I am of an age that I remember, like it was yesterday, the joyful release we felt under President Reagan after the dreadful malaise and needless sacrifices to incompetence under Carter. You had to be in lower Manhattan during the Statue of Liberty Centennial to see America at its joyful best. Truly magical. No other way to describe …
I am of an age that I remember, like it was yesterday, the joyful release we felt under President Reagan after the dreadful malaise and needless sacrifices to incompetence under Carter. You had to be in lower Manhattan during the Statue of Liberty Centennial to see America at its joyful best. Truly magical. No other way to describe it. Celebrating who we are with each other.
So maybe the real truth is “Being a woke Democrat: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Vote wisely this time. Being under the thumb of a vile, vindictive, senile imbecile is no way for a free people to live.
Just as long as we don't ever go back to the 'vile, vindictive' individual who sat in the President's chair (and wanted to make it last for as long as possible..) before our current 'senile' occupant. Please.
On the Dem side I think they're doomed..I'm thinking that both Biden and Harris won't be on the ticket in '24. Unless suburban moms vote en masse this November because of the SCOTUS decision on abortion. All bets are off on that one.
If the GOP were smart ( a long shot) they would stay far away from the toxicity of Trump (I know, I know, lots here love him..) and go for someone who doesn't scare half the electorate. DeSantis, perhaps. I like Larry Hogan, if he's got the stomach for it.
The only one that scares me is Big Mike. As dumb as a box of rocks and as angry as a nest of bees, but checks all the boxes. Black, putatively female, loud mouth, hates her country - until recently, that is; now for the first time, she's "proud." Perfect. Trump might handle her as one would a child, but to some degree it would hurt him to be seen as as "picking on a girl" - er, so to speak.
De Santis is about a hundred yards behind Trump insofar as What We Need, but if you aren't elected, none of it matters. He can beat Big Mike and anyone else. God, what am I saying?!
I wish vile and vindictive and his group were running the country right now. I am a surgeon we don’t need to be best friends for your knee to turn out perfect. If more people could get that through their head we wouldn’t be in this disgusting mess
Had this discussion with the A&P (airframe and powerplant) mechanic at my airport. An NY transplant to rural southern Virginia, about the only one who will use him or give him the time of day is me. We avoid politics, but in working together the topic comes up. His comment was that he just couldn't vote for someone as _____________________ (fill in the blank) as The Orange Man. My response was, "How can you allow your hatred of one man be so intense that it makes you vote against three hundred fifty million of your countrymen?"
Sure enough. But it would have helped had Trump understood that a peaceful transfer of power is better for the country than his rather self aggrandizing efforts to hold on to the Presidency at considerable cost. You take your lumps and fight another day. Unfortunately, Donald doesn't think that way.
Yip I agree with you HG at the moment our country is not well and in serious need of a surgeon who knows what he is doing and yes we didn’t have to love our previous surgeon we only needed to respect him and get behind him to move us forward the current surgeon has absolute no idea what is going on and continues to botch every operation he gets his grubby mitts on I really fear for all of us going to the midterms
Boy have you struck a nerve! I remember Carter's "malaise" speech so very well. America was in decline and we'd best get used to it and prepare. A depressing, almost hopeless era.
When Reagan took office - upbeat, hopeful, optimistic and forward-looking - for the longest time I thought he was blowing sunshine you-know-where. Then I realized that he really believed what he said about America, and best of all, he was RIGHT!!
I heard yesterday that Titular President Asterisk had opined that fuel prices would stay high "as long as necessary." Uh-huh - so we will be forced to buy electric cars that nobody can afford, nobody wants, and everyone understands cannot provide heat or cold to protect you in any meaningful way in an emergency.
Fortunately we have other failed nations as examples of how communist dictators take over, and with the help of supercilious old gasbags like Asterisk, Mad Maxine, Cryin' Chuck, and ignorant, arrogant striplings like The Barista, our gub'ment is attempting to follow the Marxist playbook to the letter.
We can stop this. The string-pullers are not stupid, and they know full well that while they are in trouble now, if they can cheat again in November, it's over. They win. Permanently. Do not in any way believe that they don't have a plan to do precisely that, and I wish I could say that stopping them is a matter of life and death, but in point of fact it is far more important than that because when you're dead, the suffering stops; if they win, it's just beginning.
You are so right. I loved Reagan. He made me a Republican. It's amazing how fast things can turn around, as we have lately watched in horrified fascination as this incompetent mannequin has taken us from a vibrant country to a demoralized country with no borders, runaway inflation, and an energy shortage.
Get Trump or DeSantis back in office and this can be turned around rapidly.
I have thought about the upcoming election quite a bit, and the cheat revolves around three things: voting computers, drop boxes, and eliminating Republican observers from the count itself.
We need to try as hard as possible to get rid of the machines; once a vote goes in, you have no idea what happens. And not only are they a tremendous source of cheating, they are unnecessary.
On the last two, I think it will just take aggressiveness. Locate any drop boxes, and park several observers there. All night. With cameras. Approach anyone dropping ballots after hours and ask their names and video them - especially their faces. And bring a firearm and at least one buddy. Supreme court now says you can.
Ditto the count. Refuse to be herded out of the proceeding. If they "stop the count" tell them you will be staying behind. Bring others with you. Set up a phone relay so as to bring dozens of others if there is a confrontation. Don't start anything but don't let them bully you.
You wrote "We can stop this. The string-pullers are not stupid, and they know full well that while they are in trouble now, if they can cheat again in November, it's over. "
Yes, Jim, "it's over" but not in the way you fear. It will be over for them. It would be an honor to get the chance to die for my country. And, lest that meaning be unclear, if the Dems try to steal this election, the time for words will be over. I doubt I'm alone in this sentiment.
Your comment is a very serious one, which resonates greatly with me. I will search endlessly for ways to overcome the current tyranny. I agree, if the "huge red wave" is overturned by the trillion dollars and fifty cheat techniques they have developed, something will break in this country. I always wonder if the warriors of this country will let the US disappear. I wonder what I will be capable of doing. In the meantime, make sure your state has the best chance to stay sane. This is what I am doing in my new "Plan B" state of Nevada.
All kidding aside I wonder what our fellow citizens would do if they were presented with airtight proof that the Democrats stole the 2020 election. Would there be sheer hell to pay or would we simply accept it?
Perhaps another shot heard round the world? The globalist cabal hates and fears American liberty. It’s the last bastion of light in a world increasingly beset with lunacy.
I bought Desmet's book, "The Psychology of Totalitarianism." He believes we are reaching a breaking point due to the increased fear, anxiety and corruption of the bureaucracy.
I conquer with you exactly. I was in high school when we washed the grime of carter from our lives. I am in my 50s now and distraught that the democrats led us down the path to Hades again.
Ah, yes, Pres. Ronald Reagan, the beginning of the end for the middle class, where wages never kept up with productivity, and the productivity went to mint plutocrats, making us a plutocracy. The great Reaganomics: where the rich taxes were cut from 70% to 50% and the poor from 14% to 11%. Then Reagan decided the burden of 50% was still too much for the rich, so they lowered it to 20%. And just for good measure, he decided the poor needed to pay more, so for the first time in history, the top tax rate was reduced, and the bottom rate was increased while simultaneously decreasing social spending; after all, he didn’t want to spoil the poor. There were those who called his policy; voodoo trickle-down economics, which ended up being a golden shower for the poor. And let us not forget that Ronnie lowered capital gains taxes, and then the federal debt nearly tripled, making him number three for the largest increase in federal debt. Every time the Grinch thinks of Ronnie Reagan, it brings joy to his heart.
What's truly astounding is that there are three other readers equally deranged as the pathetic "just me." Are there no longer dog catchers searching out the rabid threats to a sane society?
And all three have found me. I would have responded to Just me (what a handle to choose; false humility), but he makes up his own facts and is impervious to anything rational permeating his skull. He has the mind virus as so aptly described by Gad Saad.
These are Lefties who have joined this forum because there is no discussion or debate on their side. They are primarily attention seeking and the quickest way for them to get attention in the forums is to act badly, be nasty, and attack.
I have seen this before. There would be more of them but they expect everything for free and will not pay. This is fortunate because otherwise it would turn these forums into a Twitter like hell. I have seen this happen since I first got on the Internet in 1994 and joined several forums then. They destroy everything they touch.
You are so right, doug. I waste my time on an argumentative moron. This person is impervious to facts and insists on his own.
There is something to consider, though. Dan Bongino says when you try to explain things to a liberal/Lefty you aren't actually going to persuade them but you may persuade the people who may be listening.
So, what do you think? Is it worth it to make the attempt in the hopes that a rational argument and gentle persuasion may inform a third party person who may be listening?
I believe it depends on the others listening. Some could benefit, but I believe once someone is recognized as a rhetorical bully (real liberals are not), the best thing is to ignore them. If they have the skill, they use techniques that will result in endless debate with no good resulting. They will appear to make others look ignorant because they are not bound by honesty.
I once asked Harvard's Stephen Pinker if his mentor, Noam Chomsky, was the biggest rhetorical bully and he said yes.
Chomsky's and the other bullies' goals are simply to make their opponents look ignorant by throwing out so many items (that they call "facts") many obscure, at their opponents that it is impossible to defend oneself without going to the library. But their secret is simple, they have no conscience, so they can manipulate facts and makeup facts. Honest debaters are at a huge disadvantage.
I once took the time to research Chomsky's facts when he was debating Alan Dershowitz on Israel and seemed to be winning. I learned after the debate that he lied about the items I looked up or misrepresented a situation with an obscure quote that only sounded important. Even Dershowitz wasn't always able to respond effectively.
From my perspective it is much more a lefty thing because Marx made it clear that bourgeois values such as honesty should not be followed if it interferes with the revolution. And now, they have gained so much control.
Yes, you are correct. Marxists depend on the Lie. They know the person they are debating doesn't have the ability at that moment to research and state the fact so they get away with the lie. The louder they shout the better.
Matthew Crawford covers some of this in his Substack.
TRA-86 enacted 2 FIt rates 15% and 28%. Most Americans were ecstatic. Perhaps if you’s stop reading the comical Howie Zinn you might one day extract your head from your posterior.
Ronald Reagan ushered in the Neoliberal Order, with the help of Israel, by making a deal with the devil himself (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) to win his 1980 election. He believed in the laughable idea of supply-side economics and the Laffer curve. Ronnie cut regulations, slashed taxes, and lowered trade barriers. If you think it was a good idea for wages not to keep up with productivity, and ever-widening income equality, where the bottom 90% got less and less and the top 10% got more and more, by that estimation, he was a great president.
Frightening that you are as adult have not the least idea of economics. You really ought to read Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics." You can also get Henry Hazlett's book on economics on Kindle for about 99 cents. You have about as much economics knowledge as AOC.
There was no deal with the Ayatollah. Reagan was very pointed that he does not make deals with barbarians. The hostages were released just prior to Reagan taking office as President because those barbarians were afraid of what Reagan might do if they didn't.
When regulations are cut, taxes are slashed and trade barriers are lowered companies, corporations and individuals have more money to invest, purchase and save. How dumb are you that you willfully refuse to see that?
If the government takes less of your money that means you have more. You might save it, or invest it, or spend it. Got that?
Actually, Naomi (I sincerely hope I'm not one of the 'three Leftists you talked about), Reagan did preside over Iran Contra in the mid eighties - sort of like dealing with barbarians. Just my opinion, of course..
You are correct. This did happen under Reagan's watch. Ollie North used creativity to finance the anti-communists in Nicaragua, fighting the Sandanistas, by selling military parts to Iran for cash. It was done to circumvent Congress. It was unfortunate but no less disgraceful than "Fast and Furious."
There was never any proof that Reagan knew about or had anything to do with it. The press hated Reagan and did a deep dive so if there was anything to find they would have found it.
Some bad stuff came out of Iran Contra. You might want to read up on Mena Airport, or rather, airstrip, in Mena Arkansas.
Brilliant, I can see a very sophisticated economically “If the government takes less of your money, that means you have more. You might save it, or invest it, or spend it. Got that?”, Is that like monetizing the economy?
This is a quote from Matthew Crawford's recent submission on his Substack. It explains you.
"There's only so much time you can spend on people whose interest seems to be in finding the one point you don't have an answer for or that they can feel like they're winning while ignoring the carnage around them. After his "loony" comment, I was spending the time not for him, but for others who would be reading the discussion."
You're insane. Please go piss up a rope. Anyone who was alive during the Reagan years will tell you they were materially better off than under Carter. Plus Reagan ignited prosperity and bequeathed a peace dividend to both Bush and Clinton with his vanquishing of the Evil Empire. You know only what you read in your leftist screeds. Which makes you laughable.
There was no deal with the Ayatollah. Read Bowden's book and get back to us when your head clears.
Bruce, I agree with you that life under Reagan was eventually better for the American taxpayer than living under the hapless Carter. However, one shouldn't forget that the first two years under Reagan were quite hard economically with interest rates at approx 20% with an ensuing recession. Fed chairman Paul Volcker was the architect of the pain that killed inflation, thus leading to the boon in '83 and beyond - Reagan's 'sunny' period that everyone on this thread remembers.
Of course, Volcker was a Democrat and nominated to the Fed chair by Carter. But I digress..
No disagreement with any of that. My first mortgage was at 16%. But let’s not forget that “the amiable dunce” had the wit to give Volcker free rein. As well as face down the Evil Empire. To digress….
Your sarcastic bigotry will complete the indoctrination of those who aren't already completely robotic wokesters. Good luck rebuilding a nation or even a community if you are unlucky enough to destroy America.
Doug, you called me a sarcastic bigot, I own up to being sarcastic, but in this instance, I’m not a bigot; facts aren’t prejudicial. You then proceed to be a sarcastic bigot by using a pejorative slur; “…wokesters…”. You were speaking of indoctrination. You are delusional if you don’t think you have a sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle. In fact, this Substack is a cesspool of indoctrination.
Of course, I called you a sarcastic bigot. You call your inane opinions facts. So you lie to promote your views, you don't use honest discourse. Thus you are intolerant of others' views - sounds like a bigot to me. I reread your last comment and could not find a fact but a great many opinions. I lived through the Reagan years, and grew my company to employ 900+ people after starting with $990. Your comments about Reagan show you believe in over taxing in order to re-distribute from the productive to the unproductive, over-regulation, and the squelching of human freedom and the denial of individual expression. so you are some kind of lefty bigot. I rarely use ad hominems but I cannot mince words with you.
And I loved the fun article and it is fun once in a while replying to you.
Since you call substack a "cesspool of indoctrination," it is obvious you are here just for some of us to have fun with you.
"Ah, yes, Pres. Ronald Reagan, the beginning of the end for the middle class, where wages never kept up with productivity, and the productivity went to mint plutocrats, making us a plutocracy."
If you believe this is a fact, it is a waste of time to discuss anything with you.
In "my" opinion, Obama in bed with the Tech giants, Wall Street, and Klaus Schwab of the WEF created the plutocrats destroying the US and the Western world today.
You are absolutely correct I will not reply further to you because you are an obvious "player," with no serious intention, stating your opinions as facts and doing everything you can to crush serious discussion.
doug, I call you out on three different parts of your comment, and asked for multiple examples to prove your accusations that I’m a sarcastic bigot with inane opinions, using dishonest discourse, all this reflecting on my integrity. All you can do is muster one that doesn’t prove your point. Below you will find three links indicating wages haven’t kept up with productivity. Six years ago, Paul Volcker believed the US was descending into a plutocracy; I have statistics and Paul Volcker on my side.
You say you have or had a company with 900+ employees, indicating you are squarely within the 1%. You then use rationalization to justify, “…it is obvious you are here just for some of us to have fun with you.” I can’t help but wonder if this is how you thought about your employees!
To wrap up, how you have treated me here reflects your integrity, not mine!
Exactly. We'll have a lot of time to discuss it here and weigh out the pros and cons. I, for one, will NEVER vote for a Democrat (unless it is Tulsi Gabbard) again.
I will never vote for anyone with”democrat” after their name whether it is president or dog catcher. If you can sit in the same room as the likes of AOC and Pelosi you are not fit for any office period end of story
Nope not even Tulsi and I love her but there is is no woman at the moment who can run America or the free world for that matter we have to think really seriously who we want in 2024 if we carrying on the way we are currently there will be nothing left for the younglings!
I was thinking more in the way of Secretary of the Army.
Currently the only one I can think of tough enough to take on the Deep State is DeSantis. I really appreciate what Trump did for the country but he lacks restraint when it's needed. However, if he is the 2024 candidate I will be delighted.
Are you aware she is a graduate of the WEF leadership program? Dan Crenshaw is as well. He acts it but she doesn't. She may have gone out of curiosity. Maybe someone will ask her about that.
Yes, she is a graduate. Dr. Malone had the list on his Substack a week or so ago. Senator Tom Cotton is also a graduate. I didn't review the list to see how many other names I knew. It's on Dr. Malone's Substack so I can peruse it at my leisure.
I love Trump but, to be perfectly honest, after a while I was getting tired of the constant drama.
Well I remember that too. We had "malaise" under Carter and it was real. I turned off the heat one winter because I could not afford the $300 bill. It was scary trying to figure out if you would have enough gas to get to work that week. Gas lines were blocks long and there was no guarantee there would be any when you finally pushed your car to the pump. The elderly, on fixed incomes that were vanishing thanks to inflation, were lucky to be able to afford a can of cat food for dinner. It was frightening.
I voted for Carter in 1976 and lived to regret it. Carter was a good and decent man, unlike the current occupant, but he was inept and incompetent and surrounded himself with incompetent people. You should never vote for utopians. Not ever.
Ronald Reagan was a breath of hope and cheer. He himself was a cheerful person full of charm and good will. With his grin, you always felt he was having fun. The country started to turn around quickly on his optimism. He was also competent and a realist.
I agree with you in all but one thing. The people around Carter were, for the most part, quite competent, but committed to the wrong ideas. Zbigniew Brzezinski comes immediately to mind.
Committed to the wrong ideas implies the consequences of actions were not considered, or the people involved didn't have the capacity, either by clear vision or insight, to analyze the problem and reach logical conclusions.
If I am unable to analyze a situation and then extrapolate what the consequences might be, I am likely incompetent to be in that position.
And remember how the press pilloried Reagan relentlessly? Shows how we should never listen to them or their leftist masters. It was my first realization just how much hidden (at that time) bias there was against conservatism in journalism. I was young and naive enough at the time to think they were actually playing it down the middle. In some ways it was more insidious than today because they did everything they could to appear objective.
This is why they hate Trump so much. I've seen it numerous times; when one side gets used to abusing and treating the other side with disdain and the other side does not defend himself, it becomes the classic abuser-abused relationship. The Left has grown used to saying absolutely anything - in the vilest of words - about the Right, and the right responds archly, "We don't behave like that." And it's because the Left feels entitled to taking cheap shots without reprisal that they are seething and clutching their pearls.
Try that with The Orange Man. You'll find yourself sitting on the sidewalk, with a black eye. Fine. My new mantra (HT to Ben Shapiro) is, "I don't care about your feelings." It's liberating. Try it. You'll like it.
It’s actually “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” I love Ben Shapiro!
But your point is well taken. Until Trump, conservatives thought taking the high road would eventually shame the left into civil discourse. That ended with Trump. I like seeing leftists get a good dose of their own medicine.
Unfortunately they still don’t seem to get it. Only a decade in the wilderness for the Democrat party is going to teach them. I’m only too glad to help make that happen.
I think a lot at least now recognize how rigged the game has been. I see a lot more critical thinking about news amongst people who have a modicum of intelligence. Too much information out there to fool everyone.
I was angry for many years that so few saw the bias I did. I feel pretty vindicated now. 😊
Yeah eventually I thought it would never happen but The Democrooks are imploding from the top down they can’t seem to find anymore witnesses who sound plausible it’s one bullshit story after another
I was 24 when he was elected. I came out of my undergrad thinking communism was forever, and that high inflation and gas prices were part of our new reality, as espoused by Jimmy Carter.
While Reagan painted an entirely different picture, where communism isn't normal, and that we should feel proud of our country resonated with me, it was totally against everything I had just been taught (at Michigan) and it wasn't something I felt I could openly support.
40 years later, we're there again. We allowed our Academia/Democrats/Media to make us feel bad about our country, and treat all of our problems as a new reality. I'm hopeful that, beginning with the midterms, we'll turn that back.
I was about a decade older. Remember when all the Democrats preached to us that we had to get used to this new normal? That we were greedy and had to learn to sacrifice and live with less. And that self-important old Democrat gas bag, Clark Clifford, called President Reagan "an amiable dunce." Then, as now, they are lying and making excuses. All we need to restore America is to reverse everything the Democrats are doing. Want to have fun? Mock and deride Democrats for the fools they truly are.
Here's my prescription to all the woke morons in the US and Canada. If you hate yourself and your country so much - and are so humiliated and appalled by our shared history that you simply cannot go on - just leave all your worldly possessions to an indigenous organization or slave reparations scam or other such foolish swill and then mix yourself a large, fatal dose of fentanyl and say goodbye to it all. The collective sanity of our nations, as well as our IQs will rise and you'll be doing your part to save the planet. Sound like a plan?
My wife is Canadian, now a naturalized US citizen. She very definitely shares your dismay at the current state of affairs. Canada seems to have become a for-real fascist state, and the transition seemed so easy. Scary.
I don't think You have the slightest idea what fascism really is. I guess that's one huge "success" of the radical left. Now everybody calls everything he doesn't like "fascist" without even bothering to think what this word actually means. More sad than scary.
In the US, Canada and Europe, the growing totalitarianism is brilliantly camouflaged. It is not the Soviet Union or 1984. But it is the 2022 version of "Brave New World." Bernd, considering reading Brave New World if you haven't already to begin to understand why so many of us see the powerful beginnings of would could accurately be called fascism. What makes it so scary is its magnificent deception and nice-seeming facade.
Remember, we are banning free speech because our masters will tell us what can be said and written. And never hold a pro-America rally in any sizable American city because the local government will likely allow antifa and BLM and black bloc beat you up. Unsure about Canada, but I can't imagine there is much patriotism left there either.
Just using an example where carrying a hand gun for self defence doesn't work and means little. Anyone with a gun in that crowd fired upon in Highland Park would have been running for cover before drawing a weapon. It is an ambush, after all. American soldiers, the best in the world with the best weaponry, die in ambushes.
With the kind of guns out there in the hands of deluded male somethings, even police find themselves outgunned - and won't go in unless under full body armour. In other words, more than a hand gun.
Arresting political opponents and enlisting corporations in your various scams and schemes is a pretty good beginning on the road to fascism. Happening in the regimes of the senile imbecile who rules the US and the fatuous poseur to his north. Full out leftist fascism? Not yet. But certainly heading that way
I am of an age that I remember, like it was yesterday, the joyful release we felt under President Reagan after the dreadful malaise and needless sacrifices to incompetence under Carter. You had to be in lower Manhattan during the Statue of Liberty Centennial to see America at its joyful best. Truly magical. No other way to describe it. Celebrating who we are with each other.
So maybe the real truth is “Being a woke Democrat: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Vote wisely this time. Being under the thumb of a vile, vindictive, senile imbecile is no way for a free people to live.
Okay, Bruce.
Just as long as we don't ever go back to the 'vile, vindictive' individual who sat in the President's chair (and wanted to make it last for as long as possible..) before our current 'senile' occupant. Please.
Two wrongs do not make a right.
Cheers..
Three do. And I have the ultimate citation: Tony Hendra, Nat Lamp
Any suggestions who might replace Brandon in 2024 I’m very interested to read who it might be Dem or Republican
Desantis
On the Dem side I think they're doomed..I'm thinking that both Biden and Harris won't be on the ticket in '24. Unless suburban moms vote en masse this November because of the SCOTUS decision on abortion. All bets are off on that one.
If the GOP were smart ( a long shot) they would stay far away from the toxicity of Trump (I know, I know, lots here love him..) and go for someone who doesn't scare half the electorate. DeSantis, perhaps. I like Larry Hogan, if he's got the stomach for it.
The only one that scares me is Big Mike. As dumb as a box of rocks and as angry as a nest of bees, but checks all the boxes. Black, putatively female, loud mouth, hates her country - until recently, that is; now for the first time, she's "proud." Perfect. Trump might handle her as one would a child, but to some degree it would hurt him to be seen as as "picking on a girl" - er, so to speak.
De Santis is about a hundred yards behind Trump insofar as What We Need, but if you aren't elected, none of it matters. He can beat Big Mike and anyone else. God, what am I saying?!
We can disagree about Trump. Doesn’t make me think less of you.
Likewise, sir..
:)
I wish vile and vindictive and his group were running the country right now. I am a surgeon we don’t need to be best friends for your knee to turn out perfect. If more people could get that through their head we wouldn’t be in this disgusting mess
Had this discussion with the A&P (airframe and powerplant) mechanic at my airport. An NY transplant to rural southern Virginia, about the only one who will use him or give him the time of day is me. We avoid politics, but in working together the topic comes up. His comment was that he just couldn't vote for someone as _____________________ (fill in the blank) as The Orange Man. My response was, "How can you allow your hatred of one man be so intense that it makes you vote against three hundred fifty million of your countrymen?"
Like I said, we don't talk politics much.
Sure enough. But it would have helped had Trump understood that a peaceful transfer of power is better for the country than his rather self aggrandizing efforts to hold on to the Presidency at considerable cost. You take your lumps and fight another day. Unfortunately, Donald doesn't think that way.
Yip I agree with you HG at the moment our country is not well and in serious need of a surgeon who knows what he is doing and yes we didn’t have to love our previous surgeon we only needed to respect him and get behind him to move us forward the current surgeon has absolute no idea what is going on and continues to botch every operation he gets his grubby mitts on I really fear for all of us going to the midterms
Boy have you struck a nerve! I remember Carter's "malaise" speech so very well. America was in decline and we'd best get used to it and prepare. A depressing, almost hopeless era.
When Reagan took office - upbeat, hopeful, optimistic and forward-looking - for the longest time I thought he was blowing sunshine you-know-where. Then I realized that he really believed what he said about America, and best of all, he was RIGHT!!
I heard yesterday that Titular President Asterisk had opined that fuel prices would stay high "as long as necessary." Uh-huh - so we will be forced to buy electric cars that nobody can afford, nobody wants, and everyone understands cannot provide heat or cold to protect you in any meaningful way in an emergency.
Fortunately we have other failed nations as examples of how communist dictators take over, and with the help of supercilious old gasbags like Asterisk, Mad Maxine, Cryin' Chuck, and ignorant, arrogant striplings like The Barista, our gub'ment is attempting to follow the Marxist playbook to the letter.
We can stop this. The string-pullers are not stupid, and they know full well that while they are in trouble now, if they can cheat again in November, it's over. They win. Permanently. Do not in any way believe that they don't have a plan to do precisely that, and I wish I could say that stopping them is a matter of life and death, but in point of fact it is far more important than that because when you're dead, the suffering stops; if they win, it's just beginning.
You are so right. I loved Reagan. He made me a Republican. It's amazing how fast things can turn around, as we have lately watched in horrified fascination as this incompetent mannequin has taken us from a vibrant country to a demoralized country with no borders, runaway inflation, and an energy shortage.
Get Trump or DeSantis back in office and this can be turned around rapidly.
We have to stop the second steal of our elections that’s it we have to pull out all the stops we can’t be distracted or disrupted in anyway!!
I have thought about the upcoming election quite a bit, and the cheat revolves around three things: voting computers, drop boxes, and eliminating Republican observers from the count itself.
We need to try as hard as possible to get rid of the machines; once a vote goes in, you have no idea what happens. And not only are they a tremendous source of cheating, they are unnecessary.
On the last two, I think it will just take aggressiveness. Locate any drop boxes, and park several observers there. All night. With cameras. Approach anyone dropping ballots after hours and ask their names and video them - especially their faces. And bring a firearm and at least one buddy. Supreme court now says you can.
Ditto the count. Refuse to be herded out of the proceeding. If they "stop the count" tell them you will be staying behind. Bring others with you. Set up a phone relay so as to bring dozens of others if there is a confrontation. Don't start anything but don't let them bully you.
Just my .05.
You wrote "We can stop this. The string-pullers are not stupid, and they know full well that while they are in trouble now, if they can cheat again in November, it's over. "
Yes, Jim, "it's over" but not in the way you fear. It will be over for them. It would be an honor to get the chance to die for my country. And, lest that meaning be unclear, if the Dems try to steal this election, the time for words will be over. I doubt I'm alone in this sentiment.
Your comment is a very serious one, which resonates greatly with me. I will search endlessly for ways to overcome the current tyranny. I agree, if the "huge red wave" is overturned by the trillion dollars and fifty cheat techniques they have developed, something will break in this country. I always wonder if the warriors of this country will let the US disappear. I wonder what I will be capable of doing. In the meantime, make sure your state has the best chance to stay sane. This is what I am doing in my new "Plan B" state of Nevada.
And I’m certain you don’t call it NeVAHda. Lol
All kidding aside I wonder what our fellow citizens would do if they were presented with airtight proof that the Democrats stole the 2020 election. Would there be sheer hell to pay or would we simply accept it?
"...needless sacrifices to incompetence..." This phrase captures today's misbegotten era perfectly. Resentment is building.
One can only hope.
Perhaps another shot heard round the world? The globalist cabal hates and fears American liberty. It’s the last bastion of light in a world increasingly beset with lunacy.
I bought Desmet's book, "The Psychology of Totalitarianism." He believes we are reaching a breaking point due to the increased fear, anxiety and corruption of the bureaucracy.
I conquer with you exactly. I was in high school when we washed the grime of carter from our lives. I am in my 50s now and distraught that the democrats led us down the path to Hades again.
Where is our Reagan ?
Ah, yes, Pres. Ronald Reagan, the beginning of the end for the middle class, where wages never kept up with productivity, and the productivity went to mint plutocrats, making us a plutocracy. The great Reaganomics: where the rich taxes were cut from 70% to 50% and the poor from 14% to 11%. Then Reagan decided the burden of 50% was still too much for the rich, so they lowered it to 20%. And just for good measure, he decided the poor needed to pay more, so for the first time in history, the top tax rate was reduced, and the bottom rate was increased while simultaneously decreasing social spending; after all, he didn’t want to spoil the poor. There were those who called his policy; voodoo trickle-down economics, which ended up being a golden shower for the poor. And let us not forget that Ronnie lowered capital gains taxes, and then the federal debt nearly tripled, making him number three for the largest increase in federal debt. Every time the Grinch thinks of Ronnie Reagan, it brings joy to his heart.
What's truly astounding is that there are three other readers equally deranged as the pathetic "just me." Are there no longer dog catchers searching out the rabid threats to a sane society?
Shocking, I say, just shocking; five others liked my comment about Ronald Reagan. Bruce, why do you consider facts a threat to a sane society?
And all three have found me. I would have responded to Just me (what a handle to choose; false humility), but he makes up his own facts and is impervious to anything rational permeating his skull. He has the mind virus as so aptly described by Gad Saad.
These are Lefties who have joined this forum because there is no discussion or debate on their side. They are primarily attention seeking and the quickest way for them to get attention in the forums is to act badly, be nasty, and attack.
I have seen this before. There would be more of them but they expect everything for free and will not pay. This is fortunate because otherwise it would turn these forums into a Twitter like hell. I have seen this happen since I first got on the Internet in 1994 and joined several forums then. They destroy everything they touch.
Naomi, I had some fun with" just me," but I will not reply to him again.
Much more important matters, we have a country to save!
Something you’re lacking in, Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
You are so right, doug. I waste my time on an argumentative moron. This person is impervious to facts and insists on his own.
There is something to consider, though. Dan Bongino says when you try to explain things to a liberal/Lefty you aren't actually going to persuade them but you may persuade the people who may be listening.
So, what do you think? Is it worth it to make the attempt in the hopes that a rational argument and gentle persuasion may inform a third party person who may be listening?
I would appreciate your thoughts on this.
I believe it depends on the others listening. Some could benefit, but I believe once someone is recognized as a rhetorical bully (real liberals are not), the best thing is to ignore them. If they have the skill, they use techniques that will result in endless debate with no good resulting. They will appear to make others look ignorant because they are not bound by honesty.
I once asked Harvard's Stephen Pinker if his mentor, Noam Chomsky, was the biggest rhetorical bully and he said yes.
Chomsky's and the other bullies' goals are simply to make their opponents look ignorant by throwing out so many items (that they call "facts") many obscure, at their opponents that it is impossible to defend oneself without going to the library. But their secret is simple, they have no conscience, so they can manipulate facts and makeup facts. Honest debaters are at a huge disadvantage.
I once took the time to research Chomsky's facts when he was debating Alan Dershowitz on Israel and seemed to be winning. I learned after the debate that he lied about the items I looked up or misrepresented a situation with an obscure quote that only sounded important. Even Dershowitz wasn't always able to respond effectively.
From my perspective it is much more a lefty thing because Marx made it clear that bourgeois values such as honesty should not be followed if it interferes with the revolution. And now, they have gained so much control.
Yes, you are correct. Marxists depend on the Lie. They know the person they are debating doesn't have the ability at that moment to research and state the fact so they get away with the lie. The louder they shout the better.
Matthew Crawford covers some of this in his Substack.
https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/data-epistemology-vs-vaxsplaining?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Something you’re lacking in, Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
Yup that’s me too tee. ROFL
Naomi, all you are doing is blathering, and you say I make up my own facts, prove it!
TRA-86 enacted 2 FIt rates 15% and 28%. Most Americans were ecstatic. Perhaps if you’s stop reading the comical Howie Zinn you might one day extract your head from your posterior.
Ronald Reagan ushered in the Neoliberal Order, with the help of Israel, by making a deal with the devil himself (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) to win his 1980 election. He believed in the laughable idea of supply-side economics and the Laffer curve. Ronnie cut regulations, slashed taxes, and lowered trade barriers. If you think it was a good idea for wages not to keep up with productivity, and ever-widening income equality, where the bottom 90% got less and less and the top 10% got more and more, by that estimation, he was a great president.
Frightening that you are as adult have not the least idea of economics. You really ought to read Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics." You can also get Henry Hazlett's book on economics on Kindle for about 99 cents. You have about as much economics knowledge as AOC.
There was no deal with the Ayatollah. Reagan was very pointed that he does not make deals with barbarians. The hostages were released just prior to Reagan taking office as President because those barbarians were afraid of what Reagan might do if they didn't.
When regulations are cut, taxes are slashed and trade barriers are lowered companies, corporations and individuals have more money to invest, purchase and save. How dumb are you that you willfully refuse to see that?
If the government takes less of your money that means you have more. You might save it, or invest it, or spend it. Got that?
Actually, Naomi (I sincerely hope I'm not one of the 'three Leftists you talked about), Reagan did preside over Iran Contra in the mid eighties - sort of like dealing with barbarians. Just my opinion, of course..
You are correct. This did happen under Reagan's watch. Ollie North used creativity to finance the anti-communists in Nicaragua, fighting the Sandanistas, by selling military parts to Iran for cash. It was done to circumvent Congress. It was unfortunate but no less disgraceful than "Fast and Furious."
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-iran-contra-affair-4175920
There was never any proof that Reagan knew about or had anything to do with it. The press hated Reagan and did a deep dive so if there was anything to find they would have found it.
Some bad stuff came out of Iran Contra. You might want to read up on Mena Airport, or rather, airstrip, in Mena Arkansas.
Reagan may not have ever known exactly what was happening under his watch, true. I agree with you.
Brilliant, I can see a very sophisticated economically “If the government takes less of your money, that means you have more. You might save it, or invest it, or spend it. Got that?”, Is that like monetizing the economy?
This is a quote from Matthew Crawford's recent submission on his Substack. It explains you.
"There's only so much time you can spend on people whose interest seems to be in finding the one point you don't have an answer for or that they can feel like they're winning while ignoring the carnage around them. After his "loony" comment, I was spending the time not for him, but for others who would be reading the discussion."
https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/data-epistemology-vs-vaxsplaining?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
You're insane. Please go piss up a rope. Anyone who was alive during the Reagan years will tell you they were materially better off than under Carter. Plus Reagan ignited prosperity and bequeathed a peace dividend to both Bush and Clinton with his vanquishing of the Evil Empire. You know only what you read in your leftist screeds. Which makes you laughable.
There was no deal with the Ayatollah. Read Bowden's book and get back to us when your head clears.
Bruce, I agree with you that life under Reagan was eventually better for the American taxpayer than living under the hapless Carter. However, one shouldn't forget that the first two years under Reagan were quite hard economically with interest rates at approx 20% with an ensuing recession. Fed chairman Paul Volcker was the architect of the pain that killed inflation, thus leading to the boon in '83 and beyond - Reagan's 'sunny' period that everyone on this thread remembers.
Of course, Volcker was a Democrat and nominated to the Fed chair by Carter. But I digress..
No disagreement with any of that. My first mortgage was at 16%. But let’s not forget that “the amiable dunce” had the wit to give Volcker free rein. As well as face down the Evil Empire. To digress….
Bruce, all your indignation doesn’t negate what the neoliberal order has done to the ordinary worker; like it or not, facts are facts!
Gosh I remember that. He also started IRA's.
Go soak your head. Debating with you is a waste of time.
What’s there to debate? The facts are the facts!
"What’s there to debate? The facts are the facts!"
Is that circular reasoning or a tautology? Begging the question? When the answer to the 'question' is presumed by the question.
I just read a little about that. The technical term is "conclusory allegation." Great stuff.
Kjmac, I was not an English literature major, but I think you’re correct; it is a tautology.
Dogs bark. The caravan moves on.
Your sarcastic bigotry will complete the indoctrination of those who aren't already completely robotic wokesters. Good luck rebuilding a nation or even a community if you are unlucky enough to destroy America.
Doug, you called me a sarcastic bigot, I own up to being sarcastic, but in this instance, I’m not a bigot; facts aren’t prejudicial. You then proceed to be a sarcastic bigot by using a pejorative slur; “…wokesters…”. You were speaking of indoctrination. You are delusional if you don’t think you have a sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle. In fact, this Substack is a cesspool of indoctrination.
Of course, I called you a sarcastic bigot. You call your inane opinions facts. So you lie to promote your views, you don't use honest discourse. Thus you are intolerant of others' views - sounds like a bigot to me. I reread your last comment and could not find a fact but a great many opinions. I lived through the Reagan years, and grew my company to employ 900+ people after starting with $990. Your comments about Reagan show you believe in over taxing in order to re-distribute from the productive to the unproductive, over-regulation, and the squelching of human freedom and the denial of individual expression. so you are some kind of lefty bigot. I rarely use ad hominems but I cannot mince words with you.
And I loved the fun article and it is fun once in a while replying to you.
Since you call substack a "cesspool of indoctrination," it is obvious you are here just for some of us to have fun with you.
Doug, I fully anticipate no meaningful reply, but I will give it a go for the sht and giggles of it.
“You call your inane opinions facts.”: I think you can at least give me four examples for this comment?
“So you lie to promote your views…”: Again, multiple examples, please.
“…you don’t use honest discourse” one more time, examples, please.
Let us see if you have the courage of your convictions! After all, you can show everybody you are a better man than I.
"Ah, yes, Pres. Ronald Reagan, the beginning of the end for the middle class, where wages never kept up with productivity, and the productivity went to mint plutocrats, making us a plutocracy."
If you believe this is a fact, it is a waste of time to discuss anything with you.
In "my" opinion, Obama in bed with the Tech giants, Wall Street, and Klaus Schwab of the WEF created the plutocrats destroying the US and the Western world today.
You are absolutely correct I will not reply further to you because you are an obvious "player," with no serious intention, stating your opinions as facts and doing everything you can to crush serious discussion.
But I must say it has been fun hasn't it?
doug, I call you out on three different parts of your comment, and asked for multiple examples to prove your accusations that I’m a sarcastic bigot with inane opinions, using dishonest discourse, all this reflecting on my integrity. All you can do is muster one that doesn’t prove your point. Below you will find three links indicating wages haven’t kept up with productivity. Six years ago, Paul Volcker believed the US was descending into a plutocracy; I have statistics and Paul Volcker on my side.
You say you have or had a company with 900+ employees, indicating you are squarely within the 1%. You then use rationalization to justify, “…it is obvious you are here just for some of us to have fun with you.” I can’t help but wonder if this is how you thought about your employees!
To wrap up, how you have treated me here reflects your integrity, not mine!
https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/productivity-workforce-america-united-states-wages-stagnate
https://economicsfromthetopdown.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/epi_pay_gap.png?resize=723%2C490
https://moneyandmarkets.com/former-fed-chair-volcker-us-plutocracy/
I’m voting for you Bruce or if not you I will be taken my next vote very seriously and doing a lot of homework before I make my final decision
Thanks but I’m too damned old. DeSsntis is my guy.
Absolutely
Exactly. We'll have a lot of time to discuss it here and weigh out the pros and cons. I, for one, will NEVER vote for a Democrat (unless it is Tulsi Gabbard) again.
I will never vote for anyone with”democrat” after their name whether it is president or dog catcher. If you can sit in the same room as the likes of AOC and Pelosi you are not fit for any office period end of story
Nope not even Tulsi and I love her but there is is no woman at the moment who can run America or the free world for that matter we have to think really seriously who we want in 2024 if we carrying on the way we are currently there will be nothing left for the younglings!
I was thinking more in the way of Secretary of the Army.
Currently the only one I can think of tough enough to take on the Deep State is DeSantis. I really appreciate what Trump did for the country but he lacks restraint when it's needed. However, if he is the 2024 candidate I will be delighted.
Naomi that's my exception as well.
Are you aware she is a graduate of the WEF leadership program? Dan Crenshaw is as well. He acts it but she doesn't. She may have gone out of curiosity. Maybe someone will ask her about that.
I never knew she was a Klaus Schwab disciple that’s not good but I don’t view her in the top dog position
I don't know if she is a disciple. Have you never gone to something that turned out to be entirely different from what you thought?
She may have also been scoping out the enemy.
Tulsi doing WEF is a very Serious concern. I do hope the GOP nominee is DeSantis. But If it is Trump, I will support him. Following the essay, I
Like to mention his name just for fun. I sincerely hope I am
Not being offensive. There I go again denying my right to FUN!
Yes, she is a graduate. Dr. Malone had the list on his Substack a week or so ago. Senator Tom Cotton is also a graduate. I didn't review the list to see how many other names I knew. It's on Dr. Malone's Substack so I can peruse it at my leisure.
I love Trump but, to be perfectly honest, after a while I was getting tired of the constant drama.
I love Trump there I have said it out loud if anybody is having a good laugh enjoy happy 4th
Well I remember that too. We had "malaise" under Carter and it was real. I turned off the heat one winter because I could not afford the $300 bill. It was scary trying to figure out if you would have enough gas to get to work that week. Gas lines were blocks long and there was no guarantee there would be any when you finally pushed your car to the pump. The elderly, on fixed incomes that were vanishing thanks to inflation, were lucky to be able to afford a can of cat food for dinner. It was frightening.
I voted for Carter in 1976 and lived to regret it. Carter was a good and decent man, unlike the current occupant, but he was inept and incompetent and surrounded himself with incompetent people. You should never vote for utopians. Not ever.
Ronald Reagan was a breath of hope and cheer. He himself was a cheerful person full of charm and good will. With his grin, you always felt he was having fun. The country started to turn around quickly on his optimism. He was also competent and a realist.
Naomi! Great to get your insights. Glad we are still in same circles!
We are!!! I feel as though I have made quite a few friends, and picked up a couple of trolls, on these threads.
I agree with you in all but one thing. The people around Carter were, for the most part, quite competent, but committed to the wrong ideas. Zbigniew Brzezinski comes immediately to mind.
Committed to the wrong ideas implies the consequences of actions were not considered, or the people involved didn't have the capacity, either by clear vision or insight, to analyze the problem and reach logical conclusions.
If I am unable to analyze a situation and then extrapolate what the consequences might be, I am likely incompetent to be in that position.
Excellent comment! The old "But they meant well" is just a dodge for screwing up.
And remember how the press pilloried Reagan relentlessly? Shows how we should never listen to them or their leftist masters. It was my first realization just how much hidden (at that time) bias there was against conservatism in journalism. I was young and naive enough at the time to think they were actually playing it down the middle. In some ways it was more insidious than today because they did everything they could to appear objective.
This is why they hate Trump so much. I've seen it numerous times; when one side gets used to abusing and treating the other side with disdain and the other side does not defend himself, it becomes the classic abuser-abused relationship. The Left has grown used to saying absolutely anything - in the vilest of words - about the Right, and the right responds archly, "We don't behave like that." And it's because the Left feels entitled to taking cheap shots without reprisal that they are seething and clutching their pearls.
Try that with The Orange Man. You'll find yourself sitting on the sidewalk, with a black eye. Fine. My new mantra (HT to Ben Shapiro) is, "I don't care about your feelings." It's liberating. Try it. You'll like it.
It’s actually “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” I love Ben Shapiro!
But your point is well taken. Until Trump, conservatives thought taking the high road would eventually shame the left into civil discourse. That ended with Trump. I like seeing leftists get a good dose of their own medicine.
Unfortunately they still don’t seem to get it. Only a decade in the wilderness for the Democrat party is going to teach them. I’m only too glad to help make that happen.
Excellent comment!
It’s Liberating you right and I don’t care President Trump was the best President we ever had he would never have put up with crap!
Do you think we have grown up yet?
I think a lot at least now recognize how rigged the game has been. I see a lot more critical thinking about news amongst people who have a modicum of intelligence. Too much information out there to fool everyone.
I was angry for many years that so few saw the bias I did. I feel pretty vindicated now. 😊
Yeah eventually I thought it would never happen but The Democrooks are imploding from the top down they can’t seem to find anymore witnesses who sound plausible it’s one bullshit story after another
I was 24 when he was elected. I came out of my undergrad thinking communism was forever, and that high inflation and gas prices were part of our new reality, as espoused by Jimmy Carter.
While Reagan painted an entirely different picture, where communism isn't normal, and that we should feel proud of our country resonated with me, it was totally against everything I had just been taught (at Michigan) and it wasn't something I felt I could openly support.
40 years later, we're there again. We allowed our Academia/Democrats/Media to make us feel bad about our country, and treat all of our problems as a new reality. I'm hopeful that, beginning with the midterms, we'll turn that back.
Please God this is an absolute disaster currently - as Bruce described Brandon vile senile vindictive old man get them out!
You captured it perfectly.
I was about a decade older. Remember when all the Democrats preached to us that we had to get used to this new normal? That we were greedy and had to learn to sacrifice and live with less. And that self-important old Democrat gas bag, Clark Clifford, called President Reagan "an amiable dunce." Then, as now, they are lying and making excuses. All we need to restore America is to reverse everything the Democrats are doing. Want to have fun? Mock and deride Democrats for the fools they truly are.
Yip and I’m having a wonderful time doing that it’s like having fun all over again
Or the NBA icon, LeBron, on his bended knee to China...... the only nation on earth still running concentration camps.
Ah, but they buy sneakers in those concentration camps.
I wish a sports reporter would call him out on that.
Maybe you’ll find some fun somewhere this time. :)
Here's my prescription to all the woke morons in the US and Canada. If you hate yourself and your country so much - and are so humiliated and appalled by our shared history that you simply cannot go on - just leave all your worldly possessions to an indigenous organization or slave reparations scam or other such foolish swill and then mix yourself a large, fatal dose of fentanyl and say goodbye to it all. The collective sanity of our nations, as well as our IQs will rise and you'll be doing your part to save the planet. Sound like a plan?
My wife is Canadian, now a naturalized US citizen. She very definitely shares your dismay at the current state of affairs. Canada seems to have become a for-real fascist state, and the transition seemed so easy. Scary.
I don't think You have the slightest idea what fascism really is. I guess that's one huge "success" of the radical left. Now everybody calls everything he doesn't like "fascist" without even bothering to think what this word actually means. More sad than scary.
In the US, Canada and Europe, the growing totalitarianism is brilliantly camouflaged. It is not the Soviet Union or 1984. But it is the 2022 version of "Brave New World." Bernd, considering reading Brave New World if you haven't already to begin to understand why so many of us see the powerful beginnings of would could accurately be called fascism. What makes it so scary is its magnificent deception and nice-seeming facade.
Remember, we are banning free speech because our masters will tell us what can be said and written. And never hold a pro-America rally in any sizable American city because the local government will likely allow antifa and BLM and black bloc beat you up. Unsure about Canada, but I can't imagine there is much patriotism left there either.
"You can't use a gun for self-protection in Canada...that's not a right that you have, either in the constitution or anywhere else..." Justin Trudeau
Sounds like a good first step to fascism right there.
A gun for self protection doesn't do very well against an unseen shooter setting up an ambush on a rooftop..
And a fire hose doesn't help much when a natural gas explosion obliterates your house. What's your point?
Just using an example where carrying a hand gun for self defence doesn't work and means little. Anyone with a gun in that crowd fired upon in Highland Park would have been running for cover before drawing a weapon. It is an ambush, after all. American soldiers, the best in the world with the best weaponry, die in ambushes.
With the kind of guns out there in the hands of deluded male somethings, even police find themselves outgunned - and won't go in unless under full body armour. In other words, more than a hand gun.
That, was my point, respectfully.
Arresting political opponents and enlisting corporations in your various scams and schemes is a pretty good beginning on the road to fascism. Happening in the regimes of the senile imbecile who rules the US and the fatuous poseur to his north. Full out leftist fascism? Not yet. But certainly heading that way
Not sure if you mean when I said 'We' in the last paragraph, as I can't find a 'royal' me that would fit your comment.