Military Parity vs. Nonintervention?

10 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ Comments Off on Military Parity vs. Nonintervention?

Tags

, , , ,

Parity: not necessary in terms of quality or quantity. Effectiveness, rather. Things change.

This morning (pre-scheduling this on Thursday night) I read a take on the new nuclear super weapons Putin was boasting of the other day. They may be real. And that may be real bad. Dr. Donald Miller, Jr. explains.

Then this (Thursday) evening I saw something by Vox Day. It seems that even without 100 MT bombs and hypersonic deliver capabilities, an enemy learns, rather fast, to adapt to the conditions of war. Read Vox’s take on yet another take:

This points out two more very good reasons not to engage in unnecessary foreign wars. First, you’re implicitly training your enemy. The longer you fight him, the more he will learn. Second, if you compound your error by engaging in “nation-building”, you will usually find yourself literally and explicitly training your enemy.

Over time, opposing forces tend to become more and more symmetrical. This is the process that we are beginning to see, both in terms of tactics and the demographics of the militaries themselves. US military supremacy was always bound to erode, because no military, not even the Roman legions have ever remained permanently superior. But this increasingly observed tactical symmetry is a clear indication that the erosion is picking up speed.

Minding one’s business comes to mind.

Oh, and happy Saturday!

Shocking Justice in Texas

09 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on Shocking Justice in Texas

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Some wonder why people have a hard time trusting the “justice” system. Here’s part of it: a Texas Judge repeatedly zaps a defendant with shock device for no good reason:

State District Judge George Gallagher of Tarrant County told a bailiff on three occasions to punish an uncooperative defendant with electric shocks, and now the sex offender’s conviction has been overturned and a new trial ordered.

Stun belts can be strapped around the legs of some defendants and used to deliver thousands of volts of electric shock in the instance a defendant turns violent or attempts to escape the courtroom. However, in the case of Terry Lee Morris, who was convicted in 2014 of charges of soliciting sexual performance from a 15-year-old girl, an appeals court found that Gallagher used electric shocks as punishment after Morris failed to answer the judge’s questions properly.

…

“While the trial court’s frustration with an obstreperous defendant is understandable, the judge’s disproportionate response is not. We do not believe that trial judges can use stun belts to enforce decorum,” Justice Yvonne T. Rodriguez said of Gallagher’s actions in the court’s opinion.

“A stun belt is a device meant to ensure physical safety; it is not an operant conditioning collar meant to punish a defendant until he obeys a judge’s whim. This Court cannot sit idly by and say nothing when a judge turns a court of law into a Skinner Box, electrocuting a defendant until he provides the judge with behavior he likes,” Rodriguez wrote.

I know some will read this (or have it read to them) and say, “Who cares? He’s a child mo-lester!” That may be true. It may be proven at a subsequent, lawful retrial. The problems here are several. And they illustrate that maybe, just maybe, in some cases the government lacks the moral authority to try child mo-lesters or anyone else.

First, there’s that pesky right to remain absolutely silent. Even in court. Even in defiance of the judge. One does not have to enter a plea. In the absence of a verbal or written plea the universal protocol is for a judge to enter the defendant as “not guilty” and set a jury trial. Why Judge Sparky missed that I can’t explain.

Second, if you do speak to the court, or in order to another party while in court, then they’re supposed to let you speak. They can gently admonish you to stay on subject but a shock device is a but much.

Third … cruel and unusual anyone? And for nothing. Normally, as the article hinted at, a disruptive party will simply be removed from the court room. This man said he was mentally ill and may actually be (even without the electric torture). Judges with more sense sometimes suspend trials and cases pending mental evaluations. Shrinks don’t use shock treatment (much) anymore.

Here, in this case and as the article makes clear, this defendant, annoying or not, was not combative. Protocol, which has to be nationwide – especially in large states like Texas, is to use the shock devices only to protect staff from an actually violent and dangerous suspect.

I think what this fellow was wearing was a shock “ankle bracelet.” Belts usually go around the waist. And they have waist worn shock belts. I’ve seen one used in court. In civilized jurisdictions they usually are required to test demonstrate how effective the belt is – and they are effective. At the judge’s order, the sheriff, the bailiff, or whoever is in charge of security, will test shock an officer, in court and in front of the defendant, the judge, and the public.

Only once did I see this happen, in a murder case with a potentially, allegedly well-trained and dangerous defendant. Maybe he wasn’t that dangerous, volatile to begin with, or maybe it was seeing a 300-pound deputy knocked off his feet by the 50,000 volts, but he never once acted out during his prolonged trial.

As an aside, that guy didn’t make it all the way through the trial. Sensing his actual guilt or maybe the hopelessness of his case, he self-executed one night with a bed sheet. Justice? Maybe. We’ll never know.

But we do know there was little to no justice in Fort Worth.

There is now, and has been for a while, a massive assault on due process, equal protection, liberty, and the rule of law (not of crazed, zappy men) in America. Every little violation runs together with the others to form the monumental mess we now have at hand. It’s changed Anglo-American jurisprudence, governance, and culture for the worse.

The changes may make for expedience in some events. I’m half serious about handling certain criminal or martial acts with E.O. status and prosecution. What, years ago would have been considered insane tyranny, has been rubber stamped by all associated parties. Expedient? Yes, sometimes, sure. Dangerous? You damn-well better believe it.

So, in the real interest of justice (if we still value the word and concept), I bring you warning stories like this.

Now! All is not quite so dark and depressing. Somewhere near the end of the article the Star-Telegram featured a video. Watch it. Human concern and kindness from the most unseemly source. Maybe there is a little hope. Let’s hope so.

stun-belt-1280x720

These things work, appropriate or not. The Blaze.

Chinese Communists on Campus: A Day Late?

08 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in News and Notes

≈ Comments Off on Chinese Communists on Campus: A Day Late?

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

When I first saw the following story my initial thought was that the Chinese, as “well-intentioned” as they might be, are a little late in the coming. American and European Communists began infiltrating the academy in earnest in the 1940’s. Today they have virtual control over most US education, from grade school to graduate school.

But, that’s not exactly what the story is about. It seems the Chi-Coms want (and have) direct influence over their students studying abroad in America.

While many countries, including the United States, fund educational activities abroad, the Chinese government’s direct support for, and control over, student groups appears to be unique. Beijing’s influence over these groups is also beginning to raise questions and concerns among students on American campuses, who fear they will be accused of being agents of espionage. The growing ties are also concerning U.S. government officials, who are wary of China’s political and economic reach in the United States.

At a security hearing last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that American universities are naive about the intelligence risk of Chinese “nontraditional collectors, especially in the academic setting,” and claimed that China poses a “whole-of-society threat.”

Those comments have alarmed some Chinese students. Several Georgetown University student representatives wrote an open letter to the university president, asking the school to disavow Wray’s statements and calling the comments a “witch-hunt” and a “McCarthyist craze.” The article also cited FP’s recent report revealing that the Georgetown CSSA has received Chinese government funding.

If this is a witch-hunt, modern-day, 21st Century McCarthyism, then rest assured in around 40 years a Venona-ish report will surface, justifying the hunt 110%.

But my initial fears are likely misplaced or over thought. Yes, young American Tide Pod-eaters and their post-hippy professors, and SJW administrators would surely appreciate a little more official indoctrination. However, the Chinese variety – geared towards a xenophobic nationalism and eco-techo progression – probably isn’t for them. I suspect they are more in favor of old-school Soviet central planning, with all the speech and religion quashing, heavy-handed social and work assignments, and mass murdering.

There’s sure to be some small crossover. Maybe forced abortions and population limitations could replace the religion of Row and specious climate change, blame-it-on-man reactionism. But the main focus of the article and of Wray’s concerns is that of a fifth column of potentially nefarious foreigners embedded in, and drawing resources from, American culture or what remains of it.

There may be a place for the left’s new meddling here, on the side against the infiltrators – a sort of American nationalism for those who really hate America. Odd but possible. East Asians, minorities though they be, here, are rapidly becoming the new white men, especially in employment and double-especially in academia. High IQ, serious students, who naturally excel at math and science, don’t exactly help the numbers or the narrative. It’s something for someone to think about. Feel, maybe.

For the rest of us, all of this kind of fits with Vox Day’s second edition of Voxiversity, Sink the Ships. Watch on YouTube (before they SJW it away):

Voxiversity/YouTube.

It’s a quick work from a quick study. It builds on the inaugural episode. History shows time and time again that egalitarian kindness is often the worst source of the worst violence and pseudo-genocidal changes any culture or people can subject themselves too. Sinking the ships, figuratively or literally, an overt act of unpleasantness to be certain, may just be more humanitarian in the long run than the alternative.

Something else to think about. Maybe best without the feels.

Protestors And Supporters Gather During Hu Jintao's Visit To Chicago

It’s like the Fourth of July! Scott Olson/Getty/Foreign Policy.

#KnifeControl

07 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in News and Notes

≈ Comments Off on #KnifeControl

Tags

, , , , ,

I blame the National Knife Association. If there is such a thing.

No word on any “Aloha Snackbar-ing,” so we’ll just say some criminal bastard attacked a family on the streets of Vienna, Austria with a knife.

Several people are hurt after a man went on a knife rampage in Vienna, Austria.

At least three people are “seriously injured” after the attacker “randomly attacked pedestrians”.

The three people are reported to be an Austrian family – a mum, dad and daughter – who were attacked outside a Japanese restaurant.

The blood is on the blood-stained hands of the bloody NKA.

We need, well Austria needs, okay we and Austria need #knifecontrol.

Common sense knife control.

Reasonable restrictions on knives.

Waiting periods for knives.

No one under 21 should buy or own a knife.

Knife database.

High capacity blade length, assault knives.

Mental health records to buy knives.

High taxes on sheaths.

Hell with it – BAN ALL KNIVES!

The Second Amendment only protects the National Guard’s right to knives.

Knives ARE ONLY used to kill innocent people.

Knives are scary.

Knives are exactly like AR-47s.

CNN has probably already called this attack a school shooting. CNN!

Young Hogg, you know – the child actor with the agent, the boogie board, and the agenda – is probably speaking out. Possibly semi-coherently.

Only the police and the military (and maybe butchers and former running backs) need knives.

Hunters do not need knives. Okay, they do, but let’s keep the lies up!

You can’t protect yourself with a knife. Oops, again…

You’re 3 trillion times more likely to be victimized with your own knife than to successfully use it to deter a criminal. There! A good lie…

The average citizen does not need such sharp instruments of death. Sporks will do nicely, comrades.

There are knives in your child’s school. Think of the children.

Knives kill a disproportionate number of minorities. And oysters. Shuck it?

Knives are used to murder three times as many Americans every year as shotguns and rifles combined. Woah! Yeah, I know, … a real fact. Sorry. #knifecontrol!

Tide Pod-eating kids demand #knifecontrol.

Rumor has it The Trump has already moved to administratively ban whetstones. Chuck and Nancy approve.

Enough is enough!

1260716

Daily Star.

Another School Shooting

07 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on Another School Shooting

Tags

, , , , ,

A teenage Utah student, allegedly a supporter of ISIS, allegedly brought a homemade bomb to his high school on Monday. The police arrested him. The officers carry guns. Guns have been known to shoot. School. Shooting. Since we’re playing loose and fast with facts, why not? Makes as much sense as 15 of those other 17 “shootings” this year.

ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) – UPDATE: Police said a homemade explosive device was the item discovered in a backpack at Pine View High School Monday that forced the evacuation of the school. Police said if the device had detonated, it would have caused significant injury or death. Police have a suspect in custody.

A warrant served at the home of a male juvenile found materials consistent with the materials used to build the device.

Police also said the suspect had been researching information and expressing interest in ISIS and promoting the organization.

I’m sure there’s some way to blame this on the NRA. Maybe the drama club can organize a march. Trump could administratively ban shoulder slings. Certainly no problems with the schools, the culture, or terrorism.

Aiding, Abetting, and … Civil Process?

07 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on Aiding, Abetting, and … Civil Process?

Tags

, , , , , ,

The people the current President has around him, and the advice they give, are rather suspect. Take AG Sessions and the issue of illegal aliens in California. Various state and local authorities in the Golden Land O’ The Bear are engaged in aiding and abetting known illegals under color of CA law. Sessions decided to sue them in federal court:

So far, though, his arguments have made little headway in federal court, where judges in San Francisco and elsewhere have rejected efforts to strip federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to comply with Justice Department edicts.

The suits by California, San Francisco and other sanctuary jurisdictions challenge conditions the department has sought to attach to federal funding, while the Justice Department’s suit directly challenges the California laws. But the central issue in all of them appears to be whether sanctuary laws are a proper exercise of state and local government’s authority over law enforcement or an unconstitutional intrusion by those governments into federal immigration law.

There’s been no luck whatsoever on the civil side of the federal courts so … let’s try it again. Something about the definition of insanity.

18. U. S. C. 1324. Felonies. Crime. Indictments. This is how the FedGov usually seeks to manipulate behavior. Whether it’s home boys with drugs, good ol’ boys with guns, or political types with beach houses, the formula is the same. They pile on the criminal charges, the suspects enter pleas, then the courts just hand down recommended sentences. Works 97% of the time.

Or there’s the Enemy Combatant route, which I long ago heard John Yoo promote and extol as perfectly Constitutional. Seems everyone who counts – the courts, Congress, two prior administrations, etc. – are A-okay with that approach. And that system has already been used “successfully” on both foreign nationals and US citizens.

But, here and now, Sessions goes the same old civil route. Hmmm?

Maybe the man should return to Alabama and resume baking cookies in the tree.

59404d83bf76bb1c008b5bbd-960-720

I see a vague resemblance. You? Business Insider.

So Long, Roy! I Mean … Gary!

06 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on So Long, Roy! I Mean … Gary!

Tags

, , , , , , ,

What do Gary Cohn and Roy Cohn have in common? Yes, that. But they also both USED to work for Donald Trump.

GARY resigns amidst Tariff Tantrum:

White House chief economic advisor Gary Cohn has resigned from President Donald Trump’s administration.

The former Goldman Sachs president and free trade advocate Cohn, whose departure date will come in a few weeks, decided to quit after Trump announced he would impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

In a prepared statement, Cohn said, “It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform.”

Don’t let the door hit you…

In November of 2016 I noted that Cohn (Gary) seemed made for a Pearls Before Swine panel. And I called him the “chief gangster President of Goldman Sachs.” I also feared he was on the short list for Fed Chairman. He was. I said then:

“I certainly support the concept of “make America great again.” However, my American allegiance is to freedom, not to any candidate or politician. I do not support the money changers.”

I also have no use for free-trading, globalist charlatans.

Good. Riddance.

Oooooh kaaay. The robots.

They want to kill and replace us. Seems some humans are waking up:

1/3 of 2018 California Car Crashes Involving Robo-Cars Involved Pedestrians Physically Attacking the Machines. Good.

and

There’s a Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. I subscribed on YouTube. You should too.

*See, Roy Cohn was one of Trump’s real estate attorneys or something back in the 70’s in NYC. Roy Cohn. McCarthy. Lavender? All 25-35 years before the Venona Cables and Ann Coulter’s Treason…. Get it? … Cohn? …. …. March Madness is coming…

t-roy-cohn-donald-trump-08-17

Roy. Vanity Fair.

The Cigar Song

06 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Other Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

Sunday, at the end of a heated political post, I kind of alluded to something about kicking off the new week with either music or cigars. Then, yesterday, I came right back with a heavy on … more politics and social decay.

Okay, okay, okay. Apologies.

To make up for it all here’s a Twofer Combo!

Brad Paisley, The Cigar Song, YouTube.

See? It’s music … about cigars…

The site will improve immediately. Later. Maybe with killer robots…

Enjoy!

Yeah, I smoke ’em one by one…

The Surreal Side of the Dark World

05 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

There’s a culture war, believe it or not. Darkness pervades both sides.

A representative story from the left:

Facebook asks users: should we allow men to ask children for sexual images?

Facebook has admitted it was a “mistake” to ask users whether paedophiles requesting sexual pictures from children should be allowed on its website.

On Sunday, the social network ran a survey for some users asking how they thought the company should handle grooming behaviour. “There are a wide range of topics and behaviours that appear on Facebook,” one question began. “In thinking about an ideal world where you could set Facebook’s policies, how would you handle the following: a private message in which an adult man asks a 14-year-old girl for sexual pictures.”

The surveys with optional answers:

1890.jpg

Facebook/The Guardian.

“Facebook decides the rules with advice from external experts” is the only plausibly reasonable answer so long as the “external experts” are the police.

A better option would have been: “Said potential message(s) constituting (possible felony) criminal solicitation, Facebook should immediately freeze or lock out the offending account(s) and immediately report the interactions to the appropriate law enforcement authorities for prosecution. Failure to do so by Facebook, with actual knowledge of the message(s), would likely constitute criminal accessory support of child exploitation. All such activity is morally reprehensible to, incompatible with, and intolerable by any civilized nation or people.”

So interesting, telling, that they left off a criminal activity option. Even more telling they sent out the survey in the first place. Yes, a mistake (now that they’re caught). It all speaks to “the narrative,” which has now progressed to the normalization of pedos (and next: bestiality, necrophilia, and cannibalism). Diversity, you know.

For God’s or nature’s sake, Facebook, please reclaim a little dignity!

In the culture war, raging in this rather dark world, one would almost expect this from Facebook, one of the biggest socials, a group partly dedicated to allowing things like ISIS propaganda while banning, even supporting the criminalization of, those who would protest barbarism. Par for the course. One would suspect this evil progressivism from the left. One gets it, suspecting or not.

Yet such pathetic sickness also runs rampant on the other side:

ITALIAN ARCHDIOCESE ROCKED BY SCANDAL: DRUGS, GAY PROSTITUTION, BLACKMAIL

An Italian archdiocese is embroiled in scandal as reports are surfacing of a gay priest on trial for allegations of blackmail, embezzlement and other crimes.

Father Luca Morini, known to his flock as “Don Euro” for his extravagant lifestyle, has recently been scheduled for a hearing in the Court of Massa, the medieval town in Tuscany where he used to run two parishes. The preliminary hearing is set to take place on March 8, where the judge will examine the evidence for accusations of fraud, drug distribution, embezzlement, extortion and self-laundering.

The case began when male escort, Francesco Mangiacapra, decided to go public about services he had been rendering to Fr. Morini, who falsely presented himself as a judge. When the escort found out that his prodigal client was a simple parish priest, he decided to inquire about the financial source for all the lavish dinners and expensive gifts. Mangiacapra suspected the money came from the faithful and decided to report Fr. Morini to the diocese of Massa Carrara-Pontremoli.

…

Last week Mangiacapra handed a 1,200-page dossier to the archdiocese of Naples with documents (including sexually explicit pictures) that prove the escort’s involvement with 60 priests from all over Italy. Explaining his motivations to newspaper Corriere della Sera, Mangiacapra said, “The goal isn’t to hurt the people I’ve mentioned [in the dossier], but to help them understand that their double life … isn’t useful to them or to the people who rely on them for guidance.”

He continued, “Their behavior is, in many cases, a result of the impunity that the high hierarchy of the Church has made habitual: that unjust tolerance that feeds the idea that it is possible to separate that which is lived from that which is professed, as typical of those who have a schizophrenic, double morality.”

See also: Allegations about 40 gay priests in Italy sent to Vatican (also with allegations of pedo activities).

Okay, Dear God, where to go with this? Factual confirmation to support a million stereotypes and anti-pedo-Catholic jokes. What, exactly, does it mean when a homosexual prostitute has more moral integrity, more conscious, than the Church, from top to bottom?!

In the name of Jesus Christ, Pope Francis, drive the freaks and criminals from the Holy ranks!!!

A suspicion generating culture drives rumors and nicknames like “Don Euro.” The Church did nothing. There had to be a financial paper trail. The Church did nothing. Somebody knew something. The Church did nothing. Someone wrote a letter. The Church did more nothing. An escort came froward with A 1,200 PAGE REPORT!!!! The Church did even more nothing. The police filed charges. The Church still did nothing.

When, finally, the story leaked to the press, the Church at last acted. They reacted with more Euros, a private villa, maids, and CYA excuses.

Christ promised that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” the Church. Matthew 16:18. He did not promise that hell would not occasionally crash right up against the gates of the Church. Maybe, just maybe, instead of feeding the fires of communism and globalism, the Church could do a little pushing back against the crashing evil.

This particular story is in Italy. I guarantee it isn’t geographically limited to the one nation. And the Italian people, that fleeced, bereft flock, are more than ready to man and defend the gates.

They’re doing it politically:

Italy Faces Political Paralysis After Populist Shock

The WSJ doesn’t even know what to make of this uprising. I see various possible combinations for coalition building – for Italy – not for the EU, nor the globalist usurpers, nor the foreign invaders. They may not have had such good news since the time they caught Benito at the gas station.

May the spirit of righteous resistance spread to the Church, the socials, and the rest of the West. Light unto the darkness; the surreal brought to bay.

Strange, Stranger, and Happy

04 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on Strange, Stranger, and Happy

Tags

, , , , , , ,

A trio of political stories to rouse the Sunday faithful:

DOJ Looks into Criminal Activities of the Oakland, CA’s Mayor’s Office

“Normally the federal government takes the lead and the state authorities follow in these sorts of things,” he said. Now, “you have essentially an almost guerrilla movement by local authorities to try and undo federal law enforcement efforts.”

Asked whether it would be possible for charges to be brought against the mayor, Litman said he thought it was not likely.

“That would be extraordinary,” he said.

[Mayor] Schaaf and her supporters say she did the right thing.

“My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options,” Schaaf said Tuesday in a statement. “It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together.

“I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oakland’s legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together,” she stated.

She may regret the decisions when she’s indicted for violating 8 U.S.C. § 1324. If so, then I’d expect to see associated conspiracy, obstruction, and public corruption charges too. Or maybe not. It would be, as Professor Litman says, “extraordinary.” But it is technically possible.

Also possible is Trump pulling ICE out of California and leaving the State to enjoy the company of the illegals, 81% of whom appear to be convicted criminals. Also possible, if unlikely, would be the declaration that all of these people are engaged in enemy activities against the United States and dealt with, militarily, as enemy combatants. There’s actually more precedent for the latter possibility.

Speaking of enemy combatants:

Former(?) Illegal Arms Dealer Eric Holder Predicts a Trumped-up Charge Against Trump:

President Trump will face an obstruction of justice charge from special counsel Robert Mueller, former Attorney General Eric Holder predicted.

“You technically have an obstruction of justice case that already exists,” Holder, who served under then-President Obama, said on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” “I’ve known Bob Mueller for 20, 30 years; my guess is he’s just trying to make the case as good as he possibly can. So, I think that we have to be patient in that regard.”

Trump’s critics have speculated about an obstruction charge ever since he fired FBI Director James Comey in the midst of an investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The president said he was frustrated that Russia-related allegations had become “an excuse for having lost an election,” and he was also apparently annoyed that Comey refused to say publicly that Trump himself was not under investigation, although Comey had made such comments in private.

“I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,” Trump told the New York Times in December 2017.

Selling, and then giving, illegal arms to known terrorists, actions which led to the murder of at least one American citizen, would seem to also qualify for E.C. treatment. On the fantasy front, an absolute defense against obstruction exists in the President’s absolute authority to terminate any executive official, at any time, for any reason or for no reason. That’s settled precedent, as is black-siting American citizens engaged in hostilities against America – that or just droning them away.

All of this is rancorous, depressing, and more than a little ridiculous and speculative. So … here’s a happy balance piece:

Looms Large the End of the 70-Year Bush Reign of Terror

“It’s quite possible that the Bush political dynasty, at least for this generation, could end in the spring of 2018 because if George P Bush fails to win the GOP nomination for land commissioner it’s tough to see him coming back from that any time soon,” said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University. The dynasty began with Prescott Bush – George P’s great-grandfather – becoming senator for Connecticut in 1952.

Though Democratic turnout for early voting has soared this year compared with last time, no Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas since 1994, making the primaries all-important.

The last stand of Bush’s political career could be the Alamo. His predecessor and main rival, Jerry Patterson – a history buff who used to carry guns in his cowboy boots and cultivated a relationship with the pop star and leading Alamo artefact collector, Phil Collins –has made Bush’s supposed failure as a steward of the historical battlefield site into a key campaign issue. Bush has also drawn criticism for the slow pace of disaster recovery efforts following Hurricane Harvey.

Praise be to God Almighty! Now, after G.P.B. loses, maybe there’s some way to justify deporting the whole Bush Clan back to wherever the hell they came from. Or anywhere else. Germany! I think the Reich still owe Prescott’s descendant’s a little favor for the Union Banking gold deals, no?

This may be all for the weekend. Tomorrow starts a new week. Maybe with some cigars or music or something.

6093_lg

Old Politics.