http://disqus.com/by/Alastor/enFri, 15 Jul 2022 13:59:09 -0000https://instapundit.com/531352/#comment-5918478223<p>Will the Democrats be able to find a Jelly Donut to build it ?</p>AlastorFri, 15 Jul 2022 13:59:09 -0000https://www.mediaite.com/?p=5358664#comment-5915224013<p>@Roger Wilco - which "rioters" ?</p><p>Please keep up !</p><p>Since 2020, there are no rioters, just "mostly peaceful protestors" ...</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 16:45:49 -0000https://www.mediaite.com/?p=5358664#comment-5915075262<p>As an interesting exercise, both here and in other discussion threads, there is an increasingly-obvious pattern where one finds more and more of the more irrational and irrelevant and emotionally-inflammatory comments are by private (anonymous) commenters - not dissimilar to the fake Twitter IDs that have proved to be so prevalent on Twitter, supporting and inciting varying levels of violence ...</p><p>I am sure that there have to be some folk who use anonymous accounts simply for privacy - yet most of them seem to use them to enable themselves to be as inflammatory as possible - or as rude as possible - or as totalitarian as possible ...</p><p>It is also amazing just how *MANY* comments these anonymous accounts have posted, into the 10s of thousands ...why, one might even consider that perhaps such comments are machine-generated !</p><p>At least with the non-private accounts, one can easily tell if it's the same nonsense being spammed across many messages, or if each comment was actually human-generated ...</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 15:29:42 -0000https://www.mediaite.com/?p=5358664#comment-5915050025<p>@msdangermousse 86 47 🏳️‍🌈 - to be a legitimate Congressional Hearing, it used to be that the majority party chose its representatives for the Hearing, and the minority party chose *its* representatives for the Hearing ... this ensured (mostly) that due process would be respected for any and all involved ... this was considered to be a requirement in the US legal system ...</p><p>Which representatives did the current House minority party choose for the Jan 6th "hearings" ?</p><p>Where are the current written and published enabling rules which would allow the majority party to be the *ONLY* party to choose the membership for the "hearings" ?</p><p>Which current members were chosen by the current minority party ?</p><p>As you say, "These are Congressional hearings - NOT COURT." - that latter part is exactly accurate - these are not Constitutionally-based hearings - rather, they are a one-sided kangaroo court set up for show trials ...</p><p>By comparison, the much-maligned McCarthy hearings were duly and Constitutionally constituted ...</p><p>These Pelosi "hearings" don't even have that much legitimacy ... sad, isn't it ?</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 15:21:40 -0000https://www.mediaite.com/?p=5358664#comment-5914983235<p>@Roy Moss - yet another private and anonymous account "supporting" the "hearings" ...</p><p>Are there no actual Democrats willing and happy to proudly support the best efforts of the Democrat leadership, for any and all to see, and to respond ?</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 14:59:45 -0000https://www.mediaite.com/?p=5358664#comment-5914976712<p>@msdangermousse 86 47 🏳️‍🌈 - private account, no way to see other comments ... dear, oh, dear ... you *DO* need to try harder, dear !</p><p>So far, the "hearings" are folk supplying hearsay "evidence" - without there being any opportunities for the other side of the "hearings" to cross-examine, or even to provide their own witnesses ...</p><p>Those aren't hearings, dear, those are poorly-produced show-trials ... admittedly, they are likely the best that the current crop of Democrats can achieve, but they are a pitiful reminder of how tin-eared and incompetent that Democrat leaders currently are ...</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 14:57:40 -0000https://www.mediaite.com/?p=5358664#comment-5914855822<p>@AWM (and @BuckarooB ) - it is both a shame and very telling that the downvotes on this thread are from a private (anonymous) account whose owner isn't sufficiently proud of his own opinions as to be able to let people see the patterns of his opinions ... the Democrats are getting more and more desperate ... and understandably so ...</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 14:15:58 -0000https://instapundit.com/530402/#comment-5914833273<p>@Fluffy Goat - there is already far too much well-founded data-supported evidence that while boys learn better in mixed (male &amp; female) classes, girls tend to learn better in girls-only classes ...</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 14:08:41 -0000https://instapundit.com/530402/#comment-5914832757<p>Ah, @Michael Hiteshew , yet it's not the hoi totoi that don't want the vulgate to have access to school choices other than local public schools ... the hoi totoi quite confidently *know* viscerally that their kids will go to the Right Schools - and, after all, what else matters ?</p><p>The political zealots whose purpose is to control other people's lives are the ones who are starting to realise that, when parents start realising how important school choice is to the successful and satisfying lives of their kids, those same parents are also starting to realise how the pretense of support for minorities so much trumpeted by the Democrats is basically simple pandering to those minorities for their votes ...</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 14:08:31 -0000https://instapundit.com/530402/#comment-5914791646<p>"Our children: our choice !" - just because Democrat politicians want to be able to choose their voters, rather than the voters being able to choose who they want as their politicians, that doesn't mean that teachers are the best people to choose what kinds of schools to which parents can choose to send their children ...</p><p>And especially so, since so many Democrat politicians (and teachers) send their own kids to private schools (and even some charter schools) rather than sending their own kids to their local public schools ... and yet far too many of those same Democrat politicians (and teachers) still keep insisting that *everyone* must send their kids to local public schools (except, of course, for those same Democrat politicians (and teachers)) ...</p>AlastorTue, 12 Jul 2022 13:52:02 -0000https://instapundit.com/?p=529946#comment-5909990772<p>@WJ Alden - while such immigration numbers may scare some Brits, the intelligent ones realise that most folk from Hong Kong would have been productive, motivated, hard-working immigrants ... and most Brits with integrity would refuse to act like the Labour Party after African colonial independence - when the Labour Government shamefully (and shamelessly) introduced the concept that the British Passport didn't necessarily guarantee the right of residency in the UK any more ...</p>AlastorThu, 07 Jul 2022 12:04:22 -0000https://instapundit.com/?p=529946#comment-5909977052<p>@guestwho2 - sadly, at some point, Auntie (the BBC) stopped using the Times of London as its newspaper of record and now seems to be using Teh Grauniad (the Guardian) as its source ... so, for Westpondian readers, the BBC is currently the illegitimate offspring of CNN and NPR, with all the flaws of each (and none of the virtues) ...</p>AlastorThu, 07 Jul 2022 11:50:24 -0000https://instapundit.com/528830/#comment-5904357452<p>@kennycan - there is something appropriate about PalanQueeen Hillary, indeed !</p><p>(She does tend to look the same from both ends)</p>AlastorFri, 01 Jul 2022 12:10:03 -0000https://instapundit.com/526599/#comment-5892432141<p>@That Guy - "Look ! Piñatas !" ...</p>AlastorSun, 19 Jun 2022 13:30:52 -0000https://instapundit.com/525582/#comment-5887295286<p>@Troy Kimble - I wish that that were true currently ... sadly, as far as I can tell, the current administration's government interference in complex markets seems to be working exactly as the current administration intends ...</p>AlastorMon, 13 Jun 2022 23:03:15 -0000https://instapundit.com/524331/#comment-5880794692<p>Nonono ! Don't tax Democrat politicians any differently from anyone else ...</p><p>MUCH better to treat the Democratic Party, with its centuries-long history of thoroughly-documented blatant racism and corruption, as they wanted to treat others (by removing the copyright and trademark protection of the names Democratic and Democratic Party and Democrat Party) so that literally anyone who wants to can use those names for anything and everything that takes someone's fancy ...</p><p>Literally unprotect that odious brand ...</p><p>If Redskins cannot be used, because it was racist, Democratic Party cannot be used because it was and is racist ...</p><p>Anyone would be able to fundraise for a "Democratic Party" anything, and there would be no legal recourse to shut that down ...</p><p>Don't ban them - just demonetise them ... withdraw the ability to claim deductions on income tax for donations to that racist name ... and watch the roaches scatter as from the cleansing light of sunlight ... without the ability to fundraise as a path to power, do any of you know any Democrats who would even think of continuing to be Democrats ?</p>AlastorTue, 07 Jun 2022 02:29:33 -0000https://instapundit.com/523827/#comment-5877753899<p>While I don't have easy access to the numbers, I strongly suspect that the data exist to allow graphing of abortions vs healthy live births for the major demographic groups that are commonly used to "prove" disparate impact ...</p><p>So, for New York (the city), for more than a couple of years, I seem to remember that there were more abortions than healthy live births of African Americans ... (does that include "abortion pill" induced early first trimester abortions ?) ...</p><p>And I equally strongly suspect that, were such statistics to become common knowledge for medium and major cities, as well as for State by State, the disparate impact shown would be quite possibly that African Americans would show as hardest hit, followed by Hispanic, and so on ...</p>AlastorSat, 04 Jun 2022 01:44:37 -0000https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2022/05/26/my-dude-no-blue-check-gets-way-more-than-he-asks-for-with-poll-and-follow-up-thread-advocating-to-repeal-the-second/#comment-5869294488<p>GentleBeings - the current problem is not a problem of gun control laws being passed - it is a problem of gun control laws currently on the books not being enforced !</p><p>The United Kingdom has significantly less problems with gun violence due to the fact the someone who uses a gun in a crime is pretty much guaranteed to do significant time incarcerated behind bars ... the UK gun control laws are *ENFORCED* ! (Note: they aren't perfect laws, but the UK has yet to have any significant number of prosecutors choosing which laws that they want to enforce and which ones that they will choose not to enforce}</p>AlastorThu, 26 May 2022 18:55:04 -0000https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/lawyers-cause-homelessness/#comment-5869289222<p>@joanhello - I apologise for my slowness in responding to your comment ...</p><p>What is this "secret agenda" ? The State level such as in California has been doing what you describe for decades - and apparently proudly so ...</p><p>"Figure 2 underscores the primacy of Medicaid as a payer for state and local mental health services; in 1997 Medicaid paid for half of such services, whereas in 1987 Medicaid paid for slightly more than a third (1).</p><p>Medicaid's dominance as a payer for state and local mental health services will probably become more pronounced. In 1999 only Medicaid and the corrections system accounted for a larger share of states' overall budgets than they did at the beginning of the decade (2). The increase is partly the result of active efforts by states to shift programs into Medicaid that were previously funded solely by state or local dollars. This is certainly true for mental health services programs (3)."</p>AlastorThu, 26 May 2022 18:47:47 -0000https://instapundit.com/521407/#comment-5864311124<p>@NotKennedy - yet !</p>AlastorSat, 21 May 2022 22:53:10 -0000https://instapundit.com/521304/#comment-5863921207<p>I have long been a believer that when legislators (and associated mayors, governors, First Ministers, Prime Ministers, and Presidents) decide to pass legislation into law, for the first full calendar year after passage into law, that legislation should only apply to those legislators and their families and households ...</p><p>I realise that this could cause major hearing loss to those around the families of such legislators, due to the resultant squeals of anguish ... which is quite likely to be an unsubtle hint to legislators that the legislation that they propose may not be such a good idea ...</p><p>In the case of emergency legislations such as for a Health Emergency like COVID, to balance out immediate implementation for everyone, then legislators (and their families and households) should be subject to draconian penalties for infringements of the legislation ...</p><p>In the case of when Gavin Newsom was pictured dining at a posh restaurant with 11 maskless friends, flouting his own Covid rules, perhaps that should be considered a felony and prosecuted as such ... draconian, yes, yet it would quickly separate out the arrant arrogant hypocrites from the actually-well-intentioned (who are likely to accept and comply with their legislation) ...</p>AlastorSat, 21 May 2022 14:00:50 -0000https://instapundit.com/521298/#comment-5863423452<p>@Firek - perhaps Musk growing up in a former British Colony could be the source of offering a 'pony' for a 'massage' ... (traditionally, a 'pony' is £25 - might that have been the going rate at the time for such service(s) from a Lady of Negotiable Virtue ?)</p>AlastorFri, 20 May 2022 22:32:40 -0000https://instapundit.com/521298/#comment-5863420002<p>@disqus_R3bxqgYtpx - I'm currently watching to see which manufacturer of adult diapers manages to see their stock price drop the least ... that's likely to be the one supplying them to the White House ... and that company should have a very good year as we get closer and closer to mid-November, as more and more Democrats find themselves fecally incontinent due to the impending mid-term elections ...</p>AlastorFri, 20 May 2022 22:26:26 -0000https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/lawyers-cause-homelessness/#comment-5861146062<p>@joanhello - perhaps "The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill greatly contributes to the problem of chaos and disorder in America’s cities, and is often achieved through pro bono litigation. It is driven by the same misguided motives that animate other utopian policies favored by progressives. " ...</p><p>Or "The ruling class does not spend much time on subways, in public libraries, downtown parks, or public areas in general. They tend to live in exclusive enclaves or high-rise condos with doormen, socialize at private clubs, and can afford to send their children to private schools and use non-public transportation. Therefore, the elite’s advocacy of chaos-producing policies, while greatly affecting the lives of ordinary Americans, is of little or no consequence to them." ...</p><p>Perhaps those same prosperous lawyers should take the same amount of the 'pro bono funds', and spend it on pilot programs in their own gated communities where they live ?</p><p>I, too, used to think that pro bono work was a worthy charitable act - until I learned that far too many of those 'pro bono' lawyers were getting paid their hours at their full rate from third party funds, funded by very partisan groups, and by awards from their lawfare such as the "pay $435,000 for the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees" - which simple arithmetic suggests that the Boise lawsuit, rather than being 'pro bono', was actually a contingency lawsuit with the lawyers to get 25% of any settlement ...</p>AlastorWed, 18 May 2022 15:14:14 -0000https://instapundit.com/514063/#comment-5848854519<p>@Matt_SE - (sigh) ...</p><p>Again, try to realise that if the Senate seat held by any single current Democrat Senator in the US Senate had instead been filled by a RINO instead, Schumer would not be the Senate Majority leader ... pResident Biden's nominees would be much less extremist, because the current successful nominees would not have been approved by the Senate ...</p><p>Those who pay attention realise that not a single RINO voted for final passage of Obamacare ...</p><p>Your most recent comment doesn't assign any blame or responsibility to the Democrats who control the White House, who have a narrow majority in the House, and who don't have a majority in the Senate but get their bills passed due to the Vice-pResident's tie-breaker vote ...</p><p>Between you and your ilk, such as the major US media, too many people don't get to realise that it is Democrat policies that caused the major spike in gas prices during the year after Biden took office and before Russia invaded the Ukraine ... they don't get to realise that if Biden's Democrat policies hadn't shut down the Keystone pipeline, the US would be importing more Canadian crude from Canada rather than having to pay Russia for 650K barrels of crude oil far too regularly - and those payments by Biden are helping to fund Putin's war on the Ukraine ...</p><p>It wasn't a RINO that canceled the Keystone pipeline ... it wasn't a RINO that put in place policies to change the US from being a net producer of Oil and Natural Gas ... it wasn't a RINO that has been trying continuously to shut down the successful Remain In Mexico policy - without which we are seeing the floods of illegal migrants being released into the US by Democrat policies ... none of that was done by a RINO - it was all done by Democrats ...</p><p>FIRST, we must concentrate in replacing as many currently-elected Democrats with Republicans ...</p>AlastorThu, 05 May 2022 19:04:18 -0000