Re-elect President Trump

Pomposity alert: In this post, I give my reasons for having voted for President Trump, and will urge others to do the same. You have permission to stop reading right now, and say, "Who cares what some retired Foreign Service weenie has to say?" Go ahead, say it. I even will refund every cent you have spent on this blog . . .

As noted many times, I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, although I did not initially see him as my preferred GOP candidate. The more, however, I listened to him, and not to what others said about him or said that he had said, the more I realized that this New Yorker seemed exactly what the doctor had ordered for what ailed America and the West. I soon found that he was not a buffoon, not a racist, not a xenophobe, and certainly not into gaining the presidency to get money and fame. It, of course, helped my decision to vote for Trump that he ran against somebody, Hillary Clinton, of whom I had some direct knowledge thanks to my old job at State. While at Foggy Bottom, I came to realize that she was a total, let us say a compleat fraud and crook. Hillary Clinton ranked among the most insincere persons I ever encountered: a disgusting self-absorbed character out to make herself and her corrupt family rich and powerful at the public expense. 

Donald Trump, on the other hand seemed, as noted, to have no personal material incentive to become President--he already had plenty of wealth and fame. More important, his message of "America First," hit me as one I had argued for, ineffectively I might add, during my many years at State; the bureaucracy seemed more interested in having good relations with foreigners by giving them what they want, i.e., providing "deliverables." Above all the bureaucracy opposed change. I, for example, saw the State bureaucracy's resistance to Ronald Reagan's drive to bring down the USSR. So when Donald Trump spoke of the "Deep State Swamp," I knew exactly what he meant. It is a real thing which threatens democracy and the pursuit of American interests.

On domestic issues, I felt a frustration bordering on anger with the facile manner in which our political-bureaucratic-Wall Street class (Democrats and Republicans) casually shipped away America's manufacturing base, lecturing us all the while on "free trade," and how we all gain by buying products from China and Mexico instead of making them here. It never made sense to me; I kept saying, "In that case why don't we buy our military systems from China, too?" These same elites told us we would benefit from millions of poor, uneducated, and often violent Third World aliens pouring into our country because they not only brought new ways of doing things, but, above all, they brought "diversity" to our society, something hailed as good in and of itself--no further explanation needed. We were told that "Islam is a religion of peace," while jihadis rampaged through the streets of the world murdering and destroying. 

This same elite's obsession, fake of course, with "Climate Change" also always seemed to translate into suffering for America's middle class and blue collar workers--big promoters of this Man Made Climate Change nonsense such as Gore and Obama have become quite wealthy and have lavish homes on the coasts, the very coasts the rest of us must avoid because of "rising sea levels." In the atrocious Paris Climate Accord, we agreed to destroy our coal industry while allowing those of China and India to prosper. Made no sense to me why Chinese coal would prove better for Gaia than American coal. The efforts to stop the building of oil pipelines and refineries, destroy fracking and our energy independence, and to impose ever higher "gas guzzler" taxes and automobile MPG requirements, all meant more suffering for the middle class and those aspiring to enter it, and put our national security at risk.

There are endless examples of this sort of elite diktat, one more being of course the hypocritical stance on gun "control": the uber-rich have guards and walls, the rest have 9-1-1, you know, "When seconds count, help is minutes away."

Trump spoke openly about all this. The reaction from the elites proved fierce. We have discussed all that at some length in numerous prior posts, and won't repeat it here.

So I have stuck with Trump for 2020. Simply put, he is the most honest and effective major American political figure I have found in my lifetime. He, above all, seems genuinely to love this country and its people: that, of course, should serve as a basic requirement for anybody aspiring to high office, but, alas, it is not--and, yes, indeed, I do question the patriotism of people such as Obama, Biden, Kerry, Omar, Harris, Sanders, etc. 

President Trump does what he says he will do. 

Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden, Romney, et al, accepted, and profited from, the disappearance of American manufacturing. Obama, famously told us, no "magic wand" will bring back those jobs; McCain agreed, saying those jobs had gone forever. Trump did not agree, and acted to prove it. We have seen the rebirth of American manufacturing thanks to the actions undertaken by Trump in taking on the destructive "trade deals" of the past 30 or so years, his reform of our tax code, cutting crippling regulations, and in his insistence that America achieve energy independence, which has happened. That alone should earn Trump the vote of every American worker. 

Trump questioned, as noted in prior postings (here, for example), the assumptions that undergird American foreign policy since WWII. While at the same time confronting China, avoiding nuclear conflict with North Korea, destroying ISIS, and boxing in Iran, he has begun the process of disentangling us from pointless wars, and from seeking overly complex and unattainable solutions to long-standing problems. He has shown an ability to cut through the nonsense and focus on the real, e.g. in the Middle East. He has rebuilt the US military, suffering from severe neglect over the previous eight years.

Trump's opponent? Former VP Joe Biden, a semi-gaga crook of the old corruptocrat school, has been a fabulist, a fraud, and a hoaxer his whole political life; he now serves as the Trojan horse for a gaggle of leftists out to destroy America--AND YES, in fact, I do question his patriotism and that of his enablers. Biden and his family have become wealthy laundering money from China, Russia, Ukraine, etc. Biden is hopelessly compromised; his backers know it, and that includes the corrupt mass media running interference for him. They, of course, have no intention of letting him be the real President, as we have discussed many times before. 

Trump 2020.

2020: The Most important Election in US History?

Just for fun, let's see how many US history nerds reside out there among the five or six readers of this little blog. Aussies are welcome to chime in.

We hear from both sides in the current electoral campaign that the election next week will prove the most important in US history. Do we all agree? Any dissidents out there who want to risk getting shut down by the media moguls?

Allow me to lay out some thoughts on the topic. 

We do have a stark choice unlike any I have seen in my life (born in 1952). Yes, the elections of 1972 and 1980 also had some sharp distinctions between the two major candidates and between the party platforms, but nothing like what we see today. Agree or no? 

I see, therefore, the 2020 election as the most important in my lifetime, barely ahead of the 2016 election when we managed to avoid electing one of the most corrupt politicians around. That Hillary corruption, however, pales next to what we see coming out about the Biden Crime family. We have a doddering only semi-lucid presidential candidate in the pocket of the Chinese Communist party, AND beholden to a number of other foreign corruptocrats, as well. Really quite extraordinary. The only thing one can say in his "favor" is that if he wins, he won't hold office long. Little time will pass before either nature or the radical leftists who surround him, and want to turn America into a giant version of Venezuela, force him out. So, therefore, this election is DEFINITELY an important one.

Looking back over US history one can find other elections which were major inflection points.  

You might argue that the Andrew Jackson elections of 1828 and 1832 would qualify. If so, argue that! 

Certainly the elections of 1940 and 1944 proved historically very important. How would WWII have turned out if FDR were ousted? 

For my money, the two most important elections in our history, at least up to now, were those of 1860 and 1864--not sure which would be number one. The first, of course, saw the election of Lincoln to the White House and served to spark the Civil War. The second saw Lincoln re-elected in the midst of that war at a time when war fatigue was serious; the public had begun to doubt that the war was worth it or that the Union would prevail. His opponent, of course, wanted to reach a deal with the CSA, and end the war by splitting the USA into two countries. Arguably only word of major victories by Grant and Sherman in that year saved the Lincoln presidency by making victory look attainable, and saving the Union.

Let fly! Show no mercy!

At a Pence Rally & the Horrific Corruption of Joe Biden

Rally

The Diplowife convinced me to do it, to go to a political rally. I have been to dozens of political rallies while overseas, in places such as Spain, Guyana, Pakistan, India, Guatemala, Bolivia, Panama, Sri Lanka, Indonesia. I had never been to one in the USA. The Diplowife read that VP Pence was coming to little ol' Wilmington, and insisted that we register for it and go. So yesterday afternoon, we climbed into the ever-faithful Jeep Wrangler, put on our long-hidden red "Trump 2020" baseball caps, and headed for the rally's venue at Wilmington's small but very pretty airport. We were joined by a couple thousand very enthusiastic and good-natured Trumpers; quite ethnically diverse, by the way, giving the lie to much of the Dem narrative that Trumpers are white racist "chumps." Security was tight. Lots of very large police, sheriff's deputies, and uniformed Secret Service. I noticed sniper teams located on top of trailers. There was good rapport between the cops and the crowd, many of whom wore "Back the Blue" pins. 

We arrived early and got seats close to the front; then we waited nearly three hours for the VP.  During those hours, we were "entertained" by extremely loud music blaring from giant speakers just a few feet away from where we sat. I don't like loud music, never have, and thought the selection kinda strange: patriotic country themed songs (good), some Chuck Berry (always welcome), and then some weirdness from Elton John and other odd-balls--I wonder if the people picking the music actually listened to the words of some of the songs. Oh well. Just an old guy complaining. As the VP's arrival grew imminent, we were led by a retired Navy Captain in the "Pledge of Allegiance"--the version with God included--and then a young lady sang a touching a cappella rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner"--gets me every time. We also heard from our local Congressman, an impressive fellow by the name of David Rouzer, and Senator Thom Tillis, who is in a tough re-election campaign against the ethically-challenged Cal Cunningham.

The arrival of Air Force 2 was greeted by a thunderous reception from the crowd, which had grown in size and noisiness. Look, I had never paid much attention to Pence, BUT, since his debate performance against the execrable Kamala Harris, I had begun to focus more on him. Although this was his third rally of the day, he ran, yes, ran, from the plane and jumped up on the stage. The guy's obviously in good shape. He is, in fact, also a very good speaker. He had a sense of humor, knew how to tailor his remarks to the local audience, and gave a very solid and uplifting defense of the Trump/Pence four years. He savaged the radical Dems, and got the crowd to its feet, and wildly cheering on several occasions. Cynical, old guy me was impressed. Pence would make a very good President. He spoke for about an hour and then dashed back to his waiting plane. The audience was pleased. More important, the Diplowife, too, was pleased; as we left the rally, she kept muttering "Trump has got to win."

We retrieved our Jeep from the muddy field where we had parked, and slowly inched our way out to the streets of Wilmington, and home to our waiting and by now quite hungry dogs. A successful venture into American politics. 

Joe's Corruption

We got home just in time to flip on the Tucker Carlson interview of Tony Bobulinski, the Biden family's old business partner. 

You have to watch it. See it before the media-industrial complex has the interview taken down. 

It is clear from the interview that Joe Biden, while Vice President of the United States, was DIRECTLY involved in the shady deals being made by his drug-addled, pedo son, Hunter. 

Mr. Bobulinski, a former Naval officer, called out the media and the Dems, especially the horrid little liar Adam Schiff, for trying to dismiss the scandal of Biden's corruption as just another "Russian disinformation" plot. He's got the goods on the Bidens: documents galore, and even a tape of Biden's representative trying to talk Bobulinski out of going public, "You're going to bury all of us." 

Bobulinski, for example, gave the exact date and place, Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, where he met Joe Biden for the first time to discuss how the business with the Chinese would proceed. He made clear that Joe Biden was "the Big Guy" and the "Chairman" mentioned in some of Hunter's emails and texts. He challenged the Bidens to deny the meeting took place and to state openly that it's all a hoax. I was just saddened and appalled that we had such corruption at the top-most levels of our government. 

Watch the interview. Watch how the mainstream media is still trying to dismiss the growing pile of verified and easily verifiable evidence of Biden's massive corruption.

Trump's Foreign Policy

It seems we have two big topics that nobody cares about in this election cycle: deficit spending and foreign policy. 

In the past, those two topics would have featured highly in any electoral debate. 

Not now. 

On the debt/deficit topic since nobody knows what to do, everybody ignores it, and just keeps spending--and I mean both Dems and Reps. Measures to deal with the budget deficit and the national debt have zero, and I do mean ZERO, political support. I don't even see much rhetorical support for restraining spending--an occasional bleat from the Pauls, father and son, but that's about it. The recent way over-the-top and destructive reaction to the ChiCom "pandemic," of course, has brought that out quite clearly. Both sides compete to produce the biggest possible "stimulus" package so that the government can "stimulate" the economy which it needlessly shut down in the first place. The government creates the problem; the government seeks to resolve that problem, and, thus, creates more problems.That's how it happens, here and in every other country. Some day, a future generation will face the day of reckoning. But, not now: so party on! That's the extent of my sage comments on this topic. You want fiscal and economic wisdom, go somewhere else; I am not giving away the solution for free, you know. And I ain't leaving it on my laptop in any repair shop, either . . .

The other topic? 

Trump's foreign policy has succeeded so much that it has dropped off the public radar. I can't remember an election in which foreign policy played such an insignificant role. The successes have proven more than impressive, and, in no particular order, some are: rebuilding and strengthening NATO over the objections of NATO; destroying ISIS; establishing a cooperative relationship with both Brazil and Mexico; checking China; checking Russia; checking Iran; checking North Korea; rebuilding the alliance with Israel and the Arabs; reaffirming our support for Taiwan and Japan; renegotiating the idiotic NAFTA; pulling out of the idiotic Paris Climate Accord; killing the idiotic TPP accord. There are others, too, which I am sure the six readers of this inconsequential blog can list.

I can't recall another administration with this many foreign policy successes in such a short time. Trump's approach to foreign policy runs counter to the advice of the "experts" in the Deep State. He insists on keeping it simple--something which my old colleagues at State refused to do. His policy is based on American strength, economic and military, on common sense, and a keen understanding of American interests. America First is a real thing. Successful foreign policy begins at home, e.g., making clear we are no  longer going to be the intellectual property rights and economic piggy bank for China, or a dumping ground for illegal aliens from Latin America and elsewhere. He has restored the United States as a popular place to invest, and has brought factories, long thought lost, back home. Remarkable.

For the first time since roughly WWII, the United States is not only energy independent but a net exporter of energy. Who among the smart classes would have predicted that--I mean aside from this blog, of course? This energy independence has freed us from worrying about what energy policies might be followed by OPEC, Venezuela, the Arabs, Russia, etc. Energy independence gives us remarkable freedom of action on foreign policy. Energy blackmail is no longer an option for our adversaries.

Trump has avoided the easy interventionist attitude of past administrations, while at the same time he has rebuilt the US military into a genuinely awesome machine with which no sane adversary would want to tangle. Trump has shown that, when necessary, he will pull the trigger: ask the 200 Russian mercenaries in Syria annihilated by the US Marines; ask al Baghdadi; ask Soleimani--I mean, that is, if you can find enough of them to ask. He made clear to Kim il-Sung's chubby grandson that whatever nuclear capabilities North Korea might have, we have a lot more, "my button is bigger and it works." North Korea would be on the losing side of any military exchange with the US; Kim Jung-un seems to understand that. Trump, however, will not get us involved in weird little endless wars over issues marginal to our core interests. 

In the Middle East, Trump's achievements have been exceptional. He not only put an end to the idiotic issue of Israel's capital, he marginalized the hopelessly corrupt and double-dealing Palestinian Authority. No more money for them. He adopted a version of a policy I long advocated when I worked at State--to no avail--of active inaction: take the position that we already have a two-state formula for Palestine called Israel and Jordan. If those two want to create a third state, that's a matter for them. Not us. Meanwhile, of course, put the embassy in Jerusalem, drive home to the Arabs that their enemy is Iran, not Israel or the US, and that we are independent of Arab oil. So up to them to make the next move. And that's what is happening: we see Arab countries end their state of war with Israel, and establish economic and diplomatic relations with Israel--to the chagrin of John Kerry, Iran, Ilhan Omar, and the Palestinian crooks.

China now knows that while Trump holds the White House, the nature of the relationship changes. No wonder the Chinese have invested so heavily in recruiting the Biden family. China faces serious push-back around the world. Even Sweden agrees with Trump, for example, that there should not be Chinese involvement in developing 5G in Sweden, and that Chinese companies should not have access to Sweden's telecom infrastructure. We see Australia, India, and Japan strengthening their cooperation to counter China. There is renewed interest from several quarters in strengthening relations with Taiwan.

The bad state of affairs between the US and Russia is a needless problem. In my view, we could and should have better relations with Moscow. Yes, we all know that Russia can be sneaky and--horrors!--Russia pursues a "Russia First!" policy. We can deal with that. Trump has been partially crippled in dealing with Russia by the insane Russia collusion hoax promoted by his domestic enemies. It is tough to talk to Putin with shouts of "Collusion!" echoing across the American political landscape. Total insanity. Despite that destructive insanity from the Democrats, Trump has managed to check Russia--as noted above--and perhaps in a second term establish a more productive, less confrontational relationship with Moscow.

None of this seems to matter for the elections. Too bad. Trump has made the world a safer place.

The Final Debate: A Lot of Ink Left in the Well . . .

I won't bore you all TOO much with my thoughts on the debate, both what was said and what coulda/shoulda been said. You saw the debate and don't need some inconsequential blogger to tell you about it . . . but of course, I am going to . . . 

OK, who won? 

In ALMOST every part of the debate, Trump dominated. Biden got rattled, confused, and dumped a big ol' word salad on the stage that won't convince anybody to vote for him. 

The moderator, although better than Chris Wallace, still interjected herself into the discussion too much; she repeatedly stepped on President Trump's line of argument, in particular on his asking Biden questions, e.g., about the "laptop" from hell, who actually built the immigrant "cages," etc. In addition, of course, the topics came out of left field--literally--and meant to play to Biden's "strengths," as seen by the progressive media-industrial complex. She asked no questions, for example, on the Supreme Court, on additional states entering the Union, on foreign policy, on veterans, on the Second Amendment, on law-and-order, or on the amazing rebuilding of our military. No. It was the usual tired prog agenda of race, "climate change," and the poor dear illegal undocumented aliens, with some legitimate issues such as health care. 

Despite having the format and questions rigged against him, Trump managed to flip the debate discussion onto Biden's crooked dealings, and his disastrous energy policy and Covid recommendations. Poor ol' befuddled Joe even took a page from Bush, pater, and anxiously looked at his watch: "When will this end? I am running out of gas." Trump skillfully introduced the topic of Biden's sleaze as documented by his drug-addled son's laptop, and poor old Joe had no response, except "Russia! Russia!" Joe didn't even realize that his character and honesty had been savaged in front of millions of viewers, and resorted to his obviously previously scripted closing address on, wait for it, CHARACTER and HONESTY. The old buzzard had just been painted accurately as a monumental crook, and he ends up arguing that this is an election about character and honesty. Yep. Agreed. And Joe is on the losing side of that . . . .

Trump's greatest victory came by forcing the "big guy" both to disavow and reaffirm some of the most radical proposals in "his" agenda. He flipped and he flopped, right there on stage, Trump nailed him on the fracking question--Joe blatantly lied--and got Joe to make the devastating confession that he, in essence, would eliminate the American oil and gas industry. Wonder how that went over in Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, etc.? Trump also showed the Paris Climate Accord to be a pro-Chinese fraud, one which Joe kept vowing to return us to despite its horrid effects on our coal industry. 

Trump also handled the potentially loaded race topic well. He nailed Joe as the incarceration chief who locked up tens-of-thousands of mostly black men for non-violent crimes and called them "predators," which Biden dishonestly denied doing.  Trump laid out a pretty impressive record of his work on behalf of the black community. Biden had nothing except empty words; too bad Trump didn't hit him on Biden's past associations with avowed racists.

To be fair, Joe did OK on healthcare by lying quite effectively about his "Biden Care" plan. He couldn't, however, explain his previous defense of Obama Care, and why it now needs replacing by Biden Care.  Trump did not have great answers on this topic, and needs to sharpen those up. Joe was shown to have no plan on Covid except some blather about locking things up again. He also lied, yet again, about his initial opposition to Trump's shutting down travel from China.

It was Trump's night. 

Impact on the election? I don't know. So many people already have voted that the potential audience of converts is shrinking rapidly. That said, anybody truly undecided, or only weakly for one or the other candidate, might have been swayed to join the Trump Train.

Off to walk the dogs.

Biden: Democrat Party's "Cleanest Dirty Shirt"?

These are not good days for our Constitution and democracy. 

We now know with almost 100% certainty that Joe Biden, while Vice President of the United States, gave foreigners access to him via large payments to his drug-addled son and other members of his family. That access gained these foreigners the changes they apparently sought in US foreign policy. Along with SecState Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden probably ran the greatest pay-for-play scheme in our government's history. This Obama administration corruption took place on an historic scale. 

We know, for example, that Hillary Clinton, the Democrat candidate for President in 2016, cooked up the Trump-Putin collusion story, paid foreign operatives to produce a fake dossier outlining that "collusion," and then, with the support of the DNC-mass media complex, important corrupt Congressmen such as Adam Schiff, key DOJ personnel, the FBI and even a Special Prosecutor got the government to spend years "investigating" the fake story in an attempt to take down a legitimately elected President of the United States. 

We also know that the Clinton Foundation was a "pay for play" scheme, along with Bill Clinton's huge speech fees, which served to launder bribe money for the Clintons in exchange for access and lucrative contracts, e.g. mobile phone service in Haiti. The Clintons are proven masters at laundering bribes--look at the old Whitewater scandal, for example. I, my very own self, recall how we State Department types got dragged into "raising money for Haiti" following a major earthquake. Over at the OAS, we hosted a big meeting with wealthy Haitian-Americans--they do quite well as immigrants--and put the squeeze on them to pledge huge sums of money. None of us ever heard what happened with that and other moneys pledged for Haiti. I remember that State had a number of dueling offices ostensibly in charge of Haitian relief. Total confusion; nobody knew who had control, how much money existed or where it sat. All this ended with an announcement that Hillary's long-time aide and lawyer, Cheryl Mills, would take charge of Haitian relief. What happened next? Silence. Total mystery. 

It seems certain that Obama knew about this corruption by Biden and Clinton, and either kept silent or actively abetted it. Biden also played a role in the Russia collusion scandal by promoting the idea that incoming NSC head General Flynn should face prosecution and persecution for "contacts" with the Russian Ambassador. It, of course, proved a giant fraud, one that to this day continues to ripple through the media with continued references to the thoroughly debunked Trump-Russia collusion tale.

What now has become ever clearer is the massive scale of the corruption by the Biden family. Let us not forget that Biden, a life-long "public servant," has become a multi-millionaire. The info thus far released from the Hunter Biden laptop--which the FBI has had since at least last December--provides a look into how the scheme worked. Joe Biden was the Capo, while his brother and Hunter were the collectors. They took in huge sums from China, Ukraine, Romania, and elsewhere, maybe even from little Costa Rica. In exchange for large sums, they, for example, hooked up corrupt oligarchs with the VP. We know that Joe used his power as the point man on Ukraine to get the cash-strapped Ukrainian government to fire a pesky prosecutor looking into the corrupt Burisma energy company on whose board Hunter served for a huge salary. Joe has bragged openly about how he bullied the Ukrainians into firing the prosecutor. It also seems from preliminary information that members of the John Kerry and the Mitt Romney clans took part in the great cash grab. Silence from the hopelessly corrupt FBI.

Rumors exist, and they might well prove true--I'll bet they are--that the laptop contains highly pornographic pictures and video of drug-freak Hunter Biden in action, including with underage girls, apparently while in China. If true, the Chinese intel services have this stuff, and the PRC has no reservations about using it to blackmail Hunter and Joe. This might help explain Obama's reluctance to push too hard for Biden's nomination, and his warning to Joe about running, "You don't have to do this."

The shameful attempt at a media blackout on the story is failing. With only two weeks left until the election, Biden has disappeared from the campaign trail. He does not plan to reappear until the Thursday debate, where, presumably, President Trump will press him on the scandal--leftist debate moderator not withstanding.

Think about it: Joe Biden was the best candidate the Dems had. To steal a line from Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down," Biden was the Dems' "cleanest dirty shirt." That tells you what kind of closet they had.

Sad times for the Great Republic.

At the Voting Booth & Censorship

I oppose the enormous expansion in early voting that has taken place in recent elections. That stated, however, if you offer it, I will take advantage. In that spirit, the Diplowife and I went yesterday afternoon to vote in Wilmington--the good one in North Carolina, not the home of the Biden bunker in Delaware. We stood in line, socially distant, masks on like good little servants of the state, for about 45 minutes. We had with us a good-natured crowd. I find surprising that local law allows campaigning so close to the polling station: lots of signs, banners, and activists for local, state, and national candidates within close proximity. No problems, however, and we all voted without incident.  

Need I say it? Nah, but I will. I voted straight Republican; any spot where only a Dem candidate stood, I left blank. Republicans have to get their act together at the local level; a surprising number of key jobs had no Republican candidate. 

That evening, visiting Diploson 2, Diplowife, Diplodaughter-in-law, and I watched on two TVs the pathetic and competing "Town Halls" that ran on ABC (Biden) and NBC (Trump). I also live texted with my sister in Texas who flipped channels between the two. Diploson, et al, could not stand either of them; I joined in that sentiment. 

The Biden "town hall," of course, wasn't one at all. ABC held it in what looked like a set from the creepy Twilight Zone "The Obsolete Man" episode: dark, foreboding, dimly-lit, with carefully selected questioners staring down from on high into the pit where sat a fumbling Joe Biden and a fawning "moderator," George Stephanopoulos, a life-long Democrat operative. All save one of the questions were absurd. The only decent challenge came from a young black man who asked Biden about his "you ain't black" comment. Biden gave an incomprehensible answer which left the questioner unsatisfied. At another point, Biden had to pull out a cheat sheet from his pocket so that he could read it and still ramble incoherently about how raising taxes would not really raise taxes but that raising them would create jobs . . . yeah, yeah, yeah . . . for tax collectors, maybe. A totally fake black "Republican" woman asked a convoluted question, which somebody clearly had written for her--she didn't seem to know what she was reading--about pollution and poisoned water in a part of Pennsylvania. Biden gave a weird non-answer about how he's not against fracking but only in accord with the law--as though that's not the case now, eh, Joe? Then he launched into something goofy about giving 120,000 workers in the gas/oil industry "jobs" capping old wells in Pennsylvania . . . yeah, that's a career path. Nonsense. The whole shtick with the mother of a "transgender" eight-year-old went beyond insane: child protective services needed calling.

 Just in case you wondered, NOT ONE QUESTION came re the Hunter Biden emails and the ongoing censorship of that story by Twitter and Facebook. Not one: not from the audience; not from GS. Who could have predicted that?

The NBC "Town Hall" also proved infuriating. A lively and energized Trump sat champing at the bit ready to go; the moderator, a Democrat operative from NBC, however, took it upon herself to debate and interrupt the President repeatedly. She hogged so much air time that only a few questions came from the audience. She went on about Trump taxes, "white supremacy," mask wearing, peaceful transfer of power . . . the usual BS we have come to expect from the Rad Dems. God forbid, of course, she never mentioned the Biden corruption story, a story her network has almost entirely ignored. At least the well-lit Miami setting looked far superior to the drab Biden meet, with an audience present and visible. The sound was horrible. Trump handled it well; I continue to admire his willingness to go into what he knows will prove hostile and rigged settings. The man in the arena . . . to cite Teddy Roosevelt.

I didn't get the point of these events. 

If they could be held, why couldn't the originally scheduled debate between Trump and Biden take place? Nobody seemed to be in mortal danger. The corrupt liberal moderators would have been there, too. 

Can't Hide Your Lyin' Biden Eyes . . .

This humble and inconsequential blog has discussed many times the corruption of the Biden family. Joe and clan have gotten wealthy from Joe's 47 years in "public service." Paterfamilias Joe long has been in the pocket of Delaware's LLC racket, and the many credit card and other financial institutions that characterize that odd little state. 

Joe, let's be blunt, is a crook; an old-style Democrat Party hack, who will say and do anything needed to keep the cash flow coming. He believes in nothing except power and money for the Bidens. Joe is a plagiarist, a well-known fabulist, borderline pedo, possible rapist, and a nasty bully . . . oh . . . and, maybe I forgot to mention, he's a crook . . .  Did I mention he's a crook? 

Before I forget, he, to use the scientific term, proves increasingly gaga, suffering some form of mental incapacity, aka Sundowner's syndrome, which becomes ever more obvious as time passes. I was looking at some video of Joe Biden from 2018, and the visible decline from then is nothing short of stunning. 

OK. Nothing new there, or . . . ? 

It now seems that the NY POST--and its trusty band of Aussie journalists--have gotten hold of thousands of Hunter Biden's emails and photos from a laptop that seem to show Joe clearly helped his ne'er-do-well, drug-addled son Hunter in his lucrative foreign dealings with the corrupt Ukranain Burisma energy company. Most of us already knew that, but confirmation is always good. 

Yes, the mainstream media is trying either to ignore the story, censor it, or label it "debunked." This from the same clowns who spent years pushing the patently fake Russia-collusion hoax to bring down an elected president with an effort based on lies and illegality to carry out their coup. Now, I know some "journalists," those who even bother to mention the story, question the emails. Fine. Do that. Look into the provenance of the material, but discuss it, let the people know what you find; present both sides. Too much to ask? The fact that Twitter and Facebook, and the main news organization have ignored the story, and even have tried to suppress it by blocking Twitter and Facebook accounts, is a scandal of the maximum degree, and, irony alert, lends credence to the story. BTW, if the NYP is to be believed they have more info coming re the Bidens and their dealings with Ukraine and China.

Let's see if in the scheduled "Town Hall" Biden holds tonight any questions are allowed about the old Veep's involvement in supporting Hunter's doings in Ukraine and China. 

If there are, Joe better have an answer other than "C'mon Man!"

The Crazy Lives Loudly Within Them: America's Democrats at Work

In the last few days in our Great Republic we have seen lots of weird doings by the Democrat Party, ostensibly the world's oldest "political party," but, in fact, one of the world's Great Criminal Organizations. Let me highlight just a couple or so of these doings; surely you can list more. I would find it all funny were not our beloved Western Civilization at stake . . . not to mention the future of my equally beloved Corvettes, as well. No way will I make them electric . . .

We have Joe "Bunker" Biden refusing to answer a question of fundamental importance to the shape and fate of American democracy: if the Democrats win next month's elections will they proceed to "pack" the Supreme Court, i.e., increase the number of Justices from the current nine a la FDR's failed attempt to do so back in 1937? Not only do he and his boss, Kamala "Lock up the Black Guys for whatever! Boost my Prosecutor Stats!" Harris, refuse to answer, Joe takes it one step further: he denies voters "deserve to know" his stance on the issue! The utter contempt and disdain shown for voters comes through loud and clear. Joe Biden, servant of the people. Right.

Got it.

We mere peasants have no right to ask His Masked Majesty for His view until He feels good and ready to give it--or better said, until His bosses tell Him he can . . .

This, of course, is a key issue. Yes, yes, the history of the number of Justices on the Supreme Court is not a straight-forward one. The Constitution says nothing, and, therefore, it does not take a Constitutional amendment to change that number; Congress can do it. Up until 1869, the number fluctuated between five and ten, until set at nine, where it has remained, despite FDR. That number has served us well--most of the time--for just over 150 years, as the late and sainted Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her very self, noted. 

Voters have the right to know if a Harris-Biden administration intends to undo the Court structure of the past 150 years, and to analyze openly the consequences. I take away from this too-cute-by-half non-answer--as I do from the non-answer on banning fracking--that, if elected, a Harris-Biden administration, if it holds Congress, will pack the Court, and do other nefarious things, e.g., erase the second amendment, destroy the Electoral College, make DC a state, etc, to ensure one-party rule for decades and decades. They effectively will destroy our imperfect but quite workable system of "republican democracy" in order to guarantee themselves and their cronies power and riches, in saecula saeculorum. Maybe we should call it the Hunter Biden Permanent Wealth Creation Project. 

Perhaps a goal for the GOP should consist of getting an amendment to the Constitution fixing the number at nine? Just an idea.

Speaking of amendments, we have Nancy "I love expensive ice cream" Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, calling for the creation of a Congressional commission to study invoking the 25th amendment. Let me note for this blog's two foreign readers bored of American politics, that this amendment provides the process by which to remove a President from office, either permanently or temporarily, voluntarily or forcibly. Now, of course, Pelosi has made no secret of her disdain for American voters, refusing not only to accept the results of 2016, but to overturn those. She and her minions, for example, supported and pushed the fake Russia Collusion narrative, and, of course, the fake Ukraine "quid pro quo" impeachment. She now raises the specter of declaring the President incompetent to hold office . . .  but, aha, which President? In one of her highly caffeinated press shows, she let slip that this proposed review does not necessarily apply to Trump! 

So, again, I state, aha!

We get another glimpse of the Democrats' master plan, and what they really think of Joe "Where am I?" Biden. Her Majestic Imperial Speaker clearly believes polls that show Harris-Biden winning the election; as a self-appointed leader of the American National-Socialist Revolution, she has decided to dispatch ASAP America's Paul von Hindenburg, and have his number two take office. We all know, of course, how well that worked out for Germany and the world. 

Nancy, you should try decaf; on a Nespresso machine, it's quite good.

Off to visit a grandkid.

Veep! Veep!

Full disclosure before I provide my unsolicited comments on the Veep Debate. 

Of the approximately six or seven regular readers of this inconsequential blog, I'd say that approximately six or seven of those might have detected that, although I did not start out that way during the GOP primaries of some four years ago, I support President Trump. I want to see him re-elected. I, however, haven't written much about VP Pence, except for an old piece on his debate with Senator Kaine: an unfortunate oversight. I should have devoted more attention to him. Without doubt, he feels deep offense, finding it difficult to sleep at night, knowing that The Diplomad has not paid him much mind. I intend to rectify that, hereby launching the Pence for President 2024 campaign; I remain available for a cushy job.

One more thing re my bias: I left the beautiful state of California precisely because its politics got taken over by Kamala Harris and her ilk. It's personal.

OK, all that aside (sorta). Quick reaction. Pence won the debate with Harris; he won it convincingly, hands down, overwhelmingly, decisively, completely, etc. This, although, Harris proved a better debater than Kaine, and did not come off quite as brain-dead dope as Biden. Pence, as did Trump in the Presidential debate, had to deal with a hostile and biased moderator, Susan Page, this time from a second-rate newspaper. Her questions, from the left, meant to catch Pence off-guard and put him on the defense. I found particularly heinous Page's nonsense about "misleading" health information from Trump's doctors, and her question based on standard leftoid-prog foolish assumptions re climate change. She never asked, for example, about Biden's health status, his gaffes, Harris' prior savage criticism of Biden, etc., nor about the amazing developments in the Middle East. She had no interest in hearing why we pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord. She should give me a call; I will tell her.

The debate started as a snooze-fest but picked up. Harris initially put Pence on the defensive re the ChiCom virus but that didn't last long. Pence laid out what the administration had achieved re the ChiCom virus, and pointed out that the Biden "Plan" for dealing with the matter sounded plagiarized, "something Joe is familiar with." The stiletto, it hurts!

Let's jump around. 

On fracking, Harris flat out lied. 

The position repeatedly and openly taken by Biden, Harris, and the Democratic Party calls for a ban on fracking, and even, to get rid of fossil fuels entirely. Harris looked into the camera and denied that a Harris-Biden Administration (and that's what it would be) would ban fracking. Yes, they would. Doing that would kill millions of jobs and make us dependent, again, on foreign oil. Pence did a good job pointing that out. 

He tied her to the crazy job-destroying Green New Deal, citing the New York Times which called Biden's environmental plan the same as the Green New Deal, the very one Harris had co-sponsored in the Senate. Pence did a clever job of divorcing pollution from climate change, pointing out the tremendous progress made by the US in fighting pollution and in conservation. He demolished the claims of the Green New Deal. He also pointed out that the US has reduced its CO2 emissions below those of countries still in the Paris Accord--thanks largely to the revolution in natural gas--that the fires on the West coast occur because of bad forest management in Democrat-controlled states, and that we have the same number of hurricanes now as 100 years ago. Harris had no response, except to state that a Harris-Biden administration would "return with pride" to the Paris Climate Accord. Readers here know my view of that nonsensical anti-American accord, and I won't repeat it. Susan Page, give me a call.

Pence's best moment came when he ignored the moderator and asked Harris point-blank whether her administration would "pack the court." She did her patented giggle, and claimed she was going to answer, and then didn't, turning instead to the argument that the Trump administration had not named any blacks to the appeal courts. Pence wouldn't let her get away and finally answered the question for Harris: yes, a Harris administration would indeed pack the court and increase the number of justices for the first time in 150 years.  Harris tried to go all smart and arrogant with her little tale about how Republican Lincoln held off nominating a Chief Justice in 1864 just before the election, claiming that he said he would wait for the people to vote and decide. Nonsense. He didn't name a replacement for Taney because the Senate was not in session. He had other things on his mind, as well, e.g., waiting for critical war news.

OK, that's enough. 

As of this writing it's not clear we will have a second Presidential debate; the Debate Commission and the media are trying to shield Biden by demanding a virtual debate. We all know what that means: teleprompter to guide the old Biden loon.

Kudos to Pence.

When a bomb explodes in the forest . . . Scandals and Stories ignored

Just a quick Wednesday morning post about a couple or three things that I find quite troubling. 

We see the beginning of a torrent of declassified material (which should never have been classified) showing conclusively that the Putin-Trump collusion hoax was cooked up and paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016. The Director of the CIA at the time, the execrable John Brennan (may there be prison in his future), briefed the President of the United States at the time, the execrable Barack Obama (same wish for him), that the Hillary campaign was doing this to deflect from the growing email scandal that was threatening her bid for the Presidency. The Russians were aware, according to Brennan, that Hillary was doing this. The CIA automatically had referred the info to the FBI. Obama, therefore, knew it was a hoax; he and Biden not only remained silent, but went along with the fake probe into Trump-Putin collusion, and allowed the FBI to use the FISA to smear and destroy the lives of private American citizens and the power of the NSC and NSA to monitor and "unmask" the conversations of private Americans. The head of the FBI, the liar Jim Comey, also went along with all this, and ignored the intel on Hillary and, instead, "investigated" Trump! Obama and Biden knew all this and, it seems, Biden even suggested going after General Flynn with the Logan Act. Adam Schiff, head of the House Intel Committee, had this information and refused to share it with the Republicans. Robert Mueller had this information, too, but went ahead for nearly three years with a fake investigation. 

As anybody with any degree of intelligence knew from the start, it, therefore, was Hillary's campaign that hired foreign intel operatives to  draft the fake Steel Dossier. Yet, we are hearing almost nothing from the mainstream media. This is the greatest political scandal in American history. The mass media is almost completely silent on this.

Another scandal met by the sound of crickets: the rape of Tara Reade by Joe Biden. Only the Australian version of "60 Minutes" has carried the story in any depth. The US media continues to ignore her story.

Another: Burisma, the crooked Ukrainian energy company, has admitted in court paying Hunter Biden a lump sum of $900, 000. It is not clear for what purpose the son of the then-Vice Preisent got paid this money -- I think we can all guess that purpose with 100% accuracy. Any mainstream so-called journalists going to check this out? Anybody going to ask Joe?

Has anybody in the media noticed that peace is breaking out in the Middle East? The Saudis, as this humble blog long ago predicted, have come out and told the Palestinian Authority to take a hike. The Saudis, clearly, support the moves by Bahrain and the UAE to establish full diplomatic and economic relations with Israel. This is a major victory for President Trump and the USA, and further evidence of the growing coalition against Iran. Another story being ignored.

OK, waiting for the Veep debate.

"Plans" and "Bombshells"

An old Ashkenazi joke: "Do you to want to make God laugh? Just tell Him your plans." 

That little witticism keeps running through my mind as I survey our current socio-political plight. 

These past almost four years have proven momentous for our country and the West. We have seen a revolt against the Globalist Elite Deep State, and the corresponding mule-kick reaction from that entity, or to use Biden's absurd formulation re Antifa, that "idea." Britain, of course, produced the revolt of Brexit, this had to overcome fierce opposition, lamentations, and outright lies from that Elite and its minions in the media, most notably the execrable BBC. That Elite, although it lost at the ballot box, did not resign itself to accepting the popular will. Voting, you must understand, only counts when the Elite get the result the Elite want. After the vote, we saw and continue to see an effort in Britain to delay, obstruct, and entangle the Brexit process in a thicket of negotiations, regulations, and my perennial favorite, "international treaty obligations." As of now, it remains unclear whether the people of the UK can defeat their enemies, foreign and domestic, extricate themselves from the EU quicksand, and claim back sovereignty over their great country. We must listen for Heavenly peals of laughter.

A similar revolt has occurred in Brazil, where now a pro-West conservative populist governs to the great chagrin of the Brazilian and the international Global Elite/Deep State. I have dealt with the Brazilian foreign policy Deep State: a formidable bastion of leftist anti-Americanism and cliche-ridden Global Elite thinking. President Bolsonaro, who dares, wait for it, to put Brazil First, has had to endure a barrage of attacks, including from Sleepy Joe Biden threatening Brazil with dire consequences unless President Bolsonaro adopts the Global Elite's absurd "environmental" virtue signalling stance on the Amazon rain forest. In Mexico, an old-time Marxist has become President, and proven surprisingly realistic and more in touch with his own people than with the Elites; he, for one thing, realizes that the constant stream of undocumented people across Mexico is not good for, wait for it, MEXICO! He wants to put, wait for it, Mexico First! He even has established a good working relationship with--HORRORS!--Donald Trump. Say it ain't so, AMLO! Is He laughing?

Because of the America-centric nature and, frankly, American dominance of both legacy and social media, in the USA is where the battle between the established Elite and the people proves most pronounced and visible. As I have detailed at some length in prior postings, too many to list, the Deep State has refused to recognize the results of the 2016 election. Those results didn't match the plan's objectives. Hillary was "destined" to be Barrack 2.0, and to carry on the left's growing control of our institutions and life. Didn't happen. The reaction came in fierce. We now have incontrovertible evidence that, as any sentient being already knew, the Leftoid Elite planned a coup. Trump had to be removed from the scene by any means necessary, including blatant lies, widespread violence, and the unleashing of America's politicized intel agencies against him, a legitimately elected President. 

Thanks to recently released intel, we now know for just about dead certain that Hillary Clinton, with the support of the outgoing Obama misadminstration, cooked up the Russia collusion hoax; the DNC proceeded to pay for the fake Steele dossier, which relied on a Russian spy for the main portion of its "information." Comey's FBI ignored the "bombshell" intel on Clinton collusion with Russia, and instead launched an "investigation" to nail Trump for "colluding" with Russia. This horrid hoax received the full-throated support of the media, the Democrats in Congress, Hollywood, and the Twitter crowd all of whom suddenly were super-patriots defending our country from Russia. Right. Mueller where are you? Adam Schiff?

It was a brutal and stupid hoax, which only brutal and stupid people genuinely could believe; anybody with any sense knew that it made no sense for Putin to favor Trump. It was Hillary Clinton's hubby, for example, who made money from Russia, and Hillary who ceded to Russian interests throughout her term as SecState. Hillary, not Donald, was clearly the preferred candidate of the Russians. Despite the whole Trump-Putin collusion story falling apart, we continue to hear Democrat operatives, aka journalists, still refer to Putin's "support" for Trump. He laughs.

With that failure under their belts, the anti-Trump crowd moved on to Trump-Ukraine collusion! It wasn't the Russians, it was the Ukrainians! This new idiocy got far enough to have the House impeach Trump for a PHONE CALL with the newly elected President of Ukraine. As with the prior Russia hoax, it turns out, of course, that it was Democrats--the Kerry family, the Biden family--making money from the Ukrainians (and the Chinese). Another Heavenly laugh-fest when that Ukraine hoax fell apart.

We now have the ChiCom virus pandemic. A relatively mild disease by pandemic standards has become the weapon of choice to destroy the West's economy and promote the power of the tyrannical Global Elite. All over the world individual rights and freedoms have been trampled; economic activity, especially by the private sector, has ground nearly to a halt in a blizzard of alarming and deceptive "expert models" and "death counts." The power of governmental elites and leftist techno-billionaires has been enhanced tremendously. The plan? To keep us afraid, cowering at home, waiting for the government and politicized "science" to save us. 

This latest plan also includes getting rid of Trump by running the most fake candidate of any major U.S. political party, one impervious to certified "bombshell" revelations of corruption, malfeasance, and incompetence. Biden does not matter. He is just the stalking horse. That's the plan. We'll see . . . 

                                            Waiting to hear the results of the plan . . .

Conman Comey: America's Dirtiest Cop

In my nearly 34 years in the State Department I had many occasions in which I worked with the FBI. Except for one time (here), my experiences proved positive. I particularly enjoyed working with the FBI when I served at the US Mission to the UN in New York. Although many years have passed since then, I still do not feel comfortable discussing the nature of the work; suffice it to say, it was fun, legal, and done in the spirit of serving our country and allies by protecting them from some very bad guys. We worked closely, then, there, and elsewhere, with other US agencies and some genuinely excellent foreign ones. We never discussed domestic politics, including those of our foreign colleagues. I don't think any of us knew or cared how any other of us voted. It was just inconceivable that anybody's political preferences made any difference when working for the West. Good times. They seem so far, far away.

Back in those golden, olden days the FBI was universally recognized as the world's best law enforcement  and counterintelligence service. That is gone, thanks to the politicization of the FBI, aided and abetted by recruiting from our crap leftist universities and the emphasis on "diversity." To top it off, the FBI got saddled with a malicious, narcissist known as Jim Comey.

I have written a lot about Comey, and won't repeat it (you can see some of that here,  here, here). I watched what I could of his testimony before Graham's committee, and was, again, appalled by this man. He is a very polished liar; I am not a psychiatrist and don't play one on the internet, but there is something deeply wrong with this man. He lies with an incredible facility and never looks back. He has the most selective memory I have ever seen. Of critical events he has "no recall," but yet writes books and has a hagiographic HBO mini-series made about him based on his accounts of his doings. He adopts the pose of the moral arbiter, the super patriot, all the while using the great powers of the FBI to destroy innocent people's lives and conduct a coup against our democracy. He is disgusting beyond all bounds. 

Watch the testimony and you'll see what I mean.