The Die Is Cast

Just goes to show you that a well-qualified black female conservative in Virginia (Earle-Sears) will lose to a pasty white progressive every time, so much for DEI. Had it been the other way around, they would have been screaming racism. Turns out that race is only a multiplier in the equation, where the perpetuation of redistribution and government handouts are ultimately the deciding factors in garnering the minority vote. Even Jay Jones was able to overcome his heinous character flaws by virtue of embracing progressive policy multiplied by race. It’s no wonder that the democrats keep steering us down the road to socialism when it is increasingly apparent that the formula for success is appealing to the public sector and those that survive on government handouts by perpetuating the culture of the nanny state, offering something for nothing. Character and a moral compass appear to be secondary considerations for progressive candidates. 

Democrat Gloat

And here come the Democrats claiming that the victories in these gubernatorial elections are a rebuke of Trump. Really? NYC engaged in egregious lawfare tactics to indict him for a bookkeeping misdemeanor, not to mention finding him liable for defending himself from a nutcase who claims he assaulted her, yet can’t recall when and has no witnesses. Hostile progressive territory that produced the likes of Jeffries, Schumer, AOC, and Nadler. Congratulations. New Jersey is a deep blue morass of failed leftist policy, with population density in Camden County, Newark, and the north Jersey commuter suburbs that are a reflection of the city across the Hudson. Virginia elections are dominated by the beneficiaries in Richmond and Hampton/Newport News, as well as the government officials in the DC-adjacent suburbs to the north. No surprises there… all democrat strongholds wallowing in high taxes, traffic, unsustainable public pensions, corruption, and crime. You get what you vote for!

The Mamdani Effect

What’s going to happen is that the Feds are going to cut off funding to the city, and the wealthy will flee. As a result, upstate, which relies on the larger downstate population to fund the state’s socialist programs, will end up sharing more of the tax burden. The Democrats have succeeded in reaching a critical mass, where there are more government workers and welfare recipients than higher-income workers in the private sector, such that patriotism and what’s good for the country have been supplanted by an attitude of “what handouts will benefit me most.” Think about it, New Yorkers in the private sector: what exactly do you get in return for paying 13% income tax, 8% sales tax, and exorbitant property taxes?  Crumbling infrastructure, poor-performing public schools, unsustainable public workers' pensions, a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, soaring utility costs, and now a communist mayor running the financial capital of the world. What could possibly go wrong?

Handwriting On The Wall

It’s become increasingly apparent that Democrat politicians can’t hear themselves when they speak. It’s the only explanation other than lumping them all into the category of opportunistic hypocrites. Gavin Newsom, who has been known for his peculiar hand gestures lately, appeared on Meet the Press, where he received gentle handling by Kristin Welker. Posing once again as a defender of democracy, he accused the president of “rigging” next year’s congressional election. “He’s changing the rules.  He’s rigging the game because he knows he’ll lose if all things are equal,” said Newsome, ignoring the democrats' long history of gerrymandering, resulting in lopsided majorities in states like New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and California, where the proportions of Democrat versus republican legislators far exceed the proportion of registered voters for each party. But then Newsome really went tone deaf: “He did not expect California to fight fire with fire.”  Ouch. Now, in a state stricken by wildfires, including the most recent disaster that torched the Pacific Palisades, a community unable to rebuild due to California’s torturous permitting regulations, wouldn’t you think the Governor would have chosen a different analogy?  Perhaps something without fire in it? They are simply tone deaf

Disenfranchised American Heroes

I shouldn’t listen to Breitbart in the morning. Sometimes it gets me depressed as to the state of our America. This morning, Slater was discussing architecture and art as related to government buildings and statues, particularly observing how hideous it has become. Witness Obama’s blight on Chicago’s south side with a library that looks like its inspiration was an Eastern Bloc stairwell from The Bourne Identity. Put treads on it, and it could be rambling around Tatooine looking for scrap. Even the New York Times opined that democrats create hideous architecture. But most upsetting has been the fate of our historical statues that succumbed to the Charleston and the Black Lives Matter protests.  I understand that these monuments are a trigger for those on the left, who seem to be outraged at everything that doesn’t fit their worldview. But, like it or not, they are choosing not only to erase history but also to do it vindictively. The Robert E. Lee statue, for example, was melted down, its demise recorded, disseminated, and celebrated by the left. But far worse than being melted down is outright desecration. Statues are being used as “material”: altered, vandalized, spray-painted, and distorted. The Stonewall Jackson Memorial, a statue depicting the Confederate General on horseback, was donated to The Brick, formerly LAXART an art center in LA, who allowed the controversial painter/activist Kara Walker to disassemble the statue and piece it back together in a grotesque, distorted hideous work of “art” now displayed at the Museum of Art Los Angeles who claims the exhibit “topples white supremacy.”  The LA Times, in a glowing review, called it a “monstrous mutant” that “pushes back against white supremacy I would call it a tasteless, disrespectful disregard for our nation’s history. Recall General Jackson’s career began by heroically serving in the Mexican Wars after graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point. Born in what is now West Virginia, he naturally served with the Confederacy, distinguishing himself at Bull Run but ultimately losing an arm to friendly fire and succumbing to pneumonia. And now rewarded for his sacrifice and service to the United States before being on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon Line, he is brutalized in death by being hideously transformed into an object of ridicule by an activist who has made a career “highlighting the impact of slavery” and calling it art. I am embarrassed we let this happen.

Under The ICBM

The Atlantic was at it again, publishing an interview with the makers of the film, The House of Dynamite, where a nuclear missile targeting the US is launched from an unknown source, and our government officials have only 20 minutes to respond. The horrifying aspect of the film is the fact that the system of nuclear response and deterrence is set up for rapid retaliation, whereby a chain of military command that practices the scenario twice a day makes recommendations to the president, who receives only one nuclear briefing but who holds the nuclear “football” and is ultimately responsible for the decision on how to respond. There’s no time to form a committee. No time to ask Congress. With a missile incoming, the president and his immediate staff have 20 minutes to decide on a course of action. The strategy thus far has been one of mutually assured destruction. You launch at me, and I will launch at you. And with thousands of warheads aimed at major cities, we would essentially annihilate each other, thus keeping each other in check. That worked well when there existed two nuclear powers, the US and Russia. However, today, there are at least nine nuclear states, with varying degrees of hostility, some of which possess delivery systems that would make it very difficult to determine who is responsible for a launch, with submarines being the most challenging to detect. It’s an interesting film and a topic that has largely become less of a concern as the public has lapsed into a sort of nuclear complacency since the end of the Cold War. But the Atlantic being the Atlantic, where exactly did you think this interview was going to go? Two Hollywood filmmakers and an Atlantic reporter couldn’t resist taking a hard left turn into the land of Trump derangement syndrome. They praised Clinton, Yeltsin, Gorbachev, and even Reagan for an era of nuclear detente and reductions in nuclear arsenals, achieved through SALT provisions. So now we have 1500 warheads each…..if you can believe the Russians….so we are only able to obliterate each other ten times over rather than a hundred. Well done. But they criticized Trump for his combative and retaliatory personality traits, suggesting that he couldn’t be trusted to make such decisions regarding potential nuclear armageddon. They even suggested that Trump was increasing our nuclear arsenal in the NATO states, potentially antagonizing our enemies. But hold on a second. The Atlantic is criticizing and questioning the competence of a president who has effectively stopped eight wars and is working on his ninth in less than a year in office. Further, he is a president who projected US air power into the Middle East to prevent Iran from becoming another nuclear state, and a highly unstable one at that. The world has changed significantly since the fall of the Berlin Wall. With nine nuclear powers jostling for position on the world stage we have one of the major players, Russia, not only on the move militarily seeking to expand its territory but also outright threatening to employ tactical nukes in Ukraine while antagonizing NATO countries in the west with aerial incursions, China is expanding its military presence and threatening Taiwan and its neighbors and seeking to control shipping lanes in the South Pacific, a rogue North Korea is continually advancing its ballistic missile program and provocatively lobbing missiles into the Sea of Japan while threatening to be able to reach the continental US, nuclear armed India and Pakistan are continually engaged in border skirmishes, hostile Arab states surround Israel, and the UK and France sit on the sidelines amidst social and political upheaval at home. It’s a more volatile world. But who would you rather have in possession of the nuclear football?  Never did they mention that in the previous four years, the world relied on Biden in rapid mental and physical decline to determine our fate in the event of a nuclear standoff. Perhaps the auto pen would step in and save us all. And does anyone have any confidence that the vacuous Kamala Harris has the mental acuity to deal with decisions at this existential level?  Please. The woman recently claimed that “some people” think she was the most qualified candidate ever to run for president. She’s absolutely delusional. And who else do we have to draw on from the left to make these decisions? Such Democratic luminaries as Newsome, Jeffries, Crockett, Schumer, Schiff, and AOC?  Please. None of these people are serious. Trump has proven himself to be an adept negotiator, establishing personal relationships with contentious foreign leaders, especially those in possession of nuclear hardware. In a dangerous world, he has proven himself to be a man of peace, but not one to appease our adversaries. I’m talking to you, Obama. So, the Atlantic remains true to form, choosing to remain a bastion of anti-Trump activism at the expense of non-partisan journalism, and in this case, sacrificing what could have been a review bringing attention to a thought-provoking movie, instead using it as a vehicle for another round of Trump bashing.

The People's House

I’ve about had enough of these liberal idiots screaming about Trump tearing down the useless East Wing of the White House to construct the big beautiful ballroom. Somehow, they are suddenly concerned about tearing down history when, in fact, the White House has been modified, added to, and gutted numerous times by previous presidents. Get a grip already. FACT: The East Wing has been a largely unused set of offices for the First Lady, correspondence staff, the social secretary, a calligraphy and graphics office, and a theater. It sits on top of a bunker that is to remain intact. FACT: The White House does not have a satisfactory function room to host large gatherings, which is why tents are often erected to provide the space for formal affairs. In case you hadn’t noticed, Washington is built on a swamp and tends to get hot and sticky in the summer months, making tents impractical and, frankly, not befitting formal gatherings for heads of state.  FACT: Trump is using his own money and donations for the project with no expenses passed on to the taxpayers. FACT: The argument that it is the “people’s house” is beyond preposterous. If it’s your house, try stopping by unannounced and see how that goes. The last time some folks entered another one of the people’s houses, that being the Capitol building, they were hunted down and jailed. Ashli Babbitt, a military veteran who was unarmed, was shot dead by Capitol police for climbing through a window. Apparently, they’re not your houses at all; you just pay for them. FACT: Nobody on the left seemed to care when historic monuments, including statues of Columbus, Jefferson Davis, Thomas Jefferson, assorted Confederate Generals, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Howitzer Memorial, to name a few, were torn down or defaced in the left’s last display of woke insanity during the “mostly peaceful” summer of love. Not a word. Suddenly, the East Wing of the White House is now a priceless historic artifact whose destruction to make way for something suitably functional causes outrage on the left. Al Green keeps telling us that it’s a disgusting example of the enslavement of human beings. I suppose when they have nothing else to rally around, we get this nonsense. I’m running out of recommendations. Grow up? Get a life? Suck it up? Get a grip. Go ahead, choose one.