The Elections ... Well That Sucked

As far as state wide elections went, Idaho went okay: a referendum to make it easier to kill babies was shot down by nearly 2:1; voters approved an amendment to the Idaho Constitution making English the official language in the state; and voters rejected an amendment to the Idaho Constitution that would have taken power from voters to hold a ballot initiative on whether to legalize marijuana. I voted against the latter as well, not because I want to see marijuana legalized but because I don't like being asked to give up power as a voter. Unfortunately, I live in a county that has increasingly turned Democrat and liberal due to migration from failed states such as California, Oregon, and Washington, who have brought their failed politics and policies with them. 

Looking at the nation as a whole, we saw the Democrats take comfortable majorities in the House and Senate, and Texas flip blue, which has been a priority for the Democrats for a long time. Open borders work in the Democrats' favor and it showed in Texas. 

Pres. Trump and JD Vance are blaming the loss on the war with Iran. The general explanation for the election results was because voters were unhappy with the economy (which is really the same as blaming it on the war): the high gas prices, expensive housing, etc. This is probably mostly true, although specific state races revolve can turn on issues not tied to the nation as a whole. 

But to the extent  the economy explains the voting pattern, the voters did not do themselves any favors. There was no war with Iran under Biden and there was still high inflation, high fuel prices, and rising housing prices. Under Democratic leadership, Congress will double down on deficit spending and restricting oil production, which will drive inflation. Even though Congress does not directly control federal agencies, it can cut funding for agencies or programs, such as ICE, or pass laws making it easier for foreigners to enter the country. Thus, jobs will still go to foreigners over Americans, and the influx of migrants will continue to drive up housing prices and crime.

DEI and all the perversions that the Left support will come back except turned up to 11. And USAID and all the other ways that Democrats siphoned off American tax dollars will come back stronger than ever, as well. More "Learing Centers" and other forms of foreign fraud.

We will, of course, see the Democrat Congress move quickly to attack the President and his cabinet. So expect a repeat of Trump's first term with endless news of Congressional investigations, hearings, and probably attempts to impeach Trump (all eventually doomed to failure since the Democrats do not have the necessary supermajority in the Senate to actually convict the President).  

Even though I haven't been in a financial position to take advantage of it yet, the brief time we had to purchase silencers and short barreled weapons outside the NFA was nice, but I would expect that Democrats will swiftly move to close those options either by putting the NFA tax back into place (maybe even raise it) or just outright banning them under their Commerce Clause authority. Ditto for forced reset triggers. Elections have consequences.  

Halloween and the Low Trust Society

I shouldn't anymore have to bring up Robert Putnam's research showing the relationship between higher ethnic diversity and declining social trust. But here is another example of it in action: a collection of videos of houses where treats had been left outside in bowls for the kids while the owners were away, and certain demographics showing up to take as much of the candy as possible and, sometimes, even the bowls or decorations. 

 VIDEO: "Nobody's Playing Along Anymore"
Black Pigeon Speaks (8 min.)

A Three Hour Tour...

 Well, actually a one hour trip between islands in Micronesia turned into this: "5 people rescued in South Pacific after months adrift at sea, 4 others missing." From the article:

    Villagers rescued the group Sunday off Fanning Island in Kiribati, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported, after they had drifted an estimated 3,355 miles east from the Federated States of Micronesia. 

    The U.S. Coast Guard in Guam on Tuesday confirmed that the skiff with nine people aboard had been reported missing after it failed to return to Ruo Island in Micronesia on July 30. The group had been making a one-hour crossing between the islands of Murilo and Ruo at the time, ABC reported. 

    A 10-day search covering 33,000 square miles followed without any sign of the missing boat or those aboard, it said.   

No information on how the five survived or what happened to the four missing individuals.  

A Note For All Those Choosing To Sit Out This Election Cycle

I've often noted that Democrats are evil and stupid and this seems borne out by their wish list of things to do once they return to power. First up, from Christopher Rufo's article at City Journal, "Reprisals Are Coming":

    In a recent address, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA agent, indicated that she would use the power of the Congress to investigate White House officials. She hoped that the threat of prosecutions would send a “deterrence message” to any college graduates considering a career in the Trump administration.

    Other left-wing figures set their sights on Elon Musk. Vox Media podcast host Kara Swisher suggested that the technologist was destined for prison. “Under Kamala Harris, he might be in jail right now,” she said. “He has a very big sense of fate, and I think it’s coming for him.” Jonathan Last of the Bulwark made the same point in more vulgar language: “We start with the U.S. Congress, and it ends at the fucking Hague for Elon Musk.”

    In normal times, this kind of loose talk could be dismissed as bluster, but ten years into the Trump era, the evidence demands that we take it seriously. In President Trump’s first term, the Democrats hatched the Russiagate operation and impeached him twice. During Trump’s time in exile, Democrats orchestrated a series of politically motivated prosecutions, which led to nearly three dozen felony convictions. They even put his mugshot in the newspaper.

"But that is just the fevered dreams of a conservative pundit," you say. Okay. Well how about this from the liberal rag, Spiked!, "The Restoration of the Democratic elites" by Joel Kotkin:

It’s unlikely that the oligarchic elites will worry much about future political repression, as long as it doesn’t hurt the bottom line. For all the progressive claims about facing ‘fascists’, the Restoration, like that of the Stuarts in 1660, will have a repressive agenda for its hated opponents. Encouraged by Trump’s own actions, they will wage lawfare against anyone who supported Trump and his policies. Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin has openly threatened retributive action against even young people who might want to work under Trump. Others talk openly about ‘re-education’ camps for Trumpistas and massive new waves of lawfare. The Florida Democratic candidate for the Senate, a DSA member, has suggested the right place for her MAGA opponent is a prison cell. 

 France 24 reports that "Democrats are preparing to launch a flurry of investigations into President Donald Trump’s administration and business dealings if they retake one or both chambers of Congress, devising strategies to circumvent obstruction from the White House and avoid the impeachment deadlock that consumed the US legislature during Trump’s first term in office." How do they plan on avoiding the impeachment deadlock? According to the article:

Democrats have learned from Trump’s first term that impeachment proceedings can consume Congress while allowing the president to cast himself as the victim of a partisan campaign. Some have signalled they may go after top cabinet members instead, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, one of Trump’s most stridently loyal officials who has played a key role in the Iran war. 

Mother Jones magazine warns: "Assuming the Democrats gain control of at least the House, they will have to wage and prepare the American public for the subsequent political war, which will be unlike any seen since the days of Abraham Lincoln." You might remember that period as when Democrats plunged the country into civil war. And "[f]ormer Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich called on Democrats to target billionaire Elon Musk if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections, urging lawmakers to investigate the SpaceX founder and lay the groundwork for nationalizing his companies."

    And as the No Pasaran blog points out, "If the Democrats are willing to pick this type of fight with someone like Musk, why would they show mercy to any of the rest of us?" 

VIDEO: Explaining the Polish Coup

A backgrounder on what has been going on in Poland and why. 

VIDEO: "The 'Coup' In Poland"
America Uncovered (13 min.)

Shooting Performance Firearms Training Videos

Shooting Performance Training has a 14-part video series on shooting handguns and rifles. The first video in the series is a short overview of the the basic firearms safety rules. The next six videos pertain to using handguns--using the 5x5 drill to evaluate performance, grip, trigger management, the draw process, emergency reloads, and shooting one-handed. Then six videos on rifles beginning with a skills test, progressing through stance and reloads, and finishing with transitions from long arm to pistols. The videos are not long--generally about 6 to 7 minutes, with the longest being 13 minutes. 

Data Republican On Soros' Shadow Cabinet

 Data Republican's piece on X about "The Shadow Cabinet of Soros" is a must read. A short excerpt:

On January 30, 2017 — ten days into the Trump presidency — Rosa Brooks published an article in Foreign Policy titled "3 Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020." She outlined four scenarios for removing the new president from office: impeachment, the 25th Amendment, cabinet revolt, and a military coup. Of the last option, Brooks wrote that it was "a possibility that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America."

Brooks was a former Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, where she reported to Michele Flournoy from 2009 to 2011. Before that, she served as Special Counsel to the President at the Open Society Institute — the predecessor name for George Soros's Open Society Foundations. After leaving government, she went to Georgetown Law, where she holds the Scott K. Ginsburg Chair in Law and Policy.

Within the same year of her article, a new organization was quietly incorporated. National Security Action was incorporated in 2017 and launched publicly on February 2018. Its co-chairs were Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security advisor, and Jake Sullivan, who would become Biden's national security advisor. Rosa Brooks sat on its advisory council. So did approximately sixty other people — 88.6% of them Obama administration alumni.

The organization's primary funder was the Open Society Policy Center, a Soros family 501(c)(4). Brooks also served on the board of the Open Society Foundations' US Programs — the upstream grant-making entity within the same Soros network that was financing the organization whose advisory council she had joined.

This is the story of that organization.

Import The Third World...

 ... become the Third World. Including in politics. The New York Post reports: "Campaign to keep Ilhan Omar’s secrets safe includes threats against anyone who speaks out: ‘You’ll be killed … snake’." From the lede:

    Few members of the tight-knit Somali community are willing to talk about Ilhan Omar — due to threats and fear of violence if they do.

    The Minnesota representative is backed by a fiercely protective group, many of whom take it upon themselves to bombard anyone who speaks out with online threats and even physical harm in the US, Europe and Africa.

    The group is not officially connected to Omar, and do not receive instructions from her and it is unclear if she is personally aware of their actions.    

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. 

Fossilized Dinosaur Blood Discovered

 From the New York Post: "‘Landmark discovery:’ Dinosaur blood found in fossils for the first time — and it could advance search for life in the cosmos." 

    Per the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the prehistoric plasma was discovered in a 115-million-year-old leg fossil recovered from a mine in Brazil in 2008.

    This limb belonged to a juvenile Aratasaurus museunacionali, a medium-sized theropod that lived during the early Cretaceous period, Popular Science reported.

    The fossils suggest a creature that measured 10 feet long and tipped the scales at 75 pounds, although researchers theorized that the animal grew quite a bit larger based on the relatively young age of the remains.

    Inside the fossils were vascular canals that contained red blood cells. While potential red blood cell fossils had been discovered before, this marked the first study to chemically confirm the presence of hemoglobin-derived molecules.

    By subjecting the sample to highly sensitive chemical analysis, the researchers were able to detect and measure different substances, including high levels of preserved heme — the oxygen-carrying component of hemoglobin.

Gen Z Chooses Empire

This video goes into more detail why Anakin memes have surged in popularity among Gen Z men and why they tend to identify with Anakin. 

 VIDEO: "Yes... we want the Empire" (23 min.)
Julius Perceiver and Julius Perceiver Raw

As Oswald Spengler famously noted: "The coming of Caesarism breaks the dictature of money and its political weapon, democracy." In this context, democracy is not a political system representing the people, but a political tool or mechanism funded and manipulated by money-powers to pass self-serving laws and substitute corporate or financial interests for genuine popular will. But Caesarism is not a revitalization of civilization nor do the strong men that become caesars necessarily represent Thomas Carlyle's "Great Men", either (read "The Coming Age of Caesars"--Spenglerian Perspective).