Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

I don’t think you can do better in illustrating how little state and federal lawmakers and judges understood the cost allowing the steal of election 2020 than this tweet and exchange with Lindsey Graham.

perhaps not allowing the election to be stolen might have been a good first step

— Peter Ingemi (@DaTechGuyblog) January 9, 2021

Every state and federal lawmaker who passed the buck can take a bow as the left/deepstate do their best to destroy the freedoms we’ve taken for granted for our lifetime. And believe me they haven’t gotten started yet.

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One of the oddities at the conclusion of our first Civil War was that the south ad its people was ready to make Jefferson Davis, the scapegoat for all that happened to him. The treatment of him after his capture how so over the top that not only did it produce objections from people in the North who were all in when it came to the war but didn’t hold with barbarity but it instantly rehabilitated and the southern states and it’s people.

It strikes me that the instant censorship and the move to try to impeach President Trump with less that ten days to go has accomplished the same thing, spoiling their perfect frame.

Trump is going to emerge from this more powerful than ever and moreover it will be a power that will simmer underground in places they can’t see.

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As I look at the left/tech/media going wild with censorship and just plain falsehoods and so many going along with it I’m reminded of a line from the movie High Noon when Marshall Kane goes to his old broken down mentor for help and advice because everyone is deserting him

Martin: It figures. It’s all happened too fast. People have to talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep don’t care, they just don’t care.

This seems to be the way people are taking the sudden and instant loss of freedom. They’ve never lived without it and they never learned it was worth fighting for so they don’t know what it means to lose it.

In ten days everyone going to get an education.

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With all that’s happening this story isn’t getting the play it should:

The yield on 10-year Treasury debt rose to 1.1% by Friday from 0.91% to end Monday. With the Democrats winning control of the Senate, the likelihood has increased that Congress will approve spending at least a few hundred billion more dollars to prop up the economy. That means better growth and slightly higher inflation could emerge. Bond yields reflect those expectations.

The idea that Democrat policies are going to produce growth is laughable but the fact that interest rates are going up means trouble. The only reason the spending that’s been going on since Clinton’s days hasn’t destroyed us has been that interest rates have been basically zero meaning that we pretty much were dealing with trillions of dollars of 0% loads. Once rising interest rates are combined with free money it become weimar pretty fast

I’m not surprised that the general public doesn’t understand this but you’d think Barron’s would.

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One more economic thought on this subject. One of the things about the Trump Boom was tax revenues were pouring in so well that it allowed states like NY & MA and even Ca to cover the costs and consequences of their policies.

The Biden bust is coming and that will no longer be the case. The reckoning will not be pretty.

Twitter suspended the account of the U.S. President on Friday, citing a supposed “risk of further incitement of violence,” though it failed to actually identify any such prior incitement. No surprise there – Trump’s failures on Wednesday were legion, but they in no way amounted to “incitement,” which makes citing any incitement exceedingly difficult.

Not that Twitter’s actually concerned about the violence – they only object to what inspired the violence: Congress’s approval of the election of Joe Biden. When the Left was trying to burn down police stations and federal courthouses, Twitter genuflected to Black Lives Matter. And Twitter’s only too happy to oblige the communist thugs torturing the Uighurs of western China. But, then, that is their violence.  Leftist violence.

But even taking Twitter at its word, its decision doesn’t hold up. University of Wisconsin law professor and blogger Ann Althouse lists what she calls the seven “most violent statements.” None of them can be construed as encouraging violence or criminal acts, which is what the law actually requires. As UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh puts it, citing the 1969 Supreme Court case Brandenburg v. Ohio, which set the legal standard, “even ‘advocacy of the use of force or of law violation’ can’t be punished unless it ‘is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.’ Saying things that foreseeably move some audience members to act illegally isn’t enough.”

So the millennial hall monitors that run Twitter suspended the account of the U.S. President on Friday and then lied about why. They also suspended Gen. Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell, who committed the sin of sharing conspiracy theories involving QAnon.

Oh, and then Google Play kicked Twitter alternative Parler off its platform.

And Apple is threatening to do the same.

And YouTube suspended Steve Bannon’s account.

And Simon and Schuster cancelled its publication of Senator Josh Hawley’s book.

Meanwhile, it takes an uproar to get Twitter to decide a tweet by communist China’s U.S. embassy promoting genocide violated its terms. It’s good to be Red in Twitterville.

As the Left loves to point out whenever conservatives point out the disparate way Twitter treats them compared to, say, genocidal monsters, Twitter and the other tech giants are privately owned companies, and so not subject to constitutional limits on free speech. Funny they don’t seem to recognize such rights when it comes to mandating private companies, say, pay for employee abortions – but when it comes to shutting conservatives up, the Left is only too happy to oblige. Their devotion to open discourse is, uh, falling into question.

But here the Left plays with fire, as it tends to do. After all, Twitter uses the internet, which was, as everyone knows, created by the U.S. government. Lawyers are crafty types; shouldn’t take long for an enterprising advocate to come up with some theory, arguing that the internet is a public utility, and discriminating against some is discriminating against all, or some line of bull of similar aroma.

Even Alexander Graham Bell didn’t go kicking racists like Woodrow Wilson off his telephone lines.

Though now that I think of it, that might not have been such a bad idea…

Sam: …Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

The Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers 2002

McCoy: Spock, I’ve found that evil usually triumphs unless good is very, very careful.

Star Trek, the Omega Glory 1968

While I believe challenging the electoral college results was necessary and getting these folks on record was important I had no illusions that a sudden conversion of honor or courage would break out among our representative any more than it had among our judges or state representatives. As a Christian I believe all things are possible with God and it was certainly impossible if nothing was done so I figured go for it. It’s the same reason why I occasionally buy a lottery ticket. I would have accept a Little Christmas miracle if it happened but I wasn’t banking on it.

What really surprised me however over the last 48 hours was the number of people actually who expected the congress to show enough courage to stop the steal of the election when the various state legislatures, the various state and federal courts and the supreme court all punted. They didn’t think it was a million to one shot, they thought it might actually happen.

I’ve been thinking about why this might be the case and it hit me that the blame here isn’t so much with the various sites that have pushed the case or those who have used it as a fundraising ploy, but it’s instead because of a basic fact that has to some degree been hidden thanks to popular culture for quite a while.

You see in the Novels, Movies and TV we have seen all our lifetime people showing courage, striving for right and defying all odds to deliver for right and justice. Indiana Jones always picks the right grail. Wonder Woman always shows up to keep Batman from being fried. The Incredibles always stop the robot. NCIS gets their man or their terrorist. Rick manages to avoid arrest for shooting Major Strasser, Sgt. Rutledge saves his company and the true criminal is exposed in his trial, Peter Blood avoids execution and escapes to the Spanish Main.

In all these heroic tales the hero wins despite every bit of odds against him. but there’s a reason for that and it’s not as Mythbusters suggest due to technological oddities.

Why Imperial Stormtroopers Miss So Much. “Adam Savage of MythBusters fame decided to try and figure out just how fast the… whatever it is coming out of the blasters actually moves. Using the height Harrison Ford and the width of a door as visual references, Savage performs some arithmetic to come up with a shockingly slow speed: 130 miles per hour over 40 feet. For comparison, your average bullet comes out of the barrel moving at around 1,700 miles per hour. Stormtroopers may be better served by ditching the blasters for a good semi-auto.”

While this is fun the real reason why the storm troopers miss is because if they hit then the movie ends at the start. People want to pay money to see heroes in action. Nobody wants to pay money to see the bad guys win. The good guy wins because it’s written that way.

That’s one important consideration but there is another cultural phenomenon that is almost as old as recorded history, that we celebrate Heroes. There have been heroic epics as long as there have been heroes and those epic are so deep and so ingrained in our cultural standing that some of them have endured with us almost from the start of recorded time.

Why, it’s actually simple, because actual heroism is rare.

It takes a lot for people to risk the one life they have, or to risk the comfort they have and to lay it all on the line for a principle. We rightly revere our founding fathers not just because they came up with one of the most incredible forms of government ever in existence, but because they put everything on the line to do so and amazingly won.

This is in fact also why for 100 years after the Confederate leaders and Heroes where celebrated as American Heroes. They put everything on the line for their cause, a bad one and frankly a disgraceful one (if you don’t believe me read Confederate VP Alexander Stephens Crossroads Speech where he attacks the founding fathers for being in error by opposing slavery) but one they thought good.

When they lost they lost everything but still insisted that it had been a cause worth losing everything for. Even those who fought against them recognized this courage and respected it which is why they allowed those who shot at them and tried to kill them to be honored without objection because courage is a virtue so great that it is admired in any who hold it. In fact as late as the 1980’s a leftist like Ken Burns could make a documentary about the civil war without demonizing these folks without critique.

Of course

I doubt he would make that film today.

The truth is indifference and / or cowardice is the norm as is repression and censorship and slavery. The freedoms granted by our constitution and the freedom and prosperity that the United States has enjoyed since its founding are the exception rather than the rule in the history of man.

In fact they’re so expectational that for hundreds of years people have flocked here to make their lives. It’s, in my opinion, the greatest max movement of population in human history that was not driven by a war or famine or a natural disaster. It was driven by the chance for people to have to reach their maximum potential for themselves and their children and to do it without fear.

That very act is an act of courage, but the biggest enemy of courage is not cowardice, but comfort. It is very hard for a comfortable person to jump into the fight when by doing nothing they can live like a king. In fact Donald Trump showed that kind of courage by being serious about running for president. As long as he was considered a joke spoiler the elites were willing to laugh but once he became an actual threat to their power, then they endeavored to destroy him.

This is understood by those who are threatened by courage, in fact that’s why the press hailed Mitt Romney’s speech in the senate as if it was an act of courage when in fact it is the easiest thing in the word for a person to go along with the powers that be and support them, So when courage has to be suppressed it’s necessary to have something masquerade in its place.

People dream of being heroes, kids play at being heroes nobody dreams of being a coward.

Alas the lack of real courage that was shown at all stages of this farce comes with a price. All Americas will be paying it for a very long time.

Lets run down some things that are pretty basic to me.

1. Given the degree of fairness and accuracy of the media’s reporting I am not making any judgement on what actually happened in Washington until I get it from sources I trust.
2. For almost a decade I’ve been warning our friends on the left that eventually Americans will reach their breaking point. Stealing this election has helped us reach it. I suspect it will get much worse before it gets better.
3. There are a lot of people pounding their chests (yesterday the Mayor of Boston was one of them) about violence who either had nothing bad to say about the riots of the past two years or insisted they didn’t exist. Such people are to be ignored.
4. You can count the number of people shot and killed by Capital Police during the Kavanaugh protests when you had people banging on the doors of the SCOTUS after getting access on fingers and toes of the black knight that remained after his famous battle with King Arthur.
5. As a general rule I give police (or anyone else for that matter) the benefit of the doubt when facing a mob. A mob doesn’t have to be armed to be dangerous & if the officer who fired had either a legitimate fear for his life or for the lives of those he was protecting then this would be a case of justifiable homicide.
6. One of the best ways to avoid being shot by police FYI is to obey the law and furthermore obey lawful commands given by police during the execution of their duties. Failing to do either is a bad idea no matter what your political, social or religious opinions are.
7. An investigation of the situation that led to an officer firing the shot that killed Ashli Babbitt will no doubt take place. If it is determined that he had proper cause to fire that should be the end of it. If it is determined that he fired without proper cause then the appropriate actions from disciplinary sanctions to prosecution should take place and we should accept the judgement given whatever it is.
8. I predict that there will not be media eulogizing Ashli Babbitt. There will be no activists on ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC & CNN insisting we say her name, nor will there be streets named after her nor marches and candlelight vigils on her behalf. Hey it’s not as if she was robbing a Korean convenience store, or overdosing on drugs, threatening a woman who has a restraining order or her or even shooting at cops. Honors are reserved for such people.
9. There will be no calls from the left for the defunding of the Capital Police.
10. The attempt to blame the President for all this is despicable and dishonorable. Anyone who drops support of President Trump over what happened yesterday is either a fool and/or a coward.
11. The reason why, in my opinion, you are seeing such a backlash concerning what is happening now vs the shooting of Steve Scalise or the beating of Rand Paul is the realization by members of the media/left/tech/deepstate that they are now potential targets of violence, particularly now that there has been bloodshed and their support of such acts when done by their allies might come with a personal physical risk and cost. Perhaps that should have been considered before supporting such violence in the past.
12. Riots are bad, violence is bad. If you want to convince people that riots and violence are bad you likely shouldn’t spend two years excusing and or supporting such stuff.
13. Storming the Capital was a bad idea but as I’ve said before a worse idea is spending a decade provoking people who have been arming themselves to the teeth and then demonstrating via stealing an election that attempting to use the ballot to effect change is futile.
14. President Trump made it a point to leave the various governors and mayor to handle things in their own cities (expect when federal property was involved) I suspect Joe Biden’s administration to come down with an iron hand on supporters of the President.
15. I expect said Iron hand will not be restricted to those who are contemplating violence. I expect the practice of using Federal agencies to harass political opponents that took place during the Obama years will be back in full force.
16. If you ask if there should be federal indictments of those who violated the law in DC this week my answer is: “Yes, certainly and they should be handed down as soon as the indictments of all those who broke federal law this summer in Seattle, Portland, DC, NY, and all over the nation where riots and looting took place and as soon as all those who got into federal building during the Kavanaugh hearings are handled. As soon as all those indictments are taken care of, then those who entered the Capital yesterday should face indictment and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.”
17. We are in just a couple of weeks going to see the irony of police being proactively used by those who hate them against those who support them.
18. Absolutely none of this takes place if Donald Trump had been treated from day one as a normal president.
19. As I see what is happening I keep thinking of Sherman’s lines to John Bell Hood during an exchange of letters in the Atlanta campaign: “You who, in the midst of peace and prosperity, have plunged a nation into war – dark and cruel war – who dared and badgered us into battle” I think this is an accurate description as to what the left has done and what is coming.
20. I know I said this yesterday but it’s worth repeating today: “Nothing a Biden administration does is worth the cost of my soul or yours and to act in contrary to the best results of your soul is exactly what the enemy hopes to achieve by enabling them. Oh and for the record, the enemy I’m referring to are not the democrats, they’re just, wittingly or unwittingly, working for him.”
21. Finally a piece of advice, if you are allowing your day to be ruined by what corrupt pols do in Washington DC then you need a different life.