Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

Hispanic votes, NK Defectors, NK Media, NK Crushing of Dissent and Russian Cosplayers with Credit Cards.

Posted: June 15, 2021 by datechguy in politics
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Now that we’ve seen reports of heavily “Hispanic” towns and cities in Texas voting GOP I’m wondering if the left is re-evaluating their border policies? It’s been joked for years that if they thought illegal immigrants would vote against them the left would have built the wall decades ago.

None of this should be a surprise, after all these folks didn’t leave one shithole to come to another

I really was taken by the report of the North Korean defector being amazed at the amount of censorship of thought going on around here lately. It was an important reminder that being American doesn’t confer immunity from tyranny stupidity, ignorance and most importantly cowardice without which none of these woke warriors would be able to function.

The degree of cowardice is simply astounding.

Our media has been very North Korean like lately or should I say it’s been that way for a while but only recently have they been publicly exposed in terms of lie after lie. So many that Donald Trump even took a victory lap in terms of how many false stories they pushed where he was right and they were wrong.

Spreading disinformation is dishonorable on their part. Knowing that it’s going on and doing nothing about it is dishonorable on our part.

The media and even the Biden Administration doesn’t care what we actually know as long as we play along and let them do it.

Of course the most North Korean thing going on has been the treatment of the Jan 6th protestors by this government in terms of charges, holding of people incommunicado etc. That this is going on while the people who literally burned cities were and still are given a pass is a national disgrace. That so many in law enforcement in the Capital and in the FBI are going along with this are a bigger disgrace.

I find myself turning to this speech from the 1935 Movie Captain Blood when he is asked at trial to plead Guilty or not Guilty to joining the Momouth’s rebellion:

Prosecutor: Peter Blood… guilty or not guilty?

Dr. Peter Blood: It’s entirely innocent, I am!

Clerk of the court: Take the stand and face his Lordship. [Peter Blood does so] Are you guilty or not guilty? You must use the right words.

Dr. Peter Blood: Words is it? Oh. Not guilty. And speaking of words, I’d like to say a few about the injustice of keeping an innocent man locked up for three months in such filth and heat and ill-feeding… that my chief regret is I didn’t try to pull down the filthy fellow that sits on the throne!

Who knew so many had ambitions to tyranny?

Finally I’ve noticed that on Rule Five Sundays at the other McCain Wombat (who is in charge of said post) has shifted from highlighting established stars to international cosplay girls in the lead of said post (many of them Russian).

Now while I acknowledge the cultural changes of the readership, concede that beauty is not confined by boarders and even smile at the idea of these young ladies making a living as models bypassing official agencies that might exploit them I really question the wisdom of those who might go to their sites and subscribe.

After all, in an age of ransomware attacks do you really want your credit card, bank or even paypal information in the hands of a Russian site just to look at some girl playing dress up?

Remember your information’s security is only as good as the least trustworthy or careful person holding it.

Two lawsuits filed over Democrats’ gerrymandered legislative districts in Illinois

Posted: June 13, 2021 by John Ruberry in elections, News/opinion, politics
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Minding the Illinois political maze for decades.

By John Ruberry

Since posting my Illinois gerrymandering entry here last week there is an update.

First some background: Despite multiple promises to veto a partisan remap of Illinois state legislative districts, Democratic governor JB Pritzker signed into law new hyper-partisan new state House and Senate districts, claiming that these new maps preserve diversity.

Not so fast, JB.

Late Thursday the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, on behalf of five Hispanic voters, filed suit in federal court claiming that the new maps are “malapportioned.” AP sums up the controversey beautifully. “But the challenge from MALDEF,” the wire service says, “expands the source of objections to the very groups whose voting rights Democrats say they are protecting.”

Earlier last week the Illinois Republican Party also filed a federal lawsuit that claims that the new maps violate the 14th Amendment to the US Contsitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

Indeed it may. Illinois’ constitution states that new General Assembly district maps must be drawn by legislators by the end of June after each decennial census. If not, the process moves to an eight-person committee evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. If that panel can’t come to a decision then two names are placed in a hat, one Republican and one Democrat. Lovers of political theater will be thrilled to learn that the four times the remapping committee was formed, three times times no decision was reached and the tiebreaker clause was invoked. In 2000 a stovepipe hat said to have been worn by Abraham Lincoln was used for the tiebreaking ceremony.

The complete Census figures won’t be available until August. But it’s clear that the Democrats didn’t want the redistricting process to be left by chance, or worse, given to Republicans. So the Dems, rather than work with hard numbers, instead used population estimates from the American Community Survey.

This weekend on Fox Chicago’s Flannery Fired Up, host Mike Flannery ventured into what-aboutism expressed by the left regarding gerrymandering in Republican states. During an interview with state Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield).  Flannery phrased their argument this way, “That the Democrats here stopped short of annihilating as many Republicans as they could in the General Assembly–do you buy that?” Butler responded that he does not and he explained to Flannery, “We have 14 members–Republican members of the House–that were drawn in districts together and we have zero Democrats that were drawn into districts together.” That’s an observation the Wall Street Journal made earlier this month. Because of Democratic gerrymandering after the 2010 census, there are currenly only 45 Republicans among the 118 members in the Illinois House. 

While of course there are no state or federal legal protections to protect GOP state legislators, as I mentioned earlier in this post and last week, Pritzker promised he would veto a partisan remap.

There is a better way. Twice in the 2010s enough signatures were collected to put an amendment to the Illinois Constitution on the general election ballot that would take redistricting out of the hands of legislators and placing a non-partisan committee in control. Twice a lawyer closely tied to Boss Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), the longtime Illinois House speaker who was forced out of power early this year, sued to block having Illinois voters decide the issue. In a party-line vote, the Illinois Supreme Court sided with the Democrats both times.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Counting to 50 Why the MSM Joe Manchin Noise Means Nothing

Posted: June 8, 2021 by datechguy in News/opinion, politics
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I have always known how to count

Tip O’Neill

I don’t often agree with Joe Scarborough these days but there is something he said a bit back that really stuck in my head.

He was commenting on people on the right who wanted to purge Susan Collins from the GOP and noted that if you want a majority and all the advantages that a majority entails you need to keep a Susan Collins on board even if she votes against you now and again. It’s something Stacy McCain has written about repeatedly even as far back as 2008 concerning Pam Geller:

 Pam is a good person and I would suggest that this guilt-by-association “urge to purge” is antithetical to the best interests of conservatism. You can’t build a movement by the process of subtraction.

And as recently as 2019 concerning Pat Buchannan:

the targeting of Buchanan is an example of the “urge to purge” that has so often damaged the conservative cause. Buchanan’s decades of loyal service to the Republican Party — he was a key adviser to both Nixon and Reagan — ought to have entitled him to a certain amount of deference, even from such an eminent figure as Buckley, and as I’ve often said, you cannot build a successful movement by a process of subtraction.

If you do a search of Joe Manchin online today you can find all kind of items about pressure being put on Joe Manchin.

Let’s cut to the chase, there is a lot of talk about pressure on Joe Manchin but there is actually NO pressure on Joe Manchin because Both Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden can count to 50.

Right now Manchin is most powerful pols in the country and he knows it. Unlike Kyrsten Sinema he could change his party affiliation tomorrow and if every Democrat in his state retaliated by voting against him next time he would still hold his senate seat for life. He knows it, and while they won’t admit it, both the media and the Democrats know it.

As long as Manchin is the 50th vote he is the boss and no amount of press angst will make a difference.

Whenever a liberal complains to you about gerrymandering, your reply needs to be, “What about Illinois?”

Posted: June 6, 2021 by John Ruberry in elections, elections, News/opinion, politics
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By John Ruberry

A month ago I wrote about Illinois General Assembly Democrats, behind closed doors, redrawing legislative maps. The Dems, thanks to their gerrymandering after the 2010 Census, already enjoy supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.

There was hope, a quite naive one to be sure, that because Illinois’ Democratic governor, J.B. Pritzker, firmly promised, many times, that he would veto any partisan remap proposal, that fair maps could eventually emerge.

Shortly before Election Day in 2018, again as I noted last month, Pritzker had this to say to an NRP reporter, “I will not sign a bill that is gerrymandered, I have been for independent maps for a long time now.”

Well Pritzker isn’t for independent maps anymore even though, as the Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required) reported just two weeks ago, the Chicago billionaire promised to veto “an unfair map.”

Pritzker lied. On Friday he signed into law a hyperpartisan gerrymandered map. And going a step further, for the first time in five decades Illinois’ Supreme Court districts were redrawn. Do I have to tell you which party the new court districts will favor?

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

Illinois Democrats hold a statehouse supermajority, every statewide office and a state Supreme Court majority. That sounds like a monopoly on power. But with voters starting to revolt against the state’s fiscal woes and political corruption, Democrats are now working to further entrench their power.

Late last week Democrats jammed through new state legislative maps that combine 14 Republicans in the Illinois House into seven districts. That means seven GOP incumbents are guaranteed to lose in party primaries. Republicans will also lose their incumbent advantage in seven districts. No Democrats were combined in the same House districts.

Illinois’s maps were already heavily gerrymandered to favor Democrats, who control 73 of the 118 seats in the House and 41 of 59 in the Senate. But Democrats are worried a GOP wave in the 2022 midterm elections could defeat Gov. J.B. Pritzker. They want to shore up their supermajority to ensure they can override a new Republican Governor.

Apologists for the Democrats explain that according to the state constitution the General Assembly needs to have new legislative districts approved by June 30. What they leave out is that if no map is passed, again according to the state constitution, an eight-person bipartisan committee is appointed to redraw maps. Republicans would likely end up in a stronger position in such a scenario because don’t believe it’s possible to create an even more unfair map.

What’s worse about these new legislative districts is because of the COVID-19 epidemic, not all of the US Census numbers have been released. Illinois Democrats based their new state House and Senate districts on projections from American Community Survey, not hard numbers. 

When confronted about gerrymandering by Fox Chicago’s Mike Flannery on this weekend’s Flannery Fired Up, Boss Michael Madigan’s slippery successor as state House Speaker, Chris Welch, explained to the host that Oklahoma, a red state, also based their remapping on ACS data. 

True–only that Welch neglected to mention that Oklahoma is committed to redraw its maps once the final Census numbers are in.

Illinois, because of population loss, will have one less congressional seat after the 2022 midterm elections. Federal guidelines on congressional districts are quite strict–so the new congressional maps have not been released as the Illinois Democrats await those hard numbers to crunch and torture. But speculation is that these maps will also punish the GOP. 

One-party Democratic rule has destroyed Illinois. I’ve noted these facts many times at Da Tech Guy. Illinois’ public-worker pension plans are among the worst-funded in the nation. The average percentage in state budgets dedicated to pensions is four percent. In Illinois, because its promises to these liberal public-sector unions were not properly funded, it is 25 percent. The state’s repupation for corruption is well known–in my lifetime four governors, three Democrats and one Republican, have served time in federal prison. Federal authorites have been investigating the inner circle of Boss Madigan for several years. And for the first time in history Illinois lost population between Censuses. 

Every state will be redrawing their maps. Former president Barack Obama and his first attorney general, Eric Holder founded a group, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, that opposes Republican gerrymandering. Look for the two of them to holler and scream when they declare new red state remaps to be unfair. Of course Obama and Holder will be mum on gerrymandering in blue states, such as what occurs every ten years in Obama’s home state. 

What do you do if a liberal moans to you about those red state district maps that they say are gerrymandered? I have a three word reply for you. 

“What about Illinois?”

John Ruberry regularly blogs from Illinois at Marathon Pundit.

Update: (DTG) Welcome Liberty Daily readers. Take a peek around. See Jake Tapper’s Dilemma, read about Russia and the Arctic and find out what happens when people discover what everyone already knows.

Oh and don’t forget this month’s Indulgence Calendar or the latest podcast.

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