Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

By John Ruberry

While I was a child at the time, I don’t recall much during the politically turbulent 1960s and early 1970s in regard to protests of July 4th, that is, America’s Independence Day. 

But of course, 21st-century leftists will take things too far. And the progressives never seem to be at a loss for anger. The most egregious attack on the 4th, and to be fair, America, comes from Tucson, Arizona and in a since-deleted Tweet, captured by Libs of Tik Tok, the Pima County Democratic Party wrote, “F*ck the Fourth,” along with a graphic that included this message for the Tucson Women’s Network, “Bring comfortable shoes, water, lawn chairs, posters, and your anger.” The other group’s graphic, as you can see, doesn’t use an asterisk in the F-word.

The “F*ck the 4th” protest is in response to last month’s US Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson case, in an expected ruling–courtesy of a leaked draft opinion–which overruled Roe v. Wade and returns the abortion ruling to the states. 

And in those states, besides Arizona, there are pro-abortion protests planned in conjunction with Independence Day. There’s a call to wear black, instead of red, white, and blue on July 4th, which is not a particularly wise idea if you plan to be outdoors a lot on the holiday. The high temperature where I live is expected to be 91 degrees on the 4th. 

Bans Off Our Bodies Florida is now in the middle of a weekend boycott on retail spending to protest Dobbs v. Jackson. Also in Florida, on the Space Coast, there’s a pro-abortion protest there, Gannett’s Florida Today reports. Here’s some irony: To reach the story I had to click through a July 4th subscription special pop-up ad, as I did for another Gannett publication, the MetroWest Daily News, to learn about a Framingham, Massachusetts anti-Dobbs protest. “Fourth of July is cancelled,” one of the organizers says.

I don’t feel compelled to mention each protest, you get the point. But here’s one more. Leave it to my state, goofy Illinois, to take thing a step farther. The owner of a Chicago children’s boutique is organizing, along with the Chicago Abortion Fund, a “Families for Abortion Access” march.

Of course, the right to free speech, which of course includes unpopular speech, doesn’t go away on July 4th, once again the far-left is being offensive and angering the persuadable center by calling for “F*ck the Fourth” and more.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit. He plans to spend part of the 4th at the Morton Grove Days festival, watching fireworks there, wearing red, white, and blue.

My Sicilian Grandfathers were born on the Island in the 1800’s and my memory of them is slight as they died when I was 3 and 4 but some of their wisdom was passed on down to me by my parents and siblings who were old enough to hear it.

One of those bits of advice came from my mother’s dad who was a Barber with a shop about 3-400 yards from where I am now typing this. He said this about confronting an attacker with a weapon:

Never use a weapon that you are afraid of

That is to say don’t use a weapon that you’re afraid of having turned on you.

Somebody needs to give the Democrats who seem to have decided to use trumped up indictments against their foes all over the country to slow down GOP candidates. For the whole this is backfiring but a more important point is this. Such use of government against one political enemies sets a precedent that in a time of polarization will be a dish that the GOP will be happy to serve on the left once they are in power.

And one of the basic truths of American politics is that sooner or later your political foes will always be in power and able to wield the same weapons that you choose to use against them.

I understand the Democrats are getting desperate, all their tactics suggest they don’t trust their ability to get the votes of the people, they smack of desperation.

But I would strongly suggest to them that the rising stars in the GOP have a definite Jacksonian streak and will take positive joy in returning in giving you the same treatment you gave them.

So to the left I give this good advice that you will ignore: Think long and hard before you go all in on using the government at the federal, state or local weapon against us, because you don’t know how it’s going to end.

Between the last day of Pintastic NE 2022, interviews, as much pinball as I could squeeze in before the machines were taken away, the drive home, and Mass last evening and uploading the final videos I didn’t get a post up yesterday nor did I comment on the Dobbs decision.

Now that I’m home with a night’s sleep let’s do a quick five thoughts about the Dobbs Decision.

  1. If there was ever a time to say: “Thank you Mitch we owe you one” it’s now. No Matter How much the GOP base might be angry with Mitch McConnell on other things no GOP legislator is more responsible for this result. None of this is possible without his willingness to:
    • Stop the Garland nomination in its tracks
    • Retaliate against Harry Reid for ending judicial filibusters
    • Push Judges including Trump SCOTUS picks
  2. Of course if we’re going to thank legislators we also have to thank Harry Reid who often claimed to be pro life and ironically turned out to be the single most important man in the Senate to get this going. Without out him nuking the filibuster for judicial appointment at the urging of Obama Mitch McConnell does not nuke it for SCOTUS allowing Trump to get through three justices that the left would have filibustered till the cows come home. Yes it meant that the left was able to seat Ketanji Brown “What’s a woman I’m no biologist” Jackson and perhaps other radicals like her but if that’s the price of killing Roe we’ll take it. Without his action Mitch’s prophecy never comes through, cue the video:
  1. Of course the primary person we have to thank is Donald Trump Not only did he push forward conservative Judges but when Ruth Bader Ginsberg died less that 50 days before the election he was ready to roll with Amy Comey Barrett getting her approved with only a week to spare. Can anyone think of any other GOP president who would have been willing to do so? If you had told me in 2000 that Donald Trump would do this, I would not have believed you, but the Hermit of Loreto would have. I guess Mitch’s Prophecy was not the only one that was fulfilled last Friday:

Capoverdi asked him in English if he was Thomas [Zimmer], and the two had a delightful conversation. When Trump was elected, Dr. Curran called and told him that, back in the 1980s, Tom Zimmer said he had received a “premonition” and that “a certain man would lead America back to God”—and that man would be none other than Donald J. Trump.

“The millionaire playboy from New York?” the incredulous doctor is said to have asked Zimmer.

“Yes,” the Hermit of Loreto responded, adding he was so sure Donald Trump would become a great spiritual leader of America that he wrote his name on a brick and had it placed in the reconstruction of St. Peter’s Holy Door after the Jubilee so Trump would receive blessings from the many Masses that would be said in the Vatican.

Ever wonder why the left’s hatred of Trump boarders on the demonically insane? This is why
  1. One can not stress enough how critical to this day the courage of Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch Barret and Kavanaugh in this ruling. The leak of Alito’s draft opinion was specifically used to try to intimidate them. The left openly threatened their lives (and are still doing so) with one person already facing attempted murder charges while protestors continue to harass them at home in violation of federal law. All the while Democrat leaders were either silent or encouraged such action and the Democrat AG who once was nominated to sit on the court did nothing to enforce the law. If they had caved not only would the rule of law be threatened in this country forever but it had the real possibility of turning our cold civil war into a warm one and generating an actual insurrection rather than the fantasy being advanced by the left in the house.
  2. Finally an odd thing that my family members have seen on facebook as been the incredible rage of people who loudly proclaim that they don’t want to associate themselves with anyone who is happy about this decision or posted anything to celebrate it. I actually find this amusing in the sense that my family members are all Catholics who regularly go to church and regularly receive the sacraments including confession. That there are people who are friends and associates of them who are shocked that such people who openly practice their religion actually believe what the the faith teaches seems a tad odd. In fairness if they only get their news from CNN & the MSM perhaps they figure that Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and all the other public Catholics who consider faith a coat to remove if it becomes uncomfortable or inconvenient to their power the norm.

By John Ruberry

The big political news from last week, unless that is, your only news sources are MSNBC and CNN, was not the prime-time January 6 show trial masquerading as a hearing, but the resounding vote by San Francisco voters to recall radical leftist so-called prosecutor Chesa Boudin. 

Oh, he is a piece of work, this one. Boudin’s parents were Weather Underground terrorists, both of whom served long prison terms for their crimes, including murder. Boudin’s guardians were two other ex-Weather Underground terrorists, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, he attended an elite private high school, and he is a Yale law school graduate. Boudin was served a translator for Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. In 2019, campaigning as if he was a woke social worker, Boudin was elected district attorney for San Francisco. “We will not prosecute cases involving quality-of-life crimes,” Boudin the candidate said. “Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted.” Well, I’ll concede this fact to him. Boudin honored his campaign promises.

And criminals received the message. Shoplifting soared under Boudin, as well as what one Nation writer, Sasha Abramsky, called other “low-end crimes,” including burglary and car break-ins. To me, a low-end crime is littering or jaywalking, but I am not a leftist. For many people, particularly renters and the poor, an automobile is their most valuable asset. Low-end? Really? Abramsky, you are quite out of touch, but of course you are, you write for the Nation.

The murder rate went up under Boudin. His misrule was a validation of the Rudy Giuliani’s “broken windows” policy of policing. Notice that I didn’t call it the “broken windows” theory of law enforcement.

I’ve only visited San Francisco once, in 2010, which residents of the City on the Bay probably look back on as “the good old days.” I was appalled by the level of homelessness there, and by all accounts, there are now many more indigents sprawled out on San Franciso sidewalks. Tellingly, during my time there I noticed the strong smell of urine even in the best neighborhoods. Boudin couldn’t smell the pee?

I’ve heard there are Republicans in San Francisco, albeit very few. The two Republican opponents of Nancy Pelosi–her entire district is within the city–collected 11-percent of the vote in 2020. But 60 percent of voters in San Francisco voted to purge Boudin last week. Earlier this month, another Nation writer, Christopher D. Cook, warned of a “centrist uprising” against progressivism in San Francisco. And all of this time, particularly from the left, I’ve been told we need more moderation in our politics, which of course to them means conservatives veering over to their side. In fact, as Democrat policies, from Biden down to Boudin, prove toxic, it’s liberals who are heading to the center, which is best exemplified by Bill Maher’s regular attacks on the far-left. 

Over at the Washington Post, Perry Bacon Jr. warns of centrist Democrats attacking far-left policies on crime. Writing for the New York Times, Shane Goldmacher commented, “Centrists and former law enforcement leaders hailed the successful San Francisco recall as a crushing blow to progressives.”

Oh, those evil centrists, they are taking America down a treacherous moderate path.

Boudin, true to form for any leftist, blamed “right-wing billionaires” for his defeat. Oh, what’s this? Radical leftist billionaire George Soros contributed to an anti-recall political action committee.

The Democrats of course don’t possess the right side of the political spectrum. And they are losing the center. Or perhaps it’s already lost to them. Which leaves the Democratic Party with the extreme left, or to channel Biden’s insult on conservatives which ricocheted against him, the Ultra Left.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.