The reason the Second Amendment exists, in the words of 19th century jurist and scholar Joseph Story, is to prevent “unprincipled and ambitious rulers [from] subvert[ing] the government or trampl[ing] on the rights of the people.” The people are the ultimate check on the excesses of the central government.
But you’d never know that by listening today’s leftists, who piously insist that the Second Amendment protects a collective right, and only the police and military may keep and bear arms.
In light of the above, the tenor of current political rhetoric is all the more bizarre. As I write this, the much hoped-for, much-feared Donald J. Trump has just taken the oath of office and become America’s 45th President. The left is still freaking out about it in the most childish ways, exemplified by a ten-year old boy who started a fire just so he could say “screw our president!”
They’re exhibiting the same reaction they’ve been having about Mr. Trump since 2015; he’s a fascist, and will be the worst President we’ve ever had, including the execrable James Buchanan and all of those others who gave the last full measure of political devotion giving succor to the peculiar institution of human chattel slavery in that calculus. No, it isn’t just leftists, either:
The worst human being ever to enter the presidency, and I include all the slaveholders.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) January 20, 2017
Some of these dedicated anti-Trumpers are now styling themselves the “Resistance”, as if they were a musical feature in a South Park subplot.
Look, I voted for the guy, and while he’s certainly flawed, (as all men are,) and although some his rhetoric is a bit fiery, there’s no evidence that he’s actually a nascent dictator.
But, if you really think he is, what the hell are you doing bragging about how the next time your 2004 VW Jetta Sportswagen TDI needs an alignment, you’re not going to take it to Pep Boys?
Why are you holding hug-in support meetings where you drink eggnog and “chill” and talk about your feelings?
For heaven’s sake, why are you screwing around with coloring books and moaning about NEA funding if you really believe the spawn of Lucifer is now occupying the White House?
The Trump presidency is laying bare the obvious contradictions in what passes for American progressivism. The old leftists, the ones who didn’t mess around wearing Che Guevara t-shirts, but instead grabbed a rifle and fought alongside men of his ilk, the ones who knew that political power came from strength, would have started fighting already. They’d know they might lose (as they did across most of Latin America, for example,) but the contest would be on.
Modern American progressivism, however, is a philosophy that enshrines personal weakness and victimhood; the virtues of passivity, asceticism and virtue-signalling, where changing the color of one’s social media avatar or posting a picture with hand-written homilies are substitutes for doing something real. It’s the portrait of a disarmed people.
That’s how you end up with articles about the so-called “antifa” “resistance” leadership that wastes whole paragraphs moaning about how Trump is going to appoint “another Second-Amendment fundamentalist – a judge who will back a constitutional right to own military-style assault weapons” to the Supreme Court.
Does the left even listen to its own rhetoric? They’re getting themselves riled up because “Literally Hitler” has just become president, and in their fevered imaginations (a/k/a the New York Times), he’s about to start rounding people up into camps. But instead of grabbing a gun and heading for the hills, they’re quaking in their boots because a few gun control laws might be rolled back.
Give me a break! The modern left wouldn’t even be a speed bump for “Literally Hitler”.
Those of us who have the mindset, training, equipment, and inclination to do so will be keeping our powder dry and watching President Trump’s words and deeds very closely. Of course, he’s promised to fight for some causes we believe in, which — oddly enough — would protect civil liberties like the right to keep and bear arms for all Americans. Leftists included.
That’s not exactly fascist behavior. It’s also better treatment than we are getting from alleged civil liberties activists who insist on making enemies of gun owners for their own sporadic three minutes of base-rallying hate.
But don’t worry, if The Donald or anyone else really does go over the line, at least some of us will be ready to do the actual work, to make the actual stand, to take the actual incoming fire, and pledge our actual lives, fortunes and sacred honor to defend liberty from actual tyranny.
Yeah, we might fail, especially if the full might of the nation were arrayed against us. But there’s more to a long guerilla struggle than merely winning set-piece battles; that’s something that successful insurgents fighting a powerful enemy like George Washington, Ariel Sharon, and Võ Nguyên Giáp all understood. It’s for that chance that the Founding Fathers made sure that we’d always be able to have our “military grade” rifles within arm’s reach.
In the unlikely event of a real emergency, America’s Constitution gives us the chance to grab our rifles and stave off tyranny. One thing is for sure: disarmed people who call themselves “progressives” in America today would never do that.
NOTE: Some minor spelling/grammar changes were made by the author on 2017-01-22.
There was one of these marches where I live on the Jersey Shore and one hysterical woman told me Trump was going to sent his opponents “to camps”. I advised her to “pack light since there won’t be valets at the station to carry your bags”.
These leftists are protesting against a man who hasn’t done anything yet as President. Not a single thing. What they’re really protesting against is traditional American values which they hate because of their Judeo-Christian origins.. The Constitution which they hate because it limits the power of scope lof their beloved central government. The rule of law which they hate. And American sovereignty which they hate.
Welp as someone on the left who is protesting it is not those things. It is a man who bragged about forcibly kissing women because he is rich and grabbing their genitals
It is a man who said he liked the military folks who didn’t get captured
Had anyone in the left like Hillary said that I assume you would be angry for years.
Why you think three times divorced trump who in the comments noted here was trying to sleep with a married woman has anything to do with Christian values I don’t know
The right has done a good job making its people think that the left is the enemy
The right didn’t need to convince us the left was the enemy. The left did it without any help from outsiders.
If you despise Trump so much, vote for hillary.
You bring up very good points, and I think they are points that should be considered. I wish I could find the article I read, but it made some excellent points about the relationship between religion and and politics. It was written by one of Obama’s faith council members, and his point was that the left has generally made it clear that it wants nothing to do with religion and that religion has no place in the modern world. As a result, he posits, the religious segment has realized that rather than being seen as a group that holds politicians to a higher standard, they need to getting line with every other interest group. Being in line, he notes, means that you don’t vote for the one most like you, but the one who will protect you, even if you don’t like him. Getting back to the liberals, there is no protection there (he points out how even nominally religious folks like Kaine and Reid espouse positions that are antithetical to what their faith would suggest), and thus they are left to seek succor from a man that they may personally despise.
So, while I do see some element of the protests as disavowing any Judeo-Christian foundation to the United States, I don’t see that as out of the ordinary. Nor do I see it as hypocritical for Christians to support Trump as a politician. However, I do agree that it would be so, and severely so, for Christians to support him as a man.
“and his point was that the left has generally made it clear that it wants nothing to do with religion and that religion has no place in the modern world.”
Close, Katy. But not *quite* there.
While true the vast majority of those on the Left want nothing to do with ‘religion’, there is one of the major religions that the Left welcomes with open arms.
Islam. The Left actively supports it with demonstrated action. Such as:
Foot washers in public buildings, some go as far to provide a furnished room with trappings like a pointer so that they may be facing the correct direction for prayers.
Try that level of accommodation for Christians.
What would they say about a special room with a Christian cross in it, and it was paid for with *public money*?
Notice how the party now is fawning over a guy named Keith Ellison running for the position of head of the DNC?
He loudly proclaims his Islam faith.
The Left is tolerant of religious faith.
As long as it’s their *proper* religious faith…
Hillary once said she liked Socialism. That was enough for me to vote for her opposition, no matter who that might have been.
Hey, it wasn’t the Right who said that the Left thought we were deplorable, irredeemable. It was the Left said that.My advice to the Left, if you don’t like DJT, is to ratchet down the attack and make an attempt to…
No, screw it. My advice to you is “Go on doing what you did. It lost you the election this year (to an Orange Nightmare, no less!) but it will SURELY work next time.”
“It is a man who bragged about forcibly kissing women because he is rich and grabbing their genitals”
Didn’t happen.
“It is a man who said he liked the military folks who didn’t get captured”
John McCain is a dirtbag. I glad Trump doesn’t like McCain.
More of the same lies from the left. There is no evidence that Trump has EVER forcibly assaulted anyone. The actual recording was a discussion of ‘groupies’ who will do anything for somebody famous. The irony here is that so many liberal entertainers have done and said all the same things. They just get the usual liberal pass because they espouse the liberal party line. The rest of us recognize a liberal smear job when we see one.
Not only that, but if Trump actually HAD done something like that, you can bet your life he would have either been in court on sexual harassment/assault charges (and it would have been all over the news like Bill Cosby was not long ago), or someone would have been paid off BIG to keep quiet – and it STILL would have likely come out. As it is, nobody came forward until it appeared it might do Trump some political harm – and one of the alleged “victims” turned out to be an associate of Hil-LIAR-y Clinton. Nothing but locker-room talk.
My schadenfreude boner just keeps getting pumped up bigger by the continued lamentations and whining of the Left.
As long as you keep it up ….I’ll keep it up.
I clean my weapons with the tears of Leftists.
I’ve never heard the name of JESUS more in public than on Friday. Maybe liberal “values” like baby murder,disarming everyone and happy marriage please God? No? Go hid in your your safe space…
To Lib Lurker, Tump being divorced three times and any perceived conflict with Christian values mean absolutely nothing to me since I’m an atheist. If it’s a deal breaker for you, that’s your problem.
I’m not his pastor or an ex-wife. I am a voter who only cares about how effective the man is in office, i.e. how well does he do his JOB.
I can’t stand Bill Clinton but what he did with some dippy intern or willing mistresses plays no part in my disgust. Likewise, I despise Jimmy Carter and the new marxist leaning, SJW Pope and I’m sure their lives lack any grotesque scandal; their policies suck and that’s all I choose to focus on. Their policies are what actually effect me, if they want to be human tomcats that’s between them, their spouse and a divorce lawyer. Otherwise it’s just gossip and I don’t give a shit.
I agree
But read the terrified and frightened writings of the libertarian Reason Magazine online. It is the libertarians as well as the Left and the Liberals, who call Donald Trump a tyrant. Libertarians call him a tyrant. Why????
He is in office now, but for two months the libertarians called him every name in the book.
I understand Trump has no voting record like any previous elected politician. Lots of people don’t trust him. But Trump is a dictator, a tyrant, etc.????
Is Obama a tyrant? Has Reason online called Obama a dictator? If they have, I not seen it. If I’m wrong send me the link.
I think libertarians are the establishment. Just like the republicans, democrats, socialist, etc. See Gary Johnson and his VP William Weld.
If “putting things into your bodies” is your only goal, then California is your utopia.
What proof shows scared libertarians did not destroy private property just like the Left?
Libertarians are just liberals who have a looser view on gun control. They still tend to lean towards the left.
Not true. My wife and I are staunch Libertarians, but we both lean to the right – as do most of the small-l libertarians I know. I voted for Trump because I had to do everything in my power to ensure the Bicked Witch did not get elevated to the Presidency… I shudder at the thought!
So while my wife voted her conscience and chose the person she felt would best represent us, I swallowed my convictions and pulled the Red lever. And I won’t look back – the Supreme Court nominations are the single most important factor in this election, IMO.
This is all good. Let them continue to think that they’re going to get locked up in internment camps. They’ll all tool up, then realize all the stupid shit they’ve been proposing is actually a burden on real people, and gun control will fall flat on its face.
Wouldn’t matter. One definition of a liberal is “A person whose ‘mind’ (such as it is) is so ‘open’ that what little brain they might once have possessed has leaked out”. A true modern-day progressive never lets facts get in the way of “feelings” and rhetoric.
Uh…no. see california. No.1 rule, exempt oneself from laws imposed on the ruled.
“Let them continue to think that they’re going to get locked up in internment camps. They’ll all tool up, then realize all the stupid shit they’ve been proposing is actually a burden on real people, and gun control will fall flat on its face.”
No, they will just double down on their beliefs and rationalize their beliefs in the future, like the only reason Trump didn’t become a dictator was Democratic congressmen or leftist Supreme Court members stopped him.
Ha! Good exposition… bring it on cupcakes. Maybe you can get Madonna to gum Trump to death:)
OMG!
What an image!!
My eyes….my brain….
The Left hates America and loves the G.
The right loves America and distrusts the G.
Which makes the right a lot like the Founders, and makes the left a lot like the people it pretends to despise.
Hitler was a leftist. Fascism is on the left, right alongside communism.
The extreme right would be anarchy.
Source: The 5,000 Year Leap, by Constitutional scholar W. Cleon Skousen.
“We are socialist, we are enemies of the capitalistic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility.” That wasn’t Che or Mao (butchers in their own right), that was Adolf f****** Hitler.
He had many other zingers that would fit well with the modern narrative of the Left:
-Admired radical Islam and even drafted them into the SS (oh the irony)
-Anticapitalist
-Anticorporate unless it was for the German M.I.C
-Antigun
-Atheist
-Control freak
-Huge animal lover
-Huge environmentalist
-Proponent of public works projects
-Vegetarian
-“Universal” health care
-Wanted to be an artist
I could go on. Funny those things don’t seem very right-wing to me.
IMO, you’re right.
Most people don’t realize NAZI Germany was socialist; instead, they confuse it with Italy of the time, which was fascist.
And, personally, I think communism is more closely tied to the left than the right (and I know I differ from many on this). To the man in the street, the differences are few; there’s a strong government that interferes with personal freedoms, money is scarce, and the privileged get most of the perks. For the average person, there’s little opportunity for advancement unless one toes the political line. One can argue the fine points about the motivation of the ruling class, but the end result (and thus the final motivation) is the same: The “people” are too stupid to know what’s good for them, so we must make sure they get what they need.
Look up “Nazi” in any dictionary. It stands for National Socialist German Workers’ Party: in German, the word is nationalsozialist. Socialism is IN THE NAME, and yet the leftists still have people thinking it was a right-wing thing.
Everything the progressive left says is the exact opposite of what it really believes. If they say they’re antifascist protectors of human rights, it’s because they themselves are fascists and totalitarian collectivists. As Vox Day says, SJWs always project. They say Trump is “literally Hitler” because they themselves literally are Nazis: totalitarian national socialists.
All you have to do is observe their actions.
The Croatian Muslims were recruited due to their hatred of the Jews, which dovetailed nicely with the similar Nazi goal of complete genocide of the world’s Jewry. Not dissimilar to the US government becoming allies with Stalinist Russia because of the shared interest in defeating a common enemy. I doubt their was too much true admiration between the cooperating factions, just a relationship based upon mutual goals. Cold hearted pragmatism was at work in both examples despite any glowing endorsements that may have been seen as helpful at the time.
Even if Hitler was an avowed atheist ( I’m not disputing the possibility ) he still kowtowed to the religious sensibilities of his native culture much like American politicians have always done in order to ensure their acceptance by the voting masses. Being evil does not equate to being naive.
When the atheist Joseph Stalin’s back was against the wall, he used the Russian people’s faith in god to rally the nation to fight against the hitlerites invasion.
In the beginning Hitler was winning in russia because the Russian people had no faith in the goodness of the murderous atheist government.
Give me a break. The modern left wouldn’t even be a speed bump for an actual “Literally Hitler”.
Sure they would. The kind you go over fast and say “Wheeeee!”
I giggled. The mental image of SJWs vs Panzers is hilarious.
I can imagine them as they toss their giant dildos at the tanks right before the big bump.
Social Justice Warriors… three lies in one.
They are anti-social.
They don’t believe in justice.
They most certainly are not warriors.
Now that’s funny, right there – I don’t care who you are.
Big bump? The one into the next life?
Tankers refer to the infantry and others they run over as “crunchies”. You’re no bump to an Abrams. To them you’re what a field mouse is to an SUV.
One of those big dildos could knock the track off a tank. Saw it on the Internet. Puts a whole new sickening spin on “sticky bomb”. Ewww
You guys are killing me.
Quote of the day. Thank you sir!
The kind of speed bump that messes up the alignment on a 1944 VW Type 1.
I see what you did there.
*spit*
Correction: *spits coffee on keyboard*
Brilliant points, brilliantly made.
If fascism comes, under any leader, it’s _our_ folks who’ll have the skills, the means, and the dedication to liberty, up to and including the ultimate sacrifice, to fight like hell. And we will. Our will and our capability to do so are the insurance policy against fascism.
I did not purchase a scary black rifle to defend this Republic against Leftist totalitarians. I equipped and train to defend our Republic against ALL totalitarians.
So I am trying to wrap my mind around all these reports of protests/riots that are happening all around this great country of ours…..so far these riots are happening in predominately liberal/leftist held territories where they are tearing up their own backyard…..these leftist controlled areas comprise maybe 4% of our country by land area represented by large densely populated cities ie. Chicago, LA, New York city, D.C., San Francisco, Detroit…..you get the general idea….why don’t don’t these special snowflake types bring their protest/riot machines to small town America that are in the “red zone”……SI VIS PACEM PARA BELLUM.
Excellent???
I don’t know if TTAG will let me post links, but if it does, here’s the inimitable Phil Ochs, who was to the left of the ‘ordinary’ US 1960s ‘left’ – with some brilliant lampooning of the hypocrisy and impotence of so-called liberals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u52Oz-54VYw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Me,_I'm_a_Liberal
if the links get stripped out, look for “Love me I’m a Liberal” on YouTube and the lyrics via any number of websites
I scanned the Wiki article about him and listened to the video. He was a strange but refreshing blend of contrasts. Too bad he hung himself ( no sarcasm intended )
Listening to some of these lefties I think they would face additional barriers to owning guns… I have to believe many of them have been, or should be committed for mental care.
Liberalism is, in and of itself, a mental disease, that too often goes undiagnosed and untreated…
Yeah. I keep telling all the liberals I know that I put in an application to be a tower guard at all these supposed camps. Looky here… A change in leadership and now look who’s crying about camps.
Our Internet driven culture has created a land of make believe. Progressives pretend they are heroic figures fight against the evil Fascists (and for the glorious communist revolution.) But how many of us live in thr same fantasy world?
They are modern Don Quixote’s.
Not in the least. Don Quixote’s intentions were honorable; The leftist’s intentions are not.
The left’s intentions are honorable to the left. They truly believe they are superior to everyone not as far left as they are. And to them, the reasons for believing that are obvious; everyone else doesn’t know what’s good for them.
To their own, they are every bit as honorable as Don Quixote was. The don’t get up every morning and say, “What a beautiful morning! Let’s see who I can restrict today.” Instead, they say, “Let’s see how can I work to help those who are so unfortunate as to not understand what is good for themselves.”
To them, they really are doing good. There are no facts that can sway them from this. Everyone who tries to reason with them otherwise is the enemy, spewing propaganda. Such people are the truly evil ones, who renew daily their promise to drag this country down to the lowest common denominator. This is, to them, self evident; and since they are the only ones gifted enough to see this, attempting to actually have a discussion is pointless (remember “I won”? Remember the promise to post proposed legislation on the internet for discussion? Remember the promise to have the most open administration ever?). To the left, there is simply no talking to the rest of us, because they know we are just too stupid to understand.
Oh, I disagree!
Now, you may be right about your average run-of-the-mill Democrat, but the leaders of the socialist left – the people who these dolts actually end up electing – they know EXACTLY what their intentions are.
And to those leftist leaders, these pathetic, whining protesters are “useful idiots”. They spout rhetoric fed to them by the leaders, and even provide a ready pool of “victims of oppression” when the police react to their “ovexuberance”.
I’ve seen a great deal of celebration over that neo-nazi guy (the one with the saluting at that meeting) getting sucked punched. In other words, celebration of political violence used against an opponent… what’s that called again? Thought it started with an Fac…
No, starts with Fighting Words. In the words of Joliet Jake Blues: “I hate Illinois Nazis.” And in the words of my Grandfather: “It was my job, in the War, to kill men like this. I did not like it. I am glad it is over. I want you to know, as I leave you my firearms in my will, that I leave you also my charter, to defend the world against those who would burn it down.”
Don’t want to be sucker punched? Save the Sieg Heiling for your Klavern meeting.
It’s really unwise to ignore & ridicule seditious behavior; that’s what this stuff is, when you get down to it. Sowing discord and distrust in our government systems for the sole purpose of destabilizing our society. For all the laughs about silly, effete liberals’ pitiful attempts at armed aggression, less effete thugs in their employ have been intermittently rioting and generally harassing their opposition essentially unopposed for several years, now, and are emboldened. It’s worth remembering that along with all the stoned hippies of the 60’s at Woodstock, were militant racist groups and outright terrorists attacking police and planting firebombs (both black and white). As we should all know very well, all it takes for a violent attack to occur is a person with poor impulse control and vile emotions; and there’s a whole hell of a lot of that among the delusional set infesting academia, same as in the 60’s.
You and your government system can both hang.
Care to elaborate, or are you just ejaculating randomly on the internet? Yup, it’s “my” government alright, lol
What the Left has handily demonstrated, it’s they are using their own advice on how to combat “evil”. In the most literal terms.
They are the embodiment of the “Gun Free Zone”.
They are the embodiment of their belief “words” and “feelings” will triumph over evil.
They are utterly disillusioned.
If a terror attack targeted these gatherings and protests, they would be clamoring for Trump to save them.
God forbid a real dictator / psycho won the Presidency, all of these people would be useless in the fight against real tyranny.
Thank God a real dictator / psycho didn’t win the Presidency. All of these Hillary supporters would be useless in the fight against her tyranny.
FIFY
Have a happy national whining day!!
Maybe in the future it could be a paid holiday so they could take the day off and drink mocha soy lattes…no whip…double heat resistant sleeves so not to burn sensitive skin on their palms.
Then sit in love circles and chant for a resonating healing wave of energy to be released to the ultiverse to sooth the “bad energy” and make it return to the depths of sorrow from where it came.
Then all the happy love feels would take over and ultimate peace would vibrate the cosmos.
Happy ever after! Yea!
Oi vey!
You woke the dragon.
Imagine turnout in two years
Okay, that’s how democracy works then.
So…..If I don’t like the outcome then I reserve the right to begin scapegoating the victory of my opponents as illegitimate, resorting to mob violence, burning other people’s stuff…you know the exact same behavior that your “lib” friends are resorting to at this very moment.
BTW, the right wing population in this country has never crossed the threshold to anything even remotely similar to the widespread violence the left have been repeatedly engaging in for decades. If the “sleeping dragon” were to ever veer to the right …..and hopefully it won’t….all I can say is it sucks to be you.
The women’s match was the largest demonstration in US history and it was entirely peaceful
Not sure what your othe comments mean.
I myself don’t like any of the anarchist fringe that pop up at demonstrations from time to time. I believe in Oregon a couple were shows to be undercover cops but I am sure many are violent nutters
The dragon was a semi joking game of thrones reference
To those of you who think the Lefties are going to have a “Come to Jesus” moment on the 2A because of Trump consider this: Those Lefties look up to Mao, Che and Lenin not because those guys gave inspiring speeches and did so well by the people. They look up to these monsters for for how those figures used guns to subjugate (or attempt to subjugate) populations to a political ideology and *cough* defeat any later opposition to their rule and their policies.
Now those same Lefties are out of power and they’re scared shitless because they assume that the rest of us have the murderous contempt for our political opposition that the Left does.
Now ask yourself: What does that suggest to you about how the Leftist buying a firearm will act?
Sure, it’s their right to buy it and before someone accuses me of suggesting otherwise, I am not trying to take the right away. However, possessing the instinct for self-preservation that I do I will be exercising my right to free association be staying away from the Lefties who buy guns.
These people are not capable of a rational, adult conversation without flying off the handle so pardon me if I have some questions about their ability to safely, rationally and responsibly handle and carry a gun. I simply don’t trust someone who’s completely disconnected from reality when it comes to them having the ability to project kinetic force at a distance.
Many of them are on public record saying, “I can’t trust myself with a firearm” which then translates to “so I can’t trust anyone with a firearm”. Well, except for police and military of course. Because they are magical.
“Well, except for police and military of course. Because they are magical.”
You were dead on target until your last sentence. It’s not because police and military are magical. It’s because the goal of the Left is to purge, control and direct those entities towards their political opposition just like Cuba, China, Russia, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam etc.
The hard Left always needs to “cleanse” a country it takes over because there is always a certain group or are certain groups that stand as a roadblock on the highway to “utopia”. In that regard they are no different than any other tinpot totalitarian dictator asshole.
Assume power, liquidate opposition, oppress remaining population. That’s always the formula. If you can get rich doing it, so much the better.
Ah, that last sentence was my sarcasm coming out, not my opinion of how the Left views the police / military. But I agree with your assessment that they fully believe they can bend the military / police to their whims. Quite in the same way they believe they can stop criminals (or whoever they find in distaste) with their thoughts and feelings.
Of course, they are misguided on both accounts because the military / police, like criminals, are sentient beings and not under control of the Left “hive mind” they seem to think they possess.
It’s quite the fantasy they live in.
Sorry about that. Apparently my sarcasm detector is in the shop today.
Mr. Paulsen, you nail it on the head. Your assessment is spot on and I couldn’t agree more.
As a matter of fact, you can even come over and drink my beer, whiskey, coffee or water – whichever you prefer. Hell, I’d even break out some sharptail grouse and wild rice for you.
Well said.
Coffee, grouse and rice sounds good to me. Look for me at the NRA convention in Atlanta.
Great perspective Johannes.
For eight loooong years, conservatives had to put up with Obama actively trying to destroy our country. I don’t remember one time, not one single time, that conservatives massed together and burned down or looted a city. We were too busy with real life, jobs, families, etc. I am so fucking tired of liberals. Their whining, swiveling ,bullshit and theatrics. Grow up.
How did president Obama actively try to destroy our country exactly?
He put through a heath care plan designed at a republican think tank?
Saved the auto factories from the crisis caused by bankers?
He did neither. What he did do was double the national debt and destroy our economy over a leftist conspiracy theory. There is no such thing as anthropogenic climate change.
If you come into office and the previous administration has left a wreckage if an economy, the worst since the Great Depression, and a trillion dollar fldeficit, debt is going to go up. He is not magic and cannot create 10 percent GDP growth in a year
Anthropocentric global warming aka climate change is real according to all science and fake according to US centric right wing commentators and weathermen
And Obama did almost nothing against climate change except continue fuel economy standards, which help giving rising cost of extraction of oil
“Anthropocentric global warming aka climate change is real according to all science and fake according to US centric right wing commentators and weathermen ”
The word is “anthropogenic” not “anthropocentric.” The claim is that it is caused by man, not centered on man.
It is most certainly not real according to all science. If it were, we wouldn’t need to be told that it is settled science, nor would we be told that the scientific method has been changed to let consensus determine the truth or fallacy of a theory.
And “climate change” has been going on far, far longer than man has been around. The term was changed from “global warming” to “climate change” when it was pointed out that global warming wasn’t actually happening. Short term rises and falls or lack of change is weather, not climate. While over the last 3-4 years the global temp has risen, it hasn’t done so over the last few decades as some scientists insisted it would.
We don’t know what caused past warming and cooling, but *this* time, we are told, it’s *our* fault. It may be, it may not be. We may not even be in an actual climate warming period. Not enough time has passed to know for sure. Remember in the 70’s when we were told another ice age was coming?
Alarmist will always find something to be alarmed about. It’s what they do.
He spent eight years dividing us. That’s the ONLY way to destroy a country. “Bitter clingers. The police acted stupidly. YOU didn’t build that! Republicans will do ANYTHING to rig the system.” The constant drumbeat emphasizing the HE, and those who think like him are the only ones with “common sense.”
And the biggest one word lie of them all that he used to divide us……Furguson.
Thanks for the reply. Bitter clingers was divisive and also incredibly stupid politically, the only think more amazing is that Hillary did it again and worse with her deplorables comments. I tend to think Obama has more internal respect for all but Hillary was hard to believe and I certainly understand disliking them both for it
I think Obama and the democrats have done more good despite that for all Americans and so judge more on action than those words
I hear worse, much worse, every day on sites like these about liberals , and hear divisive comments about nuke states not being real America similarly every day
Perfectly fair points though
Seriously? You been living under a rock for 8 years?
There is this little thought in the back of my mind, that if this stuff keeps up,there may be some kind of civil war, maybe Europe, maybe here.
If there is, it will be the leftists who start it.
Maybe. But it wouldn’t be a “war” of weapons (at first), it would be a war of words, philosophy, principles, and all about controlling the behavior of others.
Eventually, someone, who is delusional, contrarian, or just anarchistic will cast the first stone and then inevitably be injured or killed. Rhetoric will go out the window and then the thoughts / feelings vs. reality war will begin.
I admit, for 72 hours I was afraid Ambassador Andrey Karlov would be our century’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Civil war? I am afraid of another World War, but divided around ideology, not nations.
Liberal progressives have no balls. Full stop. End of story. And they need virtual.parents in the form of government to live.
Sad excuse for Americans they are.
POS (D) are getting paid to be POS by other POS (D). THEY’re still beggin for civil war, and we continue to slide toward it.
I’ve known a lot of people of a lot of different viewpoints; I take people as individuals and I won’t march in lockstep with _any_ dogmatic ideology, and I don’t care who is dishing it out or under what label. I.e. “meet the new boss, just the same as the old boss.” That said, there’s an expression I’ve heard even amongst folks on the left that “when the US left forms a firing squad, they stand in a circle” because they’re each all trying to be more righteously pure and blameless than one another.
Here’s the thing:
What these Lefties fail to grasp is that the people they fear the most are the people they shouldn’t. The people big in individual liberties and defending the Republic will take up arms against any dictator or tyrant.
I don’t have to agree with someone’s views. I don’t have to even like those views or the person. I may find the person, the viewpoint and their speech repugnant. However, unless they cross the line into sedition, treason or other serious criminal activity, I will die defending their right to be offensive assholes with what I consider to be stupid opinions.Tyrants of all flavors deserve one thing: death.
I see no reason to fear the Trump administration in this regard, but as long as I am physically able to do so I will stand against anyone who behaves like a tyrant. Even if I voted for them.
I’m sick of these protests, these protesters, these left wing Hillary voting celebrity elites who bloviate into microphones about the grave injustice of having to pay taxes for tampons! I’m ashamed these people are American citizens. I’m ashamed of them.What would the hard charging ancestors of us all, the men and women who suffered, fought, bled, died to create a better tomorrow, what would they think of this nation today? They’d weep at the horror.
Where was all this national outrage, fear, anger, and protest when Obama did ANY of his litany of disgusting overreaches while in office? The answer is ALWAYS: when a Democrat regime oversteps the bounds of their office, it is okay and necessary, when a Republican does ANYTHING while in office, it is the gravest of sins and needs to be constantly decried as horrid.
Our civil rights have been systematically destroyed because of Obama seizing on the political opportunity of terrorism to manipulate the nation, he was an empty suit that shilled for Wall St., he gave our money to elites, the rights to free assembly, to keep and bear arms, against illegal search and seizure, etc… are diminished so badly that it will take a geologic shift in government thinking to tear away the Obama legacy of screwing over America. At every possible turn, you see our nation is bleeding after 8 years of this clown, but the 24/7 national outrage pumped up by CNN, MSNBC, and all those other fake news outlets are ONLY about a decimated political party that has lost COMPLETELY, and their mental breakdown is unfolding across the world stage, and I’m sick of it. MAGA mofos.
I still don’t know what any of President obamas overreaches were?
I know president bush and republicans passed the “patriot” act, “allowing” the government to spy in Americans without constitutionally required due process
I know President bush had a legal team that argued you could grab an American, torture him, crush his child’s trsticles if the govt suspected him of terrorism, with no standard or limit to evidence
I don’t know what Obamacare is supposed to have done
On the Tampon some states exempt necessities like food clothes and toilet paper from sales tax. Some argued women’s products were similar necessities in life
Obama’s administration did the exact same crap Bush’s did, and aided in the creation of ISIS, pushed to disarm common citizens, veterans, and old people, stuck us with this crappy health insurance scam, tried to sell us out to the cartels, tried to sell us out to the Chinese (more than we already were), and tried to cement their election domination forever more by allowing illegal aliens to vote.
Overreach? Will the Obamacare “penalty” was an overreach. It had to be recreated as a “tax” by Justice Roberts. Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell. Burwell v Hobby Lobby Stores Inc That’s three, from his first 60 days in office. Want to go on?
And you are still blaming Bush? Really? That’s…pathetic. No other way to put it. But, what the hell. Guess what President was in office when the Tea Party started agitating for change? Yup. That’s us. We POTG, freedom lovers, patriots. Meanwhile the Lefties supported the Hideous Rotten Criminal, as ordered. Or, to be charitable, ordained.
Blaming bush? I am pointing out the negative things he did for freedom which few here criticize
The right did an excellent job arguing bush was in the past and shouldn’t be blamed starting about a week after Obama took office. Economies don’t change that quickly though and it took years to clean up the multi trillion dollar mess made under bush. Which Obama did clean up, with lowered deficit and higher employment
Of course, let’s not forget all the loans taken out by Obama. from his communist buddies in China. If the Chinese ever called in those debts, we’d be screwed.
“Economies don’t change that quickly though and it took years to clean up the multi trillion dollar mess made under bush.”
Er, *wrong* president to blame on that one, Mr. Lurker.
The true genesis of the ’08 economic crisis started with the The Community Reinvestment Act of *1977*.
That Act sought to address discrimination in loans (‘Redlining’) made to individuals and businesses from low and moderate-income neighborhoods.
‘Redlining’ was the practice of denying services, either directly or through selectively raising prices, to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic composition of those areas.
Translation – Do you live in the ‘hood? No (or brutally expensive,) mortgage for you!
This gives you the ‘gist’ of the practice:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining
Banks were forced to make risky home loans to people who statistically were likely to default.
Couple that with deregulation on loan making left banks with a lot of financial liability if they defaulted.
So the banks had a really neat idea, if they were going to be forced to make those loans, why not spread out the risk by selling likely bad loans ‘bundled’ with ones likely to be profitable?
Deregulation allowed them to horsetrade those bundled loans with other financial institutions. This type of financial ‘musical chairs’ was going along just fine, until one day there was no chair for the bundled loans.
Loan defaults started, and then things started to avalanche.
The rest, we all know…
1977, Lib Lurker, long before Bush 1 and 2…
Geoff PR said:
“The true genesis of the ’08 economic crisis started with the The Community Reinvestment Act of *1977*.”
I applaud you, sir, for understanding the true genesis of the economic meltdown.
While the Act had good intentions (doing away with “Red Lining”), it morphed into a policy of forcing lenders to give mortgages to practically anyone with any income at all, with no regard for their ability to actually pay the loan payments. Even welfare payments were counted as “income.”
When the lenders complained that they were holding so much bad paper that Congress do something, Congress decided to remove the barrier between lending banks and investment banks, allowing the former to bundle mortgages and sell them to the latter, who re-packaged them and sold them as investments, with little to no distinction between the good mortgages and the bad ones.
When people inevitably defaulted on their loans, those investments went very bad very quickly.
There were three different groups who share the blame for all t his: the government for requiring the banks to make bad loans, the bankers who decided to make money (which is what businesses do) off the bad loans as well as the good ones, and the people who got the bad loans, because they got new homes they knew (or should have known) they couldn’t afford.
Two of those groups took their bite of the shit sandwich: the bankers, who were cast as the bad guys by the government, and the people who lost their homes, their credit, and sometimes their lives. Others, like me, lost a huge chunk of the equity in our property.
The third party, the government, did as governments usually do: they took no responsibility at all. They started it, they made it worse as time went by, then placed blame on everyone but themselves.
And they did a good job of that, too. Look at how bankers have been vilified; yet they were literally forced to make the bad loans. Yes, they did all they could to profit from it, but looked at from a strictly business point of view, that’s pretty much what they had to do.
But the government, which started the whole thing, took absolutely no responsibility.
This is why we call them “cucks.”
And that’s why we roll our eyes and pat you on the head. You should speak to someone about your obsession with other men’s penes. If you’re gay or bi, you are welcome here. You don’t have to engage in projection.
Mother of a friend used to call Chevy El Caminos and other ute-type trucks “cucks”. You know, because they were half car / half truck. Cuck.
It was a more innocent age. It has also caused a lot of cognitive dissonance for me on social media over the past year.
To Katy, I agree with your point on religion. The left is insufficient to respectful
To the gentleman who argue the left only respects Islam I don’t see that as true at all , but I do think in agreement that people in the left wo are non religious probably find it easier to make accommodations, mental or otherwise to muslims than to evangelicals, and I think that is a great failing of the current left.
To those who responded to Trumps bragging about forcibly kissing and groping, he is on tape saying it, so what I wrote is no lie. I didn’t claim he actually did it, though I believe at last count seven or so women have made that claim,at least in one case about a night a decade or two ago where she remembered a specific day, and it turned out records show trump was there that day. I believe the women who accused bill Clinton too.
I’ll say it ’til I’m blue in the face. Obama got elected, and a handful of retards were arrested for posting detailed assassination plots on the internet. Trump announces he’s running and chaos erupts in every major city and on almost every college campus.
These people are freaking out becauase the welfare gravvy train on the path to a one-party socialist state has been halted. And to make matters worse, the Obama admin has taught these people that when nobody cares about your protests, it’s ok to flaunt the rule of law and riot to get what you want.
“Death camps” LOL, the past three days have been one giant display of the same kind of demented projection we hear from the antis.
Solid, solid article.
To Mr GeoffPR
Thank you for the comments. On the CRA there have been several looks at this, first I think from Barry Rithiltz at the big picture who was quite good in the housing bubble and later from the fed. The CRA it turns out had basically nothing much at all to do with the housing crisis, though it is popular among right wing commentators to blame it on the CRA and thus indirectly on minorities instead of on all the rich generally white bankers who actually caused it
A link to one study is below
Having talked to a couple and associated with many more bankers directly involved and during the bubble, pre crisis, my experience would suggest the debunking research is correct. Bankers didn’t care at all about the CRA or minorities, they cared about churning mortgages to take commissions. Same as it ever was
http://ccc.sites.unc.edu/files/2013/02/DebunkingCRAMyth.pdf
If “the Left” is as “deranged” as they act (I’ve seen them in action “up close” and they are “deranged”) they belong in “camps” if just for “reeducation” to cleanse them of all the crap they learned in the Communist/Socialist-dominated public indoctrination centers.
Se, Joseph McCarthy was correct 60+ years ago, our institutions government, academia, science, entertainment industry, “News” Media, and sports are infested with traitors, ALL need an enema.
Gandhi brought down the British Empire in India without firing a shot.
The Shaw of Iran was brought down when the entire Nation of Iran refused to go to work and shut down everything. The same could very well happen in America. Praise that day if and when it comes.
Martin Luther King using Gandhi non-violent tactics succeeded in getting Minorities the right to vote.
Since the Trump Presidency is off to a great start by starting it with a pack of lies from his Press Secretary which was gone over by MSNBC point by point, starting with the crowd numbers. When you have aerial photographs comparing the crowds of Obama and Trump any sane President would have just ignored the pictures and all would have been forgotten in a couple of days but when he attacked the News Media credibility they came back at him with the truth and now it will haunt him for the rest of his Presidency. We now can look forward to a “Body Guard of Lies” from day 1 of the Trump Presidency.
600 places around the world expressed their hatred and fear of a Madman with his hand on the Nuclear button and that included every one of our WWII Allies. Sobering thoughts for all people.
The crowds on the Woman’s March even dwarfed the huge crowds of the Vietnam era protests of the 60’s something I never thought I would see again in my lifetime and they marched all over the world not just in the U.S. They marched in 600 places outside of the U.S.
Yes Trump is making history already, he has become the most hated President in U.S. History and in the entre World after only 1 day in office. I am sure it will please him to be no.1 in something.
RT News (Putin’s anti-American propaganda machine) gleefully showed Russians celebrating Putin’s putting his personal prostitute Trump in the White House.
In the meantime Trumps Republican Morons have declared an end to funding for the Arts and Humanities, Education, and an end to stopping Global warming.
Dr. Death Price gleefully wants to cut 1 trillion from Medicare which would effectively end Medicare and put Cancer Patients on “high risk policies” which no one can afford and the crooked Insurance Companies are ecstatic.
Jeff Sessions (rabid minority racist) has given the greed light for Cops to gun down anyone and everyone at will without fear of the Government bringing civil rights action against them like Obama did.
And the most Moronic of all they plan to destroy Planned Parenthood and its birth control programs which prevents millions of unwanted births which would otherwise cost the taxpayer billions of welfare payments and never mind that contrary to Republican flat out lies no Federal money is used for abortions. Yes in this case a Conservative is his own worst enemy but what else is new?
Trump even before he took office managed to anger the Chinese over Taiwan, and the Germans also with his racist rants against European Immigrants and the German Auto Industry.
Meanwhile the National Congress ( Meeting of Europe’s Right Wing Nazi’s running for election in 2017) all are clamoring to meet Trump in person to learn to perfect “the race card” when running for election this year. Why bother, just read Trumps favorite bedside book (according to his Ex-wife) Mein Kampf, Trumps campaign followed it line by line. Hitler blamed the Jews and Trump blamed the Immigrants and it worked like a charm for the unwashed.
You don’t have to be violent.
You do have to be serious. That means taking violence and the threat of it seriously.
If you believe that Indian independence was achieved without violence, you are ignorant of history. From the Sepoy Mutiny, to Bose’s Indian National Army, to the nearly 2 million killed in the event, there was quite a lot of blood shed.
As for the American Civil Rights movement, it was successful in no small part because men like both MLK *and* Malcom X fought for it, in different ways.
Maybe the best thing, of many good things, I have ever read on TTAG. Thanks.
(I’m talking about the article, not the brain-farts from the Kool-Aid gulping Cisco Kid above.)
Thank you.
Yeah, watching all those crybaby liberal progressives,spoiled brat Commie movie stars, and the J20 disrupt anarchists. All marching, rioting, and looting…Some even suggesting they “arm” themselves, or advocating violence in the streets!?? Which is really funny, ironic, and an oxymoron…Well, if the right was really going to “round up” all the left-wingers…There wouldn’t be enough room for them all on board any of the helicopters for their free flying lessons…Oops, my bad..Thinking of Pinochet again…
“…there’s no evidence that he’s actually a nascent dictator.”
Except this website actually made that comparison.
Not this author. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.
Quote————————-In the unlikely event of a real emergency, America’s Constitution gives us the chance to grab our rifles and stave off tyranny————————quote——————–
What nonsense. Jack booted Military Storm Troopers are mindless brainwashed robots who do as they are told and they would wipe out any Hill jacks who did not turn in the prohibited arms very quickly. The Storm Troopers know little if anything about history or else none would have ever fought in say the Vietnam war.
I bring up the war for two reasons. First, the Storm Troopers believe what they are told to believe and the Government would simply tell them that the confiscated weapons are indeed constitutional to save the country (for the power elite of course).
Secondly the so called minute men would not have an outside supplier of arms and ammo as the North Vietnamese did so the Minute men would very soon run out of guns and ammo to carry on any guerrilla war.
Thirdly the average man has a home, a house, a family and a job and is not about to loose all this plus be incarcerated for decades just to uphold the right to own some likable make or model firearm. Remember the confiscation will not come all at once but in slow increments so as not to panic even the most die hard 2A fanatics.
This has already begun on both the West Coat and the East States which have tightened the noose around the neck of gun owners thereby restricting magazine capacity and out lawing many modern military firearms and on the West Coast in California the right to carry has been banned and already ruled constitutional by the corrupt power mad court system and semi-auto rifles are all to be turned in and melted down within 2 years. So as you can see my post is not some ranting but it is reality and is already in place and in operation as I type this.
In short the Constitution of the U.S. is an obscene joke and always has been and this rape of it is nothing new as in the past vast amounts of people where put in concentration camps in WWII (Japanese Americans) Black people were in the past denied their Constitutional rights as it is today with LGBT people with the corrupt Supreme Court doing anything they please because they are after all a Dictatorship who have no restrictions on them and they know it. Therefore it is the corrupt Courts that give you what freedoms you have not the Constitution, it never has and it never will. That’s reality like it or not as History does not lie and its there for all to see and vomit over.
I also forgot to mention that Herr Drumpf’s idea of the Second Amendment is a corrupted New York Mentality on the subject. To Herr Drumpf just as it was with Herr Reagan modern weapons are fair game for confiscation as Reagan proved with his full auto ban and he would have done away with semi-auto’s as well if he had been able to get away with it. His own statements and actions proved it. Herr Drumpf is much of the same mentality and look for gun bans during his administration. Herr Drumpf says one thing but often does another and has reversed himself on many issues. It will be the same with guns if we face more mass killing in the U.S. especially if anyone who is a minority commits such a mass murder as it will set off the tribalism mentality of Herr Drumpf and give him the perfect excuse to ban weapons either through Congress or through BATF regulations who rule at 8:00 A.M. and it is law at 5:00 PM because Democracy is not part of the ATF mentality. They get away with it because absolute power absolutely corrupts or in other words they do it because they know they can do it and get away with it. History has proven it many times.
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