Tag: Clinton

MLLG

California Screaming – Prince of Fools

George Noga

The republic can survive a Biden, but not an electorate that made him president.

California Screaming – Prince of Fools

By: George Noga – June 5, 2022

California Screaming: The Cato Institute recently published the results of its multi-year project, Poverty and Inequality in California. You may be surprised that California, despite Silicon Valley and Hollywood, has the highest poverty rate in the USA. Moreover, poverty and inequality are getting worse by the day. The study found the cause is “California laws, regulations and policies are regressive, trapping people in poverty. . . . These policies involve criminal justice, education, housing and welfare.” California has had the most progressive government of any state for decades. Instead of utopia, liberal ideas have wrought the worst poverty and inequality in America.

Freedom Index: Cato also just released its Index of Personal and Economic Freedom for 2021. The five highest ranking (most freedom) states are, in order, New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada, Tennessee and South Dakota. The lowest ranking (least freedom) are New York, Hawaii, California, New Jersey and Oregon. The states with the most freedom all are red or purple; the bottom dwellers all are deep blue. Americans are voting en masse with their feet for more liberty and less government.

Prince of Fools: Following (edited for length) is from a major European newspaper. “The danger to America is not Joe Biden, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him to the presidency. It will be far easier to undo the follies of a Biden presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to those who elected him. The problem is much deeper and more serious than Mr. Biden, who is but a symptom of what ails America. The republic can survive a prince of fools like Biden, but is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who elected him.”

If Biden is the prince of fools, Kamala Harris is the queen of fools. Although the Trump presidency, or at least its policies, turned out much better than expected, he never should have been nominated or elected. He won the nomination only because 15 professional politicians all misread the electorate. He was elected only because Hillary Clinton was radioactive. Biden won, despite obvious signs of cognitive decline, because suburban women were triggered by mean tweets. In 2024 it could very well be a Trump- Clinton rematch – see my post of 5/22/22 on our website: www.mllg.us. How much longer can our beloved republic survive an electorate like this?

Permanent State of Emergency: Governments at all levels have learned their powers are vastly increased during an emergency – even if they created the emergency. It is no wonder we are in a permanent state of emergency: pandemic emergency, voting rights emergency, climate emergency and now an energy emergency. Nothing encapsulates the fecklessness of the Biden Administration more than energy. Immediately upon taking office, Biden declared war on the US energy sector in every way possible.

Biden feigns shock energy production plummeted and prices skyrocketed. He declared an ersatz state of emergency to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, after first begging Venezuela (dirty oil) and Iran (fund terrorism) to produce more. Biden has reverted to the progressive playbook and is blaming greedy speculators and energy companies. Funny – these same groups were not greedy when prices were falling under Trump.

Achieving Perfect Equality: Since men first trod this earth, many have dreamt of a world with perfect equality; thanks to scientific advances, that now may be possible. The best minds on the planet could create a master algorithm incorporating all known markers of success. The algorithm would include DNA and would account for, inter alia, race, gender, sexual orientation, height, weight, IQ and life expectancy.

Key exogenous factors also would be included in the master algorithm: place of birth, social class, family income and education level, et seq. The result is a polygenic score assigned to everyone at birth. Those with positive scores would pay a polygenic tax while those with negative scores would receive a benefit – in direct proportion to how much the scores were positive or negative. If done correctly, this would make everyone equal. It is only a matter of time until progressives adopt this idea and run with it.

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Next: My lifetime of experience with government schools.

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More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

Micro Topics – 2016 Election – Latest from BHO

George Noga
Capitalism makes our lives better without any plan for doing so; having such a plan however is a guarantee that our lives will become miserable.
Micro Topics – 2016 Election – Latest from BHO
By: George Noga – December 9, 2018

Micro Topics: Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; promise enough men free fish and you win elections. . . . .  Obama famously said “I have a pen”. Trump has an eraser and it is huge. . . . . The family deported together stays together. . . . . In California you go to jail for using a plastic straw, but crossing the border illegally gets you sanctuary and free stuff. . . . . Che Guevara: “I don’t need proof to execute a man; I only need proof it is necessary.”. . . . Capitalism makes our lives better without any plan to do so; having such a plan assures our lives will be miserable. . . . . There is only one everyday product in America that we must wait in long lines to purchase: a postage stamp.

Micro Topics II: Seen recently around a cauldron auditioning for Macbeth: Maxine Waters, Diane Feinstein, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer. California is like the mythical Germanic kingdom where candy grows on trees, lemonade flows in rivers and the fattest, ugliest and stupidest person is king or, in this case, queen . . . . .  “You can observe a lot just by watching.” (Yogi Berra) . . . .  Jubilee soon will be on the progressive agenda; it’s their version of biblical every 50-year debt forgiveness. . . . . If Trump nominated Hillary for SCOTUS, we could have had the FBI investigate her.

Hidden in Plain Sight: What really happened November 8, 2016? Two reporters spent the entire campaign on parts of the old Lincoln Highway in the American heartland. Their new book, What Really Happened, explains Trump’s victory. The book describes Bonnie Smith, from a small Ohio town. Her parents were Democrats; her husband is a Democrat, she was a Democrat and the county she lives in had not voted Republican for as long as anyone remembers. The county (Ashtabula) went for Obama by 55% twice but Trump beat Clinton by 19 points – a swing of 30 points. The same story played out in hundreds of similar communities throughout the area. Trump stumped there 18 times while Hillary was in California raising megabucks from elites.

Bonnie Smith is a mother of three who worked long and hard to save enough money to open a donut shop. She gets up at 1:30 AM to begin making donuts by 2:30 AM. Following are her words: “I am not sure what happened, but I started to look around my town and country and I was just not in the mood anymore to show up and vote for who my party tells me to vote for. I am kind of like that voter that was hiding in plain sight that no one saw coming. I was right there all along. I’ve seen the job losses here, the rise in crime, the meth and heroin problem, society losing hope and something just gave in with me.” Bonnie’s story speaks for many millions of other Americans.

Barack’s Baaaack: Obama now claims credit for the roaring economy. This from the same person who said, “Two percent growth is the new normal and we should get used to it.” Now, BHO and his acolytes put forth a metaphor of a lid screwed tightly onto a container. They assert BHO exerted superhuman efforts to loosen the lid such that once Trump took over, the lid (presumably holding back the economy) was easily removed and, voila, boom times followed – all due to Barack Obama loosening the lid.

For his entire eight years, BHO did all he could to tighten the lid on the economy, all the while preaching his little sermons whose subtext always was how smart he was and how his opponents were dim-witted, Neanderthal racists. I don’t believe Bonnie Smith and the other good folks in Ashtabula County, Ohio buy into Obama’s metaphor.

Our next post, about the four gifts of Christmas, is the last for this year. 

The Russians Hacked My Email!

George Noga
MLLG’s inimitable analysis and perspective on Russian election hacking 
The Russians Hacked My Email!
By: George Noga – June 29, 2017
      This special posting provides analysis and perspective about Russian hacking and is in keeping with MLLG’s goal to focus more attention on current events.
Russian meddling in US elections goes back over 50 years

       In 1968, Russia desperately sought to prevent virulent anti-communist Nixon from being elected and secretly offered to subsidize Humphrey’s campaign. Petrified about Reagan, Russia again tried desperately to prevent his nomination (1976) and election (1980 and 1984). Russia’s attempts to influence our elections proved unsuccessful, but the crafty Russians discovered they could wreak more harm by sowing distrust in our institutions and governments. Hence, Russia’s recent actions were directed mainly at undermining confidence in US institutions rather than favoring specific candidates. Russia also interferes in other countries’ elections, most recently Brexit and France.
Obama interfered in numerous foreign elections

      In 2016 Obama intervened in Great Britain by threatening trade sanctions if the UK voted for Brexit. In 2015 he tried to defeat Netanyahu in Israel by illegally funneling money to opposition groups. In 2012 he intervened financially and otherwise in Egypt in favor of Morsi. Obama meddled big time in Honduras in 2009 in favor of a Castro and Chavez puppet. While still a senator in 2006, Obama interfered in Kenya to help elect his relative, Raila Odinga. Obama also intervened in Macedonia and  Libya.
The real Russia hacking story

     Election interference is old news; so, what made it a cause celebre in 2016? In one word: Trump. The Democrats, having lost an unloseable election, couldn’t accept voter rejection of their insipid candidate and failed policies; there had to be something else and the Russia-hacked-the-election meme fit the bill. Following is the real story.
    No one, not even the diabolical Russians, believed Trump would win. If Russia attempted to harm Hillary, it was to weaken her future presidency and because she is an avowed Russophobe. Russia had zero impact on the election. Hillary lost because she and liberal elites had undisguised contempt for the deplorable, racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic and Islamophobic middle Americans in fly-over land.
    The idea of Trump-Russia collusion is preposterous on its face; even Democrats know it is crazy-stupid. They keep it alive only to thwart Trump in every way possible. They would rather see Trump fail than to see America succeed. If Hillary were in similar circumstances: (1) her AG never would have been recused; (2) the Deputy AG would have been a sycophant; (3) no special counsel would have been appointed; and (4) the media would be 100% okay with all that. This story will persist as the narrative morphs as necessary, from collusion to obstruction to who knows what is next.
    Preoccupation with Russian election hacking is symptomatic of our toxic political culture. While we consternate over election hacking, we ignore Russian hacking of our electrical grid that could shut down power and result in untold horror. Russia already penetrated a Vermont utility and shut down the Ukraine power grid. Nevertheless, the media have focused for an entire year on the Russia-hacked-the-election chimera.
   When it comes to the integrity of American elections, there is much more to fear from voter fraud in blue states and cities than there is from Putin and the Russians.
Our not-to-be-missed Independence Day posting is next on July 4th.

Fermi’s Paradox – A Disturbing Explanation

George Noga
Man’s capacity for destruction vastly outstrips his ability to govern. We may be technological wizards but we remain political cretins.
Fermi’s Paradox – A Disturbing Explanation
By: George Noga – June 18, 2017
      During the Manhattan Project, the world’s leading physicists often kicked back at the end of the day and, while enjoying a few libations, ruminated about the great unresolved issues of science. One such day the subject turned to extraterrestrial life, whereupon Enrico Fermi immediately exclaimed: “So? Where is everybody?”
      Fermi already knew the math, i.e. there are 10^24 stars in the universe – equal to 10,000 stars and 100 Earth-like planets for every grain of sand. In our galaxy alone there are one billion Earth-like planets and likely 100,000 intelligent civilizations. Our galaxy is 10 billion years old and most of it can be reached via probes or radio waves in four million years and ET could have reached us 250 times over. Thus, Fermi’s Paradox: given the immense probability, why has no one communicated with us?
      Explanations abound. Perhaps ET has been communicating but we don’t know how to listen. Maybe they don’t wish to communicate or their math is different. Scientists agree there are serious flaws with the above explanations as well as countless others that have been proffered. The two most likely answers to Fermi’s Paradox are: (1) life is incredibly more difficult to start, to evolve and to acquire technological prowess than assumed; and (2) advanced civilizations destroy themselves on short time scales.
     Man’s capacity for destruction vastly outstrips his ability to govern himself. Nuclear weapons are in the hands of a megalomaniacal tyrant (North Korea), a murderous dictator (Russia), an unstable tribal state (Pakistan) and soon a theocracy that vows our destruction and embraces martyrdom (Iran). It is only a matter of time until terrorists acquire them – likely from one of the aforementioned sources. One low grade EMP bomb smuggled into the US on a container ship and launched via weather balloon could kill 300 million Americans – and we are doing little to address that threat.
      It is altogether conceivable that the failure of mankind to understand and to heed the eternal lessons of Kipling’s poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings supplies the disturbing answer to Fermi’s Paradox. We may be technological wizards but we are political cretins and we are on a track to destroy ourselves on a short time scale.
   Does any nation that consternates over transgender restrooms while ignoring hardening its electrical grid against EMP attack deserve to survive? Does any civilization that will spend $100 trillion to lower temperature .3 degrees in 80 years while ignoring immediate human needs deserve to endure? Does any country with a $20 trillion GDP that won’t buy backup generators for its electrical transmission facilities to recover from an EMP attack and to save millions of lives deserve to last?
       We have kicked the can down the road until there is no road left. Clinton and Bush declined to deal with the nuclear threats while they still were manageable and Obama was in la-la land for eight years. It is wrong however to lay blame solely on politicians who respond to our priorities. America, and indeed all of humanity, is slouching toward an explanation to Fermi’s Paradox; unfortunately, it’s a disastrous one.
Next, MLLG begins an intermittent series about taxation in America.

Guns in America – Liberal Bogeyman

George Noga
Progressives use guns as a bogeyman because they do not have real solutions. They
won’t confront the reality of evil so they inveigh against the instruments of evil.
 By: George Noga – January 24, 2016

     To begin this Guns in America series, there is one categorical truth to be chiseled in granite. The right to own and bear arms is not about target shooting, hunting, militias or even self-defense. It is first and foremost a political right put in the Constitution specifically for citizens to protect their liberty against tyrannical government. The literature is rife with quotes from the founding fathers to that effect.

Let’s turn to President Obama’s recent actions. First some history. The 1968 Gun Control Act mandated gun sellers obtain a federal firearms license even if they sold only a few guns from home. President Clinton changed that in 1994 by requiring a storefront operation for retail sales but licensing exemptions for other gun sales. Fast forward to 2016; Obama reversed Clinton, claiming storefronts are irrelevant and mandated home, gun show, flea market and internet sellers be licensed. All Obama has done is take the country back to where it was 48 years ago – basically rearranging the furniture. Predictably, this will have absolutely no effect on anything.

Gun control is a progressive kabuki. Liberal politicians dog whistle to their base but kowtow to the 42% of gun owning households. They promote toothless incremental changes. When the inevitable tragedy occurs, they resort to the same antediluvian canards knowing they will fail and then blame the NRA when it happens.

Despite all evidence and logic against it, gun control has become part of the liberal pantheon along with climate change, organic food and recycling. Following is but a partial list of the contradictions and disingenuity inherent in their beliefs.

  • No Obama action would have prevented any mass shooting. Reporters asked Josh Earnest (Obama press secretary) at a news conference to name any mass shooting that would have been stopped by Obama’s actions; he couldn’t.
  • Gun homicides in America decreased by nearly 50% since 1993; gun violence not resulting in death plummeted by way over half. This happened while population increased 60 million and gun ownership proliferated.
  • Over half of gun deaths are suicides and fewer suicides are from guns than from prescription drugs. The US suicide rate is similar to countries with strict gun laws and is far below paradigms of gun control such as Japan and South Korea. The ultimate liberal contradiction is they favor assisted suicide and euthanasia all the while railing shamelessly against gun suicides. Go figure.
  • Gun violence is greatest where there is liberal governance with uber-strict gun laws; think, inter alia, Chicago, Washington, Cleveland and Detroit.
  • Guns are used 2.5 million times a year to stop or prevent crimes. The only time terrorists were foiled was in Texas by an armed off-duty cop. Other mass killings stopped by armed citizens: Appalachian State, Shoney’s, Pearl Mississippi High School, Clackamas Mall, Edinboro School and New Life Church.
  • Broken window policing (gun control for bad guys) was working until liberals put an end to it. They don’t just want the bad guys’ guns, they want yours.
  • Liberals’ revulsion of guns is cultural. They live in a plastic bubble and never meet gun owners. They hear of guns only in connection with crimes. They are arrogant and condescending such as in “clinging to their guns and religion“.
  • Every time the left has a paroxysm over guns, there is a rush to buy more guns and ammo. It is a godsend to gun stores; you’d think they would learn.

Liberals use guns as an imaginary monster because they have no real solutions to problems such as Islamic terrorism, failing schools, a torpid economy or mass shootings. They just trot out their same fusty, doctrinaire, dog-eared shibboleths.

Next up is Part II – Guns in America compared to Canada and other countries.

America’s Greatest Threats

George Noga
Power Grid, EMP Attack, Coronal Mass Ejection
 By: George Noga – June 10, 2014
      Weakness, not strength, invites conflict and war – a truth known throughout human history and included in George Washington’s farewell address when he said: “The best way to keep the peace is to be prepared for war“. It is a lesson which America forgets regularly. We (along with Europe) forgot it is the 1920s and 1930s; we had amnesia again under Carter in the 1970s. We deeply regretted it both times. Now under President Obama we have not only forgotten but we fail to take even inexpensive measures that could stave off disasters with potentially 100+ million American casualties.
      Obama displays weakness and appeasement at every possible opportunity. He cancelled our missile defense in Europe to the chagrin of our allies and received nothing in exchange. He manifested weakness in Libya, North Korea, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Crimea, Ukraine and the Middle East. He has savaged the defense budget and made unilateral reductions in our strategic forces. Everything he (and his acolytes Clinton and Kerry) do and say signals weakness. He refuses to recognize the attacks in Benghazi, Ft. Hood and San Jose (power grid) as terrorism.
        Alexandr Solzhenitsyn understands; he said the following when accepting his Nobel Prize. “The spirit of Munich has by no means retreated into the past; it was not merely a brief episode. The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival  of barefaced barbarity other than concessions and smiles. The spirit of Munich is a sickness of the will of successful people; it is the daily condition of those who have given themselves up to the thirst after prosperity at any price, to material well-being as the chief goal of earthly existence. Such people – and there are many in today’s world – elect passivity and retreat, just so as their accustomed life might drag on a bit longer, just so as not to step over the threshold today – and tomorrow you’ll see, it will be all right. But it never will be all right! The price of cowardice will only be more evil.”  Solzhenitsyn preternaturally was describing Obama.
Protecting the Power Grid Against Terrorism and Natural Phenomena
        This post (space limitations) deals only with EMP and power grid threats, but it is: (1) one of the greatest threats in terms of possible casualties, i.e. 100+ million; (2) the most likely to happen sooner or later; (3) the most imminent; (4) accomplishable on a low budget with existing technology; and (5) difficult to trace the source. One threat is an attack on our electrical power grid. Such an attack can be carried out exactly by doing what was done in San Jose on a larger scale; it also can be carried out via an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) attack involving only one low-grade nuclear device. Shockingly, the same damage can result from a coronal mass ejection or “CME” – more about this infra.
        April 16, 2013 at 1:00 AM near San Jose, California, a group of 2 to 6 terrorists attacked and knocked out a major electrical transmission substation. The terrorists first cut underground fiber optic cables, cut communications and disabled security systems. All skilled marksmen, they commenced a highly disciplined, coordinated attack with high power rifles knowing precisely where to aim. When police arrived 50 minutes later, the terrorists were long gone, left no evidence and never have been found. This likely was a rehearsal for a broader attack that could knock out America’s entire power grid.
        It would require fewer than 10 such teams of terrorists (20 to 60 people in total) under 30 minutes to kill 100 million Americans. Because of the interconnectivity of America’s power grid, knocking out a small number of facilites would shut down the entire country. It took several months to repair the damage in San Jose as key components are manufactured in Korea and not readily available. In that amount of time a broader attack could have killed 100 million. Note: You may have missed the San Jose incident in the news because it happened the same time as the Boston Marathon bombing.
       The same effect can be achieved via an EMP attack by detonating a single low power nuclear device at the right altitude; it would create an EMP that would knock out power in America except for Alaska and Hawaii. Moreover, it recently has been understood that a massive solar storm (CME) could also knock out much of the power grid. Such storms occur every 150 to 300 years and there has not been one since the advent of electricity. Scientists believe we are due for a CME; in fact, one just missed Earth in July 2013. Lloyds of London estimated  a CME would affect 20-40 million Americans for up to two years.
        Some readers may be wondering how there could be 100+ million casualties from an attack (either EMP or San Jose style) on the power grid that knocked out power for months – and that is how long it would take to restore power. Without electricity, the US can provide for less than 10% of Americans; the other 270 million are out of luck. Virtually nothing would work; there would be no food and water; nuclear power plants would melt down because they require power for cooling. Most deaths would come from starvation. Society, civil authority and the rule of law would disappear.
The Good News
       The good news is that it is possible to attain a high degree of protection from all three of these perils at low cost. The quickest, easiest and cheapest is protection from terrorist attacks against our power grid. All that is required is to build high enough fences around our principal power transmission stations that would preclude snipers from knocking them out San Jose style. We also shock stockpile and store all critical spare parts near each facility. This could be accomplished in less than one year at a cost of under $1 billion.
       Protection could be achieved against a CME by hardening our power grid; this also could be accomplished quickly and for under $1 billion.  There is a bill now in Congress, the SHIELD Act, which stands for Secure High-Voltage Infrastructure from Lethal Damage. Finally, deterrence and defense against an EMP attack can be accomplished via missile defense which is well within America’s current capability. Potential adversaries contemplating an EMP attack and knowing we had effective missile defense would decide not to pursue such an attack, and if they did, we likely could prevent it as it would be only one missile. Note: An EMP attack could be launched via balloon from within the USA; for that reason we need to harden the grid as a backup and also in case missile defense fails.
The Bad News
        President Obama refuses to spend the money to protect America’s power transmission stations against terrorist attack – even though it is a shovel ready project. Heck, he won’t even call San Jose a terrorist attack because it goes against his political narrative that terrorism is receding – the same reason he falsely attributed the story about an internet video being responsible for the Benghazi attack. Obama refuses to spend money on missile defense because he considers it destabilizing and would rather spend the money to buy votes. Congress also needs to pass the SHIELD Act which currently is stuck in committee, although there is no reason to believe Obama would sign it.
“Obama won’t call Benghazi or San Jose terrorism; he won’t invest in  missile defense; and he refuses to spend even one day’s borrowing to protect 100 million American lives.”
        The USA borrows $2 billion each and every day to fund a massive government deficit but we won’t spend one day’s borrowing to protect America against the most imminent, likely and deadly threat we face by building walls around our key power stations, stockpiling spare parts and hardening our transmission infrastructure. The most important function of government, and one with which all agree, is to protect America against outside threats. Obama refuses to do this – he won’t even spend $1 billion to possibly save 100 million lives – that works out to a  paltry $10 per American life. How would you feel, while watching your family dying an agonizing death from lack of food and water, to know that $10 per person could have prevented it and our president refused to spend it and for all the wrong reasons?