Voting Early (and Often?)

I am not a great fan of the spreading contagion of early voting. In them-thar olden days, you voted on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and that was basically it--except, of course, for  absentee ballots generally reserved for military serving overseas or people in hospitals or with other medical excuses. No more. Early and absentee voting have been dramatically loosened, and one needs have no particular excuse for either. One can also register and vote on the same day--that's made for abuse.

OK. Despite my antipathy to it, I took advantage of early voting here in North Carolina. It began on Wednesday, October 17 and will run through Saturday, November 3.

I showed up before 8 am on the 17th, and was surprised to find a considerable crowd. I was also surprised to find lots of campaigning right up next to the voting station--this despite signs prohibiting such beyond a certain point. To get into the building, one had to run a gauntlet of people handing you  filled-out recommended ballots, a variety of materials on one or another ballot proposal, and information on candidates for a variety of jobs. Everybody, I want to note, was friendly, and I felt no intimidation. I, however, noticed that ALL of this campaigning was coming from the Democrat side. There was none, not one, pamphleteer supporting Republican or conservative candidates and issues. The ballot itself, I quickly saw, also reflected a lack of Republican ground game. Many slots for local positions, including judges (voting for judges, I find an odd thing) had only a Democrat candidate. Even the sheriff slot had only one candidate, a Democrat. On one judge slot there was one Democrat and two Republicans running--nice way to split the vote, fellows.

To cut this boring story short, I voted only Republican, leaving "D Only" slots blank, and voted exactly opposite of the recommendations for other issues that the pamphleteers had made. One pamphlet had been specially designed to "trigger" me: it was labelled, "For a Progressive North Carolina Vote . . . " and then the recommendations.

As an old election observer, with many elections around the world under my belt, there is no way I could certify our election process as free, fair, and open. Inside, for example, the voting office I was never asked for an ID of any kind--it's expressly prohibited--and merely had to state my name and address, and sign an affidavit that I was who I said I was. The clerk checked my name against the address I gave, and handed me a ballot. That was it.  When I got home, I had in my mailbox an absentee ballot from my old address in California; I added that document to one I had gotten a couple of days earlier from my old address in Virginia, and a voting reminder notice I got last week from my old address in Florida. I did not avail myself of these ballots.

This system is broken, and badly so. It clearly comes from an earlier age when we all knew our neighbors and didn't move so much. It is clearly early 20th century at best. As noted above, it's made for abuse.

Mobs and Tribes

What a weird week. I know that phrase is getting used a lot lately, but still.

Well, I am so glad that the rest of the world has caught up with the Diplomad in my long-time description of the Democrat Party as the party of the lynch mob. If you have absolutely nothing else to do, feel free to go through posts over several years, and you will find my description of the world's oldest political party as the party of the lynch mob.

That is what Democrats and their acolytes do: they create, lead, and participate in lynch mob justice. Just about any issue they adopt quickly becomes fodder for that mob. It is time for the Democratic Party to go away, and completely restructure itself into something other than what it is now. Time, in that old post WWII phrase, for the Democrats to "demob." Battering cars, flinging yourselves at doors, forming cry circles, chasing people out of restaurants, and threatening anybody who disagrees with you with acts of "incivility" is not the way to go.

To add just another touch of weirdness, we have Senator Elizabeth Warren proudly announcing DNA results that "PROVE" she's a Native American. She fell right into Trump's trap. She had made a nice career for herself in Harvard and other "elite" institutions by claiming to be a Native American woman of color. Trump promptly labelled her Pocahontas and made her a laughing stock. She couldn't leave it alone and doubled down, taking Trump's DNA test challenge. She produced a weird video in which some geneticist whom she hired says she definitely has Native American "markers" in her DNA. You can read up on this weirdness but I must just point out that she has a tiny fraction of "Native American" DNA, which folks have been quick to point out is well below that which average Americans have. What has not been too widely noted has been that these DNA testing services have little if any Native American DNA samples from North America as most of the tribal nations have refused to participate in providing samples. The testing company's "Native American" DNA samples actually come from Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia. So if the test has "proved" anything, it has "proved" that Warren might be 1/1024 part hispanic Aztec, Mayan, or Inca. Wow! The clown of Mass has beclowned herself further. Trump wins again.

Before I have to return to my hurricane damage duties and working on my father's estate, let me make this vow before my six readers: I take the pledge never to vote for any Democrat or Democrat-backed policy ever in my life.

Let's make the mid-terms memorable. I want to see more prog crying circles, and more progs flinging themselves against giant locked doors . . . it brings me great pleasure in my old age.

Survivor

Over five years ago, I wrote a little piece on how progs transform the meaning of words. I noted that the old Soviets had been masters at this transformation of words. That skill, however, did not die with the much unlamented Soviet Bloc, as is well know. I followed that piece up a few months later with another, in which I noted that,

Words have meaning, and the left is very good at ever so subtly altering the meaning of words so that over time those words no longer mean what they meant. Words, of course, are the bullets of intellectual debate. If you allow your opponent to select your ammo for you, well, let's just say you are at a disadvantage.

In other posts and reader comments here, we have discussed a range of words which have become transformed into things far removed from their original meanings: gay and liberal, of course, are two words which come immediately to mind. There are many more, of course, as the progs try to make 1984 into a how-to manual. Let me bring up another perfectly good and evocative word now heading for the freak show booth, "survivor."

Survivor: A great and strong word, and once one easy to understand.

If you sailed on the Titanic, or the Lusitania, or the Hood, or the Yamato, or the Indianapolis, or the Andrea Doria, and made it home, you are a survivor. If you were a Jew, a Gypsie, or a Jehovah's Witness in Nazi Germany and made it through the horrors of the holocaust, you are a survivor. If you made it through a fiery plane crash, or a horrid car wreck, or a massive train derailment, well, you are a survivor. If you were at. the facility in Benghazi when it was attacked by the jihadis and Obama/Clinton/Rice did nothing except lie and you came through, you are a survivor. If you were brutally attacked, beaten, and raped, and lived to tell, you are a survivor.

If you had your bottom pinched, or underwent some catcalls, or got groped on a date, or had to put up with a "hostile work environment," you are, well, let's just say "survivor" is not the label for you, anymore than it would be if you had your pocket picked or your car burgled. Depending on the example you pick, you are a victim of perhaps of a crime, or most certainly the sort of rudeness and crudeness which perhaps should have provoked a slap across the face, or a swift kick to the nether regions, or--how about this?--a complaint to the appropriate authorities.

Victim does not equal survivor.

The word "survivor" is now quite easily thrown about by anybody who claims to have suffered a "sexual assault." The problem, of course, is that "sexual assault" has been steadily redefined and watered down so that just about any action can be labelled a "sexual assault." Now it can be a boorish comment, a leer, or a gesture. To claim that as a "sexual assault" insults those who have suffered and survived real sexual assault.

Let's be a bit more judicious in the use of the label "survivor" for the sake of the real survivors.

Justice

With a vote of 50-48, Judge Kavanaugh will become Justice Kavanaugh.  As you all know--so, of course, I will repeat it--Kavanaugh had to endure a thoroughly disgusting gauntlet to become a Justice. One thing is to have open political and ideological differences and disagreements on legal interpretations, those are legitimate issues to explore and discuss--Have at it!--it's another thing to try to destroy a person's reputation and career, and put him and his family in physical danger. The loons in the Democratic Party aided by the media echo-chamber and the cesspool that our academic institutions have become tried to do precisely that.

Let's be up front: Dr. Ford lied.

She lied. She became a tool for the loons, and was willing to lie to stop Kavanaugh. Why has she, according to her lefty lawyers, now decided not to pursue the accusations against Kavanaugh? Why did she only pursue them once Kavanaugh become Trump's choice for a seat on the Supreme Court? Why doesn't she go to the police in Maryland, where there is no statute of limitations on sexual assault, and make a formal presentation of what she says happened to her in Maryland however many years ago she decides it happened? Because . . . drum roll . . . it's not true. I really hope her perjury is not simply forgotten; she needs to pay for it. She, at least, should be sued for every penny she has made in her GOFUNDME effort. The loons must know there is a cost to being a loon, to being an instigator of a lynch mob. No more lynch mobs, please.

Bottom line: Trump wins; Kavanaugh wins; justice wins; America, a bit battered, also wins.

Just in: My son and his wife went to the protests in front of the Supreme Court today. Here's a thoughtful protestor reacting to the singing of "God Bess America" by some folks celebrating Kavanaugh's win.

Notice the wit and intelligence on display

Sick of "Compelling"

This past week of American politics has to have been one of the most wretched in my lifetime. The ceaseless and unwarranted attacks on Judge Kavanaugh have exposed the evil lynch mob that lives within and controls the modern Democrat party. A couple of years ago I wrote about how the Democrat party is increasingly appealing to its whackier elements; that seems to hold true. Even longer ago, in 2014, I wrote, "The Democrats have been organizing and leading lynch mobs for 150 years." I also noted, in 2015, that, "In the old days, Democrat-led lynch mobs terrorized the rural South; today, Democrat-led lynch mobs terrorize all of urban America." This week's Senate hearings bear that out

The Kavanaugh hearings are a disgrace.

The majority of the Democrat contingent in the Senate is completely deranged. I find, however, even more deranged the prog media-echo chamber and the so-called pundits. Don't know about you, but I am sick and very tired of hearing about how Ford's testimony was "compelling." Who cares? Have we become such a Hollywood nation that we rate the believability of accusations on whether they are put forward in a "compelling" manner? Including, I would note, in a weird sort of 13-year old's squeaky voice which cannot be Dr. Ford's natural voice.

I am not concerned whether an accuser cries and whimpers at the right time; I want evidence.

Where's the evidence in all of this? None. Zip. Nada. What evidence does Dr. Ford and her well-funded backers have to support her somewhat weird and gap-filled account of a supposed sexual assault some 36 years ago? Certainly no forensic evidence; no police or medical reports from that era; no precise date; no identified crime scene; and, of course, not one witness who will corroborate her account. It is a drive-by character assassination pure and simple.

Now, thanks to some GOP fecklessness, we have a new FBI "investigation" that is SUPPOSED to last one week. An investigation of what, exactly? Let's start with the obvious: who in their right mind would trust today's FBI to conduct a politically charged "investigation" in a fair-and-balanced manner? Moving on from that, in the best of cases, the FBI "investigation" will consist of interviews of the same people that the Senate Committee has interviewed and a report that will lay out what each said; we already know what they said, unless the Dems start to "find" new witnesses. Then what? Who wants to bet that the Dems will demand several more days to evaluate the FBI investigation. In the meantime, of course, more false accusers will come forth.

This is a disaster for our Republic. This is not McCarthyism--McCarthy had evidence--this is the Salem Witch Trials, mass hysteria; this is what the Dems have always been good at . . . a lynch mob.

Killing Atticus Finch

Hard to keep up with the Progs. They are so clever and slippery! "We have always been at war with Eastasia," and all that.

To Kill A Mockingbird.  In my youth we all had to read Harper Lee's novel about the town of Macomb, Alabama circa 1932 and, of course, its prominent lawyer, Atticus Finch. Unlike a lot of stuff we had to read, this was actually pretty good; in fact, I'd say that Lee's 1960 novel is probably one of the great American novels of the post-WWII period. No matter what your politics, or your view of the American South, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement, I hope you would agree that it is a beautifully written book, full of characters that we care about.

I, furthermore, would add that the 1962 film, directed by the late Robert Mulligan, is probably at least equal to the novel, and one of the best films ever made. Sure, it came out of the prevailing liberal ethos of the time, but it is a powerful story about family values, prejudice, and courage, especially that of Atticus Finch who takes on the unenviable task of defending a black farm worker against the charge that he raped a white woman. The novel, at least partly inspired by the real-life 1931 Scottsboro Boys case, looks at how justice gets perverted and an obviously innocent man gets convicted and sent to jail, where he subsequently dies "trying to escape."

Well, I guess we poor benighted conservatives who favored the civil rights movement, admired Martin Luther King, Jr., and felt that lynchings were wrong, well, we were wrong. You see the Progs have now Awoken us to the fact that we "must believe all women." So I guess the Scottsboro Boys were guilty, after all, as were the scores of black men who were hanged from trees by mobs enraged by stories of rape or of "disrespect" towards white women, including, of course, 14 year-old Emmet Till lynched in 1955 for offending a white woman in Mississippi.

It's time to remove To Kill a Mockingbird from bookstores, libraries, movie theaters, and streaming services. Harper Lee's name--a woman no less!--must be erased from our history for portraying sympathetically a white patriarch who defended a rapist and cast doubt on a woman's accusations.

Atticus Finch, R.I.P.

High Water and Low Blows

Well, so far, we have survived Hurricane Florence.

We got a lot of rain, some wind, downed trees, but, at least in my corner of Durham, we kept our power and water services. In fact, my automatic lawn sprinklers came on during the height of the downpour--first world country problems, I guess. Had to keep a wary and worried eye, however, on the normally little creek that marks the boundary between my property and my neighbor's. This usually placid and bucolic runnel, did its best to impersonate a raging river. About eight to ten feet wide, with banks about three to four feet high, or so, it filled to the brim and for several hours threatened to spill over. In its fury, it washed away a neat little foot bridge. How will I ever be able to visit my neighbor again? The horror! This morning it has resumed its placid, post Xanax ways, but now my trust is broken. Gone. I have seen its Mr. Hyde face.

The house in Wilmington? Well, I don't think the news will be as good. My neighbor there reports that our garage has flooded--which, probably, means that so has the basement--and the place is without power. Lots of downed trees, and the highway there is still impassable. Whatever losses I might have suffered, however, pale into nothingness compared to what other folks in this beautiful state have. Gaia is a killer. I am sure that had we stayed with the Paris Climate Accord none of this would have happened.

Since we have had power here, I have been able to spend hours watching and reading the news. Generally an awful exercise and waste of time. The one thing I learned, yet again, is that our prog "friends" will stoop to anything to destroy a rival. The last-minute stunt they have pulled with Judge Kavanaugh is beyond reprehensible, probably even worse than what they did to Clarence Thomas. They have dug up some ultra-prog professor of psychology from, of course, northern California to allege that some time, somewhere, perhaps 35 years ago or so, in a place not fully established, at a party or gathering in an uncertain place on an uncertain date with an uncertain number of attendees, Kavanaugh, then either 16 or 17 years old, proved himself an archetypical, white patriarchal straight male and groped or tried to grope the then also 16 or 17 year old future professor.

How can one defend himself against this type of accusation? Pretty damn hard in our new era where the accused must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt--and without insulting or offending his accuser--that perhaps, maybe, the accuser has it wrong. This is beyond outrageous. No matter what happens, and I don't believe the accuser's story from what I have heard so far, Kavanaugh's life will be permanently altered; he will become the punchline for every prog comedian and politician, will be harassed on the street, and will constantly have to worry about the safety and security of his wife and daughters. Talk about the politics of personal destruction.

A little update: One of my sons is betting that the Dems have more women accusers lined up. They will "Roy Moore" him, he says, with a barrage of accusations. Gloria Allred call your office!

Just before the hurricane, a friend warned me about snakes getting flushed out by the rising waters. Naive me. I thought he meant on my property in North Carolina. Turns out the snakes are a bit further north . . . in Washington DC.