Category Archives: Politics

Gun Control in the U.S. is Futile

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Quote of the Day

The actual figure really is innately unknowable. You can legally build an AR-15 rifle at home with a wee bit of mechanical skill and a router. However, for the sake of discussion, let’s pin that number at 30 million.

A fixed-stock AR-15 is 39 inches long. An M4 carbine with a 16-inch barrel is 33 inches long with the stock collapsed. Let’s therefore establish an average length for an AR-15 as 36 inches. If the typical “assault weapon,” whatever that truly is, spans 36 inches and you arrayed every one of them muzzle to butt, that line of guns would stretch from Boston to Los Angeles 6.5 times. That’s 17,045 miles’ worth of weapons. Starting to appreciate the scope of this thing?

There are around 400 million firearms in the U.S. A Glock 19 is 7.3 inches long. That M4 was 33. Some pistols are shorter. Some rifles are longer. Let’s just guess that they average around 20 inches across the board. Place every gun in America end-to-end, and now you have an unbroken line of weapons that will circle the globe five times.

There are 77 million lawful gun owners in the U.S. That’s 2.5 times as many Americans packing heat as there are soldiers on Planet Earth. We are some seriously well-armed rednecks.

After the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, the Australian government outlawed most guns, confiscating some 650,000 firearms. Gun control enthusiasts often look lustfully at our friends Down Under as role models. Even in a slow year, we gun-crazy Yanks buy that many new firearms every two weeks.

Will Dabbs
September 15, 2025
Gun Math is Hard | Field Ethos

Although the numbers above might seem definitive to gun owners, I’m not so sure it will have the desired effect on anti-gun people. I have often said gun grabbers don’t even understand arithmetic and some don’t even understand numbers. And with that blindness they may just double down. They may view this as all the more justification in saying, “There are too many guns on the streets.”

AI Girlfriends and Nazi Insults

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Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras

She is even more beautiful than I thought she would be. (As my degrees were in E.E. I have a thing for good hardware.)

Via Thecackalackyhightest @Cackalacky2:

I suspect, that in most cases, it is a little more complicated than that. I think it is more likely they think of the worst possible insult, that in their warped sense of reality sort of fits, and they come up with “Nazi.” Then after using that insult without much effect the homicidal thoughts percolate to the surface. The Nazi label lets them feel justified in having the murderous urges.

And, of course, there will be people a little further left on the bell curve will seek approval/self-esteem/etc. by killing a “Nazi” or two.

Still, the end result is the same. When you start getting called “Nazi” you know they want you dead and it is time to plan appropriately.

The Power to Starve You

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If you give them the power to feed you, you give them the power to starve you.

Stop being retarded.

The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial
Posted on X, October 30, 2025

Nice. It is more direct and a novel twist on the famous quote:

If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away from you everything you have.

Paul Harvey (maybe)
1952

Starvation of an entire nation does achieve one of the goals of socialism/communism. Equality.

Prepare appropriately.

Any Kind of Independence is Considered a Threat

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Burning your own fuel in your own house is about far more than the “aesthetic of it”, no matter how hard the papers try to tag it with that superficial label. A wood burner offers energy independence, and for that reason, like everything else that offers any kind of independence, they are considered a threat.

The existence of anyone or anything outside of the system, even in token or vestigial ways, threatens the idea that the system is even necessary. Therefore they must be attacked.

It’s an autoimmune response, a reflex; they can’t help it.

They need to know everything you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and why.

And, more importantly, they need you to be OK with that, to welcome it, even thank them for it.

They need you to know that is the safe; the normal; the only way the world works.

So, expect this messaging to continue until the ban is in place, or licenses are required, or they manage to wire a smart meter to a wood axe.

Kit Knightly
October 22, 2025
They’re Coming for Your Wood-Burning Stove. Again. – OffGuardian

While the article is referring to potential U.K. regulations it would only take an administration change in D.C, for the U.K. craziness to be imported with similar motivation.

It is Time to Hold Them Accountable

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 I am DONE. If you have ever excused or condoned violence or knowingly consorted with those who have, and I don’t care one whit if you’re someone as lofty as Barack Obama, you need to be driven from polite society. I will happily engage in the ritual malediction of saying that the call to ostracize obviously extends to forces on the political right. Except I do so knowing that no matter how much corrupt Democrat leaders cook the stats to pretend right-wing violence is a serious threat, nothing the right has ever done comes close to setting off five bombs a day for 18 months straight, proceeding to terrorize the country for more than a decade, and then electing new generations of politicians that knowingly excused this insane level of violence.

Mark Hemingway
September 11, 2025
The Left Has Never Been Held Accountable For Political Violence

A Copilot summary of the “cooked stats” reference is here. I think Copilot downplays things more than is appropriate. Read the original report to get your blood pumping.

Hemingway overstates things some. There are times where violence is called for. Justified homicide is a thing for a reason. Using lethal force to prevent death and/or serious bodily harm to innocent life is certainly moral and almost universally legal.

My hypothesis is that many on the left leverage this moral and legal right to violence to their own evil ends by redefining “violence” to include people saying things that offend them and/or prove them wrong. We must be on guard to notice and call them out on this linguist sleight of hand. And especially hold their feet to the fire on actual violence they condone.

Violence is in the nature of the political left. It comes to them as naturally as defense of the innocent does to most people. Aside from the recent examples of assassination attempt on candidate Trump, and the murder of Charlie Kirk, you saw it in their blindness to Antifa and Black Lives Matter crimes as well as when Kyle Rittenhouse defended himself against threats to his life. In their minds it is a crime if someone tries to defend themselves against a violent attack by a leftist.

The Hitler/Nazis/Fascist rhetoric, whether intentional or not, is them working themselves up for serious violence. This must not be allowed to continue. Hold them accountable. Prepare and respond appropriately.

Unholy Trinity of Threats to our Republic

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Mamdani represents the unholy trinity of threats to our Republic—Islamism, Communism, and the Democratic Party.

Xi Van Fleet @XVanFleet
Posted on X, October 25, 2025

Just a FYI, Van Fleet was born in China and participated in the “Cultural Revolution.” She has been in the U.S. for many years now and is fighting for the good guys.

She uses an interesting collection of labels. I’m not sure they are all compatible. Pure communism not tolerant of religion. But then, coherence is not a defining characteristic of any of them.

My expectation is that within a few years New York City will be a shining bad example for the rest of the world to see. It is also my expectation that most people will look at the mess without seeing the root cause.

There is virtually nothing I can do about the problem, so I’ll get back to work on preparing my underground bunker in Idaho.

Teach a Person About Socialism

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Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.

Teach a man about socialism and he eats his neighbours fish for ever, while envying his neighbour for catching fish successfully and regulating his neighbour so he can’t catch as many fish for both of them.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Posted on X, October 25, 2025

It doesn’t have to be a man. Women can be just as stupid as men.

And not forever. Just until both the person and their neighbor both die of starvation.

Only an Intellectual

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Via Thomas Sowell Quotes @ThomasSowell:

I thought I had posted this famous quote before, but I can’t find it at the moment so here you are, just in case.

The late, great, Eric Engstrom once told me his analogy of socialism, “Socialism is like a piece of candy that gives you cancer. Later you start feeling sick. The offered cure is always another piece of socialist candy.”

Only an intellectual, indeed.

They Want Violence Against Their Enemies

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Understand that Democrats and their media lickspittles don’t actually care about anything they pretend to be mad about. They don’t care about the East Wing or group chats or the shutdown or muh democracy or whatever.

Everything they say is intended to manipulate their base into doing what they want. That’s it. What they want right now is violence against their enemies, and every new narrative is little more than an A/B test to determine what is most likely to incite their foot soldiers.

Once you see it, you can never unsee it.

Sean Davis @seanmdav
Posted on X, October 23, 2025

This is a reasonable hypothesis. I have my doubts this is entirely true, but I probably could be convinced it is true.

I think the more reasonable hypothesis is that because of their steady decline in the polls they have been increasing the shrillness of their claims. The side effect is the appearance of wanting violence.

I don’t believe the Democrat leadership is so stupid as to believe violence is a one-way street. Furthermore, I don’t believe they are so foolish to believe that once their enemies perceive they have a green light for returning the violence that, short of a change of identity and continent of residence, the leadership would be physically safe.

Useless Idiots

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Being out of actual new ideas, they’ve spent the last quarter century or so simply reflexively opposing anything a Republican President does. Bush and the Gulf War set them on the path of taking the side of the Muslim world.

And once they got on that tiger they had no choice but to keep riding it. Hope you are sitting down, but I’ll say that even Joe Biden must have been repulsed by the atrocities of October 7th. But by then he needed the Electoral Votes of Michigan more than he needed to have a soul.

Lost ’em both anyway.

Tacitus
October 18, 2025
The New Old Fashioned Hate – Chicago Boyz

I think I have posted something similar to this claim before. Democrats in this country reflexively opposes anything the Republicans say or do. This makes them vulnerable to manipulation and the current administration has been utilizing the vulnerability. It is not quite this simple but it illustrates the point, if President Trump says the sky is blue the Democrats feel morally obligated to claim it something other than blue.

This has led to President Trump claiming reasonable positions in the middle ground, such as trans women should not be competing with biological women in sports. And the Democrats lose several percentage points in the polls because they are compelled to oppose this position.

And what was the point of the “No Kings” protest? Did they think President Trump would change his behavior because of street protests? He got 312 electoral and 77,303,568 popular votes last year. Those are all that are important to him. The Democrats express all the emotional energy they can muster, and he just trolls them to urges them to even greater heights. Democrats believe they have accomplished something profound. Trump and his supporters get stomach aches from laughing so hard.

They are saying aliens in the country illegally are not criminals. They are shutting down the government to give free and/or subsidized healthcare to illegal aliens. Are they aware of the U.S. debt is approaching $38,000,000,000,000? Can’t they cut aid to criminals to help reduce that debt? More and more people are coming to believe they are deliberately trying to destroy this country.

I wish they would engage in a constructive debate. If they really tried, they probably could contribute some decent ideas and/or tweaks to the administration agenda that would be good for the country. But they cannot allow themselves to “collaborate with the enemy.”

It is no wonder they are polling at the lowest approval rating in decades. They have earned and continue to demonstrate their worthlessness nearly every day.

Sometimes I think they do not rise to the level of useful idiots. Perhaps, even, they cannot rise to that level. They are stuck at the level of useless idiots.

Alternate Framings/Realities

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It is amazing to me how reframing things makes such a huge difference in not just the point of view, but in the conclusions about reality. Here is one such example (via Sarah A. Hoyt):

I spent nearly four decades in a relationship with a woman who had problems with depression. When she got depressed any evidence of her/our situation would be rationalized into justification for the hopelessness of things.

For example, if we were tight on money because of an unexpected car repair or some such thing my pointing out that we both had steady jobs and would be back to normal in a month or two. But she could not see “the light at the end of the tunnel.” It was a catastrophe. If a depressive episode occurred when things were going well, she had rationalizations to justify her depression “This is just temporary. It will get worse tomorrow.” “It is all downhill from here. This is the best it will ever be.”

This affected even the most ordinary of things in her daily life. And the really sad part was the self-fulfilling prophecy of it. This literally happened more times than I could count… She would be driving down a street free of traffic with a green light ahead. She would start slowing down as she approached the light. She did this because she was afraid the light would turn red, and she would have to stop. Of course, this increased the chances the light would turn red, and her concern would be justified.

I could see the future as awesome with a “clear road ahead”. She could only see the bridge ahead being taken out by a meteor.

Or another reframing, after your wife has just had sex with another man:

Sloppy seconds always feel amazing

570_kinkycouple @5Kinkycouple

With the following comments:

Agreed!

Sex Club Diary @SexClubDiary

Yes they are love it 👅👅👅👅🔥

Tony @Tony38967281

With most men, assuming the wife didn’t get killed, it would mean a divorce. Yet, another set of men think this is awesome and something to be enjoyed. How can these two framings be compatible with the same data? Yet, they are. These are alternate, very real, realities.

From the engineering world one of my favorites is to tell people to solve tough problems by looking for a different point of view. Imagine never having seen a wheel before and viewing a heavily loaded cart from a distance moving straight away from you pulled by a single horse. How can that be? That just can’t work! But if you look at the cart from a 90 degree again to its direction of motion it is incredibly simple.

Politics are filled with examples. One of my favorite examples is destroying the “right” versus “left” view of politics. People tend to believe that if you are opposed to a few of the left-wing policies that you must be in favor of all of the right-wing polices. In essence, many people will shout, “There are only two choices!”

<heavy sigh>

No. There are many ways to view the political world. A simplistic way of understanding my view political ideal is, “Free markets, free minds.” With this point of view, you see people on both the right and left as incoherent and something to be opposed. Both “wings” want some things controlled by the government and other things free from government interference. They just want government oppression for different things.

And on a whimsical note, there are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.

If you look for these alternate framings/realities, you will soon see them everywhere. And in doing so, just as with the wheel example, you will find better solutions to problems of all types. Psychology, sex, engineering, politics, almost anything can be seen from different viewpoints. And finding better solutions to problems in all domains makes the world a better place.

Looting, Throwing Bombs, and Beating People

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A few days ago I posted about the irony of Antifa claiming they were “true Americans”. When John Schussler then asked, “What looting, bombings, or beatings are you referring to?”, I was shocked. I thought everyone was up to speed on those activities. Apparently, there are some information bubbles that sufficiently insulate people from reality.

The data is so overwhelming that I can’t imagine the legacy media does not know the truth. They are blatantly lying if they say Antifa is peaceful or does not exist as an organization. The people who believe the lies are, at best, willfully ignorance.

Here are some of the evidence links I found:

I highly recommend Andy Ngo’s book, Unmasked.

See also what Jonathon Turley has to say about them.

Turley has also written a book on them which I was not aware of until today.

I gave the listed links above to Copilot and asked for a blog post with citations supporting my assertion. This is the result:

Documented Criminal Acts Attributed to Antifa: A Summary of Reported Incidents

In recent years, Antifa-affiliated individuals and cells have been implicated in a range of criminal activities across the United States, including looting, bombings, assaults, and attacks on law enforcement. While Antifa is not a centralized organization, its decentralized networks and ideological cohesion have led to coordinated actions that, in several cases, escalated into violence. Below is a summary of documented incidents drawn from news reports, federal indictments, and investigative journalism.

1. Firebomb Ambush on Police in Atlanta

On March 5, 2023, a group of masked Antifa militants launched a coordinated ambush on police officers at the construction site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. According to journalist Andy Ngo, the attackers used explosives, firebombs, and rocks, injuring officers and setting construction equipment ablaze. The incident was widely reported and documented with video evidence on social media platforms.

2. Looting in Austin, Texas

Three individuals identified as Antifa members were arrested for looting a Target store in Austin during a protest. The Travis County District Attorney’s office confirmed their affiliation and charged them with burglary and theft. Fox 7 Austin reported that the suspects were part of a broader protest that devolved into property destruction and theft.

3. Attack on ICE Facility in Texas

In a federal indictment unsealed in 2023, the Department of Justice charged two men affiliated with a North Texas Antifa cell for attacking an ICE facility. The indictment alleges that the men used incendiary devices and coordinated the attack as part of a broader anti-government agenda. The case underscores the federal government’s concern over violent extremism linked to Antifa ideology.

4. Assaults on Federal Officers in Portland

During the height of the 2020 protests in Portland, Oregon, four individuals were charged with assaulting federal law enforcement officers. The Justice Department detailed how the defendants used projectiles, including explosives and rocks, to breach federal property and injure officers. These incidents were part of a series of nightly confrontations that often involved self-identified Antifa participants.

5. Explosives and Riots at ICE Building in Portland

Fox News reported that rioters breached an ICE building in Portland using explosives and rocks, injuring officers and causing significant property damage. The report noted that many of the participants wore Antifa insignia and coordinated their actions through encrypted messaging platforms.

6. Investigative Reporting and Firsthand Documentation

Independent journalists such as Andy Ngo and Wiretap Media have extensively documented Antifa-related violence through firsthand footage, interviews, and social media posts. Ngo’s book Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy compiles years of investigative work, detailing incidents of beatings, arson, and organized attacks on government institutions.

Conclusion

While Antifa is often described as a loosely organized movement, the documented incidents above suggest that its adherents have, in multiple cases, engaged in coordinated criminal violence. These actions have targeted law enforcement, government facilities, and private property, often under the guise of protest. The evidence presented here underscores the need for continued scrutiny and legal accountability for violent extremism, regardless of political affiliation.

Sources

  1. Antifa Launch Ambush Firebomb Attack on Atlanta Police
  2. Travis County DA: Three Members of Antifa Arrested for Looting Austin Target Store
  3. DOJ: North Texas Antifa Cell Attacked ICE Facility
  4. Four Defendants Charged with Assaulting Federal Law Enforcement Officers
  5. Officers Injured as Portland Rioters Breach ICE Building
  6. Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy

The Way to Victory is to Talk About Price

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The way to victory is to talk about price. You could talk about the planetary emergency and mitigation and adaptation, and you could throw in some environmental justice rhetoric, and by the time you’re done talking, people think you don’t care about them.

Brian Schatz
U.S. Senator from Hawaii
September 2025
Democrats Aren’t Talking Climate Any More

It is very telling that it is all about “victory”, not what is good for the people or the country.

I find it amusing that after decades of pushing what they admitted were higher priced ways of generating electricity they are now claiming “clean energy” is actually cheaper (from the same article):

“Sometimes our messaging in the Democratic Party — not great,” Sherrill said in a March interview. “For years we’ve said, ‘We need to move into clean power.’ And there’s almost been this understanding, ‘It’s going to cost you an arm and a leg, but if you’re a good person, you’ll do it.’ So now that we’re actually in that place that we promised — it was going to be cheaper than any other source of power — people are skeptical.”

They have this weird belief that if they say something is true then it is. They literally believe their own B.S.

Constitutional Rights Cannot be Redefined by Agency Decree

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The injunction is significant—not only for its immediate protection of NRA members but also for the precedent it sets in reining in agency overreach. Beyond striking down a single rule, the ruling reasserts a fundamental principle: that the power to make or change laws lies with Congress, not unelected bureaucrats.

For the firearm community, Butler v. Bondi is more than a courtroom win. It is a reaffirmation that the boundaries of federal power must be respected, and that constitutional rights cannot be redefined by agency decree.

Susanne Edward
October 13, 2025
Judges Rule Against Another Biden-Era Policy | An Official Journal Of The NRA

This is good, but it reminds me of something else I want the gun rights organizations to work on… How does anyone believe the 2nd Amendment allows restrictions on interstate sales of firearms? Why can’t someone in California legally buy a gun in Oregon or Nevada without it being shipped to a California FFL?

It is not that I think the interstate sales restrictions should be a higher priority than semi-auto rifle bans, standard capacity magazine bans, and the “sensitive places” B.S. But it should be on the radar.

Also, in an era of President Trump pushing the envelope with executive orders, this precedent will be interesting in its application to recent events.

Right Wing? Left Wing? I Don’t Care

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They have a lot of things in common:

When the political left claims their opponents are Nazis fascists there is more than a little projection.

Right-wing and left-wing labels do not matter. What matters is, do the policies violate individual rights? If so, then those policies should be opposed.

Freedom is Incompatible with Equal

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Via The Atlas Society @TheAtlasSociety:

People demanding equality are demanding you give up your freedom.

Believe the Science

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The Left is admitting in surveys that they’re more politically violent. In Cygnal’s October national poll, 60% of young liberals said breaking the law is OK if you disagree with the government. And 41% of all liberals concurred. Only 14% of conservatives held this belief.

Brent Buchanan
Cygnal founder and pollster
October 16, 2025
Left greenlights political violence on eve of ‘No Kings’ revolts

It is in their nature (see also here).

I want my underground bunker in Idaho to be finished.

Power Over Principle

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They see this as a fight about how Democrats can start winning again, which makes it not merely tactical but also existential: Party officials, strategists, and activists have spent a year sifting through the wreckage of an election that was calamitous to the Democrats’ governing plans as well as their very understanding of themselves. And there is no shepherd to guide them. The party’s erstwhile leader, Joe Biden, is widely scorned. Harris, its would-be standard-bearer, is busy promoting a backward-looking volume of grievances.

Elaine Godfrey
October 14, 2025
The Democrats’ Heterodoxy Problem

As a libertarian/constitutionalist I’m always somewhat amused by a political party changing its policies. And here we have members of the Democrat party considering all policies up for revision as long as they can regain power:

“Permissive” isn’t a word you would use to describe Democrats over the past few years. The party has suffered from a perception that it has become intolerant of different perspectives and preoccupied with identity politics and language policing. Litmus tests aren’t just applied to gun policy, but to policies on LGBT rights, immigration enforcement, policing, and other matters.

But losing power has a way of shaking up party canon. And there are some signs that Democrats are ready to move past this era of ideological purity and rigidity.

I have my differences with Republicans, but the Democrats have been the sworn enemy of the Second Amendment for 60 years. To see them struggle with relevance, self-doubt, and even identity, invokes a fair amount of schadenfreude.

German National Socialist Workers Party

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I have often seen the National Socialist Workers Party of the 1920 to 1945 era in Germany described as “right wing”. But, with socialist right there in the name it is obviously deserves the “left wing” label. Correct?

Well… perhaps not. I asked Copilot and Grok about this. They agreed with each other, but Grok described it best:

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP, or Nazi Party) included “socialist” and “workers'” in its name as a deliberate propaganda tactic to appeal to disaffected working-class Germans during the economic turmoil of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. The party’s precursor, the German Workers’ Party (DAP), was renamed in 1920 to attract voters away from actual left-wing parties like the Social Democrats (SPD) or Communists (KPD). Early party programs, such as the 1920 25-Point Program, included some anti-capitalist rhetoric—like calls for profit-sharing in large industries or nationalization of trusts—to sound revolutionary and worker-friendly.

However, this “socialism” was redefined in nationalist terms, rejecting core Marxist elements like class struggle, international worker solidarity, and the abolition of private property. Adolf Hitler explicitly distinguished it from Marxism, stating in 1930 that “Our adopted term ‘Socialist’ has nothing to do with Marxist Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not.” Instead, Nazi “socialism” meant subordinating economic activity to the state’s national goals, preserving private enterprise as long as it served the “Aryan” race and the regime’s militaristic aims. The economy under Nazism was a mixed system with heavy state direction (e.g., for rearmament and public works like the Autobahn), but it involved privatization of public services, alliances with big business (such as IG Farben and Krupp), and suppression of independent trade unions in favor of the state-controlled German Labor Front. This corporatist approach aligned more with fascist economics than left-wing collectivism.

Personally, I reject the left/right labels as far too simple. While probably still too simplistic I find the Political Quiz | Political Typology Test a big improvement over “left vs. right” labeling.

Your mileage may vary.

The Peace of the Dead

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Dozens have been killed in Gaza during violent fighting Sunday and within hours of the expected release of hostages in the war-torn region, according to local reports.

…

According to reports via Israeli outlet Ynet, the violence erupted when Hamas militants raided the neighborhood of Sabra in Gaza City, home to a clan called Doghmush, also known as the Al Doghmush family militia.

The report said the Hamas Interior Ministry had accused a militia of attacking its forces, while members of the Doghmush clan said Hamas had exploited the ceasefire to target them over alleged cooperation with Israel.

…

In total, Ynet reported 52 members of the Doghmush clan were killed and 12 Hamas militants were killed.

Emma Bussey, Efrat Lachter
October 12, 2025
Dozens killed in Gaza as violence erupts between Hamas and armed clans

One has to wonder, “Do these people know how to do anything other than kill people?”

This is from the “religion of peace.” I suspect the only peace they will ever see is the peace of the dead.