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Monday, September 30, 2019

Open Thread


So, what's on your mind?

A flashback that caught my eye yesterday: The Deep State hatched its plot against Trump very early, and they told us so.

Here is your chance to opine within the parameters listed below:

We welcome civil dialogue at Always on Watch. Comments that include any of the following are subject to deletion:
1. Any use of profanity or abusive language
2. Off topic comments and spam
3. Use of personal invective


Note: comments consisting of blog gossip will be deleted as soon as an administrator of this blog becomes aware of such comments.

72 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. 'Tis no confidence, I fear that PELLEY rhymes with SMELLY.

      P___H___E___W___!

      Delete
  2. Our government is too big, too powerful and completely unaccountable.

    The White House staff is over 400 people, many career government employees providing a steady stream of leaks since President Trump took office. I don't think there's a damn thing anyone can do about it.

    The Military-Intelligence Industrial Complex? You Betcha.

    They gotta be angry. President Trump missed chances to get us into two or three more wars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's still time. Perhaps he is being very selective. You know, finding just the right infraction that gives justification for killing people you don't approve of. My opinion on this here open thread.

      Delete
  3. Our government is too big, too powerful and completely unaccountable.

    That’s nearly the crux of every issue we face today, domestically. Everyone on (on the Right) pays lip service, but when in power......nothing changes. The “swamp” is today as it was three years ago.

    I’m all for slash and burn tactics......but what will it take to come even close to that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I said above, I don't think there's a damn thing anyone can do about it.

      DoD took massive cuts in the 90's. We thought it would kill us, but instead--in the Air Force anyway--it made us cut the fat and we emerged a much better force because of it.

      With a booming economy, now is the time to slash everything, but there is no political will for that.

      Delete
    2. ... and yet, all we heard from the noise machine are stories of how Clinton weakened our national defense. We need a leader who is "strong" on defense (i.e. spends money indiscriminately).
      There has to first be a will to get money out of the system but there will be support for "money is speech" as long as far right judges are appointed. Citizens United forever !

      Delete
    3. Watch out folks, Ducky's channeling Dick Chenney and the Rumsfeld Doctrine now. He'll likely be spouting Neocon talking points within the week...

      Delete
    4. FJ,
      I was thinking along the same lines! **grin**

      Delete
    5. When did Cheney or Rumsfeld call for reduced defense spending?

      Delete
    6. When did they ever call for a larger footprint?

      Shock & Awe, baby!

      Delete
    7. Sunday, January 19, 2003:

      --Q: Mr. Secretary, on Iraq, how much money do you think the Department of Defense would need to pay for a war with Iraq?

      --A (Rumsfeld): Well, the Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a number that's something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.


      The real cost of the Iraq War was more than the $1.06 trillion added to the debt.

      Delete
  4. Ben Wittes and the Brooking's "Lawfare" group devised their strategy of "Resistance" and "Insurance Policies" before Trump even got elected in 2016.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just remember, the Deep State is the biggest and perhaps only unionized trusts in the world....

      Delete
    2. Joe,
      Ben Wittes and the Brooking's "Lawfare" group devised their strategy of "Resistance" and "Insurance Policies" before Trump even got elected in 2016.

      It is "convenient" that many have forgotten about that.

      Delete
    3. Unlike the shrieking, roaring, smelly, noticeably unwashed, long-haired bearded Marxists typical of earlier times Brookings has for a great many years managaed to put a fairly sober, "respectable" face on increasingly far eft-leaning ideological policies and initiatives.

      It's not the "wolves in sheep's clothing" we need to fear so much as the wolves who've learned how to imitate the behavior of nice tame, warmj, furry old house pets.

      THEY are the ones who'll gobble up your children then tear your throat out in the middle of some night when you least expect it.

      Well-barbered leftists in Brooks Brothers suits reeking of 4711 eau de Cologne come easily to mind.

      Delete
  5. This whole plot is not about Trump being "a danger to the nation." When it began, the day he was elected, there was no way for the plotters to know that he was a danger to the nation. They knew only that he was a danger to the plotters.

    The plot is about the fact that the appointed next president, Hillary Clinton, lost an election that she was supposed to win. The plot is about restoring the balance of power that Trump's election disrupted.

    The plotters do not care about Trump, who he is, or what he may or may not do. They care about the fact that he spoiled the plans that they had put in place for the continuation of their hold on power.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jayhawk,
      DJT was automatically a danger to the plotters. Why? Because he isn't "one of them."

      Delete
    2. You're absolutely right, Jayhawk, but I have to offer one small correction:

      The "plot" to "get" Donald Trump began the very second it became apparent that he seriously intended to run for the presidency.

      As we all should know, our government was intended tomb run by The Peole FOR Te Peoe's best interests.

      It was NOT intended to be run by a self-appointed, mpermanently ensconced virtual CABAL, of bossy, selfish, conceited oligarchs who vainly imagined themselve to be smarter, better informed, and better qualified to DICTATE to the POPULACE, because of their presupposed "superority" to the general population's assumed ignorance and lack of ability to think and properly inform themselves.

      Delete
    3. "The "plot" to "get" Donald Trump began the very second it became apparent that he seriously intended to run for the presidency."

      Well, uh, no. At that point, no one took him for anything other than a bloviating buffoon with no chance to win. I'd say that all the way up to late election night, the need to "plot" to "get" was still an unneeded stratagem. Dems were busy popping the corks and Rs were busy plotting to get Hillary.

      Delete
  6. AOW... I 100% agree. Why does blogger/Google make us hit the load more option instead of just sending us to the bottom of the comments?

    Frustrating...

    ReplyDelete
  7. The moon landings were faked with time travel.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It seems as though nearly everything in our once-fair country is rapidly turning to excrement.

    The champions of calumny, corruption and crypto-communism have ––– like so much intellectual KUDZU ––– invaded, spread, covered and choked out our once-splendid native flora.

    "Beware the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines yield tender grapes."

    Insanity bcomes more powerful than its desirable opposite, because insanity is EASIER to acquire than what-it-takes to becme a sensible, responsible, well-informed caring citizen with a good heart, generous spirit and well-developed conscience.

    Put more succinctly:

    IT'S EASIER to BITCH than to STITCH.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Franco,<
      like so much intellectual KUDZU

      Perfect analogy!

      As I've long said, we are witnessing the harvest of our public education system, K-graduate school.

      Delete
    2. AOW - Exactly. We’re not rearing honorable Citizens, at school or at home. Instead we’re microwaving instantly entitled leeches on the public teat.

      Delete
    3. Thank you, AOW. I'm glad you see my point.

      Sometimes I get the impression we're losing any ability we once may have had to see "parallels," use symbolism, figurative language, parables, fables, Greek, Roman, Norse, Teutonic mythology or understand literary allusions to classical works of fiction or poetry.

      Tell me –– just as a point of interest –– does anyone teach children about Aesop's Fables anymore? Do children today get amiliarized with Andersen's Fairy Tales or the myriad folk tales collected and published by the Brother's Grimm?

      Do you know any young people today who are familiar with A.A. Milne, Kenneth Grahame, J.M. Barrie, Kipling's Just So Stories, –– or even Beatrix Potter, P.L. Travers, Thornton W. Burgess, and Howard R. Garris?

      If not, society is much the poorer for the lack.

      Delete
  9. Future Belongs to Those Who Oppose Drag Queen Story Hours

    Cybercast News,

    by John Horvat II

    A new kind of debate is now raging inside conservativism. In times past, we discussed the strategic and tactical options by which we might work toward common goals inside the existing political framework.

    Today, the framework itself is in question. What is being discussed is the classical liberal foundation of the American political system. Indeed, both left and right have worked inside this framework for much of our nation’s history.

    Rarely have we faced such a challenge to the way America resolves its problems. However, liberalism is in crisis. Our society is in shambles and drifting . . . .

    +++++++++++++++++++++ . .

    Well, YES, I see the point, but do you suppose Mr. Horvat would include MRS. DOUBTFIRE among his derogatory, condentory sentiments?

    That's a SERIOUS question.

    Here's another:

    How do YOU feel about Mrs. Doubtfire's potentiale influence on children?

    For that matter how do you feel about the BOY, Peter Pan, having always been portrayed by a WOMAN?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you know that the first Juliet was played by a BOY? The first Lady Macbeth was portrayed by a young MAN?

      How do you feel about The Princeton Triangle Club?

      How do you fee about so-called "Trouser Roles" in opera from Purcell's Dido and Aneas, to Mozart's Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, to Katisha (often-but-not always sung by man) in The Mikado by G&S, to the Marschallin's young lover Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss?

      Delete
    2. I find these Drag Queen Story Hours for children in public libraries to be abhorrent. I'd find hetero displays along similar lines abhorrent, too.

      There are not adult audiences.

      There is so much more of value to have in Chidren's Story Hour at public libraries.

      Delete
    3. Erratum:

      There are not adult audiences should read These are not adult audiences.

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Why anyone pays serious attention while this noisome, humorless, pointlessly irate, perpetually jerking, jiggling, gyrating gesticulating creature throws her arms in all directions as if to PUNCH the very air she breathes I cannot imagine.

      Of all the DemoHarpies Fauxcahntas is by far the worst. I dislike her even more tan I detested Her Heinous –– an THAT'S really SAYING something.

      Delete
    2. ___ TO THE GUN GRABBERS ___

      Those who walk around unarmed
      Cannot expect to stay unharmed.
      Carrying a loaded gun
      Means you're apt to have more fun.

      I know I'd feel downright exalted
      To plug the thug if I'm assaulted,
      And as the dirty bastard falls
      I'll gleefully shoot off his balls.

      And when he finally hits the ground
      I'll gladly shoot another round,
      Then pee upon his sad remains,
      While triumph courses through my veins!


      ~ Davey Croquet

      Delete
  11. Question for the class:
    If the economy is humming,why ...

    was today's manufacturing index the worst in a decade?
    Why is the wealth gap widening?
    Why is growth at a mediocre tic above 2%?

    Seems the tariffs and the tax cut aren't working for the working class but they continue to follow Trump.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because the Fed Overnight Lending (Repo Rate) is subsidizing the next Wall Street Bank Crash/Bailout to the tune of 1/2 of 2008's TARP bailout since last week.

      Delete
    2. The banks are getting ready to seize up again and no Manufacturers are going to be able to finance operations. The Credit Market's about to become a "Payday Loan" market.

      Delete
    3. ... four banks, together with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, own 90 percent of the $272.5 trillion in derivatives at U.S. bank holding companies.

      "Too Big to Fail" is FAILING!

      Delete
    4. Meanwhile, Trump delayed applying Chinese tariffs until after December... so all the corporate douchebags have renewed their Chinese manufacturing orders!

      Delete
    5. Farmer,

      Thank you for fielding the dumb questions.

      The MSNBC nutballs are rubbing their little paws and dancing around giddily like they have to tinkle hoping for a big crash.

      What's good for America is bad for progressive Democrats.

      Delete
    6. ...and unions.

      As SF reminds us, "What's good for GM is good for America!"

      Delete
  12. Question for FreeThinke:

    Why do you think that Elvis's popularity was the start of the downfall of American pop culture and how i that measured?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A patently obvious self-evident TRUTH, Ducky.

      Either you could see it at the time, or you were just another member of the Great Gray Brotherhood of Doltish, Easily-Manipulated Trendfollowers –– a mindless teeny bopper.

      I've been a TrendBUCKER all my life –– a God-given characteristic for which I am eternally grateful. The natural aversion to the cheap, obvious, gaudy, meretricious, inane, and perverse has stood me in good stead for 78 years.

      It has greatly enriched my experience and benefitted me enormously in more ways than I could possibly count.

      You can't call me smug, because my nature continues to prompt me to look up to ever greater heights and inward to plumb ever greater depths. What may seem ordinary or insignificant at first glance often contain whole worlds enchantment, mystery, wonder and unending fascination.

      Delete
  13. Our president is a model of Courage, Tenacity, tremendous Strength of Character, and far-seeing Vision.

    I wish it were possible for him to serve a (short) term as our KING invested with absolute power.


    I'd love to see what he could accomplish in six years –– unchallenged, untrammeled, unbesmirched, unhobbled, unhampered and unrestricted by malicious morons..

    With all the childish, irrespnsible power-mad machnations of the Left –– and the dunderheads we call RINO's on the Right –– I'm fairly certain President Trump could right the drectin of the Ship-of-State, save her from breakng up on the rocks, and set her on a highly desirable, salubrious, productive, even joyful course.

    Such power, however, should NEVER be given to ANYONE for more than a few short years, because –– as we've always been told –– "Power Corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely."

    Since our "duly-elected represeantaives" are with few exceptions worse than useless, return to a modified form of MONARCHY might very well be the best way to go –– for a short while at least.

    }:^)>

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ducky... the manufacturing index is bad because... DUH! Americans will not buy stuff built by ppl here because those items cost too much. So we outsource that work to places where "stuff" can be produced at a cost more to our liking.

    Because most of us are not making even salaries above 100K like the titans of business whose income is exploding.

    Which might explain why growth is at that mediocre 2%. That and maybe the generation that has historically driven the US economy, those younger than most commenting here, are mired in debt. No disposable income after paying rent and buying a car can really stifle a person's ability to buy and consume the stuff our manufacturing base needs to move the economic needle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Growth is at a mediocre 2% because for several decades growth has depended on increasing debt, and the debt burden is increasingly unsustainable. Increases in debt are bogging down because of a serious lack of creditworthy borrowers, and that is slowing growth.

      Delete
  15. A certain somebody congratulated the Chinese Premier today on 70 years of brutal Communist oppression.

    Cool.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We've all been supporting "brutal Communist oppression" for decades, to the tune of hundreds of billions annually.

      Delete
  16. CI... here's the actual quote. "Congratulations to President Xi and the Chinese people on the 70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China!”

    The President of the United States congratulating a Communist leader and party for enforcing brutal rule through intimidation, oppression and killings.

    At least a few Republicans in Congress are putting their heads above the fence and being critical today. But just a few.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And on the very day that Chinese forces shot a demonstrator in Hong Kong.......

      Delete
    2. Those who live primarily to find fault
      Should be tightly bound then gagged,
      Then locked within an airless, lead-lined vault.
      The place for those so beetle-browed and grim
      Would be within a cheerless mausoleum!

      Delete
  17. AOW, how many people are stupid enough to remain living in these places? Guess we'll find out.

    ReplyDelete
  18. What's the difference between a CIA leak directly to the NY Times and a CIA officer's "whistleblower complaint" that is revealed to the public by the New York Times? Hmmmm....

    ReplyDelete
  19. SF,
    A big story here in Northern Virginia.

    Those poor boys! Wrongly accused.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I blame the parents for not vetting such a BS story more thoroughly instead of rushing to judgment.

    ReplyDelete
  21. To the fullest extent of the law.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The girl is not in the care of her parents, but rather her grandparents' care.

    I find it astounding that she was allowed to give at least one interview to the media.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Tonight we had a guest in my Bible Study.
    She is a retired teacher.
    I asked her to describe herself a little.
    It became clear by a couple buzzwords (trigger, etc.) that she was a liberal.
    She presented herself well, contributed much to the discussion and was a pleasure to interact with.
    I start with requests for prayer from each participant and hers was for God to fix that "mess" (as she shook her head in disgust) in Washington. I responded by praying for God to lead our administration and congress into righteousness and good government.
    I wonder if she ever suspected she was in a roomful of Trump supporters. I hope not.
    I say all this to say that in Christ, there is no partisanship.
    I look forward to her returning next week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ed,
      How nice! I hope that things stay the way you described.

      Delete
  24. Tucker Carlson mocked these laws, but did not volunteer to go to NYC with a bullhorn.
    We need a test case.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Robert De Niro is being sued by a former assistant who claims he made sexual comments to her,and was verbally abusive to her!

    ReplyDelete

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