Today is the day – express yourself on any topic that interests you
Focus on the speech itself.
Thanks to Claudio for bringing this to my attention.
Administrative Notes – Books & Publishing – I’ve been persuaded to publish Conduct Unbecoming and The Shorts – collections of short stories in a paperback format. That’s in the pipeline. I ordered proof copies to look at before they go live. They should be available on Amazon.com next week. Boron beat me up like an unwanted stepchild – blame him. I’ll post up when they’re available, but it’s coming.
It Makes a Difference
(Fox News) The FBI announced the arrest of Zubayr Al-Bakoush, alleged to be one of the leaders of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. He will be extradited to the US to face charges of murder, terror, and arson. And to Hillary Clinton’s (The Bitch of Benghazi) notorious question about who’s responsible for those American deaths — “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
There is an interesting trove of still classified information that might be disclosed in connection with a TRIAL of Al-Bakoush, which he may offer in his defense, that will implicate the former SECSTATE in events that led up to the attack on the US Consulate and CIA Base (nearby). I can’t say much more about it than that. The DOJ charges could have been skillfully crafted to keep out the classified information. I don’t know who the accused’s defense counsel is, but there is an interesting potential that FBI Director Patel may be aware of, which means that Pres. Trump will be aware of it.
US Gun Ownership by Party
Gun ownership in the U.S. has a sharp partisan divide. But there’s more to the story. For example, the gap has widened, and gender is a factor.
Although Americans’ privacy rights ensure we’ll never know the exact number of gun owners in the U.S., self-reported survey data provides valuable insight. Here’s a quick summary of our findings:
- Republicans are 2.25 times more likely to own firearms than Democrats.
- Independent voters hold steady at 29% ownership, between Republicans and Democrats.
- Protection is the main reason for gun ownership across all political parties.
Exploring gun ownership by political party isn’t an exact science, but it is worth examining the trends and survey data. If you find this interesting, please review and share the full report, linked here:
https://ammo.com/research/gun-ownership-by-political-party
Criminal Migrant Gangs
Why can’t they get closer to the mark when identifying the ‘targets’ of their criminal probes in Sweden? (Breitbart) (h/t Claudio) File it under “Who would have seen this coming when we imported savage people from the Middle East into a civilized culture?
At a press conference on Monday, representatives of the governing Tidö coalition government said that the criminal age of responsibility for the most serious crimes, such as murder and attempted murder, will be gradually lowered over the next five years to 13, Aftonbladet reported. They said the change would affect crimes with a minimum prison sentence of four years, as well as attempts or conspiracies to commit such crimes.
The planned legislation from the governing parties would also eliminate lighter sentencing requirements for people aged 18 to 20 and increase the maximum prison term for minors from 14 to 18 years. It comes in response to the growing issue of criminal networks recruiting young teenagers, often from impoverished minority and migrant communities, as those under 18 face less imprisonment than adults. As long ago as 2015, Swedish police told Breitbart News how mass migration was transforming the crime picture in the country, with migrant criminal gangs importing a whole new type of lawlessness into what had once been a relatively peaceful corner of Europe.
The issue has become so rampant that gang-affiliated teenagers in Sweden are regularly contracted out as mercenaries to networks in neighbouring countries like Denmark, where they serve as hitmen or engage in other criminal-for-hire activities.
The proposed change in the age of criminal responsibility has drawn some criticism within the country, with some arguing that imprisoning children may serve to increase the likelihood they remain criminals. (VM Comment – If you execute them for capital murder, they don’t go on to commit other crimes.)
However, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer stated that the changes are necessary due to the widespread rise in youth gang violence. “One of our most important tasks is to stop gangs from using children and young people,” Strömmer told SVT. “We face an urgent situation, and our measures must address the problems we have.”
The proliferation of gang violence in Sweden, which is often conducted by kingpins in the Middle East, came in the wake of large-scale demographic change as a result of the open borders policies of the previous Social Democrat government, which resulted in one in five people living in Sweden being foreign-born.
The centre-right coalition government of Ulf Kristersson has sought to reverse course, with Sweden recording net negative immigration for the first time in decades in 2024. The government is also set to make it more difficult to become a citizen, including by requiring eight years of residency rather than five and by imposing income requirements.
(VM Comment – I think that it’s too late for Sweden. They’re still too politically correct. It’s not as though the crime statistics in the US wouldn’t change too if we broke out the negros into their own category. That’s not racism. It’s cold, hard statistics.)
Identify the Vehicle
1
2
3
Lee or Grant?
End
1 – M561 Gama Goat
2 – HDT Storm Search
3 – M3 Lee
Excellent!
Due to the position assumed by the assistant driver, could be called a Schalf wagen.
just two quick notes before I (have to) take a quick nap.
1. The left has been trained (and is training) to look at the young criminal who commits capital murder as someone who’s just made the wrong choice and is not responsible for his (her?) actions due to his upbringing/culture and can (like a computer) be reset. We, as a country, made a huge error by moving executions behind closed doors and, subsequently, eliminating them altogether. Public executions will lower the murder rate among all cultures (despite their guarantee of a likely/possible heavenly reward- IMHO. Executions held on Sunday in front of the Court House (with lunch tables set up afterwards) whether by hanging, guillotine, or bullet(s). The method of execution chosen by the state.
Which reminds me: bring back the Looney Bins; don’t let them wander the streets, deposit their bowels on the Main Street, and, above all, don’t let them teach our children.
2. I was wondering what the VM readership’s attitude was on illegal imigrants who’ve been here a number of years (>10), held a job (or jobs) (iow, not applied [illegally] for any benefits), and can speak, intelligibly, English. I’m of two minds being the son of two legal immigrants from eastern Europe – and, try as I might, can’t come up with a reasonable solution that doesn’t keep me awake at night (or during the day, for that matter).
3. OK, OK. I said two. I lied. I’m re-reading “Broken Toys” to uncover the author’s methodology (to see where I could use one or two of his techniques and re-edit/write, for the millionth time, my own novel) only to get lost in the story line and forget my reason for re-reading it. Just not fair!
My take on the “dreamers” is that Obama didn’t make them legal, and neither did Biden, because they know that the polling shows they’re overwhelmingly prone to vote Republican. I believe that President Trump will push for them to be “legalized” before the midterms. I expect to see that this summer. I personally know people who were brought to the US as children, and they’re stuck. They are not of ‘Mexican culture’, and many don’t speak Spanish. They were “F’ed,” and now they’re in their 30s, marginalized de facto because of their situation. I don’t have a problem with giving them some sort of probationary status with a pathway, provided they have no criminal record, etc. Some have been here 30 or 40 years and have US Citizen children (born on free soil).
Boron on your own novel “Broken Toys” has two things to consider. First is the story at first paints the primary character as a Broken Toy that is truely broken perhaps behind repair. Hence, the story title. Point being tie the book title to your story clearly. Second the book is intended as a series so it ends with major plot lines unresolved. Decide before you finish the book is it a one and done or a series.
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LL… I” m hoping for a second book in the “Broken Toys” series to tie up at least the major plot lines. I realize there were going to be multiple books originally so it might not be possible in just two books. But putting it out there is your several book per year writing to perhaps tie up that story. Thanks.
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Gamma goats were interesting vehicles to drive.
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Criminal migrant gangs and prison reminds me of the issue, discussed on this blog, of youth offenders suddenly finding themselves as adults. Who then are puzzled they were harshly punished doing the same crimes they did as youths. As youths they were just sent home now they’re in prison for multi years.
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Sweden will find this issue to be much more problematic than just assigning an age as criminal. They don’t understand that they will now have a permanent, non working, on government aid, criminal class growing in numbers each year. Arguing over “age” in about ten years will be the least of their unsolvable socialist created crime migrant problems.
I gave up on writing after Broken Toys for a bit – stalled in Book 2, which is about half way to completion. Since I broke the momentum of the series, waiting and prioritizing the Duelist Series (Confederate Cipher, etc.) where I have momentum is more important. I did a few personal things to make the change. One was to change the location where I wrote most things. My den is cool, but it’s dark. I moved my writing station to a large picture window overlooking the national forest in the Great Room. Small things like that make a surprising difference. Hudsons Scouts may be live today – in paperback. Definitely tomorrow, depending on the whim of Amazon. I think I’ll announce it on the blog officially on Monday.
My novel(s?) (they’ve growed like Topsy) begins with/revolves around the daughter of a Finnish brother-sister marriage (each, of different parentage, adopted by the same childless couple) and her (male) roommate and their antecedents.
Each time I say, “Enough already!” a voice from one of the characters comes to me to tell me their side of the story in the middle of the night – or in the middle of the day while researching a stock for purchase.
It’s a real PITA; I hafta git me one of those minature recorders.
Second the desire for more Broken Toys. Hope you can get your mojo back for that story-dying for more Lucky Brandt.
Great news on the upcoming paperbacks. Will buy!
Same here.
What’s the moral framework here? If people aren’t hurting me, and are being net productive, then we should appreciate them and leave them alone. If they’re being “conservative” and supporting their parents in retirement then why should we complain? I think the “citizenship” fact is not helping in the question of, who is being a good human being.
Sigh. That’s why libertarianism (or any similar extreme individual-centric political philosophy) is a dead-end, self-defeating masturbatory fantasy. How a society functions comes down to tribe and culture. (I don’t like it either, but that’s how the world works.) The reason I don’t want illegal Mexicans around is because I don’t want to be surrounded by Mexicans, or by Igbo Nigerians for that matter. (Igbo are high IQ, hard working, and smarter and more cunning than many heritage Americans, right? Superior beings who should, and morally deserve to, replace the inferior native stock, because it’s all about free ideas/markets/borders, right? Let the superior individual win, because everything is ultimately about maximizing returns to atomized individuals. Screw your own history, your culture, your folk. Only the individual matters.) Why don’t I want them around? Because I don’t want to live in Mexico, or in Nigeria. If you have lots of people from Mexico who maintain their “back home” cultural preferences and behaviors then you de facto have Mexico regardless of whether the geography is Guadalajara or Fargo, North Dakota.
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Okay, let’s remove my “antihispanitism” and “antinigeritism” if that’s supposedly an argument. My ancestry is 100% Chinese. I am ALLOWED to talk shit about Chinese. Have you been to Flushing, New York, or Richmond, BC (Vancouver suburb), to take two examples? Those cities are FULL of not-assimilated Chinese. Despite my genetics, I don’t want to live in China either. If it’s not obvious why (duh) it’s because they have a wildly different culture. My pre-1946 Western value system, and therefore behavior, is very different from apres-Marx Chinese culture, and the AMC culture is objectively worse across multiple metrics. But if there is one of me for every 99 non-Westernized Chinese in Flushing, we have China, and not the West. This also applies to libertarians of course. The good libertarian will say “do as thou wilt, so long as you don’t infringe on my rights.” See how that works if you let a thousand fundamentalist Muslims into your neighborhood. Before you know it, you have to listen to the muezzin five times daily, and your daughter gets spit on (or far worse) for riding her bike while wearing shorts because that’s offensively immodest. (Actually it was Hasidics in Williamsburg, NY who had the problem with cyclists, but let’s not go there.) I said “let” but if we’re all atomized individuals, how could we possibly STOP these invasions? “Let” implies a decision to allow it to happen, as if isolated individuals could stop it, which is of course silly. A collection of individuals who each think they can pull a John Galt and force the masses to his Will will very quickly find out that Galt was a ridiculous power fantasy.
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I am mortally certain that my (Greco-Romano-Germano-Christian) culture is superior to most other cultures across multiple domains (individual liberty, safety, trust, material comfort, etc) but that’s not even my argument, because this is NOT an economic or utilitarian argument. I want to live in a GRGC culture, and have that culture move forward into future history because that’s MY culture. Period fucking dot. In the same way that I’d want my child to be successful, even though some other child is objectively smarter, harder working, and better looking and “deserves” success more than my child. I want my child to succeed because she’s MY child. I’m not claiming that’s rational or even “fair” but that’s how 99%+ of humans see the world, and therefore that’s how the world works.
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Tribe up or die a despised foreigner in what used to be your land. It’s as simple as that.
As to Boron #2-
Native born/bred Suthroner here.
Living in a military ally country 11 years now.
I can assure you that were I not to diligently, faithfully, pro-actively keep my legal status current nd correct, I would be
kicked out of my home, without warning. No opportunity to pack nor say goodbye to my local family.
Again, no warning given. (I personally know 4 ex-pats that were treated thusly. 2 UK, one had (had) a thriving local business, both married locally with multiple kids. 1 American also married locally with a little girl (they showed up at 0230!), nd a Spaniard, 20 sth years here. 2 thriving businesses employing over 100+ locals. Living in Makati on a nice spread. None were given specifics as to why.
Interestingly, the entire country has been all atwitter about their illegal immigrants in USA being forcefully removed, declaring racism, unfair, etc).
If Americans (nd your ancestors) doing the right thing can be treated in such a way, Yeah, no special exceptions are deserved, warranted nor appropriate. Kinda like making NATO pay their obligations.
IMHO
Juan
Identify the Vehicle:
1. Gama Goat
2. TBD
3. M3 Lee
Yes!
And that is how Western Civilization fell, because we couldn’t make the hard decisions.
After all, they were never found guilty of a crime during a time the prosecutors and district attorneys were “elected” to dismiss these cases. Besides, it’s just a few dozen million, there are plenty of jobs, houses, hospitals, prisons and they’re natural conservatives!
Welcome to The Hotel California.
You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
It makes a difference; 13 hrs and a few good men sacrificed on an altar malicious intent makes a big difference. 14 yrs later and one thing makes a difference. Time to bring the truth to light and let gavel fall. The dis honorable and more than negligent serpent once said the truth, “the unborn child has no rights.” Dragging the dynamic duo into court may end up being no more than optics to shame and / or wake up John F. Types and their voters. Seeing the big C foundation shaken, and not being able to ride off into the sunset, selling speeche$ and book$, gives me great pleasure. All the more if the trail of blood reptile corpus is found legally swinging in DC, but that would be too kind IMO. May no one present with the witch and the half blood prince, as they listened to it all go down live, be able to sleep till we see a Frank Hammer nail the cupable’s.
Now we might need to re-watch 13hours…because my disdain for O, HRC, and a host of other Deep State flunkies taking a wrecking ball to everything they come in contact isn’t bad enough. Every last one of them needs to be…well…let’s just leave that to ones imagination.
Would set the table for some civil suits.
I’m surrounded by Mexicans where I live in Idaho and have been for the last 25 years. I’ve also lived in Colorado and all over Arizona and been around Mexicans since 1977. I’ve worked with them for the last 48 years. They are good hard working people and have some cool culture. They are a lot better than the trash I left behind in Cleveland. I don’t see ICE or Border Patrol rousting people because we don’t have a bunch of hardened criminals roaming the streets. The cops take care of the bad guys.
That’s true where I live as well. Mexicans and Navajos – good people, for the most part hard working with a good attitude toward life.
I concur. Additionally, I am pretty sure I still have illegal distant cousins (it’s vaguely possible
they all aged out).
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However. If they get caught in the gears of law enforcement, I have little sympathy. Many of them
ignored multiple chances for amnesty or other paths to naturalization because “everybody does it”
and / or “I don;t trust the government”. Well, I don’t trust the fucking government either, but I have
a driver’s license, and I registered for the draft, and all that crap. When I buy a gun, I fill out the papers
honestly, even though they are bullshit oppression. You fled a much worse government(s), mostly in
Mexico, to be here – shit or get off the pot. Also, when a person (like me, I am doing it all the time,
it’s almost unavoidable) breaks the law, they should know and accept the possible consequences.
You call the play, and take your chances. When I get stopped for speeding, it’s not “oh, you can’t do
this to me, you;re trampling my human rights!”. Accept responsibility for your actions, like an adult.
– Kle.
X2
A neighbor told me she is offended to be called a Mexican. Her definition is speaking English makes you Hispanic and speaking Spanish makes you Mexican. My response, “So it is like the pronoun thing”, wasn’t well received.
>speaking English makes you Hispanic
Not everyone views “Hispanic” as complementary or preferable. I have a dear friend from LaMancha who reacts poorly to being called Hispanic: “I am a white European whose ancestors were all European. I am NOT one of those people.” If you asked sincerely about her position (as opposed to pretending shock and disgust for the virtue-signaling points) she’d explicate. “I understand that there are advantages to claiming Hispanic status in the US, but I refuse to do it. Generally, it’s wrong to treat people differently based on their race or ethnicity. When it comes to me personally, I don’t NEED lower standards because I am some poor Hispanic. I’m good enough on my own merits.”
I said “If you asked sincerely”
The “you” is not me challenging WSF. I meant it in the sense of “if one were to ask”.
Sorry for the potential confusion.
Been my experience as well, on job sites, show up early and first thing is they set up the microwave for burritos (breakfast and lunch), then wail about until the sun sets. As for so-called “dreamers”, for those who have been productive for 20 years or so, paid taxes, are upstanding (unlike some percentage of natural born citizens who skew the curve)…there needs to be some ‘test’ to allow them to stay. If they are the type to wander back and forth over the border, that’s a demerit. For all others who crossed illegally, claimed asylum (the new grift since hearings are typically 2 years out and rarely does anyone show back up to see it through…”overstaying their visa” as if that was okay), I say “There’s the door, Adiós muchachos.”
Watching ‘Contraband, Seized at the Border’ is unreal how many come and go, EVERYDAY, trafficking all manner of bad stuff including people, entering the USA at will once past the bridge checkpoints, often for school (huh?), work (okay, fine), but mainly to operate as if the border was an inconvenience. MrsPaulM yells at the TV, “Stay in your own country and work to make it better.” PDJT has shut it down tight, best one can, now it’s time to deport all those millions Biden’s Handlers let in to garner votes.
x2, but how do we put a stop to the outflow of money going back to support their aging parents/families back home – or should we?
My Dad used to send food packages to the Lutheran side of his family back in Czechoslovakia in the late ’30s and early ’40s, so I can well understand.
Sweden is Toast: Despite them leading the pack on reducing the Covidiocy PsyOp (when they realized revenues were tanking), we have to remember they gave us Greta Thunberg (yet another activist lost soul used by her parents, altho she’s a semi-grown adult now). At least the Danes (love ’em or not) gave us Greenland (maybe)…and Lego’s, and cool furniture, and open-faced sandwiches, and The Little Mermaid…what has Sweden given us of value? Leave them to their devices, which often requires adult beverages in large quantities.
GFW2 called into my show today.