Twitter, Trump, Kanye, Fuentes, China, and Britain

I have to admit enjoying my return to Twitter. I particularly appreciate the much more free environment under Elon Musk's rule: Lots more diverse opinions and better jokes. Musk, himself, quite the funny man, would make an excellent stand-up comic in case his billionaire gig goes south.

This leads me to Trump. 

Trump's once almost infallible political sense has begun to fail him. He's made some unforced errors in the past few weeks, for which there is little to no excuse. His announcement of running for President was insipid, but more seriously he should have (in my view) coordinated it with DeSantis, and others, and put on a show of GOP unity. The last thing I want to see, for example, is a Trump v. DeSantis clash wherein they damage each other, and the "victor" ends up losing in 2024 to the DNC fraud machine. This is not 2016. The DNC fraud machine is in fine shape, and as we saw in Pennsylvania, the Dems can run a human rutabaga and win.  

I also don't understand Trump's fascination, flirtation, whatever you want to call it, with Kanye "Ye" West. 

Forget Kanye. 

He is an erratic loon who will say anything to get attention, a bit like Ann Coulter (not fair?) 

Nick Fuentes is another attention-seeking loon, and, unfortunately (full disclosure) a friend of one of my sons, who thinks he's terrific. We disagree on that, strongly. 

Given the hostility of the MSM to him, Trump should avoid Fuentes. 

I find it crazy that Trump gets accused of antisemitism when he has a Jewish son-in-law, Jewish daughter, Jewish grandchildren, and is widely recognized as the best friend Israel ever had in the White House. Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, contained Iran, and brought peace to the Middle East. He has an unmatched track record on being pro-Israel, and of friendship with the Jewish people. He will squander that with silly mistakes.

Events in China seem quite interesting. I assume--perhaps wrongly--that the regime will manage to suppress this latest outburst of dissent, but the seeds might have been planted for future rebellion. It's always very hard to determine what is happening in China, and even whether the lock-downs have anything to do with COVID, or, more likely (in my view), with internal CCP power struggles. Xi's move to become the lifelong emperor of of China has violated the CCP's unwritten rule that no one person would ever assume the same degree of power once held by Mao. Xi, however, is going for total rule, and I would not be surprised to find people within the party resisting that, and helping foment public dissent--particlarly in a time when the Chinese economy faces some stormy weather. We'll see. That is just speculation on my part.

It, however, is certainly time, well past that, for American and other Western countries to get out of China. "Made in China" is another phrase for "Made by Slaves."

On the GOP leadership struggle, I find it imperative that the GOP resolve that quickly. Otherwise, I can see a RINO alliance with the Dems that would keep a Dem Speaker, or one backed by the Dems (Cheney?) Almost anybody within the current candidates for Speaker is better than that result. Get this resolved NOW.

Events in the UK seem emulating our own disaster. The Tories have proved themselves TINOs. Britain is being overwhelmed by illegal aliens, seeing escalating crime rates, and HMG has proven as inept or complicit as our own in the destruction of the nation. I can understand the fury of Nigel Farage, who sees his long effort to get Britain out of the EU, and to restore British sovereignty undermined by the TINOs, the Deep State, and the techno-media elite. Britain is getting sucked right back into the lethal EU embrace. 

It seems some in the UK think their country has had no history as an independent nation, and couldn’t possibly survive without the sage wisdom of the Continent. Sad. Might want to read a book or two.

Creeping up on Thanksgiving: Thoughts on University Students Voting

My two sons, their respective wives and children have descended upon us to pass Thanksgiving week--no turkey as old-time readers of this little blog know. It always has been one of my favorite holidays, and I hope we can have a good one, all the while missing David.  We spent part of the day watching the World Cup, which David once loved but I find, well, boring. The US tied Wales, 1-1. I don't know; I didn't find that very exciting. 

On the subject of soccer/football, and this is addressed to anybody genuinely in the know, why does the UK get more than one team? I know they invented the game, but hasn't the copyright expired? How do we get in on that deal? We missed it at the UN when the USSR got three seats: USSR, Ukraine, Belorussia. Just curious--oh, and how do they decide if a player goes to the Wales team or the England team, for example? Does it involve jousting? Archery? Hurling of insults? DNA? Just wondering. Too lazy to use Google. You tell me.

I see that CBS has gotten around to telling us that the Hunter Biden laptop is genuine. Next week, I understand, they will confirm that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Good journalism is about taking your time, not going headlong for some silly scoop that gets reversed later on . . . 

Still not clear what is happening in Arizona. The count goes on, I guess? Now lawyers have gotten involved. This ain't the way to run a country. One feature which I have not heard anybody address--if they have, pardon--is the role of universities in skewing voting results in certain communities. These large schools, such as in Arizona, fill up with students from all over who register to vote locally. That can seriously affect the outcome in small towns or rural/suburban areas: A huge mass of liberal voters not connected to the local community casting ballots that will affect that community for years to come. This needs addressing.

OK, off to buy a thermometer--there is some potential high temp with one kiddo-- and some lunch for all the other gathered children. 

Back in NC

Flew back from Spain via London on Thursday. Uneventful flight, although I did find security at Heathrow chaotic and seriously understaffed. Currently in Wilmington where my now politically active Diplowife has been invited to a GOP event tonight to meet our local Republican officials. I will go along. Chance to fire up the Vette which has sat in the garage for nearly four weeks--hope the battery is not dead. If it is, well, then it's time for the nearly 200,000 mile 2005 Chevy Trailblazer, aka, the car that will not die. Indestructible.

I am curious to hear our local GOP poobahs' take on the recent midterms and the state of play for 2024. The Republicans did relatively well in North Carolina.

I, for one, refuse to get drawn into the Trump vs DeSantis debate which is being fed by the pro-Democrat media, and by some surprisingly tone deaf comments from President Trump. Now is not the time for a GOP civil war. If we don't address the serious structural issues in our election system--polite way of saying "fraud"--it makes no difference whom the GOP nominates: he/she cannot win.  

Either the GOP tackles the issues of mass mail-in ballots, no voter ids, ballot harvesting, non-citizen voting, and corrupt voting machines, or it just cedes the field to the Democrats. 

As one wise man said, can't remember who, "The Republicans chase after voters; the Democrats chase after votes." An unfortunate but accurate depiction of the state of play, kind of along the lines of the apocryphal statement attributed (False? True?) to Stalin, "It's not who casts the votes that matters; it's who counts the votes."

OK. Got to go pay the gardener and figure out why the house won't heat up. Then, I will resume my battle to save Western civilization.

 

Midterms IV: Looking Back and Ahead

Well, the dang things happened, finally. We had our midterm elections. The world now can go back to mocking American politics.

Both major parties had declared these midterm elections the most important in our history: ones that would determine the very fate of democracy and the survival of our Republic. The GOP, FOX, and assorted conservative pundits announced that the nation would witness and feel a RED TSUNAMI that would sweep away the leftist evil-doers. The DNC, the major networks, and other corporate allies said, "Nah! The Blue Wall will hold back the red fascist tide!"  

So wha' happen'd? 

As usual, neither scenario proved true. My doubts about a red wave proved accurate. No Red tsunami and no impenetrable Blue wall. There was, however, despite all the wailing on the GOP side, and despite blatant Democratic electoral fraud, a considerable red river that poked through, under, and around the blue wall in several spots, and caused significant erosion of the blue fortress. Didn't cave it or wash it away, but, nevertheless, we should not ignore some big wins. 

But first . . . 

Big waves of either color have proven rare in our history. 

We have a very large, complicated, and diverse country; its politics, as a consequence, vary considerably from one region to another. What's important in Arizona, does not necessarily register as an issue in New York, for example. Our wise founding fathers saw this, even in 1789, and created the electoral college, three co-equal branches of government, and a federal system with considerable power left to the individual states and the people; they were willing to live with a certain amount of national political deadlock or, let's say, ambiguity for the sake of restraining the central government's power. It's a good system. It's system of checks-and-balances generally has worked well for us for nearly two and a half centuries.

Today, however, we have serious trouble in America. We see that young people, ages 18-29, can be and are bought and swayed by the ludicrous promises and policies of the increasingly authoritarian Democratic Party--since its founding an odd mix of thugs and so-called intellectuals. This party, the world's oldest, promises, and ensures, no consequences for bizarre and destructive personal behavior. Our cities are a horrific mess. We effectively have no borders. Our educational institutions have become a nightmare under Democratic rule. They produce credentialed, smug, lazy, ahistorical, illiterate and silly brutes with strong self-esteem, an overwhelmingly sense of entitlement, and disconnected from the real economy. These stupid brutes basically add nothing to our material, spiritual, and intellectual wealth. They are ripe for manipulation and exploitation by the lords of the new left, and its billionaire allies in the mass media, high tech, and Pharma industries. They are the lemmings of the woke movement.

Appeals to patriotism, historical practice, and just common sense, make increasingly less headway with this mass of stupid voters. These electors now respond more to emotional appeals, often relying on fake science--e.g., men can become women, men can get pregnant, global climate "crisis," the COVID "crisis"--promoted by cynical social media "influencers" and politicos, among others. They deny the existence of a crime wave--you are racist if you point it out--and any inflation concerns are dealt with by government subsidies, e.g., COVID payments of various types, student debt "forgiveness," etc. They hate children and want to see them tortured or dead. They spout off a distorted version of history, which demands that America and the West atone for sins with reparations and open borders. They hate our country and the Western civilization from which it springs. 

All that, of course, is quite apart from the corruption of the electoral process itself. Stealing elections is a well-honed art by the Democrats. In the last few election cycles, the Dems have become evermore cynical, and less and less worried about keeping what they do out of view.  They have no shame in using the bureaucracy and law enforcement to harass and intimidate the political opposition. They are aided in this by, as mentioned, a compliant and actively complicit media complex and the high lords of high tech. 

I have to laugh/cry when I see conservatives arguing among themselves over we should run Trump or DeSantis in 2024. The Dems are quite happy to see and foster this silly debate. They run a mummy for President, a human vegetable for the Senate, and a DEAD guy for a State assembly seat, and they WIN! Their candidate for governor in Arizona just happens to be the person in charge of ensuring electoral integrity in Arizona. Yet, despite all this, we get labelled election deniers, get censored, thrown off media platforms, and ridiculed as conspiracy theorists if we express doubts about our election system. It simply doesn't matter how good your candidates are if the system is rigged to ensure they lose.

All is not lost, however. In these midterm elections we did see some good people manage to get through. The GOP will, it seems, control, barely, one and perhaps both houses of Congress. The problem is what will the GOP do with it? If we keep politicos such as McConnell and McCarthy in charge, politicos who want to "move on," "forget the past," "work constructively" with the mummy, then nothing will happen and the party and the nation will continue the slide into oblivion.

Battery is getting low on the laptop, and I will blast this off into the ether. 

Forgive any typos or overtly stupid statements. 

More thoughts to come.   

Midterms III

Sitting here in San Sebastián, Spain, just having returned from the dentist. We've been "supervising" the work at our place here. It's coming along, slowly, slowly. Some electrical issues, a small water leak, etc.

Anyhow, I have been glued to the computer and YouTube following developments in the US midterms. I never trust "wave" predictions, and I think a lot my GOP friends have been very busy counting the chickens before they hatch. 

Hope I am wrong, but there is going to be massive, and well-advertised in advance cheating by the Dems in collusion with their lap dog media outlets. I am deeply troubled by the attempts to "normalize" delayed vote counts and late night/early morning "spikes" in Dem votes. This is criminally absurd that we can't run free and fair elections in our country!

I guess we can hope for the best, and, meanwhile, keep buying ammo . . . and diesel, and baby formula, and car parts, and, soon, meat, veggies, milk . . . and on and on.