Quote of the Day
Party politics has always had this weird aspect where the party that had a better handle on controlling its own crazies, usually captured the middle and won elections. The DEMs have been imploding since about 2017, and today the whole party almost sounds fringe. If the GOP wants to avoid the same fate, they have work to do.
Don Kilmer @donkilmer
Posted on X, September 16, 2025
The context in which he said this is important. It was this post on X:
Interesting assertion by Kilmer. I had not thought of it that way. Even after thinking about it some, I’m not sure I agree. But as I think of myself as more of an observer of the two major parties than a member of either, I may not be a “normal” person. The Libertarian party platform is a far better match for my understanding of the U.S. constitution. But it has an asymptotic close to zero chance of getting someone into national office. Hence, “winning an election” is an alien concept to me.
It is true that the Democrats have been riding the crazy train for many years now and do seem to have imploded. But I don’t have to do much more than close my eyes and point at a random Republican to see more crazy than I want in a national office holder.
For example, I’m flabbergasted that the AG of the U.S. in the video above did not know that “hate speech” is not a legal thing. That was crazy talk.
The political left could not prosecute people for it and the Republicans have no legal authority to “go after” speech that is not inciting violence or threatening imminent danger of permanent injury or death. It took some significant blowback before she “clarified her remarks“:
Still, it is always good advice to control your crazies.
FYI, I made this post and put it in the queue about an hour before I read Rolf’s comment on the same topic.
The left has been pushing the concept of “hate speech” for so long, and has enshrined it into state law in a number of states, that it isn’t too surprising even people who know better would treat that idea as if it were a Constitutional reality.
Yesterday I saw a Charlie Kirk quote that clearly and unambiguously dismissed the concept as unconstitutional nonsense.
I concur with those who believe that Bondi is really very clever and by leading the libdems into a trap she totally gutted it for all future uses by the left. When that evil little troll Sotomayor comes out with this, “Every time I listen to a lawyer-trained representative saying we should criminalize free speech in some way, I think to myself, that law school failed,” Sotomayor said while speaking on a panel Tuesday morning at New York Law School.
This is the marginal sane lib justice gutting all future attempts by the Left to impose speech restrictions that all violate the First Amendment and the Left have been working their way up to that since before the Missouri Compromise.
I say, bravo Pam!
Interesting take. I have to think about that some and see what happens.
At this point, the hypothesis of, “She said something stupid and got lucky that she was able to explain it away with getting hurt,” is still viable.
Thanks for sharing.
What you said.
It could be she was pulling a “Trump troll” on the left.
But being the political animal that she is?
The latter part of your statement seems just as operative.
Politicians ain’t that smart. And let their inner totalitarian slip out every once in a while.
That being said it should be clear, (but no party will admit it) that most people are just living their lives in the best manner possible.
Their democrats when they have something to say.
And their total authoritarian conservatives when they want service of some kind.
They vote based on who is going to give them both, the best.
Convincing the center you will do those things is how you get elected.
That’s why the “determined minorities” that make history are so dead set on brainwashing everyone.
Because semi-logical self-interest is baked into us as humans.
At least it seems to me.
Any weapon my enemies use against me is meet and fit for me to use against them. Survival is not a game played for points.
Nor with rules.
While I understand the attraction of Libertarianism to people like yourself, it’s become clear that it is as impossible to successfully implement as full-on communism, and for some of the same reasons. Both fail to account for the average human nature, IQ, ability, and motivation.
Libertarianism requires a fairly large majority population of high-IQ, high-trust, long time-preference, socially-functional, culturally homogenous, non-psychopathic people, we few or no highly motivated external enemies, and no internal groups prone to subversion and control-seeking. Good luck with that.
You’re pretty on point here. I’d add:
The Libertarian party position on open borders is suicidal.
The Libertarian Party in practice isn’t very libertarian, it’s mostly leftists who want easier access to drugs.
Most people don’t want that much freedom, and they definitely don’t want their neighbors to have it.
The only way the open borders could work is without welfare.
My position is that the U.S. constitution is Libertarian. Both major parties are in gross violation of the boundaries imposed by the constitution. It is not just drugs and open borders. Guns, free markets, OHSA, EPA, FDA, and sex work are other major differences.
Free markets and free minds. Most of the regulatory stuff that is really required can be done by private funded organizations like Underrighters Labratory and via standards like ASCII, HTTP, WiFi, and IEEE.
Argentina is trying it. I’m interested to see how that works out after a few decades.
The only way “open borders” can work is if citizens are allowed to hunt alien invaders for sport. No season, no bag limit.
Mass migration of people -IS- warfare. Most people will happily be parasites, and bleed you dry / loot your stuff, and the people with both the IQ and temperament to be part of a successful libertarian country are less than 5% of the world (as an estimate). You WILL be outnumbered.
The fact that so many otherwise smart libertarians are blind to the basic facts of human mass migration being a form of war (even as they might flee the direct effects of that in the greater Seattle are to a bunker in Idaho) is amazing.
Spot on, Rolf!
Were compelled to remember that the drug trafficking is through Mexico.
Or should we just allow the Chinese to make and import it themselves?
(Maybe sale it on Amazon.)
Thus, eliminating the middleman?
“Borders, language, culture” is what makes a nation.
Loose one and the others follow.
If controlling your crazies is necessary to win elections, Republicans are in for a big loss going forward given that their head guy is batshit insane:
“When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do,” Trump said Thursday to reporters on Air Force One. “If you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said. But when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat Party.”
He seriously thinks he can turn off the 1st amendment because the networks are hurting his fragile little feelings. This is not a rational person. And if Republicans were smart they’d rein him in. Doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen, though. FAFO.
Well, as predicted, that didn’t last long.
Trump didn’t fire anyone. ABC did. Why?
Cause Kimmel and his audience (mostly laugh track !’m sure) ARE the joke.
And losing money.
If woke paid, it would be a lot more popular.
James Wood sez it best;
“We’ve all made jokes at Jimmy Kimmel’s expense. But Mr. Kimmel is a fellow artist, and I am in fact heartbroken to see the way he has been treated. I believe he is, in his heart of hearts, a good and decent fellow, devoid of malice and hate.
Just kidding, Jimbo. Eat shit.”
Then he showed a picture of Kimmel picking cabbage.
With the caption;
“Who’s going to pick our crops?”
Wood’s is a Classic.
Remember, you should take Trump seriously, but not literally. He’s flamboyant and uses a lot of rhetoric, but he’s not insane. You may not like him or his politics, and I may not like his communication style, but there is no question that it’s hits a chord with a lot of people.
And the broadcast license is not automatic; it is revocable if they show certain types of broadcast behavior. Giving what amounts to a whole lot of free in-kind advertising to one political party and not the other would be grounds to not renew it.
Broadcast airwaves are a limited commodity; granting broadcast licenses to less biased corporations would be reasonable.
So when the dems get in power it’s ok for them to revoke broadcast licenses (or threaten to do so) of conservative stations? Is that how this works? Just taking notes for later when we start censoring what Sinclair broadcasts….
It’s fun to hear the speech from February where Vance was all “we’re all about free speech! we’re bringing back free speech!” and now they’re all “He hurt the president’s feelings…get him off the air now!”
And anybody who relies on the 2nd amendment to preserve their gun rights should be pretty fucking interested in making sure the other amendments don’t get watered down either. If the MAGAs can use this kind of rationalizing to dismantle the 1st amendment (and the 4th), you can be assured the dems will use the same game plan when they get in power for the 2nd.
To reiterate what gun rights folks have been saying for years: Rights are either rights with few if any restrictions, or they’re just suggestions. Pick a lane, people.
What conservative stations? FOX? Barely moderate-right, nowhere near hard right.
What part of “Dems are ALREADY silencing and deplatforming and law-faring and murdering Rs speech everywhere” that is is unclear to you?
You are simply demanding that Rs don’t’ fight back under the same rules that Dems use. You want us to lay down and suicide, because you can’t win the war of ideas.
Right now the loony-left is defining your party, and normies are utterly revolted at them cheering a school shooter “because he had it coming.” That’s YOUR party now. Dems are hemorrhaging voters. They’ll not be in power outside of insane / corrupt leftie strongholds like the big cities for a long time. As a national party they are self-destructing before your eyes.
“You are simply demanding that Rs don’t’ fight back under the same rules that Dems use”
No, I’m saying that conservatives claim to have principles to which they adhere, e.g. following the constitution. If they’re not going to hew to those principles, and the constitution is just a suggestion to be used as a political football when convenient, there are no principles at play, just power.
Put another way: you don’t get to claim the 2nd amendment is an absolute right, and then turn around and say the 1st isn’t. Either they’re all rights or they’re not, and if they’re not, a whole bunch of the gun rights discussion goes out the window. Assuming we’re following basic logic.
You’re falling back to the “But Mom, Tommy did it first! Why can’t I?” stance. Which is fine if you want to play that, but I don’t want to hear about your “rights” if in reality anything goes under this “well the dems fucked us so we’re gonna fuck ’em right back” model. That’s just the law of the jungle, not the rule of law.
And for the millionth time: I’m not a leftie or even a democrat. I realize that messes with your caricature of me, but just for the record….
“No, I’m saying that conservatives claim to have principles to which they adhere, e.g. following the constitution. If they’re not going to hew to those principles, and the constitution is just a suggestion to be used as a political football when convenient, there are no principles at play, just power.”
Yup, that’s how it’s done in DC.
That IS the nature of power, anywhere, anytime it exists.
It will always get abused.
That’s what we have been trying to tell you.
Your side abuses it their way. Some else is going to come along and abuse it the other.
We’re not going to control Trump any more than you controlled Biden.
Because we can’t.
But, you’all gave Trump an excuse to exist in power and abuse it.
Until you admit that?
We go nowhere as a country.
“That’s just the law of the jungle, not the rule of law.”
Roger that.
And don’t worry about democrats coming back into power.
The next time you’all manage to steal an election will start a very uncivil war.
You missed one by just a couple million votes last year.
And everything you know and love would be gone by now.
You’all need to start thinking about that a lot harder than you do.
Not one of your blue hives (think fish bowls) is going to survive it.
Here John, let me try on your troll suit for a minute.
Kimmel was fired by ABC because he was making more people want to be MAGA.
1)The Geneva Convention only applies to signatories to it, who are abiding by the rules it lays out (such as wearing uniforms, treating prisoners properly, etc. If a county didn’t sign it, and sends in non-uniformed combatants, they can be summarily executed as war criminals if caught.
2) In all the “codes of honor” I’m aware of, like medieval European knightly chivalry or Japanese Bushido, the rules only apply to those who follow them in reciprocal fashion.
3) The constitution is not a suicide pact.
These three simple things, together, should enlighten you on the situation that the right finds itself in.
We want to treat people fairly and openly and honestly, etc., but after years of trying, and the other side cheating and abusing the systems regularly and egregiously, there comes a point where, like H. L. Mencken said, “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
We are rapidly nearing that point, because the left has proven that their lust for power doesn’t allow them to bargain or write / follow the laws in good faith.
It is not hypocrisy. It’s survival when surrounded by people who have no interest in principals beyond power.
Great., you are not like that. Fine, your wife isn’t either. But you are not running the Dem party, or the left side of the country, your crazies are, because you are not willing or able to control them; therefore, their uniform jersey is your uniform jersey, and if things kick off, that’s the team you are on…. because in a civil war, there are no “not playing” neutrals, and you sure as heck are not on Team Right.
Don’t like it? Then get your crazies under control, or go down with that ship.
“the other side cheating and abusing the systems regularly and egregiously”
You don’t think Republicans have been doing the same? I look at all the Republican leaders in Congress who have spent the last several decades shoveling American jobs overseas while simultaneously rigging the tax system to redistribute as much wealth as possible to their cronies and think, “I’m pretty sure this is a both sides kinda deal.”
And yes, the dems have been doing it too. They both suck giant donkey balls. To MTHead’s point about the dems being the reason Trump’s in power, I totally agree. The democratic party has been corrupt and incompetent for decades, and the fact that they lost to an orange buffoon should tell them to pack it up and go home, but they’re not that smart so they keep shoving Chuck Schumer’s corpse out to lecture us (what, you think he’s still alive? Dude’s been dead for years. This is just AI and some clever animatronics.).
But if we’ve just given up entirely, and the constitution is just a set of suggestions that we all may or may not adhere to depending on our mood and how badly we think we’ve been treated by the other side, then…wow, we’re super ultra fucked. Joe’s bunker idea seems better by the day.
“Both sides…”
Yeah, right.
How many cities were burned and looted after Fentanyl Floyd OD’d?
Compare and contrast to after Kirk was murdered in cold blood.
How many left-wing terrorist orgs are there, compared to right-wing? Got any equivalents to “Bake the Cake, Christian!”?
Right…. totally not a difference. How many right-wing judges are there blatantly ignoring the plain black letter of the constitution like the left does (“shall not be infringed.”)
I’d agree that pols of both stripes are pretty scummy, they are nearly all compromised pervs at the higher levels, but I’m talking rank-and-file member abuses.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250911012550/https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/what-nij-research-tells-us-about-domestic-terrorism
But of course Bondi had that report removed because as we all know, right-wingers are pure as the driven snow….
You don’t get to play that game about the right being as bad as the left anymore.
That schtick is done.
Nobody cares if their bad. Your sides worse.
You’all called the ball, talks done.
Law of the jungle now.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
And never forget. You murdered peace.
“But if we’ve just given up entirely, and the constitution is just a set of suggestions that we all may or may not adhere to depending on our mood and how badly we think we’ve been treated by the other side, then…wow, we’re super ultra fucked. Joe’s bunker idea seems better by the day.”
That exactly what the constitution is. A set of suggestions we should all live by as best we can.
We all love it when it works for us and hate it when it doesn’t.
And it could never keep tyrants at bay.
We have to do that. In every generation.
We have been slack in our duties.
So once again humanity finds itself being tortured, brainwashed mutilated, and murder for nothing more than the people of powers entertainment.
And I’m sorry, but the left is far worse than the right in the general population of today.
For those in power? Corrupt, one and all, as that’s what power does to everyone.