This week has seen a sharp jump in censorship. The most obvious is the ban of President Trump from Twitter. I never joined Twitter but it did give the president a way around the “Legacy Media” which was uniformly hostile. Fox News was a partial exception but that is limited to a few hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.
Trump was not the only one to be censored. An alternative to Twitter was Parler, a similar site that promised an alternative. It was quickly canceled by Amazon Web Services, which is the money making arm of Bezos’ empire. The reason given was the usual “violation of standards,” which means “We disagree with your politics.”
Thousands of Trump supporters have been banned or deplatformed by the militant left, or in a few instances, the NeverTrump right. I have been suspended by Facebook for using the term “Russia Hoax.” Obviously, the political left is determined to oust anyone who questions the election result. This is more typical of Fascist and authoritarian regimes, like Turkey or China. Since we have an incoming regime aligned with China, this is not much of a surprise.
What was a bit unusual was the same censorship by the NeverTrump right. I quit and rejoined the blog Ricochet several times. The first was a squabble over evolution. I discussed it at the time.
Subsequently, I joined again, encouraged by a friend. I quit again, when suspended for using the term “TDS” and then rejoined again. My friend has subsequently quit himself. I had noticed a distinct NeverTrump tone, which has diminished as Trump’s presidency has been successful. What did not diminish is the NeverTrump sentiments of the administrators. Today, I received the email below.
“Dear MichaelKennedy,
Your Ricochet account has been suspended for 7 days, during which time you will be unable to post or comment. When you joined Ricochet, you agreed to abide by the Code of Conduct. In the last month you have racked up the following violations.
You have a habit of insulting members who you disagree with as “Vichy Republicans”.
https://ricochet.com/857597/senator-tom-cottons-statement/#comment-5109752
https://ricochet.com/857165/good-for-nick-sandmann/comment-page-2/#comment-5108696
Perhaps you didn’t realize that this was offensive. But in the following comment a moderator warned people in this thread that it is not acceptable.
https://ricochet.com/857165/good-for-nick-sandmann/comment-page-2/#comment-5108759
Rather than acknowledging that warning or letting it pass without comment, you argued your case.
https://ricochet.com/857165/good-for-nick-sandmann/comment-page-2/#comment-5109503
Then you continue your defiance in this comment.
https://ricochet.com/857165/good-for-nick-sandmann/comment-page-3/#comment-5110322
Then you whip it out again here.
https://ricochet.com/867992/rep-jim-jordan-to-seek-ouster-of-rep-liz-cheney-from-leadership-position/comment-page-2/#comment-5155010
Here’s another example of your incivility.
https://ricochet.com/864572/a-withdrawal/comment-page-4/#comment-5146865
D.A. Venters has been arguing in good faith and you issued the following insult. “Arsonist in a field of straw men again. Go away. Maybe Democrats would have you.”
A moderator redacted part of that and in this comment,
https://ricochet.com/867992/rep-jim-jordan-to-seek-ouster-of-rep-liz-cheney-from-leadership-position/comment-page-2/#comment-5155061
Regards,
The Ricochet Moderators”
Since I consider the administrators, at least those who have posted their opinions, Vichy Republicans, I am not surprised they are upset. I consider those who represent themselves as Republicans and then join the opposition/enemy when a battle is lost or in doubt to be similar to the members of the French government that joined the Nazis when France lost the war in 1940. Some of those Ricochet members that I “insulted” had announced they were voting for Biden, others have supported the sham impeachment.
Anyway, I quit for the third and last time.
I should add that I do not like the current version of WordPress. I could not get it to publish this post on my blog.

How dare you argue your case, and continue to be defiant!!
Shut up, they explain.
This sort of thing is why I left that site and now won’t even read the free bits. These people cannot abide hearing opinions they disagree with and hence the site has no value to discus current events.
The last time I visited- years ago, I should add- I happened to chance upon some Trumpy discussion in which the pro-Trump person was making a good case. I don’t recall the topic, but what drove me away from the site forever was that the moderators showed up and started harassing the guy with threats about terms of service violations.
Seem familiar? Especially this week?
I won’t be going back.
well I was banned by the Atlantic, and conversely Reason magazine, douthat let his atlantic blog be overrun with a rather vicious trolls, Yglesias was the troll, and well we know the good prosecutor has gone fully queeg, so you’re in good company I think
Ricochet has a “Like” function for comments. About the time I was banned, there were about 650 “likes” on my comments. I started to log in to see if I got the number right but I am not even allowed to log in. I understand quite a few members have quit or threatened to quit the last two or three weeks.
Once dissenters quit, Ricochet will present itself as the authentic voice of the people and as a broadminded, troll-free platform. A double win for them and for lies.
The countdown for your re-education hour has begun, doctor..
I wonder if those administrators realize that Trump is MORE popular since the riot. I expect a major false flag operation at the inauguration. I left is deathly afraid of him. Too bad those on my side are helping them to demonize him but I don’t think it is working. It is going to be an interesting two years. I don’t know if it will be as easy to steal hundreds of elections.
“I wonder if those administrators realize that Trump is MORE popular since the riot.”
I don’t know if this is true or not. I don’t think the riot changed anyone’s mind at all. Everyone is completely locked into their positions, and has been for years. The poll I saw about opinions about impeachment showed it to be literally exactly the same as from last year.
“I expect a major false flag operation at the inauguration.”
There needs to be serious discussions and debates about what the heck is going on in DC. Tens of thousands of soldiers deployed, for what? What possibly could justify this? Is this what we want to be? I am quite confident the answer is nothing, and no. And we all know that if Trump had won, there would be massive riots planned for next week, and if there were any military presence at all the Dem/MSM establishment would be shrieking about dictatorship.
Most people seem to have decided that better red than dead.
Most Jews remained in germany, Poland, etc, in the 1930s and 40s and decided that better gassed than fight them.
Choices.
The normalcy bias is a great comforter, isn’t it?
What’s the worst that can happen?
Here’s the thing:
The leftoxenomorphs are giving a war.
They have been giving a war for more than a hundred years.
It is a war of complete conquest and extermination.
It’s an historical pattern.
soviet russia, nazi germany, commie china: all genocides.
There is a logic in it. And it’s always the same. It is the logic of Adolph Eichmann.
If you think the logic of bill eyers or the kenyan traitor or soros or aoc or omar is any different you are deluding yourself.
Collectivism is only one. Its logic is only one. It is the logic of the ant-hill.
How long do you think a dissident ant lasts in an ant-hill?
The leftoxenomorphs had time. While we did nothing.
They used their time wisely.
They did everything to their advantage in a ratcheting game that never ends.
They had time.
The time is up.
They are about 95% winners of it all.
They own 95% of organized America.
They never play fair.
They never play clean.
They are at war.
We were sleeping.
Most still are.
They are using our money to teach our children to be collectivist ants.
They just murdered the Constitutional Republic that took 244 year to die but now is dead.
Many refuse to entertain the idea because they cling to the normalcy bias as a psychological preserver and comforter.
They won.
We lost.
What we are witnessing are the mopping up operations.
The British thought they had us in 1775.
They were wrong.
Because men in 1775 had balls.
I know, collectivism, misandry, everything seem to be against us.
And our backs are against the wall.
Because we haven’t even started to fight back.
We can’t win at their game.
We are not leftoxenomorphs.
We can’t do what they do.
There is only one way to fight back.
Back to 1775.
Otherwise America is gone, forever.
And Western civilization is gone, forever.
And they are not coming back.
It will be. The Democrats and NeverTrumpers will overreach, the MAGA folks will coalesce, and the GOP will take the House. And Parler will find a new webhost.
About half the voters voted for Trump. They won’t just slink away. It’s going to be fun.
Conspiracy theory: Joe isn’t going to last long. A huge fraction of the country, even those who voted D, will not accept Harris as legitimate, since as absurd as it sounds a lot of low-info voters I don’t think have any idea how fragile he is–he didn’t look that bad at the debates, and he was hidden for the entire campaign–and they are not going to be happy since they voted for this stupid image of him as the guy from Scranton, they did not vote for Harris. So the Dems/MSM have to preemptively poison any opposition, so that the average person won’t want to associate themselves with it, even as much as they’ll want to instinctively.
Brian .. Biden making an early exit is probably the worst case scenario for the Dems. They need old Joe to shuffle along until about 1 February 2023, so they can install Harris for 10 years per the 22nd Amendment.
Harris is a terrible, terrible, terrible candidate. She barely won her first statewide election in CA. It was in a Dem sweep year, and on election night it actually looked like she had lost (sound familiar?). She was going nowhere in the primaries. The only way she can be elected president on her own is if all future elections are going to be rigged far more brazenly than this last one.
I agree that Joe being pushed aside in the next year would be a disaster for the Dems, hence my conspiracy theory caveat about some way they might possibly be able to minimize the fallout.
Yeah, calling people names and being generally nasty will get you banned. ;)
All the cases brought to dispute the vote failed. They failed in a variety on venues and none succeeded, so its likely there was no massive fraud. YMMV. ;)
“being generally nasty will get you banned.”
And yet some places, like this one, still have a fierce commitment to free speech and let folks stick around and comment despite all that…
Oh I’ve been banned from a number of commentator’s threads here and some nearby. I am generally polite but I don’t believe most of your libertarian philosophy, is a good idea, and I say so.
Our English Canadian friend wrote: “All the cases brought to dispute the vote failed.”
That sounds like CNNSpeak. It would be more accurate to say that none of the cases were allowed to proceed to trial, generally on squishy or outright laughable procedural grounds — such as a State does not have standing to bring an action to the Supreme Court. That explains the rather obvious lack of any trial record where evidence for & against was presented to a jury and weighed in the balance.
But feel free to keep watching CNN, Pengun; they need the viewers. You know the “C” now stands for “China” — Canada’s owner?
Harris is a terrible, terrible, terrible candidate. She barely won her first statewide election in CA.
She must be exceptionally talented in something else, then
She must be exceptionally talented in something else, then
The first I heard of her she was referred to as “Kama Sutra Harris.” Of course, this must mean that she was renowned as an expert on Indian literature.
They failed in a variety on venues and none succeeded, so its likely there was no massive fraud.
You can believe what you want, but based on my experience living in the US and following American politics from the inside, I have no doubt there was massive fraud. I’ll give you three anecdotes. 1) In 2016, the democrats in Detroit were caught running ballots through the machines to overstate the number of Hillary votes. One precinct had 350-odd votes recorded by the machine and 60-odd ballots in the box. This was found out only because of the Jill Stein recount. The never-Trump gope governor made no complaint and this story was quickly buried. 2) A few years ago a woman was found deceased in her garage. This became a story because she had been dead for years with her bills all auto-payed- until her account emptied. It turned out she had voted after her death. Somehow. 3) I was told by an election observer that they personally watched democrats run ballots through a machine to make their chosen candidate win. The GOP refused to take action because they didn’t have a candidate in that particular race.
I see no reason to think the democrats would stopped vote in fraud in Detroit in 2020, having gotten clean away with it for untold years. But as you say, ymmv.
A huge fraction of the country, even those who voted D, will not accept Harris as legitimate
I’ve been told that some leftists are worried that the military won’t obey her commands. I don’t think this is likely but as the military wouldn’t obey Trump I suppose there is precedent.
WHy join centralized sites, when you can join mastodon? There you can build your own instance of the net. Even if the all left-leaning instances would block you, you would be still there.
There’s little reason to think it took irregular voting practices and fraud on the scale of millions of votes for Biden to actually win the election.
Biden has a 74 vote EC margin, and won Pennsylvania (20 EV) by about 80K, Nevada (6) by about 30K, Wisconsin (10) by about 20K, Georgia (16) by 12K, and Arizona (11) by 11K. If you shift 75K to 100K votes, depending on the states you pick, Trump would win in the EC. The rest just made the rubble bounce, and provided Biden with his record total of popular votes.
“… provided Biden with his record total of alleged popular votes.”
Epstein did not kill himself, and Beijing Biden did not get 80+ Million valid votes.
Did folks see the pic the other day of the National Guard member at the Capitol reading Atlas Shrugged? Strange times we’re living in.
I said repeatedly I had a bad feeling about the 6th. I don’t know what to think about the inauguration, it is difficult to process what we’re seeing.
(Epstein didn’t kill himself.)
No, Brian, there is no hope. Better stop allowing it into your thoughts.
Christopher B, I don’t understand your argument. Unless you trust the official tallies, there no good way to estimate what the legit vote totals were. You can believe Biden would have won without any fraud at all, or that Trump would have won a narrow victory without fraud, or that Trump would have won in a landslide without fraud. In principle, you can even believe that there was more pro Trump fraud than pro Biden fraud, although I’d doubt there’s a person on the planet who genuinely does.
Christopher B Says:
January 16th, 2021 at 7:54 am
There’s little reason to think it took irregular voting practices and fraud on the scale of millions of votes for Biden to actually win the election.
Do we have a new PenGun?
Other than a thousand affidavits as evidence. There is a lot of reason for the left to hide everything that happened. With the assistance of the Roberts Court, they are succeeding.
You seem part of that effort.
Sigh. Chris was saying it didn’t require millions of false votes, it took much much less than that. Come on y’all..
My point, Brian, was that millions of fraudulent votes did happen. I agree that the fraud in five D run cities was decisive. What it looked like was that the planned vote was not going to be enough and about 1AM the Republicans were kicked out of the vote counting sites so additional fraud could take place. Remember, Lyndon Johnson learned the lesson in 1940 that you don’t put out the actual vote count until you are certain then opponent has nothing left to add. In 1948, he almost made the same mistake but Ballot Box 13 and its alphabetical voter role put him barely over the top. Abe Fortas got Justice Black to stop the count and guarantee LBJ’s win.
I think we saw something like that November 3-4. Christopher, if I misunderstood your comment, I apologize.
Consider yourself lucky Dr. K. I’m puzzled why anyone truly conservative would want to comment on that site. Doesn’t they publish the awful “Erick Erickson” who just announced that Trump supporters at the Capital Hill Riot should be “Shot without mercy”?
Personally, and giving my own eccentric opinion, I see nothing to be gained by trying to argue with most “Never Trumpers”. Why? Because most of them are frauds. Whenever you try to pin them down as to *why* Trump is so horrible (and must be assigned to political darkness) they start blathering vague generalities. When you ask them to detail the SPECIFIC policies of Trump that make it OK to support Biden/Hillary, they change the subject or decline to answer.
I can only deduce, like Mitt Romney, Charlie Crist, or Lynn Cheney they have a hidden agenda or other motives then “grand principle” for opposing Trump.
Anyway Ricochet seems more interested in helping Joe Biden than in Conservative success. So, you’re well rid of them.
If you only read the MSM, or haven’t learned to filter out the propaganda, you have an insanely distorted view of political reality. I had the misfortune recently to be stuck in an Auto repair shop with nothing to do but watch ABC news. It started by giving a softball interview to Pelosi attacking Trump, then ran a report on the Capital Hill Protest with the scroll “Trump incites mob” and “5 dead in Pro trump riot”. This was followed by various “talking heads” discussing how Trump to be impeached for causing a “Deadly Insurrection” and whether Trump supporters should be hanged or drawn and quartered.
I made the last part up. But that was the tone. Imagine some “low information voter” who got their “news” from ABC! Yet these people exist, and they vote.
You have to give it to the Liberal/Left. They control the microphone, and we swim and live in the gas-light world they create. They’ve managed to turn reality on its head. Trump did nothing. Biden was up to ears in Ukraine-Chi-com corruption. But trump was “Colluding with Putin”!
The Democrats steal an election through voter fraud, attack the homes of republican senators, approve of Antifa/BLM riots that burn down cities, yet Trump is the “inciter violence” for merely suggesting his supporters walk down to Capital Hill and ask congress to “Stop the Steal”.
Everything is flipped on its head. The USA is truly Insanity Fair.
If the huge swarm of Trump supporters who appeared in Washington January 6th wanted to destroy the capitol building and its internal parasites there wasn’t a single bloody thing the regime could have done to stop them. And imagine if these so-called insurrectionists brought guns to the party.
There just wasn’t enough security in place and the local government refused more. True, this was an op intended to provide an excuse to deplatform badthinkers, but the very fact that the capitol police willingly opened the doors to allow antifa agitators into the building is sure sign that they knew that they had nothing to fear from the actual mass of pro-Trump protesters, and weren’t particularly worried about their own safety.
It’s kabuki theater all the way down.
Imagine some “low information voter” who got their “news” from ABC! Yet these people exist, and they vote.
I know this is a true statement, and I know the media is vastly influential. But I suspect that there are many fewer such people than we would think. Remember, a key function of the media these days is to gaslight sane people into thinking they’re a dwindling minority.
I note the almost non-existent attendance at Biden rallies- one was allowed only because so few people attended that the county involved considered it a private event- and note also the huge Trump rallies and vehicle caravans.
I think the deranged over-the-top hysteria is a sign of panic, as the demonrats know exactly how popular they are and exactly how tenuous their hold on power actually is at this point. The blatantly obvious fraud and equally blatant effort to stop discussion of it aren’t a sign of strength, they’re desperate efforts to avoid ruin, and for many of them, prison.
Don’t say that at Ricochet or you’ll instantly be banned.
Tatyana: I live in Upstate New York. There hasn’t been hope here for generations, here in the ruins of our society.
However, if there was no reason for hope then They wouldn’t be acting like they are so scared of Us.
That being said, I don’t know if there’s any source to this, but if so then we should be very afraid of a false flag attack.
https://mobile.twitter.com/amuse/status/1350800988496687106
“Biden’s transition team has revealed there is a very real fear that members of the national guard who support President Trump might kill Biden during the inauguration so they’ve asked commanders to confiscate all ammo and magazines from the soldiers
…
2/ Biden’s transition team asked if it would be possible to determine which soldiers voted in GOP primaries or who have contributed to GOP candidates so commanders could station them away from the president-elect. The request was refused fueling their fear of attack.”
Brian, if true that is interesting as it shows the level of paranoia.
Anyway Ricochet seems more interested in helping Joe Biden than in Conservative success. So, you’re well rid of them.
I had come back because I saw a shift from the NTs common three years ago to a majority of Trump supporters. At the time they banned me, I had about 650 “likes” recorded to my comments. The “like” function there is good and cuts down on the volume of “me too” comments.
Anyway, more time for other things. I need to get back to reviewing calculus to stave off the Joe Biden syndrome. Even if I am five years older than he is.
Either paranoia or a completely outrageous imposition of political loyalty checks on average military members. I dunno what to think anymore.
https://mobile.twitter.com/TheRoos39813393/status/1350888579489292288
“My son is in the Guard. His unit deployed and their social media accounts were scrutinized and they were asked who they voted for. Some volunteers were turned down. My son stayed back due to ROTC.”
There are many such people in my circle of acquaintances. Most of them are intelligent professional people. A few are or may be conservative but don’t advertise it. Some of them are partisan Democrats and/or committed leftists. Most of them are not very interested in politics and get their news from conventional sources or second-hand from their own acquaintances, FB and/or leftist TV shows. Most of these people won’t talk politics except with people whom they know agree with them. If they discuss politics in groups they tend to go along with whatever the dominant sentiment is – usually anti-Trump and not very interested in the specifics of policy proposals or partisan politics. If they are interested in particular issues or govt policies they tend to accept the Media/leftist framing of those issues (e.g., environmental regulation).
The Left has been effective at exploiting the silo effects of modern networked communications. People who are not contrary by nature, whose views weren’t shaped by exposure to close relatives or associates who are conservatives, or who don’t actively seek alternative views see a view of reality that is entirely shaped by left wing propaganda.
Jonathan: “… a view of reality that is entirely shaped by left wing propaganda.”
Fascinating letter by Dan Wang, which touches on the importance of propaganda to Usurper China Joe’s bosses in the Chinese Communist Party.
https://danwang.co/2020-letter/
“Propaganda might not matter to you, but it matters to the party. Anne-Marie Brady has pointed out that the leadership considers propaganda to be the “lifeblood” of the party state. Propaganda work is considered so powerful that the person in charge must be only a functionary. Brady shows that the head of propaganda always has a seat on the Politburo, but shouldn’t usually be allowed to reach the standing committee. He is not to be too imaginative, or he might dominate the entire political system. Propaganda is key to understanding the party, since it governs not in itself, but in symbiosis with state institutions.”
Wanna read something hilarious:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-ceo-suzanne-scotts-job-is-in-jeopardy-insiders-say
“According to multiple insiders, there is speculation that David Rhodes, a former Fox News vice president, could return to replace [Fox News CEO Suzanne] Scott. Two people familiar with the matter said Rhodes, who has also led Bloomberg and CBS News, is often mentioned as Lachlan’s top pick to take over the network CEO role. According to a current staffer at Fox News, the Murdochs “like Rhodes a lot,” adding that they felt that Scott was “always a temporary solution.””
LOL. Fox’s brilliant solution to the death spiral they’re in is apparently going to be bringing in Ben Rhodes’ brother to run everything. Hahahaha.
Gavin:
Great link to the Dan Wang letter. Thanks for the tip.
In return, I suggest the following source:
“Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes”
Jacques Ellul
1965 (paperback: 1973)
Ellul is part of that immediate postwar generation of French philosophers who recoiled from both the Reich and, more importantly, Stalinist control…….moving from various parts of the Left over to the center-right. Not an easy read . .for reasons I’ll get to in a moment.
Three things to keep in mind:
(a) Ellul is a -French- philosophe of the Sixties. Which, in turn, means he tends to be rather long-winded, taking a valid observation and then beating you over the head with a hundred different minor variations of the point until you either get it or toss the treatise in the memory hole.
(b) As someone who was influenced by media in the Thirties to Fifties, this is based on -classical- media – i.e. print, radio. This is pre-McLuhan and, obviously, not informed by speculation about the internet.
(c) Ellul tends to work on two distinct levels. The top level is that of pure -technique-, which is amoral. The lower level is the extent to which various actors use technique to achieve the creation of narratives that serve their particular (moral) agenda. This includes democracies and commercial enterprises as well as authoritarians/autocracies.
Read him in the same context and frame of mind as you would Orwell.
Copies -are- still available, but increasingly rare, as the bibliocide of the libraries proceeds.
(Sidebar to all: Finally found time to be back….life has been hectic. Hope the above is useful)
“Biden’s transition team has revealed there is a very real fear that members of the national guard who support President Trump might kill Biden during the inauguration so they’ve asked commanders to confiscate all ammo and magazines from the soldiers
Then what’s the point in having them there?
Also, this means that if the big bad insurrectiony mob of Trump supporters actually wanted to burn the capitol or crash the inaugural party presumably there wouldn’t be enough armed minions of the regime to stop them.
My first take on this is to think it’s yet another example that the regime doesn’t seriously believe that there is any danger from any actual Trump supporters, so there is no real reason for them to be armed any more than a theater troop needs to be armed.
But on second thought, this reminds of the general lack of seriousness from the regime that has existed for my entire life, with occasional exceptions. For example, the millions of tons of bombs dropped on Vietnam without dropping enough to breach the dikes protecting Hanoi, or the time Jimmy Carter sent a squadron of F-111s to South Korea after the Norks murdered an American army officer- but took care to mention that they wouldn’t be armed.
A serious regime believing in a serious threat wouldn’t disarm the soldiers needed to protect it, and I think would be complaining about the possible need to move the venue.
But they aren’t serious, period.
Xennady: Sounds to me like the regime wants to purge conservatives from the military altogether, not just at the top.
Brian:
No, Think of it as life imitating China.
Control over the military must shift from the State to the Party. The Party must always control the Gun. Power is maintained from the barrel of the Gun. The Gun must -never- aspire to direct the Party.
Always keep in mind that the military, in general, has always had as much – or more – of an internal as an external role through most of Chinese history, insuring control by the Celestial Emperor. This is opposite to the West and us, in particular, who have guardrails that focus the military on an external role and keep them -out- of internal security and politics.. .
Trump took power from the enduring state. No one expected it, and the 4 years since have been a sustained attempt, by that state, to get its ball back. They have it back now.
They will destroy Trump, and run a scorched earth policy to never have anything like this happen again. They will demonize his entire presidency and hold all who supported him as anathema to them. Its just getting started and the lines are being drawn. Most of the Republican party, for their survival, will and have gone along and may salvage some of the GOP for the future. The incursion at the Capitol was game changing, and they will wring as much as they can from that.
For me this makes most situations worse, as the ones now in control have well laid plans, to continue with their attempts to dominate the planet.
Purging conservatives from the military will have … interesting and unfortunate effects. Because the most enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers for the military … are conservative, from red state enclaves.
Sgt Mom: Imagine the campus Maoists, with guns and epaulets. There are plenty of them to fill the ranks.
There are many such people in my circle of acquaintances.
Same here, and I think your assessment is a pretty good evaluation of the situation. That said, I don’t see anything that contradicts my opinion.
More rambling about my opinion follows.
My take is that there are vast swarms of people who have serious doubts about the leftist shinola they’re continuously fed, but don’t want to tell strangers about it, or have an argument about it, with anyone. They don’t know the details or have arguments at the ready, they just know something seems really wrong. Hence, they won’t raise objections at work or at a social gathering- but they won’t attend a Biden rally either. Essentially, they’ve been chased out of the political process by the firehose of leftist political propaganda that is always blasting them in the face.
I think this idea explains a large part of the pants-peeing terror the regime plainly experienced when Donald Trump appeared on the scene. He said things that got the masses involved in politics again and that was something the regime can’t abide- and likely can’t survive, if it continues. Thus, they must prevent that from happening at all costs, which inspired the latest and even more idiotic impeachment effort, the prompt ban of Parler as soon it threatened to matter, and last and certainly least, the most recent purge at Ricochet.
The regime knows thoroughly and well that it can’t survive an actual opposition party, and works hard to prevent one from appearing.
End rambling.
Sounds to me like the regime wants to purge conservatives from the military altogether, not just at the top.
Well yes, wasn’t that rather obvious?
I take this as yet another example of the lack of seriousness by the regime that I mentioned, which I see Sgt. Mom has already noticed.
Sane and competent people would think twice about purging people who want to be in the military from the military- but leftists are neither.
For them, the military is a place for leftist politicians to get veteran-points to grease their way into political office and for transvestites to get gender reassignment surgery at public expense.
Otherwise, it’s full of people they hate.
Otherwise, it’s full of people they hate.
In would qualify this to exclude those above O-6. The enlisted and company grade officers are the “deplorables.” they go out in the boonies, sleep rough and do not do much with PowerPoint slides. In Vietnam they were called REMF. In other wars, they have been referred to as “Perfumed Princes.” Think of the British Army in WWI. Haig and French were 50 miles behind the lines. Vietnam was worse.
Those are Obama’s generals. They will shoot us without a thought.
“Sane and competent people would think twice about purging people who want to be in the military from the military”
Remember the commie from West Point a few years ago? He was apparently tolerated until his graduation day pic showing his Che shirt under his uniform went viral. Do you think he was the only one? Of course not. There’s plenty of commies who will love to serve in the military in order to replace the hicks they are going to kick out.
Do you think he was the only one? Of course not. There’s plenty of commies who will love to serve in the military in order to replace the hicks they are going to kick out.
That is an understatement. Although this has been going on for a while, the new football scandal is a fresh scandal.
What do you think the commandant has in common with most football players? Hmmm ?
Along those lines, remember the Air Force Academy speech a few years ago that was blown up by the media as an example of how common racism was in America and how real leaders called it out, and of course it turned out to be a total fraud?
Funny you should mention the Commie cadet. When that story broke, I wondered how he could have passed the background security check, given his rather obvious history. So I looked up the current Standard Form 86, the personal security questionnaire that everyone requesting a government clearance has to fill out.
When I first filled mine out in the early 70s, there was a generalized question toward the end, along the lines of whether you’d ever been a member of the Communist party. So they were looking to keep commies out.
So I pulled up the current version (over 100 pages now — yikes! At least it’s electronic). They’re no longer interested in finding commies. Apparently, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and then 9/11, that section was changed to inquire about participation in terrorist organizations and activities. So they’re no longer looking explicitly for commies anymore, hence the commie cadet. There’s no telling how many Marxists are now in government service.
I was banned from Power Line for writing “China is asshole.”
Powerline is schizophrenic. Paul lives near DC and has a typical RINO sensibility. Steve is an academic conservative and a very good source of information. The other guys are very much interested in Minnesota, which I am not. I at least skim it every day. I have been suspended by Ricochet for antagonizing the NeverTrump administrators. I see quite a few others leaving. The Purge will continue until morale improves, or something. Parler has a rudimentary server up now.
Anyone else find it notable that the media has basically said nothing about the 3 “other” people who died? I had thought their names were secret, but you can look them up easily. My guess is that the MSM doesn’t want to talk about them because they’re not white supremacists, not violent, not anything they can demonize, they’re just normal people. They don’t fit the narrative that They are trying to sell, with They being all sides of the establishment, so they are being written out of history.
In would qualify this to exclude those above O-6. The enlisted and company grade officers are the “deplorables.” they go out in the boonies, sleep rough and do not do much with PowerPoint slides.
Good point.
I’m reminded of the Biden ad which noted his son had been in Iraq without noting that he was lawyer safe behind the lines, Al Gore’s time as a REMF in Vietnam with real soldiers actually assigned to be his bodyguards, and the black female navy admiral put in charge of the 6th fleet who had only 2 years of seagoing command, of an LPD.
The problem for these idiots is that they actually need people to do dangerous and unpleasant things that might get you killed, and that’s traditionally been done by the hated white males. If they chase enough of them away, they have trouble.
In fact, I think they already do, and they know it. Hence, the endless push to get women into the military and the endless lowering of standards. This won’t end well, at least for the United States.
I was banned from Power Line for writing “China is asshole.”
I wouldn’t even consider attempting to comment at Powerline. Like Mike K, I skim the site. I don’t think much about it though, as the never-Trump panic is tedious and only mildly amusing.
Anyone else find it notable that the media has basically said nothing about the 3 “other” people who died?
Nope. Covering up the news is just what they do.
So I pulled up the current version (over 100 pages now ”” yikes! At least it’s electronic). They’re no longer interested in finding commies. Apparently, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and then 9/11, that section was changed to inquire about participation in terrorist organizations and activities. So they’re no longer looking explicitly for commies anymore, hence the commie cadet. There’s no telling how many Marxists are now in government service.
Whoops, forgot to include this in my last comment.
Anyway, coming up soon, watch for revisions to exclude “domestic terrorists,” that is “Trump supporters.” That’s when the real fun will begin, in that they’ll be drastically shrinking the recruitment pool. This will leave them will dullards with no political opinions, leftists who despise the military, and people willing and able to lie to join.
What could go wrong?
The Inaugural committee has asked that Republican National Guard members be kept away from Biden, and/or disarmed for fear that one of them might be moved by some impulse to do something. They seem to be going from strength to strength.
Another thing I read pointed out that the Capitol Police is the 19th largest police force in the country and asks the reasonable question of why they were unable to keep a couple of hundred idiots out of the building. The Capitol Police are entirely a creature of Congress.
The Inaugural committee has asked that Republican National Guard members be kept away from Biden, and/or disarmed for fear that one of them might be moved by some impulse to do something.
So the regime has now gotten around to characterizing soldiers by political affiliation.
Noted. I think I know who gets to invade Syria and who gets to go door to door collecting guns. What could go- wait, I already used that cliche.
Another thing I read pointed out that the Capitol Police is the 19th largest police force in the country and asks the reasonable question of why they were unable to keep a couple of hundred idiots out of the building.
They were quite capable of keeping a couple hundred demonstrators out of the building.
They were ordered not to.
We’re all depending on TX now.
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1351334378337673218
This is the most offensive thing I’ve ever heard.
No one should ever question the loyalty or professionalism of the Texas National Guard.
I authorized more than 1,000 to go to DC.
I’ll never do it again if they are disrespected like this.
New polls show that the biggest threat Americans feel that they face, are overwhelmingly, other Americans. By a large margin Americans fear other Americans more than anything else, including other countries, corporate overreach, and natural disasters including pandemics.
Do you see where this is going?
Well. I confess I did not think things were going to go so bad so fast.
My new prediction, based on what’s going on now, is that Democrat governors are going to fire nearly all sheriffs in their states in the coming few months, since most of them are elected by locals who want no part of gun grabbing, etc., and will replace them with Dem loyalists.
And who knows what will happen after that. We won’t be able to talk about it online, you can be sure of that.
Any idea as to what happened to Second City Cop blog? All of a suggest you get a screej that says by invitation only (and you aren’t). This seems to be coming from the hosting service.
Death6
I’m more concerned about Rantburg … the site has been dead for more than a week now, and not even their backup is live. I’ve gathered that the proprietor had health issues, and possibly hosting issues that he wasn’t up to dealing with, but Rantburg is a serious loss to those of us tracking international terror issues…
}}} Pengun: All the cases brought to dispute the vote failed.
The failed almost uniformly by the courts claiming they “lacked standing”.
Apparently, if you’re a voter, you have no claimable vested interest in the fact that the guy next to you voted seven times, while you voted only once. One state, which followed the US Constitutions limited rules about how to conduct an election, has no claimable vested interest in another state which openly violated the Constitutions express instructions about holding an election.
The courts, in general, have said that “election fraud is no one’s business”.
This patently insane statement is the basis for pretty much all the rejection of “cases brought to dispute the vote”.
They never ever made it to the courts, so no “evidence” was generally allowed to be brought.
Ergo, your conclusion that “there is no evidence” is ludicrous from the get-go.
There are exceptions but the great majority of county sheriffs are elected and beyond the control of the governor.
If there was ever any doubt that the two biggest clowns in the car won, this thing with the National Guard proves it. It couldn’t have hit the news any faster if they had made a general press release. I’ll bet they’re looking hard to find the leaker. I’m sure it will go a long way toward insuring close cooperation with the military.
MCS: I bet you a virtual beer Andy will try to fire the (elected) sheriffs of most NY counties by summer.
Death 6,
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2021/01/statement-from-now-vanished-second-city.html
Basically, the Second City Cop blog went dark because they were threatened with exposure.
Brian,
In the two states I have knowledge of, Colorado and Texas, the governor couldn’t. If New York is different, it is something of an outlier. Most states aren’t organized as “federally” as Texas but I’m pretty sure that most elected sheriffs are protected from summary dismissal.
Your pal Cuomo is about to have real problems finding the money that all the non essential people aren’t paying not to mention the Federal prosecutors that have been working his way for a long time.
MCS: I bet you a virtual beer Andy will try to fire the (elected) sheriffs of most NY counties by summer.
No, he’ll tell someone on his staff that he wants to fire them. Then they will slowly and carefully explain to him that he can’t fire them because they’re elected.
Cuomo will get angry and yell at the staff member, which is his usual reaction when he hears things he doesn’t like or doesn’t understand, which is often.
Someone else will explain to him that what they really need is a ballot initiative to make sheriffs appointed, which of course win because of who counts the votes. He will nod approvingly.
That’s my guess as to what will happen by summer.
Somewhere else I read that King County (Seattle) voters approved a measure to make the county sheriff an appointed position, which I believe the actual voters approved in the same way I believe Biden actually won, and Epstein killed himself.
That’s my guess how they’ll get rid of the sheriff problem.
Governors have given themselves extreme emergency powers for the past year (longer actually, of course). It is charming of you to think Andy and Whitmer would be deterred from firing obstreperous sheriffs for something so quaint as tradition or law. They’re going to do what they can get away with. It’s going to be up to county officials and We The People to say No, because the Democrats won’t, and the media won’t, and I’m skeptical that judges in these states will stand in the way.
“not to mention the Federal prosecutors that have been working his way for a long time.”
This is a joke, right? He’ll get indicted for his brazen corruption right after Hunter does.
It is charming of you to think Andy and Whitmer would be deterred from firing obstreperous sheriffs for something so quaint as tradition or law.
I’m pretty sure Wretched Twitmer and the New York imbecile can call spirits from the vasty deeps just as well as they can fire obstrepedy sheriffs.
Their problem is whether or not the spirits will come when they call to them, and will the sheriffs go away when dismissed.
I suspect neither will happen.
That’s the real problem these people face- getting other people to obey them. My theory of events- apparently we disagree- is that they’ve just about run out the free obedience the historical respect for the Rule of Law that Americans had, because they’ve spent decades abusing it.
I think they’re going to keep pushing and pushing until something breaks really bad- and then they’re done, and dead.
Along with a lot of other people who don’t deserve it. Shrug.
I had thought that the election of Donald Trump meant that we could avoid the worst of it. But then he won re-election- and the Deep State overturned the election result. Hence, I now think we’ll get the full nine yards of The Fourth Turning– and no one will like it.
Ymmv.
When basically every sheriff in the state said they would have nothing to do with enforcing household size limits at Thanksgiving, Andy said they were acting like dictators. The man knows how to hold a grudge, and has zero shame, and if he asked them to the legislature would gladly change the law to give him power to fire and appoint sheriffs for “emergency” reasons, in about 15 minutes.
Both Brian & Xennady are right about the sheriff issue. Yes, sheriffs who refuse to enforce illegal directives will be ousted, and yes, there will be consequences. I am puzzled about what those consequences will entail. Look around you at the overwhelming proportion of your fellow citizens who are obediently wearing masks, despite the overwhelming evidence that masks are pointless.
History tells us that someday the people will rise up and fight back against their oppressors. But will it have to wait for some future generation?
Speaking for Colorado.
Under our state constitution, as much as any constitution is now shaky under the new regime, this is what holds.
1) With the exceptions of “Cities and Counties” [Denver and Broomfield] where the city and county boundaries are the same, in Colorado Counties the Sheriff is defined as the supreme law enforcement authority in the county. The Sheriff is elected, and if anything happens to make the County Commissioners unable carry out their duties, the Sheriff runs the county as senior elected official until the election of new commissioners. Incidentally, the next person in line as senior after the Sheriff is the elected County Coroner. The Sheriff has this authority because we were a frontier state and each county was isolated.
2) As an elected official, he cannot be removed by the governor, but only by recall election or court order.
3) All local police in the county, both the Departments and the officers are subordinate to the Sheriff and he can direct them as needed. Just in passing, it is the practice here for local cops to take concurrent Peace Officer commissions as Deputy Sheriffs to avoid jurisdictional problems and simplify hot pursuits.
4) Sheriffs can, and have [I’ve seen it] barred Federal law enforcement from operating in their county in the absence of a Federal warrant.
5) In our two “Cities and Counties” the Sheriff IS politically appointed and is a flunkey removable at will or by civil service procedure. They run the county jail and guard courtrooms and do not do street duty.
Subotai Bahadur