Posse Incitatus

The VP Sweepstakes

It's been a bizarre presidential election, with COVID-19 throwing a monkey wrench into the normal M.O. of both major political parties, Joe Biden running his campaign from the basement, and Donald Trump inhibited from staging frequent mass rallies.

In finally choosing Sen. Kamela Harris as his vice-presidential running mate, Biden did not necessarily drag his feet, given the circumstances. Rather, he repeatedly missed and pushed back deadlines for his decision due to the major baggage many of his prime contenders had. He probably knew of the inevitable ramifications that would ricochet off the Democrat kaleidoscope walls after his pick was announced.

You see, in this factionalized party that's rife with identity politics, there are crazies and fanatics in all corners of the kaleidoscope, and most of them will whine if they don't get their way, running to the progressive sewer of Twitter to spout off with bile and obsessively checking back to see how many "likes" and retweets their comments get.

Let's take a look at the primary contenders with whom Uncle Joe dealt: Former U.N. Ambassador and National Security Advisor Susan Rice already has established herself as a brazen liar almost in the same class as Hillary and Bill Clinton. Her misguided policies contributed to chaos overseas, including the 1994 Rwanda massacre. Furthermore, insiders say she's a nasty person to work with, and makes frequent use of the "F" word. I knew from the get-go she would've been a disastrous pick.

California Representative Karen Bass is a big-time communist sympathizer. A long-time left-wing militant from the People's Republic of California, she visited Cuba numerous times during the reign of the vile thug Fidel Castro. When Castro died in 2016, she stated, "The passing of the Comandante en Jefe (Commander in Chief) is a great loss to the people of Cuba.” It's a no-brainer that having Bass on the ticket would have made Florida a slam-dunk for Trump-Pence.

Biden also considered Massachusetts progressive firebrand Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, among others. Warren would have scared Wall Street to death, and caused many investors who normally back Democrats to give their votes and campaign contributions to Trump. Whitmer is too inexperienced, and like Warren, the wrong skin color during this woke age.

By choosing Harris, Biden thinks he can pacify those on the left who demanded he select a "woman of color" (hey, EVERY woman is a woman of color -- some paler than others). At the same time, Biden believes Harris is not such a femi-Nazi radical (like Warren) that she will scare off independents and moderates of both parties. But from the commentary I've been reading, Harris may appeal to middle aged and older blacks, but younger blacks don't care for her. 

The progressives have been ripping Harris on Twitter and in blogs. Remember, these folks are hostile to law enforcement, and Harris had a reputation for being hard-nosed with criminals when she was San Francisco D.A. and California Attorney General. She locked up plenty of black men -- often for long sentences. On the same token, she allegedly let wealthy and powerful crooks get off easy. 

Take, for instance, these two tweets:

• MSNBC commentator Krystal Ball tweeted: "Apparently the answer to a movement for black lives is someone who helped perpetuate a lock em up regime while letting the powerful in Silicon Valley and Wall Streeters like Steve Mnuchin loot with impunity. Happy 2020."
• Leftist journalist Walker Bragman of The Intercept tweeted: "Crime bill author Joe Biden selects "top cop" Kamala Harris for VP as racial justice and police abolition protests continue across the country."

Oh, boy. Fasten your seatbelts. It's gonna be a wild ride these next 3 1/2 months!

 

Woke Whitmer and Uber Pandering

There are plenty of morons on network TV who are beyond parody -- CNN's Brian Stelter is a prime example. Many of them are just too dense to be self-aware and to have a shred of humility. A track record of making asinine statements and dozens of wrong predictions doesn't faze them in the least, nor does it seem to bother their viewers.

The same can be said for politicians: Some of them surpass even our greatest fears of over-the-top wokeism. Case in point: Michigan's progressive darling, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (aka Marie Antoinette). After months of micromanaging Michigan's economy with a maze of mask mandates, lockdown phases and arbitrary numbers on how many people can gather under one roof, Madame Governor has really outdone herself with a race card pander that is shocking even by her standards.

On Wednesday, Whitmer held a press conference to announce she has declared racism a public health crisis. She has issued an executive directive requiring the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to "work with other state departments to examine data, develop and plan policies, and engage, communicate and advocate for communities of color. It also requires all state employees take implicit bias training to understand the unconscious preferences we experience without intentional control and how it can impact others."

The virtue signalers just HAVE to guilt-trip everybody, don't they?

Whitmer's administration will create the Black Leadership Advisory Council to work with the administration and Legislature, focusing on issues affecting black Michigan residents. (This is guaranteed to blossom into a whole new bureaucracy offering plum patronage positions for Democrat politicians and supporters.) Among the council's pie-in-the-sky goals:

• Helping community groups with programming, funding and government rule compliance;
• Promoting cultural arts for the Black community;
• Modifying flaws throughout state law in order to expand economic growth and wealth equity for the Black community; AND
• Working directly with the governor to promote legislation and regulations.

The governor's announcement of this new priority takes a tack that is common among leftists: Attribute everything bad that happens to black people to racism (emphasis is mine):

"This pandemic has confirmed and highlighted the deadly nature of these pre-existing inequities caused by systemic racism. COVID-19 is more than four times as likely to take the life of a Black Michigander than a white one," Whitmer said. "This reflects longstanding, deep, societal, economic and environmental disparities."

Um, I thought it was because far too many blacks have unhealthy diets, are overweight, smoke, and suffer from underlying conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. Additionally, they tend to use public transportation more often and sometimes live in crowded conditions.

Now granted, some live in depressed inner city areas where it's difficult to purchase healthy foods at neighborhood mini-marts. And some have no healthcare or poor healthcare. But to attribute unequal COVID-19 outcomes simply to the old bogeyman of RACISM! is just more knee-jerk liberalism. Demagoguery 101.

The governor's announcement mentions that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, African-American individuals have made up nearly 27% of Michigan's confirmed cases and 39% of deaths -- although making up 14% of the state's overall population. Again, it's often lifestyle choices -- choices no white racists force blacks to make. Look, there are plenty of obese white people who have poor diets and maintain sedentary lives. It's not a racial issue; it's often a matter of how we were raised and whether good nutrition and exercise were emphasized while we were growing up.

The executive directive requires health departments to document, analyze and publicize the differences in health outcomes throughout Michigan’s ethnic and racial groups. You talk about a can of worms featuring more identity politics and bickering factions. Leave it to liberals!

Calling racism a public health crisis reminds me of the CDC's decision a few decades ago to treat gun violence as a public health problem. Gun violence, like gang membership, dropping out of high school, dealing drugs, and getting sent to prison are problems plaguing far too many blacks that can be laid directly at the doorstep of fatherless children. The breakdown of the family structure among blacks (about 72 percent are born to single mothers) is the crux of the matter. All children need a father to serve as role model, mentor, guardian and disciplinarian. Not having a father is having the deck stacked against you from the start. But people who declare this publicly are vilified, demonized and ostracized. Such is the warped progressive world in which we live.

"Big Gretch," as her gushing fans love to call her, is moving at warp speed to be even more of a leftist than the infamous "Governor Tinkerbell" who failed frequently from 2003-2011. It wouldn't surprise me at all if, in the near future, she advocates reparations for slavery.

There is no 'reasonable dialogue' because the Democrats killed it

Our new (and perhaps old?) comments troll has made an appeal to reasonable discussion as a means to bridging disagreement.  All very reasonable and 1990s in outlook.

Yet for all the fair words, it's impossible at this late date to take them seriously.

In the first case, anyone wishing to learn more about 'the right' would likely choose a far more consequential blog than this fading relic, where a good weeks sees maybe three posts.

However, there is a truly massive archive, where such a person could - through careful reading - learn much about the evolution of non-establishment conservative thought.  Certainly we have better things to do that repeat arguments that are readily available.

But in the larger sense, dialogue is pointless because the Democrats have unmistakably signaled that they are done talking and ready to impose their will by any means necessary.

This became clear under Obama, when Democrats nakedly used their power in the teeth of public opposition and in violation of long-standing tradition to obtain what they assumed would be permanent gains.  Thus, in the quest to dominate the judiciary, the Senate filibuster was cast aside.  Similarly, the long-standing tradition of bipartisan support of major legislation was trashed in order to put Obamacare into effect - even going so far as to jam the bills through on Christmas Eve.

The Democrats knew they were flirting with electoral suicide, but such considerations were secondary to the belief that they would fundamentally alter the American political landscape.  Winning was all they cared about.

So it is today.  The Dems will trash anything that gets in their way.  How quaint is it to recall the Democrat opposition to the PATRIOT Act in light of how they used it to spy on - and undermine - the Trump administration!  The FBI and CIA - once deeply distrusted by the civil libertarian left - now are given full license to lie about warrants and use thug tactics to jail political enemies on specious charges.

Which is a weird posture to take for a party that claims to oppose "over-incarceration."

Perhaps the clearest signal that debate is pointless is the Democrats' reversion to using moral arguments instead of logical ones.

This not only frees them from having to explain the practical effect of implementation, it also absolves them from responsibility for any unfavorable results.

For example: de-policing in Democrat cities has produced a surge of crime, shootings and death.

By any objective measure - improving safety, protecting the lives of black people - the policy has failed.

But since it is a moral imperative, these injuries or deaths are but collateral damage on the path to Utopia.

The last time this happened was regarding slavery - when the Democrats of the 1840s shifted from defending slavery as regrettable but necessary into a positive moral good. 

It is eerily similar to the move from Bill Clinton's claim that abortion should be 'safe, legal and rare,' to 'shout your abortion!' campaigns, and concurrent lawsuits to force Catholic hospitals to perform the murderous act.

A true dialogue takes place where both sides are open to new ideas and new opinions.  For Democrats, this is an impossibility.  When they speak of 'national dialogues,' they mean that everyone else has to listen to them until they are tired of talking and then do what they say.

Not long ago, one could expect nominal Catholics like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden to denounce the attacks on Catholic churches and monuments, but their silence (and even outright denial) speaks volumes.

Indeed, a previous concern troll tried to argue that Antifa didn't exist, ignoring the prominent displays of their symbols, banners, and social media accounts claiming to speak for them.

The first place for such a dialogue to begin is therefore the admission of reality: Antifa is a violent, leftist domestic terrorist organization.  If such agreement is impossible, there is nothing left to discuss.

The Dystopian Ugliness Continues

The Posse has been remiss of late in not addressing the issue of widespread vandalism and arson perpetrated against Catholic churches and statues these past few weeks. Some statues have been toppled; others have been decapitated or spray-painted. Graffiti, broken windows and arson have occurred at numerous churches in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Tennessee, Florida and in several Canadian cities. 

In Florida, a young man drove a vehicle into a church during Mass July 11, got out, poured gasoline around the lobby, and lit it on fire. The anger and hatred coming from the left is appalling, and it only promises to get worse.

Recall that back in June, Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King tweeted that his followers should tear down statues at churches that depict a white Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. This kind of anti-Catholic bigotry is to be expected from the left, and not one Democrat has spoken out against it. (Why should that be surprising, when "Catholic" Democrats who support the butchery of abortion still go to Mass and receive Holy Communion?)

I have said for years that it won't be long before the left declares the Bible to be "hate speech," and Big Brother will censor homilies as well as keep churches and church members under surveillance. 

Remember back in 2014 (one year before the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage) when the City of Houston issued subpoenas to several Protestant ministers to see sermons from upcoming services? This was based on a city ordinance supporting LGBTQ rights -- rights the clergymen were supposedly violating by preaching the Gospel. Then Mayor Annise Parker demanded to see the sermons in advance. However, a severe backlash forced her and the city to back down. This was but a preview of things to come.

The signs are all around us, from the toppling of statues to the anarchy and looting in big cities, to the demonization of police, to individuals getting fired for daring to speak simple words like "All lives matter," to anti-religious bigotry manifesting itself in malicious destruction of property. This country is ill, and we'd better wake up before it's too late. 

Democrat Incompetence and State's Rights

The stupidity of liberal/progressive arguments continues to stagger the mind.

These delusional leftists have had their hands full trying to defend Democrat policies when dozens of cities that have Democrat mayors, city councils, police chiefs and prosecutors have turned into dystopian hellholes in recent weeks. Rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults -- a general breakdown in law and order -- are ridiculously dubbed "peaceful protests" by the idiot media parrots.

Reasonable people can debate the circumstances of police shootings that resulted in the deaths of black people (i.e., some were outrageous abuses, such as the George Floyd murder; others were justified, such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.) But what is beyond dispute is that the vast majority of notorious cop killings that helped trigger the current unrest have occurred in Democrat strongholds -- cities under Democrat control for many decades.

One of the arguments leftist partisans use to deflect blame about violence in big cities is it's Republicans' fault because they are beholden to the NRA and opposed to strict gun control. Never mind that gun violence is usually worst in the cities with the most draconian gun control laws. Forget about the fact that such restrictions on the Second Amendment disproportionately harm poor minorities living in dangerous inner city neighborhoods who need guns for self-protection. And disregard the fact there are already about 300 million firearms out there (recall the expression about closing the barn door after the horse is gone).

The bottom line is that trying to stop crime by restricting firearms is like attempting to make water run uphill. It bears repeating: If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. Simple-minded naiveté, ignorance, and often just plain stupidity are the roots of the fervent belief that more and better gun control will do the trick. I guess I shouldn't be shocked or appalled that tens of millions of people believe this swill, when you consider that millions of Americans can't even name the three branches of government.

But let's move beyond the gun control argument. Another talking point of the leftists (e.g., Chris Hahn, the so-called "Aggressive Progressive" and a frequent, annoying guest on Laura Ingraham's Fox News program), is that Republicans and conservatives are supposed to be all about state's rights and respecting the autonomy of local communities. How DARE they send in federal agents to help quell the riots in Portland and other cities.

Well, Chris, it's like this. Cities, counties and states are adjuncts of the federal government. They do retain a certain amount of autonomy when it comes to adopting their own laws and regulations. No one in his right mind thinks Baptists in Valdosta, Ga., should have a say in regulating x-rated video stores or prostitution in Portland, Ore., or that Chicago's gun control laws should apply to Russellville, Ark. Oh, but when blatantly illegal and/or unjust activities occur, or when incompetence and corruption vitiate a city or school board, there definitely is a role for the feds to step in.

For example, federal agents have been present in Portland since last week, defending the U.S. District Courthouse from violent anarchists who hope to burn it to the ground. Yet shameless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the gall to refer to them as "stormtroopers." The unhinged Democrats are claiming Gestapo-like tactics, and using the ludicrous term "kidnapped" to describe federal authorities arresting lawbreakers and taking them off the streets. It just gets crazier by the minute.

And here's a little refresher for Democrats: Over the past 30 years or so, it has become commonplace for federal authorities to assume control (or at the very least, exert a heavy regulatory hand) over corrupt, incompetent and criminal local enterprises. Police departments, school boards, city halls, special education, water and sewer departments. That's just a cursory list.

Here in Michigan, we have become very familiar with federal decrees meant to remedy grotesque incompetence and criminal activities in Detroit, Flint and other cities. Indeed, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled recently that Detroit's public schools were violating students' right to a quality education (a right codified in the Michigan Constitution). Under the ruling, the students have standing to sue the state for alleged violation of that right. This was but the latest in a decades-long struggle between grossly inept and corrupt Detroit public schools and the state of Michigan.

As for the Detroit Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice in 2016 ended 13 years of federal oversight intended to clean up management with audits and greater transparency, improve training and ultimately benefit the people of Detroit with higher quality and more competent police services.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department was under EPA oversight for a whopping 35 years! The EPA has been keeping an eye on Flint, Mich., because the local incompetence and corruption preceded the tainted water fiasco by decades. And then, of course, there was the important move by President Dwight Eisenhower to federalize National Guard troops during the tumultuous desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

The fact is, no right is absolute, and that includes states' and cities' rights. If the Democrat mayors and governors refuse to fulfill their obligation to keep residents secure on their own streets, and to protect private property, Uncle Sam is fully justified in intervening. 

I suspect the majority of Americans see it that way, and recognize moronic straw man arguments when they see them. But then, the high percentage of Democrats who are utterly obsessed with hatred of Donald Trump may well blind them to such reason. After all, many of them still believe the Steele dossier was truthful, and a good percentage of them believe that the Russians actually hacked into American voting machines to alter the results of the 2016 presidential election. 

There are none so blind as those who WILL NOT see.

 

The Biden Paradox: We'll get a Return to Normal *and* Revolution

For some reason this blog is like a honeypot for left-wing talking point bots.  Not sure why that is, since our traffic is but a shadow of its greatness during the Golden Age of Blogs.

Anyhow, it's interesting to see the latest example of Leftist Doublethink:  Joe Biden will bring a return to peaceful normalcy and usher in the Revolution the left has been longing for.

It's a fascinating argument to make, but the Dems are world-class experts at arguing contradictory things.  "Freedom is Slavery," "War is Peace" and now "Green New Deal is Return to Normal."

Obviously, one of these things is not true, and it's obvious that the claim of returning to normal is the lie.

The Left hates this country - it hates its history, its traditions and its greatness.  Joe Biden's ghost-written Independence Day speech was all about how disappointing the United States has always been to him.

If we simply blow up the energy industry, repeal half the Constitution and create Green Workers' Soviets, then we will get what we truly deserve.

I suppose at this late date arguing specifics is pointless because it's painfully obvious that the Dems don't mean anything they say.  Once they get power, they'll do whatever they want with it.

As they always have.