Category Archives: Politics

They are coming out in the open

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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…

Quote of the day—Casey Newton

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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]

That just happened here

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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.

We live in interesting times

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Twitter banned @realDonaldTrump. Trump switched to @POTUS and made three tweets before they were removed by Twitter:

Trump has an account on Parler. Parler claims it is a “Free Speech Social Network”. It has had it’s app banned from Apple and Google stores. Web access currently does not show any content. Not even my own posts.

Gab, another free speech social network, is extremely slow. The founder says,

Record traffic, hold the line. Scaling up as fast as we can. Pray for our team. God is good.

I think I need to move to my (non-existent) underground bunker in Idaho to make a lot more ammo.

We live in interesting times.

Quote of the day—Rick Klein

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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 deletedRickKlien
[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]

Quote of the day—Jaime Huffman

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If the game is rigged you don’t play. You flip the table.

Jaime Huffman
January 6, 2020
[This was during a call last night. The entire point of the call was to discuss yesterday’s activities in the U.S. Capital building. She also quoted John F. Kennedy as being particularly relevant in the current context.

This post, from almost exactly six years ago, is quite relevant as well.

After the people made it inside the capital I didn’t expect them to leave without reducing this country’s’ population of communists in positions of power by a significant number. That certainly would have made the voting on the certain issues a lot more “interesting” in the next few days.

Day before yesterday Mike B. sent me this link and asked me for predictions about what would happen at the capital. Here was my response:

  1. Something less complicated than his worst case scenario through the maze of dark and twisty legal passages.
  2. Something more complicated than nearly all other presidential elections.
  3. Perhaps not tomorrow, but by January 20 Biden looks like the winner.
  4. The history books will make a special note of this election.

All vague and mostly difficult to falsify but I, and pretty much everyone else, certainly missed the noteworthy directional twist events took.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Quote of the day—A. S. Haley

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Did you follow that? At the very least, you can see that the joint resolution adopted by the 117th Congress did not include the requirement of the statute that objections to any given slate of electors be made in writing, nor did it include the time limitations on debate over any given objection. And if you understood the remainder of the statute, you qualify for an advanced degree in statutory construction. But if you didn’t, join the innumerable ranks of legal scholars who have disagreed over the meaning and application of these provisions.

A. S. Haley
January 5, 2020
The Coming Donnybrook of January 6 (Part III)
[Via email from Mike B.

The post describes the maze of dark and twisty legal passages through which our U.S. representatives and Senators are going to traverse today.

It will be a day for the history books.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ric Grenell

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The Democrats have moved from there’s not any fraud, to there’s not widespread [fraud], and now their new mantra is there is ‘not enough fraud to overturn’ the election.

…

Everybody knows this election was full of fraud.

Ric Grenell
Former Director of National Intelligence
January 2, 2020
Trump in ‘Good Position’ for Electoral Vote Showdown: Grennell
[This is going to be a historic month.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert Caron

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The fraud was so massive and so blatant, despite what the mainstream media said, that we need to get this information out to the public. That’s why more and more people from the intelligence community and law enforcement are coming out, which is unheard of.

Robert Caron
January 2, 2020
More than 400 Ex-intelligence Officers to Investigate Election Irregularities
[We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ted Wheeler

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Lawlessness and anarchy come at great expense and great risk to the future of our community. It’s time to push back harder against those who are set on destroying our community, and take more risks fighting lawlessness.

…

These people need to hear, and to understand, the social and human consequences of their irresponsible actions. All of them should be requires to engage in public services like litter pick-up and graffiti abatement.

Ted Wheeler
Portland Oregon Mayor
January 2, 2021
Portland Mayor Committed to End Violence by ‘Antifa Radicals’ After New Year’s Eve Riot
[This is after:

At least two Molotov cocktail-style firebombs and large fireworks were hurled and launched at riot police, the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, and the Multnomah County Justice Center, police and video footage confirm.

The mayor it going to get tough on these thugs by having them talk to some of the victims, pick up litter, and clean up graffiti. Yeah. That would really show them he means business.

NOT!

I think this is further encouragement of their action. And I find it difficult to believe Wheeler isn’t actually on the side of Antifa.

The person, and anyone assisting them, that threw the first Molotov cocktail at the cops should have hit the street with a bullet in their brain before the Molotov cocktail landed. Portland police has snipers more than capable of doing this. I know because some of them have been to Boomershoot several times.

Throwing those sort of devices was the use of deadly force and should have been treated as such.—Joe]

Quote of the day—John R. Lott

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This study provides measures of vote fraud in the 2020 presidential election. It first compares Fulton county’s precincts that are adjacent to similar precincts in neighboring counties that had no allegations of fraud to isolate the impact of Fulton county’s vote-counting process (including potential fraud). In measuring the difference in President Trump’s vote share of the absentee ballots for these adjacent precincts, we account for the difference in his vote share of the in-person voting and the difference in registered voters’ demographics. The best estimate shows an unusual 7.81% drop in Trump’s percentage of the absentee ballots for Fulton County alone of 11,350 votes, or over 80% of Biden’s vote lead in Georgia. The same approach is applied to Allegheny County in Pennsylvania for both absentee and provisional ballots. The estimated number of fraudulent votes from those two sources is about 55,270 votes.

John R. Lott

US Department of Justice
A Simple Test for the Extent of Vote Fraud with Absentee Ballots in the 2020 Presidential Election: Georgia and Pennsylvania Data
December 21, 2020
[Even if the statistics make it look like an absolute certainty fraud was committed that doesn’t matter until someone confesses, there is video that can’t be explained away, or some other physical evidence of the fraud. Even if the odds are 1000:1 it was fraud, until the details of how the fraud occurred it’s going nowhere in the legal system.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jovan Pulitzer

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We would be able to tell if they were folded, if they were counterfeit, whether they were filled out by a human hand, whether they were printed by a machine, whether they were batch-fed continually over and over, we can detect every bit of that.

…

All of these problems that you’ve heard today can be corrected and detected now by the simplest of things. It takes you days or weeks to recount votes. Give me these 500,000 ballots, we’ll have them done in two hours.

Jovan Pulitzer
December 30, 2020
Georgia Senate Panel Requests Forensic Audit of Fulton County Absentee Ballots
[This should settle this issue:

One of the county’s polling managers previously told state lawmakers that she opened a box of mail-in ballots with a batch of 110 that were “pristine” and not folded, indicating that they were never put in secrecy envelopes, as is required.

Pulitzer said that he and his team can detect if that’s the case.

I will feel a lot more comfortable about the next few months, perhaps years, being relatively peaceful if this issue is resolved to the satisfaction of the vast majority of people.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Natalie Andrews

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they would get the Covid-19 vaccine within days to ensure the continuity of government during the pandemic.

In addition to the two leaders, all members of Congress will be able to receive the coronavirus vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech SE in the coming days, according to a letter sent to lawmakers Thursday from congressional physician Brian Monahan. He said he was notified by the National Security Council that vaccines were available to members of Congress, the executive branch and the Supreme Court.

Natalie Andrews
December 17, 2020
Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell Plan to Get Covid-19 Vaccine in Coming Days
[Interesting. I guess ensuring “the continuity of government” is more important that ensuring the continuity of food, water, transportation, and communication.

This makes it extraordinarily clear they have a much higher opinion of themselves than I do. I would be inclined to put members of Congress and the executive branch priority in the vaccine queue just below Marxist Hollywood celebrities and just above prisoners on death row.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Dangerous Liberty @DangerousLiber1

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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]

Quote of the day—Patrick J. Buchanan

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American politics will be even more poisoned and polarized than it has been for the last four years. Tens of millions of Americans will see themselves as disfranchised and believe that the greatest champion they have had in decades was illegally driven from power by the same deep state-media conspiracy he fought for four years.

…

What lies ahead?

Some see secession. But though secession is unlikely, a secession of the heart has already taken place in America. We are two nations, two peoples seemingly separated indefinitely. Can a nation so divided as ours, racially, ideologically, religiously, still do great things together, as did the America of days gone by, to the amazement of the world?

Patrick J. Buchanan
December 10, 2020
Is Our Second Civil War — also a ‘Forever War’?
[Via email from Chet.

Good questions. I have no answers. I only have half-baked guesses.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Joshua Eaton

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Almost everyone agrees that the ATF is in trouble. But this obscure federal agency may be President-elect Joe Biden’s best chance at having a real impact on gun policy—if he takes the opportunity to restore the beleaguered agency’s reputation and revive its mission. In fact, experts told The New Republic that the ATF may be Biden’s best bet at leaving a mark on federal gun policy without having to rely on an intransigent Congress.

Joshua Eaton
December 25, 2020
This Beleaguered Federal Agency Is America’s Best Hope to Curb Guns
[I find it very telling the author and people quoted in the article don’t even suggest there might be something wrong with restrictions on a specific enumerated right. Let alone making such changes without going through the legislative process.

This is literally the encouragement of a single politician to be a tyrant and restrict the rights of hundreds of millions of people who have a written guarantee their rights would not be infringed.

Such people, and the tyrants they help create, should be prosecuted.—Joe].

Quote of the day—David Codrea

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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]

Quote of the day—Brad Smith

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As much as we appreciate the commitment and professionalism of so many dedicated public servants, it is apparent to us that the current state of information-sharing across the government is far from where it needs to be. It too often seems that federal agencies currently fail to act in a coordinated way or in accordance with a clearly defined national cybersecurity strategy. While parts of the federal government have been quick to seek input, information sharing with first responders in a position to act has been limited. During a cyber incident of national significance, we need to do more to prioritize the information-sharing and collaboration needed for swift and effective action. In many respects, we risk as a nation losing sight of some of the most important lessons identified by the 9/11 Commission.

One indicator of the current situation is reflected in the federal government’s insistence on restricting through its contracts our ability to let even one part of the federal government know what other part has been attacked. Instead of encouraging a “need to share,” this turns information sharing into a breach of contract. It literally has turned the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations upside down.

Brad Smith
December 17, 2020
A moment of reckoning: the need for a strong and global cybersecurity response
[Free markets have their faults. But if you want something really messed up then have a government do it. Why else do you think they are so good at war? You send your government to some other country and they mess up that country.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Egon von Greyerz

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It is quite ominous that 100 years after Weimar, the world is standing on the cusp of a  similar debt and currency collapse with hyperinflation as a consequence.

100 years ago it was primarily the problem of one country whose debt the world could afford to write off. Well they had no choice since it was worthless anyway.

But this time it is a global problem with every country in the same situation. There will be no one to save individual countries or the global financial system. Yes, all major central banks will print endless amounts of money. But that will only exacerbate the situation.

A debt problem can never be solved with more debt. And a dying currency cannot be resurrected.

So the world is in for a major shock in the next few years. The problems will be at all levels – financial, social, political and geopolitical.

Egon von Greyerz
December 2020
Gold Vs Bitcoin & The Death Of Money
[Chet and I used to discuss this sort of thing for hours back in the 2009 to 2010 timeframe. It was impossible for us to put a due date on the implosion we imagined we saw coming. One could claim that since it hasn’t happened yet that we were wrong about it happening at all.

Perhaps.

Still, it seems to be impossible that the national debt can ever be paid off. And from a political standpoint I doubt it can even be reduced. And that has to have consequences, doesn’t it? I keep seeing a reset of some sort in the future. And no matter how the reset goes down I see rough times for a lot of people.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

This is what they think of you

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Via Hank Archer and Matthew Bracken @Matt_Bracken.

From the Washington Post:

RepublicansAsRats

Toastrider comments:

Once again, WaPo dives in where even Occasional Cortex fears to tread.

Not the sharpest tools in the toolbox, are they?

Bracken comments:

So now the Washington Amazon Bezos Post is printing propaganda cartoons comparing Republicans to Rats.

Anybody remember what followed this kind of propaganda in Germany in the 1930s?

If you don’t remember here are some clues:

jewrat

“udryd den” is Danish for “eradicate it”.

nazi-germany-rats-cartoon

“deutschland den deutschen” is German for “Germany for the Germans”.

“demokratische lander” is German for “democratic countries”. I’m not sure about the rest of the text. But you should be able to get the idea.

One has to wonder if the Washington Post cartoonist has a final solution to the problem of the Republicans.