Archive for August, 2020

Is John Podesta Wargaming Session “Confederate” Enough to Make My Point?

Posted: August 7, 2020 by datechguy in elections, News/opinion, politics
Tags: ,

A couple of weeks back I wrote this piece noting how the Democrat leaders from Mayors to Governors to Party leaders like Pelosi on Portland were the same arguments being made by the defenders of Slavery prior to the civil war and the defenders of Jim Crow during the debate on the civil rights bill of 1957.

Now I’ll readily concede that given our current education system and the lack of interest in reading anything but Howard Zinn communist approved history some of these debates and arguments might not be familiar to the current Democrat Leadership like Nancy Pelosi or Democrat Mayors like Ted Wheeler or “Journalists” like Brian Stelter let alone the rank and file leftists/ Democrats posting on facebook or twitter.

But as someone who HAS read this stuff I find it incredibility interesting that the arguments of today’s Democrat left/media are the arguments of the slaveholder and the defenders of Jim Crow and are being made under the banner of Black Lives Matter.

That piece got me on Fault Lines Radio in DC and the host there, who in fairness gave me plenty of time to make my initial point, scoffed at my premise that this was a sign of Democrats talking like secessionists.

Then this story broke.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Now I want to note three things here that are vital:

  1. These people are actually war-gaming states threatening to secede from the Union in Trump is re-elected.
  2. The people doing this wargaming are top officials in the democrat party to wit
  3. The people telling us about this scenario is the Democrat Party’s newspaper of record the NYT

Here’s the full quote from the NYT

But conveniently, a group of former top government officials called the Transition Integrity Project actually gamed four possible scenarios, including one that doesn’t look that different from 2016: a big popular win for Mr. Biden, and a narrow electoral defeat, presumably reached after weeks of counting the votes in Pennsylvania. For their war game, they cast John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, in the role of Mr. Biden. They expected him, when the votes came in, to concede, just as Mrs. Clinton had.

But Mr. Podesta, playing Mr. Biden, shocked the organizers by saying he felt his party wouldn’t let him concede. Alleging voter suppression, he persuaded the governors of Wisconsin and Michigan to send pro-Biden electors to the Electoral College.

In that scenario, California, Oregon, and Washington then threatened to secede from the United States if Mr. Trump took office as planned. The House named Mr. Biden president; the Senate and White House stuck with Mr. Trump. At that point in the scenario, the nation stopped looking to the media for cues, and waited to see what the military would do.

Note this isn’t some slub at a BLM rally or a local mayor or even some governor, this is JOHN F—ING PODESTA! The guy the Democrats sent out to the crowds to reassure them and send them home on election night because Hillary Clinton Couldn’t face them. He’s a power in the party and has been one of their biggest player for years.

And this guy representing a party supposedly outraged over statues of Confederate Generals and statesmen in the public square is actively wargaming blue Democrat states threatening to secede from the union if they don’t like election results?

Given this fact I think my comparison between the current Democrat leadership and the Democrats of 1860 is not only validated, but was on reflection apparently understated to the extreme.

Thanks to the private sector the US is a space faring nation again

Posted: August 6, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,

Like so many in this great nation I was glued to my TV this past Sunday afternoon watching the SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully splash down off the coast of Pensacola Florida.  While I was watching  the live coverage for several hours I was filled with tremendous pride because the United States is once again a space faring nation, something we have not been since President Obama canceled the Space Shuttle ten years ago.

What impressed me the most about this particular space flight was the fact that SpaceX is a private company rather than a government agency.  The free market has always been the engine that propelled the United States into becoming the most prosperous nation in the history of the world yet almost the entire US space program was placed in the hands of the federal government.  As a believer in free market capitalism I always considered this to be a mistake.  This article John Stossel: The private space race and the successful mission that concluded Sunday proved me right.

This week, American astronauts returned to Earth. Their trip to the space station was the first manned launch from the U.S. in 10 years.

By NASA? No. Of course, not.

This space flight happened because government was not in charge.

An Obama administration committee had concluded that launching such a vehicle would take 12 years and cost $36 billion.

But this rocket was finished in half that time — for less than $1 billion (1/36th the predicted cost).

That’s because it was built by Elon Musk’s private company, Space X. He does things faster and cheaper because he spends his own money

All during the SpaceX mission the commentators discussed the numerous innovations that were built into the Falcon Rocket and the Dragon capsule.   These innovations were swiftly and cheaply brought about because SpaceX is a private company. The John Stossel article documents how and why this type of innovation was rarely produced by NASA, a government agency. 

When I read the following quote in the article I was completely surprised.

Fortunately, President Obama gave private companies permission to compete in space, saying, “We can’t keep doing the same old things as before.”

Competition then cut the cost of space travel to a fraction of what it was.

I had no idea that President Obama was the person that opened up the US space program to private sector competition.  It is something that was completely out of character for him considering how far to the political left he is.

This quote from a Milton Friedman interview that took place on the Phil Donahue show perfectly sums up the overwhelmingly positive benefits produced by the free market.   A record that has never come close to being matched by any government entity of any kind.

Well first of all, tell me: Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.

Want to understand why Democrat/Media/Political left Defends ANTIFA? Watch this Stargirl Clip

Posted: August 6, 2020 by datechguy in entertainment, politics, Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,

Baldrick: My mother told me to stand up to homicidal maniacs

Black Adder the 3rd Duel and Duality 1987

One of the most pleasant surprises of this TV season has been the DC series Stargirl a well written comic book series about a character I had never heard of as she was introduced a full 10 years after I closed my comic store.

Over the past 10 weeks or so it’s become a Sunday ritual in the house that my wife gets home from work just before midnight, I get home 30 minutes later and we watch the newest episode which goes live at 11 PM EST each Sunday on the DC network together. It is well acted, well plotted and very well written, likely due to the fact the actual creator of the characters involved is the writer. Furthermore because of the DC multiverse concept (introduced way back in 1961 ) there is complete flexibility as to if a character lives or dies as was amply demonstrated in last week’s show the penultimate episode of this 1st season. (a spoiler from said episode 12 follows)

To set the stage, Injustice Society of America members Sportsmaster (Neil Hopkins) & his wife Tigress (Joy Osmanski) have just failed to killed Stargirl & her family as assigned. So the leader of the ISA Icicle (Neil Jackson) sends the Fiddler (Hinda Kahn) to assist them in a 2nd murder attempt with this result:

Now this scene struck me in several ways. First of all even in normal everyday circumstances it’s rather impolite to go into a couple’s home, insult their daughter and declare them unfit parents, but it’s downright suicidal to do so when:

  1. You know said people are psychopathic killers
  2. You, as the principal of the high school their daughter attends, know that said psychopathic killers have already killed three of your school’s football coaches for disciplining said daughter on the field.
  3. You know they kill for sheer pleasure.

That a highly intelligent professional cold blooded calculating murderer would not see the danger in this and instead presume that because they were all working toward the same master plan about to come to fruition they’d just take being scolded and insulted on a personal family level without complaint, surprised me completely.

I mean, it’s a comic show so you have to suspend disbelief to a degree but C’mon!

And THAT brings us to Antifa and the Democrats.

There seems to be some surprise online that the Democrats who turned up for Senator Cruz’s hearing on ANTIFA were unwilling to criticize them

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

despite testimony like this:

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

and this

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Some are surprised, even shocked that Senators are defending people who are either burning down or attempting to burn down federal courthouses and attacking federal officers and police.

I’m not, this is a perfectly rational reaction on their part.

Public stances not withstanding they know they are dealing with homicidal maniacs, who have enlisted useful idiots to commit violence, they also know that said homicidal maniacs & their useful idiots have gone after political allies including the Mayors of Seattle, Portland and Oakland, even to their own homes in order to intimidate them and keep them in line in they deviate even one bit from their desired memes.

Given those facts it’s completely rational that Senators and Governors and Mayors would make it a point to not to say a bad word about the homicidal maniacs and useful idiots of ANTIFA. It makes even more sense when said Senators, Governors and Mayors have been using the same police and law enforcement whose job it would be to protect them from said homicidal maniacs and useful idiots, as punching bags for the last three months or more.

In fact it’s even more rational for MSM reporters to kowtow to the homicidal maniacs and useful idiots of antifa because unlike the Senators Governors and Mayors trying to defund and handcuff law enforcement, they do not have said police protection at their beck and call.

So while their actions might be despicable and dishonorable, they are entirely rational when dealing with such folks. You could ask Principal Bowen’s character from Stargirl about that but, alas she is no longer available for comment.

Note: The final episode of season 1 of Stargirl will be unlocked Sunday at 11 PM EST on the DC Universe livestream site and will be broadcast on air on the CW the following day. If you have an interest in the show this would be an excellent time to binge watch the 1st 12 episodes before the season finale. I suspect you’ll enjoy it.

Someone Read these guys the Constitution

Posted: August 5, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

One of the disadvantages of a “liberal” education, that is a education by political liberals rather than what was once called a classical liberal education is that people forget some rather basic stuff.

A good example of this comes in this story concerning a “wargame” of election 2020 that Twitchy mentioned:

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Let’s forget about the point of the Democrats not accepting the results of the election and look at a point that seems to have been missed by those brilliant Democrat wargamers.

In a dispute over electors the House and Senate votes BY STATE.

That means that while there are 38 more democrats than Republicans in California, that adds up to ONE vote for democrats, Just like Texas’ 9 seat republican majority is worth only one vote.

Pelosi’s Majority means NOTHING

What does that mean? It means that if the Democrats manage to not only maintain their current majority manage to get the exact same makup as they have now (highly unlikely) if there is a vote on disputed electorial votes OR if the house has to pick a president then the count is:

Republicans 26 Democrats 23 Tied 1 (Pennsylvania)

And remember that presumes the GOP picks up no seats in close states. If the GOP picks up one seat in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Colorado suddenly they have republican majorities.

And one seat in Minnesota, Iowa, Nevada, Maine or NH deadlocks those states, two flips them.

And remember the GOP has the majority of states ALREADY.

Now I don’t doubt that Democrats and the media in such a scenario would go all in on flipping a few members but I don’t doubt that GOP supporters would do so as well.

So who do you think gets the presidency if it goes to the house, big hint, it sure is hell isn’t Joe Biden.

Older Entries
Newer Entries