Occasionally, it’s good to see where we stand in regards to our political infighting in the good ol’ US of A turning into armed conflict. 13 months ago, I wrote an update that highlighted some of the dynamics that may spark Civil War II. Looking back, I mostly stand by what I said at the time, but some of the dynamics have cooled off since then. Specifically, I wrote:
Overall, I’m still pessimistic on the chances of widespread fighting. I think the worst we will possibly see is an LA riots type situation. However, as shown in Charlottesville, all it takes is one body for the self-righteous leftist media to climb on top and start agitating. Like a high-stakes game of “Press Your Luck,” both sides keep smacking the button, hoping to hit the political jackpot, ignorant of the lurking Whammy.
I still believe that to be true. I’m of the belief that the Left can only muster a LA riot as their maximum amount of agitation. They simply don’t have the fortitude nor the logistical ability to take the fight to the Right. The Right is, and for the foreseeable future will be, the key to any true armed conflict. The Right has the equipment, the tactical advantage, and the fortitude to wage war on the Left if ever pushed to do so. The Left has the motivation, but no ability. The Right has the ability, but no motivation.
Except for the fact that conservative media is continuing to find its own voice by stoking outrage, driving a wedge between themselves and the leftist mainstream media, the Right has nothing to complain about. They have the reins of the federal government, as well as most state governments. They’re winning the charter school battle, and the traditional media is self-destructing. If things keep going the way they are, the leftist hegemony in the universal institutions of society will be broken within our lifetimes.
In my opinion, there are only four ways that a civil war breaks out: 1) There is a significant federal gun control act put in place; 2) the Left grows a pair of balls and takes the fight into the suburbs; 3) Trump is impeached and removed from office in a blatantly corrupt proceeding; or 4) Your average middle-class working man or woman has a substantial chance of losing their livelihood to SJW bullshit. Frankly, 1) and 2) seem highly unlikely.
However, let’s take a trip into the Derplight Zone yet again, and see what’s gonna kick off Civil War II: Antifa Boogaloo.
Isn’t that the Outer Limits?
Let’s imagine a world where this prog-leftist corporate circle jerk intensifies for a few more months. Dicks and Nike and Levi were the precursors, but now we’re seeing major companies daily announce their intentions to fund gun control groups and SJW shakedown groups, and every time a shitlord sneezes in front of an oppressed class, it’s a national case. The constant drumbeat of this shit starts to take a toll not on the A-listers, or even on journeyman race car drivers and local sports announcers. Now it’s senior regional managers and executive editors and anybody with any modicum of power in the workplace either getting #metoo’d or N-worded or pronouned into trouble with HR, no matter the veracity of the allegations. The incentives are there, ruin the life of your shitlord boss, and you’re not only a hero, but the perfect candidate to replace them.
My wife is already concerned about such things. She wants me to do the Mike Pence thing and completely refuse to meet 1:1 with women. Unfortunately, I can’t do that 100% of the time, but I do it as often as possible. I’ve even talked with a couple of coworkers who are concerned about the same thing. They’re not comfortable being 1:1 with women because all it takes is one unprincipled woman with an axe to grind or a path up the corporate ladder, and you’re radioactive.
Anyway, in a world where outrage firings go from one every few weeks to multiple per day across various industries, the primary mechanism for avoiding armed conflict begins to erode. The biggest thing that keeps the US from melting apart in a fiery battle is that most average, everyday people have more to lose by fighting than they have to gain by being rid of their political opponents. When one’s livelihood is legitimately targeted, such incentives flip, and armed conflict is inevitable. Once a critical mass of people feel substantially threatened, they will retaliate violently.
Another relief valve in American culture is slowly being eroded. The Internet, for all of the gasoline it dumped on the political and social fires burning in our culture, also gave a platform for people who agree with one another but not with the mainstream media to commiserate, vent, and discuss current events without feeling smothered by the MSM’s blatant agenda. Now that the push has started for deplatforming, the relief valve is gumming up. Folks on the right are running out of patience when it comes to abridging the 1st and 2nd amendments, and if there is a substantial leftist push to deplatform most conservative, alt-right, and libertarian voices on major social media, it’s like holding a flamethrower to a gas can. God forbid they start trying to get the DNS servicers and site hosting companies involved… overstepping into complete censorship on the Internet will end violently. The Alex Joneses of the world may get completely silenced before the right wakes up from its slumber, but if a mainstream conservative/republican were to be deplatformed or completely silenced, I think more than a few right wingers would see the writing on the wall regarding the 1st amendment.
I think that the left is moving fairly slowly and methodically right now. They know they can bide their time until the midterms, and that after the election, they can go full nutzo on Trump and the alt-right for another year and a half before they need to cool off to look semi-sane for the 2020 election. However, I think there is a narrow path to a very bad place. I think that it starts with a legit blue wave, giving the Democrats a majority in the House and a neutral split of the Senate, if not a slight majority. From there, “all is right” in the world again except for Trump, who would quickly be brought up on charges for an impeachment hearing. The inevitable vitriol from a Trump impeachment, possibly leading to isolated violence would be all the impetus a prog-leftist Congress would need to regulate social media and begin deplatforming the right en masse. Also, once that “racist, sexist, bigot” is out of the way, the easiest virtue signal in the world is to dump a ton of money into a bureaucratic leviathan for helping colleges and companies deal with the #metoo crisis through strict enforcement and a liability shield for companies who shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe toss on a recession as the cherry on top? Repealing the tax cuts and passing a medicare expansion would probably trigger a recession.
The right would very quickly go from having a ton to lose, to having nearly nothing to lose, and I think violence would be inevitable in such a situation. How likely is it that all of this falls into place? Infinitesimal. However, it is the one clear path I see to organized violence.
Good thing I’m at home, last time you posted one of these I was at work and one of my bosses saw it and I had to explain what “this terrorist shit” was. grumble grumble
I promise I won’t get all political
*Three drinks later*
There’s a reason the girlfriend wouldn’t let me go into this place in Denver. I’m sure they would have appreciated my rational approach and pointing out the flaws in their security.
/starts wondering about adding a bail/lawyer line item to vacation planning.
The rest of the article doesn’t support that conclusion. Presently the mildest Supreme Court nominee I cam imagine is being smeared on crazy fabricated accusations.
My guess for the low-intensity civil war to get kicked into high-gear: The Democrats blatantly rig the 2020 election then proceed to do everything else on the list like gun control and seizing 401k’s.
The smears are only something to complain about if they work. While Kav should have been confirmed by now, he is still in the running.
The left are throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at this nomination. If it fails then they look extremely impotent, and the Right can’t complain since the only result was that the Left debased themselves and stooped to a new low.
When Hillary lost, the Left’s plans were in ruins, if 2020 doesn’t go to the Dems, Then they will go to war, 2018 is a Red wave, watch and see…..
Nonsense. The news tells me a blue wave is 80% likely to happen.
The science is settled.
2018 is a Red wave, watch and see…..
You overestimate the intelligence of the American public, and underestimate the capacity of the left for fraud.
“Red Wave” to me does not connote superior intelligence, just an alternative (slightly alternative) form of authoritarianism and Forever War.
Maybe “capacity for logic” would be more appropriate.
True, but I don’t want any more proggies on the SC. As Q says, no way does Heller happen with a dem-stacked court.
No, but having another anti-4A or pro-Kelo on the court is no better.
I still think keeping my 2A is the only way I can protect myself from all the others…
That’s one thing I really like about Gorsuch; he seems pretty solid on 4A.
This brings up another interesting point though: it’s always somewhat of a mystery how “conservative” justices are going to rule, it’s almost as if they actually look at a particular case and weigh it on its Constitutional merits (imagine that!). Conversely, everyone always knows exactly how “progressive” judges are going to rule, they are always reliable little foot soldiers to the Revolution and weigh any and all cases against their magic prog secret decoder ring.
None of this is to defend Kavanaugh on his 4A record, which is questionable. But I’ll take him all day long over Ginsburg 2.0.
it’s always somewhat of a mystery how “conservative” justices are going to rule,
Perhaps that’s because of the rather flexible definition of “conservative.” I have some hopes for Gorsuch, fewer for Kavanaugh, when it comes to things like police searches, asset forfeiture, domestic spying, and the WoD.
Sotomayor is much better about those issues, almost Thomas Sowell-ish. Too bad that she’s a total cunt about 1A and 2A…
Sotomayor isn’t actually all that good on the 4th Amendment, just better than some of her colleagues.
If we’re being honest, Scalia was the best justice on the 4th Amendment in recent memory.
Antonin New Professionalism Scalia?
I think not.
That article seems awfully strange, considering this piece by CATO: https://www.cato.org/blog/justice-scalia-underappreciated-fourth-amendment-defender
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/01/will-gorsuch-be-another-scalia-on-criminal-justice-issues-not-likely/
It’s generally accepted that Scalia was one of the strongest defenders of the 4th Amendment, but he was also had a “conservative” disposition. He was not anti-police.
I imagine that Sotomayor would tow Balko’s line of thought on the 4th Amendment if the issue of “national security” were to present itself. You have a 4th Amendment when it comes to the police, but national security trumps that. His dissent in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld alone is epic. And I doubt we’re going to get anything like that coming from the current justices
I dont think Kavenaugh is as anti-4th as people think he is. He isnt as much an absolutist as I am, but not entirely unfriendly.
She wants me to do the Mike Pence thing and completely refuse to meet 1:1 with women.
To the credit of our local Catholic diocese, after the first big abuse scandal they put in place a training program for anyone who has contact with kids. Chaperones, teachers, etc. all have to go through the program. It’s probably as much to cover their ass as much as protect kids, but I went through it and it does have some good safeguards. Things like avoiding being alone with a kid, or if it’s not avoidable keep the door open. Don’t ask a kid to keep a secret. Don’t give a gift to just one kid. They also teach you the tricks a pedo will use to groom a kid and ask you to report those things. It’s not too obtrusive, and I think it works as well for male/female as it does for adult/child. Sadly it’s come to this, but your wife is right, these kinds of safeguards could save you a big problem in the future.
Yes my kids go to Catholic school. Rules have been that way for awhile. I think the latest scandal is about things that happened before the new policies.
I would agree. The problem I have is that at the low level, Catholics are really working on the problem, but at the high level, there still a culture of covering up the problems and protecting the guilty parties. The way the hierarchy is set up, there is really no recourse for those of us at the lower level to hold the higher ups accountable.
A lot of cardinals need to be tarred and feathered. I nominate Cardinal Cupich to go first
I’m not up on my church heierarchy, but isn’t NW Indiana in a different diocese, and therefore a different Cardinal?
Yes. And Cupich is the cardinal for the Chicago Archdiocese. I don’t think the archbishop of NW Indiana is a cardinal.
Being an archbishop, as in head of a diocese, does not necessarily mean that you are a cardinal. Cardinals are chosen by the Pope at his discretion, but some locales have traditionally had a cardinal as an archbishop. Chicago is one locale that has traditionally had a cardinal as the archbishop.
I’d like to see that, and I don’t think I’m alone. Recently I was thinking about leaving the Church, but I’ve been encouraged by the amount of anger and the general assumption that the latest scandal was just the start and that the truth might finally come out. So I’m sticking around to see what happens.
Wait you think the accuser actually needs to prove it was even plausable that you might have been able to have attacked her by identifying a time and place where you were alone together?
Has, jokes on you, all she needs to do is find a time where nobody else can say for certain that you were not alone together.
Can you prove that you were not in that conference room where she was “attacked”?
Hell, all she has to do is say she doesn’t recall the exact time or the exact place, and your life is destroyed because “BelieveHer”.
“They also teach you the tricks a pedo will use to groom a kid”
Go on…
The left is extremely fortunate that right now, as you point out, the calculus is that most folks on the right have way too much to lose to get violent. While the left is currently trying to chip away at it, most of us still have way too much to lose over it, and other options. But they keep trying to push us into the corner.
Excellent article.
I believe that the left’s power brokers have lost patience with the slowly boiled frog approach they had been following for the last 2 decades, all to fake people into accepting their marxist utopian plans – like the Chinese seem to be losing patience with their long game to take back Taiwan without using force – incrementally. That’s because they see the 2016 election, specifically things like Trump’s focus on stopping the illegal immigration that was supposed to speed up the popular acceptance of a larger welfare dependent population and the appointment of Kavanaugh to the SCOTUS which was key to circumventing law making, as basically derailing their train, and pushing that end coal out by at least another generation. And they have decided they will not allow that.
The insanity we see now is more than just trying to slow walk Trump’s agenda, but it is them trying to create a spectacle top warn all other commers that they will never tolerate or allow someone not part of their circle of elite cunts in power, ever. They are furious that the unwashed rabble has decided to fight their globalist movement that enriched the connected and fucked over the middle class and people that value individual freedom.
Exactly. Trump is a loudmouthed asshole and fights fire with fire, something the GOP has been afraid to do for 50 years. Unfortunately it’s not transformative – the GOP is still loaded with chicken-shits like Bruce Rauner.
Your wife is completely right.
I wonder what happens when employment of women plummets among those companies not forced to hire a specific ratio.
They demand a better ratio?
They will legislate that..
We are legislating the ratio. Pray that we don’t legislate it any further.
You are assuming the men don’t just say fuck it turn the corporate world over to the women and go fishing
Well, that would certainly speed the collapse of Western civilization.
And who is gonna be hurt more by that, men or women?
Yeah, of course, but all the “strong womyns” think they don’t need men to make things work and maintain civilization.
They are 100% right if you understand that they believe daddy-government will pay their bills and come to the rescue when shit hits the fan, making men obsolete..
What they fail to realize is big daddy government only works when backed up by strong men with guns
“She wants me to do the Mike Pence thing and completely refuse to meet 1:1 with women”
Herein lies my problem; my boss is female. So whenever I have a performance eval, or a status meeting etc., I have to, by definition, meet one-on-one. I know it’s supposedly a different situation since she is the one in the “position of power” so to speak, and she’s never given me any reason to think that she’s not an honest person, but it always worries me. The fact that she’s the supervisor would immediately be rendered meaningless if she ever got a mind to wreck me (I want to stress again, she has never done anything to indicate she would do such a thing). Am I supposed to request an HR rep to accompany me anytime she wants to meet? Quite the conundrum.
She hot?
/shitlord
Not my usual type, but I wouldn’t necessarily say no…
GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY!
Performance evals are done sans slacks.
A few years ago I’d say the power thing would actually matter to them still.
Now I honestly don’t think it would.
The penis is evil.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS POWER CONTEMPLATING ONE. ZARDOZ IS PLEASED THAT YOU RECOGNIZE THE EVIL OF THE PENIS! THE GUN IS GOOD, HOWEVER. JUST KEEP THOSE TWO STRAIGHT. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
“since she is the one in the “position of power””
Top or Bottom?
They all want to be on top.
They all want to be on top.
The real question is ‘Do you want me face-up or face-down?’
I am fortunate that I have one woman working for me, and she spends all day with the radio on, playing Rush Limbaugh and the like.
So likely not hazardous.
What with labor laws and all.
We’re about 2/3 women. The good news is, none of them will go to a meeting unless there’s a crowd of people there. Kinda like when chicks go to the bathroom at a bar. The only women I meet one-on-one with are my boss and my deputy lawyer. My boss can just fire me if she wants, so no need to gin up a sexual harassment accusation. I think my deputy understands that a false accusation against me would result in the kind of retaliation that leads to missing pets, cars mysteriously catching fire, anonymous accusations against her teenage children at school, that kind of thing.
We’re about 2/3 women.
I dunno, you looked pretty male to me.
Well, yeah, with my clothes on.
Two labia + clitoris. Wait, that’s 3/5…
XXY, which syndrome is that?
My boss can just fire me if she wants, so no need to gin up a sexual harassment accusation.
This. My boss is a woman too and she does not seem the type to even go there. As a matter of fact I can’t think of a woman in my workplace who would. They are different types I guess and mostly ranch girls with fathers and brothers who taught them to not take shit off of anybody. If one complained of being sexually harassed the others would ask why they didn’t kick the harasser in the nuts. I live a sheltered life without the hazards of thems big city womenz.
Workplace harassment accusations aren’t necessarily primarily against the accused harasser. They’re just as much against the corporation (payoff from the biggest pockets, defense of poor performance, etc).
I’m sure CA would demand a warning sticker
“Warning: Employee contains material known to the State of California to cause Job Loss and litigation.”
Thinking about the “left” vs. the “right” coming to actual, violence on a national scale made me ask what people would fight with. Well, guns of course. Which brought to mind an old Dave Allen joke about Heaven and Hell having a dispute about some land. Finally, God says he’ll dispatch his lawyer on Satan, and Satan replies “Yeah? Where’re you going to get one?
Matt Bracken talking about the exact same thing – If Kavanaugh is confirmed AND the Dems lose the mid-terms – he thinks they’ll go nuts and get more violent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=606&v=riiI-XTLHkM
Better ban bike locks.
+1 Pope Jimbo
Oh they absolutely will.
The problem as Trashie points out is they lack the capacity to elevate it to actual civil war levels.
You’ll see waves of vandalism, isolated violent attacks, and maybe even the odd anarchist terror attack but absent complete progressive control over the reins of power giving them cover from prosecution for said violence it is not going to be anywhere near enough to get even extremist conservatives to take up arms against the state. Just too much for them to lose there.
I guarantee the left will get more litigious. Violence via the system.
I’m of the belief that the Left can only muster a LA riot as their maximum amount of agitation.
Probably right. I think we’ll find out shortly in Chicago if the cop walks.
But here’s the thing: it doesn’t need to be only a riot in one city. If the Left manages to use something like a cop getting off for murder to trigger a riot in one city, they might be able to do it in multiple cities. Once you start escalating, you can easily lose control, as escalation is met with escalation.
While its true the Right currently controls a lot of the levers of political power, it has become perfectly clear that the Left controls much else that is highly visible (hence, the “culture war”). And that other stuff has plenty of potential to piss off the Right. I still think the one thing saving us from much more violence in the streets is the good economy – there are just way too many people who have jobs. Political violence in the streets is usually a feature of shit economies.
The inevitable vitriol from a Trump impeachment, possibly leading to isolated violence would be all the impetus a prog-leftist Congress would need to regulate social media and begin deplatforming the right en masse.
I don’t see Trump signing those bills, or a veto override. Perhaps the administrative state could step in, with the assistance of some judges in Hawaii, though.
They’ve proven that they’re very well organized as astroturf organizations. Not to get all conspiracy-ey, but Soros has the infrastructure in place to easily stage mass protests in cities across the country. While I doubt he would ever give his Capos explicit instructions to instigate violence, if even a few get out of hand it could escalate quickly and, as you said, escalation creates more escalation.
I’ve often thought of what would happen in blue cities surrounded by red outside the city, especially with permissive gun laws (Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas come to mind). In cases like that, “counter-protesters” are very likely packing heat and if things got out of hand and people felt they had nothing to lose, it could become very ugly, very quickly.
+ many roof Koreans.
That describes Ohio as well. The metro areas are blue, but the rest of the state, and a lot of the suburbs are red.
Every state, purtymuch.
Even in TX, Fort Worth is the only TeamRed city.
poll aggregator Real Clear Politics right now has Senate at no change.
Since the polls say there will be no change, the only outcome you can be sure of is that there will be a change.
My mid-term prediction is unchanged, BTW:
Reps pick up a few seats in the Senate, because the math is crazy favorable, but don’t get to 60. Dems pick up seats in the House, but don’t get the majority (now, because they are pissing off some swing voters with the Kav spectacle).
“because they are pissing off some swing voters with the Kav spectacle”
Agreed. Their base couldn’t get any more rabid and insane, even before the confirmation debacle. All they did was motivate the opposition. Before the Kavanaugh absurdity, I would have put their chances of taking the House at 75%. Now I’d say it’s 50/50 if not worse.
If the Reps fold and don’t confirm Kav, I’ll change my prediction to something a little more Blue Wavey.
I concur. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dems lose an election or two that they have a big poll lead it. Maybe my district will flip back to a Republican despite the bizarre gerrymander they did to it sweeping up 2 rural counties then a narrow strip across the top of the state until they get to the edge of New York where there are enough urban voters to cancel out all the deplorable hicks.
Check this shit out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland%27s_3rd_congressional_district
Nicely mixed in a bunch of country bumpkins with no chance of ever electing a Republican.
But Krugnuts told me only Republicans gerrymander!
East Baltimore City and Arnold have a lot in common.
I’m in district 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland%27s_1st_congressional_district
Not as gerrymander-y but I grew up in the part that is West of Baltimore. I moved 2.5 hours away, but I am still in the same district.
That’s what I see as well.
Blue-collar, white labor is doing better under Trump than Obama. And the democratic party continues to tell them to fuck off.
That’s cause they are no longer friendly towards the democratic party’s marxist new utopian dream of a two class society (the plebes and the credentialed elite).
Because 50-something-year-old factory workers don’t empathize with 20-something-year-old, soy-latte-drinking, transgender people in skinny jeans.
Where’s the demographic mapping ?
How things start is less interesting than where they end/stall. The closest thing we have to a substantial, contiguous, demographic monolith is the neocon South: easier to take Moscow before first frost. Hint: the password at the picket is not “two Corinthians”……………or is it?
Let’s see, I’ve got my beanyweanies and propane, a few cases of ammo. I’m holed up on a defensible island inside an “urban” perimeter: do I make peace with the locals and hope the entire minority majority enclave is ignored….and myself with it? Will we be surrounded and deported to Liberia, or will cries of “havoc” ring throughout the city? Or I can just paddle across to Arkansas at the last second as Team F150 comes over the wall: clutching my portrait of John Stennis and thanking d-G that I’ve made it to “you good people” when I grind ashore on the west side? Ft Pillow must stand lest the Navy of the Wabash steam down and cut me off from my crawdad supply…..now shit is getting real.
Or will General Houston order me to abandon the works and repair to the RoTx, which I escaped only a few years ago. mi espanol es malo…..and Tejanos will outnumber Texians next decade if not next week….so which way is that wind blowing? I can’t go to prison: you know what will come of me in a Mexico City dungeon!?1?
So many belles, so little time; I thought……….I thought there would be more time. * feverishly gulping Jack and checking and rechecking the flag on the bluff *
Tejanos will outnumber Texians next decade if not next week
True Tejanos (ethnic Mexicans with roots since before the Republic) are pretty conservative, and the ones I knew were the most opposed to illegal immigration of anyone I’ve met. Generalization alert: They basically don’t want to be associated or confused with real Mexicans, who they look down on pretty fierce.
True Tejanos don’t really exist; a couple outside ElPasoDelNorte and a few in Midland, two abuellas in CC, but the RGV originals and Gonzalez hold-outs were burned out a century ago. I was poetically reassigning that collective to the Mexicans since it’s a fait accompli. Hell, Seguin was renounced before his medals went green; lucky he wasn’t lynched.
I knew some when I lived in south-central Texas. It was odd; we were 90 minutes from the border, but had relatively few illegals – they typically kept heading north to Dallas, Lubbock, etc.
Agile is that you?
now that hurts
It was a compliment.
I though my brand of insanity was fairly unique.
I haven’t read AC since TOS.
It’s not your usual brand of straightforwardry. Pleasant stream-of-consciousness change of pace.
So far as I know, he quit posting there too. AC here would be a riot.
I guess I was spurred by the earlier slams on Yoknapatawpha County; it is a Southern birthright to share one’s schizo-paronoid notions.
Scarecrow and Hamster report AC MIA.
AC here would be a
riotregular contributor.…what ever happened to JATNAS?
…what ever happened to JATNAS?
Lost count?
“Lost count?”
*applause*
Don’t listen to them JATNAS, I will wait for you.
*stairs longingly out the window*
Say what you like about Pie, but I find little to disagree with here.
she’s been a good spox.
I like our resident vampire.
It’s a faint hope, but maybe the Democrats will self-immolate on the pyre of impeachment.
Sanecunning and manipulative elder statespersons like Pelosi will try to keep the baying hounds in check, based on political calculus and the realization they can’t expect the silent majority to put up with their crazy fringe forever. When retribution for “income inequality” trickles down to the people who feel as if they are barely in the comfort zone of economic success, the Democrats are going to lose a lot of votes.I think the most likely scenario is a replay of the 60s. Riots here and there and groups like the Weather Underground setting bombs.
Is there a cheaper method than helicopter rides? I mean fuel ain’t cheap.
How much is 7.92 ammo?
Leftists shooting Hipsters?
I believe those are Wiemar Republicans shooting a commie.
*looks at filename*
ah, 1919. Forgot the Stahlhelm was actually a WWI introduction.
Assuming that’s not a staged photo, you gotta admire the balls on the commie.
I think it’s staged too – too close to the wall and the photographer and / or firing squad could catch some ricochets.
“the leftist hegemony in the universal institutions of society will be broken within our lifetimes.”
Your lips to God’s ears, but frankly I’m not seeing any real indicators of that. The Ivy League schools are derp central and they feed the highest levels of governments and corperations. The handful of sjw bullies seem to have free reign to do as they please and the power brokers seem to have no problem bending over for them if not outright joining them.
Yes, but they are increasingly seen as producing buffoons.
I’m serious; consider the last time the Ivy league got mentioned in your presence. If they were mentioned at all, it’s more with bemused contempt than with respect.
Unfortunately, being a buffon doesn’t seem to stop them from landing top government and corporate positions. Almost seems like a requirement:)
Failure is not just a badge of honor, but career enhancing when you are a no-good leftist douche. Doubly so if you are one in government.
Governments will only allow a certain amount of actual violence before that put the lid on it. I think it’s more likely the right would abandon the cities before fighting for them. As you say all of this is highly unlikely and we’re no where near that point.
I think it’s more likely that you see more of a slow, quiet secession than a civil war, if even that. I think it’s a lot more likely that, given a situation where civil discourse is increasingly difficult and the personal is increasingly political, folks move to where they’re the cultural majority. Eventually conservative pro-life gun owners of faith are going to get tired of being told how wrong they are every time they buy a cup of coffee or a pair of shoes. What happened with media when Fox News showed up on the scene will start to happen in retail in locations where the woke population is the minority, and those areas will become destinations for like-minded individuals to move.
And maybe nothing will happen at all, which is probably the most likely outcome. Shit, Nixon referred to the “silent majority”, and that’s still a thing. A ton of people quietly hold opinions that aren’t popular with the vocal left in the media and in popular culture, and then they go and vote.
I think it’s more likely that you see more of a slow, quiet secession than a civil war, if even that.
I don’t know if you could really segregate the social and cultural life of the country when you now have a national government with plenary authority. Now that the personal is political and thus subject to national regulation and control where you gonna hide when the other side takes the reins in DC?
God help us if they do away with the Electorial College.
True, but at some point that has to be enforced at the local level. There’s a lot of room for “Irish democracy” to happen the further away from federal enclaves you get. Look at marijuana. That’s still illegal at the federal level, but as much as ol’ Jeff would love to storm Denver and throw a bunch of people in the clink for growing the Devil’s Lettuce, he’s not going to. Can you imagine the shitshow that would go down if DEA agents just started storming dispensaries in Colorado en masse? Think about the Bundy Ranch standoff on a massive scale. And, now you’re fucking with the state’s revenue from licensing and sales tax, not to mention jurisdictional issues with local law enforcement. And we haven’t even started talking about Joe Sixpack who’s cousin has his life savings invested in a weed farm, or the guy in the street whose aunt uses edibles to manage the nausea from chemo.
Now take that scenario and imagine that instead of legal weed it’s something like gun ownership or homeschooling. Hell, you almost had some serious shit (no pun intended) go down over transgender bathrooms.
take that scenario and imagine that instead of legal weed it’s something like gun ownership or homeschooling
Exactly why I think that “soft segregation” cannot result in peaceful coexistence in a society with an unconstrained national government.
Blue-collar, white labor is doing better under Trump than Obama. And the democratic party continues to tell them to fuck off.
Some not-insignificant number of those people have just had the unions’ hands removed from their pockets (by the Supreme Court). I don’t think they’re going to be eager to vote for the people who want to undo that.
Government workers will always vote for more government. Private sector union members, though, have trended more toward voting Republican over the past decade. But, they weren’t impacted by the Supreme Court ruling. Although, the passage of right-to-work laws in so many Midwestern states has allowed them to avoid paying union dues.
No. There are Dozens of us who vote for less government!
Just cops and firefighters. Do you have a “back the badge” bumper sticker? Because that would not be cool
I don’t have bumper stickers.
For a while I debated getting one made that read “Waning: Trunk Eats Radiators”
I like the license plate frame that says “Front Toward Enemy”.
If we had front license plates here, I’d definitely get one. “Rear Toward Enemy” just doesn’t have the same panache.
Run, Hillary, Run
I like the double meaning there, kinnath.
😉
I don’t remember which election cycle it was, but some people were getting these stickers and putting them on the front bumper for exactly this reason.
“pissing off some swing voters”
I don’t see TeamRed picking up anything.
/ Trump: there’s no one in the middle who thought the Donald was a dangerous ass who doesn’t feel 100% vindicated at this point.
/ Women: TeamRed never misses a chance to alienate middling women; soccer moms don’t want to be dragged to nirvana by the pussy. Just shutting up would have passively osmosed millions of women to their side, but they can’t even do that. Women see the prog scene and think, well I got groped plenty in my day but got over it; but that doesn’t make them Republicans; believe me: just having the consent vote without hearing Ford would be better than what’s going to happen: the hard-wired rule is be-nice/get-the-jerk, and most women on the edge are going to lump in the forthcoming TeamRed blunders into their “that’s not very nice reminds me of a boss I hated Anita Hill probably was harrassed by Judge Cosby” columns.
/ money: median income is going nowhere; there are exactly four people who didn’t have a bigscreen TV before DJT45 who have one now; no one is smiling at a bumper crop glad they prayed to the right d-G last time; a new truck means a new-to-me 2007 Ram for most folk at this point, and the fantasy of kiddo going to college and automatically doing better than his parents doesn’t even work reliably. None of that is Trump’s fault, but none of that moves votes to TeamRed.
/ density: everyone who would ever want to vote for Trump and McConnell have; there are zero people sitting around shelling peas and listening to Waylon on the 8track who couldn’t flag a ride to the polls last time and are now just itching to get in on this midterm.
I’m not saying that people’s perceptions are accurate or even useful; I’m just saying that the perceptions in the middle have not swung anyone Red, and Trump has already maxed out on the number of people who want to wear MAGA hats to pep rallies.
there’s no one in the middle who thought the Donald was a dangerous ass who doesn’t feel 100% vindicated at this point.perceptions in the middle have not swung anyone Red
Probably. Trump seems to have a hard cap on his approval ratings of right at 49%.
median income is going nowhere
At a gross level, I’m not sure how much value that data has anyway, but it looks like its on the upswing.
I think a better barometer of economic health for wage earners is the labor force participation rate, which is basically flatlined.
perceptions in the middle have not swung anyone Red
Yet the Republican Party has good approval polls just now, better than the Dems and with an upward trend.
I tend to think that there are still a fair number of people who are not irrevocably committed to one party or the other.
Or a fair number of people who aren’t Republicans but will never, ever vote for a Democrat (raises hand here) or vice versa. The trick to contemporary politics is motivating enough of the people who despise the other side but don’t like you either to bother voting for you because their hatred of the other side is more intense than their dislike for you.
absolutely correct
Trump has motivated no such net effect since he was elected
Perhaps not, but I think it’s still up in the air if the in-progress further descent into lunacy of the Democrats changes the other side of that equation.
ermmmm: non-partisans looking to escape lunacy run to Trump?
I don’t think I’m having any luck here getting anyone to see what centrists think. I absolutely double down on what I wrote: “everyone who would ever want to vote for Trump and McConnell have.” I don’t have to be a commie or a Hillary-sucker to see this. 63M…that’s it. Kavanaugh’s virginity will not move that needle.
No, not that they run to Trump – that they don’t run to anyone at all. The Dems need heavy turnout.
Yeah, this isn’t correct. Trump has won several votes in my family he didn’t get in 2016. Sure, its anecdotal, but its there.
If that’s the case, then we can expect the results this November to roughly track the Presidential results from 2016. If that’s true, the Dems are going to take a beating in the Senate, and the Repubs are going to lose some suburban seats.
The Dems have already hit peak motivation for their voters. I think Hillary was demotivating, so the Dem base might be more motivated now than it was in 2016, but midterm turnouts generally lag Presidential turnouts (I think, haven’t checked). The Blue Wave is premised on a couple of things:
(1) A belief that a lot more people hate Trump now than when he was elected. I don’t think that’s true, based, for what its worth, on approval polling.
(2) The historical pattern of the President’s party losing seats in the midterms. I think (again, haven’t checked) that is more true when the economy is weak and the President is broadly unpopular (see, e.g., the epic blowout during Obama’s first midterms). Trump is polling better than Obama did at this point, so I think this effect will be real, but not so pronounced as to create a true wave election.
Of course, this is all speculation by everybody based on polling which has not performed particularly well lately. Its true that polls just before the election tend to be pretty predictive, but we ain’t there yet. The big mystery is whether the non-stop hysteria in the media has alienated anyone since Trump was elected. I know its got the Dem faithful whipped into a lather; but has it either (a) convinced anyone else or (b) repelled anyone else?
nah, bru: you’re mixing up your marbles still
” we can expect the results this November to roughly track the Presidential results from 2016″
that’s the gross result; I was responding to your comment about the middle: the middle will not move Red.
except that Subwoofer below knows something I don’t: folks in the middle who agree with you; I’m intrigued and will ask more of that from him
that’s the gross result; I was responding to your comment about the middle: the middle will not move Red.
I was applying Trump’s results to the states and districts where the races are now (very impressionistically). There’s several Dem Senators in states that went Trump by a decent margin. There’s a number of Repub representatives in districts that are purplish to blue.
I think the Dems are playing the game here of trying to polarize the country as much as possible. That’s a dangerous game – while it may bring voters to your team, it may also bring voters to the other team.
They’re absolutely trying to polarize the electorate as much as possible, which is pretty much the same strategy they used in 2016. They’re just counting on Trump seeming crazy enough to make it work by convincing a goodly number of his 2016 voters to stay home. Time will tell whether or not that works for them. I’m not really sure either way.
“I was applying Trump’s results to the states and districts where the races are now”
I get that. But every House seat is up, of course, so that would mean that we would get the same House we had. I don’t think anyone’s going to put money down on that which is tacit acknowledgement that the middle can’t be moved further Trump.
I think it’s reasonable to believe the House goes D and the Senate stays effectively where it is.
Its not a good predictor (Trump’s local results to local races). I was just taking at face value your statement that Trump hasn’t moved the needle at all.
There are a few crossover districts, of course, where Hillary won and the Republican took the Rep seat (and vice versa).
I’m seeing a weakish typical midterm result here; you are seeing a middling to strongish typical midterm result. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dems take the House.
Agreed again, RC. I think the Dems will take a very slight majority in the House and the Senate, if anything, becomes more Republican.
Number 2 is generally considered correct, but isn’t necessarily. Gallup claims unpopular presidents usually lose far more seats in mid-terms than popular ones, but there are outliers.
Eisenhower lost 47 seats in 1958 with a final midterm Gallup approval of 57%, but only lost 12 with a 58% approval in 1954. Reagan and JFK lost 5 and 4 seats with 63% and 61% approval, respectively. Obama lost 63 with 45%, but Bush 43 only lost 30 with a 38% approval rating.
For what its worth, it looks like (since the 50s) there have only been two elections where the President’s party gained seats in the House: Bush 43 in 2002 gained 6 seats (63% approval, still riding the 9/11 wave) and Clinton in 1998 gained 5 seats (66% approval, the dividend of a strong economy).
Since polling has been really, really bad this century and gets worse every cycle, you can’t take Trumps approval ratings at face value and should ignore them entirely. Since the economy is very strong right now the Rs may gain a seat or two, but more likely they’ll lose about a dozen and retain a slightly diminished majority.
“value that data has anyway”
ok: ignore the data and stick to the 2007 Ram and the bigscreen TV
“Republican Party has good approval polls just now”
not because of a move in the middle; because of vacillations in buyers’ remorse levels: on a good day, some people are a little less ashamed of him than they were the last time they were polled
“people who are not irrevocably committed to one party”
absolutely; that’s my point: anyone in the middle is not attracted to TeamRed. The theory was ““pissing off some swing voters.” I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that: it’s a popcorn fart in an ocean of more significant factors.
/ density: everyone who would ever want to vote for Trump and McConnell have; there are zero people sitting around shelling peas and listening to Waylon on the 8track who couldn’t flag a ride to the polls last time and are now just itching to get in on this midterm.
I’d argue this is false. A lot of people who held their nose and voted for Johnson, or stayed home out of disgust, have come around to the Rs. This isn’t because they suddenly like Team Red, but because (as has been previously noted) Team Blue has ripped off the mask and the utter horror of the evil party taking power has forced them to the Republican side.
Everyone in my family (except my sister, who is an originalist prog if you can imagine such a thing) fits this description. My immediate family voted Johnson, my extended family either stayed home or tepidly supported either Trump or Clinton. Now every one of them (again, except my sister) is on the Trump train for the simple fact that the Dems have shown how utterly despicable they are.
I’m very intrigued by this. I don’t know any people like that; what’s the demographic of these folk: occupation? location?
Do you think that LP voters are useful predictors of the rest of the American middle? How did they decide to throw away their vote before but now it’s so important to empanel more Republicans? Did the Libertarian Moment pass us by?
My family is probably more what you’re thinking, Don.
Mrs. Dean voted for Trump, and thinks this whole Kav kerfuffle is a pretty bad look for the Dems.
I voted Johnson, but will vote Trump next time (probably, unless he pisses me off more than the Deep State pisses me off).
Pater Dean – Trump and Trump again.
Mater Dean – no clue.
Bro Dean and Sis-in-Law Dean – squishy to committed Dems. Don’t see them changing.
Thinking about it, its a shame Sis-In-Law Dean only has daughters, not sons. If she had sons, I might be able to turn her, as she is fanatically protective of her spawn, and would not be excited to learn that they are just one unverifiable anonymous accusation away from being ruined.
I live in a Red state, so I’m free to vote LP. I would vote the lesser of two evils if I ever thought it close, but I prefer to waste my vote sending a signal until it’s needed for something else.
I don’t know anyone who is changing horses since 2016, but I do want to hear more about those who are.
The middle is near and dear to me: I think I get them. My dad was born into sharecropping and didn’t finish high school and has retired with more dignity than anyone could have imagined. I’ve seen one factory save a county when it came and kill the county when it left. I build processes, so I deal with F500 firms all over the world and sole proprietorships in all kinds of places; I see hourly folk on the factory floor of every color and nationality. I refused to go to Detroit and Dayton because I knew what was coming; my cousins/cableguys feast at WMT. DTW, PDX, TUS, SAT, FTW, ABE, PHL….every workingclass place speaks to me.
So I wasn’t surprised by Trump; I’m still not surprised by MAGA hats. I simply theorize that 2016 was a loud, urgent, emotional, populist wave, a ceiling on how many working-class/middling/ReaganDemocrats would vote that way. I thin 2016 was something of a stampede, but now the herd is scattered and the steam has bled down.
I think most of the outrage and partisanship is exactly as it was before; no one watching FoxNews 24hours a day for the past decade suddenly went MSNBC. But I think the middle has seen itself as blue as it can be. For example, Scott Walker might be re-elected, but it won’t be by the same margins; people have calmed and aren’t as hot to burn the witches/teachers as before.
I just think the middle already achieved peak Trump. I’m still very curious, though, about why that might be wrong.
I live in a very blue state (Maryland) voted Johnson last election and will likely, barring the unforeseen, vote Trump next election, and may God have mercy on my soul. Johnson was to some extent a protest vote; Trump round two is an emergency lesser of two evils vote. Of course it’s spittin’ in the ocean where I am: a blue city in a blue state. Still.
Yeah, based purely on anecdotal evidence it seems like Trump’s 2016 support was his floor.
Outside of BS “I used to be a Trump supporter/Republican/Libertarian/Alt-Right Nazi but have seen the light” articles the MSM pumps out there doesn’t seem to be a single voter out there who has left Team Trump. On the flip side, there are many who have left Team Prog, or who sided with neither but have since moved right.
There is another factor you are missing here Don.
While I personally think you are largely correct in that Trump will not have attracted any significant new pools of voters you can repel voters just as much attract them and I do think that as repulsive as Trump has been the democrats have been worse in the eyes of the median independent/marginal voter. Couple that with the fact that people will not actually be voting for Trump and there isn’t much evidence to support a massive blue wave.
Right..no argument there. We were talking about the middle, though.
I didn’t posit a Blue Wave; I just argued whether the middle could move further Blue.
There isn’t really -a- middle there are undecideds You’ve go committed ideologues, and you have single issue voters, and you have people who vote one way or the other based on what daddy voted for, and then the “middle” is a mass of people with no ideology or coherent political philosophy who essentially vote whichever way the wind blows and are best described as undecided. Right now the economy is good. We aren’t involved in any new wars and none of the ones we are in have escalated, and the blue side are acting like certifiable maniacs who are actively pushing away people who aren’t committed socialists or identitarians.
Add in that the last 5 cycles have been driven by turnout and team evil (blue) isn’t going to have a wave. Their base is more fanatic and motivated, but it has shrunk, and no undecideds are going to join the blue camp anytime soon because they are so obviously unhinged. Remember Obama was elected almost purely on strong black turnout and incredibly high percentages of that vote. The red base is motivated too, and I don’t think it has shrunk, if anything there are lots of people who were on the fence that have come over to Trumps side. Not huge numbers, but even squeaking out small margins makes a difference. I base this on people I know all over the country in blue and white collar occupations.
I think where you’re diverging is your belief that 2016 Trump was the crest. That was just the swell. Americans are by and large a fractious rebellious lot. And the Dems have ripped the mask off on their totalitarianism.
This comports with what I’m seeing. Team Blue will have 100% turnout amongst their base during the midterms, but while that base has gotten very loud it has also shrunk.
A lot of former Dems are now Republican leaning Independents (see: #walkaway, unions) and many of those people comprise what used to be the Dem base. They aren’t going to vote for the progs in the midterms.
The Trump base is also very motivated thanks in large part to the perceived threat posed by the Dems gaining any levels of power. They’ve been rabid as an opposition party and there’s no reason to think that would change if given any real power while Trump is still in office. They’ll vote R simply to keep the Ds out, even though they dislike the Rs. The question is 1) what percentage of the Trump base gets out to vote when he’s not on the ballot and 2) who else is going to the polls six weeks from now.
My family is spread across the country. We’re in three time zones (not Central). Some live in hardcore blue states, some in very red states, and some in battlegrounds. Government contracting, big data, healthcare, trucking, construction, manufacturing, and retirees make up the professional distribution.
It’s a pretty diverse sample, which admittedly isn’t very representative since we’re all of the same racial demographic, but socioeconomically I have close relatives that are millionaires and some that are on welfare. It helps that my mom’s side of the family is EXTREMELY prolific; they reproduce on average every 15 years and each female has at least 3 kids, so there’s a lot to sample from. My sister is the outlier, but everyone else has been pushed into the Trump camp and by proxy the Republicans due to the appalling behavior of the Ds.
Those of us that voted LP saw them as at least a nominally better than the Rs, but Trumps select cases of accidental libertarianism have done more to advance individual liberty than any R in my lifetime. Combined with the now obvious threat the Ds pose, the members of my family who have been saying for years that the Rs suck, but need to be supported to slow the descent the Ds represent get a bigger hearing.
You seem to be as tied into the middle by family as I am by travel.
I’m looking for the new energy, the new driver. Is the D threat all that more obvious? Has social media amplified the signal? What was the last straw that made anyone in the middle think, you know: that Trump guy is onto something.
I don’t think much has changed. I don’t think the hatred of Waters today rings any louder than the hatred of Feinstein in 2016; it’s the same verve, is it not?
I’d say the old canard that “its the economy, stupid” is a big part of it. My admittedly biased sample has benefitted from the recent upturn which coincided with total Republican control of government and they hear the Dems openly threatening to reverse that so as to return us to the “glory” of the Obama years.
Even the ones on welfare find that appalling, since they know they should be getting off their ass to get a job as there’s plenty to go around, but SSDI is just so damn convenient.
Did the Libertarian Moment pass us by?
Only the jacket knows.
A view from the heartland (the purplest of purple states — Iowa).
The love affair with Obama has been long and strong. I see new vehicles (2016 and beyond) with brand new bumper stickers for Obama 2008.
The union here at work wore buttons and was loud and proud during the 2008 election. These same people were silent during Hillary’s run in 2016. Driving half way across the state in the weeks before the ’16 election, I saw 1, count’em 1, pro-Hillary yard sign.
The union is still silent this year. There are no political bumper stickers in the parking lot used by the mostly union employees. There are no buttons on shirts in the factory.
The union got fucked in the ass by Obamacare. Walk through the factory and you’ll see lots of photos of young men and women in uniforms. The union is patriotic. And they are predominately old (50+) and predominately white. I imagine that a lot of them quietly pulled the lever for Trump.
There is no blue wave in Iowa that I can see. We might have a dumb young socialist cunt beat Rod Blum (R) because it is a pale blue district and he is not that popular. But I don’t expect the state house to go blue just 2 years after Trump carried the state.
“I’d argue this is false. A lot of people who held their nose and voted for Johnson, or stayed home out of disgust, have come around to the Rs. This isn’t because they suddenly like Team Red, but because (as has been previously noted) Team Blue has ripped off the mask and the utter horror of the evil party taking power has forced them to the Republican side.”
I’d have to put myself in this boat.
I’m heading in that direction myself. I vowed to never succumb to the fear mongering and vote against a candidate again. I’m not sure whether I’ll stick to that sentiment
Speaking of the politics of envy, and bamboozling the rubes…
On Tuesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill tackling the issue head on, trying to lower the cost of homes in neighborhoods with greater economic opportunity.
The legislation, titled the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, is perhaps the most far-reaching assault on housing segregation since the 1968 Fair Housing Act. It’s ambitious, pouring half a trillion dollars over 10 years into affordable-housing programs, and funded by raising the estate tax to Bush-era levels. An outside study by Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics found that raising the estate tax would ensure the bill does not create a deficit.
———
The sheer scale of the bill, along with its focus on structural racism and government responsibility, places Warren’s brand of populist progressivism on full display. An undertaking of this magnitude is sure to energize her base. But would its combination of tax increases, grants to homeowners, government incentives, and bank regulation make housing more affordable to working- and middle-class people?
I’m sure it will do just what its author intends, which has only tangentially to do with housing the poor.
Good grief.
Yep. It will destroy the regional banks, leaving only the large national ones. And they will be rickety dinosaurs that will be beholden to the feds for their very profitability.
That fascist bitch really wants to put the state in charge of the financial system doesn’t she? She’s keeping true to her hero Mussolini’s dictum “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
Warren is a cunt. Bitches can be reasoned with (or at least bribed).
Cite fucking needed.
Inherited wealth drives the lefties berserk, for some reason.
Few people without children can get it: your right to work hard, save, and then do what you wish to make your kids happier.
Most people can only see an issue one way; people who are dedicated to being offended always will be. When you put the shoe on the other foot, it’s not hard to figure this one out at all.
Unless it’s their own trust fund. The richest people I know are lefties with big inheritances.
This. They’re signaling penance. Not that they would ever give up their estates.
Almost every one of them is a hypocritical asshole.
Oh god yes. My neighbor, the commie with an Obama photograph Kim Jong Il style above the mantlepiece, once spent an hour talking to an estate attorney friend of mine about repatriating $20,000 of his mom’s money that was in another state’s lost property fund. The problem was that his mom had died in a state funded nursing home paid for with medicaid. So the moment he tried claiming that money on behalf of her estate, the MA government would be taking all of it to reimburse itself for the charity of providing a roof over her head.
He tried really had to come up with some scheme to keep the money. When he finally accepted that the state would get every penny, he refused to do anything more. Fascinating since he was loudly bitchy about republicans starving entitlement programs by gutting the estate tax pretty much everytime the subject came up.
I guess taxes are for other people.
Oh my God.
This. A hundred times this. Rich kids who don’t fucking working and feel oh so guilty about it (but not enough to give it all away and get a fucking job) comprise a sizeable chunk of the antifa types, I’d wager.
They subconsciously feel guilty about not earning it?
That and they don’t understand what earning it means to begin with. They don’t have a sense of ownership of the money because they haven’t got a sense of the work and effort it took to accumulate it. They then apply that to everyone else that has money, assume they didn’t really have to do anything to get it either.
I mean, this is child development 101. Give them a toy they didn’t “earn” and they’ll be far more cavalier with it then if you the have to buy it with money they had to earn doing chores around the house.
During my brief stint as a solo lawyer, I made the mistake of pricing myself affordably. Nobody bit. I raised my rates to something more like a law firm would charge, and picked up some work. When I was cheap, people thought I wasn’t worth much and didn’t hire me. When I was expensive, they figured I might be worth it, and I got a few takers.
Do you handle real estate? That’s the only time I’ve engaged the services of a lawyer…
No, more in the oppressing-the-working-class line. You know, denying justice to the proletariat, lining the pockets of fatcats, that kind of thing.
That could still be Real Estate…
You know the free hugs thing people will do? Turns out even with hugs, charging a nominal amount (nickel, quarter, etc) gets more takers than the free guy.
Free Butterfly Kisses!
Envy isnt just for the poor.
Creepy porn lawyer locks account, may have been catfished by fake accuser.
Tbf there’s about as much evidence the latter part is true as there is that Kavanaugh’s guilty: somebody somewhere says so.
Oh, I’m gonna be laughing about that one for a long time.
I swear some of us were speculating that a good countertactic to #believeher #metoo would be to flood the system with spurious accusations.
Its a great story, but I’m also suspicious that the “pranksters” didn’t keep the texts or any evidence.
Yes, now that you mention it, someone who had done this absolutely would have kept the texts.
#believethem
#pleaseletitbetrue
Please Le Tit Be True for $1000, Alex.
/Turd Ferguson
May not have been any. I can see a scuzzball like Avenatti not texting because it leaves such a paper trail. The pranksters refer consistently to “calls”, not texts or DMs.
These people clearly had on intention of leaving a paper trail.
Maybe…it does say “the phone doesn’t stop ringing”, suggesting voice calls
Yeah, it seems unlikely, but given that his “client” seems unwilling to out xerself… the greentext may be fake but accurate.
Is it illegal to lie to an attorney? Them being officers of the court and all.
Is it illegal to lie to an attorney?
No. It seems to be a popular pastime, in fact.
My ex is living proof that it’s not.
Snap
I take it easy on First Wife: I’m confident that pile of lies was typed up and waiting well before she was taken on as a client; all that was need was respondent’s name.
Nah… They were very specific and unique to our situation.
I look back now and laugh, but being blindsided in hearings before a judge with accusations of larceny, child abuse, child neglect, and failing to pay child support was not funny at the time. And it was pretty depressing how despite my being ready with proof at the next hearing that she had been full of crap, that hearing invariably proceeded with not even a single acknowledgement that the previous allegations had been made let alone an acknowledgment that they were manufactured whole cloth out of nothing.
Looking back I recognize that the judge thought they were bullshit, but not enough to actually start sanctioning anyone.
I know burner phones are usually cheap flip phones. Does breaking them actually do any good? They break at the hinge, leaving the memory intact and probably even leaving the phone still on if anyone is tracking it. Do people do that just because they’ve seen it on TV?
Err, asking for a friend.
It does not do anything to the memory. It may turn the electronics off, depending on the design, because you’ll be breaking a significant circuit (the one for the screen and speaker), but all the data is instact from snapping at the hinge.
Not sure what you’re trying to do. If you just want to dispose of it, hit the reset and toss it in a lake or river or fire (sans battery if fire). If your temporarily trying not to be tracked, yank the battery.
Once your associated with the phone doesn’t really matter what you do because phone company has copy of all your data and if the cops are watching you, they probably do to. Use fake name to activate.
*jots notes*
Once again, the Almighty has the answers.
You could have camera data that’s not synched anywhere. True, the call records have to go through the provider, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have incriminating materials that need permanant disposal.
I am pretty sure you can get prepaid phones which are not associated with any kind of credit card or other identifying information
Speaking of retards.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/09/25/lets-make-fun-dc-anti-fascists/
“ps here is Gavins phone number”
?
Gavin McGinnis?
CAPITALISM IS EVIL!!!!!
lol
Looks like Beto made the correct decision to condemn the antifa scum. He really had to, in Texas.
They are not protesters. They are agitators.
They are going to keep this shit up until they find out that they dont want what they are agitating for.
Interesting think piece trash. I don’t live in a large metropolitan area so I don’t know what it would take to actually start a war, as in mobilize the hillbillys around here to go fight one. Because there is no way in hell the progs are coming here to start shit but I imagine troops mobilized to seize guns would result in many deaths on both sides. I don’t know anybody who is into politics as much as I am and most people just don’t give a shit and want to be left alone which is pretty easy to do around here. In a nearby town I am told the local dem horde likes to demonstrate and a dozen of them stand on a corner and make asses of themselves every now and then but that is it for political activism. Nobody pays attention, but one day I need to go have a discussion.
I don’t know what it would take to actually start a war, as in mobilize the hillbillys around here to go fight one
If your hillbillies are anything like the ones I know, very little indeed.
Just got back from the hairdresser. Overheard (paraphrasing):
“Even if he is guilty, it was so long ago…”
“I know what you mean. It’s hard to hold what you do in high school against you.”
Not sure what about that carries more meaning, that the (presumably female) hairdressers and their clients apparently find this charade specious, or that the charade has been sufficiently inculcated from all directions that you’re even hearing about it at the salon.
I linked a tweetstream yesterday about a convo at a nail salon that could have been entirely made up. I was hoping it wasn’t, but you know, these things don’t happen organically.
Then I went today and boom. There it was.
Sure, Tulpa.
Curses. Foiled again.
It must be nice to know that the people who are using scissors in the area around your face and head are relatively sane.