Investigations To-Do List

Regarding my previous post, I want J6 investigations to determine the numbers that engaged in the following:

  1. Attacked the defensive perimeter between the Capitol grounds and the area of the permitted Capitol protest
  2. Of those cited above, those who did and did not enter the Capitol grounds, and those who did and did not enter the Capitol building
  3. Engaged in assault to gain access to the Capitol building itself, or to areas within
  4. Other assaults by civilians
  5. Engaged in vandalism to gain access to the Capitol building or to areas within
  6. Other vandalism
  7. Entered the Capitol through unattended doorway (e.g. Chansley and his entourage)
  8. Entered the capitol through attended doorway with permission
  9. Accessed the Capitol grounds by climbing the west wall
  10. Of those cited above, those who did and did not enter the Capitol building (my own impression is that most were content to stay outside)
  11. Attempted to approach lawmakers while inside Capitol
  12. Did not attempt to approach lawmakers while inside Capitol
  13. All convictions of nonviolent persons who were never on Capitol grounds
  14. Capitol defenders lobbing tear gas canisters into the area of the permitted Capitol protest
  15. Capitol defenders lobbing tear gas elsewhere
  16. Assaults by non-civilians not involving tear gas

And now, on to other investigations the Trump administration or other parties should undertake.

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Seth Barrett Tillman: “In Remembrance of P.J. O’Rourke: Let’s Make a List”

You’re going to need a bigger list! Seth brings it.

Worth reading as usual.

With Dread and Foreboding

So, how do I regard Election Day, looming up in two weeks? With dread and foreboding, to be absolutely frank – no matter who is declared victorious. It’s absolutely guaranteed that all flaming hell will break out in either case; either within hours/minutes, or in days/weeks.

If the Trump/Vance ticket sweeps to an unmistakable, unarguable landslide well beyond any means of the Democrat Party to fraud – the anti-Trumpists will be insane with baffled fury. The national media establishment will look like Wily Coyote after one of his Acme gadgets explodes – and the entrenched bureaucracy crusted like layers and barnacles all over the various federal government departments … they will see the end of their comfortable gravy train. Ruin, disgrace, impoverishment, possibly criminal charges. The Deity knoweth and the various conservative-sympathetic bloggers and commenters, to include many fellow Chicagoboyz essayists and frequent commenters, remember very well how blatantly they played dirty pool the last time around. What would they venture this time against the Great Orange One, the avatar of their doom … Political assassination? Of him, or any of his allies? At the height of what some commenters have termed a second civil war? Like Lincoln, at the hands of an angry partisan of the losing side? Sadly. I wouldn’t put it beyond the realm of possibility. This will be bad. Very bad.

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“When Is Blowing Up the World A Success?”

VDH’s excellent summary:

Recently, Secretary of State Antony Blinken bragged in an op-ed that “The Biden administration’s strategy has put the United States in a much stronger geopolitical position today than it was four years ago.”
 
What?
 
This is the latest campaign fantasy narrative also served up by Harris-Walz—analogous to the four-year untruth that “the border is secure” and “the economy is strong”—as they try to explain why the world utterly blew up on their watch and due to their own actions…

Read the whole thing.

On the Waterfront

The longshoreman strike is a great example of why you need a functioning president at the top of the executive branch.

There has been a lot of gobbledygook from leftist circles over the past several months that Biden’s inability to carry out the functions of the presidency is not a crisis because for the most part government runs on its own. They say, sure he’s not up to another four years but let’s not go crazy and start thinking about invoking the 25th Amendment forcing him to resign; we’ve got smart people in government and can get by.

Well the two arguments against that are the natural entropy of government and the ability to deal with crises. In both cases, someone needs to have both the legitimacy and incentive to knock heads and take the risks needed in a leader; as the sign on Truman’s desk said, “The Buck Stops Here.”

We’ve been skating on thin ice for a while regarding possible labor unrest across various critical parts of our transportation network and the longshoreman strike couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Biden Administration. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has maximum leverage given its ability to shut down the ports in the eastern half of the country, at a time when the economy is especially vulnerable and during the final month of an election when the Democrats need union support in a tight election.

The last thing the Democrats need is the economy to go into a tailspin. The second-to-last thing they need is the labor unrest that would stem from invoking Taft-Hartley and breaking the strike.

Outside of the danger to the economy and people’s livelihoods, there is something almost entrancing about the cartoon villainy of ILA President Harold Daggett, who has threatened to cripple the economy if his demands aren’t met regarding pay and automation. You can argue that long-term he is being foolish because he’s converted a viable threat in-being into a dangerous threat in fact — the best threats you can have are the ones you never have to state let alone use.

It also doesn’t help that the productivity of US ports is among the lowest in the world. In the world of tight supply chains and container shipping, inefficiency in port operations has the same effect as a tariff on the cost of goods. To paraphrase William J. LePetomane, Daggett and the ILA need to protect their phony baloney jobs. I’m as nostalgic as the next guy, but not for that ’70s vibe of unions using extortion to protect their cushy way of life.

So basically our cartoon villain Daggett has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged the feds to come get him. The problem in the executive branch is that anyone can make a decision and get it implemented under Biden’s signature, but there has to be somebody willing to take the risks and the heat to see that decision through and that’s where the buck stops. Somebody needs to not just broker across the various interests in any administration but to make the decision stick. There’s only so much our 21st Century version of Edith Wilson, Jill Biden, can do.

Like Zelensky and the mullahs, Daggett knows that a Republican victory will undercut his leverage so he’s in a use-it-or-lose it situation. If Biden does nothing, the economy tanks. If Biden breaks the strike, he weakens a valuable base of support for the Democrats right before the election.

From the Middle East to the Atlantic-Gulf Coast ports, the consequences of the Biden puppetry are coming home to roost.

Side note. It’s a shame Jen Psaki is no longer in government so that when the inevitable shortages from the ILA strike occur she can poo-poo us about “the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed.”