Category: Politics

Trying not to start the public floggings

California Dreaming

Marxists, Politics

Here’s a little more news from California, this time over a ballot measure that will install rent control.

The only honest assertion that proponents of a rent control initiative make in their campaign ads is the fact that rent is too high in California. But rent control will make things even worse. As it is, most developers will not do business in California. Why try to build a subdivision in Silicon Valley, where the permits may take 10-20 years to get approved, when they can go to Texas and get plans approved in 10-20 weeks? Why build anything in a state where at any moment another environmentalist organization can file a lawsuit that will take millions of dollars and several years to resolve?

I have a clear and simple philosophy in terms of anything to do with the Golden Shower State and its doings:  California’s example in the “laboratory of the states” is where we learn precisely what not to do — i.e. when California does some thing or other, the best policy is to do the polar opposite.

Rent control is just the latest in a long, long line of stupid policies from the Left.

And yes, we all know (or should) that rent control eventually causes a shortage of housing — we’ve already seen that on Planet Manhattan — but hey;  if California wants to compound their stupidity (e.g. as in the above, of making new home builds almost impossible) with still further stupidity (rent control of existing homes), why should the rest of the states with a cumulative IQ above room temperature not just sit back, point and giggle when the whole state blows up?

Sorry, I just had a vision of California blowing up cataclysmically.  So please forgive me while I go off to that warm, wonderful place created by the prospect.

Which Way Did You Vote, Again?

Disaster, Politics

Which is probably the best way to view this inexcusable behavior in the storm-struck western Carolinas:

I should also say, when I flew here on Sunday, they actually stopped us from going in, the sheriff’s department. And it was because of a bunch of politics that they were claiming was the Speaker of the House of North Carolina that was preventing us from even going in and trying to kick us out, which I have clarified today with North Carolina politicians that reached out to me — good on them — and they were like, “That’s complete bullshit. Speaker of the House has nothing. He wants you guys there.”

But this is the kind of political BS that is happening here right now. Like, everyone’s trying to be in charge without taking any type of action. Nobody wants to coordinate with anybody. Everybody wants to pretend like they’re being a hero while these people are literally fucking dying in the mountains. And these people, like I’m saying, these people are on limited medication. They’re running out of oxygen, and there’s no one going to get them.

And:

Howard pointed out that some of his colleagues are funding their rescue missions out of their own pockets. At the same time, Air Force helicopters are grounded and personnel aren’t working because they’re awaiting Title 10 orders that aren’t coming from above.

“There’s military helicopters all over here sitting on the ground, and they can’t do nothing,” he vented. “Even my JSOC boys in Fayetteville, they can’t get orders if they’re not here. It is just the most disgusting thing, and they’re killing these people. And I don’t know why they’re doing it.”

Howard said that he doesn’t “know what kind of conspiracy” is behind this bureaucratic nightmare. In my more cynical moments, I can’t help but wonder if Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.) and the Biden-Harris administration are willing to let Republican voters in a reliably red part of the state fend for themselves — and die. I don’t want to believe that, but it’s hard to shake that gut feeling.”

I know, I know:  it’s usually easier to ascribe bad outcomes to inefficiency than to a malevolent conspiracy.  But I just can’t shake off the memorable words of former SecState James Baker III, “Fuck ’em.  They’re not gonna vote for us, anyway.”

Vigilance

Gypsies Tramps & Thieves, Immigration, Resistance

So let’s be charitable and say that of the 450,00-odd dangerous scumbags of foreign origin that are roaming around the country (thanks to FJB and Heels-Up Harris), maybe half are still in Texas.  (As if we don’t have enough domestic dangerous scumbags already in situ.)

Now ask me again why I don’t ever leave the house without at least one gun close to hand… or why I’m seldom more than arm’s reach from another gun in the house.

Or why all my guns are somewhat more than the double-barrel shotgun (capacity: 2 rounds) as once suggested as “sufficient” by said FJB.

Fuck him and his gun-confiscating VP, and woe betide the scumbags foreign and domestic — the latter to include any official who wants to deny me my self-protection.  I’m in no mood to be charitable, if anything the opposite.

Enough, already.

Well, Well, Well

Immigration

…now lookee here:

In line with the insurgence of far-right parties elsewhere in Europe, the Freedom Party has seen its popularity soar, fed by voter anger over migration, inflation and Covid restrictions. Its leader Herbert Kickl, 55, has vowed to transform the country into ‘Fortress Austria’, slamming the current government’s ‘failed migration policy’ as being to blame for the Islamist terror plot on a Taylor Swift concert. Mr Kickl and his party have promoted ‘remigration’, the controversial* concept which promotes the expulsion of immigrants of non-European ethnic backgrounds who are deemed to have failed to integrate.

Based on current projections, the conservative People’s Party, led by current Chancellor Karl Nehammer, is on course to become the second largest group, with 26.3 per cent of votes.

It’s about time some kind of reality slammed home — not for the people themselves, but for the “ruling class” who have perpetrated this nonsense on their people.

Of course, the Left reacted in the usual way:

…not that anyone cares.  In this case, at least, loudness does not equate to the popular will.

*doesn’t sound that “controversial” to me nor, I suspect, to many of my Readers and more than a few more million others in the United States.

So Much For Paradise

Anti-Gun Nannies, Righteous Shootings

I know, I know:  Hawaii is anything but Paradise, that’s just PR.  In fact, when it comes to the mucky business of everydqy life — e.g. protecting your family from scumbag neighbors, it’s closer to Hell.  So we’ve all heard about this sorry little tale:

Only in Hawaii* would prosecutors arrest an armed homeowner who stopped a violent neighbor who had just rammed several cars with a front-end loader, shot and killed three women, wounded two others, and posed an immediate threat to shoot more. Yet, that’s exactly what law enforcement officials did…

Until some vestige of common sense (not to say to protect their asses from a lynch mob) set in:

…before ultimately deciding not to pursue charges, citing “issues related to self-defense and defense of others.” Even anti-gun officials, as much as they might have wanted to prosecute the man, had to acknowledge this was a clear case of justifiable self-defense.

When you read the details, it’s not only “a clear case of justifiable self-defense”, but also a confirmation of the old “he needed killing” saying.

The good part of all this?

Local lawmakers are now discussing the possibility of strengthening the state’s self-defense laws in response to the incident. Democratic state representative Darius Kila (that’s right, a Democrat!), whose district is near the scene, is among those pushing for changes. Kila has expressed interest in making Hawaii’s laws more clear-cut by shifting toward a “stand your ground” framework, rather than the current “duty to retreat” standard. He believes residents should be assured that they can defend themselves and their loved ones without fear of legal repercussions, especially in situations as dire as the one that unfolded in Waianae.

Yeah, forgive me for being skeptical, but I’m going to wait until actual laws have been passed before singing hallelujahs.

This is Hawaii, after all.

*not just Hawaii;  I can think of at least three states where the hero homeowner would have been arrested if not prosecuted for his perfectly-justifiable actions.