Category Archives: Politics

Communists in the USA

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I found this interesting:

The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA),[9] is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution.

…

By August 1919, only months after its founding, the Communist Party claimed to have 50,000 to 60,000 members. Its members also included anarchists and other radical leftists. At the time, the older and more moderate Socialist Party of America, suffering from criminal prosecutions for its antiwar stance during World War I, had declined to 40,000 members. The sections of the Communist Party’s International Workers Order (IWO) organized for communism around linguistic and ethnic lines, providing mutual aid and tailoring cultural activities to an IWO membership that peaked at 200,000 at its height.

I knew communism was rather popular in the 1920s. I just didn’t know how popular.

As of 2024 membership was about 15,000. But it is claimed:

Democrats’ defeat in November has actually caused defections of some left wing voters to alternative parties like Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

CPUSA membership has more than quadrupled in the past decade, growing from ~5,000 members in 2017 to probably 20,000 in early 2025.

And CPUSA reported a surge of membership applications after the ’24 elections due to left wing disillusionment with the failing Democrat Party.

Depending on your definition of a communist, CPUSA numbers don’t represent the true number of communists in this country. The Democrats have moved leftward enough to incorporate large numbers of them.

I have to wonder, percentage wise, are there more communists in the country now than in the 1920s?

How Do You Tell a Communist?

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Quote of the Day

How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

Ronald Reagan
1987
Ronald Reagan at 110: Twenty of His Best Quotes on Freedom, Government, and America

Although you can be an anti-Communist without understanding Marx and Lenin, it does help. It certainly helped me to read The Communist Manifesto.

It is a quick read. It may help you too.

Will There Be More?

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This is disappointing:

Epstein files: Full list of names in disgraced financier’s contact book released by Pam Bondi

Attorney General Pam Bondi released more than 100 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein – though much of the information was already publicly available.

…

However, disappointment washed over people who have long believed there is a government cover-up conspiracy tied to the Epstein case when most of the information in the documents Bondi released, including names, had already been widely reported on.

Perhaps it is just a baby step, and we will get more soon. From the same article:

Despite the lacking information, Trump’s administration still made show out of the day, inviting a group of conservative influencers to the White House to hand them white binders that contained “Phase 1” of the Epstein Files.

The attorney general said more information would be released soon and accused the FBI field office in New York of withholding documents. She sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel requesting they hand over “the full and complete Epstein files” by Friday morning.

CRT and Marxism are Simple Things for Simple Minds

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Quote of the Day

Critical Race Theory is so popular because it provides a simple, single explanation for all the problems in the world and divides all of humanity into visible goodies vs baddies.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on March 29, 2022

Marxism does the same thing. And people who push CRT are almost always Marxists.

Simple things for simple minds.

The complexity of the related literature is obfuscation.

He Would Rather Lose His Job Than be an Advocate of Freedom

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Quote of the Day

I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning:

I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.

We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.

There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.

I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.

I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t “hell yes,” then it had to be “no.” After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.

I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.

Jeff Bezos @JeffBezos
Posted on X, February 26, 2025

The Washington Post!

It is very telling that Shipley is willing to lose his job rather than be an advocate for freedom.

See also Shake-up at WaPo: The opinion editor is out as Bezos says op-eds must defend ‘free markets’ and ‘personal liberties’. Other people at the Post are outraged that freedom will get a voice.

We live in interesting times. Perhaps, we are experiencing a preference cascade.

This Will Be Interesting

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Carville makes a very bold claim:

Speaking with Mediatite’s Dan Abrams, Mr Carville said: “I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days is in the midst of a massive collapse and particularly a collapse in public opinion.” When asked to clarify what he meant by this, Mr Carville said he believed the administration was already crumbling about one month into the job.

“It’s collapsing right now,” he said. “We’re in the midst of a collapse. This is the lowest approval, not even close, that any president has ever had at a comparable time.”

My sample may be biased, but I don’t think he has a very good record of political predictions.

I’m going to schedule a post for next month to remind us to revisit this topic.

Emma Brown is Stupid, Ignorant, Delusional and/or Evil

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Quote of the Day

Kash Patel has no experience fighting crime, preventing mass shootings or stopping domestic terrorism. As the only federal law enforcement agency whose sole mission is to fight violent crime, the ATF requires serious leadership. That’s not Kash Patel.

Kash Patel talks tough on crime, but he will let the gun lobby walk all over him. He didn’t get this job because he’s the most qualified, he got it because gun industry CEOs know he won’t lift a finger to rein in gun violence. American communities will pay the price.

Emma Brown
GIFFORDS Executive Director
February 24, 2025
GIFFORDS responds as Kash Patel quietly tapped to lead ATF | GIFFORDS

For some reason I am always amazed. The depth and quantity of falsehoods anti-gun people push to the public is mind-boggling.

The “sole mission” of the ATF is not fighting violent crime. Even if you ignore the alcohol, tobacco, and explosives portion of their mission. Even if you ignore the scandal of things like Operation Fast and Furious… Writing and enforcing these types of regulations is not fighting violent crime:

And then there are all laws they enforce in which there are no victims. Machine gun laws, registration and taxation of suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, private sales across state lines, etc., etc…

Their falsehoods continue with the insinuation gun industry CEO’s desire criminal use of firearms. Who can believe that? That is totally absurd!

Brown and her associates are stupid, ignorant, delusional and/or think the public is. And/or they are just flat out evil.

Estimated Plant CO2 Absorbtion Off by Over 30%

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Quote of the Day

Traditional estimates pegged global GPP at around 120 petagrams of carbon (PgC) per year since the 1980s. This figure, derived from remote sensing and other indirect methods, has been widely used to model Earth’s carbon cycle. However, recent research challenges this estimate, suggesting that plants globally absorb as much as 157 PgC annually—a 31% increase over previous calculations.

…

The revised GPP estimate has far-reaching implications for climate science. As a primary determinant of terrestrial carbon sinks, GPP shapes how ecosystems respond to rising CO2 levels and climate change.

Joshua Shavit
January 12, 2025
Major study reveals plants now absorbing 30% more CO2 worldwide – The Brighter Side of News

I wonder… Will they update their models and tell us that the destruction of the planet has been postponed by 31% from the previous estimates?*

Or will they double down on their warnings and requests for government grants to prevent the death of the planet?

To help you predict the answer to the question, note that the date of the article I quoted above was six weeks ago. The paper in Nature was published four months ago on October 16, 2024.

By searching with Bing and Google, I was unable to find any major media outlet linking to the paper in Nature. I asked Copilot and they reported:

I couldn’t find any major media outlets referencing that specific paper in Nature.

So… I wonder why that is. You would think this would be a really big deal. Could it be that it does not fit the narrative and thus it can’t be true?

I continued the conversation by asked how much this would change the predicted increase in temperature over the next decade. I had to ask four times to get an answer. It kept telling me:

While increased CO2 absorption by plants is beneficial, it is not a substitute for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Comprehensive climate action is still necessary to address the broader impacts of climate change.

After insisting I wanted a number and suggesting numbers (which it told me were wrong), I finally got this answer:

If plants are absorbing 30% more CO2, it could potentially reduce the projected temperature rise by about 0.02°C to 0.05°C over the next decade.

For comparison:

Currently, the global average temperature is projected to increase by about 0.2°C per decade.

It isn’t 30%, but it could be as much as 25%. And even if it were 10%, that would be significant.

Another thing I learned from poking around on this topic is that while more CO2 results in more plant growth. It also results in less water usage. The plants are more drought resistant when they have more CO2.

The CO2 benefits have diminishing returns. Even at the current levels the plants are being limited by access to nitrogen in a form they can use. The full potential of increased crop yields from the extra CO2 requires more nitrogen fertilization. That is something we know how to do.

  • Yes, I know. The question does not even make sense. And the actual result could be, “Nevermind, everything is good. We were just kidding about the end of the ice caps and flooded coastlines. No hard feelings, right?”

Racial Disparity in Gun-Related Homicide

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Quote of the Day

When President Biden launched what he called the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, he adopted one of the key assertions of the gun control movement: our nation’s gun-related crime problem is an “epidemic” that must be solved by increased gun control. But if “gun violence” is an epidemic, then it is certainly not one felt by the whole population equally.

Of course, there is no doubt people of all races have been murdered with guns. Similarly, the scourge of mass shootings, while still a very statistically unlikely threat, has not discriminated in who it harms when such crimes do happen. There is also no doubt that far too many Americans succumb to suicide, a large proportion of which are completed with firearms.

But when it comes to what most people mean when they say “gun violence” – violent crimes committed by a person (or people) against another person (or people) using firearms – there is simply no way to beat around the bush: Black Americans are far and away the most affected, and it isn’t even close. Addressing the root causes of why is the riddle we must solve as a country. But to do so, we first have to identify the problem with as much specificity as possible, and reject those who try to shut down this debate.

Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
December 8, 2024
The racial disparity in gun-related homicide: a problem that must be discussed so it can be solved.

It is a long article. But if you don’t want to read the whole thing, at least read the Solutions section.

As Government Expands, Liberty Contracts

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Quote of the Day

I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

Ronald Reagan
1989
Ronald Reagan at 110: Twenty of His Best Quotes on Freedom, Government, and America

I am certain there are millions of people in this country in need of the reminder. There are also millions of others who need their first lesson.

There Are No Grass Roots

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I’m not surprised this happens. I’m a little surprised they got caught.

Via Ari Hoffman 🎗@thehoffather who had this to say:

WA is spending your $ to attack your 2A rights

WA DOGE volunteers discovered that WA Dept of Commerce put out a six-figure request for proposals for vendors to run an anti 2nd Amendment event June 4 or 5 at the Lumen Field Event Center in Seattle

WA is facing a $12-16 billion budget deficit. Rather than cut our of control spending or keeping prolific offenders in jail, Democrats are releasing criminals, working to reduce sentences and working against your ability to protect yourself

Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras referred me to Hoffman.

I can tell countless stories demonstrating how there are no grassroots organizations for the anti-gun movement. It appeared to me that it was a few big donors. I frequent suspected there were government funds filtering into too. But it was not particularly obvious until recently when people went looking for this type of thing.

Here is another example out of Washington State:

WA State gives 7M to @CascadeBicycle club who then donates money to the No on 2117 campaign to keep voters from repealing the climate act gas tax. Nothing to see here…please move along!

And at the national level see here.

Never Forget That They are the Enemy

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Quote of the Day

Men like California’s governor and attorney general–Gavin Newsom and Rob Bonta–are evil.

Anyone who fights as hard as they do to disarm you hates you.

They hate their own residents owning guns, and make it hell to exercise your rights freely. They hate non-residents even more, making it impossible to defend yourself while in the state.

These men and their fellow scum are the enemy. Never forget that.

Firearms Policy Coalition @gunpolicy
Posted on X, February 17, 2025

Plan and respond appropriately.

Beware the Unintended Consequences

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Quote of the Day

It’s been slow coming, and far overshadowed by the rise of Trump. But one movement that’s finally seeing a bit of a breakthrough is “tax the rich.”

The landslide win this past week of a tax on millionaire pay in Seattle is the latest sign the public is agitated by massive wealth inequality — and finally willing to do something about it.

Danny Westneat
February 15, 2025
From Seattle to the Okanogan, ‘tax the rich’ is stirring | The Seattle Times

The unintended consequences of more taxes are so obvious and yet they did it anyway.

I am reminded of something Heinlein wrote in Time Enough for Love:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

I give up on these people. They deserve what is coming.

Constitutional Carry for the Win

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Via 2A History @2aHistory.

The only surprises here are how well Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Hawaii ranked. These are particularly oppressive states for gun owners.

Some jurisdictions, like Chicago, do not supply complete numbers to the FBI UCR. I wonder if this is why the oppressive states show up in this table.

Related–Map shows most dangerous US states – and where’s best to raise a family:

Of particular interest to me:

Eight categories of crime, including homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, burglary, larceny theft, and motor vehicle theft, were considered in the analysis.

Washington and Colorado were identified as the second and third most dangerous states, respectively.

New Hampshire emerged as the safest state, boasting a violent crime rate of just one-third of the national average and significantly lower crime rates than other US states.

Idaho also has the lowest rate of motor vehicle theft and the second-lowest rate of aggravated assault.

Idaho was ranked the second safest state for families, followed closely by Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

People that Understand Versus People Who Have Power

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Quote of the Day

The people who understand things have no power but to scream at the people who don’t understand them, and they never listen, because stupid people don’t know they’re stupid.

They will try communism again.

“DON’T DO THAT, YOU’LL KILL EVERYONE.”

“I didn’t know that would happen!”

They will open the borders and let in millions of hostile people.

“DON’T DO THAT, THEY WILL TAKE OVER ONCE THEY OUTNUMBER YOU.

“I didn’t know that would happen!”

Speaking to the stupid is a waste of time and giving them power is suicide.

hoe_math @ItIsHoeMath
Posted on X, February 1, 2025

While this applies to a sizable portion of the population. Those with the power and creating the disasters know what are doing. While some of them are stupid, most are not. Their motives are unrelated to the needs of their constituents.

Part of the problem is that “the people who understand” are totally outclassed when it comes to persuasion. Those who have power are at the top of the persuasion game.

I Hope They Enjoy Their Trials

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Quote of the Day

As Trump and Musk’s DOGE continue to drain the DC swamp—and begin dismantling the “off-the-books” shadow government (read: here)—internet search trends for “Criminal Defense Lawyer” and “RICO Laws” have erupted in the DC metro area and surrounding counties, including Northern Virginia and Maryland, according to new internet search trends uncovered by Rasmussen Reports head pollster Mark Mitchell. These spikes strongly suggest that federal workers in the area are scrambling to secure legal counsel. 

“Over three times more people in DC are googling “Criminal Defense Lawyer” than anywhere else in the US!” Mitchell wrote on X.

Tyler Durden
February 13, 2025
DC Internet Searches For “Criminal Defense Lawyer” & “RICO Law” Erupt As DOGE Drains Swamp | ZeroHedge

This is very telling. This means they knew they were involved in corruption.

I have zero sympathy for them. I hope they enjoy their trials. They earned them.

A Plant in the DNC?

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Quote of the Day

James Carville suggested there could be a “plant” in progressive Democratic politics during his podcast on Thursday to see how many “stupid things” the party could embrace while discussing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair race.

The political consultant read a description of former DNC Chair Jamie Harrison’s announcement during the elections that they must be “gender balanced.” Harrison said during the election process, “Our rules specify that when we have a non-binary candidate or officer, the non-binary individual is counted as neither male nor female, and the remaining six offices must be gender balanced with the results of the previous four elections.”

Hanna Panreck
February 9, 2025
James Carville wonders if there’s ‘plant’ in progressive wing to see how many ‘stupid things’ they can embrace

No. They really are that stupid. They drank their own Kool-Aid, and the poison caused brain damage.

I don’t have any sympathy for them. It was all self-inflicted. From the same article:

We ran a presidential election, if we were playing a Super Bowl, we started our 7th string quarterback. That’s what happened, okay?

James Carville

History is Being Made

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Quote of the Day

The permanent bureaucracy built their administrative state over decades, brick by bureaucratic brick. They thought it would last forever. They thought it was too big to map, too complex to understand, too entrenched to change.

They were wrong.

Four young coders with laptops proved that. One thousand pre-positioned personnel proved that. A president counting weeks proved that.

The sun continues rising over Washington. Classical columns still cast their shadows. But inside those buildings, everything has changed. The administrative state finally met its match: preparation plus presidential will plus technological precision.

This isn’t the end of the story. This is just the beginning.

The revolution isn’t just continuing. It’s becoming the new normal.

And for those who thought the D E E P S T A T E would rule forever?

They’re about to learn what happens when smart strategic minds meet determination. When preparation meets opportunity. When a new generation decides it’s time for change.

The storm isn’t just gathering. It’s here to stay.

The sun continues rising over Washington. But now, for the first time in generations, it illuminates something new:

A government that works.

A bureaucracy that serves.

A system that delivers.

The revolution isn’t just beginning.

It’s already won.

EKO
February 5, 2025
OVERRIDE – EKO LOVES YOU

If you are a little bit of a geek, read the whole thing. It is absolutely AWESOME!

The following was pointed out to me by Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras. Almost for certain this is what the “mapping” referred to in the article is talking about.

History is being made.

Don’t Capitulate, We Are Winning

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Quote of the Day

I’m convinced that woke strategy is to create more racists by the continual name calling and aggravating of white people.

Then they can point to them and say, “Look at all those racists! We told you they were all racists!”

Don’t capitulate to racism.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on March 29, 2022

Good advice.

On a related note…

You know that the Executive Order to remove all DEI in the Federal Government is actually behind private industry, right? Politics follow culture.

That is why it is important to keep improving and expanding our gun culture. Take someone to the range and teach them to shoot. Bring a newbie or even a non-gun person to Boomershoot this year.

$1B/week in Unequivocal and Obvious Fraud

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Quote of the Day

Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious.

When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!!

This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.

Elon Musk @elonmusk
Posted on X, February 8, 2025

Tar, feathers, and rail rides are too good for them. We need prosecutors and “hanging” judges.