Last week the Naming Commission released its “recommendations for Army installations named in commemoration of the Confederacy.”

Given today’s military, it shouldn’t be a surprise that political correctness and identity politics played a role. There are genuine heroes among the namesakes, but it’s likely not a mere accident that the list includes three women, three African-Americans and a Hispanic. No Asian-Americans though, must be racism.

This short-sighted process began with the erroneous notion that having a military facility named for someone who fought for the Confederacy indicates ipso facto an endorsement of slavery and racism. Take for instance Fort Bragg, named for Braxton Bragg.

Like many Confederate officers, Bragg attended West Point and served in the US Army. In 1918, the then Chief of Field Artillery, General William Snow, created an artillery training ground in North Carolina as part of a modernization effort. Snow, a Northerner from New York and New Jersey, in an obvious act of racism, named the facility Camp Bragg after the fellow artillery officer who was from North Carolina. Bragg was not a great Confederate general, and the Camp was named more for his service in the Mexican-American War.

In his last public speech, just days before he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln made some remarks on reconstruction, and he said this about the wisdom of moving past the differences that had divided the nation.

We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper relation with the Union; and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact, easier to do this, without deciding, or even considering, whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union; and each forever after, innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without, into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it.

The Civil War happened. It’s part of our history. Having military installations across the South, and named for Southerners, that are part of a once again unified country and military is an acknowledgement of that past and of the sacrifices made to make the Union possible again. Today, the South is the region as a whole with the strongest support of the military and of military service. The Commission may be inadvertently chipping away at the “proper practical relations” with the potential recruits it needs most.

The list, along with descriptions and stories of the individuals, is here.

Fort Moore

Fort Benning, Georgia
to be renamed in commemoration of
Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Julia Moore

Fort Liberty

Fort Bragg, North Carolina
to be renamed in commemoration of
the American value of Liberty

Fort Eisenhower

Fort Gordon, Georgia
to be renamed in commemoration of
General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower

Fort Walker

Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia
to be renamed in commemoration of
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

Fort Cavazos

Fort Hood, Texas
to be renamed in commemoration of
Gen. Richard E. Cavazos

Fort Gregg-Adams

Fort Lee, Virginia
to be renamed in commemoration of
Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams

Fort Barfoot

Fort Pickett, Virginia
to be renamed in commemoration of
Tech. Sgt. Van T. Barfoot

Fort Johnson

Fort Polk, Louisiana
to be renamed in commemoration of
Sgt. William Henry Johnson

Fort Novosel

Fort Rucker, Alabama
to be renamed in commemoration of CW4 Michael J. Novosel Sr.

Joe Biden is a terrible president – he’s passed Jimmy Carter as the worst of my lifetime, and if his (or, let’s be honest, Obama’s) agenda follows through, could pass Woodrow Wilson as the worst ever.

But let’s talk a little compassion, here, first.

My mom passed away at the end of April, as wrote earlier this month. As I noted at the time, she had Alzheimers.

We first started noticing her memory issues around the end of 2016. It started out with little things – not being able to find her purse over and over, mistaking who she was talking with, that sort of thing. It progressed, slowly and yet inexorably and all too fast at the same time.

Biden reminds me of my mom in early 2017.

The sinister element behind all this is that my mother was not simultaneously at the head of the world’s most powerful bureaucracy and military, and a talking head basically parroting the words put in front of her on a teleprompter.

LIke this:

“A .22 will lodge in your lung; a surgeon can fix it. A 9mm blows your lung out”.

If Biden is going off-script, he’s babbling. If he’s repeating a chanting point fed to him by a Democrat messageer who can count of Democrat voters not being critical enough a bunch of thinkers to see through the BS, then he’s still babbling.

Inflation is off the charts.

Crime is exploding.

Our debt is going to crush us, sooner than later.

Americans hate each other, and are sorting themselves out ever more strictly.

And we’re led by a muppet.

To: “Amy”, timeless genius

From: Mitch Berg, irascible peasant

Re: This Changes Everything!

Yes, you are the first person in the history of the subject of gun control, and indeed of rhetoric itself, to ever come up with this “argument“

And can I just say, it’s such a pleasure to meet a fellow true, rigorous Socratic.

That is all.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I convinced my wife to get her Carry Permit a few years back. I hoped the class would teach her something about the law of self-defense. She said later, “All those rules. What’s the point of having a gun if you can’t use it?” I think she watches too much television – she doesn’t want a permit to carry, she wants a license to kill. And that was before things got so bad we moved out of the city.

She can shoot okay, though. We went to my gun club to brush up in preparation for her renewal class. The shots in the upper diamond were from her .38 Special revolver, 21 feet, standing, iron sights, slow fire. The shots in the middle circle were rapid fire.

Granted, the burglar isn’t going to stand around for five minutes while she wakes up, finds her glasses and locates the gun, cocks, aims, and fires. Taking her to the range to shoot for this photo is probably only giving her false confidence. But same is true for you and me and anybody else who doesn’t sleep with a gun under the pillow like the guy who died in that no-knock raid in Minneapolis. If we have time to get woke up and organized, he’s in deep doo-do. If not, we’re no worse off than before.

Now I need to find ammo to replace the rounds she shot. No .38 SPL at Fleet Farm or Cabella’s. The shortage is over for limited calibers and selections, but the shelves are not groaning like the olden days.

Liberals are trying their hardest to provoke a civil war. I expect more riots this summer, drumming up outrage to get out the Democrat vote. Even if you lost all your hardware in a tragic canoe accident, Bill’s Gun Shop will rent you a pistol when you pay for the shooting lane. When’s the last time YOU were at the range?

Joe Doakes

Last time I was at the range? Last week.

But since I lost all my guns in the lake, it was just to read the articles.

I’ll be out doing Memorial Day activities today – honoring those who died for this country – and by extension, those who didn’t – as well as some of the regular “beginning of summer” stuff for which today is mostly synonymous these days.

But lest anyone forget – or just need a new reminder – I found this thread, by a former USMC public relations officer, alternately funny and deeply affecting:

Back to regular blogging – i.e., trying to make this a country and civilization worthy of all that sacrifice – tomorrow.

If the story presented in this Wall Street Journal article is true, what happened at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, could have been prevented or greatly mitigated:

Local residents voiced anger Thursday about the time it took to end the mass shooting at an elementary school here, as police laid out a fresh timeline that showed the gunman entered the building unobstructed after lingering outside for 12 minutes firing shots.

12 minutes can be a lifetime. But it gets worse.

Victor Escalon, a regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, gave a new timeline of how the now-deceased gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, walked into Robb Elementary School, barricaded himself in a classroom and killed 19 children and two teachers.

Mr. Escalon said he couldn’t say why no one stopped Ramos from entering the school during that time Tuesday. Most of the shots Ramos fired came during the first several minutes after he entered the school, Mr. Escalon said.

And worse still:

Ramos shot his grandmother Tuesday morning and drove her truck to Robb Elementary School, crashing the vehicle into a nearby ditch at 11:28 a.m., according to the timeline laid out by Mr. Escalon. He then began shooting at people at a funeral home across the street, prompting a 911 call reporting a gunman at the school at 11:30. Ramos climbed a chain-link fence about 8 feet high onto school grounds and began firing before walking inside, unimpeded, at 11:40. The first police arrived on the scene at 11:44 and exchanged gunfire with Ramos, who locked himself in a fourth-grade classroom. There, he killed the students and teachers.

A Border Patrol tactical team went into the school an hour later, around 12:40 p.m., and was able to get into the classroom and kill Ramos, Mr. Escalon said.

Consider the implication of this timeline — Ramos essentially announced himself and his intentions from the moment he arrived, but no one stopped him for over an hour. And it gets worse:

Ms. Gomez, a farm supervisor, was also waiting outside for her children. She said she was one of numerous parents who began encouraging—first politely, and then with more urgency—police and other law enforcement to enter the school sooner. After a few minutes, she said, U.S. Marshals put her in handcuffs, telling her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation.

The Marshals deny this happened, but there’s more.

Videos circulated on social media Wednesday and Thursday of frantic family members trying to get access to Robb Elementary as the attack was unfolding, some of them yelling at police who blocked them from entering.

“Shoot him or something!” a woman’s voice can be heard yelling on a video, before a man is heard saying about the officers, “They’re all just [expletive] parked outside, dude. They need to go in there.”

We worry, quite rightly, about the fog of war in these instances. Much of the initial reporting is wrong. I am hoping the story told here is wrong; if it is accurate, there will be hell to pay. And quite rightly so.

In twenty years of first blogging and then social media, you’d think the semi-literate popsies that populate the ranks of “new big media” would have learned by now: trying to make people you disagree with sound dumb, about things you’re not especially smart about yourself, is going to backfire.

Molly Jong-Fast – a gift that keeps on giving, in the mold of Robin Marty or Jeff Fecke, but with a six-figure income – was exhibit 50,234,632,421 yesterday, in re Ted Cruz’s commentary on how schools should be designed:

I get it. Molly Jong Fast, being on the (pardon the expression) academic fast track (I kid you not – she attended “New York University, Barnard College, and Wesleyan University and completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in English at Bennington College”, which qualifies her as Central Casting Overpromoted Progressive Dimwit in one of my little satirical dramatizations, has likely never spent much time observing the mechanical and logistical details of the physical world around her.

Not just tactical security issues, like Cruz is discussing.

No, I’m talking about this little number here:

Locked from the outside under normal circumstances, easily opened from the inside under the extraordinary ones – say, the ones that would require a fire alarm anyway, like a fire.

Ring a bell?

I’m gonna go out on a short, sturdy limb and guess Jong-Fast thinks knowing about things like this is a job for a Honduran immigrant.

To: Representative Dean Phillips
From: Mitch Berg, Irascible Peasant
Re: Show Us The Information

Rep. Phillips,

After wrapping Beto O’Rourke in unearned merit earlier this week, you’ve now gone full Napolitano: you “know” there’s a virtual army of spree killers just waiting to…

…well, let’s let you explain it:

That’s a pretty big accusation, Representative. Any chance you could share any testable substantiation of thousands of angry young men with guns?

Because that’s a pretty big accusation.

I think you’re full of crap. Feel free to show the world any information I’m wrong.

You won’t, and I suspect you cant, but here’s the challenge.

TIA,

Mitch Berg

A friend of the blog emails:

I’ve noticed more articles on the feds prosecuting gun crimes.

Are they actually upping there game? Or being reported more?

Is this because of an upcoming election?

To tell you the truth, I haven’t heard.

Thoughts?

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The Constitution sets an age limit for Congress – must be 25 years old – and for President – must be 35 years old. Why? Because we want national leaders to have acquired the wisdom which comes from maturity, so they make responsible decisions. It’s hard to test for wisdom so we use age as a proxy. We do it for lots of important activities – sex, voting, alcohol, enlistment, marriage, contract – restricting people from engaging in those activities until they are wise enough to do them responsibly.

Lots of angry tweets about the Texas school shooter being able to buy AR-15 rifles within days after his 18th birthday. Why? Do they think 18-year-olds lack the wisdom and maturity to use rifles responsibly? Millions of responsible hunters and military service members cast doubt on that conclusion. What additional life lessons would the Texas shooter have learned between 18 and 21 which would have taught him it was wrong to kill his grandmother and then shoot up the grade school?

It’s not an age issue. It’s not a wisdom or maturity issue. He knew damned well what he did was wrong. He even told people on social media that he was going to do it. He did it anyway. What law can we pass, what age can we set, which will stop wicked people from committing evil? None.

So what can we do?

First, stop making soft targets. Gun Free zones sound good but a sign at the door doesn’t keep criminals out, it simply notifies criminals where the soft targets are.

Second, harden soft targets. Liquor stores hire off-duty cops. Pawn shops use two-room man-traps at the front door (they operate like airlocks on a space ship – second door doesn’t open until the first one is closed and somebody inside confirms it’s safe to open the second door). Why don’t schools have better security? Is gin more valuable than Jimmy? Is jewelry more valuable than Julie? Fire a Diversity Counselor and use the savings for structural improvements.

Third, harden staff. The qualities which make a great teacher – compassionate, empathetic, caring – are not the qualities which make a great protector. The guy guarding the door must be armed, trained, and mentally capable of opening fire on an armed intruder. S/He must instinctively run Toward the sound of trouble. There must be a few retired cops or Fallujah vets who could fill that role (or train others to do it).

Fourth, stop making soft-target-seekers by hardening police spokes-persons. After a mass shooting, the official response should be, “We have no comment because we won’t glorify the killer and inspire others to copycat. We implore the media not to do it, either.”

These are short-term responses. The long-term solution involves a change in societal attitudes. When I was a kid, every pickup in the school parking lot had a shotgun, for pheasant hunting before and after school. School was cancelled for Opening Deer Season because nobody would be there anyway, we were all out in the fields with guns. And there were never any school shootings, despite young people having guns, because we were raised differently, society was different then. I know what you’re thinking – okay, Boomer – but look at those tiny bodies in Texas and tell my why society today is so much better than in my day. I genuinely want to know.

Joe Doakes

Much more to come on this…

…but you knew this.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I can’t wait to learn who GOP, Inc. will select as the Republican candidate for President in 2024. It won’t be Trump, that’s for certain. But I’d like to know now, so I can start working on my “literally Hitler” memes.

Well, yes, of course s/he will be “literally Hitler.” Every Republican candidate is “literally Hitler” until defeated. Reagan was “literally Hitler” for walking away from Reykjavik. Bush the Elder was ‘literally Hitler” for secretly flying an SR-71 Blackbird to Iran to negotiate the release of Jimmy Carter’s hostages. Romney was “literally Hitler” for having binders full of women. McCain was “literally Hitler” because he agreed to have Sarah Palin as running mate and she was “literally Hitler” too. Chimpy McBushHitler was “literally Hitler” because he lied and people died. Trump was “literally Hitler” because he bragged about grabbing women by the . . . and now, the next Republican candidate for President will be “literally Hitler” simply for . . . being the Republican candidate for President.

About the only person who wasn’t “literally Hitler” was Hitler himself, because he declared war on the Russians who weren’t led by Putin at the time, but someday would be. And Putin is “literally Hitler.”

Joe Doakes

They have been building the “literally Hitler“ file on Ron DeSantis for a while now.

There isn’t enough bad news in the world, so let’s toss another stack of troubles on the table, shall we.

At American Greatness, Adam Mill outlines the financial ruin headed our way.

The coming reckoning for Washington’s insanely irresponsible monetary policy may dwarf the troubles from all recent recessions and periods of inflation.

The Federal Reserve has created a doom loop between the housing market and inflation. For years it has printed tens of billions of dollars each month to buy sketchy securities meant to subsidize the housing market and favor bond traders. This continues even now, in spite of inflation and a red-hot housing market. But the housing market has become dependent on unearned, newly printed money, and stopping the flow might cause a catastrophic correction. If it doesn’t stop, however, inflation will explode.

Let me walk you through some of the math.

Inflation closes the gap between money earned and money spent. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the Federal Reserve expanded M2 money supply from just under $8 trillion to around $22 trillion today. During that time GDP has increased from around $14.6 trillion to around $24.5 trillion today. We’ve gone from a ratio of one dollar chasing $2.20 in goods in services to an almost 1 to 1 ratio today. Inflation during the same period, according to the government, has eroded the dollar by a mere 33 percent.

You think 8 percent inflation is high? Prices need to double to restore any semblance of balance between currency and the things you can buy with currency. We have a long way to go.

Fortunately, his conclusion is even worse. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

To fight inflation, interest rates need to exceed the inflation rate. That means a dollar saved loses purchasing power unless savings interest rates climb from less than 1 percent to something over current inflation (now around 8 percent). One rule of thumb provides that savings interest rates should reach 150 percent of inflation in order to reverse the trend. The theory holds that high interest rates encourage saving cash thus slowing down the speed at which money chases assets. If interest rates are less than inflation, it makes holding cash a losing proposition.

But in this environment, raising interest rates will cause a cascade of problems. The higher interest rates will slow the economy and cause unemployment. It will also swallow up tax revenue as the government has to pay interest on its massive debt. But more critically, it will increase the rate of default on home mortgages. Those defaults will make mortgage-backed securities less valuable and more unpredictable. That’s how the 2008 housing market seized up.

Thus, the doom loop.

Alternatively, the Fed could just let inflation rip as it continues to pour gasoline on the fire. At this point, the latter scenario appears more likely as the Fed engages in half-hearted symbolic inflation-fighting measures. Not surprisingly, the inflation numbers get scarier and scarier. At some point, runaway inflation will force the Fed to take real action. One thing is certain: the longer it waits, the more it will hurt.

Closing the gap between money earned and money spent means cutting government spending, raising interest rates, reducing regulation, and lowering taxes. Government can and should facilitate increases in productivity by reducing its interference in every private transaction. More Americans get a check from the government than pay taxes. The labor participation rate is dangerously low. There just aren’t enough people pulling their weight to make the things needed to sop up all of this excess money.

Awhile back we touched on the arrangement China has entered into with the Solomon Islands, a deal which has sparked concerns that perhaps China has an eye towards an increased presence in the Pacific.

Starting today, the Chinese Foreign Minister is beginning a visit to several Pacific Island nations. From China’s Foreign Ministry:

From May 26 to June 4, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay official visits to eight countries, namely Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste, and a virtual visit to the Federated States of Micronesia upon invitation. He will also hold video conference with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Cook Islands and Premier and Foreign Minister of Niue, and host the second China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Fiji. 

Also today, the Chinese Foreign Minister met with his counterpart in the Solomons and outlined three principles behind their cooperation:

The first principle is to fully respect the national sovereignty of Solomon Islands. China-Solomon Islands cooperation is based on Solomon Islands’ needs and requirements, on the premise of Solomon Islands’ consent, and on the basis of equal consultation. It is never China’s foreign policy, nor is it Chinese style, to impose business deals on others, interfere in Solomon Islands’ internal affairs, or damage other countries’ interests.

The second one is to help maintain the social stability of Solomon Islands. China-Solomon Islands security cooperation includes assistance in maintaining social order, protecting lives and property in accordance with the law as well as conducting humanitarian relief and natural disaster response at the request of Solomon Islands. The aim is to help Solomon Islands strengthen police capacity-building, offset the security governance deficit and maintain domestic stability and long-lasting peace and security. China-Solomon Islands security cooperation is aboveboard and frank, not imposing on others, not targeting third parties and not intending to establish military bases.

The third one is in parallel with regional arrangements. China supports Pacific Island Countries in strengthening security cooperation and working together to address regional security challenges. China also supports the existing regional security cooperation arrangements. At the same time, China-Solomon Islands security cooperation and the existing regional arrangements complement each other, sharing the same objectives and interests. China-Solomon Islands security cooperation conforms to the common interests of Solomon Islands and the South Pacific region.

The last one is our topic for today. What “regional arrangements” are we talking about here? The AP provides some details on what China is up to:

Although Jennifer Carnahan underperformed her expectations in the CD1 primary on Tuesday, coming in well under ten percent of the vote in her late husband’s district, she did get one huge break yesterday.

Beto O’Rourke interrupted a law enforcement briefing on the Uvalde massacre in one of the most cynical, narcissistic bits of self-promotion I’ve ever seen…

…including the anything perpetual victim Carnahan has ever foisted on the public.

So becoming not the most narcisstic, performative character in politics? Probably a good thing.

Speaking of O’Rourke’s “Look at Meeeeeeeeeee!” moment – CD3 rep Dean Phillips posted this…

…ever so briefly. It disappeared in a matter of hours, if not minutes.

That’s right, Lord Rotgut: a silver-spoon pseudo-Latino who makes John Edwards look sincere and grounded trying to seize the spotlight from the law enforcement guys doing their f****ng jobs is the same as an anonymous guy standing up to a 40 ton tank.

This tweet needs to not get memory-holed for this fall. If there is justice in this world, it should completely scupper O’Rourke’s inevitable bid for Governor (and the presidential bid that will follow),. It should definitely get held against Phillips this fall as well.

UPDATE: I got punked.

When I’m universal dictator, Reddit is sooooooo hosed.

But I will do it today:

The ignorant, stupid racists of The View got curb stomped.

Anything that causes that program pain is an objective good.

Every election, and GOP primary, is a “referendum on Donald Trump”.

Just ask the Democrats and media (ptr), who want and need every election to be a referendum on Orange Literal Hitler.

Of course, as a conservative who wants to see DeSantis mop the floor with whomever the order of succession puts up against him – Harris? Pelosi? Buttigieg? Beto O’Rourke? – in 2024, I’d very much like the whole “referendum on Trump” thing to shut up and go away.

The Youngkin victory in Virginia last fall should have put that to bed – he was elected while the Democrats tried to make the vote about Trump, and still try to retroactively apply him to the race – but then, our media being dishonest about this sort of thing is hardly Man Bites Dog, now, is it?

This past week has given both sides evidence.

The primary in Pennsylvania earlier this week had Dr. Mehment “Doctor Oz” Oz winning the Senate primary – but by a narrow enough margin that Trump reportedly may start swearing off endorsing people.

On the other hand, in Georgia, Trump’s bete noir Governor Kemp cruised to a comically easy victory over Trump-endorsed Perdue in the race against Stacey Abrams, the unelected real president of the US and EU.

In the meantime, a week that saw Madison Cawthorne exit his race, saw Marjorie Taylor Greene winning her contest handily.

My two cents: The battle will center on the GOP fight against the depredations of Obama’s third term, versus the Democrats trying to stretch Donald Trump’s relevance two years beyond his exit from office.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the CD1 primary ended in a recount-worthy race between Brad Finstad and Jeremy Munson…

…and a blowout of Jim Hagedorn’s widow and, uh, controversial former MNGOP chair Jennifer Carnahan.

Who may still seek a recount, for all we know.

While Berg’s 18th Law is still in full effect regarding the Uvalde shooting, it appears that many of the usual check-marks apply.

The kid appears to have been bullied, and pretty troubled – in the sort of way that checks off some really tired cultural checkboxes. Berg’s 18th Law requires we treat all such revelations skeptically, and so I shall – but given what I’ve seen so far, the media will drop all conversation about the shooter by Monday.

While 30% of Texas schools allow teachers and other staff to legally carry their personal, concealed firearms, Uvalde and/or Robb were not among them. At the roughly 1,000 school districts in the US that allow teachers to carry their legally permitted concealed firearms, there were exactly zero deaths, or violent incidents of any kind, for about the 7,000th day in a row. But don’t you dare suggest that as a viable approach; that’s worse than dead kids, to today’s left.

I put out my thoughts and prayers to the people of Uvalde, and to every parent.

Doing that is, by the way, a “dog whistle” to much of the left. “WE DONOT NEED YER THOTS N PRYAERS, WE NEED AKSHEN” is usually how that goes.

It’s geometrically wrong, of course. Thoughts and prayers – or, if you prefer, analysis and reflection – is exactly what is needed when you face a seemingly intractable problem.

Part of our society has never gotten that.

WRITING A BAD ARGUMENT IN ALL CAPS DOESN’T MAKE IT A GOOD ARGUMENT.

REPEATING THAT BAD ALL-CAP ARGUMENT DOESN’T MAKE IT BETTER.

SAME WITH REPEATING IT OVER AND OVER. NO MATTER HOW MANY REPETITIONS.

UNLESS YOU END BY SPELLING OUT “PERIOD”. THEN YOU’RE GOLDEN.

PERIOD.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Lesko Brandon purportedly ‘paused’ his new Disinformation Governance Board. Nina Jankowicz, the person tapped to head it, announced she would resign. Internet speculation is Lesko Brandon caved to public opposition.

Brandon wasn’t the first. George Bush the Younger established the Office of Strategic Information in 2002, which was supposedly disbanded by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld due to public opposition, same as now.

Come ON, people. It’s an office of DIS-information. Its whole purpose is lying – to the enemy, to Congress, to the public, to whomever needs lying to so The Agenda is advanced.

Do you REALLY believe it’s out of business? Or has it been quietly renamed, moved to the basement, and told to issue no more public announcements but instead work only through leaks to its trusted media partners?

Joe Doakes

I firmly believe Joe is absolutely right; it’s still out there; it’s just not singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious“ on TikTok anymore.

In addition to a number of primaries that may or may not be referenda on Donald Trump, depending on who you ask (more tomorrow, hopefully), today is the first of four drama-clogged elections in Minnesota’s First Congressional District.

As the Strib notes, there are twenty candidates in the running. The DFL (8 candidates) and GOP (10) ones are vying for a significant shot on the ballot in a special election coming up on August 9.

You can fairly feel the media, practically begging for a strong performance by Jennifer Carnahan, widow of the late Rep. Hagedorn and controversial former state GOP chair. It’d guarantee a couple months of soap-opera drama before a DFL victory – a win-win for the DFL and media (pardon the redundancy). Matt Benda has the money; State reps Jeremy Munson and (to a lesser extent) Nils Pierson have the political name recognition.

Tomorrow’s going to be a fun one.

On Sunday, an IRGC Colonel, Hassan Sayad Khodai, was assassinated in broad daylight outside his home by two assailants on a motorcycle. There’s been no official claim of responsibility.

It’s a mystery why Khodai was targeted. It’s possible it was in retaliation for Khodai’s involvement in plots against Israeli officials. But, consider the history of high-profile assassinations inside Iran.

Between 2007 and 2012, five people associated with Iran’s nuclear program were assassinated in Iran. Several of these instances involved assailants on motorcycles. Another prominent figure, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of Iran’s atomic energy program, was assassinated in 2020. The complex operation involved smuggling in and assembling a remote-controlled gun.

A brazen Israeli intelligence operation in 2018 involving stealing thousands of documents related to Iran’s nuclear program from a secret warehouse in Tehran.

A Colonel doesn’t seem like a high enough profile target to risk such a daylight operation, especially if he isn’t involved with Iran’s nuclear program, the high profile, high risk target Israel is committed to spending valuable resources on.

If Israel was indeed behind it, clearly Israel has developed exceptional intelligence capabilities inside Iran. Who Israel works with is of course a closely guarded secret. Whether Israel smuggles in its own operatives, or works with natives such as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), is not known.

The war in the shadows continues apace.

… I had completely given up on the Catholic Church ever actually enforcing it’s doctrine with regard to most progressive causes, including abortion.

So my jaw may have dropped just a little when I saw that archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, has apparently barred the speaker of the house from communion, more for wrapping her support of abortion in Catholicism as far as being “pro choice”:

“A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others. Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion,'” he says in the letter…Cordileone says in his letter that he wrote to her on April 7, informing her that “should you not publicly repudiate your advocacy for abortion ‘rights’ or else refrain from referring to your Catholic faith in public and receiving Holy Communion, I would have no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” He says that since that time, she has not done so.

I have little doubt that there will be a procession of “progressive” Catholic churches lining up to break the archbishop’s injunction.

SCENE: Mitch BERG is picking up an Amazon parcel at the drop box at a Whole Foods on Selby Avenue. As he fiddles with getting the scanner to scan the bar code on his phone, Avery LIBRELLE walks up behind him.

LIBRELLE: Merg!

BERG: Oh, shhhhhhhure enough, it’s Avery. How’s thi…

LIBRELLE: Republicans are racists!

BERG: Oh, yeah, you bet. You heard about the Republican gubernatorial candidate who chased down an unarmed black jogger – very similarly to the Ahmaud Arberry story? Chased him down and pointed a shotgun at his chest?

LIBRELLE: I had not. But sounds like a typical Rethuglicon!

BERG: Oh, you beg:

The jogger said [the candidate] pointed the shotgun at his chest; [the candidate] denies this but allows that his intent was to detain the jogger. At the time, [the candidate] was mayor of a small town in Pennsylvania. 

LIBRELLE: This is truly the America that Donald Trump created.

BERG: Uh huh. (BERG takes on a snarky grin)

LIBRELLE: What?

BERG: Nothing. (He can barely cvontain his glee).

LIBRELLE: Wait. That’s the look you get when you drop what you think is the big zinger in one of these stories of yours.

BERG: Zinger? Who, me?

LIBRELLE: (Yelling at a store employee). Pouncer! He’s a pouncer!

EMPLOYEE: Er, sure, maa… (Stops, confused) Sir…uh (Looks at BERG, who merely shrugs)

BERG: I’ll be leaving now.

And SCENE

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Should that cover demonstrating outside the homes of judges to demand a particular result?

The purpose of speech directed at the government is to change government policy, which is properly made by the Legislative Branch (albeit sometimes the details of how to carry out policy are delegated to the Executive Branch). But the Judicial Branch does not make policy, it decides cases according to the policies set by the Legislative Branch, as we all learned in high school civics class. That’s how the checks-and-balances system of the Constitution was set up.

Stop laughing. I know that’s not how it was done in the past – abortion, gay marriage – but that’s what Alito’s draft opinion means. It means the Judicial Branch is restoring Constitutional government to the land.

Justice Thomas was absolutely correct when he said, “We are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don’t like. We can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want. The events from earlier this week are a symptom of that.”

The people protesting outside judges’ homes demanding a particular result are using the same intimidation tactics as cross burners and ‘protection’ racketeers. They should be arrested and prosecuted for domestic terrorism.

Joe Doakes

Justice Thomas was right. He was also raised in a generation that had some concept of “living with consequences “.

We haven’t had one of those generations, least of all among our “cultural elites“, in quite some time.

This next couple of Tuesdays will give us six primary races that should be bellwethers about the influence of Donald Trump in the midterms, and potentially in 2024.

There are four of them tomorrow – in Idaho, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Ohio – and two more next week in Georgia and Alabama.

My hunch – as in the Virginia governor election last fall, the Democrats want the Trump candidates to win, and for the Trump endorsement to define the GOP during these races.

We’ll be covering the first batch of them Wednesday morning.