It’s such a good think our nation returned to seasoned, professional leadership in 2021:

Given the Orwellianism of modern Democrat politics, I’ll wait for the declaration that “Senility is intelligence!”.

Tom Cruise’s Top Gun sequel Maverick is the biggest open in Cruise’s long, lucrative career.

The 59-year-old superstar just got his first $100 million opening weekend with “Top Gun: Maverick.” In its first three days in North American theaters, the long-in-the-works sequel earned an estimated $124 million in ticket sales, Paramount Pictures said Sunday. Including international showings, its worldwide total is $248 million…“These results are ridiculously, over-the-top fantastic,” said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution. “I’m happy for everyone. I’m happy for the company, for Tom, for the filmmakers.”

Was it because it was the first post-Pandemic tentpole picture?

But even as the months, and years, went by and many other companies chose to compromise on hybrid releases, Cruise and Paramount didn’t waver on their desire to have a major theatrical release. A streaming debut was simply not an option.

“That was never going to happen,” Cruise said in Cannes.

Was it because the pandemic gave it a three year marketing runway?

“This is one of the longest runways for a marketing campaign for any film ever. And it only served to create more excitement around the movie,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “This movie literally waited for the movie theater to come back.”

Was it because it wasn’t another Godforsaken comic book superhero movie? Truth be told, that’s almost enough reason to go to Maverick all by itself. The endless comic book franchise is living evidence of Hollywood’s creative bankruptcy. I haven’t been to one since the first X-Men and Spiderman (the Toby McGuire/Kirsten Dunst one) movies.

Or could it be because it’s the first tentpole movie since American Sniper that isn’t an endless parade of woke tropes, a movie that isn’t afraid to show masculinity, merit, patriotism and military values as virtues rather than punch lines?

Fearless prediction: look for Woke Hollywood to try to simultaneously undercut and exploit this.

The flurry of telegram traffic between the various capitals of Europe in late June of 1919 was almost similar to the volume seen in the weeks before the Great War.  With the fifth anniversary of that cataclysm rapidly approaching, and no formal peace treaty having yet been signed and accepted, there was burgeoning nervousness that war might return to ravage Europe.  Despite months of Allied negotiations to craft terms of a final treaty with Germany, the German response had waivered between hostile rejection and begrudging acceptance.  Still, no German signature had touched the treaty, in part as no German politician wished to affix their name.  Chancellor Philipp Scheidemann (Friedrich Ebert had risen to the post of President of Germany with the newly announced Weimer Republic), spoke for all his colleagues when he said: “What hand should not wither that puts this fetter on itself and on us?”

The task fell upon Gustav Bauer, the next in line of authority as Schneidemann chose resignation as opposed to destroying his political legacy.  Even Ebert declared the treaty’s demands “unrealizable and unbearable,” decrying not only the punitive terms but the process in which the treaty had been crafted without any input from Germany or the former Central Powers.  This wasn’t a peace treaty but a division of war spoils and an unconditional surrender, or so Germany complained.  Bauer cabled the Allies, stating that he would sign the treaty if a handful of articles containing language about German culpability for the war and war crimes trials for the exiled former Kaiser be removed.  The Allied response was clear – sign the whole treaty within 24 hours or French troops would cross the Rhine and occupy Germany.  In desperation, the new Weimer government asked Paul von HIndenburg if the German army could potentially resist a renewed Allied offensive.  They likely knew the answer before even asking the question.

On June 28th, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, 27 delegates representing 32 nations gathered to sign the final instrument of peace to end the First World War.  It had been exactly five years to the date of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination.  Germany had sent their Foreign Minister to oversee the signing.  Gazing over the Foreign Minister as he signed was the gigantic self-portrait that Louis XIV had commissioned.  The portrait’s title spoke of the Allies dominance on this day – “The King Governs By Himself.”

The treaty signing in the Hall of Mirrors – thousands of onlookers joined journalists and diplomats to oversee the brief ceremony

That any final terms of a peace treaty between Germany and the victorious Allies would be harsh could hardly have been a surprise.  The process of even arriving at an Armistice had seen Germany agree to give up most of their military and infrastructure, not to mention an occupation of the Ruhr by the French that increasingly looked tantamount to annexation.  Similar treaties/armistices with what remained of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires had been debilitating as well, as both empires were stripped of their territories, their infrastructure plundered and their armies legislated into irrelevance.  Only post treaty/armistice violence would lessen some of the strongest terms, as the Hungarian revolution and the following Turkish War of Independence forced the Allies’ hand to renegotiate.  And in the winter and spring of 1919, Germany had no appetite or ability to militarily resist.  Read the rest of this entry »

“…and if you say we are…

“…you’re a liar”

SCENE:  Mitch BERG is at the Mississippi Market co-op buying catnip.  His head on a swivel to try to avoid progressive crazies, he’s trying so hard to be careful.  But despite his best efforts, he walks around a corner and practically runs into Avery LIBRELLE.

LIBRELLE:  Merg!

BERG:  Oh, for fuuuuuu…ll disclosure, Hi, Avery…

LIBRELLE:  Yet another mass shooting.   It’s time for a conversation about guns.

BERG:  Uh, you mean “monologue”, right?

LIBRELLE:  Ha ha.  The problem is, the right never offers any alternatives.  That’s our big frustration.

BERG:  I see your “frustration”, and raise you one; the frustration on the right is that the left keeps saying “the right offers no alternatives”.   Fact is, we offer them constantly. The left refuses to discuss them honestly.

LIBRELLE: Prove it.

BERG: You asked. Here we go.

For starters: enforce existing laws – especially the ones that are objectively proven to work. Putting gun criminals in jail deters more gun crime. Yet here in the Twin Cities, the two big-county prosecutors have *never*, not once, used the sentencing enhancements that statute allows for gun crimes. *Not once*.

Second: Intervene with youth at risk of getting sucked into gangs.

Third: Fire the US Attorneys that refuse to prosecute straw purchasers. There are *many* of them. Chicago’s already bad violence became much worse after the USA for Northern IL publicly announced he didn’t care to prosecute straw buyers. “Entrepreneurs” shortly started making a pile of money buying guns in Wisconsin and Indiana and selling them to bangers. These USAs need to be fired (that’ll take a GOP president, of course).

Fourth: Start talking honestly about empirical evidence. For example – in 1,000 school districts nationwide that *allow* teachers and staff to bring their own firearms to school, strictly concealed, there has never been a shooting on school property during school hours. This responds to the *fact*, determined by the Secret Service after Columbine, that spree killers very intentionally avoid targets where people unknown to them (i.e. not security guards or cops) can resist them; there’s no way to plan around them. The left reacts with horror – “teachers are about *teaching*, not KILLING”, but they miss the point; not a single teacher or principal or janitor needs to carry single gun; the threat alone is the deterrent. The only response is pure emotion – as if living in an oppressive state of panic about potential spree killers is better than the notion that somewhere on campus, someone with a clean criminal record and decades of incident-free carry might have a gun on ’em. That’s just one of many.

Another thing we learned at Columbine – the best thing to do with a spree shooter is to resist, as lethally as possible, immediately. (It doesn’t in fact matter if that resistance comes from a cop, a guard or a good guy with a gun – but SOMEONE has to put a threat of death in the shooter’s face asap). As we saw in Uvalde (and at Parkland before it), not all cops got the word. Waiting around for a spree killer to negotiate doesn’t work. (Salutory fact; when a spree killer has 20 minutes as at Parkland, or an hour as at Uvalde, the AR15 doesn’t matter; someone could kill 20 people in an hour with grandpa’s break-open shotgun, a cowboy six-gun, or a muzzle-loading musket). Anyway – push policies that favor aggressive self-defense and police response.

Fifth: You want a “red flag law”? Do one in good faith, one that involves more than an easily abused ex parte hearing that serves mostly as a medium for ex-spouses’s revenge, one that allows the subject to defend themselves, with results more useful than taking a suicidal or dissociative person’s guns and leaving ’em alone,

Those are things that people on the right *constantlty* reiterate, and have for decades. I’ve been an activist on this issue for almost 30 years, and our line *has not changed*.

And yet people on the left keep repeating “if only the right had any alternatives”.

All due respect, it’s not true, and it’s getting old.

LIBRELLE: (Mock sleeping, Librelle makes an elaborate show of waking up). Like I said, no alternatives.

BERG: Exactly.

And SCENE

Joe Biden is currently 79, and will be 80 in November. His slide into senescence continues untrammeled.

The latest ghost images coughed up by random firings of the remaining synapses in Biden’s cranium led him to claim he had been appointed to the Naval Academy. From the New York Post.

President Biden told graduating midshipmen at the Naval Academy Friday that he applied to the school in 1965 — but a quick check of his biography shows problems with the story.

Biden said he applied to Annapolis with a letter from then-Delaware Sen. J. Caleb Boggs, but the year he cited — 1965 — is the same year he graduated from the University of Delaware. The academy doesn’t offer graduate degrees.

Biden has a habit of seeking to relate to his audiences by sharing questionable anecdotes about his personal experiences — as well as making false or exaggerated claims.

In September, Biden told Jewish leaders that he remembered “spending time at” and “going to” the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the mass murder of 11 people in 2018. The synagogue said he never visited and the White House later said he was thinking about a 2019 phone call to the synagogue’s rabbi.

About two weeks later, Biden told an Idaho audience that his “first job offer” came from local lumber and wood products business Boise Cascade. The company said it was news to them and Biden had not previously described an interest in moving to the state.

In January, Biden told students of historically black colleges in Atlanta that he was arrested during civil rights protests — for which there also is no evidence.

In perhaps the most infamous example, Biden in 2020 claimed he “had the great honor of being arrested” in South Africa when he was “trying to get to see [Nelson Mandela] on Robbens [sic] Island,” where Mandela was in prison until 1990. He said Mandela thanked him for it. Later, Biden admitted that it was untrue.

Biden’s Mouth of Sauron claims not to have heard that part of the speech, and so couldn’t comment.

Ronald Reagan was just short of 78 when he left office after his second term.

In 1987 Don Henley wrote “The End of the Innocence” with Bruce Hornsby, and he included the line “they’re beating plowshares into swords, for this tired old man that we elected king,” a reference to Reagan.

I’m still waiting for Henley’s song about Biden.

2020: His reelection bid coming up short in the face of democrat turnout and allegations of fraud, Donald Trump claims Dominion voting machines are rigged.

The establishment tut-tuts, call Trump a sore loser. Social media censor thousands of people who repeat and extend Trump’s claim about the voting machines

2024: Uh…

TikTok recently knocked Buzzfeed off my list of tech entities I hate the most. It’s a long list, but the top of the field is still pretty rarified territory.

I’ve vented my disdain for Buzzfeed – the news outlet almost too stupid for Aaron Rupar to work for it – since Molly Priesmeyer declared it the future of news, fifteen years ago.

They haven’t improved much:

I should do the same thing with the Strib’s selection of op-ed writers…

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

India not shipping much wheat to other nations,they’re keeping most of it to feed their own. They are hoarding wheat!

The tiny amount they grudgingly sell costs too much. They are price gouging!

Poor people in other nations will go hungry. They are playing politics with food, women and children hardest hit!

India is putting the interest of its own citizens first and letting the rest of the world fend for itself. They are ultra-nationalist isolationists!

Why aren’t we?

Joe Doakes

Rhetorical question, right?

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Riddle me this: when is a bumblebee like a tuna?

When it’s in California, where a bumblebee is considered a fish for purposes of the Endangered Species Act.

Joe Doakes

Sunday, history will regard California as a parody of itself.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I read a rant about government being inefficient and more of a hindrance than a help. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

Most government exists to regulate activities: set standards for operation; inspect to ensure compliance; license to permit operation while in compliance; revoke license for non-compliance; arrest, prosecute and sentence for operating without a license; data entry to record inspections, licenses, payments and revocations; none of which ‘makes’ anything or reduces any burdens on commerce, but all of which is Necessary For The Public Good.

I’d write more but it’s time for my break. Take a number. I’ll get to you in a minute.

Joe Doakes

And it’s biggest job of course – perpetuated self.

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.