Category: Politics

Trying not to start the public floggings

Kinda Trumpy

Politics

The world needs more — a LOT more — of this:

Right-wing nationalist Jair Bolsonaro, who has vowed to crack down on political corruption, violent crime and ignite a moribund economy with deregulation and fiscal discipline, after being sworn in as Brazil’s president today.
The former Army captain and seven-term fringe congressman rode a wave of anti-establishment anger to became Brazil’s first far-right president since a military dictatorship gave way to civilian rule three decades ago.
Addressing a joint session of Congress minutes after taking the oath of office, Bolsonaro, a former Army captain and admirer of the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, vowed to adhere to democratic norms.
He said his government would be guided by the promises he made to Brazilian voters fed up with graft, high levels of violent crime and a still-sputtering economy.
‘I will work tirelessly so that Brazil reaches its destiny,’ Bolsonaro said after being sworn in. ‘My vow is to strengthen Brazil’s democracy.’
On the economic front, the new leader promised to ‘create a new virtuous cycle to open markets’ and ‘carry out important structural reforms’ to shore up a yawning public deficit.

And it gets better:

Last week, the former army captain said that upon taking office he would issue a decree guaranteeing Brazilians without a criminal history the ability to possess firearms. During the campaign, Bolsonaro argued that one way to confront street crime would be to arm more citizens.
Possession of firearms is currently tightly restricted in Brazil, though drug traffickers and other criminal gangs are heavily armed with automatic weapons. Brazil is the annual world leader in total homicides – more than 63,000 in 2017 – and a majority are from firearms.
Bolsonaro has frequently argued that police who fatally shoot criminals during operations should be decorated, not prosecuted. To that end, he has said they should be shielded from prosecution, possibly by having such cases be investigated in a separate process outside the criminal justice system.
Such ideas terrify human rights groups and people who live in poor neighborhoods, where shootouts between police and traffickers often leave criminals, officers and innocent bystanders dead. Some Brazilian police forces, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, are already among the most lethal in the world.
Bolsonaro has frequently expressed adoration for U.S. President Donald Trump, and he is poised to follow him in foreign policy. He has promised to move the Brazilian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; push back on China, Brazil’s largest foreign investor; ditch regional trade treaties he thinks are bad deals for Brazil; and take a hard line on leftist governments, including that of neighboring Venezuela.

All excellent stuff.

Anyone seen his Missus, by the way?

I think he has the right perspective on just about everything.

Quote Of The Day

Politics

From Pat Buchanan:

“We are an unserious nation, engaged in trivial pursuits, in a deadly serious world.”

Read the whole article, but his comment is true in many other instances as well.  Think of Nero (the U.S.) fiddling away while Rome (the world) burns, and you’ll get the idea.

Still Revolting

Gummint, Politics

…and it doesn’t seem like the 21st-century French Revolution is going to end anytime soon, either.

It doesn’t look like there is anything President Macron can do to appease the mob because their protest has no focal point. The demonstrations are an expression of the frustration and anger felt by ordinary Frenchmen at how the government has taken them for granted in creating policies and new taxes they feel they were not consulted on. From refugees to a falling standard of living, the French people feel betrayed and no government giveaways are going to assuage their anger.

For details on the policies and new taxes, feel free to peruse Erik’s take at No Paseran!

I think the events Over There reveal a systemic difference between the U.S. and France.  In Europe, the people basically let the elites run all over them (for hundreds of years Euros seem to have had little problem with their “betters” telling them what to do) right up until the situation becomes intolerable, and then they explode:  heads roll, protesters take to the streets, whatever.

On our side of The Pond, we Murkins just elect people like Trump from time to time, to try to reverse the trend of oppression.  This seems to let some of the steam out of popular resentment — which is also why we respond so strongly when the elected fail or falter in their mission.

I’m not sure that Murkins have the spunk to rise up as violently as the Frogs.  Perhaps it’s because we have so many guns — not that we’re ready to use them, but their very presence acts as a damper on ourselves.  Instead of rioting, we form a Tea Party movement and get politicians to follow its precepts.

It’s one thing to march in yellow vests, blockade streets, break windows and deface monuments.  It’s another thing altogether to break out the AKs and ARs and start a truly  violent revolution.  That’s not to say we couldn’t, under truly intolerable circumstances, but I think we all agree that most of us — even the most fire-breathing — would shrink from taking that final, and very deadly step until that time.

Under these circumstances, our government and elites should be grateful  for the Second Amendment instead of trying to shut it down all the time.  That said, our elites would ultimately prefer that the State is the repository of all guns so that they and only they can go to the guns, which of course is the current state of affairs in Europe.

An interesting mental game is to wonder what the gilets jaunes would do if France had a Second Amendment as robust as ours or whether, if they did, the State would be as oppressive towards them as it has been.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll head off to the range.  All this intellectual activity requires some physical release.

Trump, You Idiot

Politics

The story of the late Bush 41 — a man respected by many and distrusted by an equal number — should have proved an object lesson to the once-god-emperor Trump, but it seems like Trump doesn’t want to learn from history unless it’s his own history.  Which makes him an idiot.  Here’s why.

Facing election, Bush 41 got what would be the loudest cheers of his entire presidency when he made the unequivocal statement:  “Read my lips: no new taxes! ”  Well, we all know what happened later:  “no new taxes” became a “great big huge tax”, passed as part of a deal made with arch-socialist and “Lion Of The Senate” Senator Ted “Swimmer” Kennedy.  The result for Bush?  The loss of the Presidency, because the Republican base, which hates taxes of any kind let alone new big ones, felt they’d been betrayed by the President.

Anyone see any parallels with the current incumbent, Trump 45?  Here it is:  “We’re going to build a wall to secure our southern border:  a big, beautiful wall! ”

And now, this week?  No wall.  Why no wall?  So he can keep a friendly working relationship with not one but TWO Congressional Socialists, Chuck “No-Guns” Schumer and future Repeat-House Speaker “Red” Nancy Pelosi?

Then Trump 45 gets pissed off when Ann Coulter — the same Ann Coulter who back in early 2016 predicted Trump’s eventual Republican nomination, to the loud jeers of a Jon Stewart audience  — entitles one of her articles “Gutless President In Wall-Less Country“.

Well guess what, Donald old chum:  just like Bush 41, you’ve managed to piss off your most loyal supporters, the ones who thought you were different, the ones who thought that if anyone could build a big, beautiful wall it would be a billionaire property developer.

Too bad you fucked up.  And here’s another lesson you’re about to learn from Bush 41 (a.k.a. President Juan Term):  just as Bush 41’s with Kennedy, your “partnership” with Schumer and Pelosi will last as long as the wet ink on the surrender document (“continuing resolution”) that you’re about to sign tomorrow (Friday).  On Monday morning (if not Saturday morning), they’ll go back to sabotaging what’s left of your your agenda, attempting to have you impeached, and turning what was to be a transformational presidency into just another fucking swamp.  Your last two years in the Presidency are going to be dead in the water, and nothing you said would happen, will happen.  And you will go from God-Emperor Trump to President Juan Term II.

I hope it was all worth it, you blithering moron.

The Dying Of The Light

Behind Enemy Lines, Politics

[This should have appeared over a week ago, but I screwed up the posting date thingy, sorry.  It’s still relevant, and now updated.]

From the Diplomad, talking about the revolting French:

France is in real trouble. I mean REAL trouble.  That once great country, in fact, is dying.  It, along with most of the rest of Europe, has a worthless leadership class that, as we saw at the WWI commemorations, sees nationalism as a bad thing. That leadership argues that true patriotism means going along with the elite’s efforts to kill the sense, the very idea of nation;  it means allowing one’s culture, traditions, and history to be wiped away, and rewritten to justify the on-going social, economic and political destruction.  To object, for example, to the importation of hundreds-of-thousands of poor, illiterate and often violent migrants from some of the most failed countries on earth, many espousing an ideology of hatred for all that France and Western Civilization represent, makes you a vile racist and a deplorable, one who should not be heard, a “far right” pariah.  In other words, Citizen, fermé la bouche and let your betters decide for you.  Nothing to see, keep moving. Leadership should be left to the professionals;  do not attempt decision-making at home . . .

Before any of us start to crow at the Frogs’ expense, however, look carefully at the words “true patriotism means going along with the elite’s efforts to kill the sense, the very idea of nation;  it means allowing one’s culture, traditions, and history to be wiped away, and rewritten to justify the on-going social, economic and political destruction”  and try to deny that this is precisely what our own “leadership” class — political, academia and corporate — is doing to the United States.  [Hint:  you’ll fail]

Now go and buy some more ammo.

(Some of you may wonder why I haven’t suggested also buying a hi-viz jacket as used by the French protesters.  That’s because we Murkins don’t do hi-viz — we do camo.)

Discrimination!!!

Business, Politics

From an article detailing how ex-President Token and his harridan wife are making millions, we find this little nugget:

In October 2017, Michelle Obama was a keynote speaker at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, a non-profit that promotes education and networking. The New York-based Harry Walker Agency Inc., which books both Obamas for speaking gigs, billed the Pennsylvania Conference for Women $225,000 in 2017, according to the non-profit’s most recent tax filings.

Barack Obama currently rakes in $400,000 per speech, and earned at least $1.2 million for three talks to Wall Street firms in 2017.

But, but, but… #IncomeInequality !!!

Barack Shithead Obama earns twice as much as his Pore Wife, for doing the same job!

#ShameOnBarack #PayTheBitchMore #FairnessInSpeakingFees

Whatever all that shit means.