Ocasio-Cortez & Co: Jump the Amazon Piranha?

Some time back, April 30, 2013, I wrote a piece that has proven quite accurate given events of the last few days in Progolandia,

The political philosophy of this "liberalism" is one which portrays life as a series of problems that needs addressing by the state--the state guided and run, mind you, by the "well-educated liberal elite" produced by our increasingly decrepit "liberal" universities and informed by "liberal" Hollywood and "liberal" Big Media. Modern U.S. liberals are a variant of European social democrats who believe in a big state and mistrust the individual; the big difference being that US liberals have much more power in the world than their European co-religionists ever could hope. They advocate the "positivist" attitude so aptly summed up in the motto emblazoned on the national flag of Brazil, "Ordem e Progresso," so long, of course, as they are in charge of imposing the order and defining the progress. They take positivism's emphasis on rational thought and logic, and its opposition to superstition and fantasy, and turn it on its head into a "science-based" fantasy that somehow just so happens to lead to more power for them and their state. Global climate change is one sterling example of how liberals have taken a legitimate scientific-based concern over pollution, and turned it into a monumental hoax, known as Manmade Climate Change. That hoax somehow, just somehow ends up demanding more money and power for--guess who?--the liberals and their state . . . this philosophy comprises followers who proclaim a great love for humanity while in practice exhibiting a great hatred for people. <...>

Liberals hate all sorts of people but their special, most lethal hatred is reserved for the poor and the "uneducated." They kill the poor by the bushel, by the ton, by the hectare . . . they kill them at home and abroad. No poor person is safe from the lethal loving embrace of the liberals.

The Green Deal proposed by Progo Congressional Representative Alexandria "Sandy the barkeep" Ocasio-Cortez (related to the killer of the Aztecs? Just wondering) and Progo Senator Ed "Global Warming Hoax" Markey proves a classic example of that mentioned in that ancient blog post. In the name of love for Gaia and humanity, the "Deal" exhibits great contempt for people, and advocates an extraordinary expansion of Progo-run government into every facet of the economy and our lives. It would firmly entrench the Progos as our overlords and masters, and bring untold misery to hundreds of millions of real, living persons.

We got a little taste of this hatred for people over the past week as we watched the Amazon HQ debacle unfold. As you all know, Amazon, which goes out of its way to be Progo-symp, run by the world's richest man, who also owns the Progo Washington Post, had negotiated for some time with the authorities in New York City to open a major HQ and distribution operation in that Progo city. At a time when firms and investors are fleeing my natal city, one of the world's biggest companies sought to undertake a major investment in a poorer part of NYC, much of it within AOC's district. You would think Amazon should have their heads examined, or, at least, welcomed with open arms by the masters of the Big Apple. No? It seems Amazon was promised some state and city tax incentives (totaling perhaps $3 billion) in exchange for establishing an operation in NYC that would employ initially some 25,000 persons, expanding eventually to some 40,000, allow unions to get into the operation, and undertake some other development projects in the area that would generate additional employment and revenues for the state and the city of New York. The old machine Demos, e.g., Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, and assorted Dem-controlled unions were all for the deal, as were, according to polls, the vast majority of people living in the area. But, no. The mad Progos captained by AOC and a handful of "community activists" led the charge against it, denouncing the deal as corporate welfare, and blasting Amazon as, essentially, a slave owner. Amazon walked. AOC & company put out triumphant tweets and statements boasting of how they had stopped the project, and that now NYC would be able to "spend" those $3 billion on something more Progo oriented than jobs for working people.

Well, of course, there is no $3 billion to spend, AOC not understanding the difference between giving somebody money and just reducing their costs. If, for example, you have a 20% discount coupon from Pizza Hut, you can't decide not to buy at Pizza Hut, and then use the "money" from the coupon to buy a car. It doesn't work that way, Sandy. Amazon was going to pour in lots of investment and tax money and create jobs which create other jobs that create more tax revenue. Amazon decided not to put up with the Progo abuse and announced that, instead, it will expand operations in Virginia, Tennessee, and elsewhere across the USA and Canada.

The Dem machine is not happy. Cuomo blasted the AOC crowd, the unions expressed their unhappiness and--mirabile visu, mirabile dictu--even Cher, tweeting apparently from her mansion in Malibu, expressed the belief that jobs were good for people. When you're a Prog and you lose Cher . . . it's over, baby. AOC's antics have offended Nancy "Get Even" Pelosi, put the party in the position of voting for the absurd Green Deal--a gift to the Trump re-election effort--and now it must explain why 25,000-40,000 jobs in NY is bad.

Bold Prediction: Paraphrasing Churchill on the Anglo-American landings in North Africa, this might not be the beginning of the end, but it certainly is the end of the beginning for AOC. She might have jumped the Amazon piranha.

Popcorn is available in the lobby.

Shooting my AK [Update]

OK. I am in the process of writing something about AOC jumping the shark, or better said the Amazon piranha, but wanted to take a break and fill in my millions of readers (I can be a Dreamer, no?) on my latest acquisition, a Romanian-made AK.

I bought it new at a gun and pawn shop in Wilmington. It's imported by Century Arms, which I understand is now making AKs here in the USA. I never have owned one of these Third World guerrilla icons. I have seen tons of them in my assignments overseas, but never fired or owned one until now.

To start: The gun definitely has the cool factor, about which I have written before. Holding one in your hands, you want to wrap a rag around your head, jump onto the bed of a Toyota pick-up truck, and babble-shout words to the sky while you pump the weapon up and down. I refrained myself. I certainly have the rags, but I have a Chevy pick-up, and that jumping part, well, that's in the long ago past for me. I can still babble-shout meaningless words, however. Not all my abilities are gone, I'll have you know!

Yes, where was I?

Cool. Yes, sir, it's definitely cool looking. On closer examination, however, one does see that it's a pretty crudely made weapon: Stamped parts, kinda loose fit, and it makes an infernal racket when you rack a round. It has a clunky and enormous safety, the trigger pull is nothing to write home about, it can be tricky to get the magazine to sit just right, and ejecting an empty magazine is not always smooth and easy.

But the beast shoots! I ran good American-made Winchester 7.62X39 factory ammo through it, some local reloads, and some cheapo Serbian-made stuff, as well as a few rounds of some otherwise problematic "frangible" ammo. Unlike my much better-made American Ruger Mini-30--which chambers the same 7.62 ammo but would not digest the frangible stuff--the AK ate anything I fed it. No fail-to-feed, no fail-to-fire, no jams, in something over 100 rounds. I am going back to the range tomorrow; my son is bringing his AR, and we are going to have a NATO vs Warsaw Pact demo.

Accuracy? OK, here's a picture
.

This shows 40 rounds at 25 yards.

I was standing, using a sling, gun straight out of the box. I started off well enough with a nice center grouping, but after a bit the damn thing gets heavy; I have trouble squinting through the tiny sights; the barrel gets hot; and my shooting starts to drift down and left, and then when I correct, it wanders up and right. It's tiring for an old fart! Now I know why armies want the young ones. I also noticed that the gun is a tad short. That means your head gets real close to the gun itself, and a couple of times the recoil, although not excessive, knocked a hearing protector off my right ear.

Is it as "good" as a 15? No, no it's not. The AR's my son and I have (his a Ruger; mine an S&W) are made much better, but, but, but . . . the AK is a lot of fun to shoot. It will certainly do the job for which it was designed. I am a bit annoyed, however, at the price on these things. They should cost a lot less than an quality AR, but they don't.

OK, politics tomorrow . . . after the NATO Vs. Warsaw Pact "re-enactment" . . .

UPDATE: I am sorry to report that the Warsaw Pact won the WP vs. NATO "re-enactment." The AK performed as an AK should; my son's Ruger 5.56 repeatedly jammed. We are going to check the gas block and the need for some extra special deep cleaning and oiling. We hang our heads in shame . . .

The Prog World of Green Misery

I have been reading some more on the "New Green Deal" or "Green New Deal" or however it becomes finally known. I offer some reflections on what the New World Green, New Green World, or Green New World, or however it becomes known, would look like should it come to pass.

The driving vision behind this horrid lunacy, of course, is a Fascist/Nazi/Communist one--in other words, it's a classic Brave New World of the left, using the hoax "science" of "climate change" to justify itself.

What comes through this proposal is the utter disdain and contempt for the individual and for the rights, views, and choices of that individual. The attack on fossil fuels, for example, is nothing less than an attack on individual mobility and freedom. The automobile, for all its faults, has been a vehicle of liberty, of choice, aka, freedom. In North America, perhaps more than anywhere else, the automobile stands for hope. "I don't like it in this town for reasons X, Y, and Z. I am loading up the Chevy and moving 500 miles away." "I don't want to live next to my factory/office building/other place of work. I want to live in a town in the suburbs or the countryside. I can commute to work in my automobile."

Automobiles, overwhelmingly, run on fossil fuels. As the recent "Polar Vortex" demonstrated, electric cars suffered a great deal from the cold. A near-by neighbor has a battery-powered Tesla--a beautiful piece of design and engineering--but is constantly worried about "range." The recent cold snap made that even worse. My Jeep Wrangler with its 3.6 liter engine, burning cheap 87 octane gas, laughs at the cold and snow. It takes me almost anywhere I want to go. Where I live there is no train or bus; I'll be damned if I will give up my house and cars--and guns and dogs--to live in some government-regulated enviro retro-fit building with thousands of other poor sods crowding onto a platform to take a government-run green train to some dreary government approved job, all to appease the supposed dictates of the mythical goddess Gaia. The automobile is a great thing. Let nobody tell you otherwise. The open road is a good thing. Gaia be damned!

The assault by the Green Nazis is by no means limited to cars and planes--which they also want to do away with (how about that, Senators from Washington state?). It extends to just about every aspect of life. They would tell us what we can and cannot eat. No meat! Gaia demands it! Sounds sort of like the line from the great 1930s horror film, "Island of Lost Souls" in which Bela Lugosi's character, The Sayer of the Law, must remind Dr. Moreau's miserable half-human, half-animal creatures, "What is the Law? Not to eat meat!" The poor beasts repeat back in unison, "Not to eat meat!" Watch that outstanding film, based on Wells' Island of Dr. Moreau, and then read the Green New Deal. Chilling.

And, of course, the Green Deal does not come in a vacuum. Nope. It comes as part of a prog package that includes abortion on demand, infanticide, and destruction of marriage and the family. It bans pets, farm animals, guns, and borders. It imposes speech restrictions, limitations on religious faith, and an insistence on politically correct thought. It does "guarantee" access to nature. Yes, let's revive the Hitler Youth or the Young Pioneers! It is a prog prescription for hell on earth. A hell devoid of fun and adventure; a hell of drudgery and constant lecturing and hectoring by our betters; a hell of no innovation or advancement. A hell of the bee hive. It, in other words, is North Korea or East Germany on organic steroids.

Think this is all fantasy and will never happen? Some 70 Democrat Congressmen, including presidential candidates, have signed on. If they manage to take power . . . you watch.

In the Name of Gaia, the "Green New Deal": The Luddites Return?

Have you had a laugh today? No? If not, you need to read the text of the Democrats' "Green New Deal" (also here)!

Quick, read it before the rights to its publication get bought by The Onion. Oh, and be sure also to read the now-deleted FAQ sheet put out by today's darling of the lunatic left, NY Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (here)--btw, it was apparently deleted after it provoked overwhelming derision.

What do you think? I see it as something straight out of a junior high class president campaign, "And, if elected, I will ensure that all the vending machines dispense free Mars bars! I also will ensure that every student--regardless of how ugly, unwashed, or generally unpleasant--will have a date to the prom!" Stop me if you think I am being unfair to junior high class presidents all across the nation.

I apologize to the Luddites whom I have offended by associating them with AOC's delusional screed, one being repeated mindlessly by all of the, thus far, declared Democrat candidates for junior high US president.

The Luddites, after all, only were trying to smash the emerging industrial system which was destroying their jobs and traditional way of life. If not justifiable, that's, at least, understandable. The GND, however, stands the Luddites on their heads. AOC and her clones seek to destroy the system that provides an unprecedented level of health, wealth, and employment to billions of people around the globe.

The AOCs want us to work, travel, and live only in groups, controlled by and dictated to by the new overlords who know so much better than we do how we should exist on this planet.

We must give up the fight of thousands of years, and surrender to Gaia's dictates--as interpreted, of course, by the AOCs, the new Oracles of Delfi, the new fascists, the new Big Brothers of 1984, the new Stalinists . .  .

Crazy has become a way of life for the Democrats.

Stop laughing and start crying . . . this is the new politics in the West.

Democrazy

As the Great Internet Philosopher Professor Glenn Reynolds has noted many times on his indispensable Instapundit re the Democrats, "All they have to do is not be crazy, and they can't even do that."

Do we have any better evidence of the wisdom of Professor Reynolds' observation than that provided by events of this past week or so?

I noted back in February 2017, that the election of Donald Trump has exposed the inner insanity of the Democratic/Prog machine like no other event in our times.

The man, Donald Trump, who ran the most unorthodox campaign since, since, well, you fill in the date, and who was given less chance to win than the Cubs, well, he won. The losers are not happy. The sort of attack they have launched on Trump, his administration, and supporters might seem unprecedented, although it might be comparable to how the Democrats in the South reacted to Republican-led Reconstruction after the Civil War, except it doesn't make anywhere as much sense. <...> 

After watching some anti-Trump demonstration on TV, a friend of my son's asked these intelligent questions of me the other day, "What has Trump done? Why is he accused of being racist? Why do they hate him so much?" Best as I can tell, I think they hate the idea of Trump. He wasn't supposed to be president. He is not, I guess, one with the body. He has, in short, exposed them as, no other word for it, crazy. Yes, crazy . . . 

[T]hey are for children but also for killing unborn ones with no restriction, no apology, and no need for a fee. They are for LBGT and women's "rights," but ally themselves with Muslims who practice FGM, oppose abortion, treat women like cattle, promote and engage in honor killings, and advocate death for LBGT people. They are for women's rights, but want men who think they are women to use women's washrooms. They are for free speech, but shut down anybody who disagrees with them, and, of course, they ally themselves with Muslims who oppose freedom of speech and thought as part of their core dogma. They are against racism but try to stir up old racial animosities and conflicts that had long been resolved, buried, and forgotten. They are for poor working people, but oppose the tax and the regulatory structures that create jobs. They are for poor working people but favor unrestricted immigration that drives down wages, crowds out jobs, and absorbs the funds of public welfare schemes. They want free education for all, but oppose letting poor and middle class people have the right to choose their schools, unlike the rich people who do. They shout "Love Trumps Hate!" as they bash opponents with bricks and poles. They have spent decades denouncing the military, the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI as oppressors of the people, but now want those agencies to sabotage an elected president. The wealthy ones denounce gun ownership and walls but live behind protective shields of men with guns and walls around their exclusive properties. Hollywood stars who made millions living in the land of make-believe denounce non-existent Trumpian "brownshirts" and bravely proclaim their resistance! They are for the environment and prove it by flying to environmental rallies in their private jets. They, well . . . you can go on with this sad litany. 

For these leftists, facts don't matter. Logic is absent, abhorred, and shouted down. The emotion is the thing. The posturing is the thing. The slogan is the thing.

I think that analysis holds up.

We see the Democrat Governor of Virginia, who ran a scurrilous campaign for election which depicted his opponent as a racist killer, openly stating his support for infanticide. He not only supports abortion at any time, and I mean any time, but even after a live birth he would have the doctor and the mother discuss whether to allow the child to live. That horror was not enough to fire up the outrage machine. No. He ran afoul of the new prog rules of behavior when it turned out he might have gone in blackface to some stupid party back in his medical school days. That's the outrage! There were some calls for him to resign but he seems determined to hang on as his Deputy, Lt. Gov. Fairfax (who is black), faces--shall we use the word?--"credible" accusations of sexual assault back when he was working for sleazy John Edwards. The number three Dem in Virginia, the Attorney General, also seems to have had a proclivity for "blackface" dressing up as a rapper for some teen-age party back in 1980. Outrage!!

Now, I normally would not care a whole lot about such stupidity by teenagers, but the Dems wrote the new rules . .  . so live or die with them! Imagine if the Gov had been a Republican . . . .

All this goes to my long-held belief that the Democrat Party is and has been for a VERY long time, the repository of racism (and antisemitism) in American politics. This is the party of Cherokee genocide, slavery, civil war, Jim Crow, the KKK, internment camps for Japanese Americans, Communist spies, and so much much more.

It is also the party of just plain crazy.

For new evidence of that--as if more were needed--look at the idiotic "Green New Deal" presented by Democrat rising star, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is, frankly, weird beyond belief. She might even be weirder, and with a more fanciful life story than previous Queen of Crazy, Elizabeth "Native American" Warren . . . or does that crown still belong to Maxine Waters or is to Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono or to . . . it's a long list of Democrat pretenders for Queen and King of Crazy. That "Green New Deal," by the way, would destroy our economy and that of the West and bring untold misery to hundreds of  millions of people. But that's a minor point since, as noted above,

"For these leftists, facts don't matter. Logic is absent, abhorred, and shouted down. The emotion is the thing. The posturing is the thing. The slogan is the thing."

State of the Union

I rush to write this because of the ongoing technical issues with the blog. I don't know if the blog might come down for a bit until I get this resolved. I, therefore, will not attempt any "fancy" things with this post; in my limited world, of course, "fancy" means linking and other techno marvels, as I don't want to rile unnecessarily the Gods of the Silicon Valley.

OK. Full disclosure before I turn to Trump's State of the Union address. In case the five or six readers of this humble exercise in pontification don't know it: I like Trump. I think he might be the best president we have had, at least in my lifetime. I am biased in favor of the man. There I said it. I like him because he doesn't fear to say what needs saying; no fancy circumlocution or circumventing. He comes out straight. He is not a Churchill, a Roosevelt, a Kennedy, or a Reagan when it comes to word output. He is blue collar. He talks like an Eric Hoffer. Hell, he talks like the guy sitting next to you in a bar, a very smart and crafty guy, that is.

Most of the address was blue collar common sense.

He did a terrific job laying out the accomplishments of his two years as President, which are considerable, both at home and abroad. The Dems, including the absurd "ladies in white" contingent  (they look like some sort of religious cult or a KKK meeting) could not figure out what to do when he stated, accurately, that we have the highest participation by women in the labor market, and the lowest unemployment rates for black, white, and Hispanic workers. Most of them couldn't bring themselves to clap. Some put on a silly dance routine which was meant to convey . . . who knows what? To the credit of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who seemed to be having denture problems judging from the odd faces she was making, she tried to keep the Dem contingent under control. The Diplowife said Pelosi reminded her of a chaperon taking unruly kids to the art museum. I think that's right, and Pelosi is losing that control, I might add.

Trump was dead on when he discussed the illegal immigration problem, and noted that certain wealthy people and politicians who oppose the border wall, in fact, live in mansions behind walls, gates, and armed guards. The President did a masterful job of using the Reagan tactic of introducing guests who highlighted the points he was making, including some who had relatives murdered by illegal aliens. He stole the Dem's thunder with his proposal to resist the federal prison guidelines (mostly established under Clinton) which send people, disproportionately African Americans, to very long prison stints even when they did not commit violence or had no previous records of violence. His comments on the Dem's blood thirst when it comes to abortion was very accurate. His depiction of the progo mania for late-term abortion was absolutely right, despite the convoluted explanations of the "fact checkers' (see below) of the progo media.

It was sad and unfortunate that a President of the USA has to declare that we are not, nor will we become a socialist country. What have we come to in this country that a President has to say that? I, however, did enjoy seeing Bernie Sanders go bright red as the Republicans chanted "USA! USA!" after Trump savaged socialism. Trump's comments on socialist Venezuela were right on target, too.

That brings me to some funny stuff. Try reading the "fact checking" by the New York Times and others. Hilarious. They try to label things as false or misleading which are neither. Read it. Have a good laugh. Try not to get too angry when you read how they try to explain away late-term abortion, i.e., infanticide.

A few things got left in the ink well. I think a shout out to the Covington teens so maligned by the media would have been nice. I would have liked a specific mention of the coal miners and steel workers going back to work in industries which we were told were dead. But, those are minor quibbles.

The President had a good night.

Problems with the Blog

Some sort of highly technical big-words glitch is affecting the blog. I will try to resolve it, but . . . . .

UPDATE: Suddenly my password and account name don't always work, and there is some screw up re the domain and web hosting. I spent hour on the phone with the nice people at GoDaddy.com but they were dealing with me, so not much useful got done. I will have to rely on kids . .  .