In the past, the rules were that ex-Presidents didn’t trash-talk current Presidents. Obama set a new precedent. If you think Trump is going to sit quiet while Biden/Harris turn the nation into Venezuela, I suggest that you seek therapy.
Jim Francis
Comment on Facebook January 8, 2021
[See also yesterday’s QOTD.—Joe]
“Listen to us”, scream the population.
“Shut up and do what you’re told”, reply their leaders.
In the face of dissent the first instinct of illegitimate leadership is to crack down on the population. But crackdowns never make it better.
Instead they always make the country more volatile and more dangerous.
The people in charge rarely understand that. They don’t want to. They don’t care to learn or listen because all this conversation is a referendum on them and their leadership.
So they clamp down harder. “Obey I tell you! Obey!”
This is the Romanov program. It ends badly. Every. Single. Time. But that doesn’t mean they wont’ try it again. Of course they will. Because it’s their nature. It’s how we got here in the first place.
Millions of Americans sincerely believe the last election was fake. You can dismiss them as crazy. You can call them conspiracy theorists. You can kick them off Twitter.
But that won’t change their minds.
Rather than trying to change their minds, to convince them and reassure them the system is real, that democracy works, as you would do if you cared about the country or the people who live here, our new leaders will try to silence them. What happened today will be used by the people taking power to justify stripping you of the rights you were born with as an American. Your right to speak without being censored. Your right to assemble. To not be spied upon. To make a living. To defend your family, most critically. These are the most basic and ancient freedoms that we have.
…
When thousands of your countrymen storm the capital building you don’t have to like it. We don’t. You can be horrified by the violence, as we said and we’ll say it again, we are horrified. It’s wrong. But if you don’t bother to pause and learn a single thing from it. From your citizens storming your capital building? Then you’re a fool.
You lack wisdom and you lack self-awareness. You have no place running a country.
We got to this sad chaotic day for a reason. It is not your fault. It is their fault.
Tucker Calson
January 6, 2021
Tucker: Our only option is to fix what’s causing this.
[You could nitpick a few things but overall he did a good job of describing the current situation and matching what I think the near future will bring.—Joe]
Daughter Jaime:
Just saw a quote that is sad but true:
“The constitution is the conservative equivalent of a gun-free zone.”
Agreed.
Now, can we use that insight and turn it into what needs to be done next?
Amazon Is Booting Parler Off Of Its Web Hosting Service:
Amazon on Saturday kicked Parler off its Web hosting services. Parler, a social network favored by conservative politicians and extremists, was used to help plan and coordinate the January 6 attempted coup on Washington D.C. It has recently been overrun with messages encouraging “Patriots” to march on Washington D.C. with weapons on January 19.
Amazon’s suspension of Parler’s account means that unless it can find another host, once the ban takes effect on Sunday Parler will go offline.
Amazon declined to comment on the suspension.
Republican lawmakers including Sen. Ted Cruz and Congressman Devin Nunes as well as President Donald Trump’s family members and surrogates have all established Parler accounts, and have publicly encouraged their supporters to join them there. So too have many figures in conservative media.
Wow! This is really making it clear the political left has no respect for the rights of people of a different political persuasion.
I do a LOT of business with Amazon. Boycotting them would hurt me far more than it would hurt them. I’ll have to think about this…
Yesterday, I wrote about the sense that the fracture in our shared sense of reality seems to be accelerating. I asked whether platforms ought to take it as a moral responsibility to reverse that divide — and, if so, how. Today, I advocate for one smaller but still difficult and essential step in that direction.
It’s time for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to remove Trump.
Casey Newton
January 6, 2021
IT’S TIME TO DEPLATFORM TRUMP
[Note: I original scheduled this for next Tuesday as I had some other content I thought was of higher priority. Things are obviously happening much faster than I expected.
LOL.
That is so totally ignorant of human, and particularly U.S., psychology that it is hilariously funny.
Deplatforming is a relatively easy obstacle to overcome by someone with Trump’s stature. Even if every platform in the country succumbed to the rage mob he could rent a server, in a different country if necessary, and start his own blog. Individuals will post his material on Facebook and other sites with minor obfuscation to defeat the attempts at automated blockage.
If they block his site at the border encrypted VPN’s will bring his material in. Make it a crime to distribute his material and it will be distributed in a way that makes it attributable to tyrannical politicians.
It will be a fun game! I almost look forward to it.
The attempt at blocking him will make him all the more widely read. And all the time he will be mocking those who tried to silence him.
And that gives Newton a pass, assuming they actually believed what they wrote, on the stupidity of believing an attempt at silencing someone admired by millions is going to bring unity and tranquility. Trump is popular because he expresses a view shared by those millions. It seems the political left believes he created mindless followers. It’s probably more correct to say the masses created Trump.
As Michael Malice said the other day, “They thought Trump was the river but he was the dam.”:
I am of the opinion that if your goal is freedom then having your political enemies rapidly becoming tyrants furthers your long term goal more than hurts it.—Joe]
Imagine some other country run by some despot, say, Venezuela, forbid their political rivals from public communication to their followers. What would you think? “Yeah, well, what do you expect from a commie dictatorship? It’s what they have to do to maintain control of their people.” Right?
That. Just. Happened. Here.
That it was private companies that did the silencing doesn’t make much difference. Those companies have a political alignment of something like 95+% opposed to Republicans, let alone, President Trump.
That they had “reasons” is irrelevant. All “commie dictatorships” have their “reasons”. Even Hitler and the entire Nazi party had their “reasons”.
Welcome to a new reality.
Trump will be an ex-president in 13 days. The fact is that getting rid of Trump is the easy part. Cleansing the movement he commands is going to be something else.
Rick Klein
Political Director @ABC
Tweeted on January 7, 2021 then deleted
[Via email from Drew who also asks:
Now, do you think the cleansing will happen before or after the common sense gun safety buyback registration law is passed?
I really don’t know the answer to that question. But at this time it appears the political left is a little too eager.—Joe]
It’s true. Self-reliance is the enemy of the State.
Dangerous Liberty @DangerousLiber1
Tweeted on December 27, 2020
[Via sacrebleu14 / SA Hinchcliffe.
If you want to decrease the power of the state encourage and enable self-reliance in others.—Joe]
Why citizens wanting to know what the rules are even had to ask – and why that was being evaded – only becomes clear when you come to grips with the obvious: ATF knows it doesn’t have a consistent set of standards by which to apply its evaluations. And it’s not like everyone hasn’t been aware of the problem for a long time.
David Codrea
December 23, 2020
ATF Rules Capricious, Arbitrary, Political, and Stupid
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
If the election goes to Biden there’s a good chance that the Democrats will then control the two branches of Congress and the White House. And considering the kinds of things that they’re proposing, that could well be the point of no return for this country.
Thomas Sowell
July 13, 2020
[H/T Kevin Baker.—Joe]
When people talk about rioting if the Supreme Court takes any action, they’re not talking about Republicans rioting. They’re talking about the Left. You know that, I know that, everyone knows that. So when people tell you they’re worried about “unrest” they’re telling you two things.
1. That they know the Left will riot.
2. That they know the Right will not.
So game it out.
If everyone knows that the Right will calmly accept the decision to give the win to Biden despite evidence (though not “proof”) of election irregularities, and they know that the Left will react with violence to anything but a Biden presidency, why should they choose anything but a Biden presidency?
I’m not advocating violence. I’m sure not going to start rioting. But haven’t we taught them that they can ignore us and suffer no consequences while the Left has taught them to fear? Haven’t we allowed them to take our kindness for weakness? Haven’t we basically told them that there’s zero consequences for making us mad?
Sean D Sorrentino
Posted on Facebook December 17, 2020
[The above is in reference to this.
A1: I can think of some reasons. Like, it’s their job to do the legally correct thing.
A2: Yes.
A3: Yes.
A4: Yes.
This isn’t a tough quiz. Lots of other people will figure it out too and take away “interesting” lessons from it.
We live in interesting times.—Joe]
Update: The basis for this is probably false.
Via daughter Jaime:
SCOTUS.⚖️
“I don’t give a #@&^ about ‘Bush v. Gore’… at that time we didn’t have RIOTS!”
A staffer “heard *SCREAMING* through the walls as Justice Roberts & other liberal Justices were insisting this case *NOT* be taken up…”
Wonder why Texas’ case was dropped? Here’s why: pic.twitter.com/rCpf5vwqSQ
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) December 17, 2020
The following is my transcript in case the original goes away:
It was written by someone is a current staffer for one of the Supreme Court Justices…
I’ll just describe the report to you the report which I just read and you can make of it what you will.
He said that the Justices they always do [sic] went into a closed room to discuss, you know, cases they are taking or to debate. There’s no phones, no computers, no nothing, no one else is in the room except for the nine Justices.
It’s typically very civil. They usually don’t hear any sound. They just debate what they are doing.
But when the Texas case was brought up, he said he heard screaming through the walls as Justice Roberts and the other liberal justices were insisting that this case not be taken up.
And the reason, the words that were heard through the wall when Justice Thomas and Alito were citing Bush versus Gore, from John Roberts were, “I don’t give a [blank] about that case. I don’t want to hear about it. At that time we didn’t have riots!”
So what he was saying, was that he was afraid of what would happen if they did the right thing. And I’m sorry, but That. Is. Moral. Cowardice.
And we, in the SREC, I’m a SRC member, we put those words in very specifically because the charge of the Supreme Court is to openly be our final arbitrator, our final line of defense, for right and wrong. And they did not do their duty.
So I think we should leave these words in because I want to send a strong message them.
See also 1:32:31 (Its Texas Congressman Matt Patrick Texas Cong. Dist. 32) for more context.
This is, literally, hearsay evidence. But if true, SCOTUS is sending a very clear message of how to get your way if the law and evidence isn’t on your side. The message will be heard loud and clear and the lesson learned will have dire long term consequences.
Update: This is probably false, at least in part. They have been meeting via video conferencing for months.
H/T to https://twitter.com/AdamPiersen/status/1339804928479473665
It’s possible something like this happened on a video call, but we have no evidence of that.
The arguments against the electoral college are simply veiled arguments against Federalism. And while I’m happy to entertain arguments against any coercive form of government, in the case of the U.S. our Federal system is a flawed but robust system which has given ground slowly to these political terrorists over the past couple hundred years.
It is in a terminal state of collapse today and the odds are long that it will survive these challenges in any practical sense.
Tom Luongo
December 9, 2020
Less Electoral College? No, More Electoral College
[I don’t see them as veiled. And not arguments either. More like threats or, on really bad days, telling us this is how they plan to execute us.
I just hope we have enough strength of character to exercise our veto power if it comes down to that.—Joe]
Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city – or should I say, “our city”. I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes.
It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.
…
All in all, it is a good life. Much better than the path we were on, where it became so clear that we could not continue with the same model of growth. We had all these terrible things happening: lifestyle diseases, climate change, the refugee crisis, environmental degradation, completely congested cities, water pollution, air pollution, social unrest and unemployment. We lost way too many people before we realised that we could do things differently.
Ida Auken
November 11, 2016
Here’s how life could change in my city by the year 2030
[Auken also says:
Author’s note: Some people have read this blog as my utopia or dream of the future. It is not. It is a scenario showing where we could be heading – for better and for worse. I wrote this piece to start a discussion about some of the pros and cons of the current technological development. When we are dealing with the future, it is not enough to work with reports. We should start discussions in many new ways. This is the intention with this piece.
The “devil’s in the details” as they say. If you think about it just a little bit you realize it isn’t even possible. A few examples:
There will always be markets with sellers and buyers of property. They may be black markets in a time and place where thugs attempt to create a utopian world of free everything and equality for all, but markets will always exist.
Auken vision is not one of “for better or worse”. It’s one of reality or delusion.—Joe]
Seen elsewhere:
Both sides think they’re right.
Only one side is censoring you.
That doesn’t guarantee one side or the other is telling the truth. Both sides could be wrong.
But it does guarantee which side I’m going to oppose.
China’s Cultural Revolution began to end in 1976 when Mao died, and the pragmatic totalitarians staged a coup that removed the more idealistic totalitarians. Will the people of the Anglosphere have to wait that long, or longer, for rescue? Or will the hundreds of millions of people who don’t support the totalitarian ultra-left emancipate themselves from mental slavery? Will they end the reign of terror of today’s Maoists?
David Kopel
December 11, 2020
The Cult of Mao 1966 v. 2020
[Good questions.
We live in interesting times.—Joe]
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy
March 13, 1962
Address on the first Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress
[I grew up with this being part of my understanding of what made the U.S. different from so many other governments of the world throughout history. I never imagined this might be a prophecy for our future.
We now have a situation where essentially half of the population believes a fraudulent election gave the presidency to a candidate who openly, and proudly, states they plan to deny every citizen their basic, inalienable, human rights.
See also the other times when I referenced this same quote.
Today there are other Kennedy quotes which are also applicable:
We live in interesting times.—Joe]
The rubes they’ve been working all these years are roused, pissed off and looking for the nearest pitchfork. And I don’t mean that metaphorically. ALL OF THE GUNS sold out over Thanksgiving weekend.
ALL.
OF.
THEM.
Our “betters” should have taken them before they started blatantly nullifying elections. Pride and arrogance has done in our owners, like so many tyrants before. They mistook “negotiation, forbearance and appeasement,” for “surrender.”
What these Cloud Dwelling Nimrods, fail to understand is this sudden swelling of anger has little to do with Trump specifically – and everything to do with the ARROGANCE our civic masters.
Donald Trump was never anything but a symptom of an amok government and a deadly warning to our elite. He was Joe-Six-Pack NICELY telling Mordor’s brain-trust to back the F*CK OFF. The message was ignored, mocked and then followed by a host of deliberate provocations and indignities.
Well, congratulations – “nice” just stormed out the door with his AR and a serious attitude problem. “Nice” ain’t entirely sure what to ventilate first, but that’s O.K., because “nice” bought several billion rounds of .223 in over the last few years.
SilverDeth
December 7, 2020
2020 Just Keeps Shittin’ in our Mouths
[Via Matthew Bracken.
We live in interesting times and the clock is ticking down to the decisive second…—Joe]
The Chump Effect is Meigs’s clever term for the bipartisan, broadly shared feeling that various systems are rigged in favor of elites, insiders, and favored groups, which leads to a breakdown in societal trust and trust in institutions. If those guys don’t have to play by the rules, we think, why should I? Meigs delves into social-science experiments that show people motivated by the Chump Effect can act irrationally by effectively volunteering to pay a cost in order that others be punished for ignoring norms.
The political implications of the Chump Effect are obvious: Meigs begins with the story of a man who asked Elizabeth Warren if he, who scrimped to put his child through college, would be entitled to a refund under her proposed new system to forgive student loans. “Of course not,” was Warren’s response. The man was furious: He was being made a chump.
Kyle Smith
November 12, 2020
The Chump Effect
[Emphasis added.
The Chump Effect is a significant component of why socialism and communism always fail.
The politicians don’t abide by state or U.S. Constitutions let alone the laws they pass. Why should they expect others to abide by their laws and regulations?–Joe]
Generally speaking, I believe re-education camps are a good thing. But we don’t need to send 75 million people there.
…
I simply propose we abolish private prisons, abolish the military industrial complex, and use the existing infrastructure to re-educate the capitalist class members who won’t relinquish their position of ownership.
long-legged socialist @goodchillhunti1
Tweeted on November 19 and November 20, 2020
[What is the Greek for “Come and take me” (to your re-education camp)?—Joe]