Category Archives: Politics on the left

How do you prevail against this?

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The Deep State – what I have called the progressive internationalists – are doing all they can to hobble and destroy Trump even before he enters the White House. This article on The Deep State Strikes Back: The Permanent Campaign Against Donald Trump gets right to the heart of the issue.

Getting most of what I know from the net, and being used to the relatively balanced Australian press, the above front page has been quite a revelation. It is not just that the story is discussed, but driven towards the reader. It is from The Daily Mail as well, which is towards the right of the spectrum and yet, there you are. If you are just someone who takes the news, and the balance of what matters and what does not from the paper you go to if you want to know the football scores, you cannot but be affected. The “sex scandal” is assumed to be true, it is presented as having come from a reputable source that being an “Ex-MI6 officer”, and it is something that must inevitably tend to diminish Trump’s credibility since whatever you might think of the story, you know it is now part of the mythology.

The process is depraved. But when I think that half of Americans are sorry to see Obama leave, it is hard to see Trump prevailing into the long-term. He is of a different cut, he is personally disgusted by the values his enemies display, and he has been warned that these enemies exist, which are all positive. But we will have four years of relentless negativity about Trump, some of which will stick and some of which will not, but all of it will take its toll.

Then there was The New York Times this morning (although yesterday’s paper). Not as sensationalist as The Daily Mail but even more one dimensional. The story on the front page is titled “Blackmail in Russia didn’t die with Soviets” and comes with the sub-head “Kremlin has long history of using compromising material to discredit foes”. I suppose that’s true, but the presumption throughout the paper is that there is something to the story even though there is nothing in it other than some insane fantasy. So we continue inside with “From salacious dossier to political crisis””, “President-elect concedes Russia’s interference in American election”, “A Manchurian candidate” (with the highlight quote “The onus is on the president-elect to prove he’s not Putin’s puppet”) and “Trump takes aim at news media”. There is also “Ode to Obama” with its highlight quote, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”. Truly only a Donald Trump has any chance to maintain his balance in such an environment, but it will be very hard going on the evidence I have just seen.

The only part hard to believe is that it is not the universal view

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Mark Levin discussing Obama’s absence of any positive accomplishments.

“Barack Obama will go down in history as the first African-American president, and he has no accomplishments.

“In fact, he’s got one destructive policy after another, one outrageous speech after another.

“He leaves increased unemployment, true unemployment, not the government’s propaganda.

“He leaves increased racial tension of the sort I’ve never seen in my life.

“He leaves a country economically on its back.

“He leaves our enemies abroad stronger than they could possibly have imagined.

“He’s eviscerated law enforcement; he’s eviscerated our health care system; he’s eviscerated our courts – having appointed 40 percent of the judges.

“He’s eviscerated the school lunch program; he’s eviscerated NASA; he’s eviscerated the Justice Department, which now is a left-wing hack political operation.

“He’s eviscerated the Environmental Protection Agency, which isn’t about the environment at all. It’s about destroying our industries.

“He’s eviscerated our immigration system and our border; he’s eviscerated our intelligence community in many respects.

“He’s eviscerated our trust by our allies – including the state of Israel.

“Obama has been a one-man wrecking ball. That’s what I’ve called him for eight years, and I’m actually wrong.

“There’s a lot of wrecking balls in this, including the Democrat Party, the media, academia and these clowns in Hollywood.

“Oh, and yes, he’s done enormous damage to our constitutional system, and you really do have to wonder if it can be repaired based on what you hear today from both parties.”

The deep state

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If you are not spooked by all of this then you are made of tougher stuff than I am.

MEDIA AND CIA FALL FOR ‘GOLDEN SHOWER’ HOAX…
TAPPER, BLITZER RATTLED…
YOU’RE ACTING LIKE NAZIS, TRUMP TELLS SPY CHIEFS…
Russian tech expert named in report never even contacted!
GREENWALD: ‘Deep State’ Sabotage…

The last of these comes with the title, “The Deep State Goes to War with President-Elect, Using Unverified Claims, as Democrats Cheer”. Here is the opening text, but I have to say this is terrifying and in no sense politics as usual, unless this really is politics as usual, although we have never actually seen it revealed so openly.

IN JANUARY, 1961, Dwight Eisenhower delivered his farewell address after serving two terms as U.S. president; the five-star general chose to warn Americans of this specific threat to democracy: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” That warning was issued prior to the decadelong escalation of the Vietnam War, three more decades of Cold War mania, and the post-9/11 era, all of which radically expanded that unelected faction’s power even further.

This is the faction that is now engaged in open warfare against the duly elected and already widely disliked president-elect, Donald Trump. They are using classic Cold War dirty tactics and the defining ingredients of what has until recently been denounced as “Fake News.”

Their most valuable instrument is the U.S. media, much of which reflexively reveres, serves, believes, and sides with hidden intelligence officials. And Democrats, still reeling from their unexpected and traumatic election loss as well as a systemic collapse of their party, seemingly divorced further and further from reason with each passing day, are willing — eager — to embrace any claim, cheer any tactic, align with any villain, regardless of how unsupported, tawdry and damaging those behaviors might be.

The serious dangers posed by a Trump presidency are numerous and manifest. There are a wide array of legitimate and effective tactics for combatting those threats: from bipartisan congressional coalitions and constitutional legal challenges to citizen uprisings and sustained and aggressive civil disobedience. All of those strategies have periodically proven themselves effective in times of political crisis or authoritarian overreach.

But cheering for the CIA and its shadowy allies to unilaterally subvert the U.S. election and impose its own policy dictates on the elected president is both warped and self-destructive. Empowering the very entities that have produced the most shameful atrocities and systemic deceit over the last six decades is desperation of the worst kind. Demanding that evidence-free, anonymous assertions be instantly venerated as Truth — despite emanating from the very precincts designed to propagandize and lie — is an assault on journalism, democracy, and basic human rationality. And casually branding domestic adversaries who refuse to go along as traitors and disloyal foreign operatives is morally bankrupt and certain to backfire on those doing it.

Morally bankrupt it most certainly is. Certain to backfire on those doing it is very optimistic. If this is how things really are, Nazi is not going too far at all in describing what is going on. If the evidence were not before our eyes of the way in which the media and the CIA have worked with the Democrats to undermine Trump’s authority you would think all of this is impossible.

Fake science

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This comes via Mark Steyn and is a quote from Judith Curry who has just resigned from her position at the University of Georgia. Here is the deeper reason she gives:

A deciding factor was that I no longer know what to say to students and postdocs regarding how to navigate the CRAZINESS. . . . Research and other professional activities are professionally rewarded only if they are channeled in certain directions approved by a politicized academic establishment — funding, ease of getting your papers published, getting hired in prestigious positions, appointments to prestigious committees and boards, professional recognition, etc.

How young scientists are to navigate all this is beyond me, and it often becomes a battle of scientific integrity versus career suicide (I have worked through these issues with a number of skeptical young scientists).

She, of course, is discussing climate “science”, but it is just as true in economics where no one, and I do mean no one, discusses the fantastic failure of Keynesian theory. It must be true all over the place with some scientific conclusions not even allowed into the debate.

Failure of historic proportions

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The headings and concepts are all right, but the wording is still ridiculously weak: What Obama won’t tell you about his legacy. What the story should state is that Obama has been a disaster from one end of his presidency to the other. It must still be impossible to say this in the US and keep your friends, and possibly your job. Here are the points made picked up at SmallDeadAnimals under the heading Obama’s legacy of failure.

1. It’s (still) the economy, stupid

The expansion that began in June 2009 has been the weakest since World War II, with real gross domestic product growth averaging 2.1%. At 7 1/2 years and counting, it is also among the longest on record. But it hasn’t packed much of a punch. Cumulative growth of 16.5% since the trough is well shy of the 38.4% increase during the 1982-1990 expansion and 42.6% from 1991-2001, according to the Wall Street Journal.

2. A Legacy of Ashes

Obama’s continued popularity hasn’t had much of a trickle-down effect. In the eight years since he was first elected, Democrats have lost more than 1,000 seats at the state and national level. Republicans now control 4,170 state legislative seats compared with 3,129 for the Democrats, an all-time low.

3. Keep your friends close

At his year-end press conference on Dec. 16, which was short on questions, long on answers, Obama spoke about his response to the Russian hacking of Democratic National Committee emails during the election.

He said that when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China in September, he told him to “cut it out” in terms of the hacking.

Sorry, Mr. President, the world isn’t afraid of you and your empty threats.

4. Divided we stand

Obama may have broken racial barriers when he became the first African-American president of the U.S., but his election did nothing to improve race relations. In fact, a majority of Americans (54%) say that race relations deteriorated under Obama, according to a recent CNN/ORC poll.

5. That which must not be named

Radical Islamic terrorism. Obama has spent eight years deftly avoiding using those three words to call an act what it is. He has intellectualized his position by claiming the phrase “equates Islam with terrorism,” which is counterproductive to U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

Instead, Obama prefers terms such as “workplace violence,” even if the terrorists in question pay homage to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State. A terrorist act provides an opportunity for the president to lecture the nation on the need for stricter gun-control laws.

History is written by the historians, which essentially means it is written by academic liars. This is what really happened, which only a minority freely acknowledge.

Fake conservatives

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First, for your holiday pleasure, Stefan Molyneux interviews Paul Joseph Watson. Two of the greats in breaking down the MSM monopoly on the news.

But the MSM has retains an astoniishing level of power in spite of the fact that everyone on our side will tell you that the are operatives of the left. That anyone takes the Russia hacked the election seriously does truly make me see how Donald Trump’s presidency will be battered by one stupid meme after another. These people must think conservatives, or the right in general with nitwits like Paul Ryan to the front, are ridiculous. Putin certainly thinks they’re idiots. From Drudge:

 
Which comes along with these:

 
Take it seriously and there will be another scandal along just as stupid at the next turn of the news cycle. It really is bizarre, but it also makes me think that no matter what, we are going to lose because our side has no idea of what they are up against or how to fight for keeps. But with Watson and Molyneux on the beat, and many others like them, there is still hope.

Looking back on 2016 and ahead to 2017

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Is it permissible to quote Gavin McIness? Very possibly not, but nonetheless:

We used to consider the possibility it’s all our fault. We elected a black president and begged him to fix the mess we’re told we created. When it got worse, liberals had to fabricate prejudice and hatred out of thin air. That didn’t work and so Trump won. It’s still going to take a while for these mentally ill zealots to realize the jig is up. Their entire existence was predicated on the lie that America is a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ageist, ableist, xenophobic hellhole. That’s a lot of unraveling to do. Until then, we’ll be right here making America great again.

And then looking forward to 2017: Some New Year’s Resolutions for Our Progressive Pals. From which:

Keep Reaffirming the Racism/Sexism/Homophobia and Other Moral Failings of Everyone Who Doesn’t Obey the Rigid Yet Constantly Mutating Laws of Political Correctness: It’s vital that you continue, at every turn, to label normal Americans “racists,” “sexists” and all the other “-ists” and “-phobes” in your Big Book O’ Liberal Slurs. Remember, concerns about crime are secret dog whistles to the tens of millions of wannabe KKK members lurking out there. Americans actually love being robbed! You know why we pretend we don’t like dismembering babies and selling their parts? Because we hate strong women. You caught us! And having people smash airplanes into buildings and open fire at random citizens are just a few of our favorite things. We only blame these acts on the radical Muslims who are actually doing them because of our unreasoning hatred of Muslims. There’s no fooling you! If we weren’t such Islamophobes, we’d focus on the bloody death toll from those radical Baptists. So keep it up, and never, ever, pass up an opportunity to tell normal Americans how they fail to meet your exacting standards. With enough abuse, those Trump voters you lost last time will definitely come around and start supporting Democrats again!

You should read both through end to end. They are both satirical and very well done, but only people who come to sites like this will see the point. They’re funny, but election or no election, they are still running the asylum. These nutters really think we’re just like they imagine us to be.

A house divided against itself cannot stand

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What we are seeing is the Hillary administration in a hurry. These were the plans that have now been scuttled and there must be more they will find difficult to wedge but will do so if they can. These people are insufferable, but at least they are about to vacate the presidency. Meanwhile, however:

Kerry Rebukes Israel, Calling Settlements a Threat to Peace
KERRY: ‘ISRAEL CAN EITHER BE JEWISH OR DEMOCRATIC’…
UN ABSTENTION REFLECTED ‘OUR VALUES’…
Inside coming battle between USA and UN…
MAG: ACHIEVED NOTHING EXCEPT DAMAGED RELATIONS…

From the last of these:

In the Obama administration’s waning days, global challenges to American interests abound. In Syria, which will be a bloody stain on the reputations of Barack Obama and John Kerry, the killing continues. The effort to free Mosul from ISIS is slowing. The rise of Iranian influence in the Gulf and the Levant, of China in Asia and the western Pacific, and of Putin’s Russia in both Europe and the Middle East, all continue. One might have thought any of these could be the subject of a final address by the president or the secretary of state.

But one would have been wrong. John Kerry delivered what is probably the last major speech of the Obama administration Wednesday, and its subject was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and especially the growth of Israeli settlements. So the Obama administration ends where it began: obsessed with Israelis and Palestinians as if their struggle were the key to peace in the entire region, and with construction of homes in settlements and in Jerusalem as if it were the major roadblock to a peace agreement.

Lasting damage, but some relief is on the way:

Bibi punches back
Trump urges Israel to ‘stay strong’…

You would like to think everyone agrees on this, but : this is a very sobering article in which we find:

From the Daily Mail:

President Obama’s job approval rating is a healthy 58 per cent as he begins his glide path out of office, but that number hides a partisan split among Americans that’s wider than any outgoing president has seen since at least the 1960s.

During a November 17 press conference in Germany, Obama claimed that ‘based on current surveys of public opinion in the United States, it turns out that the majority of Americans think I’ve done a pretty good job.’

But that assessment hides a deep divide: While 88 per cent of Democrats told Pew Research Center pollsters that they have a favorable view of Obama’s work in the Oval Office, just 15 per cent of Republicans agree.

That gap – 73 per cent – is far larger than what Gallup polls recorded at the end of the Reagan and Clinton administrations, and as both George Bushes prepared to leave the White House.

Obama’s average approval rating across all eight years of his presidency also shows the largest partisan breach measured since opinion surveys began separating data by political party affiliation during the Eisenhower administration.

The 73-point party gap is the largest ever measured since pollsters started recording approval ratings during the Eisenhower years. There is such a huge gap between the left and the right now, it is staggering and frankly, frightening. When you see such a disparity between political entities within a country, it usually means you are on the cusp of a civil revolt of some sort. I’m hoping and praying that President-elect Donald Trump can fix enough of the damage to stop that from happening here. The communists have been successful in tearing us apart and causing upheaval and chaos. Thank God Hillary Clinton did not get elected… she would have finished us off, I have no doubt of that.

But whether Hillary is president or not, these people have little apparent ability to change their minds or learn from experience, and they are not going anywhere.

From my days in The Rebel Alliance

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steve-kates-demo

Sent to me by an old old friend, also shown here. I have, of course, refused to pay the blackmail he has asked for to have the photo suppressed. My wife recognised me but I doubt anyone else would. This was definitely in a universe a long, long time ago.

IT’S A WISE SON THAT KNOWS HIS OWN FATHER ETC: I am happy to report, and not a little surprised, that my children could pick me out of the crowd with no trouble at all. I don’t think I’ve seen this photo for forty years but it has given me immense pleasure to see it all over again. It was at one time on the front page of The Globe & Mail, or so I recall.

The little man upon the stair

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The man has a self-regard of such immense proportions, which remains his most prominent feature, other than his ignorance and far left ethos. But what must be his most enduring feature is how delusional he is. Everything he has done will be cast aside with a sense of good riddance. As one of his parting idiocies there is now this: O’S NEW YEAR TAUNT: I WOULD HAVE BEAT TRUMP!. Yes, yes and won the US Open. Trump’s reply:

‘NO WAY’: Trump mocks Obama for saying he could have beaten him if he were allowed to run again
Trump blasted Obama for claiming he could have mobilized Americans to win a third term in office if he had been the Democratic nominee
‘He should say that but I say NO WAY! – jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc,’ Trump carped on Twitter
Lame duck president told CNN that Republicans rejected his vision of ‘one America’ and proved they can ‘throw sand in the gears’ of progress
Obama said he plans to ‘be quiet for awhile’ after he leaves office, ‘but not politically’
Trump also blasted the United Nations following an anti-Israel vote that the Obama administration could have vetoed, but chose not to

In same vein of his outlandish level of vanity, he also must think his enduring presence on the political stage is a positive for the Democrats: Obama ‘Might Just Weigh In’ On Issues During Trump Presidency. Which reminds me of:

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
I wish, I wish he’d go away…

When I came home last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door…

Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn’t there,
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away…

And yet, there is this to remind me how strange the political world now is:

According to Pew Research, 88% of Democrats approve of Obama, while on 15% of Republicans approve. . . .

The 73-point party gap is the largest ever measured since pollsters started recording approval ratings during the Eisenhower years.

There is a divide across the West that only a Donald Trump has any hope of bridging, and it may be a divide that will prove too large to close.