Category Archives: Politics

Quote of the day—Victoria Parker

Posted on by

Some policies—and some partisans—deserve forceful opposition, even contempt, from the other side. Vigorous disagreement, both within and between parties, is essential in a functioning democracy. But democracy also requires at least some level of mutual comprehension. No matter where people are on the political spectrum, they ought to know whom they’re fighting with and what they’re even fighting about.

Victoria Parker
December 27, 2021
Conservatives and Liberals Are Wrong About Each Other
[It is my belief that instead of treating people as belonging to one tribe or another people should treat each other as individuals. Individuals that have a much more nuanced set of beliefs and actions than the caricatures assigned to them by the leaders of their tribal opponents.

That may be too much to ask. The tribal behaviors are almost certainly deeply embedded in our psyche and difficult to override. As I have said many times before*, “It is irrational to expect people to be rational.”

The end result may be a tragedy of misunderstandings with a great mass of people “targeted” by each side when, if at all, it should only be that small fraction of extremists who are dragging the whole population into the fire.—Joe]

* For example:

Quote of the day—Barbara Walter

Posted on by

We actually know now that the two best predictors of whether violence is likely to happen are, whether a country is an anocracy, and that’s a fancy term for a partial democracy, and whether ethnic entrepreneurs have emerged in a country that are using racial, religious, or ethnic divisions to try to gain political power. And the amazing thing about the United States is that both of these factors currently exist, and they have emerged at a surprisingly fast rate.

…

The United States is pretty close to being at high risk of civil war.

Barbara Walter
Professor at University of California at San Diego
December 20, 2021
How close is the US to civil war? Closer than you think, study says
[Apparently there are measurable indicators of the risk of civil war. Walter has written a book on the topic. I might have to read it. This is even though there are a lot of indicators Walter places a lot (most? all?) the blame on Trump and his supporters.

See also what J.D. Tuccille has to say about Walter and her book.—Joe]

A progressive getting a clue

Posted on by

Michelle Tandler starts out with this:

Here is what confuses me about San Francisco.

We have the most liberal, left-wing government & population in the country.

We have a $13B budget.

And we have 8,000 people sleeping in the rain this week.

Can someone please explain this to me?

Continues here:

I’ve been a registered democrat for 18 years.

I grew up in a Progressive family and went to a Progressive school, and have mostly Progressive friends.

Yet what I see in SF – if this what Progressive stands for – I want the opposite.

And here:

+ Why, after decades of Progressive rule in SF are 8,000 people in the streets?
+ Why do we have the highest overdose rate in the nation?
+ Why do we have the highest property crime rate?
+ Why do we have fewest children per capita?

And here:

Why have I never learned about the case for gun rights?

Or about the values of Islam?

What are the arguments against abortion?

Why do so many people not want to take the vaccine?

Why am I not allowed to ask these questions without being accused of “doing harm”?

There more. A lot more. The entire thread is interesting. But the bottom line is that reality has intruded into her progressive bubble and she finally noticed. It appears to have cause a crisis of faith.

I have hope for the future.

Keep this in mind for tax season

Posted on by

From the IRS website here in the section about “Other Income”:

Publication 17 (2021), Your Federal Income Tax
For Individuals

For use in preparing 2021 Returns

…

Illegal activities.

Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z, or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity.

…

Stolen property.

If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless you return it to its rightful owner in the same year.

Gee, and all this time I was under the impression that stealing $100K/year was worth a lot more than earning $100K/year because of the tax benefits. Hence, in essence, the IRS was giving tax breaks to thieves, robbers, and drug dealers. Now I find out they have to pay taxes just like all the rest of us*.

Via Tamera @tacsgc.

* Yes, I know about Al Capone going to prison for not paying income taxes. But you don’t hear about it regarding small time criminals.

Quote of the day—spectacles_gaze

Posted on by

Use firearms to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat, and then disarm the populace. Keep a standing military to prevent foreign meddling.

spectacles_gaze
December 19, 2021
Reddit comment in r/socialism Thoughts on gun control.
[I think that says almost all you need to know about their views. It’s also consistent with other socialist/communist governments.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Deliberate destruction

Posted on by

California and San Francisco are spending $86.5 million for a 160 room building for the homeless. Another $8.5 million will be spend on operating expenses. That’s a purchase price of over $540K per room and over $50K per room in operating costs. The city has over 8,000 people currently homeless.

What could possibly go wrong?

If you subsidize something the demand will go up. A $500K condo and $50K towards living costs? I’d bet they will get “homeless” people from all over the country, if not the world.

This has to be a deliberate destruction of wealth. No one can be that stupid and/or naïve.

H/T to Michelle Tandler @michelletandler.

Just a cost of reaching utopia

Posted on by

This should be a clue:

US congresswoman carjacked at gunpoint in daylight

Philadelphia has seen a massive rise rise in car theft this year, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Police reported 225 carjackings in 2019, 409 in 2020 and 720 so far this year, according to CBS News.

The figures amount to an 80% increase in carjackings in 2021.

Gunpoint robberies are up 27% over 2020.

Philadelphia has also seen a record 544 homicides this year, up from 347 in all of 2019, according to the Wall Street Journal.

It is hard to believe this was unforeseen by anyone capable of rational thought. But, then, it could be this is the desired outcome. Criminals are the natural enemy of capitalists and hence allies of socialists. This might be considered part of the price paid to reach their socialist utopia.

I wish I had copied the entire text of the post when I first saw it. An earlier version mentioned she co-sponsored a bill to defund the police and redirect the funds to mental health problems.

Quote of the day—Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on by

If Biden were polling at 70 percent approval, and his policies at 60 percent, the current doomsayers would be reassuring us of the “health of the system.”

They are fearful and angry not because democracy doesn’t work, but because it does, despite their own media and political efforts to warp it.

When a party is hijacked by radicals and uses almost any means necessary to gain and use power for agendas that few Americans support, then average voters express their disapproval.

That reality apparently terrifies an elite. It then claims any system that allows the people to vote against the left is not “people power” at all.

Victor Davis Hanson
December 16, 2021
Why Is the Left Suddenly Worried About the End of Democracy?
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Mary Anne Franks

Posted on by

The Second Amendment’s idiosyncratic and anachronistic focus on militias and “arms” degrades the concept of self-defense. The right to safeguard one’s life should not be conflated with or reduced to the right to use a weapon, especially a weapon that is so much more likely to inflict injury and death than to avoid it. Far better would be an amendment that guarantees a meaningful right to bodily autonomy and obligates the government to implement reasonable measures to protect public health and safety:

All people have the right to bodily autonomy consistent with the right of other people to the same, including the right to defend themselves against unlawful force and the right of self-determination in reproductive matters. The government shall take reasonable measures to protect the health and safety of the public as a whole.

Mary Anne Franks
December 2021
REDO THE FIRST TWO AMENDMENTS
[This law professor simply has no concept of governments being the greatest threat and the primary reason for the 2nd Amendment as written.

Collectivists must collectivize.

The answer is, “No. Your move Ms. Franks.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Kat Schuster

Posted on by

Drawing inspiration from a controversial approach to outlawing most abortions in Texas, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday pledged to make it easier for private citizens to sue manufacturers or other citizens who sell assault rifles or parts for ghost guns in the Golden State.

His plan mirrors the authority enacted by lawmakers in Texas to ban most abortions.

Kat Schuster
December 12, 2021
Newsom Vows To Ban Assault Guns Using Texas Abortion Ban Tactics
[We knew it would happen.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Michael Shellenberger

Posted on by

There’s just a lot of progressive buyer’s remorse right now.

Michael Shellenberger
December 16, 2021
Urban liberals rethink guns and policing amid crime spike on their doorstep
[But will this result in ‘progressive’ politicians being introduced to tar, feathers, and one-way tickets out of town on wooden rails? I’m inclined to go with public trials. But with the current administration in Washington that will not be happening so unless the supply chain for tar, feathers, and rails is broken the tar and feathers route is the most likely, while still extremely improbable.

Noting short of something of similar magnitude will allow us to recover the free exercise of our rights via a legislative path. I’m still betting on the courts.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Debbie Mizrahie

Posted on by

I’ve always been anti-gun. But I am right now in the process of getting myself shooting lessons because I now understand that there may be a need for me to know how to defend myself and my family. We’re living in fear.

Debbie Mizrahie
Beverly Hills
December 9, 2021
Beverly Hills residents arming themselves with guns in wake of violence
[Ms. Mizrahie, welcome to the right side of history!—Joe]

Quote of the day—Lyle

Posted on by

Like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, they reside in a land of make-believe, and if you don’t play along with them they’ll hate you for challenging their fantasy. It’s hard enough to maintain character in a land of make-believe without people trying to ruin your entire imaginary world by rudely inserting images of reality. You’re a bully, even a destroyer of worlds (of Neverland), in their minds.

They know perfectly well that their world is imaginary but, like normal children playing, they enjoy living in that imaginary world. It’s a beautiful and wonderful place in which they are the heroes. Therefore they consider it cruel of anyone to ruin their game.

The signal, the proof, that they know their world is imaginary is that they get very emotional when you challenge the game. Because they’re putting creative effort into playing make-believe it hurts them to be reminded of reality. The emotion comes from your breaking down that which they’ve carefully and delicately built up in their imaginations. It’s as though they’ve painted a nice picture and they’re standing there enjoying it, and then you come along and mess it all up and kick over the easel. That makes you an ogre. They have to get rid of you or else the game, all of wonderful Neverland, and their place in it, is ruined altogether.

Lyle
Comment to Quote of the day—Rachel Sillcocks
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Rachel Sillcocks

Posted on by

It’s not about the fact that we are anti-police. It is about the fact that we do not allow weapons in our restaurant. We were uncomfortable, and we asked them to leave. It has nothing to do that they were officers. It has everything to do that they were carrying guns.

Rachel Sillcocks
December 4, 2021
San Francisco restaurant owner explains why police officers denied service
[This is what happens when people have messed up wiring in their brain and think inanimate objects are more indicative of behavior than the people in control of the objects. This is what they think of gun ownership. You magically become good or evil based on the existence or absence of certain types of inanimate objects in your possession. This is undeniable prejudice.

I can understand the impulse for non-discrimination legislation to protect gun owners access to public accommodations. I can also understand the impulse for police officers to be slow to respond.

They have since said they made a mistake and apologized. I’m sure the 1.0 average Yelp score had nothing to do with it.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Brandon Smith

Posted on by

My position has always been that the Federal Reserve is not a banking institution on a mission to protect American financial interests. Rather, I believe the Fed is an ideological suicide bomber waiting to blow itself up and deliberately derail or destroy the American economy at the right moment. My position has also long been that the bankers would need a cover event to hide their calculated economic attack, otherwise they would take full blame for the resulting disaster.

Brandon Smith
December 4, 2021
Mainstream Economists Are Struggling To Hide The Incoming Economic Collapse
[There is a lot of good stuff in this article. This claim isn’t part of the good stuff.

If the claim were true then the creators of the Fed have been waiting over 100 years to detonate their bomb, right?

Or, I suppose, it could be the Fed has somewhat recently been taken over by the suicide bombers without a single defection from the conspirators or underlings.

Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. I say there is far from sufficient evidence to support this claim.

It could be that past, present, and future actions will be mostly consistent with this hypothesis but have a different true intent. Sort of a like a lie that snowballs as the liar has to lie more and more to cover up the original lie. Then witnesses require silencing to hide the vast number of lies. The original lie wasn’t intended to result in murder, but that is where the slippery slope led. I could believe that sort of thing is what has happened.

Sometimes it’s too tempting to take the easy way out for the short term benefit when the long term consequences are murky. I believe that is far more likely than a “suicide bomber” conspiracy.—Joe]

Shortages create a market for fraud

Posted on by

The verdict is in:

A verdict was reached in the Jussie Smollett criminal trial Thursday, nearly three years after he told police two Trump-loving bigots beat him up, tied a noose around his neck and doused him in bleach on a blistering night in January 2019.

…

The hate crime Smollett claimed he suffered sparked international outrage, and then disgust, when police said he made the whole thing up.

This isn’t the only fake hate crime in recent years.

This is to be expected. Whenever the market demand is greater than the supply there will be criminals taking advantage of the situation and supplying fake goods.

Quote of the day—sacrebleu14 / SA Hinchcliffe @sacrebleu141

Posted on by

What part do you not understand that Human Rights, including the Right of Self Determination which Self Defense is integral, are not negotiable

sacrebleu14 / SA Hinchcliffe @sacrebleu141
Tweeted on December 4, 2021 in response to this tweet which is this meme:
MarxRKBA
[Yes, sacrebleu14 misunderstood.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jed Babbin

Posted on by

The liberals’ insistence that the law, the trial, and its outcome are tainted by racism is risible. But, to them, it has to be true because they have only two frames of reference, racism, and gun control. The accusation of racism was a major theme in the 2020 election and will be in the future — probably with less success — because that’s one of only two issues that the Democrats and the media care about.

Jed Babbin
November 21, 2021
Rittenhouse, Racism, and Gun Control
Dems don’t have too many cards left to play these days, just their two obsessions.
[The last sentence is overstating things a little bit. They also seem to care about increasing restrictions on carbon emissions, forced vaccinations, forced mask usage, and reduced restrictions on abortions.

But the sentiment of the first part of the quote resonates well with my understanding of the issue.—Joe]

Inflation

Posted on by

The U.S. isn’t the only place with inflation these days. Turkey is on track to have inflation somewhere between 20% and 40% this year. Other countries are interesting as well. The top 20 are:

Country  Last   Previous 
Venezuela     1,575.0     1,946.0
Sudan        366.0        388.0
Lebanon        174.0        144.0
Syria        139.0        134.0
Suriname          69.5          59.8
Zimbabwe          58.4          54.5
Argentina          52.1          52.5
Iran          35.7          39.2
Ethiopia          33.0          34.2
Angola          26.9          26.6
Turkey          21.3          19.9
Zambia          19.3          21.1
Nigeria          16.0          16.6
Guinea          12.7          13.1
Georgia          12.5          12.8
Kyrgyzstan          12.5          13.5
Sierra Leone          11.6          10.9
Pakistan          11.5             9.2
Ghana          11.0          10.6
Haiti          10.9          12.2

The US. is in 58th place with 6.2%. At least those are the “official” numbers. As the Reason article notes the official numbers and what is really happening don’t necessarily agree.

“Interesting” things happen with high inflation. There are numerous examples of hyper inflation (defined as greater than or equal to 50% per month) for individual countries. You might want to read up on them. But there will be new books required if it goes global.

The consequences of government responses to COVID, such as reduced production and “free money” make inflation worse. With yet another variant/excuse to adversely affect the economy we might get to read some of those new books on inflation in a year or two. Assuming, of course, we can afford the cost of the paper or electricity to charge your Kindle.