Fish Fear Me

Why Trump?...Because Middle East Peace

For decades, the so-called experts in the Washington DC foreign policy establishment have given the Palestinian leadership veto power over any peace talks with Israel. And time and again the Palestinians have exercised that power to reject any deal. The reason for that is obvious to any honest person; the Palestinian leadership does not want a peace deal with Israel, they seek its destruction. At last, the Trump administration has chosen to reject the Washington "experts" and sidestep the obstruction from the Palestinians. 

Working directly with the Sunni Arab states and Israel, the Trump administration has brokered important agreements between them that raise the real possibility of a long and lasting peace between historic enemies. Had the inept Obama administration accomplished this it would have been the lead story for months, but they didn't, because they couldn't, because they were fuckups who listened to the "experts." 

I guarantee that a Biden administration will attempt to blow up this progress as soon as it takes office. Partly due to anti-Semitism that is now rampant in the Democratic party and partly because too many "experts" make a really good living off of the continuation of conflict in the Middle East. The last thing they want is for it to be resolved and put them out of a job.  

Peace is possible in the Middle East, but the chance for that is far greater through a continued Trump administration that understands truth and reality on the ground there instead of a Biden administration that will pivot to the tired foreign policies of "experts" who have failed America, Israel, and Arab nations for the last 40 years.

Why Trump? Because...Identity Politics

I plan on voting for Donald Trump on November 3rd. Some of my friends and family are with me on that, others are as dismayed with me as they were 4 years ago. Regardless, for me it's really the only valid option for a number of reasons. Over the next few weeks I'll list those in no particular order, as much for my edification as anything else.

A vote for Joe Biden is a vote to continue advancing identity politics as a major factor, if not the major factor in our political discourse. I think the same applies to most Democrats these days. The increasing use of identity in the Democratic party has been a useful tactic, but it has also been incredibly divisive and it dehumanizes people by reducing them to a one or two dimensional caricature instead of the complicated and unique individuals we all are. That, in turn, makes it easy to demonize or praise people and make them virtuous or villainous, often based on characteristics people have little or no control over. And that makes it much easier to amplify or quiet voices depending on their political utility. To some extent it's effective, but it is also insidious and corrosive. Like all corrupt means, it taints the users and the ends they supposedly want to achieve.

I was only 10 when "All in the Family" debuted with Archie Bunker and his "those people," bigoted diatribes. Blacks, Jews, feminists, it didn't matter when it came to conservative Archie mercilessly pigeonholing people based on his own prejudices. Nearly 50 years later the tables have turned and now it is the left and former liberals who feel comfortable labeling people based on race, religion, or gender(among other things). It was Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, who blurted out "you ain't black" if a black person didn't know if they would vote for him. As though every black person in America has the same experience, the same perspective, the same opinion. It wasn't a gaffe, it was a slip of the mask and a look into what Joe Biden really believes.

Get in the group we have sorted you into, for now. Accept, and if necessary repent for, what we say your group believes. You are not an individual. Obey. 

I think that's what a vote for Joe Biden, or pretty much any Democrat, takes you one step closer to these days. I am much more than any one or two adjectives could describe and I'm sure you are too. We should all refuse to be pigeonholed.

Bender's Folly

Today the Minneapolis City Council, led by Council President Lisa Bender, approved by a 12-0 vote a proposal to amend the city charter to remove the language requiring a police department and replace it with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. What that would look like exactly and how the transition would take place has not been worked out, but the council wants voter approval this year anyway. There will be little opportunity for debate and community input since the deadline for final language is August 21st for November's ballot. This is a classic "Ready, Fire, Aim" setup by the council and even Feckless Mayor Frey realizes how reckless it is. I suspect this serious exercise in dumbfuckery has a good chance of getting on the ballot and being passed this year, but there's also a chance that even a minimal conversation will lead the people of Minneapolis to question the dubious assumptions and outright fantasies at work here.

The details, such as they are, are these...

The Minneapolis Police Department will be replaced by the Minneapolis Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. The mayor will nominate and the council appoint a director of that department who meets the following requirements:

"Individuals eligible to be appointed as director will have non-law enforcement experience in community safety services, including but not limited to public health and/or restorative justice approaches."

I'm pretty sure that title will be changed from "Director" to "New Age Priestess" by the time this is over.

The department would be required to prioritize "a holistic, public health-oriented approach." 

The city council would also then be authorized, but not required, to maintain a Division of Law Enforcement Services within that department. The division would be composed of "licensed peace officers," aka "cops," who would report to a director who would report to the New Age Priestess Director of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. A number of local "community leaders" object to even the possibility of armed police officers in Minneapolis, but trust me, the Kenwood and Lake of the Isles crowd will not allow a total ban on cops.

So what's the problem?

To start, I think the council seriously underestimates the number of flat-out sociopaths that reside in Minneapolis and the extent of the subculture that creates and nourishes them. They also overestimate the ability of the rest of the community to reach and reason with said sociopaths.

I think the council overestimates the number of current police calls that can be redirected to unarmed first responders. They also overestimate the number of unarmed first responders who will be willing to arrive before the PD declares the area code 4. They underestimate the calming effect an armed officer can have with a sociopath who may be ruthless, but still doesn't want to spend the night in the clink.

I think the council overestimates the willingness of licensed peace officers, men and women who have invested 2 or 4 years of post-secondary education and attended a police academy, to be led by someone required to have no law enforcement experience. On top of that, licensed officers will be reserved for only the nastiest and most violent calls by design. The rest will go to the legions of social workers and councilors. Back in the day I knew a couple of thumpers on MPD who liked to fight, but even they cherished the good calls where they could help people and be the good guys. What kind of cops are you going to employ if they are only there to respond to the worst the city has to offer? What kind of person would apply for and enjoy that kind of job?

The real problem with policing in America is the sheer number of assholes who desperately need to be policed. The goddamned sociopaths we keep creating year after year because we don't have the courage to confront the self-destructive subcultures that exist in America. The ones that create these sociopaths. It's not about race or racism, it's about fuckups and assholes. Having to deal with them corrodes not just our police forces, but our society as a whole. Talking about reforming or defunding police is just a scam to avoid dealing with why the many assholes who need to policed exist in the first place.

Period.

Nothing Will Change

This is my post about the death of George Floyd and the looting and burning of my old neighborhood in Minneapolis, where I don't actually say much because nobody gives a shit about the truth anymore and it wouldn't do any good.

I mean, the Minneapolis City Council had the gall to issue this unanimous statement:

"We urge the state to use its full weight to hold the Minneapolis Police Department accountable for any and all abuses of power and harms to our community and stand ready to aid in this process as full partners. The City Council’s oversight of the Minneapolis Police Department has been historically constrained by the City Charter and state law and we welcome new tools to pursue transformational, structural changes to how the City provides for public safety."

That's complete bullshit. The council and mayor, all Democrats for the last 45 years, have had all the power they need to change the Minneapolis PD. They haven't done it for one simple reason:

This is the police department The Powers That Be wants.

The purpose of the MPD is to keep the sociopaths of Minneapolis down and out of the nice neighborhoods where TPTB can enjoy their wealthy lifestyles and virtue posturing. I saw it firsthand when I lived 6 blocks from where George Floyd died, back in the 80s, and I'm still in tune enough today to think nothing has really changed. When I say sociopath, I'm not talking about the vast majority of residents who would not, and did not, participate in the looting and burning that has terribly scarred their neighborhoods. I'm talking about the lowlifes in these neighborhoods that the Minneapolis PD is organized to keep down to a low simmer. 

Whole industries, attorneys and judges, law enforcement, state and county welfare, corrections, and god knows how many NGOs all depend on the existence of those sociopaths and the minting of new ones. They will never solve the problem of the sociopaths of Minneapolis and St. Paul because their jobs depend on them. But they will demand that their police departments do what they must to keep the sociopaths under control. Until an inconvenient video shows up and they are forced to throw the police department under the bus. For the moment.

The link above quotes a couple of Minneapolis council members bloviating about disbanding the Minneapolis PD. It will never happen, because beside the fact that it's just plain stupid, the Democrat PTB of Minneapolis will never allow something like that. It would screw up the finely-tuned and lucrative merry-go-round that exists today and it might let the sociopaths get uncomfortably close to their own neighborhoods.

Nothing will change, because the people of Minneapolis will keep voting for the people who will make certain that nothing will change.

Planet Of The Humans

I spent part of this year's Earth Day watching Planet of the Humans, a documentary on renewable energy brought to us by Executive Producer Michael Moore, Producer Ozzie Zehner, and Director Bill Gibbs. It is available for free at that YouTube link above. If you are a strong believer in renewable energy saving the planet, this documentary might as well be titled Abandon hope all ye who enter here. If you are like me, skeptical that CO2 is much of a problem(if any) and not a knee-jerk hater of fossil fuels, this film is an interesting exposé on some of the bullshit behind "green energy." And if you lean more to the ecofascist side, humans are bad and capitalism must die, make popcorn and enjoy the show. (The usual Michael Moore disclaimer applies: I have not vetted for the facts presented nor for any standard Moore tricks in editing, viewer beware.)

Planet of the Humans is essentially a 100 minute slam on the idea that wind, solar, biomass, or any of the so-called green alternatives can replace any significant amount of fossil fuel use. In fact, it makes the case that even attempting to do so is causing extreme damage to the environment while billionaires and large corporations reap enormous profits and laugh all the way to the bank.

Literally. 

At about the 9:56 mark there's a clip from a 2007 CBS News interview of Richard Branson and Al Gore. Harry Smith asks Branson, "Is Al Gore a prophet?". Branson responds, "How do you spell prophet?"(profit?) and all three have a good laugh over it. Yuk yuk.

After establishing his bona fides as an environmentalist, Gibbs begins his quest to find the truth after being disappointed to find a solar power festival using biodiesel generators and the electrical grid when solar panels don't work in the rain. It's a bit of a "duh" moment, but it sets the tone for the rest of the movie that the symbolism of renewable energy does not match the reality.

Gibbs marches on to the irony of a Chevy Volt being charged by Lansing's coal-fired power grid and a forest mountaintop being leveled, not for coal, but wind turbines. As the film goes forward it makes the argument that the cost of sustainable energy, in resources consumed and environmental damage, is not sustainable. It's a pretty good case. "Green Energy" is mostly "Big Green Energy" that makes a lot of money conning US consumers into lining the pockets of corporations and interest groups while they use less efficient and more costly generation methods. And more environmentally disastrous. 

Shortly after the Branson/Gore/Smith belly laugh, we are treated to another telling clip, one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talking about solar and wind power and declaring, "Once you build our plant it's free energy forever." That's a lie, of course. Nothing lasts forever, including solar panels and wind turbines. Much of the solar and wind infrastructure we have put in place will last at most 25 years, and some less than 20. Then the problem will be how to recycle or dispose of it safely on a massive scale. 

Sprinkled throughout the documentary are brief touches on the too many humans/we need a lower standard of living/end capitalism schtick and it gets pretty heavy-handed at the end. As far as I'm concerned you can pretty much skip the last 10 minutes unless you are a masochist. 

Ecofascist may be too strong a term for Moore and company, but they are definitely Malthusian in their grim demeanor and anti-liberty in their solutions. They are useful in highlighting some of the renewable energy insanity these days, and in that sense, if you have an hour and a half to kill in these quarantine times, it's worth a viewing. Just don't buy the bullshit that they sling. That humanity is doomed. The planet is doomed. Unless we give power to their con artists instead of the renewable energy con artists. They are both con artists.

Have a good weekend.

Word

Crazy how fast the left & Antifa went from “punch Nazis” to “punch gay Vietnamese-American journalists.”

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) June 29, 2019

Let's Get Ready To Rumble

Looks like Portland PD is going to have a busy day:

Dueling demonstrators are set to assemble Saturday in Portland, signaling the city’s first potential clash of the summer between right- and left-wing factions.

Online postings indicate two right-wing demonstrations are scheduled for Saturday.

One involves the Proud Boys, a fraternal organization known for street fighting, and another organized by conservative activist Haley Adams and the “HimToo Movement.” Counterprotesters are planning to gather in opposition.

The counterprotesters include local antifa who claim that Proud Boys are coming to "attack" Portland and therefore it's necessary to don their black garb and masks and take to the streets to defend it from the white nationalists and fascists. The truth of the matter though, is Proud Boys is neither white nationalist nor fascist, and antifa is not anti-fascist, but pro-communist and anti-First Amendment.

Proud Boys is a fraternal organization that was founded in 2016. Contrary to what you have probably heard, it is not alt-right, far-right, or neo-fascist. It is unabashedly pro-Western Civilization and pro-Trump. This makes them the mortal enemy of the hard-left Social Justice Warriors who are the real extremists in this play. Their goal is the destruction of Western Civilization and replacing the individualism that is at its core with a totalitarian collectivism along the lines of the old Soviet Union, only this time they will get it right.(eyeroll)

The one thing Proud Boys and antifa do have in common is they both like to fight. And by fight I mean brawl in the streets. I'm opposed to political violence and think those who seek it are foolish, but there's a natural symmetry at work here. The rise of violent and anti-First Amendment groups on the left such as antifa and By Any Means Necessary were inevitably going to give rise to groups willing to dish out their own violence on the right. Some of those groups are white nationalist and neo-Nazis, but Proud Boys explicitly rejects them. Anyone who claims they don't is shining you on. 50-some years ago Proud Boys would have been labelled Kennedy Democrats.

While I oppose political violence, I support the First Amendment rights of Proud Boys to assemble and speak. In fact, I support everyone's First Amendment rights, even those of racists, Nazis, and Communists, because the proper counter to ugly speech is more speech, not censorship. And certainly not violence.

Plenty of counterprotesters will come armed with more speech, which is fine. Antifa will come ready and willing to brawl. Here's hoping the Portland PD can keep them at bay.

Update: The antifa thugs didn't even wait for Proud Boys to show up. The video below shows them assaulting independent journalist Andy Ngo today. Ngo has honestly and fearlessly reported on antifa thuggery and the dishonesty of the Portland Left. They had threatened violence against him and today they delivered. Don't ever let someone tell antifa are the good guys. They are shitstains.

 

Video footage of a members of a large Antifa mob taking turns beating the shit out of @MrAndyNgo and throwing milkshakes at him. pic.twitter.com/Fhrvis7MEk

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 29, 2019

Decision 2020

Watching two nights of Democratic Party presidential debates greatly helped me determine who I'm going to vote for November 2020:

Donald J. Trump.

Happy Birthday, US Army

Happy 244th Birthday to the US Army. 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our GREAT @USArmy. America loves you! #ArmyBday pic.twitter.com/MyypBVGMoW

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2019

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm...Mohamed Noor Edition

So former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, convicted on two counts last month in the killing of Justine Damond, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison today. But this struck me as odd:

[The judge] sentenced Noor for the murder conviction, leaving the lower count unaddressed. 

Previous stories had noted that Noor faced 11-15 years on the murder conviction and 4 years on the manslaughter. Why would the judge leave the manslaughter conviction unaddressed? Don't judges, if they don't want to pile on additional time, typically sentence a defendant for the conviction but make it concurrent with the other sentence(s)? It seems odd that it would simply be "unaddressed."

I mention this because a number of prominent Twin Cities lawyers have been quoted over the last month saying that Noor has a good chance of getting the murder conviction overturned on appeal. And now the judge has sentenced him only on that charge. The judge has not seemed sympathetic to Noor through this whole process, but today's actions make me go...hmmmmm.

Nine Years

Today marks nine years tobacco-free. And I haven't picked up the vaping habit either. There are still times I miss smoking, but I don't miss being addicted to nicotine or the smell of cigarette smoke on my clothes, in my car, and in my house. I certainly don't miss the expense. Figuring 1.5 packs per day and an average of $6 a pack, that comes to about $30,000 I didn't see go up in smoke. One downside was I ballooned up to 210 pounds at one point, but through a better diet and exercise I've settled into a much healthier 185. I'm glad I've stuck with it.

#NotChinese

So I've pretty much had it with China and its fucked up trade attitude. I'm going to do everything I can to avoid buying products made in China. It's not a matter of cost, it's the principle of not buying stuff from a country that makes it their policy to lie, cheat, and steal every chance they get. And that's China now. They are liars, cheats, and thieves.

So I started this weekend with a minor purchase, some new hand towels for my bathroom. Most of the towels on the shelves of my local Target were made in China, but it only took a minute to find some nice ones that were from Pakistan instead.

And there you go. Not Chinese.

Do your country and ultimately yourself a favor: Go #NotChinese.

I Don't Think I'm The Only One...

...Who tends to root for the creature about to be eaten alive:

Octopus sucks onto blogger's face as she tries to eat it alive https://t.co/sPuotr6gxl via @MailOnline

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 7, 2019

My Congresswoman Is A Moron...A Continuing Series

There is no occupation of Gaza, there hasn't been for 14 years. And if Gazans would act like humans instead of barbarians there wouldn't be any crises at all.

 

How many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends?

The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unsustainable. Only real justice can bring about security and lasting peace.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 5, 2019

"You Can Kill Them Now Or You Can Kill Them Later"

You can hear Margaret Sanger cheering all the way from Hell: