vxbush 6/30/2022 5:57:12 AM

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vxbush 6/30/2022 6:04:54 AM

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Alex Berenson cites a New Yorker piece that has three paragraphs that he highlighted, which I want to share here: 

When I asked Republican activists and operatives about the rise of the school issues, they told a very similar story, one that began with the pandemic, during which many parents came to believe that their interests (in keeping their kids in school) diverged with those of the teachers and administrators. As Roberts, the Heritage Foundation president, put it to me, parents who were in many cases apolitical “became concerned about these overwrought lockdowns, and then when they asked question after question, there was no transparency about them, which led them to pay more attention when their kids were on Zoom. They overheard things being taught. They asked questions about curricula. They were just stonewalled every step of the way.” The battles regarding the covid lockdowns, Roberts told me, opened the way for everything that came after. “This is the key thing,” he said. “It started with questions about masking and other aspects of the lockdowns.”

Both parties right now are trying to answer the question of how fundamentally covid has changed politics. “From 2008 to 2020, elections were decided on the question of fairness—Obama ’08, Obama ’12, and Trump ’16 were all premised on the idea that someone else was getting too much, and you were getting too little, and it was unfair,” Danny Franklin, a partner at the Democratic strategy firm Bully Pulpit Interactive and a pollster for both Obama campaigns, told me. But the pandemic and the crises that followed (war, inflation, energy pressures) were not really about fairness but an amorphous sense of chaos. “People are looking for some control over their lives—in focus groups, in polls, once you start looking for that you see it everywhere,” Franklin said.

Both parties had shifted, in his view. Biden had sought to reassure Americans that the government, guided by experts, could reassert its control over events, from the pandemic to the crisis in energy supply. Republicans, meanwhile, had focussed on assuring voters that they would deliver control over a personal sphere of influence: schools that would teach what you wanted them to teach, a government that would make it easier, not harder, to get your hands on a gun. A moral panic about gender identity might seem anachronistic, but it served a very current political need. Franklin said, “It’s a way for Republicans to tell people that they can have back control of their lives.”

(all formatting straight from Alex's site)

I would love to believe that everyone in the Republican Party is on board with this change, but we know the Uniparty won't allow this to continue. So how do they fight it off, and how do we respond? 

Occasional Reader 6/30/2022 8:20:56 AM

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In #2 vxbush said: Obama ’08, Obama ’12, and Trump ’16 were all premised on the idea that someone else was getting too much, and you were getting too little, and it was unfair,” Danny Franklin, a partner at the Democratic strategy firm Bully Pulpit Interactive and a pollster for both Obama campaigns, told me.

That is a very Democratic Party way of looking at it.

Absolutely, Obama's election strategy was all about "those bad people over there owe you something; elect/re-elect me, and I'll make them pay."

Trump's was not. 

But when your only tool is a hammer... etc.

vxbush 6/30/2022 8:34:44 AM

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In #3 Occasional Reader said: Trump's was not.  But when your only tool is a hammer... etc.

Multiple layers of Democrat thinking went into that news article and its reporting, I have no doubt. But this idea of the government will give you everything is the mindset of many of the politicians in DC, including many Republicans. I'm trying to figure out how to hold the supposed believers of smaller government in the party to actually, you know, support smaller government. 

Today's ruling regarding the EPA should help in that regard, I hope. 

buzzsawmonkey 6/30/2022 8:48:18 AM

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Listening to NPR this morning, they were not only vaporing on endlessly over the Jan. 6 show trial, but darkly warning about traveling advocates who are going around continuing to promote what they variously call the Falsehood, the Big Lie, etc.---i.e., that there was widespread fraud and irregularity sufficient to steal the election.

They were talking about how these traveling agitators---they stopped just short of calling them "white supremacists" and openly blaming Trump---are stirring up unrest in various states and causing state electoral authorities to be "intimidated" by "threats."

Frankly, in light of our discussion yesterday about the Left failing upward, and planning things to lay the groundwork for the next thing, I'm seeing the Jan. 6 circus as a way to simply keep "big lie of vote fraud" in the public eye/ear, to lay the groundwork for "intimidation/voter suppression" outcries after the midterms.  I'm not quite paranoid enough yet to see this as laying the groundwork for some armed government suppression initiative...but I'm reluctantly getting there.

Occasional Reader 6/30/2022 8:53:20 AM

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In #5 buzzsawmonkey said: Listening to NPR this morning, they were not only vaporing on endlessly over the Jan. 6 show trial, but darkly warning about traveling advocates

I caught part of that while driving.  I listened with horrified fascination for a little while, and then had to turn it off.

NPR doesn't even try any more to be anything other than a(nother) propaganda arm of the DNC.   It's just awful.  

vxbush 6/30/2022 9:49:21 AM

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JCM 6/30/2022 10:16:43 AM

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Supreme Court curtails EPA’s authority to fight climate change

Last year the D.C. Circuit vacated both the Trump administration’s repeal of the CPP and the ACE Rule, and sent the case back to the EPA for additional proceedings. Section 7411, the court of appeals explained, does not require the more limited view of the EPA’s authority that the Trump administration adopted.

The Supreme Court on Thursday reversed the D.C. Circuit’s ruling. Roberts wrote that the EPA’s effort to regulate greenhouse gases by making industry-wide changes violated the “major-questions” doctrine – the idea that if Congress wants to give an administrative agency the power to make “decisions of vast economic and political significance,” it must say so clearly.

This is bigger than EPA. Congress has long written vague laws, the left relying on The Swamp to fill in the tyrannical blanks in the law.

buzzsawmonkey 6/30/2022 10:19:23 AM

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In #8 JCM said: This is bigger than EPA. Congress has long written vague laws, the left relying on The Swamp to fill in the tyrannical blanks in the law.

Back when I was doing the lobbying thing, I learned early on that being in on the bill drafting was the most important thing; that "hearings" are invariably a show for the rubes, to ratify what has already been agreed to beforehand behind closed doors; and---most important---that what really determines what a new law will do is less the text of the bill than the regulations that are written/agreed to after the bill passes.

vxbush 6/30/2022 10:31:37 AM

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Reply to JCM in 8: 

(Pssst....already posted in #4.)

vxbush 6/30/2022 10:49:04 AM

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In #9 buzzsawmonkey said: that what really determines what a new law will do is less the text of the bill than the regulations that are written/agreed to after the bill passes.

Which is why it's so critical that we cut out all the bloat in DC and get rid of the civil servants who are only interested in completing the work of their political party and not what is good for the nation. 

JCM 6/30/2022 11:07:00 AM

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You think supply chain issues are bad.... next week they will get worse.

Owner-operators face tough choices in California in wake of new contractor law

This is a part of AB5 which caused much of the first round of supply chain issues, mandating new trucks and fleets to have electric trucks which are not available. The new part affects owner-operators who lease services.

 That effectively means carriers can no longer lease owner-operators and their equipment to haul freight under traditional independent contractor agreements.

I've seen estimates that it park as many as 70,000 trucks.

buzzsawmonkey 6/30/2022 11:10:41 AM

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In #11 vxbush said: Which is why it's so critical that we cut out all the bloat in DC and get rid of the civil servants who are only interested in completing the work of their political party and not what is good for the nation. 

True---which is why I tell the people who keep bleating about "term limits" that:

a) We have term limits; they are called "elections," and it's on us if we don't use them properly;

b) Externally-imposed term limits get rid of the good officeholders with the bad;

c) Term-limits create a disinterested and lazy, uninvolved electorate (even more lazy and uninvolved than they are now);

d) They hand over greater power to the unelected bureaucrats;

c) They create constant lame-duck terms, which are an invitation to officeholder irresponsibility.

JCM 6/30/2022 11:19:45 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 13:

The real power lies with senior staffers in Congress, and the senior bureaucrats.

The modern Court Eunuchs.

Or as Trump puts it...... The Swamp. 

buzzsawmonkey 6/30/2022 11:24:43 AM

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In #14 JCM said: The modern Court Eunuchs.

We are marching 'neath Praetorians

Praetorians

Praetorians

We are marching 'neath Praetorians

The Praetorian Guard!

lucius septimius 6/30/2022 2:42:58 PM

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House thing just keeps getting worse.  I have an offer but it's a weird one. Two potential buyers backed out today because of the fucking tree.  I've had offers from flippers/remodelers but for 100K or less under asking price and all below assessed value.  Meanwhile the neighbor won't return my agent's calls and hasn't made an offer.  If I end up because of the tree having to go with the remodel route I won't be able to buy anything.  So, basically, I'm screwed.

buzzsawmonkey 6/30/2022 2:46:15 PM

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Remember those old vacation postcards---"Greetings from Niagara Falls," "Greetings from San Francisco," etc.---which had scenes from the vacation destination inside the open block letters spelling out its name?

Maybe a series of "Abortion Tourism" postcards would be good to produce, for those towns and states that are talking loudest about making themselves abortionist sanctuary cities---but instead of pictures of the town or the state inside the letters, have a bunch of pictures of fetuses in utero, and maybe a few pix of some ugly tools or baby parts.  

It would certainly embarrass and enrage the would-be sanctuaries, but would it be useful politically? 

Oh---and, as a sideline, maybe some "travel/hotel" stickers with the old Gerber baby (now that they've switched to a new one) on the stickers, with its eyes blanked out.

Thoughts?  Comments?

buzzsawmonkey 6/30/2022 2:54:56 PM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 16:

What a lousy circle of Catch-22s.

lucius septimius 6/30/2022 3:08:49 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 18:

I'm really at my end.

buzzsawmonkey 6/30/2022 3:20:14 PM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 19:

This is clearly an example of the Green No Deal.

lucius septimius 6/30/2022 3:28:22 PM

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In #20 buzzsawmonkey said:

Fucking Watermelons - green on the outside, red in the middle.  I know who was behind the ordinance.  Of course they sold their house for a big bundle and left.  Me?  No beans.

Kosh's Shadow 6/30/2022 4:30:30 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 9:

When I was in high school, one of my teachers had talked to a state legislator at a football game, and told us that the legislature deliberately worded a bill in a way that it would be struck down by the courts. The legislators did not want the law, but didn't want  the blame for not passing it.

Does this help explain why I am a cynic?

lucius septimius 6/30/2022 4:36:31 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 23:

I'm not at all surprised.  I think we need the revolution and we need to put roughly 50% of the population, including every government official up against the wall.

buzzsawmonkey 6/30/2022 4:36:34 PM

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In #23 Kosh's Shadow said: Does this help explain why I am a cynic?

I didn't think any help was necessary...but yes.

Kosh's Shadow 6/30/2022 4:47:41 PM

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In #24 lucius septimius said: including every government official up against the wall.

I'd leave out a lot of the military, except for those who think diversity is more important than strength.

Kosh's Shadow 6/30/2022 4:49:17 PM

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