Hypocrites

O, you French are so universal. And the Olympic committee issued a statement condoning  the transgender re-enactment of the Last Supper at the opening of the Olympics as being an example of their “diversity.”  Alrighty then. As a further example of your diversity, I would like to see a transgender Mohammed representing Islam. See how that kind of diversity is received in Paris. 

l Pause

I have to not listen to the news for a while and collect my thoughts; this chain of events isn’t good for my health. How Kamala Harris is suddenly viewed as the Messiah in her candidacy for POTUS baffles me to no end when her record, including her last three years of bungling her assignments and giggling through her word salad filled appearances as VP, speaks for itself. She is the definition of an empty pantsuit. I’m sure most of that money suddenly contributed to her campaign is from big corporate donors releasing those earmarked funds they withheld from Biden, never less in itself is astounding! And they’ve already rolled out the discrimination card claiming she is being criticized because she is a woman of color. Harris has  proven she can be bought, so this is just more of the same.  Meanwhile, the mean-spirited attacks on Vance, a man of substance, coming from partisan lightweights like Beshear are beyond the pale when his accomplishments are compared to Kamala’s record. And the polls suggesting it’s an even tighter race with Kamala at the top of the ticket?  DEI insanity prevailing. I need time to collect my thoughts and give myself pause to recover from this avalanche of political insanity. It would help if you too, were weighing carefully what is happening to us, our America. We are slipping over the edge of obscurity as a nation, as a culture!   

Harris For President

There is a non-stop deluge of articles today proclaiming Kamala Harris as being both Trump’s worst nightmare and a superior candidate for the Democrats. Huh? It always amazes me when politicians seem to have no long-term memory. She promiscuously earned her way into office in California, paid back those appointments as AG with partisan decisions favoring political allies, totally embarrassed herself as a presidential candidate, dropped out before the primaries, was selected for VP based on race and gender, then further embarrassed herself with failures at the border, in Europe and virtually every time she speaks, and now has ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket not through excellence but happenstance. What insiped credentials for President of the United States?

Woke Across The Pond

This Argentinian racist chant nonsense is getting to be another ridiculous example of Woke outrage.  I am amused by the Argentina VP response that basically says we are not going to get hectored by a colonizing country (England started all this when Enzo Fernandez of Chelsea FC posted the video and was reprimanded) about a chant pointing out a fact (well most of it, I’m not sure about Mbappe’s sexual proclivities ) and she fired the minister of sport for suggesting that Messi should apologize. What makes international football so appealing is that it pits nations against each other, contrasting their styles of play and reflecting on their national identities. Globalism is eroding that part of the game, making it less interesting to watch a team of Dutch African immigrants (or children of immigrants) playing against a team of French African immigrants. And in the case of the French, their team is overwhelmingly of African descent, making them a glaringly obvious example of how immigration has changed the racial makeup of many European country’s sports programs. Recall in the last World Cup, when photos of the French and Moroccan teams were placed side by side, it was pointed out that the French team ironically looked, based on skin color alone, decidedly more African than the team from Africa. You must bear in mind the European education system, which steers young people into career paths at a very early age, where it is more likely that underprivileged immigrant people of color will choose a career in sports despite overwhelming odds against success. Most will likely end up in unskilled labor and the service industry. And Football in Europe is a game of the common man, a game of the streets where most players learned their craft before their potential caught the eye of the sports development program’s scouts. And when did Americans get so incensed over trash-talking?  We practically invented it. The jawing that goes on in American sports is of epic proportions, most of it highly vulgar and often tinged with racism—anything to get into your opponent’s head. Recall the Dutch fans of old, some of the world’s most creative fans, who hurled cleaning supplies onto the pitch when they played against the Turks, a reference to most immigrant Turks in the country working as domestics. Or when playing Germany, bicycle parts were thrown with signs asking, “Where’s my bicycle” a reference to the Nazi occupation when the Germans commandeered bicycles. Racist? Perhaps. But amusing in the context of national identities.  The English are widely known for their creative chants, most of which shouldn’t be repeated in polite company, but you have to draw the line at the monkey noises and bananas thrown at African players. Still, that’s perhaps a less disgusting display than chants of “Gringos go home” and bags of urine thrown at American players on their forays south of the border. So we have established that international football, futbal, calcio, or soccer is a rough game played by ruffians, not likely the upper crust of society nor the overcompensating white suburban college-educated class that finds these events so untoward. And victory is a great source of national pride, especially for countries like Argentina in such political upheaval and social turmoil. And so what? The chant made fun of France fielding a team mostly of recent African origin, a contrast to the stereotypical and historical perception of France being populated by a bunch of beret-wearing, baguette-eating, wine-swilling surrender monkeys. Sorry, too soon? And they used a slang expression suggesting that their star Mbappe has sex with transgender partners. I thought that was now a source of pride.  But trans-phobic?  Get over it. Maybe if their star, Killian Mbappe, had a more French-sounding name like Jean-Paul Sartre, critics would be more accepting. But then, it would truly be an existential crisis. 

Same Ole Bernie

Bernie interviewed on NPR this morning with his usual litany of bumper sticker slogans:  the rich have to pay their fair share, women should be able to choose what they do with their bodies, climate change, expand social security and Medicare for all yadayadayada. His new spin: Biden was never a great speaker, prone to gaffes his entire career. However, we shouldn’t choose presidents based on their oratorical skills but on their accomplishments. So, remind me again why we chose Obama, for that matter, Biden for his 50 years of public service nonperformance.

Truth Be Known

Why is there such vitriol spewed at Trump and such a concerted effort to take him down by leftist partisans?  Why has the left given birth to the “never-Trumpers,” a phenomenon never before seen in politics?  Can you imagine ranks of never-Obama or never-Biden voters receiving such idolization by the media? Why is he such a threat to the left?  It's simple math, really. Bear with me for some statistics: The government employee ranks have swelled to 19 million. Studies show that not only do they make more money than equivalent jobs in the private sector, but they also receive better benefits and retire earlier, and only 4% of them work in an office setting. And they’re rarely fired. Yes, that’s correct. 96% of government employees continue to work from home. How productive. In some states, such as Rhode Island, the largest employer in the state……is the state, which is why Elon Musk suggested firing 94% of government employees, thus adding to the ire he receives from the left. In your average election, 66% voter turnout is the norm. 37% of the population is eligible to vote. In a country of 330 million people, that translates to 80 million voters casting a ballot. Therefore, 19 million government workers, if they all voted, would account for 24 percent of the vote. And which party do you think they overwhelmingly support?  Hidden in the Trump agenda and likely to be visited in a second term was a policy that would allow all government jobs to be assessed and hiring/firing practices to fall under the purview of the President. In other words, deep state positions, regardless of the agency or who appointed them, are subject to review by the President. And before you howl, please note that it was originally designed this way changed in the late 1800s. How can you have government employees with guaranteed positions who do not answer to the current administration?  Can you imagine business operating in this fashion? Look how well the system has worked for the teacher’s union, where a complete disconnect exists between salary, benefits, and job performance. Trump is a threat to the status quo, a businessman who wants to run government efficiently and productively like a business. And that’s a threat to the entrenched bureaucracy. The same bureaucracy that produced career politicians like Pelosi, Biden, Feinstein, (Harry) Reid, and Obama who all made their fortunes in politics on a government salary. 

What Did We Expect

Is anyone actually surprised by this?  After months of heated rhetoric coming from the left, their weaponized Department of Justice implemented lawfare designed to brand Trump a felon and cripple his candidacy, repeatedly accusing him of being not only a threat to democracy but an “existential” threat, an “insurrectionist” and lest we forget, two impeachments to his credit and the whole “Russia collusion” hoax, we reach the culmination of the propaganda campaign with an attempt on his life. Frothy editorializing from media lightweights like Rachel Maddow, Morning Joe, Joy Reid, and the entire cast of The View have been whipping the left into a frenzy.  And with their candidate cognitively on the ropes, we get this. Congratulations. It’s so often that Republicans are painted with the broad brush as being violent, white supremacist, bible-thumping, gun-toting extremists that we tend to forget that assassination attempts in the modern age on Steve Scalise (and indeed all his republican teammates), Ronald Reagan, Brett Kavanaugh and now Donald Trump were all perpetrated by progressive extremists. Hmmm. And indeed, the vast majority of the school shootings have all been brought to you courtesy of the children of the left. So, let’s just put a stop to that spin now. If you really want “sensible gun laws,” then banning Democrats from buying guns appears to be the best policy moving forward. And how do I know the Trump shooter was a Democrat?  Because he missed. And another thing: let’s stop calling this a “shooting at a Trump rally.” This was an assassination attempt. Call it what it is. News reports that Biden, Harris, and Mayorkas had been briefed” shouldn’t convince anyone that the electoral process is safer this morning. One of the mainstream media’s talking heads in the field actually asked a witness if they thought it was an assassination attempt. Seriously. No, I think the shooter was hunting wabbits. Duh. But let the spin begin. Already, the shooter has been identified as a 20-year-old “former registered Republican” using an “AR-type rifle.”  How convenient a deflection. Why would a Republican attempt to assassinate his party’s overwhelmingly popular candidate?  We will likely never know after the Secret Service “neutralized” the threat. And despite a commendable job of whisking the wounded former President off stage, I have questions. We’ve all seen enough sniper movies to know that these event venues should be thoroughly vetted for potential vantage points for a shooter. How exactly did this guy access a rooftop only 450 feet away from the stage, especially after spectators reported seeing a man with a gun? And why didn’t the counter-sniper team engage him before he was able to squeeze off at least three to five shots? It’s not like he popped up and began firing randomly. Even at that relatively short distance, a shot still requires target acquisition. Somebody dropped the ball. But we may never know.  After all, the FBI is “leading the investigation.”  Yeah, those guys. What we do know is that Trump was incredibly lucky to have survived, the incident producing perhaps one of the most iconic images of our time, a bloodied, defiant Trump raising a fist with the American flag behind him. Although future attendance at his trademark rallies may be negatively impacted, once again, an attempt to bring him down may have the opposite effect of increasing his popularity.

Happy Birthday

A sobering thought on this 4th of July: We owe much to our European founders who envisioned the productivity of a nation unencumbered by restraints to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, here we are nearly 250 later, questioning that wisdom, degrading them and their vision in light of that envisioned nation’s accomplishments, productivity, prosperity, and benevolence. A nation of immigrants of all religious, ethnic, and racial persuasions, once united in our differences, is now torn asunder by them.

An Alarming Thought

If Biden gets in again, they’re going to pack  SCOTUS. It’s interesting to note that the three liberal justices NEVER fail to vote en bloc on partisan issues, whereas the conservatives often do not. When have you ever heard Kagan, Sotomayor, Brown, or any liberal justice criticized for their decisions?  NEVER. But the conservatives are brutalized by the press frequently. And now, with selection based on affiliation with a special interest group, they are immune from criticism because she’s Hispanic, or she’s black, or she’s gay, thus making the criticism based on discrimination not merit. When the Supremes get politicized…..it’s all over for this Republic as we know it!

The WSJ Disappoints

The WSJ has a profound case of multiple personality disorder. After associate editor John Bussey was seen on FOX criticizing Trump’s debate performance for continuing to repeat false narratives, the weekend print edition echoed his comments with a headline proclaiming, “Falsehoods Mark Trump’s Debate Night.” The article, a fact-check piece right out of the democrat playbook, went through five major issues and slammed Trump for “false or misleading statements.”  Really, misleading statements from a politician? The horror. For example, when Trump said “every legal scholar” wanted Roe v Wade overturned, nobody thought he meant EVERY legal scholar. However, a significant number of constitutional scholars did, and to suggest otherwise is nitpicking. Further, no one argues that some miscreants were involved in the January 6 debacle. Still, to suggest that everyone who took a stroll through the capitol that day had “overrun” police looks preposterous when watching video of the event; a good percentage of the “mob” appeared to be elderly tourists.  No guns, no weapons, and the only “death,” an unarmed female protester. Hmm. A rather anemic insurrection in a nation purportedly overcome with gun violence.  Regarding immigration, the repose to Trump's assertion that migrants are dependent on public benefits was to state that “in the long term,” immigrants tend to pay taxes without tapping public benefits. Splitting hairs again. How about in the short term?  And how much and how long does the public have to subsidize them before they are self supporting? The article’s claims are even more ethereal than Trump’s statements. Specifics, please. And references as well. Trump may have exaggerated by pointing to Social Security as a source of assistance. Still, the fact remains that illegal immigration is a financial burden to the American taxpayer, regardless of where the funds come from. On the economy, Trump asserted that Biden has “the largest deficit in the history of our country.”  The Wall Street countered that Trump ran up a deficit of 14.7% of GDP, but “mostly as a result of emergency pandemic relief.”  What’s Biden’s excuse for unchecked spending?  Although Biden and the moderators didn’t dispute Trump's assertion that inflation was under control on his watch, the Journal nitpicks and states that inflation was “starting to pick up toward the end of (his) presidency.”  Maybe so, but we will never know if it would have continued to increase or if Trump could have brought it under control had he remained in office. Speculation at best, but it does not qualify as falsehood. What we do know is that prices ballooned under the Biden Administration’s policies after the pandemic crisis had waned. Lastly, they attacked Trump on his claim that Putin “never would have invaded Ukraine” under his watch. Maybe. Maybe not. But hardly a “falsehood.”  Stating that Putin’s invasion was “long in the works” is hardly evidence that a Trump administration wouldn’t have been a deterrent. They also criticize Trump for claiming that European nations were spending less on Ukraine than the US, stating that the EU spent $110 billion, and after adding in non-EU member states, the total came to $190 billion, more than the US contribution of $175 billion. But to hurl the falsehood cudgel at this is again splitting hairs. Technically, the US did indeed outspend the EU $175B to $110B to fund a war that is not even on our doorstep. So, Trump technically is correct in his assertion to the tune of $65 billion. And nowhere in this article is there any criticism of Biden's policies, only negative assertions to bolster the left’s incessant claims that Trump is a liar, a narrative featured in Jill Biden’s extraordinarily abrasive and embarrassing stand-in speech for her cadaveric husband post-debate. And in the most head-turning example of publication schizophrenia, only six pages later appeared an editorial by Peggy Noonan, a Reagan conservative who has taken to the Journal’s pages with nothing short of a constant stream of abuse directed at Trump, praising his debate performance as measured and composed while lambasting Biden as having done irreparable harm to his reelection efforts in the worst debate performance in history.  Wow. Who are you?  Now granted, the Trump Falsehood article was written by a gang of six and reflected the associate editor Bussey’s opinion either by direction or happenstance, but Ms. Noonan, having been so critical and personally repulsed by Mr. Trump, was a real shocker, female, and college-educated to boot. The Wall Street Journal, long a standard bearer for conservatives, appears to be struggling in this presidential election cycle. They’re giving me whiplash.