Tag: Politics

What Price Political Endorsements?

Elections

I genuinely do not know the answer to this question.

Much play has been given to the fact that a Muzzie mayor in Michigan has endorsed Trump for President in 2024 and not, as one would expect, Her Junior Filthiness.  Also the Teamsters, for so long a Democrat lock:

Perhaps even more noteworthy is the non-endorsement that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters issued last week. The union’s internal polling showed that its members strongly favor Trump over Harris, but leadership issued a statement saying that it was declining to endorse either. The statement also shared the polling data, which prompted me to write that it was tantamount to a “soft endorsement” of Trump when I first reported it. Matt wrote last Friday that the move by the Teamsters is causing some agita among the Dems. 

Does this matter?  I mean, in terms of actual votes?  I mean, yeah, symbolism etc.  But does his endorsement mean that x number of these constituents are going to suddenly vote for Trump instead of Harris?

I know that if, say, the mayor of Plano decided to endorse a specific candidate or party, that would have absolutely no bearing on how I’d cast my vote.  But then I take my political cues from nobody else, so maybe I’m not representative of the average voter.

I’m still interested when, for example, the head honcho of the Fraternal Order of Police announces his endorsement — will rank-and-file cops follow his lead, or make up their own minds?  One might hope that the latter would be the case, but perhaps this is giving too much respect to the average cop.

Or maybe an endorsement simply sways the “undecideds” — although how any voter in these United States can still be uncommitted at this stage is quite beyond me.

New Ban?

Government Thugs, Mocking Furriners, Nannies

This is an interesting development:

Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, prime minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and ‘onto the footy fields’.

Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, he  said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a ‘scourge’.

The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said.

The prime minister said his own preference would be a block on users aged below 16.

Age verification trials are being held over the coming months, the centre-left leader said, though analysts said they doubted it was technically possible to enforce an online age limit.

Loath as I am to give any kind of credit to the OzGov, foul totalitarian nanny bastards that they are, I can’t help but wonder whether a) this can work and b) if it does work, will it benefit teens in any way?  Given that teens nowadays appear to have absolutely no problem in accessing porn — even porn sites protected by “age walls” — I’m somewhat skeptical about it all.

It’s probably just the usual “We have to do something!” posturing so common among all politicians.

(Just an aside:  Albanese’s “center-left” philosophy is somewhere around that of Bernie Sanders, politically speaking.)

Tommy’s Tale

Heroism

Anything produced by Jordan Peterson is worth watching.  His interview of Tommy Robinson, the bête noire  of British politics is very much more than that.

As Cathy Gyngell says of Robinson:

It also made me think of the many far more sullied characters on our political stage who have got away with it, and never been subjected to the across-the-board branding, silencing and curtailment of freedom he has been treated to. No epithet has stuck more effectively than those words thug, racist and far right have to him. You have to look quite far to find someone to whom you mention his name who doesn’t judge him so, who doesn’t assume he is the hooligan the press have told us he is, who doesn’t call him an idiot or simply display the distaste they feel for him on their faces. But ask those with these attitudes what they actually know about him and whether they have any idea of his story, and what his ‘beef’ is actually about they go quiet. They have no idea. Their judgement, as was mine in the past, is an unthinking one – based purely and simply on how the MSM cast him, and the fact he is actually working-class (unlike the elite politicians like Starmer so desperate to claim this background). This is a ‘tarring’ that is so universally accepted that anyone defending him in any way also risks being so tarred and outcast.

Of course no one ever sees him interviewed by the mainstream UK press or broadcasters: he is never allowed to defend himself, let alone be asked to tell his story. So there is nothing and no one to challenge the official Tommy characterisation as a law-breaker, inciter, thug or crook. Any out-of-context ‘angry monologue’ clips that people may have seen confirm their prejudice. It’s only when you hear his whole 20-year story that you start to understand it and empathise and are horrified by the cover-up. And understand his anger. There is such a thing as righteous indignation, and that without doubt is what Tommy feels.

The more the elite authorities want to suppress him, the more people like me want to know more about him.

And this was before the recent riots in the U.K.

This interview is quite possibly the most important insight into how the news is being shaped that I’ve ever seen.  Ignore that it’s primarily about a “racist” attack that took place in Britishland, because it concerns all of the news we’re being fed.

And by the way, if you start to feel the burn of anger when Robinson describes the fate of the hapless family, then you may begin to understand the background to the Stockport riots.

More News From Little Big Horn

Business, Economics

Nice of you guys to finally realize this:

Breitbart Business Digest: The Wheels Are Coming Off the U.S. Economy

The Manufacturing Sector Sees Slower Demand, Falling Production, Declining Employment

…now apply that metric to just about every other sector of the U.S. economy (i.e. retail and wholesale) for the complete picture.

There are a few relatively simple solutions to this, but here’s a clue:  they’re unlikely to be implemented in the numbers or at the scale required for them to work — and that’s under a Republican administration.  Under a Harris/Walz regime, not only will the solutions not be enacted, but the precise opposite will take place:  more government spending, more choking of key industries, more and higher taxes, and so on.

In the meantime:  buy ammo, not shares.

And send it to Gen. George Custer;  it sounds like he may need some more.

Not Even A Perfume

Politics

Ohhh I think I have an old-man crush on Giorgio — I mean Giorgia.

The EyetiePM, not the state next door to Alabama or the similarly-named failed former vassal state of the U.S.S.R., and definitely not the perfume.

I mean, what’s not to like?

Okay, never mind all that.  When you get breathless pieces like this one written about you by a Commiesymp asshole like this guy, how bad could you be?

Dangerous far-right demagogue or free-thinking radical?

And all this was written before she became the EyetiePM.  Here was her plan:

“The top priority today goes to supporting families and businesses that have been brought to their knees by inflation and the rise of energy bills due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

“I think the next Italian government should fight at the EU level for a price cap to be introduced for gas. We are ready to act also at the national level if the EU should delay any longer.”

“Once the emergency has been overcome, the priorities are to cut taxes, to support families and the competitiveness of businesses, to build strategic infrastructures and to invest in a new industrial policy.”

Of course, our boy was outraged.

If all this sounds familiar, she says that “in the conservative world I think about Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher…”

…like that would be a Bad Thing.

But in the meantime:

In Italy illegal immigration by sea has witnessed a sharp decline this year owing to the strict anti-clandestine immigration policies of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing conservative government.

According to newly released official data that appeared in the local daily newspaper, Il Giornale this month, Rome recorded a shockingly sharp 62.4% drop in illegal arrivals in 2024, with 37,000 migrants landing in Italy as of August 12. Last year at the same time there were around 100,000 arrivals.

“Shockingly?”  Would it be impertinent to offer La Giorgia a job as, say, U.S. Border Czar?  (Also, Javier Milei of Argentina to be the U.S. Czar of Bureaucrat Downsizing & Retrenchment, but let me not get carried away.)

Okay, nobody’s perfect:

The Italian government approved a decree on Wednesday doubling to 200,000 euros ($218,220.00) per year a flat tax applied on income earned abroad by wealthy individuals who transfer their tax residence to the country.

By the way, the original plan to offer tax residence to rich guys was instituted by Italy’s erstwhile Socialist government in the hope that said rich guys would boost the (perennially inadequate) Italian economy.  As with so many Socialist dreams, it failed.  So Meloni has no doubt figured out that if they aren’t helping, the EytieGov may as well milk them.  It’s not like the likes of superstar footballer Cristiano Ronaldo can’t afford a lousy 200k, is her probable thinking.

Also, the EU hates Meloni and considers her a “fascist”… so when those Socialists hate you, you have to be doing something right. (#HungaryPMViktorOrban)

And she’s as cute as a button.

Proof Of Association

Elections, Politics

After wading through all sorts of stuff explaining the concept of “the power of association”, Scott Pinsker says the following:

By joining the MAGA train, RFK Jr. is helping Trump craft a narrative where The Donald is open-minded and forgiving of his former rivals. It shows he’s capable of attracting independents, moderates, liberals, practically anyone — hell, even a Kennedy joined Trump!

Yeah.  I’ll believe that about Trump when he offers Ron DeSantis a Cabinet position — and I mean a serious post like State or Commerce.

The biggest mistake Trump made — in both election campaigns — was his dismissive attitude towards the best state governor in the United States.  Regardless of his personal feelings, though, there’s no denying that in his own state, DeSantis has achieved more MAGA-type reform than anyone else.  Perhaps more even than Trump himself at the national level.

And by leaving DeSantis out of his future Administration plans, Trump will be doing the country, and himself, a grave disservice.

Trump is good for only four more years;  DeSantis will be good for more than a decade after that, if not longer.