Archive for the ‘News/opinion’ Category

Do You Feel a Draft in the Air?

Posted: July 27, 2022 by datechguy in News/opinion
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Bernard Wooley: Prime Minister isn’t conscription a rather courageous policy?

PM Jim Hacker: Courageous, oh my God is it? No No no well in times of full employment it would be but now it will give unemployed young people something to do, tech them trades and skills. It might even teach them to read, the Army never discharged anyone who was illiterate. it could make them wash! We can give them a comprehensive education, to make up for their comprehensive education

Yes Prime Minister The Grand Design 1986

Do you know what happens when your military goes woke and you get stories like this:

The army of the past is almost nonexistent today and most branches of the service – particularly the Army – are missing their recruiting goals badly. Morale is down and attracting qualified recruits is getting harder. And the services may have to begin significantly reducing standards 

and this:

the Pentagon has become a political institution, one that has prioritized woke culture, diversity, equity and inclusion. This is not a reflection of those who wear the uniform, have fought in foreign lands or those who joined as their patriotic duty to protect our nation – instead, it is a damning indictment of Pentagon political leadership and the generals and colonels who enforce it, as clearly reflected in the latest and unprecedented recruitment and retention failures, where even the small percentage of Americans able to serve, aren’t interested in doing so. As of June, with only three months left in the fiscal year, the Army only met 40% of its enlisted recruiting numbers.

10 years ago I would have been proud if my sons joined the military, now I wouldn’t have them touch it with a ten foot pole.

And of course it doesn’t help when you’re discharging tens of thousands more

All of the U.S. military services have now begun disciplinary actions and discharges for troops who have refused to get the mandated coronavirus vaccine, officials said, with as many as 20,000 unvaccinated forces at risk of being removed from service.

The problem here is all those woke officers and those greased pols who make $ on weapons need a large army or their position and/or power isn’t sustainable, and that means only one thing.

A draft.

If you can’t get people to volunteer, even in a recession and even with large bonus’ being paid, you’re going to have to fill those numbers somehow and that means a draft.

I’m sure that’s going to play well with all those young kids who are outraged if their teachers or professors use the wrong pronouns who suddenly find themselves under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, even if they are made to wash.

I must confess it would almost be worth all of it to see the looks on their faces of the youthful woke left when it happens.

Closing thought: If you were an enemy of the US in 2020 where even with COVID we had a strong economy a powerful military and we were feared by our enemies and the prospect of this continuing unabated wouldn’t you have given anything to get us into the state with an economy in shambles, unrest and lawlessness in the cities and a military in shambles that we are in now?

Wouldn’t you even contemplate stealing a national election?

Closing thought two: Maybe the Army can redefine their recruiting numbers.

Pritzker meddled in GOP gubernatorial primaries

Posted: July 24, 2022 by John Ruberry in covid, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Amazingly, the quiet presidential campaign of J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire pol from the family that created the Hyatt hotel chain and more, continues. That says about the girth of Illinois governor’s ego and the threadbare status of the Democratic presidential bench, as the failures of the Joe Biden administration continue to mount.

Illinois, despite the influx of COVID bailout cash, remains a financial basket case. At best, Pritzker and his fellow Democrats have only chipped away at the state’s pension bomb. Illinois has the worst-funded public pension system among the states. In 2021 the Prairie State lost 122,000 residents, only New York and the District of Columbia, percentage-wise, saw a bigger population drop.

At Wirepoints, Mark Glennon, justifiably eviscerated Pritzker in his critique of the governor’s trial run of a presidential campaign speech given last weekend in Florida. Yes, Florida, the place that Democrats, including Pritzker’s wife during the worst period of the COVID-19 lockdowns, flock to, despite the governorship of Ron DeSantis, a man they hate. Oh, while in Florida–Pritzker was there to give the keynote speech at a gathering of Florida Democrats–he contracted COVID. I wish him well–as someone who was afflicted with COVID last month, I can say that it is not an enjoyable experience. 

I’m going to focus on just a couple of items from Pritzker’s dishonest Florida speech. “We honor the results of elections,” Pritzker said, obviously alluding to the Capitol Riot and its show trial investigation of it by the House January 6th Committee. In response Glennon retorted, “In Illinois, that would be elections based on the most gerrymandered map in the nation, which he approved in violation of what many regarded as his most important campaign promise – to deliver fair maps.” Yes, Pritzker repeatedly vowed as a candidate in 2018 to veto gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps. The Democratic supermajorities in the General Assembly–in place because of the 2011 gerrymandered map–sent to Pritzker’s desk new contorted legislative maps, which Pritzker signed into law. 

Pritzker lied–and free and fair congressional and state legislative elections in the Land of Lincoln died. But since Glennon’s article was posted, the Chicago Tribune revealed that Pritzker this year contributed $24 million to the Democratic Governors Association. That group spent millions on ads supporting the most conservative Republican candidate running to replace Pritzker this autumn, state Sen. Darren Bailey, who easily won the GOP nomination. Yes, I voted for Bailey. 

As with other races the DGA has meddled in, the group saw Bailey as the most conservative, or in their likely thoughts, the most extreme candidate. And presumably the easiest one for Democrats to defeat in November. But such a ploy might backfire. In another Republican gubernatorial primary race that the Democratic Governors Association meddled in, its preferred “extreme” candidate, Doug Mastriano, trails the Democratic nominee by only a few points. Yes, he can win, which has some Dems nervous. 

On the flipside, imagine the mainstream media uproar if Republicans funded the campaigns of a Bernie Bro socialist running in a Democratic primary. They’d cry, “Election interference,” and “This is undermining free and fair elections!”

A couple of times in my lifetime–on the presidential level–Democrats received the GOP general election candidate they were rooting for, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Donald Trump in 2016. You know what happened.

Bailey, in deep blue Illinois, faces a tougher hurdle than Mastriano. But much can happen in the next four months, and Joe Biden’s continued mismanagement of the economy, the border–heck, his complete mismanagement of everything–may compel moderate Land of Lincoln voters to send a message to the Democrats. 

Are there enough such Illinoisans to send Pritzker packing? 

Not yet, as a recent poll tells us.

Because of high taxes, Illinoisans suffer from among the highest gasoline prices in the nation. Pritzker, under the guise of a tax cut, is forcing Illinois gas station owners to post signs informing motorists of the “tax cut,” which is really a delay in an inflation adjustment, suspending it until December. Gas station operators who refuse to post the required signage face a $500-a-day fine. Without the fine threat, Illinois grocers are also being forced to post similar signage about a one-year suspension of a one-percent sales tax.

If Pritzker prevails over Bailey, look for his presidential campaign to begin. It will fail. Pritzker is not a likable candidate–and Illinois’ standards are low. His flat speeches are drenched in condescension. Pritzker comes across as a sleazy closer at a Las Vegas timeshare presentation, a meeting that you only agreed to endure after being promised free show tickets and two glasses of wine “Sign here,” he’d say, “you won’t regret it,” as all 350 pounds of him leans into you.

But not even alcohol can make Pritzker more palatable. 

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Merrick Garland is America’s worst attorney general since Harding’s Harry M. Daugherty

Posted: July 10, 2022 by John Ruberry in congress, crime, News/opinion, politics
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Official Merrick Garland portrait

By John Ruberry

America has endured some terrible attorneys general, Eric Holder, who served under Barack Obama and was held in contempt of Congress over the Fast and Furious scandal, John Mitchell, a Richard M. Nixon AG, who became the only the second US cabinet official to spend time in a federal prison, and Harry M. Daugherty, the leader of corrupt “Ohio Gang” during the administration of Warren G. Harding. 

And finally, there is Merrick Garland, once heralded as a moderate after Obama nominated him to succeed Antonin Scalia on the US Supreme Court in 2016. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t hold confirmation hearings on Garland. Donald Trump was elected president later that year, he nominated Neil Gorsuch to the SCOTUS bench, where he is now part of the conservative majority. 

Garland is the worst US attorney general since Daugherty.

Who was Daughterty? He was a minor political figure in Ohio who gained power as a behind-the-scenes kingmaker. A drinker like Harding, hey, like most Americans in the early 20th century, Daugherty got involved in the prohibition movement for political expediency. And he’s the man who worked the famous “smoke-filled room” at Chicago’s Blackstone Hotel to win Harding the Republican nomination for president in 1920. In Harding’s words about his successful election, “We drew a pair of deuces and filled.”

Although Harding’s cabinet had some magnificent choices, Charles Evans Hughes as secretary of State and Andrew Mellon as head of the Treasury Department, the Harding cabinet included Daugherty and Albert Fall, secretary of Interior. Fall accepted bribes as he sold cheap oil leases on federal land in what became known as the Teapot Dome Scandal, which led to a prison term for him, a first for a cabinet member. Daugherty, if he investigated it at all, barely looked into Teapot Dome. 

Daugherty’s assistant at Justice, and his roommate, was Jess Smith, who probably allowed alcohol owned by the federal government to be sold to bootleggers. Smith committed suicide a few months before Harding’s death in 1923.

Besides corruption, the Ohio Gang was known for its alcohol-fueled poker games at its de facto headquarters, “the Little House on K Street,” in Washington. Yes, there was a two-tiered justice system then.

And that’s been the charge against Garland’s Justice Department. No, not the poker games, but a two-tiered justice system. Don’t get me wrong, the January 6 rioters deserve punishment, even though most of them are probably guilty of nothing more than trespassing. 

Jim Banks, who Nancy Pelosi prevented from serving on the House January 6th Committee, summed up Garland’s hypocrisy perfectly. 

From the American Thinker:

Citing the Justice Department’s lenient treatment of left-wing rioters compared to the harsh treatment of Jan. 6, 2021 rioters at the Capitol, including many who “are not accused of entering the Capitol or committing violence,”

Rep. Jim Banks (R.-Ind.), in a two-page letter dated June 14, 2022, accused Attorney General Merrick Garland of leading “a two-tiered system of justice” at the Department of Justice. Congressman Banks asserted: “Violent rioters who are likely to vote Democrats [sic] are often released with a slap on the wrist, or less, while January 6th defendants are prosecuted to the harshest extent possible.”  

Asserting that “the unequal application of justice is an injustice,” Mr. Banks accused the attorney general of politicizing federal law, thereby assaulting “the basic American principle of equal justice under the law.” 

Then there is Hunter Biden, a Chicago-style influence-peddler. Garland is from the Chicago area; he surely knows a lot about mediocre people like Hunter throwing his weight around as he enriches himself and his family.

Just now on Fox Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, US Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told the host, “We have a two-tiered justice system, one that will treat with kid gloves, or cover up for, Democrats and their powerful friends, the elite–and the rest of Americans. And I think we are seeing that big time with Hunter Biden and all of his very suspicious [financial] transactions.”

Ever since the Supreme Court draft on Dobbs v. Jackson was leaked, the case that overruled Roe v. Wade, there have been protests, in violation of federal law, in front of the homes of conservative justices. So far no one has been charged, even though there is voluminous video evidence that had been aired by news outlets and on YouTube that includes clearly recognizable faces. Announcements of protests are posted on social media.

Is Garland quietly cheering on these illegal protests? Don’t forget, it was Garland’s office that asked the FBI to investigate parents protesting school boards over the teaching of Critical Race Theory, citing unnamed threats.

Last month former Trump White House advisor Peter Navarro, who was 72 years old at the time, was put in leg irons by the FBI, after being indicted on contempt of Congress charges. “Who are these people? This is not America,” Navarro said during his first appearance in federal court. “I was a distinguished public servant for four years!”

Navarro, who has not faced prior legal troubles, is hardly a flight risk. 

Earlier this year, former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan, who served in that role for four decades–and the former chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party–was indicted on a slew of corruption charges. 

Who wants to make a bet with me that Boss Madigan, also a septuagenarian, was not put in leg irons after his indictment?

Daughtery was later asked to resign as attorney general by Harding’s successor, Calvin Coolidge. He faced trial twice on unrelated charges. Both trials ended with hung juries. 

Garland will face tough questions next year, as congressional investigations led by Republicans will zoom in on the many debacles created by the Biden White House. Look for Garland to answer in the same fashion as Nixon’s Watergate co-conspirators did during the Watergate Senate hearings. “I don’t know” was a common response, as was “I don’t recall.”

Maybe, just maybe, Garland will answer questions about whether he plays poker at boozy parties in Washington.

John Ruberry regular blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Same Old Song and Dance from the 80’s

Posted: July 8, 2022 by datechguy in culture, News/opinion
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It’s the same old story, same old song and dance, my friend

Aerosmith 1974
Bloom County by Berke Breathed Feb 15th 1987 via GoComics.com

I’m old enough to remember the AIDS Epidemic’s beginning.

When it started out there was a full court press by the left and many elites to make sure this disease was not identified with Gay sex.

This was despite the fact that the primary spread of this disease was through gay and bisexual men.

Now the easiest way to stop this disease was of course for

  1. Gay Men not to have gay sex with strangers and multiple partners
  2. Women to not have sex with bisexual men who had multiple partners.
  3. For people of either sex or any sexual orientation not to sell or purchase sex from people
  4. For people of either sex or any sexual orientation to practice monogamy

But of course for the future customers of Jeffrey Epstein’s in government and entertainment and academia this option white effective would not and could not be advanced as it was too close to the Commandments of God and the teaching of Christianity so instead a wise program of

  • Encouraging Gay men, the primary target of the disease to avoid dangerous sexual contacts
  • Promoting monogamy among adults and abstinence among youth to avoid crossover infections
  • Spending money on research to find a way to control or eradicate said disease

This would have saved lives but would not have served the cultural desires of the Hollywood, Academic and Washington elites so instead we had a program of

  • Attacking anyone who suggested that promiscuous gay sex was the primary spreader of the disease
  • Promoting the idea that this disease was a major threat to the general population when it was not
  • Encouraging the use of condoms as a solution to the problem
  • Spending money on research to find a way to control or eradicate said disease

It’s worth noting that it was during this time that the religious began to drift toward the GOP and started to became unwelcome in Democrat circles who began to embrace the Gay agenda bigtime.

Treatments were eventually discovered which meant that AIDS is no longer an automatic death sentence, It’s still a disease that spreads through sexual contact with someone infected that can screw you and your immune system up very badly for the rest of your life but your odds are surviving are pretty high.

Which brings us to the Monkey Pox scare and this from NBC

“Even as Covid-19 restrictions have loosened, for many gay men, an uninvited guest called monkey pox has threatened to spoil long-anticipated festivities.

“Of the 6,924 confirmed monkey pox cases in the global outbreak, the vast majority have occurred among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, or MSM, various health authorities report. Skin-to-skin contact during sex, experts assert, has likely been the primary driver of the virus’s global spread thus far.”

Via Don Surber who like myself is old enough to remember AIDS but was in the newspaper business at the time while I was just getting out of college, he writes:

Here we go again.

It is AIDS 2.0.

Shut the bathhouses down.

Do NOT shut the economy down.

Do NOT require everyone get a vaccine.

Do NOT frighten children by saying anyone can get it.

Now this is solid advice but if the AIDS epidemic was the start of the Democrat’s move toward the Gay agenda today the party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the LGBTQ+-etc etc etc crowd and the odds of this advice being taken by a party that has gone full groomer (it would have been unimaginable that the Democrat party would have embraced drag queen story time in 1987 or even 2007 for that matter) are slightly less than the Red Sox firing Alex Cora and replacing him with me as their interim manager for a few weeks

However we are also in an era where the gatekeepers of the press can be completely bypassed so the odds of Democrats selling shutting down the economy and pushing this as a big public health issue for all is likely pretty small too.

The wild card? If the idea of discouraging anonymous gay sex was not an option of choice in 1987 for the elites any such suggestion today will likely get you banned from social media, labeled a Nazi, a bigot and any other epithet they can come up with at best or the target of physical violence at worse.

As a general rule those who fail to learn the mistakes of the past are destined to repeat them, we will find out shortly. I don’t have high hopes.

On the plus side if we don’t learn our lesson Berke Breathed will be able to rerun this Sunday Strip on Feb 11th 2023 and take a day off.

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