an anomaly, but a trend.

Today, a handful of giant corporations account for nearly 40 percent of the value of the Standard and Poor Index, a level of concentration unprecedented in modern history.

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft now make up 20 percent of the stock market’s total worth.

And Kotkin goes on to explain, in revolting detail, just what that means to us ordinary people.

It’s not enough to obey Big Brother and it’s not enough to love Big Brother;  now you have to do business with Big Brother, if you want to have any kind of life.

I knew things were bad… I just didn’t know how bad.  Read the whole thing;  why should I be the only one depressed?

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the range.  I only get to move back into the apartment after lunch, so I might as well do something productive till then.

Pushing Back

Yesterday, I expressed my consternation at this little event — which took place not a mile from where I am right now, and where I drive through all the time:

In the incident, which occurred last week, BLM marchers illegally blocked a public street, trapping motorists. Such situations have happened across the nation over the past year, often resulting in violence. In the Plano video, one man emerges from his car and yells at the BLM protesters to clear the street. They not only do not clear the street, one of them also brandishes a weapon of some sort at the man. A Plano police officer looks on, does nothing to clear the street, and instead seems to side against the motorist — who is legally in the right.

Looks as though the Plano Police Chief has landed himself in the doodoo with TXAG Paxton: After reviewing the incident, our First Lawyer had this to say:

Reckon it’s time someone got fired — and I’m not talking about Paxton.

Frankly, I don’t care if you think you have to “negotiate with these people” when in fact they are breaking the fucking law.  If I’d parked my car across the intersection and refused to move it, how long do you think it would have taken for the Plano PD to have me in cuffs?  Or, if there were four of us White boys blocking the road with our cars protesting (say) the stolen election of 2020, the fuzz would have descended on us like Genghis Khan, only with better weaponry.  And if one of us had pointed something that looked like a gun — I don’t care whether it was a pepper gun, taser or toy pistol — the cops would have shot his ass dead.

And all of Plano would probably have applauded.

Let me get this straight.  While Plano is more conservative than Dallas, it’s not as conservative as the rest of Texas (thanks to the huge influx of New Yorkers, Californians, Chinese, Indians and Pakistanis into the area as we’ve become some kind of Mecca [sic]  for the Big Business flight away from, duh, California and the Northeast).  We have a Black mayor, a Black police chief, several Blacks, Chinese and Indians on the city council and school district board, and all the rest of the stuff that has allowed the hallowed “diversity” to flourish, only without any fanfare or box-ticking.

Nevertheless, Plano is still reliably conservative, and up until now, the Police Department has been too, with a strong law-and-order attitude which we citizens of Plano have supported to the hilt.

And now?  A police chief who bleats about “having to negotiate” with violent criminals?  I don’t care if the police are “caught in the middle”;  that’s their fucking job.  They are supposed to be the “thin blue line” between law-abiding citizens and criminal bandits.

Like I said, someone needs to be fired, or else the shit is really going to hit the fan.  Next time, the guy who jumps out of his car and, all by himself, shouts at protesters to clear the street, may well be carrying a handgun, or more.  (There’s a very good reason that our local gun store shelves are empty of both guns and ammunition.)  And if the cop on the scene — or his boss — aligns himself with the criminals, don’t be surprised if he’s treated like one of them, because it’s no less than he deserves.

And if the city cops are unable or unwilling to do their job, Paxton has only to unleash the state police and, gawd help us, the Texas Rangers.  We’re cool with that, I think.

This bullshit has to stop, nipped in the bud right now.  Let’s hope that Paxton gets it done, or there’s going to be a serious shit show.  Plano is not fucking Los Angeles or Chicago or New York;  we’re not even fucking Austin.  And without serious action, the powers that be are going to find that out, big time.