Chinks In The Armor

As much as the ChiComs claim to be a global economic powerhouse, we should always be aware that much of the economic numbers that come out of China are either flat-out lies or at best, exaggerations.  Hence:

The most important thing to understand about Chinese statistics is not that they are necessarily manipulated from the top. Certainly that happens too, as it does in every country in the world. Look no further than Wang’s example for that. But much of the manipulation of Chinese data actually comes from the lower levels. China is a country of over a billion people, but it has no unified or centralized statistical reporting system. Data is gathered at the local level and passed up the chain until it reaches the central government. The bureaucrats in charge of that system enjoy professional success and advancement when their numbers conform to the expectations and directives of the party. As a result, the numbers can be inflated to give the impression of success or moderated in order to avoid attention.

An example of how this can lead to catastrophe comes out of China itself, in the not-so-distant past:

In the 1958-1961 Great Leap Forward, Chairman Mao’s disastrous attempt to shift a backward agrarian economy to a modern industrial powerhouse, the failure of the statistical system contributed to catastrophe on a grand scale. Mao’s plan, such as it was, required producing an agricultural surplus that could be sold to fund investment in a modern industrial base. Whipped into a patriotic frenzy, and knowing that their future depended on meeting unrealistic targets for the production of grain, local officials engaged in rampant exaggeration of output.
But reality was distorted at a cost. The higher the production figures, the greater the tax owed to the central government. In some areas, the exaggerated claims were so great that the entire harvest had to be handed over as tax, used to fund investments and extravagances that China could ill afford. In some parts of the country, the only crops left behind were grown by villagers in secret locations, away from the acquisitive eye of the local production teams. But such success stories were few and far between. Tens of millions died in history’s greatest man-made famine.

Communists are renowned, of course, for perverting the facts to suit their own ends.  Remember this over the coming political election season here in the U.S., as our own home-grown Marxists fabricate lies and misquote or otherwise falsify data, simply to advance their political agenda.

Stubborn Things

Everyone laughed when perennial loser / has-been VP Joe Biden stated that Democrats “choose truth over facts”, passing it off as just another one of Joe’s (many) cock-ups.

I didn’t laugh, and it wasn’t a cock-up:  it was said in dead earnest.

You see, that’s exactly how the Left operates:  facts are irrelevant unless they support the Party’s “truth” (or “higher truth”, as they disingenuously frame it).  It’s entirely congruent, for example, with the “Fake But Accurate” defense used by people like Dan Rather (falsifying documents to advance a political position).

The old joke is that if the facts don’t conform to the theory, they must be eliminated.  What the Left does is not just eliminate the contrary facts, they also set out to discredit and destroy the people who stand behind those facts.

It’s not a joke, and Biden is no laughing matter.  He’s no less dangerous than all the other Marxists running for office.

What We Face

As we conservatives gird up to face what would destroy us and our beloved country, consider this article a warning.

Under a prevalent view that has emerged from universities in recent years, a wrong opinion is seen as tantamount to a thrown punch or even an indication of a willingness to genocide—which invites the idea that an offended party who throws a real punch (or worse) is simply acting in self-defense. This idea has become so pervasive and is so taken-for-granted at this point that even workaday journalists now pay homage to this academic conceit in their work.

Who defines what constitutes a “wrong” opinion?  (Hint: it isn’t you.)  Read the whole disgusting thing.

And as a wise man once said:

“Of course, the game the Left has always played is to use violence as a pretext to impose their preferred policies. We’ve had waves of left-wing violence since the Obama administration, all intended to elicit a response. Those responses are used to justify what amounts to political terrorism.”.

Feel free to see what people think, here.

Damn, and I was only at the range a couple days ago, practicing with a sniper rifle.

Well, if you’ll excuse me… that 1911 isn’t going to shoot itself.  Maybe it’s also time for a little AK practice, too.

Quote Of The Day

Part II from The Diplomad:

“As I noted a long time ago, [Lefties] change the meanings of words, so that the most basic units of thought and expression no longer mean what we once thought they did.  We can’t even use good old-fashion pronouns.  As per Orwell, they rewrite the dictionary, they make us hesitate when we think and speak, we must not give “offense” or reveal ourselves as “racist, homophobic, misogynistic” throw backs to a dark era.  They use fake bought and paid for “science” to convince us to give up our standard of living, to question whether labels such as “male” and “female” have any meaning.  They tear down flags, statues, and monuments; they want place names changed to erase our history.  They deliberately blur the distinction between citizen and non-citizen, between legal and illegal residents in our country.  They want open borders;  they, in sum, want a destruction of this country, and of Western civilization.”

Yeah, well that only works on the pussies.  I don’t think twice about “causing offence” before I write or say anything — and if I do, 90% of the time I say it anyway precisely because it does  cause offence.

And yeah:  their long game is the destruction of Western civilization.  ‘Twas ever thus, since Marx.

Which reminds me:  I need to buy some more ammo.

Total Agreement, Total War

Try as I may, I cannot raise a single objection to anything in this article:

Debate and discussion with any of the manifestations of the left is a non-starter since the left does not debate or discuss. It adheres to a rigid orthodoxy that will allow no reconsideration or reflection on the putative axioms it regards as sacred. It is, in essence, the contemporary version of Bolshevism. The left will lie, slander, cheat and commit violence to further its goals. Its mind is deadbolted shut.

And unlike pontificators (like Z-Man) who do a great job of diagnosing the problem, but have no other answers other than vague nostrums of “organizing” — such as discussed here:

Remaining content with radio talk, podcasts, interviews, essays and articles that alert the public to the impending disaster, though not to be scanted, is only a necessary first step. Delivering an angry vote may stave off the brunt of the calamity for an interval, but will not significantly alter the dynamics.
In the present situation, the trouble is that Trump’s greatest virtue—arbitration, diplomacy, compromise, carrot-and-stick—is also his critical vice. He may be excellent on trade and the economy, but does not seem to understand that on the home front in today’s political and cultural climate, the art of the deal does not work. The Democrats in their current disposition are not interested in dealing. Antifa is not interested in negotiating. A totalitarian plutocrat like George Soros, who as a youth collaborated with the Nazis and is proud of it, is not interested in consultation. The media are not interested in reporting the truth.
The Democrats, for example, are no longer an established political party but a revolutionary organism bent on scrapping the Constitution. Antifa is a guerilla outfit reminiscent of Hitler’s Brown Shirts, the Red Brigade and Baader-Meinhof. The media have become outright propaganda bullhorns for the left. None of these are trading partners. They are not economic rivals. They are not foreign nations that have to take American military power and punishing tariffs into account. They are fifth columns that are irremediably corrupt, extremist by nature, and absolutely relentless.

David Solway has a plan.  

I have argued that Trump must bring anti-trust legislation to bear on the major internet platforms and search engines now practicing overt censorship on users they oppose and to redefine them as public utilities. He must go further. His initiative on the census citizenship question is laudable but insufficient. He must use the means at his disposal, as did Lincoln, to confront the domestic enemies of the republic with uncompromising force: to declare Antifa an enemy of the state and arrest its financial backers on grounds either of sedition or treason, to be determined by a military tribunal; to bring Democrat politicians who have betrayed the nation (selling 20% of Uranium One to the Russian firm Rosatom, promoting the Benghazi scandal that cost four Americans their lives, weaponizing official agencies like the IRS and FBI, spying on its political opponents, streaming illegals and Third World immigrants to camber the demographics in their favor, subsidizing Iran with pallets of cash, accepting donations and colluding with foreign nationals) before the courts; and to de-license journalists and their media organizations that are in clear violation of the SPJ Code of Ethics.

In other words, Trump has to become what the Left has been claiming (baselessly, of course) that he already is:  a ruthless foe of the Left and someone who does not compromise with those who themselves aren’t prepared to compromise.  In other words, the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the nation needs to fucking do his job and direct the agencies that report to him to do their jobs.  And fire the ones who refuse.

We have all these laws that are supposed to protect us, protect the Republic and our way of life.  I would suggest that at this point, a failure to do the above would be the grossest act of betrayal by our elected President.

For the real and imminent threat to the republic comes not from Russia, China, Iran or North Korea. It comes from within: from the gatekeeper dot-coms, from the legacy media, from the Democrat Party, from billionaire tycoons laboring to dismantle the nation, from the social justice consortium, from political actors in the municipal and jurisprudential realms who support insurgency and do everything they can to thwart the president’s initiatives, from educators who have turned schools and universities into indoctrination camps, and from Guevara-like cadres growing bloodier and more frenzied by the day. If this is not a clear and present danger that portends the death of a nation and the eventual birth of a Marxist-like dictatorship, then nothing is.

The enemy is not at the gates;  he is inside the walls, and already well-entrenched.  We need — no, we insist on — massive and all-encompassing legal warfare against this virus that will destroy this country.

Only the President can do that.  Only this  President can do that.  And it’s time.

True Story

Apparently Rep. Frederica Willams (Communist-FL) was on her way to a speaking engagement when she discovered she’d forgotten to brush her teeth.  She stopped at a Walgreens on the way, and sent her assistant into the store to get her a toothbrush.

“Can I get a toothbrush for Congresswoman Williams?” she asked the clerk breathlessly.
The clerk thought for a moment, then replied, “Sounds like a fair trade.”

OMG — I think I’m going to be arrested for that.