Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
- Greta
- Sanctuaries
- Bureaucracy
- OK
- FISA
- Obstruction
- Greta. One of the things I tend to stay away from is mucking around with disabled kids, even when they are screwing up. This includes the hectoring scold that is Greta Thunberg. The 16-year old resides somewhere on the Autism spectrum, has suffered bouts of depression, is now a high school dropout, and sadly is the current public face of the climatista movement. Perhaps 30 of my old college buds participate in occasional bouts of online cussin’ and discussin’. Events usually start out with the latter and progress to the former after a period. For a bunch of oldsters, there is a lot of experience and decent argument skills in evidence. As a group, we are pretty conservative, though there are a couple hard core libs in the group. Last week, someone sent an e-mail going after Greta mainly for being a scold. For some reason, old men have a fairly low threshold of tolerance for being lectured by 16-year olds. Who knew? The rest of the group chimed in, which triggered our libs who went into their “You’re beating up on a little girl” routine, shortly after which the festivities stopped. This all got me thinking about Greta, what she is doing, and most importantly who and what is backing her. The Greta story has her first getting upset about climate change some 8 years ago when she saw something on TV. Everything has grown from that start. Now she is 16, having dropped out of High School, traveling the world, lecturing the rest of us on the error of our ways, demanding immediate solutions and action. If she believes this stuff, where did it come from? She acts concerned, something completely at odds with her upbringing as a little girl in a socialist country. Who is terrifying her? Isn’t that at some level child abuse? And why is that a Good Thing? Her backers in the international climatista movement are providing resources to move her from speech to speech to conference to conference, all because both her age and mental illness provide some level of absolute moral authority to what she says. Our group libs adamantly use this worldview every chance they get, not unlike illegals hauling babies 1,500 miles across Mexico as a get out of jail free card to cross the US border. Scott Adams had a superb response to adults scaring children about climate change last Sept. You can find it at the link. The climatistas are telling these kids that their parents and loved ones not only have screwed up the climate, but they simply don’t care that they have, and refuse to rectify that error. One of the other things the climatistas are not telling their targets (the youngsters) is that we humans are problem solvers. It is what we do. It is what we glory in. It is what makes us alive. It is just the techniques and goals that vary a bit. And when you are selling a single goal, other goals get treated, along with those who think they are worthwhile goals, as simply not caring or worse. They aren’t. Like Adams closes with: “So get some good sleep tonight. Together, we got this.”
- Sanctuaries. The Virginia Second Amendment sanctuary movement continued to grind away last week with 93 VA localities now 2A sanctuaries. These include 75 of its 95 counties and 18 of its legally independent cities. The movement has support in both urban and rural VA. We have started seeing pushback from VA elected democrats including in no particular order: threats to use the National Guard to enforce the anticipated new laws; a threat by the VA Attorney General to local sheriffs to enforce the new laws; and additional legislation. It is the additional stuff that is going to be most interesting. The original legislation would have banned AR15s, many if not most semi-automatic pistols, and the ever-popular magazine ban. Northam and his new democrat legislative majority have backed down a little bit with absolute confiscation and are starting to talk about grandfathering currently owned weapons, though I do expect registration and eventual confiscation is in their future. Then there is SB 64, and update to Virginia Statute on prohibited paramilitary activity. Initial response to this in late November was that it was going to render all self-defense and firearms training illegal. That immediately triggered a loud and self-righteous pushback with the claim that it was not in the legislation at all. Having read the actual legislation, everything is tied to the use of such training in or in conjunction with or in furtherance of civil disorder. Good, as far as it goes. Now, what is the definition of civil disorder? A 2A sanctuary county or locale, perhaps? Something else? Better question: why offer this now, especially in light of promised firearms confiscation by the State of Virginia via anti-gun legislation queued up for passage by the new democrat majority in the legislature. It occurs to me that once the newly elected democrats give the rest of the general public a good reason not to trust them on anything associated with this subject, then they won’t be trusted. And they shouldn’t. Not only do they deserve that sort of reaction, with their actions since election day in VA, they have all but demanded it.
- Bureaucracy. A Bretibart piece by Mario Duarte last week described the origins of the intentional weaponization of the federal bureaucracy and its use against President Trump. Its source is Latin America, specifically Guatemala. And the play appears to be identical with what Trump has been dealing with. Newly elected President Jimmy Morales was met with many of the same things Trump has seen right from the beginning of his presidency in 2016. There were smears, false accusations questioning his moral character to bogus conspiracies of his collusion with world powers or organized crime. Prosecutors in 2015 investigated false rape accusations against him. The charges were dismissed within a week. 2017 – 2018 the leftist political establishment of magistrates, judges, prosecutors, and investigators from the Attorney General’s office manufactured dozens of cases to impeach Morales for expelling the UN Investigative Commission in Guatemala. The Guatemalan Congress dismissed them all. This year, three Constitutional Court magistrates attempted to strip him of his foreign policy powers over an agreement with President Trump to shut down illegal immigration from Guatemala and other Central American nations coming through Guatemala. These magistrates and other bureaucrats were appointed to their positions of power in part due to the influence of US diplomats and legislators. It turns out the very same diplomats and legislators who have been plotting, lying, leaking and scheming to undo the Trump presidency. Looks like the internal coup d’état strategy has become the left’s primary weapon to unseat conservative leaders worldwide, with Morales, Trump and Netanyahu being the three most obvious recent targets. And Boris is now up to bat.
- OK. The national broadcast of the Army – Navy football game last week not only had President Trump in attendance, but also managed to stir up breathless charges of secret white supremacist hand signs (the thumb and forefinger ok sign) widely used by cadets. The media demanded an immediate investigation and expulsion of the cadets. The symbol has been used for at least 400 years mostly to signal positive – okay – or here in the US during the 1840 presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren, Old Kinderhook. In recent decades it is the focus of what is called the circle game, when the symbol is given at waist level. You look at it, and you get popped in the shoulder with a punch. A 2017 4chan hoax promoted its use as a white power symbol. This was one of multiple 4chan hoaxes using common, innocuous symbols with the claim that it was a white power symbol. The goal was to troll media and leftist overreaction, which worked pretty well and very predictably. There may or may not have been some unknown number of actual white supremacists jump on the newly defined use both to troll their opposition and because they actually thought the symbol now actually meant. These guys aren’t the sharpest tools in the kit, though trolling is a lot more likely than actual use. But who knows? Anyway, after photos of its use in cadet corps at the football game hit the media, they went apoplectic (when do they not go apoplectic these days?), demanding immediate investigation, punishment and expulsion of the cadets involved. The investigation was completed last week with the determination that it was the circle game and no extremism was involved. The conclusion was delivered by the USMA Superintendent, LtGen Darryl Williams and USNA Superintendent Vice Adm Sean Buck The Army Chief of Staff concurred with both investigations. To date, no hysterical media reporter or commentator has apologized for perpetrating this hoax. On FNC, Juan Williams, who demanded immediate punishment and expulsion of all involved also refused to apologize after being pointedly asked by Gregg Gutfeld. Being liberal means you never have to say you’re sorry.
- FISA. Well look who finally woke up, the FISA Court. After four solid years of being lied to by the FIB, two years after being notified of the fraud perpetrated on the court by the FIB by then House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes, they finally issued a couple statements demanding the FIB report to them in January what they intend to do to clean up its act. Nobody is being hauled before the Court for lying to it, defrauding it, hanging it out to dry. Nobody being charged with contempt. While it is nice to see these “esteemed” jurists finally get off the dime, they have, are and will continue to be completely derelict in their duty. Mark Levin blasted the Judge, Rosemary Collyer for sitting on her hands. Landmark Legal filed a secret motion in April 2017 informing the judge of violations that occurred based on published reports known back then. She ruled to deny the request with the excuse there was no matter pending before the court where such an appearance would be proper. She chose not to protect the federal judiciary, her courtroom, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The problem with the court is the judges simply do not read the presented materials. There were over 1,000 presented in 2018. Only one was denied. The FISA system is broken. And it is broken because the FISA courts are broken. The judges are just as responsible for this mess as the FIB is. Nunes said the FISA court was warned twice in 2018 about the FIB’s FISA application to surveil Carter Page. They chose to do nothing. Now they want to play. How quaint.
- Obstruction. SCOTUS agreed last week to hear President Trump’s challenge of a congressional subpoena. This action effectively rendered the second Article of Impeachment, obstruction of congress, moot. Remember, congress impeached Trump for refusing to provide information and witnesses its various committees demanded. Trump instead took his refusal to court. Not wanting to wait all that time, Pelosi’s democrats constructed an Article of Impeachment based on the notion that not only did they not want to wait any more, but more importantly, that the President has no right to even to take it to court, which is a really big rewrite of the first three Articles of the Constitution, the one they pay attention to every now and then on alternate leap years when the moon is full. The congressional cases involve attempts by House Oversight Committee to subpoena Trump’s financial records and House Intel to subpoena two banks Trump has dealt with, again seeking a broad range of financial records. None of the time in question has been during his time in office. They committees are digging for gold in things that Trump did before becoming president. The third case involves Democrat DA for Manhattan Cyrus Vance to obtain 8 years of Trump’s tax records. Presidential lawyers have been arguing that he has immunity from criminal prosecution, with impeachment being the only remedy, and Vance is unlawfully trying to pierce that constitutional immunity.
More later –
– AG