Maybe they are receiving “financial assistance” from some left wing group. The telling thing for me is that they are using the same language and talking points. Of course, they could be doing it pro bono, but I have a hard time imagining they would bother to spend their time doing so if not getting compensated.
So far, LA isn't "burning," but there are violent riots in limited places. I fear it may get worse, but at this point it is an exaggeration to say LA is burning.
Smart to trust your own observations. The media tends to sensationalize things. Not that these riots aren’t bad, but they’re not all over the whole of LA which is pretty big.
I agree. What I disagree with is dishonest reporting. One can agree that any amount of riots and burning of cars in unacceptable is unacceptable while ALSO believing that people should not print factually incorrect information. What is so difficult to understand here? When you lie, you discredit yourself and everything you stand for. I'm pro-honesty, because without honesty we are left with post-modernism. I won't apologize for being a Christian and taking Christian values, including honesty, seriously. If the so-called Christian right isn't committed to honesty, we might as well head for the hills.
No you don’t tolerate a cancer but if there’s a small tumor that can be excised, you don’t blast the whole body with chemo & radiation. You cut out the tumor.
Someone I worked with thirty years ago said her father traveled on business in eastern Europe in the early 1990s. He remarked that CNN could make half time at a soccer game look like a popular uprising.
To make it explicit: I would like to be able to trust Rod, but when he prints things that are hyperbole or outright incorrect, I can't trust him, any more than I can trust the NYT or the LAT. I am trying to defend journalism, not the mayor or governor. Without honest journalism, we are screwed.
Rod has done some great work -- he was the first to warn us how serious COVID-19 was going to be, among other things. But he has a tendency to see looming disaster and gotterdamerung in all kinds of events, and when the dust settles, it generally isn't. He is ruefully honest about being mislead by the hype leading up to the invasion of Iraq, but he does fall for the same kind of hype in other matters. He needs to relax and consider that serious difficulties are not the End Of Civilization As We Know It.
No, you are wrong about how I am thinking about this. I lived through 2020. So far, this hasn't been anything like that. Last I checked, it was limited to a relatively small part of the city.
If the disorder prevents the enforcement of Federal law, then it is national and no longer confined to a local area. Events in small areas if touching on foundational matters results in harm far outweighing it's meager geographical extent.
The George Floyd riots were far worse and far more widespread. Plus, the rioters in those days had quite a bit of support across the aisle. These kerfuffles and the relatively few agitators behind them do not have near the support that the George Floyd people had. This bodes well for the United States and the defeat of the open-borders crowd.
Of course, this could all change on Saturday 6/14 with the nationwide protests these folks have planned.
I've lived in LA before - where are they? Downtown? Is it sort of like Rodney King where were there certain no-go places, but, for the most part life when on fairly normally?
I wasn't here for Rodney King, but I was here for 2020. During the 2020 riots, I was afraid to go outside, as were friends in many areas of the city and surrounding cities. Shops were vandalized in a lot of neighborhoods. The current (as of several hours ago) riots have been within several blocks within the downtown area, near city hall and the federal building, and spilling onto the 101. Many shops have been vandalized and looted. I'm planning to stock up on food this evening, because I am worried about this weekend and next week, but for now I feel safe outside of DTLA. But my understanding is that mail is not being picked up from at least some city buildings. It is bad, but not as widespread, yet, as the 2020 riots. A friend sent me photos of mayhem at Lincoln and Manchester - people broke the fire hydrant and were doing donuts in the intersection and such - no political flavor to it, just mayhem allowed by the police being engaged DT. I'm not aware of other wildness, but the news coverage isn't good so I only learn about things by word of mouth. A friend in Westwood reported seeing National Guard by the Wilshire Federal building, but no disorder.
Thanks - that gives me a good sense of things. I did see some photos of 3rd street promenade - or what is left of it, though, not sure if those were current or not.
Fireplaces, no doubt. And wooly underwear and sweaters. In the Poconos, living at 2,000 ft elevation (where I do not have six-meter ceilings), I wear 4 layers of clothing in winter inside, snow pants being the outer-most layer. And at 72, I've decided I'd rather be in Daytona Beach, FL in the month of February. See you on the beach.
Ah the Poconos! My wife and I had a real log cabin at Lake Naomi for many years. It was wonderful there in all four seasons. So I can relate to your story!
Yes, that sounds a bit much. I like it a bit cool indoors in the winter so I do not overheat or have to change clothes from being outdoors*. But I would generally limit my apparel to a light underlayer, heavy socks and a sweater. When skiing in cold weather I may wear as much as three layers (plus a heavy coat), but then I will need to strip off at least one layer when I'm done.
* That can be an annoying thing up north with overheated buildings in winter. I recall one bitter cold night out dancing in Baltimore when the nightclub was like a sauna and I had to regularly step outside in the ten degree cold to cool down. In Florida the opposite is true: over-cooled buildings in the summer when one is dressed for scorching heat outside.
That, and the very best heat is radiant heat from a tile-covered stove, wood or coal. Beats a wood stove hands down. I experienced this in Germany and Romania. That's the way to stay warm in the winter!
I always thought the idea of sleeping on the brick oven sounded very cozy. My German grandfather described that experience of his childhood in St Petersburg.
30+ years ago, I encountered La Raza and MeCHA, who advocated the Reconquista of Atzlan, the American Southwest. I was in grad school and wrote for a conservative paper and I would read their paper. I found it odd how they honored Aztecs but used Spanish, the language of Cortes.
This groups evolved, but many if not most middle-aged Mexican politicians in California have MeCHA and La Raza backgrounds and these groups are racist, marxist, and hate America.
This is very different than most latino Americans who love the country.
They are similar to the current crop of Norse pagans. They don’t appreciate the fact that everything about their “religion” is know only because of monks who took time to write it down. The irony is rich.
If they love Mexico enough to be waving that flag, why don't they move there? Curious what would happen if I went to Mexico and rioted, burned cars and Mexican flags while waving a US flag.
Back in the late '90s, I'd get U.S. News and World Report from the library.
Bill, who worked at the Rock Hill Herald at the time, would read John Leo's columns about La Raza and froth at the mouth.
Then, using actual journalism techniques, he began researching John Leo's columns and learned that, if anything, John Leo downplayed La Raza!
The wild mismatch between what he saw at the newspaper's budget meeting and the wire stories every day versus what he was seeing via John Leo and other, more conservative news sites really changed his thinking.
The world is far vaster than we know and most people DO NOT THINK like us Americans.
I was quite suprised by what I read in their campus newspaper at my University of California campus. It was extremely radical and based in 60s and 70s extremist thought. I couldn't believe it was even published.
When I wrote a modest piece regarding the 500th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the New World, they stole every copy on campus. I was not even defending him and only pressed that we don't create new anti-Columbus myths in place of the old pro-Columbus myths.
MeCHA, La Raza and MALDEF still exist under new names. Many Hispanic Californian politicians are still part of these groups, which receive funding from all the same NGOs that fund various other leftist groups.
GG, you're a Lefie idiot. I don't usually insult people, but for you I'll making an exception. You honestly think air-head, wine-swilling Commiela would be better than Trump? Then I imagine you'll be voting for AOC when she's on the ticket (it's a "no brainer"). You think Trump can counteract all the mayhem, vice, deceit, thievery, skullduggery that was unleashed by the stolen 2020 election (and whenever the Left has its hands on the controls in the USA or elsewhere)? No one can or could. We have a massive mess to clean up, because (are you the last to know?), the country wasn't run by dementia Joe, it was run by a cadre of NGOs with Leftists at the controls (people like Soros), stealing from the taxpayer and channeling money into Dark Money pools ( stashed in Swiss bank accounts). It will not be easy to get the Woke, DEI and trans-mania (the pornification of children, men in the ladies locker rooms and prisons, defeating them in sports competitions) out of the culture, schools and institutions. Sexually corrupting and maiming children are the Left's bread-and-butter. Be patient, we probably will have civil disturbances ahead on the weekend all over the country, thanks to people like Soros, Obama, Newsom, Bass, and all the other Left-wing NGOs (our tax dollars at work), blue-city mayors and governors who think "okay to burn down the house and businesses. Go ahead and loot, burn and murder the police and the normies."
You know what? I repent of my hasty actions. I should not have spoken to you disrespectfully and I apologize for behaving in a disruptive and uncivilized manner.
God has his own agenda -- don't presume. Robert E. Lee was always calling on God's will, but God's will turned out to be keeping George Brinton "We're not here to take your property" McClellan out of Richmond, and keeping the war going until it was impossible to save the union without an Emancipation Proclamation and putting 180,000 men of African descent into U.S. Army uniform.
The other side promotes transgenderism, antisemitism, and race Marxism. Also, Harris really is a Crypto-Commie. Same is true of Bernie. AOC might really be this stupid, but in the end it's a revolution just the same. I like most here wanted DeSantis but we had a binary choice. You really would need to hate liberty and I dare say humanity itself to vote for these Democrats.
There are more important norms than whether an obsessed idiot understands that men can't have babies. No matter how loudly they howl, men just don't have babies.
It's possible to believe that Harris sucks and would have been an incompetent president and also that labeling her a crypto-commie is nonsensical bullshit. Live in the truth, dude.
I doubt you would recognize a communist if you tripped over one in broad daylight, or have the slightest idea what communism is or what defines a person accurately as a communist. Your use of the word crypto of course gives you carte blanche, since that could make the resulting term mean anything whatsoever. Kamala Harris is a capitalist too. When Biden picked her for veep, he announced that there had been a multi-million dollar increase in campaign donations. I thought, yup, she's Wall Street's darling. They are wary of Trump but wanted assurance that all their investments are safe if the Dems take the White House.
Not your best day. Instead of calling him names, try responding point by point with facts and analysis. Trump can't counteract anything, because his entire purpose is preening self-promotion. He utters random thoughts that hyphenate the space between his ears, pounds his chest, roars, and basks in real or imagined applause. The reason this kerfuffle happened in LA is that ICE was turning in lower numbers of deportations than in the Biden years, and Trump couldn't stand that. So the orders went out, don't wait for verified lists of people, just go out and make arrests, we want the numbers up. (There are confirmed instances, even before this, where an ICE team stopped someone, verified they were not the person sought, and someone gave an order "Just take him anyway."
By definition, those who were born and lived all their lives in South Africa are Africans. They are not dark-skinned Africans, but as Sidney Poitier's character in "To Sir, With Love" told his class "A South African is someone who lives in South Africa, whether they are white or black." (Or Indian for that matter).
The ANC was founded with understanding of this message. The contrary message was crafted by their rival, the PAC, which objected both to the ANC working with "white" South Africans and the ANC working with the South African Communist Party. The PAC wanted a pure national socialist program -- more or less what Julius Malema is pushing now. What has happened to the ANC since is the usual attrition from enjoying the perks of power and access to high finance, which at this point involves placating impoverished masses who are vulnerable to a quick-fix racial prescription for the ills of capitalism, while also remaining cozy with the financial concentrations still controlled to a great extent by Brits and Boers (who incidentally distrust each other for well known historical reasons).
Exactly how the ANC governs is not at all clear. Obviously it has taken on the usual trappings of a party in power, forgotten its high-flown phrases in opposition about "the land shall belong to the people," cut cozy deals, and pushed a line of propaganda intended to sideline opposition and keep itself in power, with people at all levels enjoying the perks more than serving the people. This does involve some pandering to race, but, it also involves pandering to those with the financial concentrations, who are still in large part Afrikkaner and English. So its a mixed bag. The reason Julius Malema is reviving slogans about "shoot the Boer" is that the ANC has left that ground unoccupied. But, they both compete for the votes of people who look for some sort of race validation.
Thanks! But I’ve actually been around since Mr. Dreher’s Beliefnet days, before he had his regular column at TAC.
I’ll admit I was feeling spicy this morning, more than usual, but it’s not every day that the president violates the Posse Comitatus Act (as amended) by sending in the Marines to help with civil policing and in the absence of invoking the Insurrection Act.
As a veteran, I find it absolutely mind boggling that conservatives, especially those who claim to believe in limited government and states’ rights aren’t apoplectic over this.
But that would be to presume that MAGA has principles and we all know that the guiding principle of the Trump administration is “Rules are for Other People.” Well, actually it's first and foremost “Pay Attention to Meeeeeeeeeee!”
Geoff, that's horseshit at a level which is unusual even for you.
Trump is Trump. He's been an egomaniac all of his life, which is a remarkable difference in personality from that discerned in other world famous people, right? He's been a bigtime star for thirty - five years. He didn't need the presidency and appears not to have been terribly happen to have won it in 2016.
Having won it again, he wants to succeed. He wants to do a creditable job. No serious person could think otherwise.
If you don’t think Trump is an egomaniac and narcissist, please tell me what color the sky is in your universe.
Of course, a certain degree of egomania and narcissism has always been a prerequisite for politicians. “Anyone who wants the job probably should never have it,” is the old adage that certainly has some truth to it. Maybe the Athenians were on to something when it came to assigning magistracies by sortition.
In any case, it’s absolutely undeniable that Trump has these “qualities” in spades. I mean, good grief, didn’t all the gold leaf clue you in? A humble servant he most certainly is not.
As a big Trump supporter (even pre-2015 I liked and admired the guy), I concede that he is both an egomaniac and a narcissist. He's also 100% obsessed with money and he. views most everything as transactional.
But he's the only republican in my lifetime to defend the border in a meaningful way. He's also the only republican to take concrete steps to ditch the dept. of education even though they've been promising it since Reagan. Finally, he's a part of a very small set of politicians who didn't make their money from or of Washington D.C.
He's making a ton of money right now extorting everyone he can. He's using the power of the US government to shake down everyone and every company that he can. The money is going into his pockets and his children's pockets. Snap out of your delusions - he's a mega grifter.
A certain degree of narcissism and ego go with the territory. Trump is within the normal range. He is who he says he is. Obama is an example of a politician whose narcissism falls into the pathological range. He cannot decide whether he wants to be Malcolm X or JFK. He floated into the Oval Office because of his race and we are dealing with the fallout of the hidden agenda he brought with him. Trump is the antidote. He’s not a humble servant, but he is a public servant whatever his flaws.
Obama became a viable presidential candidate because of one line delivered in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention: "We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents snooping through our library records in the red states." I don't think he ever understood what his candidacy meant to those who voted for him. He was also the most viable alternative to The Inevitable Hillary Clinton. But he sank comfortably into the soft cushions of the Democratic Party establishment.
You seem to be substantiating what Geoff said -- you just don't think it should be a shock or surprise, and mention that there are lots of other big egos in high places. Geoff of course seems to miss that you agree Trump is an egomaniac, you just don't think its all that relevant.
Most presidents had a sense that they had to deliver results and show leadership qualities if they wanted to feed their ego. Trump has a sense that whatever I do is the right thing to do because I did it. He might be comparable to Millard Fillmore.
Things do seem to be reversing in party support of State Rights vs, Federalism. Republicans are the party of Abraham Lincoln, after all. Democrats have always been the party of slavery, whether it was chained slavery in the Civil War era, or slavery under oppressive taxation, or slavery under the oppression of letting corporations bypass I-9 laws. How many times have I heard Democrats argue that we need migrant workers to keep food costs down. Low wages, poor working conditions, unsafe working conditions, all so we can have cheap food? Same arguments used by Southern slave owners to prop up elitist lifestyles. And that is what people against Trump’s immigration law enforcement really are. They are modern day slave owners who argue for immigrant rights in the name of compassion. In reality they are self centered power hungry bastards trying to maintain their elitist political power, not for the cause of the common man; not for The immigrant, but for themselves. They should be ashamed! But they are not because they do not love America!
Now, this argument is an interesting one and potentially has some merit because it’s absolutely true that the condition of immigrant laborers, especially agricultural workers, has really been abysmal in this country.
I was pleased to note that Senator Hawley recently introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. But the senator from Missouri notwithstanding, it’s Democrats that have pushed for substantive improvements to the economic condition of working class Americans and immigrants in the form of wage floors, Medicaid expansion, child tax credits, and so forth.
In other words, if the condition of working immigrants is as bad as slavery (which they might well argue against), it’s because Republican and employers have collaborated to ensure that those conditions are miserable. Government in this country is largely run for the benefit of business and business likes cheap labor.
Frankly, to compare the situation of migrants to slavery is pretty insulting to actual slaves. There weren’t a whole heck of a lot of west Africans voluntarily hopping on board slaver ships in the 17th and 18th centuries. Migrants to the US today endure enormous hardships and pay large sums of money for a shot at making it into this country. The two are not comparable at all.
And that is exactly why we need LEGAL immigration!! LEGAL immigration allows worker protection under the law. Illegal immigration allows for abuse on so many levels!
It is great that America is great and attractive. I just hate to see people paying cartels to sneak across the border. Frankly, I never liked people cutting in front of me in the school lunch line either. I especially despised the bully that welcomed multiple friends to join in cutting in front of me too. I don’t condone cheaters.
I keep hearing this from Trump supporters. And if that were all Trump was doing, there’d be a lot less tumult. But of course, Trump thrives on controversy.
People admitted to the country while awaiting disposition of their asylum claims are NOT here illegally. On the contrary, they presented themselves to the border patrol precisely so they could claim legal status.
People studying here from overseas on student visas are NOT here illegally. On the contrary, they went to the trouble of acquiring a student visa through proper channels so they could study here.
ICE is showing up at courthouses and grabbing people there who are showing up to hearings in exactly the way that the government has told them to.
These people ARE FOLLOWING THE RULES. Trump’s the one who’s not. If you have such antipathy for bullies, why on earth have you attached yourself to the biggest one out there?
Here’s the thing: no one likes the immigration system as it’s currently constituted. But Trump has deliberately worked to undermine any attempt at reform through the proper process, ie Congress. Because he wants a broken process that serves no one (except the elites). And still people somehow manage to stay within the law and then Trump deports them anyways.
You sound like Mark Levin or Chris Plante. In 1860, the Democrats were the conservative party and the Republicans the radical party. Southern Democrats of 1860 are your conservative Republicans of today. The modern Republican Party is heavily dependent on the old Southern conservative Democrats of the past. How many Republicans are elected in Massachusetts these days? Lincoln was a monster with 650,000 dead on his bony hands.
The blood is on vile Abe's hands and the economic catastrophe suffered by the South. I wonder how Lincoln slept at night with the mass killing he was responsible for. What makes me sad about Lincoln's assassination is that he never had to take responsibility for what he did. Booth killed him before he had to take responsibility for his actions. So much misery was caused by him. Dead men, widows, children without fathers, poverty. Lincoln was an evil man. The most evil American in our history.
Calm down. The LAPD chief admitted they were overwhelmed. That goodness we don't have a criminal coddling POTUS.
"Section 12406 allows the federal government to call National Guard troops into federal service in cases of “rebellion or danger of rebellion” against the authority of the U.S. government, explain Reuters and the New York Times. The law also allows deployment when a president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
Would that I could be paid for my scribblings! Alas, no, I’m just a mere American expressing my own thoughts for no remuneration other than the adulation of my correspondents.
It’s pretty undeniable that Trump and ICE have been, to put it charitably, pushing hard at the very outer limits of their statutory authority in order to achieve their immigration goals. One would think that limited government conservatives and libertarians within the Republican coalition would recognize this. If such creatures still exist.
In the presence of massive overreach like this, is such a reaction so difficult to understand?
In a way, this is exactly the appeal of Trump. There’s a perception that the reason government can’t achieve anything is because it’s perpetually tied up by bureaucrats and judges with laws and regulations. There’s real truth to this!
Trump offers this temptation: “Why not just do away with all that and go straight to achieving our goals?” And I absolutely get the appeal.
Except there’s a reason why we came up with a system of laws and rules and regulations in the first place. And the chaos we’re seeing in the streets of LA is precisely that reason.
But Robert Bolt put it much better in A Man for All Seasons.
“William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”
“Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”
“William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”
“Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
ALL the violence is on the Left, has been since the late 1960s, and like an abusive husband, the leftists only shake their heads and say, "I didn't want to smack you, but you gave me no other choice..."
Here is a very detailed article by Bradley Devlin about the actual numbers and costs of illegal immigration brought to us by Mayorkas and Biden. This is the best article I have read to date on the issue and, frankly, the problem is much. much worse that I had realized.
Excerpt: “On average, illegal aliens receive $2.40 in government benefits for each $1.00 they pay in both direct and indirect taxes. The average illegal alien household has an annual fiscal deficit over $20,000,” Rector claims. “With a current population of 15.9 million illegal aliens, provided above, the current net fiscal cost of those immigrants is around $110 billion per year.”
America faces two choices: mass deportations or mass amnesty. “Granting amnesty to 15.9 million current illegal aliens would impose estimated total lifetime net costs on the U.S. taxpayers of at least $5 trillion (in constant 2023 dollars),” according to Rector. “This averages to around $50,000 for each household currently paying federal income tax.” And this calculator does not include the mass migration crisis that would likely follow such an amnesty. Therefore, only mass deportations can at least provide the possibility of a long-term solution."
The link tells me that the conversation I "requested" could not be loaded. Perhaps you can find a more credible source or presentation. But, I would infer from the excerpt that they are talking about 'the vast number of aliens admitted under a dubious parole formulation in the last 2-3 years without means of support or place to live.' Technically, they weren't even illegal, but they did cost a lot of money to house, feed, clothe, etc. since otherwise they would be sleeping on the sidewalks. On the other hand, people who entered the country illegally who have become part of the economic and community fabric of our country, for better or for worse, are self-supporting, tax-paying, and ineligible for most welfare benefits. Mass deportation is no solution at all.
The Democrats want mass amnesty. Cheap wages for their billionaire donors and more future voters for them because after amnesty happens, next would be citizenship for all of them.
The more immediate goal is to game the 2030 Census for control of the House of Representatives.
The Census doesn't count "citizens". The Census just counts "heads" with certain snall exceptions.
All those millions admitted illegally (as in Violation of The Rule of Law by Biden-Harris) will be tallied for redistricting the House of Representatives. The TV, radio, and internet ads (many in Spanish) to be counted will be endless.
That's a chimaera. A large portion of illegal immigrants live in "red states" (so-called). They would only bolster the electoral votes for Republicans, without changing which party gets a majority of that states's votes.
Actually, the constitutional intent of the electoral college was for people in each state to vote for people they knew and trusted to choose a president, not for people to vote for pledged slates out of preference for a specific candidate.
Absolutely and it's that way because the Southern States wanted to count their slaves as population to ensure they received more votes which led to the Three Fifths Compromise. The Constitution needs to be amended to where we only count citizens to tally representation.
Actually, crime is down nationwide. Blaming Trump for LA is like an arsonist blaming his victim.
If Harris were elected it wouldn't be happening because we would continue to lose our country, and it is mainly lefty commie morons who riot and cause mayhem. Dems have been doing it since 1861.
Inflation is at it's lowest level since 2021, please try to keep up. There was no inflation during Trump's first term when we had tariffs, which Biden did not repeal. Libs are so dumb when it comes to business, had they read 'The Art of the Deal' they'd know a basic negotiating ploy is to ask for an outlandish position and meet in the middle. The corrupt legacy media extrapolates the initial extreme demand as if it will happen, with dire consequences. When Trump meets in the middle, these fools call him a coward who caved. So stupid.
The last employment numbers exceeded expectations.
You really think there would be less debt had Harris won? She wouldn't have dreamed of cutting the amount of waste and fraud Trump is, over Dem protests. Stimulating the economy with reduced taxes and regulation can help us grow our way our of the deficit. When Reagan cut taxes, tax receipts doubled. That's not supposed to happen, at least if you're a liberal.
Those Africans are being oppressed and killed by their racist commie government, and are vetted before entering. We need such merit based immigration. Being related to someone in our current system shouldn't be a qualification.
Re: If Harris were elected it wouldn't be happening
Crime is mainly a local matter so it really doesn't matter who's in charge in Washington. Crime rates were already falling in the last two years of Biden's term.
You need to document that "hundreds of thousands" and from a reputable source. From what I have seen the number is smaller by at least an order of magnitude. (I assume we are talking about serious crimes, not jaywalking and littering)
"There was no inflation during Trump's first term when we had tariffs, which Biden did not repeal."
The tariff situation in Trump's first term is in no way incomparable to the tariff situation in his second term. You sound like one of those Trumpers who still believes the '90 deals in 90 days' nonsense even though we're in day 94 and still have just one deal. It's like a Jehovah's Witness waiting on the end of world - even though the predicted year has passed.
In what alternate reality? They're still doing Pride this month down here in St Pete, and I've seen a scattering of Facebook posts showing it in other places, even in the hinterlands.
Elon Musk should never have been in DC to start with.
Most likely he's reacting to the fact that the Feds won't be celebrating it-- though states, cities and the private sector will be still. There's a rumor that Juneteenth is on the chopping block too-- but that would take an act of Congress which established the holiday.
They'll never do it. Congress is made up of cowards. Most workers in the private sector don't take off for Juneteenth except, conveniently, the banks. Juneteenth is as stupid as President's Day, our celebration of William Henry Harrison, Zach Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, William Taft, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Harrison.
PS: here’s a thing conservatives used to understand—it was never about any government recognition or proclamation. Pride was always for *us*, organized by our own “little platoon,” the community organized around our own immutable characteristics. We frankly couldn’t care less if you choose not to come to the party. You weren’t invited anyways.
Seriously, pride is the first sin. C.S. Lewis was right when he wrote that the motto of Hell is "I am my own." And your group takes pride in activities which God calls an abomination.
No doubt you would apply the same standard to Lee Greenwood then. Proud to be an American? Sin of the worst sort!
No doubt you would be the first to point an accusing finger at anyone taking pride in a job well done.
Perhaps Cajuns are wrong to take pride in their culture, knowing how their roots were once considered so shameful that speaking French was literally beaten out of them in schools. Clearly a sin!
Or maybe, just maybe, there are multiple definitions of “pride” out there.
In any case, this theological conversation may be interesting, but really, what you have to say about pride and homosexuality is just, like, your opinion, man. No matter what some ancient text may say.
I can quote ancient texts too that, contrary to your opinion, glorify male same sex relations as the very best sort.
Happily, we live in a country where we can have differing opinions. Which I take pride in even if you don’t.
Re: The former head of the APA said homosexuality is about as treatable as any other disorder.
There are people who say the Earth is just 6000 years old. Which does not make it so. "Conversion therapy" has a long and embarrassing (or amusing depending on one's POV) history of failure,
I'm close to the same view. "Conversion therapy" doesn't even have a reliable common definition. It covers a wide range of treatments. I remember running across on interview with a rather sad-faced middle aged man who is same-sex attracted, and as a devout Christian of some denomination or other considers that a thorn in his flesh, same as exzcema only harder to deal with, and appreciated some sort of therapy to help him overcome it. What any legal approach should invoke is, if any sort of "therapy" consists of kidnapping a person and subjecting them to humiliation and physical punishments to "cure" anything, the practitioner is subject to ordinary prosecution for kidnapping, battery, etc. Some very well defined exceptions could be made for a court finding of pathological insanity, and no, being same sex attracted is not a basis for such a finding.
Utter insanity. It was always about getting approval from the normal folks, at least in terms of the culture. Hence "The Will & Grace effect," etc. You couldn't maintain your "lifestyle" on your own, you had to mainstream it.
That's sensible, but not a universal opinion. There are those who demanded that either congress recognize or the president issue an executive order extolling this little celebration because its "affirming" for everyone to sit up and take notice. There are many heterosexuals sensitive about their political standing who make a point of going to Pride parades to show off their presence.
At the Fortune 500 company where I work Pride Month was thankfully VERY much downplayed this year as compared to the past four or five. No raising of the Pride flag rubbish or anything like that.
If Harris had been elected (and like Trump, she got just under half the vote, a fraction of a percent smaller just under half) this wouldn't be happening, but a lot of other things that would have been equally or more destructive would have. Like Trump, her priority is self-promotion, she just does less Tarzan-like shouting. She hasn't a clue on policy, just a lot of buzzwords and catchphrases. Probably the clueless policy of admitting hundreds of thousands of applicants for admission to reside inside our borders for years pending a judicial hearing, without a place to stay or means to support themselves, would have continued, and that in a less acute way would have been equally disruptive. Either they sleep on the sidewalks, or states spend millions to feed, clothe and house them, since the feds weren't doing any of the above.
You blew me away with this essay, Rod--just the best stuff. Unbelievable. Yes, we probably are going to have a new religion with AI the God. But not with me and mine. And when this AI take over becomes complete, the AI God will come after and expose and persecute Christians. That's one way we know Christianity is true: the totalitarians always move to suppress the faith, right away (see Britain, where praying in your home is becoming illegal in some respects). So what do I think is going to happen? A Great Chastisement which may well be the start of the Tribulation. And I'm not getting this from any vision, dreams, voices or superior anything about me. I just read and think and pray. I study history. So all indications are (from my "intuition" and study of the past, including Marian apparitions), there's going to be a struggle ahead in which the totalitarian Left will make a move for "the final solution" of some kind of Great Reset (replacement of the currency, total 1984-level survelleince and the persecution of the faithful). And there will be manifestations that are unmistakable divine in nature as "blowback". I've had a little "magic" in my life (little inexplicable things happen that "turned the tide of the battle" every single time). I should have been dead at least ten times in my life (and I'm a nobody)--each of my children have had near misses (some right in front of my face). That's while I am expecting and trying to prepare for (trouble), but my preparations are "a joke" because outside divine interventions, assists and protection, me and mine are "toast". What am I up against a swarm of Chinese drones or alien aircraft? Nada. Notice I say Chinese, and not Russian. Based on what? Intuition and reading. Europe may have a problem with the Russians (God knows the Russians have been sorely provoked), but in the USA, I think the Chinese (CCP) will be directing any kinetic attacks coming up through MEX or down through CANADA, or through the sky, up from out of the sea. The Chinese implanted a "kill switch" in all the solar panels it sold us for a reason. They can just "flip off the lights." (The AI God goes silent.) But at that point, what if, say, the Chinese people decide "we've had enough" or God drops XI on his head? World war and civil war (together?) in China? See WWI Russia -- internal war and external war, all at once (hell on earth). What about the aliens? I have a "wait-and-see" attitude about the aliens. Clearly "something weird is going on" in space. But God would have had to have created the aliens, so "God is in control". So, I'm heading into NYC on Friday, the 13th to assist the NYC wing of the family. Good thing I'm not superstitious. I keep asking God "do you think I ought to postpone the trip?" Nothing back so far, so I'm going into the belly of the beast (Manhattan), my Latin chant rosaries playing on the youtube channel while in transit. Listen to the Gloria at around 8:15 mark. Is that not the most divine Gloria you've ever heard? The singing nuns are the daughters of Mary from upstate NY. Don't know who those fabulous Gloria-singing monks are, but they're definitely channeling something directly from Heaven.
The article states "Inverters are built to include remote access via the cellular network and utility companies commonly install firewalls to prevent hacking and communication back to China."
The main purpose of an inverter is to change the direct current output of solar panels to the alternating current used by the power grid, using some of that energy in the process. I wanted to write 'DC' and 'AC' but I too have noticed the widespread loss of knowledge.
“Inverters are built to include remote access via the cellular network and utility companies commonly install firewalls to prevent hacking and communication back to China. However, the rogue components were not listed in product documents when they were shipped to the US.
“Using the devices to get around firewalls, China could potentially switch off inverters remotely or change their settings to bring down the grid.
“That effectively means there is a built-in way to physically destroy the grid,” one source told Reuters.””
Yeah, I read the whole thing. The full passage does not change the general inaccuracy.
----
"A power inverter, inverter, or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the opposite of rectifiers which were originally large electromechanical devices converting AC to DC."
“For example, many dc-to-ac power inverters can safely operate loads having a large net reactance of one sign but only a small reactance of the opposite sign.”
— The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications 101st Edition; Volume 1: Fundamentals of Radio Electronics by ARRL Inc. Page 339
My father had one of the key patents in making high-efficiency inverters viable. Early types couldn't maintain the wave (originally a square wave until sine-wave inverters got good) as the loads increased, but he patented ways to stabilize the signal no matter the load. The patents expired decades ago, and then China started mass-producing all but the biggest of inverters. But I remember when the early models were built in our garage.
Trump is obviously the problem here, he and his entire team are pushing everyone to use the word “insurrection” to justify using the “insurrection act” to clamp down on civil liberties. This whole thing is an excuse for a massive power grab. This is obvious to those who are not relying on MAGA for their information. 2017 Rod would’ve saw this and called it out.
Haha, "reality". Don't you remember Bush officials complaining about the "reality-based community" and Cheney or Rove saying "We are an empire now and create our own reality".
“We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” - Karl Rove
These were the guys who thought they could make their own version of reality. Actually, on reflection, it makes sense why you’d like them.
Pumpkinhead Rove was such a fool. He thought he could recreate McKinley's America a century after McKinley was assassinated. It is humorous how well beloved Rove was in 2004-05. "Rove, you magnificent bastard" was the accolades Rove received in 2004-05. Today, Rove is just a pumpkinhead.
"Trump is obviously the problem here..." Not. Groups appeared at areas that ICE was conducting legitimate operations. Some protesters were peaceful but many not. Federal authorities and facilities were attacked. Local authorities appeared to have slow-walked their response including to federal authorities' requests for support. Civil liberties do not allow violence. Using the National Guard is not a power grab. This is not MAGA information. Its just the facts.
Once again, as in 2020 (and Baltimore 2015) the protests were not the problem. It's the criminals who use them as cover for mayhem-- abetted by clueless authorities who take the bait and thus help fan the flames.
Well, if they prevent ICE from doing their jobs, then they are a problem, same as obstructing the fire brigade from reaching a fire, or an ambulance from reaching an accident. There is a reason that obstructing law enforcement officers is a crime, and so far as I’m aware, not covered by the first amendment. And that was the specific purpose of these protests.
Insurrection: A rising against civil or political authority; the open and active opposition of a number of persons to the execution of a law in a city or state.
True. Standing by in protest as a kind of witness is one thing. Civil disobedience, peacefully and illegally obstructing, with a known risk of going to jail, is another. Violent acts, throwing rocks, etc. is yet another. Turning out with a violent response because people engaged in peaceful civil disobedience were arrested is a combination. And, spontaneous disorganized crowds with a variety of impulses, plus a busload of of people who came to foment violence and paint nasty slogans on walls, is a mix of all of the above.
Is this a reply to me? Can you please explain what you mean? I do allow that there may be extremist provocateirs in the mix, but the looting and vandalism is classic low life activity in these situations.
But now that you mention it, since much of their funding comes from Democratic legislatures, and further supported by a Democratic governor and mayor, they do come from low life.
I have no respect for this sort of conspiracy theory mongering. It may well be the case that political actions groups have funded protests (that's pretty normal, and the Right does it too) but if you're suggesting the riots are some sort of deliberate scheme by some super-villains somewhere, you might as well tell me the sun rises in the west and 2+2=5.
For one thing, ICE officers need to be clearly identifiable as such: uniforms badges and other credentials and certainly no face masks. There are cases of thugs pretending to be ICE and after stopping people on an immigration enforcement pretext, robbing and beating them.
Yes, I agree, Trump is causing a situation where he’s hurting communities that he knows will respond and acting like this wasn’t foreseeable in order to justify a power grab. That’s exactly what’s going on. If Kamala Harris is president this isn’t happening right now.
Hey, Drew, any "power grab" Trump might try to make, and there is no evidence outside of your paranoid hallucinations or knowingly dishonest assertions that he's ever had an interest in any such thing, would be pinced by all sorts of authorities.
The American people do have some knowledge of their system of government, and more important, of their culture. I guess you think MAGA would cheer Trump's imposition of military dictatorship, is that right? No, MAGA would turn on Trump in an instant.
I kind of think they’d cheer it man, that’s what I’m seeing these days. People are so freaked out all the time I think a majority of MAGA would welcome it as long as it had any veneer of legality.
That's a wonderful insight, Katja. Because I have had "interactions" with at least four Cluster B types of varying degrees of malignant narcissism, I should have spotted it, but I had not.
I have been reading Rod since 2015. No one is paying for my subscription (although I would love for someone to do so!). I like thoughtful, Burkean, Conservative but with hippieish instincts, small town origin story and sympathies but urban tastes style Rod. That man is a great author and a good guy. Culture Warrior Rod needs to take some prozac and go to therapy.
The culture war is where it's at. The culture war is the animating drive in American politics right now. And from the left we see: rioters with Mexican flags. An insistence that men can get pregnant and deserve to compete in women's sports. That the idea of merit is racist and discrimination (by "marginalized" groups) is OK, even necessary. And, the left - the Democrats - are the party of low testosterone. Tim Walz as a shining example of manhood. All the above is utterly contemptuous. I suspect you could write a similar indictment of the right. But in my own case, I will never - ever - vote for a party hitched to the notion that women can have penises, etc. Not ever. And it doesn't matter how corrupt the right is, it doesn't matter how feckless the politicians in question are. Because if the alternative is, "You WILL be an ally, you WILL accept our redefinition of reality, that men can be women and vice versa" - nope. Never. And so the cultural factors are paramount; of COURSE we're fighting a culture war.
I’d vote for the Republican governor of Vermont, forget his name at the moment. Don Bacon, Lisa Murkowski are other Republicans I like. I dislike the “Squad”. I despise political extremism of all sorts.
The Dems did get a little crazy on social issues, specifically in blue cities in blue states. That does not make anything Trump is doing ok or even justified. We could’ve gotten the necessary “conservative correction” that democratic societies need from time to time with Desantis, Haley, anyone would’ve done it.
Trump is a pathological narcissist who makes those around him deny reality. He cannot be trusted with the power of the presidency, and especially not the emergency powers he’s seeking.
I think you have that wrong. Obama were the pathological narcissists who denied reality. Obama allowing the lie of gay marriage and Biden that of transgenderism.
Obama had no power to either prevent or enact SSM, and in any event by 2015 the public as a whole had become supportive of the idea. In 2012 three states (including the one where I lived) enacted SSM by voter referendum. If you have a beef with SSM your complaint is with the American people, and that includes Donald Trump who is also supportive of it.
Also, Tim Walz strikes me as a great man. If my nephews or future children became the kind of man who Tim Walz is, I’d be extremely proud. Veteran, high school administrator and football coach, stayed in his small town and made a life there. That’s worth celebrating even if you don’t like his very normie politics.
That checks all sorts of boxes, sure. But again - is he will to accept what I see as a fundamental lie about humanity and reality, that men can become woman and deserve the "right" to women-only spaces? Because if he accepts/perpetrates that lie - what other lies will he accept/perpetrate for the sake of "empathy?"
You do realize that under 400 teenagers in the US received anything like corrective surgeries due to a gender dysphoria diagnosis, correct? This is not the issue people have turned it into, it’s just fear-mongering in order to motivate people to vote for people who want to cut social programs. It’s literally just a psyop.
So untrue. I live in Minnesota. We have abortion up until birth and afterwards. 13 year Olds can get an abortion without parent's knowledge. We are a minor transgender haven. Marijuana has been legalized. Illegal aliens can get driver's licenses. Etc… All thanks to our lovely governor and our lovely Minnesota Congress!
As a resident of Minnesota, I confirm your comments.
Anyone that refers to Walz's "very normie politics" is outing themselves as a Far Left progressive! Recent public polls confirm the policies supported by Walz are definitely not aligned with a majority of voters. So, they are not normal politics.
Minnesota sounds like an awesome state! I looked into moving there but the winters are too cold for me. Why would you want marijuana to be illegal or for people to drive around without a driver’s license? That sounds impractical to me.
I’d imagine many liberal highly educated folks are making a home in Minnesota, I’ve known a few people who’ve moved up there. All talk about how social services actually work and how it’s much less restrictive population than Florida. I can’t imagine not liking that. Social services that work would be a dream come true, they’re non existent in Florida.
The RealID Act of 2005 (the brainchild of a Wisconsin GOP congressman named George Sensenbrenner) allows for drivers licenses for illegal aliens-- but they have to state right on them "NOT VALID FOR FEDERAL ID". As such they are good for driving, but not for much else. And I would rather have drivers licensed and insured than not.
Are you oblivious to the distortions of his military record which Walz has engaged in? His behavior in sidling out of duty overseas and his lies in an attempt to cover his ass were so contemptible that his former squaddies denounced him en masse a year ago.
Him retiring before he got sent back for another tour is not skirting his duty in any way. He’s just a typical bloviating political figure who exaggerated his record. Everyone with his personality style does that, it’s not a particularly disqualifying thing for me. I think he’s a great man with some notable flaws, but a great man all the same.
The way forward begins with "What if they gave a culture war and nobody came." The best move is not to react to or exalt these distractions, but to affirm that the emperor has no clothes, this horse manure is sucking far too much political oxygen, and its time for all the hyped up boys and girls to go home and get some sleep.
Agreed. I hate both parties and detest how they are dominated by the rich and warmongers. But one flat out argues for things that are factually untrue like men can become women and get pregnant. The Republicans are the lesser evil for now just like Trump was the lesser evil out of him and Harris.
I'm old enough to remember when all of my left-wing/liberal high school teachers warned us that Reagan was waiting for an excuse to "clamp down on civil liberties" and "turn America into a police state." Then my lefty friends said Bush I would do it, then Bush II, then Trump I, then Trump II. And they did this while ignoring every totalitarian move by the left, especially under St Obama and St Autopen.
No one with any brains listens to liberals and leftists any more, Drew: your side is ALWAYS wrong. Which is not to say that the right is always right, but the batting average is at least respectable. I don't even consider myself a person of the right, but when considering the merits of an argument, I know that the left's has nothing to offer but an incoherent blather of emotional manipulation, cod-Marxism, whataboutisms, and cherry-picked facts.
Well, I hope you’ll admit you’re wrong when Trump uses this as an excuse to invoke the insurrection act and starts deporting people without due process. That’s where it’s going and it’s wrong.
Classic Left Wing Arguing Tactic #342: Change the Goal Posts Mid Argument.
I see what you did there. You went from equating "Trump inciting riots so that he can clamp down on civil liberties and make a massive power grab" to "deporting people without due process." They are not the same thing, not in any rational universe. ICE is trying to deport illegal immigrants, many of them criminals. That's it. In response, the massive power of the institutional and activist left are inciting violence, looting, destruction of property and attempted murder and maiming of police offices to stop them. No amount of "due process" will satisfy the left on this or any other issue they support. We know this from experience and because the radical leftists SAY IT.
You literally just aren’t following the argument. He wants the massive power grab to justify deporting people without due process. That’s not changing anything.
Again, I hope you’ll turn on dear leader when it becomes clear that he’s not going to follow the constitution.
Have you ever been at a border check? There's no due process at a border check. Either you have the right documents and you're allowed to go through, or you don't, and they turn you back around. (though there may be some serious hassle in the process while they sort things out first)
Emotionallly you can argue that the results are punitive but border crossing and citizenship are LEGAL questions, not emotional ones.
You're capable of understanding all of this of course, but the social fallout from admitting this would be as horrible for you as saying you think Jesus wasn't actually the Son of God would be for you growing up.
Can you leave out the personal stuff? You literally just use it to attack me even after I’ve asked you to stop. I did not grow up in a family that would’ve punished me for not believing in Jesus, and I do not inhabit social circles that disallow me to call people “retards” or to advocate for Israel, or gun rights, for instance. This part seems to be a projection of your academic experience and mine.
Graduate school in my world was not a progressive indoctrination camp and did not pressure anyone to believe anything. This is why I consistently call BS on other’s experiences where it becomes “I was conservative and they discriminated against me and that’s why I didn’t become a professor” or whatever the case is (not referring to you here, this is just the common theme of conservatives I’ve known with particularly hostile academic takes). The view you have of my experience here is just not accurate at all. Bible College was a much more stifling environment than Graduate school. The theory of “Oh you’re just doing this to fit in with leftist academic types” is completely inaccurate. This is why you don’t psychoanalyze people unless you’re specifically trained to do so. As I am trained to do so, I will not do so with you.
Just so you’re clear, I’m not saying it’s improper to explore people’s deeper motivations, your pushing of authoritarian tendencies and your Orthodox Christianity being a good example. Do that with me all day long. What’s improper and requires specific training to do with any kind of accuracy is to tie those things to someone’s childhood or adolescence as you consistently do with me. I’m certain you need this kind of person in your life, but I’m not interested in doing that with you.
I am not defending rioting, obviously. I am saying that this situation doesn’t require anything more than the local and state governments (as the governor of the state has repeatedly stated). This is federal overreach that you’d recognize were a D next to their name.
You do not want the state to be powerful enough to act with impunity in these situations. This is American conservative thinking 101. Evidence based policing says that brining the hammer down and scaring everyone does not work in the long run. This is why blue states do not employ these tactics, they make crime rates worse (as evidenced by the high crime rates in southern states).
I’m saying that if you took the research on responsible policing that reduces crime in communities, you’d be using “evidence based policing”. The same way you’d use evidence based medicine, or evidence based therapies, there’s evidence based policing. Conservative police departments usually don’t use such tools, this is why everyone in a small town has been to jail and no one is employable.
Its not at all clear whether local and state enforcement would have had the situation in hand without interference -- in which case Trump is just grandstanding -- or if they were prepared to let the situation fester and grow. Obviously one complication is that local and state authorities didn't want ICE there in the first place, so police intervention to quell a riot which emerged from protests against ICE being there protected the ICE operation even if the point was to suppress a small riot. But Trump likes to leap into situations just to preen and feel good about himself.
The Left is increasingly lawless. They have long been the Party of violence. The refusal to support law enforcement and the refusal to protect ICE from mob violence was justification for Trump’sactions. Hopefully, he will not back down. More hopefully, and less likely, the Left will get some sense.
There is no discernible left, and certain no left party. At most, there are an inchoate bunch of overgrown radicals. (Radical is not the same as liberal, socialist, communist, or for that matter fascist.)
"“Last night, more than 1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer-funded property. It took the Los Angeles Police Department 2 hours to respond.”
You don't send a few officers casually walking down the street to read the riot act. You assemble people trained in riot control, and send them in formation under competent supervision. Duh.
Well, that doesn't flow from "its an eight minute walk" from the nearest police station. ICE doesn't let anyone know where its going, and they may have good reason for that. So first ICE goes in, then protests begin, and protests are legal until they involve active interference or violence. Nobody would have had reason to "make plans" for a situation they weren't informed of. Its not like this is a precedented response to ICE actions over the years.
You are denying the reality of what actually happened. Federal agents were under siege and the local and state governments did nothing. It is not “federal overreach” for the Feds to step in when the local governments refuse to help.
You say you are not defending rioting, but that is a cop out. By denying a federal force to come in and assist federal agents under siege, you are obviously sanctioning the abuse of federal agents by a mob, a Democrat mob.
It's telling how some people, lamenting Trump and the erosion of civil liberties, look back on the Bush years with nostalgia: "You're either with us or against us"; the Patriot Act; WMD; and "we create our own reality now". Any form of twisted reasoning, I guess, is justified when it comes to Orange Man Bad.
That MAY be "the reality of what actually happened." But one thing most of us agree on is that we don't trust the media, most of it anyway. (I have no trusted source -- I read several sources, try to discern what I can through the fog, but really only trust a well-written and well-footnoted book written two or three years later.) So, none of us can be sure where the truth really lies. Meantime, people in positions of responsibility need to act, in some way or another, and they try to explain themselves, but that's all self-serving too. I can believe local authorities were slow to respond to 'protest those ICE people we don't really want here anyway.' I think they probably realized at some point that a riot was getting out of hand that was a threat to their own local priorities, not just to ICE, and I expect the LA police rank and file were ready and able to do their job. Trump may have had a situation he had to respond to, but, its not unlike him to have roared and postured without consulting or finding out the facts. All reports are suspect, and the more politicized reports are the most suspect, whether from MSNBC or Fox News or the more lurid partisan sources.
After seeing the reactions of Bass and Newsom, I wonder how much they are being bribed by the cartels to ignore their illegal operations. That’s the only explanation that makes sense.
I don’t have a problem with anything Trump is doing to wrest power away from the cartels. That’s the only power grab I see going on.
The lunatics rioting are the problem and are waving the flag of a foreign country like traitorous filth. I have a friend who recently moved to California and is not all that far from L.A. Thankfully, he told me he is safe since he does not live or work in the city. But plenty of other people too. I haven't followed all the news on what is happening there but I wonder if carjackings will occur and destruction of property will continue. If California, and Los Angeles itself refuses to handle this, then Trump should step in and deal with it. Just as when George Washington was President, he called out militias to put down the Whiskey Rebellion.
"Yep. I’m never, ever going to vote for a party whose militants act like this, and whose normie politicians can’t seem to find their voice to condemn it."
Says the man who voted for the party whose militants stormed the Capitol, and whose political leaders not only didn't condemn it, but instated it, and then pardoned the traitorous insurrectionists the first chance he got.
Maybe not all Democrats aren't as clear-headed and bold in condemning political violence as might be wished. But MAGA's violence problem is a lot worse.
Most of 2020 was dominated by the Floyd riots, which includes numerous literal insurrections and later on culminated with the wrongful conviction of an innocent cop for murder.
Some time back, a commenter named Sands who reported having twenty years experience in law enforcement observed that Derek Chauvin got into a pissing contest with spectators and made every police officer's job in America infinitely more difficult, closing, I have no sympathy for him. I think that was an excellent analysis. The other three officers I have grave doubts about prosecuting, even considering that "I was just following orders" has been ruled not an extenuating circumstance. None of them were "following orders" to put their knee on a man's neck. They were either remonstrating to turn Floyd on his side, or, restraining the crowd with their backs to what was happening.
BLM may have been a gang of grifters, but there really is a problem with abusive policing and it seemed for a few brief days in 2020 that people were agreeing about that fact no matter their politics. The problem is not just about wrongful deaths at police hands, and certainly not restricted to just racial minorities as victims. If only we could only tune out the demagogues of Left and Right on the issue and find our way to such widespread agreement.
January 6th was an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after an election, the very heart of constitutional democratic governance. None of the violence that the “left” is accused of supporting is like that.
Yes, there is no comparison.
Of course, we could count Blacksburg and whatnot and see who is “guilty” of more violence. But that misses the point. One side is stained with attempted violent overthrow of the constitutional order, the other is not.
It was not an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. That’s a huge lie.
The people who attended the rally and some of whom subsequently rioted had as their goal the persuasion of lawmakers—and VP Pence—to delay the vote certification pending additional review of the state votes.
While reasonable people can disagree with that goal as unrealistic or a bad reading of the law, the fact is that the point of that entire rally was to ENSURE THAT THE PROCESS WAS FULLY CARRIED OUT. It was the widespread sense that the vote counts were railroaded through the courts via inadequate hearings and discovery that produced the questions regarding the legitimacy of the election.
It was NOT a “coup” or any kind of attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. If anything, that charge can be laid at Pelosi’s doorstep.
I’ll add to my last sentence: January 6 was a gift to Pelosi. She obviously relished the political gains to be reaped from the events that day. And she knew what she was doing going into it. That she did not energetically seek adequate security is obvious. Whether the National Guard was offered or she rejected it directly is quibbling. She certainly could have sought adequate protection for the Capitol building. Anybody sentient could have seen that the crowd was in a foul mood and that missteps could result in rioting. Pelosi has just as much culpability as Trump in terms of sins of omission that day. (I have long said that Trump disqualified himself and disgraced himself by his unwonted lack of clarity in handling his followers.)
Let me add more about my own opinion on January 6. I do think Biden won, but barely. Obviously he won a lot more of the popular vote than did Trump. But in the Electoral College, his win was thin.
I was thoroughly ready to move on from the Trump era by 2020, but the Democrats insisted on further damaging him with lawfare and financial destruction. They disqualified themselves from politics just as much as Trump did with his inaction on January 6.
In my opinion, the U.S. has had utter misrule since November 2020. Not since Henry VI have we seen such nonsense.
He won a very little more of the popular vote than Trump. A thin majority in the electoral college is still a majority of the electoral college. Trump's bellowing about fraud was so much sour grapes.
Peaceful persuasion of lawmakers may have been the intent of a majority of those who turned out -- most of whom were not arrested or charged. But busting through police lines, breaking into a locked government building by breaking windows, battery of police officers, and similar felonies, was an attempt to interfere with a constitutional process. It was not a coup, it was a rather badly assembled and somewhat spontaneous putsch.
I don’t think there was much intention of any kind on the part of the people who let themselves get out of control beyond a general enjoyment of their own violence, just as I don’t think there’s much intention on the part of many of the rioters in LA today other than to enjoy the frisson of their own violence. That either side was buttered by a garnish of righteous anger is almost beside the point for many such yahoos.
And many of us can recall when the GOP was bashing the Democrats with the label "Sore Loserman" in 2000.
Richard Nixon is no one's idea of a political paragon of virtue, yet he did the nation a service by refusing to contest the 1960 election despite some glaring red flags in the vote that year.
And when did the Democrats ever return that favor (without being forced to by the SCOTUS)?
Progressives believe they are on the right side of history and, as such, have a right to power, and that conservatives are inherently illegitimate. And progressivism is now a big part of the Democratic Party, which has become a religious outfit, maintaining the Cult of History. That, incidentally, is what more and more normal people are sniffing out and reacting too in voting for characters like Trump.
What red flags? The biggest talking point was Chicago, and as Mike Royko details in his bio of Mayor Daley, there was massive cheating about the race for State's Attorney, but not enough about the presidential race to shift the electoral votes.
Coup has been a misnomer used by Democrats with more emotional spleen than precise knowledge -- a coup is when the armed forces act against the current government in power. This was a putsch, like Hitler's beer hall putsch in Munich, where a rag-tag band of civilians, armed or not or pathetically kinda sorta armed but somewhat dangerous march on the government, usually failing to have much impact. A minority of those who attended had every intention of invading the building and shutting down the proceedings. A somewhat larger minority enthusiastically followed their lead. Most came for a rally.
Since the Left says so. Just like they say it is Constitutional order when a city and state oppose Federal immigration law which is the domain of the Fed.
When you expect to mostly be intimidating unarmed people, and you expect the president to back you up and make everything all right. Plus, those charged with the most serious offenses were armed.
January 6 was an excercise in sheer idiocy. It was a disorganized, chaotic, s show. How it could possibly have prevented the peaceful transfer of power is beyond me. Some people probably were loony enough to think they could do that. My impression is most thought they were engaged in some kind of legitimate protest. Others seemed just curious , if dopey, onlookers. This was not the October Revolution. This is something I don’t approve of. Trump lost the election , period. These people should have stayed home. The violent ones deserved to be arrested and the violent ones should not have been pardoned.I also think the cop who shot Ashleigh Babbitt should have been prosecuted. She may have been a fool but that was a classic example of excess force.I realize that there are people who want to push the myth of the insurrection but it is a Sorelian myth well past it sell buy date.
As for Left violence, how about Luigi Mangione? How about the man who shot to death two people in Washington?The guy in Boulder who set people on fire may not be left wing just anti Semitic. Yeah, Jan 6 was far more insidious than any of this because “ our democracy “ faced termination at the hands of Trump, the Proud Boys and the buffoon in the Shaman outfit.
With the exception of Heather Heyer, who was killed in Charlottesville by the goon who ran his car into the crowd, there are few other deaths we can lay at the hands of any people we can plausibly say are “on the Right” during this period since 2010. By contrast, we have James Hodgkinson, who seriously wounded Rep. Steve Scalise at the Congressional baseball game, we have Luigi, of course, but also Thomas Crooks who killed Corey Comperatore as collateral damage in shooting at Trump in Butler, Pa., the double murders of the Israeli embassy staffers in Washington. And there were other serious but nonlethal attacks-the second attempt on Trump, the Colorado attack on the elderly Jews, which come to mind readily. And then there was the arson at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion, while the governor was in residence. All of these attacks were aggressive (as opposed to defensive, which characterized Kyle Rittenhouse’s shootings).
One might include Dylan Roof as “on the Right”, although such attitudes as his are routinely rejected by all public figures on the Right. The Gabby Giffords shooter was clearly mentally ill and seriously so.
Correct me if I’m wrong or overlooking anything here.
My point is that most of the aggressiveness has come from the Left, as befits progressivism’s taking the initiative. The actions on the Right are generally defensive and only occasionally the result of deliberate, planned actions.
The idea that the Right is more violent originated in the Right’s defense of law enforcement, the military and the Second Amendment, all of which the Left slanders as offensive per se.
Good piece, Rod. We now have pre-fab riots, Chinese "academics" smuggling in bio-weapons, rogue judges, a directly hostile Mexico, AI cults, and a national debt headed for infinity. That pale horse may not be far off.
"Are we at the point of Submission Or War? If Trump’s decision to enforce American law — think about that: enforce American law! — is an autocratic casus belli (as the California governor says), then … where are we, exactly? Put another way, if the only way to avoid this conflict is for Trump to say that borders don’t matter, then isn’t that a choice to surrender the country?"
There's a huge gap between incomplete enforcement of American law and "borders don't matter" and "surrender the country." And it's in that gap that free societies live. Has any country ever exercised effective total sovereign control over who comes into the country? I doubt it. Certainly North America in my lifetime. And yet not only do we still have a country, but crime rates are down, wealth is up, and wages at the low end of the distribution have started rising again.
Can someone try to elucidate some sort of logical link between the existence of a country and total sovereign control of immigration? Can someone provide some ghost of a reason to think this is anything other than a total non-sequitur?
The "great replacement" could mean (a) ethnic cleansing or (b) demographic change. Don't conflate the two! (a) is a violation of human Rights, (b) is not. And an ethnic cleansing of the native population at the United States is pure fantasy.
"And yet not only do we still have a country, but crime rates are down, wealth is up, and wages at the low end of the distribution have started rising again."
I think he meant that immigration law has never been enforced 100 percent, and that incomplete enforcement is universal. And he is correct on that. Trump does not need to deport non-violent illegal aliens in order to enforce the law "enough." There are plenty of drug dealers, human traffickers, rapists, cartel people to keep ICE busy.
No law ever has had 100% enforcement. But the president’s job is to do so—whether that involves violent OR nonviolent lawbreakers. Insurer traders are nonviolent too. Should the law look the other way in their case? Prostitutes’ johns are typically nonviolent. No prosecution for them?
It's not about preventing the enforcement of the law, but about things like federalism and due process. Whosr jurisdiction is it? What's the chain of command? How careful should we be not to harm innocent people while enforcing the law?
Enforcement of federal law is preeminently the jurisdiction of the federal government. The states do not possess supreme powers in such cases. The chain of command in enforcing federal law starts with the president, as Truman famously noted about the “buck”.
I’m not sure what you mean by “innocent people being harmed”—does that include children deprived of a parent convicted of a serious crime? Innocent people are almost always harmed by the second-order effects of law enforcement. Those breaking the law are logically held responsible for putting those people in harm’s way. The law was the law and was presumed known to those who broke it before they broke it. Certainly, no one in the country illegally misunderstands that unless they are mentally impaired in some major fashion.
In general, the odd thing is that people have decent, commonsense views about enforcement of other victimless crimes, but they lose their heads about immigration. A certain amount of underage drinking, speeding, marijuana use and so on goes on, and we try to stop it, but we understand that we won't be completely successful and that's not an existential threat. We fail to understand the same thing about immigration.
Immigration violations, if widespread, deeply affect a nation’s population. To give one example in terms of employment—how many millions of people believe that their own economic situation has been harmed by illegal immigrants’ presence in the workforce. The question is not one of demonstrable harm, but of perception. The same is true, especially in Europe, regarding cultural matters. Subtle differences in the way people do things add up and matter a great deal. Again, marginally, the effects are nil. But the margin isn’t where perception and a sense of community happen.
The main point of controlling migration is to foster a sense of national stability. If large masses of people were coming and going (think the Bloodlands between Germany and Belarus), there would be an almost impossible situation politically and socially.
All that said, I disagree with what I wrote in part. I do believe that we need a more fluid, but also a more competent and effective migration system. It should not take ten years to become a citizen. And we need a migrant worker system.
But the current flaunting of the law as written does not to fly with the majority of Americans.
Immigration concerns certainly do have a basis in realities like the presence of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 on U.S. soil. And that Chinese nationals might slip in unaccounted for is not an idle worry.
As for federalizing the National Guard, I refer you to the Whiskey Rebellion and the actions of the president at the time, who presumably knew his constitutional law.
Hmm, I am old enough to remember government funded and supported ethnic cleansing in inner ring LA suburbs in the 70s and 80s. Demographic change pushed by government action is ethnic cleansing.
My older sister has a friend whose high school had been 95% white when the friend's older siblings had graduated, but had turned to 7 whites in the entire school when she graduated in 1980, the rest being split between blacks and Mexicans. Eventually the ethnic cleansing turned the small city into 95% Hiilspanic, mostly illegal aliens.
These small inner ring suburbs, once they were ethnically cleansed, ended up having extreme corruption and a federal prosecutions, in what had been well-run middle-class mostly white cities, by the late 80s and 90s. It has been 40 years of ethnic cleansing.
This is a point I am quietly hearing from “white,” born-and-raised Californians, especially present and former Angelenos. They want to know, “are we allowed to have a culture too?” Their grandparents and great grandparents were a mix of pioneers who became wealthy and okies who filled the labor needs that other migrants now fill. Gradually, they built the California so many are attracted to. Ranchers and growers, innovators, storekeepers, gardeners, artists and teachers, but collectively community builders. I got to thinking about them in the context of the LA riots and Rod’s reflection on “le grand replacement” that has already happened in France. Some have moved inland to find stability in the high desert and nearby mountain communities; Johnson Valley, Idlewild, Yucca Valley, Great Bear, only to find the woke terrorists attempting to highjack places like Joshua Tree and surroundings. These were mostly poor to middle class, white and assimilated Mexican, but Christian communities, from whence came their stability. This is what the woke terrorists do, everywhere. They pretend to care about the poor but you never see them moving to blighted communities and building anything. They instead take on the task of enlightening the locals, labeling them as beef eating racists, criticizing their gun ownership until they need someone to shoot a rattlesnake and their police presence until they get lost hiking without a signal.
There is a balance to be struck between welcoming strangers and preserving communities. When the local and state governments refuse to protect the cultural and property rights of citizens and the safety of law enforcement, the Federal Government must step in. I am glad Trump cannot run again because I am exhausted, but with all his brashness and ego, he is truly fighting for the underdog and he is needed in our times.
Because the woke, and leftists in general, don't truly care about the poor or people who are struggling. If they did, they would donate money and/or volunteer. It's all about power with them and they will say whatever it takes to get into power.
And the remittances are the LARGEST revenue source for Mexico...larger than oil revenues. Hence Pres Scheinbaum's objection to the provision to tax remittances in the Big Beautiful Bill.
In fact before it became obvious that the violence in LA had spiraled out of control, she was advocating for her countrymen in the USA to protest.
We pay these folks healthcare, schooling, often welfare (as earnings are frequently cash), housing, etc. But there is an objection to the remittance tax (variously cited as 3.5-5%).
Note that the remittance issue is significant for other Latin American countries and India.
If I were to guess, I would say both sides are in on the escalation. Because behind the public posturing by officials current and former, there is a deeper urge within official government and its unofficial phalanxes to rule the people—rather than have the people rule them. COVID was catnip for them.
Life imitates art, so check out “New Order” (Nueva Orden in its Spanish title). I would think there is a lot to that here.
Re: Because behind the public posturing by officials current and former, there is a deeper urge within official government and its unofficial phalanxes to rule the people—rather than have the people rule them.
Rod, just a general comment. Exile comes with a price. You seem to be less and less really in touch with current events here in the States. A lot of emphasis on Europe is good to a certain point.
Growing or maintaining your readership may become an issue.
Events are heating up and accelerating here at home.
The area where I live is not seeing these pro-illegal immigration clashes. All the people I know who immigrated from Latin America are against all this; but then, they all came here legally.
You've probably seen this clip from CNN, which validates your point. Legal immigrants have substantially moved to supporting Trump's immigration and deportation efforts toward illegal immigrants. https://x.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1932441141237989444
"I pointed out too that technology has more recently played a role, with professors back in the US telling me that their students now can scarcely read. It’s not that they are illiterate, in the sense of not understanding what words mean; it’s that they lack the attention span to process a lengthy text, and don’t see why they should have to make the effort. AI is going to “remember” it all for them, right?"
Let's say I'm successful in raising my kids to read. They're only 10 and 8 but so far so good. One of the two really does read "too much", the other reads but has to be told to do it. Assume they get through their college years as readers and even put up with the indignity of seeing their lazy peers cheating, using AI to get As. Assume they do everything right. What awaits them on the other side, in this world dominated by AI?
If you think it's coming quick then it's best to get going to night school now, not after all of your peers lost their careers.
My wife's union just got an AI taskforce added in their most recent contract. If the Chinese leapfrog us because of this task force it's going to be suicide to not shut it down. Best case is humans wind up still needed even if they lean on AI. We cannot sacrifice our greatest strategic military assets for the sake of a few thousand unionized employees.
Re: the kids. Wouldn't robots take their jobs as well in a "bad AI" scenario, which tech titans think is most likely?
I'm referring to jobs and roles that require high levels of manual dexterity (plumbers, mechanics,,electrical linemen, etc.) AI is clever, but the robots aren't that impressive yet.
But even then, I still have my doubts about AI. Maybe if EVERYTHING becomes hyper-standardized (not just financial and legal documents but the entire road system of America, which means all roads are *clearly* delineated with no obstructions whatsoever) then yeah, I can see AI taking over a lot more roles.
I'm the daughter of two morticians. I've heard all the jokes... But seriously, if she can steer clear of groups that buy up mortuaries and try to cut costs to the bone (there are such groups around), and provide excellent, compassionate service, she can fill a needed niche and make a good living.
Especially with older mortuaries in smaller towns, they're often converted houses with living quarters attached somehow. Such was the case for my family, which made it "working from home" for my parents, with my mom nearly always available. Like clergy, your weekend isn't always your own, but if you're part of a team you do get some time off.
If your daughter hasn't seen them, she should watch the two "My Girl" movies, especially the second one. Good young teen stories with realistic, sympathetic portrayal of a funeral directing family.
Definitely the trades for both of your kids. Any job that involves working with your hands can't be fully replaced by AI yet. And robots aren't anywhere close to being advanced enough to take over those positions.
It sickens me when trolls invade Rod's substack comment section.
I can't see what he/she said, but I am surprised that people are willing to pay to troll.
I missed it -- glad whoever posted whatever it was deleted it
Maybe they are receiving “financial assistance” from some left wing group. The telling thing for me is that they are using the same language and talking points. Of course, they could be doing it pro bono, but I have a hard time imagining they would bother to spend their time doing so if not getting compensated.
You don't even know who "they" are...
It only costs $6 a month to post with Rod. You can't even buy a six-pack of beer for $6.
Didn't see the post but could it be an angry bot?
Hard to tell the difference between bots and humans these days, except that the bots are generally more coherent.
Ha! Agree
Yes there was a person posting here who some people thought was a bot, but frankly I can't imagine a bot writing such stupid things.
So far, LA isn't "burning," but there are violent riots in limited places. I fear it may get worse, but at this point it is an exaggeration to say LA is burning.
Would you want to be there now? Me neither. Who you going to trust? Newsom and Bass?
I am here. I can't go to my office because of the riots. Working from home. I trust my own eyes and ears, very little else.
Smart to trust your own observations. The media tends to sensationalize things. Not that these riots aren’t bad, but they’re not all over the whole of LA which is pretty big.
The acceptable number of riots and burning cars is zero.
I agree. What I disagree with is dishonest reporting. One can agree that any amount of riots and burning of cars in unacceptable is unacceptable while ALSO believing that people should not print factually incorrect information. What is so difficult to understand here? When you lie, you discredit yourself and everything you stand for. I'm pro-honesty, because without honesty we are left with post-modernism. I won't apologize for being a Christian and taking Christian values, including honesty, seriously. If the so-called Christian right isn't committed to honesty, we might as well head for the hills.
What dishonesty are you referring to, that it isn't as widespread as it actually is? That is pretty true of all disasters reported on.
That's like saying we should be willing to tolerate a malignant cancer that has not yet metastisized.
No you don’t tolerate a cancer but if there’s a small tumor that can be excised, you don’t blast the whole body with chemo & radiation. You cut out the tumor.
Tell that to Newsom, Bass, et al., who refuse even to acknowledge the existence of the cancer in the body politic, let alone to excise it.
Someone I worked with thirty years ago said her father traveled on business in eastern Europe in the early 1990s. He remarked that CNN could make half time at a soccer game look like a popular uprising.
I bet the Tuna fishing is good on the Redondo Beach head boats.
To make it explicit: I would like to be able to trust Rod, but when he prints things that are hyperbole or outright incorrect, I can't trust him, any more than I can trust the NYT or the LAT. I am trying to defend journalism, not the mayor or governor. Without honest journalism, we are screwed.
Rod has done some great work -- he was the first to warn us how serious COVID-19 was going to be, among other things. But he has a tendency to see looming disaster and gotterdamerung in all kinds of events, and when the dust settles, it generally isn't. He is ruefully honest about being mislead by the hype leading up to the invasion of Iraq, but he does fall for the same kind of hype in other matters. He needs to relax and consider that serious difficulties are not the End Of Civilization As We Know It.
The old "X locality isn't completely on fire like London in 1666, Chicago in 1871, or San Francisco in 1906, so it doesn't count!" gambit, I see.
No, you are wrong about how I am thinking about this. I lived through 2020. So far, this hasn't been anything like that. Last I checked, it was limited to a relatively small part of the city.
If the disorder prevents the enforcement of Federal law, then it is national and no longer confined to a local area. Events in small areas if touching on foundational matters results in harm far outweighing it's meager geographical extent.
Dukie is a clueless Trumper, who gets rattled when you ask him to comment on DJT pardoning a bunch of fraudsters. Don't waste your time.
The George Floyd riots were far worse and far more widespread. Plus, the rioters in those days had quite a bit of support across the aisle. These kerfuffles and the relatively few agitators behind them do not have near the support that the George Floyd people had. This bodes well for the United States and the defeat of the open-borders crowd.
Of course, this could all change on Saturday 6/14 with the nationwide protests these folks have planned.
I've lived in LA before - where are they? Downtown? Is it sort of like Rodney King where were there certain no-go places, but, for the most part life when on fairly normally?
I wasn't here for Rodney King, but I was here for 2020. During the 2020 riots, I was afraid to go outside, as were friends in many areas of the city and surrounding cities. Shops were vandalized in a lot of neighborhoods. The current (as of several hours ago) riots have been within several blocks within the downtown area, near city hall and the federal building, and spilling onto the 101. Many shops have been vandalized and looted. I'm planning to stock up on food this evening, because I am worried about this weekend and next week, but for now I feel safe outside of DTLA. But my understanding is that mail is not being picked up from at least some city buildings. It is bad, but not as widespread, yet, as the 2020 riots. A friend sent me photos of mayhem at Lincoln and Manchester - people broke the fire hydrant and were doing donuts in the intersection and such - no political flavor to it, just mayhem allowed by the police being engaged DT. I'm not aware of other wildness, but the news coverage isn't good so I only learn about things by word of mouth. A friend in Westwood reported seeing National Guard by the Wilshire Federal building, but no disorder.
Thanks - that gives me a good sense of things. I did see some photos of 3rd street promenade - or what is left of it, though, not sure if those were current or not.
I wonder how rooms with six-meter ceilings are heated in the winter.
Fireplaces, no doubt. And wooly underwear and sweaters. In the Poconos, living at 2,000 ft elevation (where I do not have six-meter ceilings), I wear 4 layers of clothing in winter inside, snow pants being the outer-most layer. And at 72, I've decided I'd rather be in Daytona Beach, FL in the month of February. See you on the beach.
Perhaps one of these:
https://www.ceramicstove.com
Ah the Poconos! My wife and I had a real log cabin at Lake Naomi for many years. It was wonderful there in all four seasons. So I can relate to your story!
That is way too much winter for me! 4 layers inside?! Snow pants inside?! Oooffff...
Though, I really would like to visit the Poconos someday - I think I'll stick to summer-early fall!
Yes, that sounds a bit much. I like it a bit cool indoors in the winter so I do not overheat or have to change clothes from being outdoors*. But I would generally limit my apparel to a light underlayer, heavy socks and a sweater. When skiing in cold weather I may wear as much as three layers (plus a heavy coat), but then I will need to strip off at least one layer when I'm done.
* That can be an annoying thing up north with overheated buildings in winter. I recall one bitter cold night out dancing in Baltimore when the nightclub was like a sauna and I had to regularly step outside in the ten degree cold to cool down. In Florida the opposite is true: over-cooled buildings in the summer when one is dressed for scorching heat outside.
Somehow I always pictured you being an earnest 35 year old.
Add 10 years and change :) I'll take that as a compliment.
But Ann is 72, even older than me, but not by much.
Ah, I think I misread the thread, lol!
Wood stove, if they are smart.
If the place is made of stone as thick as it looks from that picture, you’d be surprised at how well it retains heat.
That, and the very best heat is radiant heat from a tile-covered stove, wood or coal. Beats a wood stove hands down. I experienced this in Germany and Romania. That's the way to stay warm in the winter!
Dana
I always thought the idea of sleeping on the brick oven sounded very cozy. My German grandfather described that experience of his childhood in St Petersburg.
My wife's family had one at their dacha outside Saint Petersburg. I was never there in the winter though.
30+ years ago, I encountered La Raza and MeCHA, who advocated the Reconquista of Atzlan, the American Southwest. I was in grad school and wrote for a conservative paper and I would read their paper. I found it odd how they honored Aztecs but used Spanish, the language of Cortes.
This groups evolved, but many if not most middle-aged Mexican politicians in California have MeCHA and La Raza backgrounds and these groups are racist, marxist, and hate America.
This is very different than most latino Americans who love the country.
They are similar to the current crop of Norse pagans. They don’t appreciate the fact that everything about their “religion” is know only because of monks who took time to write it down. The irony is rich.
I ran into the same La Raza crowd in my University days in Cally.
Same when I was in college.
"30+ years ago, I encountered La Raza and MeCHA, who advocated the Reconquista of Atzlan, the American Southwest."
Of course, if having succeeded in their reconquista, anyone thinks they would just stop there is California dreamin'.
If they love Mexico enough to be waving that flag, why don't they move there? Curious what would happen if I went to Mexico and rioted, burned cars and Mexican flags while waving a US flag.
Because they don't want to live in Mexico. They want to live here but have a successful revolution and make all our lives miserable.
If you align yourself with a cartel first, you can do far worse with impunity.
They’re still smarting over the Mexican War.
They have caps that read "Puro Azteca," which reminded me of Pol Pot's "Pure Khmer."
There's only one statue of Cortes is Mexico, and it's in a remote location, far above Mexico City and repeatedly vandalized.
I read some of MeCHA’s Internet postings years ago. They are very anti-Jewish. I wonder what they think of Mexico’s President.
Back in the late '90s, I'd get U.S. News and World Report from the library.
Bill, who worked at the Rock Hill Herald at the time, would read John Leo's columns about La Raza and froth at the mouth.
Then, using actual journalism techniques, he began researching John Leo's columns and learned that, if anything, John Leo downplayed La Raza!
The wild mismatch between what he saw at the newspaper's budget meeting and the wire stories every day versus what he was seeing via John Leo and other, more conservative news sites really changed his thinking.
The world is far vaster than we know and most people DO NOT THINK like us Americans.
I was quite suprised by what I read in their campus newspaper at my University of California campus. It was extremely radical and based in 60s and 70s extremist thought. I couldn't believe it was even published.
When I wrote a modest piece regarding the 500th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the New World, they stole every copy on campus. I was not even defending him and only pressed that we don't create new anti-Columbus myths in place of the old pro-Columbus myths.
MeCHA, La Raza and MALDEF still exist under new names. Many Hispanic Californian politicians are still part of these groups, which receive funding from all the same NGOs that fund various other leftist groups.
This doesn't surprise me at all. No one voluntarily gives up power and belonging to your tribe is pretty powerful too.
Seems really straightforward to me. The Groomer in Chief promised safe streets. This is what we got instead as a direct result of his actions.
It’s pretty undeniable that if Harris had been elected, none of this would have happened.
Epstein’s party bro is pretty much failing across the board.
Crime? Look at LA.
Inflation? Tariffs.
Unemployment? Increasing.
Small Business? Tariffs.
Debt? More than ever before, especially if his budget passes.
Medicaid? Slashed and burned.
Shelves? Emptying.
Immigration? He’s rolling out the red carpet for deadbeat Africans.
Pedophilia? Hmm. What is the deal with those Epstein files anyways?
GG, you're a Lefie idiot. I don't usually insult people, but for you I'll making an exception. You honestly think air-head, wine-swilling Commiela would be better than Trump? Then I imagine you'll be voting for AOC when she's on the ticket (it's a "no brainer"). You think Trump can counteract all the mayhem, vice, deceit, thievery, skullduggery that was unleashed by the stolen 2020 election (and whenever the Left has its hands on the controls in the USA or elsewhere)? No one can or could. We have a massive mess to clean up, because (are you the last to know?), the country wasn't run by dementia Joe, it was run by a cadre of NGOs with Leftists at the controls (people like Soros), stealing from the taxpayer and channeling money into Dark Money pools ( stashed in Swiss bank accounts). It will not be easy to get the Woke, DEI and trans-mania (the pornification of children, men in the ladies locker rooms and prisons, defeating them in sports competitions) out of the culture, schools and institutions. Sexually corrupting and maiming children are the Left's bread-and-butter. Be patient, we probably will have civil disturbances ahead on the weekend all over the country, thanks to people like Soros, Obama, Newsom, Bass, and all the other Left-wing NGOs (our tax dollars at work), blue-city mayors and governors who think "okay to burn down the house and businesses. Go ahead and loot, burn and murder the police and the normies."
Keep on crying, groomer.
I'm not crying, I'm praying. May God rebuke you, we humbly pray.
You know what? I repent of my hasty actions. I should not have spoken to you disrespectfully and I apologize for behaving in a disruptive and uncivilized manner.
Thank you for your prayers.
Good day.
Blessings, My Child.
Bless his heart.
God has his own agenda -- don't presume. Robert E. Lee was always calling on God's will, but God's will turned out to be keeping George Brinton "We're not here to take your property" McClellan out of Richmond, and keeping the war going until it was impossible to save the union without an Emancipation Proclamation and putting 180,000 men of African descent into U.S. Army uniform.
The other side promotes transgenderism, antisemitism, and race Marxism. Also, Harris really is a Crypto-Commie. Same is true of Bernie. AOC might really be this stupid, but in the end it's a revolution just the same. I like most here wanted DeSantis but we had a binary choice. You really would need to hate liberty and I dare say humanity itself to vote for these Democrats.
I don't think you understand. Men can have babies! But let's talk about how Trump is undermining norms...
There are more important norms than whether an obsessed idiot understands that men can't have babies. No matter how loudly they howl, men just don't have babies.
What about, what about, what about, what about...
Or Republicans for that matter. A pox on both their houses.
It's possible to believe that Harris sucks and would have been an incompetent president and also that labeling her a crypto-commie is nonsensical bullshit. Live in the truth, dude.
The truth is that she is a crypto-Commie.
Sure, Jan.
I doubt you would recognize a communist if you tripped over one in broad daylight, or have the slightest idea what communism is or what defines a person accurately as a communist. Your use of the word crypto of course gives you carte blanche, since that could make the resulting term mean anything whatsoever. Kamala Harris is a capitalist too. When Biden picked her for veep, he announced that there had been a multi-million dollar increase in campaign donations. I thought, yup, she's Wall Street's darling. They are wary of Trump but wanted assurance that all their investments are safe if the Dems take the White House.
"Keep on crying groomer." This is completely an inane response to her comment.
Well, her comment was pretty inane to begin with, and she admitted as much in her opening line.
Don't feed the troll.
Not your best day. Instead of calling him names, try responding point by point with facts and analysis. Trump can't counteract anything, because his entire purpose is preening self-promotion. He utters random thoughts that hyphenate the space between his ears, pounds his chest, roars, and basks in real or imagined applause. The reason this kerfuffle happened in LA is that ICE was turning in lower numbers of deportations than in the Biden years, and Trump couldn't stand that. So the orders went out, don't wait for verified lists of people, just go out and make arrests, we want the numbers up. (There are confirmed instances, even before this, where an ICE team stopped someone, verified they were not the person sought, and someone gave an order "Just take him anyway."
You go, Anne!
Welcome! You will be fun.
By the way, I think you mean "Afrikaans". A little different from Africans.
By definition, those who were born and lived all their lives in South Africa are Africans. They are not dark-skinned Africans, but as Sidney Poitier's character in "To Sir, With Love" told his class "A South African is someone who lives in South Africa, whether they are white or black." (Or Indian for that matter).
Can you get this message to the ANC?
The ANC was founded with understanding of this message. The contrary message was crafted by their rival, the PAC, which objected both to the ANC working with "white" South Africans and the ANC working with the South African Communist Party. The PAC wanted a pure national socialist program -- more or less what Julius Malema is pushing now. What has happened to the ANC since is the usual attrition from enjoying the perks of power and access to high finance, which at this point involves placating impoverished masses who are vulnerable to a quick-fix racial prescription for the ills of capitalism, while also remaining cozy with the financial concentrations still controlled to a great extent by Brits and Boers (who incidentally distrust each other for well known historical reasons).
ANC has fine words on paper. It is not how the ANC governs.
Exactly how the ANC governs is not at all clear. Obviously it has taken on the usual trappings of a party in power, forgotten its high-flown phrases in opposition about "the land shall belong to the people," cut cozy deals, and pushed a line of propaganda intended to sideline opposition and keep itself in power, with people at all levels enjoying the perks more than serving the people. This does involve some pandering to race, but, it also involves pandering to those with the financial concentrations, who are still in large part Afrikkaner and English. So its a mixed bag. The reason Julius Malema is reviving slogans about "shoot the Boer" is that the ANC has left that ground unoccupied. But, they both compete for the votes of people who look for some sort of race validation.
Thanks! But I’ve actually been around since Mr. Dreher’s Beliefnet days, before he had his regular column at TAC.
I’ll admit I was feeling spicy this morning, more than usual, but it’s not every day that the president violates the Posse Comitatus Act (as amended) by sending in the Marines to help with civil policing and in the absence of invoking the Insurrection Act.
As a veteran, I find it absolutely mind boggling that conservatives, especially those who claim to believe in limited government and states’ rights aren’t apoplectic over this.
But that would be to presume that MAGA has principles and we all know that the guiding principle of the Trump administration is “Rules are for Other People.” Well, actually it's first and foremost “Pay Attention to Meeeeeeeeeee!”
Geoff, that's horseshit at a level which is unusual even for you.
Trump is Trump. He's been an egomaniac all of his life, which is a remarkable difference in personality from that discerned in other world famous people, right? He's been a bigtime star for thirty - five years. He didn't need the presidency and appears not to have been terribly happen to have won it in 2016.
Having won it again, he wants to succeed. He wants to do a creditable job. No serious person could think otherwise.
Your last line is amusing.
If you don’t think Trump is an egomaniac and narcissist, please tell me what color the sky is in your universe.
Of course, a certain degree of egomania and narcissism has always been a prerequisite for politicians. “Anyone who wants the job probably should never have it,” is the old adage that certainly has some truth to it. Maybe the Athenians were on to something when it came to assigning magistracies by sortition.
In any case, it’s absolutely undeniable that Trump has these “qualities” in spades. I mean, good grief, didn’t all the gold leaf clue you in? A humble servant he most certainly is not.
Sorry, Mother Theresa wasn't running last time. We weren't voting for pastor.
What a buffoonish binary. 'Since Mother Theresa wasn't on the ballot you CAN'T hold Trump to moral standards!!!'
I would vote for Tulsi Gabbard a dozen times. Neither of the choices I was offered was opitmal.
As a big Trump supporter (even pre-2015 I liked and admired the guy), I concede that he is both an egomaniac and a narcissist. He's also 100% obsessed with money and he. views most everything as transactional.
But he's the only republican in my lifetime to defend the border in a meaningful way. He's also the only republican to take concrete steps to ditch the dept. of education even though they've been promising it since Reagan. Finally, he's a part of a very small set of politicians who didn't make their money from or of Washington D.C.
None of which in my view justifies letting someone who is so irrational hold the levers of power.
He's making a ton of money right now extorting everyone he can. He's using the power of the US government to shake down everyone and every company that he can. The money is going into his pockets and his children's pockets. Snap out of your delusions - he's a mega grifter.
A certain degree of narcissism and ego go with the territory. Trump is within the normal range. He is who he says he is. Obama is an example of a politician whose narcissism falls into the pathological range. He cannot decide whether he wants to be Malcolm X or JFK. He floated into the Oval Office because of his race and we are dealing with the fallout of the hidden agenda he brought with him. Trump is the antidote. He’s not a humble servant, but he is a public servant whatever his flaws.
Obama became a viable presidential candidate because of one line delivered in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention: "We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents snooping through our library records in the red states." I don't think he ever understood what his candidacy meant to those who voted for him. He was also the most viable alternative to The Inevitable Hillary Clinton. But he sank comfortably into the soft cushions of the Democratic Party establishment.
Barry was the DEI president.
You seem to be substantiating what Geoff said -- you just don't think it should be a shock or surprise, and mention that there are lots of other big egos in high places. Geoff of course seems to miss that you agree Trump is an egomaniac, you just don't think its all that relevant.
Who was president who wasn't an egomaniac? Maybe Truman and Eisenhower, maybe Grant.
Most presidents had a sense that they had to deliver results and show leadership qualities if they wanted to feed their ego. Trump has a sense that whatever I do is the right thing to do because I did it. He might be comparable to Millard Fillmore.
Things do seem to be reversing in party support of State Rights vs, Federalism. Republicans are the party of Abraham Lincoln, after all. Democrats have always been the party of slavery, whether it was chained slavery in the Civil War era, or slavery under oppressive taxation, or slavery under the oppression of letting corporations bypass I-9 laws. How many times have I heard Democrats argue that we need migrant workers to keep food costs down. Low wages, poor working conditions, unsafe working conditions, all so we can have cheap food? Same arguments used by Southern slave owners to prop up elitist lifestyles. And that is what people against Trump’s immigration law enforcement really are. They are modern day slave owners who argue for immigrant rights in the name of compassion. In reality they are self centered power hungry bastards trying to maintain their elitist political power, not for the cause of the common man; not for The immigrant, but for themselves. They should be ashamed! But they are not because they do not love America!
Now, this argument is an interesting one and potentially has some merit because it’s absolutely true that the condition of immigrant laborers, especially agricultural workers, has really been abysmal in this country.
I was pleased to note that Senator Hawley recently introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. But the senator from Missouri notwithstanding, it’s Democrats that have pushed for substantive improvements to the economic condition of working class Americans and immigrants in the form of wage floors, Medicaid expansion, child tax credits, and so forth.
In other words, if the condition of working immigrants is as bad as slavery (which they might well argue against), it’s because Republican and employers have collaborated to ensure that those conditions are miserable. Government in this country is largely run for the benefit of business and business likes cheap labor.
Frankly, to compare the situation of migrants to slavery is pretty insulting to actual slaves. There weren’t a whole heck of a lot of west Africans voluntarily hopping on board slaver ships in the 17th and 18th centuries. Migrants to the US today endure enormous hardships and pay large sums of money for a shot at making it into this country. The two are not comparable at all.
And that is exactly why we need LEGAL immigration!! LEGAL immigration allows worker protection under the law. Illegal immigration allows for abuse on so many levels!
It is great that America is great and attractive. I just hate to see people paying cartels to sneak across the border. Frankly, I never liked people cutting in front of me in the school lunch line either. I especially despised the bully that welcomed multiple friends to join in cutting in front of me too. I don’t condone cheaters.
We need no more immigration, legal or illegal. We need a moratorium for at least twenty years.
I keep hearing this from Trump supporters. And if that were all Trump was doing, there’d be a lot less tumult. But of course, Trump thrives on controversy.
People admitted to the country while awaiting disposition of their asylum claims are NOT here illegally. On the contrary, they presented themselves to the border patrol precisely so they could claim legal status.
People studying here from overseas on student visas are NOT here illegally. On the contrary, they went to the trouble of acquiring a student visa through proper channels so they could study here.
ICE is showing up at courthouses and grabbing people there who are showing up to hearings in exactly the way that the government has told them to.
These people ARE FOLLOWING THE RULES. Trump’s the one who’s not. If you have such antipathy for bullies, why on earth have you attached yourself to the biggest one out there?
Here’s the thing: no one likes the immigration system as it’s currently constituted. But Trump has deliberately worked to undermine any attempt at reform through the proper process, ie Congress. Because he wants a broken process that serves no one (except the elites). And still people somehow manage to stay within the law and then Trump deports them anyways.
You sound like Mark Levin or Chris Plante. In 1860, the Democrats were the conservative party and the Republicans the radical party. Southern Democrats of 1860 are your conservative Republicans of today. The modern Republican Party is heavily dependent on the old Southern conservative Democrats of the past. How many Republicans are elected in Massachusetts these days? Lincoln was a monster with 650,000 dead on his bony hands.
Lincoln was the right man at the right time to get the right thing done.
The blood is on vile Abe's hands and the economic catastrophe suffered by the South. I wonder how Lincoln slept at night with the mass killing he was responsible for. What makes me sad about Lincoln's assassination is that he never had to take responsibility for what he did. Booth killed him before he had to take responsibility for his actions. So much misery was caused by him. Dead men, widows, children without fathers, poverty. Lincoln was an evil man. The most evil American in our history.
Calm down. The LAPD chief admitted they were overwhelmed. That goodness we don't have a criminal coddling POTUS.
"Section 12406 allows the federal government to call National Guard troops into federal service in cases of “rebellion or danger of rebellion” against the authority of the U.S. government, explain Reuters and the New York Times. The law also allows deployment when a president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
I have been around since TAC days, but I also read Crunchy Cons at the end of the last ice age.
Mostly the latter. Everything Trump does is about finding opportunities to roar loudly and then bask in real or imagined applause.
"if Harris had been elected, none of this would have happened"
Right. Because we still wouldn't be enforcing immigration law, the door would still be wide open
If Harris had been elected a different set of disasters would have happened. Pick your poison.
Did you ever work as a narrative writer for the failed propagandists Rachel Maddow of MSNBC or Don Lemon of CNN?
Would that I could be paid for my scribblings! Alas, no, I’m just a mere American expressing my own thoughts for no remuneration other than the adulation of my correspondents.
"It’s pretty undeniable that if Harris had been elected, none of this would have happened."
I've seen this multiple times on X. I'm gobsmacked that somebody as intelligent as you doesn't see it as an own-goal.
He's right, of course. If Harris were president, the Omni-Cause would find other things to riot over, if it were politically useful.
Of course, this is also like saying "If you'd just handed over your jewels to that robber, he would not have tried to shoot you."
It’s pretty undeniable that Trump and ICE have been, to put it charitably, pushing hard at the very outer limits of their statutory authority in order to achieve their immigration goals. One would think that limited government conservatives and libertarians within the Republican coalition would recognize this. If such creatures still exist.
In the presence of massive overreach like this, is such a reaction so difficult to understand?
In a way, this is exactly the appeal of Trump. There’s a perception that the reason government can’t achieve anything is because it’s perpetually tied up by bureaucrats and judges with laws and regulations. There’s real truth to this!
Trump offers this temptation: “Why not just do away with all that and go straight to achieving our goals?” And I absolutely get the appeal.
Except there’s a reason why we came up with a system of laws and rules and regulations in the first place. And the chaos we’re seeing in the streets of LA is precisely that reason.
But Robert Bolt put it much better in A Man for All Seasons.
Here’s the quote because I do love it so:
“William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”
“Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”
“William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”
“Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
Thomas More probably didn't say that -- but its a great perspective.
ALL the violence is on the Left, has been since the late 1960s, and like an abusive husband, the leftists only shake their heads and say, "I didn't want to smack you, but you gave me no other choice..."
Here is a very detailed article by Bradley Devlin about the actual numbers and costs of illegal immigration brought to us by Mayorkas and Biden. This is the best article I have read to date on the issue and, frankly, the problem is much. much worse that I had realized.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/WhctKLbfJqxHTPxXqkLMDlwhmDZKpJQWCrCWHnbGVxHRZMzlqvWqbhPCXtjvZrcnNXhPbwG
Excerpt: “On average, illegal aliens receive $2.40 in government benefits for each $1.00 they pay in both direct and indirect taxes. The average illegal alien household has an annual fiscal deficit over $20,000,” Rector claims. “With a current population of 15.9 million illegal aliens, provided above, the current net fiscal cost of those immigrants is around $110 billion per year.”
America faces two choices: mass deportations or mass amnesty. “Granting amnesty to 15.9 million current illegal aliens would impose estimated total lifetime net costs on the U.S. taxpayers of at least $5 trillion (in constant 2023 dollars),” according to Rector. “This averages to around $50,000 for each household currently paying federal income tax.” And this calculator does not include the mass migration crisis that would likely follow such an amnesty. Therefore, only mass deportations can at least provide the possibility of a long-term solution."
The link tells me that the conversation I "requested" could not be loaded. Perhaps you can find a more credible source or presentation. But, I would infer from the excerpt that they are talking about 'the vast number of aliens admitted under a dubious parole formulation in the last 2-3 years without means of support or place to live.' Technically, they weren't even illegal, but they did cost a lot of money to house, feed, clothe, etc. since otherwise they would be sleeping on the sidewalks. On the other hand, people who entered the country illegally who have become part of the economic and community fabric of our country, for better or for worse, are self-supporting, tax-paying, and ineligible for most welfare benefits. Mass deportation is no solution at all.
The Democrats want mass amnesty. Cheap wages for their billionaire donors and more future voters for them because after amnesty happens, next would be citizenship for all of them.
The more immediate goal is to game the 2030 Census for control of the House of Representatives.
The Census doesn't count "citizens". The Census just counts "heads" with certain snall exceptions.
All those millions admitted illegally (as in Violation of The Rule of Law by Biden-Harris) will be tallied for redistricting the House of Representatives. The TV, radio, and internet ads (many in Spanish) to be counted will be endless.
That's a chimaera. A large portion of illegal immigrants live in "red states" (so-called). They would only bolster the electoral votes for Republicans, without changing which party gets a majority of that states's votes.
Wrong. California??? is red???
It will create more Democrat seats in the House of Representatives
"Winner take all" electoral voting is not the law of the land. It can and will be changed.
Texas? Georgia? Alabama? Mississippi? Ohio?
Actually, the constitutional intent of the electoral college was for people in each state to vote for people they knew and trusted to choose a president, not for people to vote for pledged slates out of preference for a specific candidate.
Absolutely and it's that way because the Southern States wanted to count their slaves as population to ensure they received more votes which led to the Three Fifths Compromise. The Constitution needs to be amended to where we only count citizens to tally representation.
Actually, crime is down nationwide. Blaming Trump for LA is like an arsonist blaming his victim.
If Harris were elected it wouldn't be happening because we would continue to lose our country, and it is mainly lefty commie morons who riot and cause mayhem. Dems have been doing it since 1861.
Inflation is at it's lowest level since 2021, please try to keep up. There was no inflation during Trump's first term when we had tariffs, which Biden did not repeal. Libs are so dumb when it comes to business, had they read 'The Art of the Deal' they'd know a basic negotiating ploy is to ask for an outlandish position and meet in the middle. The corrupt legacy media extrapolates the initial extreme demand as if it will happen, with dire consequences. When Trump meets in the middle, these fools call him a coward who caved. So stupid.
The last employment numbers exceeded expectations.
You really think there would be less debt had Harris won? She wouldn't have dreamed of cutting the amount of waste and fraud Trump is, over Dem protests. Stimulating the economy with reduced taxes and regulation can help us grow our way our of the deficit. When Reagan cut taxes, tax receipts doubled. That's not supposed to happen, at least if you're a liberal.
Those Africans are being oppressed and killed by their racist commie government, and are vetted before entering. We need such merit based immigration. Being related to someone in our current system shouldn't be a qualification.
Re: If Harris were elected it wouldn't be happening
Crime is mainly a local matter so it really doesn't matter who's in charge in Washington. Crime rates were already falling in the last two years of Biden's term.
Will deporting hundreds of thousands of criminal illegals help or hurt our crime rate?
You need to document that "hundreds of thousands" and from a reputable source. From what I have seen the number is smaller by at least an order of magnitude. (I assume we are talking about serious crimes, not jaywalking and littering)
"There was no inflation during Trump's first term when we had tariffs, which Biden did not repeal."
The tariff situation in Trump's first term is in no way incomparable to the tariff situation in his second term. You sound like one of those Trumpers who still believes the '90 deals in 90 days' nonsense even though we're in day 94 and still have just one deal. It's like a Jehovah's Witness waiting on the end of world - even though the predicted year has passed.
Mexicans? Deported
Chinese Slop? Tariffed
Pride Month? Cancelled
Elon? Fired
Liberals? Crying
Oh yeah this Trump term just hits the spot.
Re: Pride Month? Cancelled
In what alternate reality? They're still doing Pride this month down here in St Pete, and I've seen a scattering of Facebook posts showing it in other places, even in the hinterlands.
Elon Musk should never have been in DC to start with.
Shhhhhhhhh, Jon. Charlie Kirk told Hiroyuki that Pride Month is cancelled so it most like totally be true.
Most likely he's reacting to the fact that the Feds won't be celebrating it-- though states, cities and the private sector will be still. There's a rumor that Juneteenth is on the chopping block too-- but that would take an act of Congress which established the holiday.
They'll never do it. Congress is made up of cowards. Most workers in the private sector don't take off for Juneteenth except, conveniently, the banks. Juneteenth is as stupid as President's Day, our celebration of William Henry Harrison, Zach Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, William Taft, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Harrison.
"...a scattering..."
Case Closed.
Happy Pride month!
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
PS: here’s a thing conservatives used to understand—it was never about any government recognition or proclamation. Pride was always for *us*, organized by our own “little platoon,” the community organized around our own immutable characteristics. We frankly couldn’t care less if you choose not to come to the party. You weren’t invited anyways.
Thanks for the giggle, Geoff.
Seriously, pride is the first sin. C.S. Lewis was right when he wrote that the motto of Hell is "I am my own." And your group takes pride in activities which God calls an abomination.
Happy to oblige!
No doubt you would apply the same standard to Lee Greenwood then. Proud to be an American? Sin of the worst sort!
No doubt you would be the first to point an accusing finger at anyone taking pride in a job well done.
Perhaps Cajuns are wrong to take pride in their culture, knowing how their roots were once considered so shameful that speaking French was literally beaten out of them in schools. Clearly a sin!
Or maybe, just maybe, there are multiple definitions of “pride” out there.
In any case, this theological conversation may be interesting, but really, what you have to say about pride and homosexuality is just, like, your opinion, man. No matter what some ancient text may say.
I can quote ancient texts too that, contrary to your opinion, glorify male same sex relations as the very best sort.
Happily, we live in a country where we can have differing opinions. Which I take pride in even if you don’t.
English "pride" takes in a lot of territory, not all of it sinful. I generally use the Greek "hubris" when I am referring to the sinful aspects of it.
Is pedophilia an immutable characteristic? The former head of the APA said homosexuality is about as treatable as any other disorder.
How on earth should I know? Ask Trump. He’s the one in the Epstein files.
You know that how? Or did you just make that up? I thought so.
Elon Musk says so -- which would have been gold a few weeks ago, but now is rather tarnished...
I have listened to the tape floating around with Epstein praising and damming Trump.
It might even be true. But with today's technology, anything useful for political gain can be faked.
It's just too perfect, IMHO. YMMV.
Re: The former head of the APA said homosexuality is about as treatable as any other disorder.
There are people who say the Earth is just 6000 years old. Which does not make it so. "Conversion therapy" has a long and embarrassing (or amusing depending on one's POV) history of failure,
I believe conversion therapy can suceed for some and fails for most.
To outlaw it absolutely by legislative edict as in Cally-silly is interference with the private medical decisions.
It has been politicized to the point where "Experts say..." means nothing.
I'm close to the same view. "Conversion therapy" doesn't even have a reliable common definition. It covers a wide range of treatments. I remember running across on interview with a rather sad-faced middle aged man who is same-sex attracted, and as a devout Christian of some denomination or other considers that a thorn in his flesh, same as exzcema only harder to deal with, and appreciated some sort of therapy to help him overcome it. What any legal approach should invoke is, if any sort of "therapy" consists of kidnapping a person and subjecting them to humiliation and physical punishments to "cure" anything, the practitioner is subject to ordinary prosecution for kidnapping, battery, etc. Some very well defined exceptions could be made for a court finding of pathological insanity, and no, being same sex attracted is not a basis for such a finding.
Speechless!
Utter insanity. It was always about getting approval from the normal folks, at least in terms of the culture. Hence "The Will & Grace effect," etc. You couldn't maintain your "lifestyle" on your own, you had to mainstream it.
That's sensible, but not a universal opinion. There are those who demanded that either congress recognize or the president issue an executive order extolling this little celebration because its "affirming" for everyone to sit up and take notice. There are many heterosexuals sensitive about their political standing who make a point of going to Pride parades to show off their presence.
It's nice to have June back. Even the NBA Finals are quiet (so far).
When you have Indiana and Oklahoma facing off in the NBA finals, it is bound to be quiet. The NBA leadership must be disconsolate over the ratings.
At the Fortune 500 company where I work Pride Month was thankfully VERY much downplayed this year as compared to the past four or five. No raising of the Pride flag rubbish or anything like that.
If Harris had been elected (and like Trump, she got just under half the vote, a fraction of a percent smaller just under half) this wouldn't be happening, but a lot of other things that would have been equally or more destructive would have. Like Trump, her priority is self-promotion, she just does less Tarzan-like shouting. She hasn't a clue on policy, just a lot of buzzwords and catchphrases. Probably the clueless policy of admitting hundreds of thousands of applicants for admission to reside inside our borders for years pending a judicial hearing, without a place to stay or means to support themselves, would have continued, and that in a less acute way would have been equally disruptive. Either they sleep on the sidewalks, or states spend millions to feed, clothe and house them, since the feds weren't doing any of the above.
Venn Diagrams, all problems would have melted away.
I thought I knew what you meant, but I don't.
You blew me away with this essay, Rod--just the best stuff. Unbelievable. Yes, we probably are going to have a new religion with AI the God. But not with me and mine. And when this AI take over becomes complete, the AI God will come after and expose and persecute Christians. That's one way we know Christianity is true: the totalitarians always move to suppress the faith, right away (see Britain, where praying in your home is becoming illegal in some respects). So what do I think is going to happen? A Great Chastisement which may well be the start of the Tribulation. And I'm not getting this from any vision, dreams, voices or superior anything about me. I just read and think and pray. I study history. So all indications are (from my "intuition" and study of the past, including Marian apparitions), there's going to be a struggle ahead in which the totalitarian Left will make a move for "the final solution" of some kind of Great Reset (replacement of the currency, total 1984-level survelleince and the persecution of the faithful). And there will be manifestations that are unmistakable divine in nature as "blowback". I've had a little "magic" in my life (little inexplicable things happen that "turned the tide of the battle" every single time). I should have been dead at least ten times in my life (and I'm a nobody)--each of my children have had near misses (some right in front of my face). That's while I am expecting and trying to prepare for (trouble), but my preparations are "a joke" because outside divine interventions, assists and protection, me and mine are "toast". What am I up against a swarm of Chinese drones or alien aircraft? Nada. Notice I say Chinese, and not Russian. Based on what? Intuition and reading. Europe may have a problem with the Russians (God knows the Russians have been sorely provoked), but in the USA, I think the Chinese (CCP) will be directing any kinetic attacks coming up through MEX or down through CANADA, or through the sky, up from out of the sea. The Chinese implanted a "kill switch" in all the solar panels it sold us for a reason. They can just "flip off the lights." (The AI God goes silent.) But at that point, what if, say, the Chinese people decide "we've had enough" or God drops XI on his head? World war and civil war (together?) in China? See WWI Russia -- internal war and external war, all at once (hell on earth). What about the aliens? I have a "wait-and-see" attitude about the aliens. Clearly "something weird is going on" in space. But God would have had to have created the aliens, so "God is in control". So, I'm heading into NYC on Friday, the 13th to assist the NYC wing of the family. Good thing I'm not superstitious. I keep asking God "do you think I ought to postpone the trip?" Nothing back so far, so I'm going into the belly of the beast (Manhattan), my Latin chant rosaries playing on the youtube channel while in transit. Listen to the Gloria at around 8:15 mark. Is that not the most divine Gloria you've ever heard? The singing nuns are the daughters of Mary from upstate NY. Don't know who those fabulous Gloria-singing monks are, but they're definitely channeling something directly from Heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEarWT1Wl_s&t=1383s
Re: --just the best stuff. Unbelievable.
Interestingly enough, the rioters in LA are burning Waymos-- AI vehicles.
Re: The Chinese implanted a "kill switch" in all the solar panels it sold us for a reason.
Can you document that? And if this is a known fact we should simply disable such things.
https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/china-solar-panels-kill-switch-vptfnbx7v
This news has been widely reported.
The article states "Inverters are built to include remote access via the cellular network and utility companies commonly install firewalls to prevent hacking and communication back to China."
The main purpose of an inverter is to change the direct current output of solar panels to the alternating current used by the power grid, using some of that energy in the process. I wanted to write 'DC' and 'AC' but I too have noticed the widespread loss of knowledge.
Here’s the full passage from the piece:
“Inverters are built to include remote access via the cellular network and utility companies commonly install firewalls to prevent hacking and communication back to China. However, the rogue components were not listed in product documents when they were shipped to the US.
“Using the devices to get around firewalls, China could potentially switch off inverters remotely or change their settings to bring down the grid.
“That effectively means there is a built-in way to physically destroy the grid,” one source told Reuters.””
Yeah, I read the whole thing. The full passage does not change the general inaccuracy.
----
"A power inverter, inverter, or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the opposite of rectifiers which were originally large electromechanical devices converting AC to DC."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_inverter
----
“For example, many dc-to-ac power inverters can safely operate loads having a large net reactance of one sign but only a small reactance of the opposite sign.”
— The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications 101st Edition; Volume 1: Fundamentals of Radio Electronics by ARRL Inc. Page 339
My father had one of the key patents in making high-efficiency inverters viable. Early types couldn't maintain the wave (originally a square wave until sine-wave inverters got good) as the loads increased, but he patented ways to stabilize the signal no matter the load. The patents expired decades ago, and then China started mass-producing all but the biggest of inverters. But I remember when the early models were built in our garage.
I’m not clear at all on what was inaccurate about the Times piece.
Trump is obviously the problem here, he and his entire team are pushing everyone to use the word “insurrection” to justify using the “insurrection act” to clamp down on civil liberties. This whole thing is an excuse for a massive power grab. This is obvious to those who are not relying on MAGA for their information. 2017 Rod would’ve saw this and called it out.
troll alert.
Listen to Bush officials https://open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/tim-miller-they-want-this-to-happen?r=2o2z7w&utm_medium=ios
We’ve done that before. Didn’t turn out well.
I never thought I’d be here defending the Bush Administration, but here we are. At least they lived in reality.
Haha, "reality". Don't you remember Bush officials complaining about the "reality-based community" and Cheney or Rove saying "We are an empire now and create our own reality".
So glad I never voted for a Bush.
“We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” - Karl Rove
These were the guys who thought they could make their own version of reality. Actually, on reflection, it makes sense why you’d like them.
I don’t “like them”, but that GOP was far superior to this one. Give me David French over Donald Trump all day long.
Pumpkinhead Rove was such a fool. He thought he could recreate McKinley's America a century after McKinley was assassinated. It is humorous how well beloved Rove was in 2004-05. "Rove, you magnificent bastard" was the accolades Rove received in 2004-05. Today, Rove is just a pumpkinhead.
"Listen to Bush officials." We did, and went to Baghdad.
"Trump is obviously the problem here..." Not. Groups appeared at areas that ICE was conducting legitimate operations. Some protesters were peaceful but many not. Federal authorities and facilities were attacked. Local authorities appeared to have slow-walked their response including to federal authorities' requests for support. Civil liberties do not allow violence. Using the National Guard is not a power grab. This is not MAGA information. Its just the facts.
Trump "is the problem here" because he dared enforce immigration law. "Imagine there's no countries..." - our trolls are humming it now
Re: Some protesters were peaceful but many not.
Once again, as in 2020 (and Baltimore 2015) the protests were not the problem. It's the criminals who use them as cover for mayhem-- abetted by clueless authorities who take the bait and thus help fan the flames.
At a certain point, the protests are the problem.
Why? Assuming protests that are peaceful how would they necessarily problem?
Because they provide cover for mayhem. Not sure they accomplish much, either.
Well, if they prevent ICE from doing their jobs, then they are a problem, same as obstructing the fire brigade from reaching a fire, or an ambulance from reaching an accident. There is a reason that obstructing law enforcement officers is a crime, and so far as I’m aware, not covered by the first amendment. And that was the specific purpose of these protests.
Per the 1828 Webster’s dictionary.
Insurrection: A rising against civil or political authority; the open and active opposition of a number of persons to the execution of a law in a city or state.
Note that there is no mention of violent acts.
True. Standing by in protest as a kind of witness is one thing. Civil disobedience, peacefully and illegally obstructing, with a known risk of going to jail, is another. Violent acts, throwing rocks, etc. is yet another. Turning out with a violent response because people engaged in peaceful civil disobedience were arrested is a combination. And, spontaneous disorganized crowds with a variety of impulses, plus a busload of of people who came to foment violence and paint nasty slogans on walls, is a mix of all of the above.
Unlikely given the money behind the protests by state funded NGO’s.
Is this a reply to me? Can you please explain what you mean? I do allow that there may be extremist provocateirs in the mix, but the looting and vandalism is classic low life activity in these situations.
Not really. These protests are funded by NGO's. They are not spontaneous nor grassroots in their origin.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/3435253/who-is-funding-anti-ice-activists-in-los-angeles/
But now that you mention it, since much of their funding comes from Democratic legislatures, and further supported by a Democratic governor and mayor, they do come from low life.
I have no respect for this sort of conspiracy theory mongering. It may well be the case that political actions groups have funded protests (that's pretty normal, and the Right does it too) but if you're suggesting the riots are some sort of deliberate scheme by some super-villains somewhere, you might as well tell me the sun rises in the west and 2+2=5.
This was far too spontaneous and disorganized, discoordinated, reactive, to be funded and organized by anyone.
It reminds me of an abusive partner who lashes out with violence and then says, "Look what you made me do."
That's exactly the dynamic here
Well, everyone is being abusive, including ICE. That tends to create a tangled mess in which everyone can point fingers.
For one thing, ICE officers need to be clearly identifiable as such: uniforms badges and other credentials and certainly no face masks. There are cases of thugs pretending to be ICE and after stopping people on an immigration enforcement pretext, robbing and beating them.
Yes, I agree, Trump is causing a situation where he’s hurting communities that he knows will respond and acting like this wasn’t foreseeable in order to justify a power grab. That’s exactly what’s going on. If Kamala Harris is president this isn’t happening right now.
Hey, Drew, any "power grab" Trump might try to make, and there is no evidence outside of your paranoid hallucinations or knowingly dishonest assertions that he's ever had an interest in any such thing, would be pinced by all sorts of authorities.
The American people do have some knowledge of their system of government, and more important, of their culture. I guess you think MAGA would cheer Trump's imposition of military dictatorship, is that right? No, MAGA would turn on Trump in an instant.
Also, we have separation of powers for a reason.
I kind of think they’d cheer it man, that’s what I’m seeing these days. People are so freaked out all the time I think a majority of MAGA would welcome it as long as it had any veneer of legality.
You don't know the country.
That's a wonderful insight, Katja. Because I have had "interactions" with at least four Cluster B types of varying degrees of malignant narcissism, I should have spotted it, but I had not.
So, which NGO paid for your subscription to Rod's blog so you could chime in from the left?
Perhaps one of these groups:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/3435253/who-is-funding-anti-ice-activists-in-los-angeles/
I have been reading Rod since 2015. No one is paying for my subscription (although I would love for someone to do so!). I like thoughtful, Burkean, Conservative but with hippieish instincts, small town origin story and sympathies but urban tastes style Rod. That man is a great author and a good guy. Culture Warrior Rod needs to take some prozac and go to therapy.
The culture war is where it's at. The culture war is the animating drive in American politics right now. And from the left we see: rioters with Mexican flags. An insistence that men can get pregnant and deserve to compete in women's sports. That the idea of merit is racist and discrimination (by "marginalized" groups) is OK, even necessary. And, the left - the Democrats - are the party of low testosterone. Tim Walz as a shining example of manhood. All the above is utterly contemptuous. I suspect you could write a similar indictment of the right. But in my own case, I will never - ever - vote for a party hitched to the notion that women can have penises, etc. Not ever. And it doesn't matter how corrupt the right is, it doesn't matter how feckless the politicians in question are. Because if the alternative is, "You WILL be an ally, you WILL accept our redefinition of reality, that men can be women and vice versa" - nope. Never. And so the cultural factors are paramount; of COURSE we're fighting a culture war.
I’d vote for the Republican governor of Vermont, forget his name at the moment. Don Bacon, Lisa Murkowski are other Republicans I like. I dislike the “Squad”. I despise political extremism of all sorts.
The Dems did get a little crazy on social issues, specifically in blue cities in blue states. That does not make anything Trump is doing ok or even justified. We could’ve gotten the necessary “conservative correction” that democratic societies need from time to time with Desantis, Haley, anyone would’ve done it.
Trump is a pathological narcissist who makes those around him deny reality. He cannot be trusted with the power of the presidency, and especially not the emergency powers he’s seeking.
I think you have that wrong. Obama were the pathological narcissists who denied reality. Obama allowing the lie of gay marriage and Biden that of transgenderism.
"I am rubber you are glue" is not an argument with much integrity.
Obama had no power to either prevent or enact SSM, and in any event by 2015 the public as a whole had become supportive of the idea. In 2012 three states (including the one where I lived) enacted SSM by voter referendum. If you have a beef with SSM your complaint is with the American people, and that includes Donald Trump who is also supportive of it.
Also, Tim Walz strikes me as a great man. If my nephews or future children became the kind of man who Tim Walz is, I’d be extremely proud. Veteran, high school administrator and football coach, stayed in his small town and made a life there. That’s worth celebrating even if you don’t like his very normie politics.
That checks all sorts of boxes, sure. But again - is he will to accept what I see as a fundamental lie about humanity and reality, that men can become woman and deserve the "right" to women-only spaces? Because if he accepts/perpetrates that lie - what other lies will he accept/perpetrate for the sake of "empathy?"
You do realize that under 400 teenagers in the US received anything like corrective surgeries due to a gender dysphoria diagnosis, correct? This is not the issue people have turned it into, it’s just fear-mongering in order to motivate people to vote for people who want to cut social programs. It’s literally just a psyop.
So untrue. I live in Minnesota. We have abortion up until birth and afterwards. 13 year Olds can get an abortion without parent's knowledge. We are a minor transgender haven. Marijuana has been legalized. Illegal aliens can get driver's licenses. Etc… All thanks to our lovely governor and our lovely Minnesota Congress!
As a resident of Minnesota, I confirm your comments.
Anyone that refers to Walz's "very normie politics" is outing themselves as a Far Left progressive! Recent public polls confirm the policies supported by Walz are definitely not aligned with a majority of voters. So, they are not normal politics.
Minnesota sounds like an awesome state! I looked into moving there but the winters are too cold for me. Why would you want marijuana to be illegal or for people to drive around without a driver’s license? That sounds impractical to me.
I’d imagine many liberal highly educated folks are making a home in Minnesota, I’ve known a few people who’ve moved up there. All talk about how social services actually work and how it’s much less restrictive population than Florida. I can’t imagine not liking that. Social services that work would be a dream come true, they’re non existent in Florida.
The RealID Act of 2005 (the brainchild of a Wisconsin GOP congressman named George Sensenbrenner) allows for drivers licenses for illegal aliens-- but they have to state right on them "NOT VALID FOR FEDERAL ID". As such they are good for driving, but not for much else. And I would rather have drivers licensed and insured than not.
Are you oblivious to the distortions of his military record which Walz has engaged in? His behavior in sidling out of duty overseas and his lies in an attempt to cover his ass were so contemptible that his former squaddies denounced him en masse a year ago.
Him retiring before he got sent back for another tour is not skirting his duty in any way. He’s just a typical bloviating political figure who exaggerated his record. Everyone with his personality style does that, it’s not a particularly disqualifying thing for me. I think he’s a great man with some notable flaws, but a great man all the same.
The way forward begins with "What if they gave a culture war and nobody came." The best move is not to react to or exalt these distractions, but to affirm that the emperor has no clothes, this horse manure is sucking far too much political oxygen, and its time for all the hyped up boys and girls to go home and get some sleep.
Agreed. I hate both parties and detest how they are dominated by the rich and warmongers. But one flat out argues for things that are factually untrue like men can become women and get pregnant. The Republicans are the lesser evil for now just like Trump was the lesser evil out of him and Harris.
Bingo
I do agree that Rod's stories about small town life are his best writing.
I'm old enough to remember when all of my left-wing/liberal high school teachers warned us that Reagan was waiting for an excuse to "clamp down on civil liberties" and "turn America into a police state." Then my lefty friends said Bush I would do it, then Bush II, then Trump I, then Trump II. And they did this while ignoring every totalitarian move by the left, especially under St Obama and St Autopen.
No one with any brains listens to liberals and leftists any more, Drew: your side is ALWAYS wrong. Which is not to say that the right is always right, but the batting average is at least respectable. I don't even consider myself a person of the right, but when considering the merits of an argument, I know that the left's has nothing to offer but an incoherent blather of emotional manipulation, cod-Marxism, whataboutisms, and cherry-picked facts.
Well, I hope you’ll admit you’re wrong when Trump uses this as an excuse to invoke the insurrection act and starts deporting people without due process. That’s where it’s going and it’s wrong.
Classic Left Wing Arguing Tactic #342: Change the Goal Posts Mid Argument.
I see what you did there. You went from equating "Trump inciting riots so that he can clamp down on civil liberties and make a massive power grab" to "deporting people without due process." They are not the same thing, not in any rational universe. ICE is trying to deport illegal immigrants, many of them criminals. That's it. In response, the massive power of the institutional and activist left are inciting violence, looting, destruction of property and attempted murder and maiming of police offices to stop them. No amount of "due process" will satisfy the left on this or any other issue they support. We know this from experience and because the radical leftists SAY IT.
You literally just aren’t following the argument. He wants the massive power grab to justify deporting people without due process. That’s not changing anything.
Again, I hope you’ll turn on dear leader when it becomes clear that he’s not going to follow the constitution.
Thank you, honestly, for reminding why I never argue with leftists... It's like trying to have a reasonable discussion with a histrionic 14 year old.
There’s no world in which I’m a leftist. I’m as normie a liberal as you can find.
Have you ever been at a border check? There's no due process at a border check. Either you have the right documents and you're allowed to go through, or you don't, and they turn you back around. (though there may be some serious hassle in the process while they sort things out first)
Emotionallly you can argue that the results are punitive but border crossing and citizenship are LEGAL questions, not emotional ones.
You're capable of understanding all of this of course, but the social fallout from admitting this would be as horrible for you as saying you think Jesus wasn't actually the Son of God would be for you growing up.
Can you leave out the personal stuff? You literally just use it to attack me even after I’ve asked you to stop. I did not grow up in a family that would’ve punished me for not believing in Jesus, and I do not inhabit social circles that disallow me to call people “retards” or to advocate for Israel, or gun rights, for instance. This part seems to be a projection of your academic experience and mine.
Graduate school in my world was not a progressive indoctrination camp and did not pressure anyone to believe anything. This is why I consistently call BS on other’s experiences where it becomes “I was conservative and they discriminated against me and that’s why I didn’t become a professor” or whatever the case is (not referring to you here, this is just the common theme of conservatives I’ve known with particularly hostile academic takes). The view you have of my experience here is just not accurate at all. Bible College was a much more stifling environment than Graduate school. The theory of “Oh you’re just doing this to fit in with leftist academic types” is completely inaccurate. This is why you don’t psychoanalyze people unless you’re specifically trained to do so. As I am trained to do so, I will not do so with you.
Just so you’re clear, I’m not saying it’s improper to explore people’s deeper motivations, your pushing of authoritarian tendencies and your Orthodox Christianity being a good example. Do that with me all day long. What’s improper and requires specific training to do with any kind of accuracy is to tie those things to someone’s childhood or adolescence as you consistently do with me. I’m certain you need this kind of person in your life, but I’m not interested in doing that with you.
Violence is not a civil liberty. You are defending the indefensible.
I am not defending rioting, obviously. I am saying that this situation doesn’t require anything more than the local and state governments (as the governor of the state has repeatedly stated). This is federal overreach that you’d recognize were a D next to their name.
That's true, state and local LEO should be sufficient, and would be if Dem pols didn't restrain them. Dems have always been the party of violence.
You do not want the state to be powerful enough to act with impunity in these situations. This is American conservative thinking 101. Evidence based policing says that brining the hammer down and scaring everyone does not work in the long run. This is why blue states do not employ these tactics, they make crime rates worse (as evidenced by the high crime rates in southern states).
Sorry, not following your comment. Southern crime is largely a feature of Dem run cities, Atlanta, Birmingham, etc.
And predominantly black on black crime.
I’m saying that if you took the research on responsible policing that reduces crime in communities, you’d be using “evidence based policing”. The same way you’d use evidence based medicine, or evidence based therapies, there’s evidence based policing. Conservative police departments usually don’t use such tools, this is why everyone in a small town has been to jail and no one is employable.
Its not at all clear whether local and state enforcement would have had the situation in hand without interference -- in which case Trump is just grandstanding -- or if they were prepared to let the situation fester and grow. Obviously one complication is that local and state authorities didn't want ICE there in the first place, so police intervention to quell a riot which emerged from protests against ICE being there protected the ICE operation even if the point was to suppress a small riot. But Trump likes to leap into situations just to preen and feel good about himself.
The Left is increasingly lawless. They have long been the Party of violence. The refusal to support law enforcement and the refusal to protect ICE from mob violence was justification for Trump’sactions. Hopefully, he will not back down. More hopefully, and less likely, the Left will get some sense.
There is no discernible left, and certain no left party. At most, there are an inchoate bunch of overgrown radicals. (Radical is not the same as liberal, socialist, communist, or for that matter fascist.)
"“Last night, more than 1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer-funded property. It took the Los Angeles Police Department 2 hours to respond.”
https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2025/06/10/congressman-issa-demands-full-investigation-following-delayed-lapd-response-to-riots-targeting-federal-officers/
I read that the nearest LA Police Dept. is an 8 minute walk from the Federal Building.
You don't send a few officers casually walking down the street to read the riot act. You assemble people trained in riot control, and send them in formation under competent supervision. Duh.
Except the protests had already been going on for 24 plus hours. Plans should have already been made. Duh.
Well, that doesn't flow from "its an eight minute walk" from the nearest police station. ICE doesn't let anyone know where its going, and they may have good reason for that. So first ICE goes in, then protests begin, and protests are legal until they involve active interference or violence. Nobody would have had reason to "make plans" for a situation they weren't informed of. Its not like this is a precedented response to ICE actions over the years.
You are denying the reality of what actually happened. Federal agents were under siege and the local and state governments did nothing. It is not “federal overreach” for the Feds to step in when the local governments refuse to help.
You say you are not defending rioting, but that is a cop out. By denying a federal force to come in and assist federal agents under siege, you are obviously sanctioning the abuse of federal agents by a mob, a Democrat mob.
Ok. Have a great day.
You too. Thank you.
It's telling how some people, lamenting Trump and the erosion of civil liberties, look back on the Bush years with nostalgia: "You're either with us or against us"; the Patriot Act; WMD; and "we create our own reality now". Any form of twisted reasoning, I guess, is justified when it comes to Orange Man Bad.
That MAY be "the reality of what actually happened." But one thing most of us agree on is that we don't trust the media, most of it anyway. (I have no trusted source -- I read several sources, try to discern what I can through the fog, but really only trust a well-written and well-footnoted book written two or three years later.) So, none of us can be sure where the truth really lies. Meantime, people in positions of responsibility need to act, in some way or another, and they try to explain themselves, but that's all self-serving too. I can believe local authorities were slow to respond to 'protest those ICE people we don't really want here anyway.' I think they probably realized at some point that a riot was getting out of hand that was a threat to their own local priorities, not just to ICE, and I expect the LA police rank and file were ready and able to do their job. Trump may have had a situation he had to respond to, but, its not unlike him to have roared and postured without consulting or finding out the facts. All reports are suspect, and the more politicized reports are the most suspect, whether from MSNBC or Fox News or the more lurid partisan sources.
After seeing the reactions of Bass and Newsom, I wonder how much they are being bribed by the cartels to ignore their illegal operations. That’s the only explanation that makes sense.
I don’t have a problem with anything Trump is doing to wrest power away from the cartels. That’s the only power grab I see going on.
This is conspiracy brained nonsense, I don’t even know what you’re trying to say here.
The lunatics rioting are the problem and are waving the flag of a foreign country like traitorous filth. I have a friend who recently moved to California and is not all that far from L.A. Thankfully, he told me he is safe since he does not live or work in the city. But plenty of other people too. I haven't followed all the news on what is happening there but I wonder if carjackings will occur and destruction of property will continue. If California, and Los Angeles itself refuses to handle this, then Trump should step in and deal with it. Just as when George Washington was President, he called out militias to put down the Whiskey Rebellion.
Superb entry for the day!
"Yep. I’m never, ever going to vote for a party whose militants act like this, and whose normie politicians can’t seem to find their voice to condemn it."
Says the man who voted for the party whose militants stormed the Capitol, and whose political leaders not only didn't condemn it, but instated it, and then pardoned the traitorous insurrectionists the first chance he got.
Maybe not all Democrats aren't as clear-headed and bold in condemning political violence as might be wished. But MAGA's violence problem is a lot worse.
"A lot worse"??
It's crass to start comparing numerically, but the riots in LA and in 2020 are *qualitatively* different than whatever trouble MAGA has gotten up to.
And quantitatively different.
Quantitatively perhaps. Not qualitatively. None of them threatened constitutional functions.
Most of 2020 was dominated by the Floyd riots, which includes numerous literal insurrections and later on culminated with the wrongful conviction of an innocent cop for murder.
cops
Some time back, a commenter named Sands who reported having twenty years experience in law enforcement observed that Derek Chauvin got into a pissing contest with spectators and made every police officer's job in America infinitely more difficult, closing, I have no sympathy for him. I think that was an excellent analysis. The other three officers I have grave doubts about prosecuting, even considering that "I was just following orders" has been ruled not an extenuating circumstance. None of them were "following orders" to put their knee on a man's neck. They were either remonstrating to turn Floyd on his side, or, restraining the crowd with their backs to what was happening.
Oh I agree. But all evidence is that the police leadership perjured themselves regarding the training that led to the bad outcome.
Not familiar with that, but its quite possible.
BLM may have been a gang of grifters, but there really is a problem with abusive policing and it seemed for a few brief days in 2020 that people were agreeing about that fact no matter their politics. The problem is not just about wrongful deaths at police hands, and certainly not restricted to just racial minorities as victims. If only we could only tune out the demagogues of Left and Right on the issue and find our way to such widespread agreement.
"Left" and "right" are not helpful frames of reference here.
Three hours of rioting on January 6 vs months-long riots in multiple cities, multiple times since Ferguson? There’s simply no reasonable comparison.
January 6th was an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after an election, the very heart of constitutional democratic governance. None of the violence that the “left” is accused of supporting is like that.
Yes, there is no comparison.
Of course, we could count Blacksburg and whatnot and see who is “guilty” of more violence. But that misses the point. One side is stained with attempted violent overthrow of the constitutional order, the other is not.
It was not an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. That’s a huge lie.
The people who attended the rally and some of whom subsequently rioted had as their goal the persuasion of lawmakers—and VP Pence—to delay the vote certification pending additional review of the state votes.
While reasonable people can disagree with that goal as unrealistic or a bad reading of the law, the fact is that the point of that entire rally was to ENSURE THAT THE PROCESS WAS FULLY CARRIED OUT. It was the widespread sense that the vote counts were railroaded through the courts via inadequate hearings and discovery that produced the questions regarding the legitimacy of the election.
It was NOT a “coup” or any kind of attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. If anything, that charge can be laid at Pelosi’s doorstep.
I’ll add to my last sentence: January 6 was a gift to Pelosi. She obviously relished the political gains to be reaped from the events that day. And she knew what she was doing going into it. That she did not energetically seek adequate security is obvious. Whether the National Guard was offered or she rejected it directly is quibbling. She certainly could have sought adequate protection for the Capitol building. Anybody sentient could have seen that the crowd was in a foul mood and that missteps could result in rioting. Pelosi has just as much culpability as Trump in terms of sins of omission that day. (I have long said that Trump disqualified himself and disgraced himself by his unwonted lack of clarity in handling his followers.)
Let me add more about my own opinion on January 6. I do think Biden won, but barely. Obviously he won a lot more of the popular vote than did Trump. But in the Electoral College, his win was thin.
I was thoroughly ready to move on from the Trump era by 2020, but the Democrats insisted on further damaging him with lawfare and financial destruction. They disqualified themselves from politics just as much as Trump did with his inaction on January 6.
In my opinion, the U.S. has had utter misrule since November 2020. Not since Henry VI have we seen such nonsense.
He won a very little more of the popular vote than Trump. A thin majority in the electoral college is still a majority of the electoral college. Trump's bellowing about fraud was so much sour grapes.
Peaceful persuasion of lawmakers may have been the intent of a majority of those who turned out -- most of whom were not arrested or charged. But busting through police lines, breaking into a locked government building by breaking windows, battery of police officers, and similar felonies, was an attempt to interfere with a constitutional process. It was not a coup, it was a rather badly assembled and somewhat spontaneous putsch.
I don’t think there was much intention of any kind on the part of the people who let themselves get out of control beyond a general enjoyment of their own violence, just as I don’t think there’s much intention on the part of many of the rioters in LA today other than to enjoy the frisson of their own violence. That either side was buttered by a garnish of righteous anger is almost beside the point for many such yahoos.
Overreading this stuff is not good.
And many of us can recall when the GOP was bashing the Democrats with the label "Sore Loserman" in 2000.
Richard Nixon is no one's idea of a political paragon of virtue, yet he did the nation a service by refusing to contest the 1960 election despite some glaring red flags in the vote that year.
And when did the Democrats ever return that favor (without being forced to by the SCOTUS)?
Progressives believe they are on the right side of history and, as such, have a right to power, and that conservatives are inherently illegitimate. And progressivism is now a big part of the Democratic Party, which has become a religious outfit, maintaining the Cult of History. That, incidentally, is what more and more normal people are sniffing out and reacting too in voting for characters like Trump.
What red flags? The biggest talking point was Chicago, and as Mike Royko details in his bio of Mayor Daley, there was massive cheating about the race for State's Attorney, but not enough about the presidential race to shift the electoral votes.
Agreed. It was not a coup or insurrection. Especially since no guns were there. It was a rally that got out of control and some of the people rioted.
Coup has been a misnomer used by Democrats with more emotional spleen than precise knowledge -- a coup is when the armed forces act against the current government in power. This was a putsch, like Hitler's beer hall putsch in Munich, where a rag-tag band of civilians, armed or not or pathetically kinda sorta armed but somewhat dangerous march on the government, usually failing to have much impact. A minority of those who attended had every intention of invading the building and shutting down the proceedings. A somewhat larger minority enthusiastically followed their lead. Most came for a rally.
Since when does one attempt a "violent overthrow of the constitutional order" without firearms?
Since the Left says so. Just like they say it is Constitutional order when a city and state oppose Federal immigration law which is the domain of the Fed.
It's all about power with them.
Possible but very difficult. The Jan 6 nonsense had no possibility of accomplishing anything.
When you expect to mostly be intimidating unarmed people, and you expect the president to back you up and make everything all right. Plus, those charged with the most serious offenses were armed.
What’s Blacksburg?
January 6 was an excercise in sheer idiocy. It was a disorganized, chaotic, s show. How it could possibly have prevented the peaceful transfer of power is beyond me. Some people probably were loony enough to think they could do that. My impression is most thought they were engaged in some kind of legitimate protest. Others seemed just curious , if dopey, onlookers. This was not the October Revolution. This is something I don’t approve of. Trump lost the election , period. These people should have stayed home. The violent ones deserved to be arrested and the violent ones should not have been pardoned.I also think the cop who shot Ashleigh Babbitt should have been prosecuted. She may have been a fool but that was a classic example of excess force.I realize that there are people who want to push the myth of the insurrection but it is a Sorelian myth well past it sell buy date.
As for Left violence, how about Luigi Mangione? How about the man who shot to death two people in Washington?The guy in Boulder who set people on fire may not be left wing just anti Semitic. Yeah, Jan 6 was far more insidious than any of this because “ our democracy “ faced termination at the hands of Trump, the Proud Boys and the buffoon in the Shaman outfit.
Sorry, I meant Charlottesville. I got my violent incidents mixed up.
Well, that's what Trump wanted. It was sheer idiocy and it failed.
With the exception of Heather Heyer, who was killed in Charlottesville by the goon who ran his car into the crowd, there are few other deaths we can lay at the hands of any people we can plausibly say are “on the Right” during this period since 2010. By contrast, we have James Hodgkinson, who seriously wounded Rep. Steve Scalise at the Congressional baseball game, we have Luigi, of course, but also Thomas Crooks who killed Corey Comperatore as collateral damage in shooting at Trump in Butler, Pa., the double murders of the Israeli embassy staffers in Washington. And there were other serious but nonlethal attacks-the second attempt on Trump, the Colorado attack on the elderly Jews, which come to mind readily. And then there was the arson at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion, while the governor was in residence. All of these attacks were aggressive (as opposed to defensive, which characterized Kyle Rittenhouse’s shootings).
One might include Dylan Roof as “on the Right”, although such attitudes as his are routinely rejected by all public figures on the Right. The Gabby Giffords shooter was clearly mentally ill and seriously so.
Correct me if I’m wrong or overlooking anything here.
My point is that most of the aggressiveness has come from the Left, as befits progressivism’s taking the initiative. The actions on the Right are generally defensive and only occasionally the result of deliberate, planned actions.
The idea that the Right is more violent originated in the Right’s defense of law enforcement, the military and the Second Amendment, all of which the Left slanders as offensive per se.
Good piece, Rod. We now have pre-fab riots, Chinese "academics" smuggling in bio-weapons, rogue judges, a directly hostile Mexico, AI cults, and a national debt headed for infinity. That pale horse may not be far off.
"Are we at the point of Submission Or War? If Trump’s decision to enforce American law — think about that: enforce American law! — is an autocratic casus belli (as the California governor says), then … where are we, exactly? Put another way, if the only way to avoid this conflict is for Trump to say that borders don’t matter, then isn’t that a choice to surrender the country?"
There's a huge gap between incomplete enforcement of American law and "borders don't matter" and "surrender the country." And it's in that gap that free societies live. Has any country ever exercised effective total sovereign control over who comes into the country? I doubt it. Certainly North America in my lifetime. And yet not only do we still have a country, but crime rates are down, wealth is up, and wages at the low end of the distribution have started rising again.
Can someone try to elucidate some sort of logical link between the existence of a country and total sovereign control of immigration? Can someone provide some ghost of a reason to think this is anything other than a total non-sequitur?
The "great replacement" could mean (a) ethnic cleansing or (b) demographic change. Don't conflate the two! (a) is a violation of human Rights, (b) is not. And an ethnic cleansing of the native population at the United States is pure fantasy.
"an ethnic cleansing of the native population at the United States is pure fantasy."
I am checking with the local Yokuts. I'll get back to you on that.
"And yet not only do we still have a country, but crime rates are down, wealth is up, and wages at the low end of the distribution have started rising again."
Thank-you Trump!
I refer to Biden era trends, of course. But yes, Trump hasn't broken it yet.
Either way, thanks to Trump.
How so?
Well either he caused it to be or didn't interfere with what was working.
Letting things that were working under Biden along is not particularly deserving of credit, nor is it something Trump does for very long.
Nonsense. That the government has finite resources does not justify preventing the enforcement of the law. That’s your argument—that it does.
I think he meant that immigration law has never been enforced 100 percent, and that incomplete enforcement is universal. And he is correct on that. Trump does not need to deport non-violent illegal aliens in order to enforce the law "enough." There are plenty of drug dealers, human traffickers, rapists, cartel people to keep ICE busy.
No law ever has had 100% enforcement. But the president’s job is to do so—whether that involves violent OR nonviolent lawbreakers. Insurer traders are nonviolent too. Should the law look the other way in their case? Prostitutes’ johns are typically nonviolent. No prosecution for them?
It's not about preventing the enforcement of the law, but about things like federalism and due process. Whosr jurisdiction is it? What's the chain of command? How careful should we be not to harm innocent people while enforcing the law?
Enforcement of federal law is preeminently the jurisdiction of the federal government. The states do not possess supreme powers in such cases. The chain of command in enforcing federal law starts with the president, as Truman famously noted about the “buck”.
I’m not sure what you mean by “innocent people being harmed”—does that include children deprived of a parent convicted of a serious crime? Innocent people are almost always harmed by the second-order effects of law enforcement. Those breaking the law are logically held responsible for putting those people in harm’s way. The law was the law and was presumed known to those who broke it before they broke it. Certainly, no one in the country illegally misunderstands that unless they are mentally impaired in some major fashion.
Innocent people being harmed could mean a lot of things, but the purest case of it is people who haven't committed any immigration violations being punished by mistake as if they have. But I dealt with the larger topic in this post: https://open.substack.com/pub/lancelotfinn/p/the-limits-of-immigration-enforcement
In general, the odd thing is that people have decent, commonsense views about enforcement of other victimless crimes, but they lose their heads about immigration. A certain amount of underage drinking, speeding, marijuana use and so on goes on, and we try to stop it, but we understand that we won't be completely successful and that's not an existential threat. We fail to understand the same thing about immigration.
Immigration violations, if widespread, deeply affect a nation’s population. To give one example in terms of employment—how many millions of people believe that their own economic situation has been harmed by illegal immigrants’ presence in the workforce. The question is not one of demonstrable harm, but of perception. The same is true, especially in Europe, regarding cultural matters. Subtle differences in the way people do things add up and matter a great deal. Again, marginally, the effects are nil. But the margin isn’t where perception and a sense of community happen.
The main point of controlling migration is to foster a sense of national stability. If large masses of people were coming and going (think the Bloodlands between Germany and Belarus), there would be an almost impossible situation politically and socially.
All that said, I disagree with what I wrote in part. I do believe that we need a more fluid, but also a more competent and effective migration system. It should not take ten years to become a citizen. And we need a migrant worker system.
But the current flaunting of the law as written does not to fly with the majority of Americans.
Immigration concerns certainly do have a basis in realities like the presence of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 on U.S. soil. And that Chinese nationals might slip in unaccounted for is not an idle worry.
As for federalizing the National Guard, I refer you to the Whiskey Rebellion and the actions of the president at the time, who presumably knew his constitutional law.
Hmm, I am old enough to remember government funded and supported ethnic cleansing in inner ring LA suburbs in the 70s and 80s. Demographic change pushed by government action is ethnic cleansing.
My older sister has a friend whose high school had been 95% white when the friend's older siblings had graduated, but had turned to 7 whites in the entire school when she graduated in 1980, the rest being split between blacks and Mexicans. Eventually the ethnic cleansing turned the small city into 95% Hiilspanic, mostly illegal aliens.
These small inner ring suburbs, once they were ethnically cleansed, ended up having extreme corruption and a federal prosecutions, in what had been well-run middle-class mostly white cities, by the late 80s and 90s. It has been 40 years of ethnic cleansing.
This is a point I am quietly hearing from “white,” born-and-raised Californians, especially present and former Angelenos. They want to know, “are we allowed to have a culture too?” Their grandparents and great grandparents were a mix of pioneers who became wealthy and okies who filled the labor needs that other migrants now fill. Gradually, they built the California so many are attracted to. Ranchers and growers, innovators, storekeepers, gardeners, artists and teachers, but collectively community builders. I got to thinking about them in the context of the LA riots and Rod’s reflection on “le grand replacement” that has already happened in France. Some have moved inland to find stability in the high desert and nearby mountain communities; Johnson Valley, Idlewild, Yucca Valley, Great Bear, only to find the woke terrorists attempting to highjack places like Joshua Tree and surroundings. These were mostly poor to middle class, white and assimilated Mexican, but Christian communities, from whence came their stability. This is what the woke terrorists do, everywhere. They pretend to care about the poor but you never see them moving to blighted communities and building anything. They instead take on the task of enlightening the locals, labeling them as beef eating racists, criticizing their gun ownership until they need someone to shoot a rattlesnake and their police presence until they get lost hiking without a signal.
There is a balance to be struck between welcoming strangers and preserving communities. When the local and state governments refuse to protect the cultural and property rights of citizens and the safety of law enforcement, the Federal Government must step in. I am glad Trump cannot run again because I am exhausted, but with all his brashness and ego, he is truly fighting for the underdog and he is needed in our times.
Because the woke, and leftists in general, don't truly care about the poor or people who are struggling. If they did, they would donate money and/or volunteer. It's all about power with them and they will say whatever it takes to get into power.
Demographic change due to allowing unfettered illegal and legal immigration sounds like replacement to me.
For those waving the Mexican flag:
From downtown LA, Mexico is 2 hrs and 4 mins away south on I-5.
The Homeland welcomes your return.
Yeah if you’re waving the flag of the country you left to protest being deported back to that country, where’s the sense in that?
The thing is, la república de México doesn't want them back because they don't speak Spanish.
And the remittances are the LARGEST revenue source for Mexico...larger than oil revenues. Hence Pres Scheinbaum's objection to the provision to tax remittances in the Big Beautiful Bill.
In fact before it became obvious that the violence in LA had spiraled out of control, she was advocating for her countrymen in the USA to protest.
We pay these folks healthcare, schooling, often welfare (as earnings are frequently cash), housing, etc. But there is an objection to the remittance tax (variously cited as 3.5-5%).
Note that the remittance issue is significant for other Latin American countries and India.
Remittances should be taxed at some level. 5% 7.5%;10%?
I believe the bill specifies 3.5%
Seems about right. I was getting greedy
It’s the Reconquista. They want Alta California and all the land they lost to us in 1848 back.
If I were to guess, I would say both sides are in on the escalation. Because behind the public posturing by officials current and former, there is a deeper urge within official government and its unofficial phalanxes to rule the people—rather than have the people rule them. COVID was catnip for them.
Life imitates art, so check out “New Order” (Nueva Orden in its Spanish title). I would think there is a lot to that here.
Re: Because behind the public posturing by officials current and former, there is a deeper urge within official government and its unofficial phalanxes to rule the people—rather than have the people rule them.
Sounds just like Trump & Co.
Both sides. Meaning, no side. It is always thus.
Rod, just a general comment. Exile comes with a price. You seem to be less and less really in touch with current events here in the States. A lot of emphasis on Europe is good to a certain point.
Growing or maintaining your readership may become an issue.
Events are heating up and accelerating here at home.
I think Rod gets that.
Agree.
The area where I live is not seeing these pro-illegal immigration clashes. All the people I know who immigrated from Latin America are against all this; but then, they all came here legally.
You've probably seen this clip from CNN, which validates your point. Legal immigrants have substantially moved to supporting Trump's immigration and deportation efforts toward illegal immigrants. https://x.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1932441141237989444
"I pointed out too that technology has more recently played a role, with professors back in the US telling me that their students now can scarcely read. It’s not that they are illiterate, in the sense of not understanding what words mean; it’s that they lack the attention span to process a lengthy text, and don’t see why they should have to make the effort. AI is going to “remember” it all for them, right?"
Let's say I'm successful in raising my kids to read. They're only 10 and 8 but so far so good. One of the two really does read "too much", the other reads but has to be told to do it. Assume they get through their college years as readers and even put up with the indignity of seeing their lazy peers cheating, using AI to get As. Assume they do everything right. What awaits them on the other side, in this world dominated by AI?
At this point, I'd seriously recommend they consider the trades.
I will wait to see AI's full impact, but I am willing to do (yet another) career transition, if that's what it takes to keep the bills paid.
If you think it's coming quick then it's best to get going to night school now, not after all of your peers lost their careers.
My wife's union just got an AI taskforce added in their most recent contract. If the Chinese leapfrog us because of this task force it's going to be suicide to not shut it down. Best case is humans wind up still needed even if they lean on AI. We cannot sacrifice our greatest strategic military assets for the sake of a few thousand unionized employees.
Re: the kids. Wouldn't robots take their jobs as well in a "bad AI" scenario, which tech titans think is most likely?
I'm referring to jobs and roles that require high levels of manual dexterity (plumbers, mechanics,,electrical linemen, etc.) AI is clever, but the robots aren't that impressive yet.
But even then, I still have my doubts about AI. Maybe if EVERYTHING becomes hyper-standardized (not just financial and legal documents but the entire road system of America, which means all roads are *clearly* delineated with no obstructions whatsoever) then yeah, I can see AI taking over a lot more roles.
And this is why my eldest daughter wants to become a mortician.
It's a useful job for her to get. People will continue dying and morticians will be needed. And AI can't replace it.
I'm the daughter of two morticians. I've heard all the jokes... But seriously, if she can steer clear of groups that buy up mortuaries and try to cut costs to the bone (there are such groups around), and provide excellent, compassionate service, she can fill a needed niche and make a good living.
Especially with older mortuaries in smaller towns, they're often converted houses with living quarters attached somehow. Such was the case for my family, which made it "working from home" for my parents, with my mom nearly always available. Like clergy, your weekend isn't always your own, but if you're part of a team you do get some time off.
If your daughter hasn't seen them, she should watch the two "My Girl" movies, especially the second one. Good young teen stories with realistic, sympathetic portrayal of a funeral directing family.
Dana
Definitely the trades for both of your kids. Any job that involves working with your hands can't be fully replaced by AI yet. And robots aren't anywhere close to being advanced enough to take over those positions.
Bass declares a curfew after stonewalling that it was not possible. Clear win for Trump.