Robert Conquest (d. 3 August 2015) was a brilliant British historian and commentator. He wrote an absolutely GREAT book on Joseph Stalin’s terror campaign in the USSR: The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties. He was a prolific writer and commentator who also wrote science fiction. During a lifetime of observing political machinations in the West, he also developed three laws of politics:

Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.
All three laws are great and true, but the focus of this article is on the second law. When the law is examined in the evolution of important American institutions over the past 60 years or so, the theory behind it is proven almost beyond the shadow of a doubt. Let us look at some examples.

After four years of endless accusations from the media and the Democrat Party that Donald Trump wasn’t really elected and Russia stole the election for him, those who are raising questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election are being told to sit down and shut up.

But as Senator Hawley (R-Mo.) recently said, “74 million Americans are not going to shut up, and telling them that their views don’t matter and that their concerns don’t matter and they should just be quiet is not a recipe for success in this country. It’s not a recipe for the unity that I hear now the other side is suddenly so interested in, after years—YEARS—of trying to delegitimize President Donald Trump.”

But make no mistake: questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election isn’t about revenge. Republicans have been fighting to preserve the integrity of our elections for years, and have met pushback from elected Democrats every step of the way. We have to speak up louder than ever now because the evidence is glaring—and if they get away with it now they will be emboldened to continue.

This is a fight we have to fight, regardless of the outcome. We can accept a legitimate defeat. But a stolen election, we cannot. Without a proper audit of the elections with dubious results, we’ll never know for sure, and without knowing for sure, we shouldn’t assume the results were legitimate.

This is the kind of (expletive deleted) garbage (expletive deleted) legislation these (expletive deleted) politicians concoct in the name of serving the public. Impeach them all, burn the place to the ground, and salt the swamp when finished. This is utter and consummate trash.

The dissenters said they would decide the case in the plaintiffs’ favor on the merits because the plain meaning of the statutes, historical practice, and uniform interpretations of all three branches “demonstrate that aliens without lawful status cannot be excluded from the decennial census solely on account of that status.”

What’s so odd about these arguments by the three liberal justices is that illegal aliens are legally prohibited from voting, making donations to federal candidates (including individuals running for the House of Representatives), or running for Congress.

Yet, the dissenters think that illegal aliens must be included in apportionment, distorting the political power of the states in the House of Representatives, giving states that obstruct federal immigration law and attract illegal aliens through sanctuary policies more representation in the House than they are otherwise entitled to.

That is, of course, the real reason that states such as New York are trying to prevent this from happening. A study by the Congressional Research Service in 2015 analyzed what the representation would have been in the House of Representatives after the 2010 census using only the estimated 2013 citizen population, while excluding noncitizens.

California would have lost four congressional seats and New York, Texas, and Florida each would have lost one seat. On the other hand, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Virginia would have gained one seat each.

So, what this case is about is pure political power and whether U.S. citizens will be disenfranchised and have their votes and representation in the House of Representatives diluted by aliens who are in this country illegally. That’s the bottom line.

“Let’s just do this simple thought experiment. I just heard today Elon Musk was moving to Texas. So the smartest man on the planet has decided to move away from the dumbest governor in the United States.” //

“So when the smartest guy in the world says, ‘I’m moving,’ what does that say to the rest of us?” //

Speaking of miserable, Adam told Tucker Southern California’s got things backwards:

“The Left has this way of approaching problems, and it’s a sort of bizarre reverse engineering of a problem. Which is, Los Angeles is like a house that’s riddled with termites. So Los Angeles’s reaction is, ‘Fire the termite inspector.'”

“And what happens to the house when you do that?” Carlson cued.

“It just turns into a pile of sawdust.” //

“[I]t’s like saying, ‘We can’t make it up the hill in this old truck. We can’t go fast enough. The engine doesn’t work.’ ‘Well, then just take the speedometer and push it with your finger up to 80 miles an hour.’ It doesn’t work.”

John Bresnahan
@BresPolitico
.⁦@LeaderHoyer⁩ takes a picture with Democrats not coming back next year after losing on Election Day. Now telling story about elections he lost. “Do not lose heart,” Hoyer said. //

Kevin McCarthy
@GOPLeader
Here's a group photo of me with all the House Republicans who lost races this year. [alone] //

John Bresnahan
@BresPolitico
Replying to @GOPLeader
Quality trolling

Rising politicians continuously forget proper tenets of good, visionary leadership. Among them is a simple focus: build a foundation, stack smart wins together, and then create the better future you seek. Instead, we see Biden following along a pattern of broken promises and political pivots that will soon leave many Americans – including the disenfranchised Americans that voted for Biden in 2020 – frustrated that all of the protesting, political volunteering, and hope for a watershed moment – once again begging for more. Even with all of his years of experience within government, Biden has focused more on the politics of power instead of the power of the American people – the very diversity of this nation that he claimed he would listen to, heed its advice, and serve humbly in the spirit of healing. And yet, no one can heal an infirmity of mindset, social mores, and systemic inequities without an acknowledgment that a shift from the same practices that caused the harm must be done. If the former vice president promised to usher in a better America, he is acting with the tone and tenor of the same ol’ America – one where candidates that win elections through thin margins overreach and interpret victory as wide-sweeping mandates. A new America – as promised – cannot begin with the recycling of the same stale cast of characters and their tone-deafness towards policy and innovative collaboration. A fairer America does not come about through an about-face that blocks self-determination in education, consolidates partisan rigidness, and cements two-tiered views on diversity in key leadership.

2020 saw record turnout—though calling it a “turnout” is a bit misleading since the involvement was largely a function of states’ haphazardly mailing out paper ballots to everyone.

All mandatory-voting advocates are doing is further degrading the importance of elections and incentivizing more demagoguery.

If they truly believed democracy was sacred—rather than a way to accumulate power—they’d want Americans to put more effort into voting for the president than they do in ordering Chinese takeout. And they certainly wouldn’t want to force anyone to do it.

It’s difficult to believe that Washington Post and NPR reporters on the White House beat are unaware of the fact that women lead the Trump communications team.

Under President Trump, as was reported by The Federalist in June, “For the first time in history, half of the senior leaders of the National Security Council are women. Twelve of the 24 directorates are led by women now, including three of the six regional directorates that cover the world.” They include Dr. Deborah Birx, Allison Hooker, Elizabeth Erin Walsh, Sue Bai, and Julia Nesheiwat, all women.

Rebeccah Heinrichs
@RLHeinrichs

I don’t think the male/female ratio thing is a measure of competency. But for those keeping score- For the first time in our history, under Trump, our nuclear enterprise was led by two women; and half of the NSC directorates were led by women.

The newly elected Utah representative — and former NFL player //

Burgess’s message: Freedom Force will protect businesses and those who toil at them.

As the erstwhile Oakland Raider sees it, owning a business is a cornerstone of liberty in the United States:

“Business ownership is the foundation of our freedom. It’s where our middle class comes from.” //

“So…if you wonder why they’re shutting down things right now – because no matter who you are, Democrat, independent, or Republicans, the Left hates business owners because it empowers the middle class.” //

It’s certainly not a stretch to say there’s overt opposition to business ownership. Despite dreamy assertions among the woke, socialism is not a system where you as a low-wage worker suddenly become one of many CEOs. It is, rather, a system in which business ownership is banned — all products and means of production are instead forcibly taken by the biggest business of all: Government.

In other words, if you own a business and say you’re a socialist, either:

A. You want the government to take away what you’ve built

OR

B. You don’t know the definition of socialism

One of the key findings is that Americans believe “religious identity cannot be quarantined.” In other words, “Religion is part of who Americans are, not just something they do. Respondents support protections that reflect the reality of religious identity.”

Among those surveyed, 60% agree that religion is a “fundamental part of ‘who I am’ and should be protected accordingly.” This finding explains a core conflict between local and national political leaders and people of faith during the ongoing quarantine. //

The concept of religion as an identity, rather than as an activity or hobby, must seem very foreign to many public officials, which would explains why, throughout this past year, they repeatedly treated churches like nonessential businesses, or, as in the case of some states such as Nevada, seemed to treat churches even worse.

Romney is one of the first politicians I’ve ever seen who was an outsider and specifically went to D.C. just so he could join the cocktail circuit and receive faint praise from CNN flacks.

To be frank, even if you don’t like Trump’s style, there was always a middle ground. Figures like Ron DeSantis populate it with relative ease and have bright futures because of it. Romney has no interest in that though. He’d always rather attack his own side while fluffing his opponents because it makes him feel morally superior. It also happens to be an extremely easy thing to do as a Republican in Washington. Doing what Trump did, standing up to the left in so many areas, takes actual fortitude. Meanwhile, Romney can only be counted to release a statement of disapproval of anything when he’s attacking another Republican.

As we forge into the next four years of what looks to be a Joe Biden administration, Republicans are going to have to make a choice. Do they pursue the politics of the past in vain, or do they recognize that the party has moved past the pointless virtue signaling of 2008 and 2012? Republican voters want a fighter who is going to prioritize them over getting backslaps from people like David Axelrod.

Shutdown DC, the same group that organized protests to “make sure Trump leaves the White House” by any means necessary after the Nov. 3 election and teaches people how to “punch a Nazi,” is assigning people on its email list to harass lawyers from one of the firms representing the Trump Campaign in election lawsuits. //

The email also brags that “public pressure works” after claiming that another law firm associated with the legal fights in key states, Porter Wright, “announced that they were dropping out of the post-election lawsuit they had filed for Trump in Pennsylvania.”

When the country transitioned to a voluntary military in 1973, about 1% of the population served on active duty. Today, it is less than one-half of 1%.

But perhaps we can take it further and say that the idea of compulsory service of any kind has personal meaning to fewer and fewer Americans.

This brings to mind the famous words of newly elected President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address, on Jan. 20, 1961, 60 years before our next president will be administered the oath of office, in January 2021.

Kennedy said, “And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

Reading over Kennedy’s words from that time, one can barely recognize the country he was speaking to. Nor is Kennedy’s Democratic Party, whose mantle he carried, recognizable compared with what it has become today.

So, in order to earn our trust, Joe Biden would have to call his own side out for raising the temperature. And he has steadfastly refused to do so. He hasn't called out Black Lives Matter for the suggestion that America is systemically racist; he has cheered it on. He hasn't condemned antifa; he has deemed it a philosophy rather than a dangerous movement. And he certainly hasn't said a word about the continuing attacks on Trump supporters. //

No, "unity" in the Biden formulation isn't a recognition of what we have in common; it's a demand that we silence ourselves in order to mirror Biden's priorities. Unity, you see, can be achieved one of two ways: through recognition of the other, through a determination to understand those who think differently than we do; or through ideological domination. It's rather obvious which pathway Democrats will choose. After all, social ostracization is one of their most powerful tools. Why disarm now?

Americans can only come together when we share a common philosophy, history and culture. Democrats have spent years attempting to tear away those commonalities in favor of coalitional interest-group politics. They've declared American philosophy racist from inception; they've declared American history a litany of brutalities; they've declared American culture bigotry embodied. Now they want unity -- the unity of absolute victory.

Ironically, it's that very desire -- the desire for monolithic control -- that will be their undoing. Unless Biden is serious about unity -- unless he's willing to cross the aisle and recognize the humanity of those with whom he disagrees, and to call out those on his own side who won't -- Biden's term is likely to be contentious, polarizing and ultimately unsuccessful.

None of this is being hidden. Some of it is on video. And the national media are reporting that this is usual, that it is common for a tranche of 20+ thousand ballots to arrive without a single dissenting vote among them.

This is being done to win an election, for sure. But the larger message is “your vote doesn’t matter.” They want people in states and counties controlled by Democrats to know that no matter how many people vote, the decision has already been made. That they are adhering to that policy attributed to Josef Stalin, “It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.”

With the interconnectivity of our society (i.e., both our national fabric as well as our geo-economic community), rural America and urban centers are intertwined more than ever before. And yet, each dynamic votes rather differently. As “emerging constituencies” continue to make their impact felt in statewide and national elections, the ability to govern with the necessary balance to make our republic successful and prosperous likely comes not with Democrats riding the wave of traditional voters, but with Republicans that are capable of building bridges between diverse communities and the traditional principles that have made America great.

In the three Midwest battleground states, vote counting irregularities persist in an election that will be decided on razor-thin margins.

When you account for 3rd party vote, seems like tens of thousands of mysterious Biden votes w/ no down ticket votes.

It would be mystifying if Republicans won more seats in the House, retained the Senate, and picked up state legislative seats, all while the same voters voted against Trump. //

At the state level, USA Today reports, Democrats also failed to flip seats they had targeted, again usually with more money than Republicans. The only gubernatorial flip went from Democrat to Republican, in Montana. In congressional and state House races in Texas, Republicans also retained their majorities despite massive outside funding and high-profile targeting from Democrats. //

Then look at some odd differences between this amazing night for Republicans in downballot races and the incongruent results for Trump in just a few key states — key states that happen to be the ones everyone knew would be crucial to Trump’s path to victory, and all of which began to have “voting irregularities” and pauses in vote counting as Trump appeared to command the lead while closing in on final vote totals. //

It would be mystifying if Republicans won more seats in the House, retained the Senate, and picked up state legislative seats, all while the same voters voted against Trump. Trump has solidified his support among Republican voters and enjoys a massive approval rating from them he didn’t have in 2016, and expanded his coalition to more working-class and minority voters this year. This is not a blue wave year. This is a year that the blue wave of 2018 appears to be receding.

Yet we are supposed to believe the same media-Democrat complex that fed us wildly erroneous polls all year, and runs false information operations on us about coronavirus, the Russia hoax, and everything else they can use to steal power, that this blue wave’s evaporation did not at all affect the top of the ticket?