STRATEGY TRUMPS TRUMP

The outcome of the upcoming presidential election will be determined, at its most fundamental level, by the prevalence and intensity of two forces: Trump Derangement syndrome on the one side and perception/recognition of cognitive decline and incompetence of Biden on the other. Ben Shapiro posits that while many people vote based on policy, the majority do it on personality, and he may be right. Both of the likely candidates at this time (and this may change) are tainted by corruption. To me it’s clear that Biden is far the more sullied in this regard, but presenting the evidence for this assertion goes beyond the scope of this dissertation. Besides, while both sides of the aisle demonstrate a willingness to distort reality in favor of tribal leanings, those still wedded to the idea of Biden as the lesser evil have carried it to such an extreme that many of their arguments resemble parody rather than serious critique.

The flurry of charges against Trump, while largely born of TDS and the radical progressivism infecting the Democrat Party, may also be politically astute if the goal is to try to assure a Trump candidacy; his bump in the polls on the right with each new indictment attests to that. With a weak and failing choice such as Biden, a Democrat strategy of bolstering your opponent’s candidate in the primary who is perceived as the most vulnerable in the general election is just smart politics. The move both energizes the Right to support him in the primary while satisfying the Left that hates him—it’s a no-brainer. But Republicans, by placing emotion over, strategy could be playing a dangerous game.

Trump supporters don’t buy in to the vulnerability argument, or their enthusiasm for the man prevents them from entertaining the notion. But it remains a fact that the current, weak, incompetent president beat him once while hiding in the basement (arguments for “stolen election” aside). True, some things have changed. Biden is now more cognitively impaired than on the first go-around and has a track record of almost universally failed and destructive policies. More black and Latinos voters are defecting, and some election law loopholes have been closed. And Republicans now see the wisdom of fighting fire with fire when it comes to ballot harvesting. But is this enough to overcome the smoldering coals of TDS that the Democrats are forever stoking into flame? Modern-day elections are won or lost on the backs of a small cadre of voters in the center. The question is, is it good political strategy to bet on Trump?

In the interest of transparency, I must divulge I don’t like Trump, the man. I find him coarse, and narcissistic to the point that he’s quick to abandon his party when he feels it’s in his best interest. And while he has an amazingly thick skin when it comes to defending himself and his policies against the deranged Left, it’s the opposite when it comes to his perception of “disloyalty.” He’s not the most moral individual (although a saint compared to Biden) but is probably in the middle to lower third of the pack compared with politicians in general. I loved his policies and their effects in the pre-COVID era, and his perseverance in the face of strong political headwinds and an obstructive Deep State. But I’m more a fan of Ron DeSantis, who I feel has demonstrated an ability to govern soberly, without the theatrics that can alienate an uncertain independent or old-fashioned liberal, whose votes will be critical in a general election. DeSantis has been true to conservative ideals, and has had a demonstrably positive effect on the state of Florida’s economy, education, and crime which I believe will port over to the national level. I have no illusions he won’t be tarred and feathered by the progressive Left, and also no doubt the DeSantis Derangement Syndrome will be part of the lexicon should he win the White House, but it’s the swing vote that I’m interested in. I also like Vivek Ramiswamy, but have no clue how he’d fare in the national stage. I suppose I’ll miss Trump’s entertaining tweets (or X’s), but not the blood pressure-raising juvenile ones, of which there were many. Not a small factor to also consider, all the indictments will distract Trump and siphon off much-needed campaign dollars (which is their point), and while all the indictments are clearly banana republic political corruption and bad for the country, Trump is in real legal jeopardy in the Florida classified information suit due to his recorded ill-spoken remarks. Besides, it seems likely that a Washington, D.C-based jury could potentially convict for the January 6^th non-charges (look at the bogus outcome in the NY civil Stormy Daniels trial).

Of course, Trump will have my vote if he’s victorious in the primary, as current polls strongly suggest. But I can still hope that enough of the Right will come to recognize that strategy trumps emotion when trying to win elections.

TOXIC TRUMP

In the wake of the Red Wave that became the Red Ripple we conservatives must pause for reflection. The magnitude of the failure is as astonishing as it is disappointing. Typically, even with stronger opposition, the party out of power has decisive gains. In a time of grossly incompetent leadership, a president who suffers from early cognitive dysfunction with approval ratings in the toilet, and disastrous inflation coupled with feckless foreign policy, one could not be faulted for having assumed, abetted by historically worthless polls, a potentially unprecedented shift in the legislature was coming—only it didn’t. The question is why.

Ben Shapiro gives some insight in his analysis that the strongest candidates were put forth in the least threatened seats, and the weakest in the most contested. His mantra that the quality of the candidates matters has been borne out by the results. Still, as weak a candidate as Mehmet Oz was in PA, it boggles the mind that a radical left, mentally challenged opponent such as Fetterman could decisively beat him. The counterpoint supporting Shapiro’s contention is that in Florida, strong candidate Ron Desantis, having squeaked through to a victory in his first go-around, had a blowout in his second, and carried a purple state into red territory in record time. Ironically, the other state with the most flipped House seats (4 ) was Democrat stronghold New York, potentially preserving a slim lead for Republicans in the House.

The reasons for the electorate’s amazing and suicidal decision to soundly mitigate the shift in power cannot be ascribed to a single factor. Decades of progressive ideological grooming via control of the institutions of learning and the culture certainly play a major role. While the conservative vote in the black and Spanish-speaking communities grew, unmarried women voted 2 to 1 for Democrats, as opposed to their married counterparts who predominantly went Republican. Likely this reflects not only the aforementioned progressive indoctrination and successful vilification of conservatives, but also, in this demographic, a dependence on government in the absence of a committed life partner as well as the an increased impact of the abortion issue since the Supreme Court’s decision. The mainstream media’s mis- and disinformation campaign and censoring or deemphasizing of facts that fell outside the progressive narrative cannot be underestimated. But the “straw that broke the camel’s back” in an election that had razor thin margins in contested areas, in my opinion, was Trump. I contend that the man is politically toxic. This isn’t new, but in the past his populist message was sufficient to overcome this. Now Trump is mainly about…Trump. Yes, he has a loyal base of “always Trumpers,” possibly about 25-30% of Trump voters if the numbers still hold. But in these days of squeaky elections decided by the swing vote from the Independents and moderate Democrats (yes, they still exist but you wouldn’t believe it from listening to the mainstream media) I think the “Trump factor” is fatal. Trump Derangement Syndrome, still prevalent, is the dagger in the Republican heart.

Trump was brilliant policy-wise but has always been a disaster politically. He lost the Republicans the Senate via Georgia in the last election, and this go-around he may again, although it is now moot with the Democrats still in control of the Senate. In the most contested seats, the Republican Party chose to run Trump loyalists vocal about the illegitimacy of the Biden win. While gushing praise for Trump may play well with his loyalists as well as most nose-holding conservatives who see no viable alternatives in the other party, it’s a non-starter for many of the Independents and cross-over Democrats. Adding to this, to our detriment, for many voters personality trumps policy, and I suspect the more uniformed and misinformed the voter, the greater role this plays. Biden’s policies may be juvenile and dangerous, but for anti-Trump voters even the president’s mental stumbling and poor governance is insufficient to overcome their TDS. Trump has done nothing to mitigate this. His ego post defeat has overshadowed his connection with many of the voters who supported him in the last election: In the current race we can see a referendum against Trump-endorsed candidates chosen solely on the basis of their willingness to proclaim loyalty to Trump and decry the legitimacy of the 2020 election. His current outbursts against the biggest star of the midterm elections, Ron Desantis, follows the prior pattern of narcissism and political self-immolation.

While it can be tempting to view the country as potentially lost, it’s important to recognize the few bright spots that may be a harbinger of a new dawn. The margins of defeat remain slim, and Florida demonstrates that with a more strategic approach going forward, with more competent and electable candidates, a shift back to freedom and normalcy is possible, Almost half of the country still holds the view that morality, God and the founding values count (and without which we cannot succeed), recognize the difference between a democracy and a republic and why our Founders opted for the latter (something apparently no longer taught), and value freedom over security. More people will be won over as the social and economic circumstances continue to worsen, as they must with a continuation and potential intensification of current policies (both parties seem to interpret any win as a mandate). While we are in danger of failing from threats internal and external before this transformation can occur, and this is going to be a decades-long battle, there is no acceptable alternative but to keep fighting. Adversity can demoralize or energize. Conservatives and our anti-progressive allies should take a cue from the beleaguered Ukrainians, and move relentlessly forward to drive the progressive enemy from the borders of our republic.

And forgo nominating Trump.

Addendum:

Addendum:

Shortly after posting this I learned of another important factor contributing to the Congressional upset: Redistricting. As Mark Levin pointed out, pollster Frank Luntz (who got it wrong, like so many others) in his post=election analysis pointed out that the redistricting gerrymandered seats that favored the Democrat Party (I now recall reading about this at the time). The favorable result in New York as opposed to many other purple districts may reflect the fact that the NY judiciary prohibited this redistricting favoring the Democrats. Supporting this is the fact that voting favored the Republicans by 5 million votes (4-5%) with disproportionately worse outcomes in contested districts. So this should be added to the mix of variables that may explain the unexpected outcome.

I GUESS I’M MAGA

It seems quite few of my family members and I agree on little when it comes to the state of affairs and its causes. Fortunately, while we can rarely discuss social, cultural and political issues, we’ve not become disenfranchised, still share a bond of love, and certainly don’t see one anther as evil. Still, it seems they must regard me as sociopolitically deluded as I see them. In the wake of the Mar-a-Lago raid one of them posted on Facebook yet another anti-Trump diatribe, a satirical piece from The Shovel that laments:

We are certainly no fans of Donald Trump – let’s make that clear from the outset. But yesterday’s raid by the FBI on the home of a former president sets a dangerous precedent.

A precedent which now means that anyone who evades taxes, attempts to undermine an election, sexually assaults women, manipulates the value of their assets, uses state resources to enrich themselves or aids and abets the overthrow of a democratically elected government will be subject to investigation.

Is that the world we want to live in? Where anyone accused of insurrection can be subject to questioning from law enforcement officers?

It’s a slippery slope. Before we know it, regular citizens accused of defrauding the government, concealing evidence, manipulating financial documents, tampering with witnesses or perverting the course of justice will also be held to account.

Because Trump’s so evil, they’ve decided that Biden (his history of plagiarism and shady business dealings notwithstanding) and team are the lesser evils. So be it. Personally, while I agreed with the sentiment of making America great again, and having recognized the increasingly large rent in the fabric of our great country’s values, I was never a Trumper. Partly because I ally myself with values and policies rather than people, who are all imperfect and likely to disappoint. But also because I found him often undiplomatic to the point of boorishness, and a slave to his gargantuan ego. Having said that, his policies as a rule were spot-on and he achieved more in 4 years against unprecedented political headwinds than most of his predecessors. It was reflected in a booming economy, laudable unemployment statistics for all (especially minorities), no new wars, and a breakthrough in Middle Eastern diplomacy (the Abraham Accords) by abandoning the long-failed traditional approach, to name only some accomplishments. This was dangerous to the entrenched powers, demonstrating that a businessman could be more successful at policy than those who had never held a job outside of government and trying to regulate things they could barely understand, their many academic degrees notwithstanding. There is emerging evidence that fear within the deep-state bureaucracy of exposure of buried scandals and illegalities to the light of day may be playing at least as large a role in Trump resistance, but that’s beyond the scope of this rant.

So when the demonization of the Right that has been so successful for the Left as a marketing tool to shield them from the poor results of decades of failed policy intensified with our Commander-in-Chief defining “MAGA Republicans” as fascists and a threat to democracy, I had to do some introspection. I already knew I was racist, misogynist, and a member of “the Deplorables,” having voted for Trump not once, but twice. And now I was learning that I might be a fascist, anti-democracy threat to the nation as well. I didn’t support the trespass at the Capitol on 1/6, and I denounce the violence of the few of the few trespassers out of the much larger group of peaceful protesters out that day. Still, the characterization of “insurrection” rang obviously political, coming from those who supported the much more widespread and damaging violent protests of 2020. And I do mean supported—our vice (love the term, in this case) president even went so far as to encourage bailing out violent offenders. And I understood the mindset of the peaceful protesters, with clear and still mounting evidence of election fraud (that the Left denies), especially in the setting of pre-election media-suppressed evidence of Biden’s corruption via Ukrainian and Chinese business deals undertaken by son Hunter. Still, it remains a fact that a lot of smoke pointing to surgical election fraud is insufficient to illegitimize an election unless proven in a court of law. But those currently throwing stones in this regard reside in a glass house: It must not be forgotten how the Democrat-activist media was all over Trump as being an “illegitimate” president while they aggressively pursued various fake leads such as the Russia Hoax to try and legitimize the fantasy.

Anyway, after introspection, I had to decide if I was really a “MAGA Republican,” with all the attached negative baggage that it implies. Before, I’d just considered myself a constitutional conservative. To release myself from the bondage of being an anti-democracy fascist, a national security threat, and a racist, I know from Biden’s own words that I had to be “someone he could work with.” So I had to analyze his beliefs and actions to see if I could “work” with him.

Joe Biden believes that the planet is doomed by Climate Change, that diversity of color and sexual preference is preferable to merit and competence, that equity trumps equality, and that subjectivity trumps reality. I was getting off to a bad start: I didn’t agree with any of these things. But to improve, one must open one’s mind to foreign ideas. So I decided to examine his accomplishments.

One of the first things he did was close the Keystone pipeline and throttle our fossil fuel energy supply, hampering our energy independence. He limited leases, discouraged investors, and, not understanding supply and demand (or ignoring it), blamed the oil companies, and then Putin, for the rising prices. The result of his policies, abetted by Europe’s absurd reliance on oil from a Communist dictator, will be starvation, hypothermia, and death for millions in the most vulnerable areas in the world. But Green trumps death.

He than decided it would favor his legacy to abruptly withdraw completely from Afghanistan, against the recommendations of his military advisors. He assured the people there would not be a chaotic, bloody scene like our withdrawal from Vietnam. Not understanding international affairs (Robert Gates, an Obama former defense secretary, stated Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades”), there was a chaotic, bloody scene like our withdrawal from Vietnam. People fell from landing gear wells, soldiers died, and the fascist Taliban whom we and allies fought for years at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars was entrusted with running the nation. Millions of Afghani women (not to mention the native LBGTQ+ community) were subjected to political slavery and death, rather than leaving a contingent of 20,000 troops to support the current rulers. But legacy trumps morality.

Next, with the economy and the American people suffering under the boot of crushing inflation not seen for decades, Biden resorted to the only tools he understood, never having worked outside of government: distraction and spending. He blamed COVID, Putin, Trump, Climate Change…and MAGA Republicans. He then doggedly pursued spending after spending bill, trillions of imaginary dollars through printing and borrowing, all the while insisting these inflationary practices were really disinflationary (the most recent bill was actually labeled as an Anti-Inflation Act!). While reality might beg to differ, redistributing wealth we don’t have (our grandchildren can’t not vote for Biden nor complain) to people likely to keep the current party in power is a smart political move. In that vein he’s just signed an illegal (even characterized as such by none other than Nancy Pelosi) executive order to erase college tuition debt by immorally taking money from those that either never went to college or paid their own way (but votes don’t come cheap). Power trumps fiscal responsibility and morality.

With the international scene deteriorating, and not understanding international affairs, he reacted too slowly and with characteristic weakness as Putin under cover of vague nuclear threats amassed troops around Ukraine, by employing sanctions that ultimately strengthened the ruble, and by a policy of late, incremental arming that has assured a long, expensive, but not necessarily successful war. But at least he’s working to prevent a nuclear Iran by trying to bargain with the Ayatollahs. Appeasement trumps deterrence.

Perhaps we can look to Biden, the champion of the downtrodden to offset all this. He purports to be a friend of the “most vulnerable,” the IPOCs, the rainbow LBGTQ+ coalition (except in Afghanistan). He’s “anti-racist.” He encourages the teaching of CRT in our schools underscoring the victimhood of people of color, the “white privilege” of the oppressors, and favors affirmative action (the soft bigotry of low expectations), social policies that encourage fatherlessness, forced attendance for the more indigent at public schools (when the Teacher’s Union allows them to be open) rather than more effective private institutions, and racial quotas that are the antithesis of our Constitutional mandates. He sees freedom as being able to choose your gender over reality (at the point of a government gun, when appropriate), and supports mutilation of children to achieve this if necessary (after their parents get them home from their drag queen event). Equity and subjectivity trump reality.

Throughout the unfolding debacle, he’s studiously avoided (along with his border czar, Harris) looking at the border crisis. Early on, he halted the “Trump border wall,” already commissioned, and stopped Trump’s hold-in-Mexico policy. As the country became inundated with millions of illegal immigrants he tried to quietly move them throughout the country. Untold numbers of criminals (and COVID-infected individuals) accompanied the hordes of people entering to better themselves economically at the expense of those patiently waiting, and with them came hundreds of thousands of ODs from smuggled fentanyl, prospering drug cartels, and women raped and sold into slavery through human trafficking. Only the cynical among us could possibly believe this is continuing because the political calculus is for future votes and continued Democrat party power.

So, if I’m willing to work with a corrupt and immoral man who’s facilitating the enslavement and deaths of millions, the spiritual debasement of our children, and the worsening economic status of almost everyone, especially the most indigent, I too can be anti-racist, non-fascist, and no longer a danger to the greatest country in the history of the world? [Sigh] I guess I’m…MAGA. It’s a difficult transition, I admit. The term carries with it the heavy Trump baggage. But I’ll adjust. Besides, by comparison the Biden baggage renders it featherweight. And the alternative is just too painful.

THE UTOPIAN PARTY

For the growing number of Americans that are choosing to notice, the psychotic behavior of what was formerly known as the Democrat Party makes internal sense when viewed from the proper, outside-the-box perspective, the “box” being reality. The new, Utopian Party doesn’t concern itself with reality, only what those in charge have decided the reality should be; and from this viewpoint, everything they do makes sense.

President Biden himself has made this clear: He’s stated that inflation and high gas prices, while difficult, are good in the long run, since they are a step toward Utopia, a world without fossil fuels, a world protected from the scourge of Climate Change. So any discomfort, death and destruction that occur in the interval are to be lauded, because it’s all in service of a just, greater cause. However, since the buy-in by the people is becoming more difficult by the day (unfortunately, not being able to afford gas and food or get baby formula causes the people to lose sight of the greater purpose), it’s important to creatively redefine reality. Some might call this lying, but it’s really the Great White Lie, in service of—repeat after me—a just, greater cause.

To overcome the growing resistance of the people, they must be divided. In years past, this was done via class rivalry, today it’s implemented via the tools of diversity/intersectionality/equity, or DIE. It requires the inculcation of a set of beliefs, or disbeliefs, at odds with what your lying eyes see, as presciently illustrated in the novel 1984 so many years ago. Transplanting systemic racism to the present from the past, cherry-picking and changing climate data and using the most extreme results from flawed modeling programs, and generally redefining truth (man can be woman, woman can be man) are useful adjuncts on the road to Utopia. And since it’s now a “given” that we’d all be best served by less carbon, even if only 6% of the world’s power is supplied by “renewables,” it should be 100%, so it shall be. Although it may be a decade, or two, or three, before technology makes this remotely feasible, and the carnage caused by prematurely abandoning fossil fuels while simultaneously refusing to vigorously pursue nuclear energy is regrettable, we do this in service of—you’ve got it—a just, greater cause.

All of this involves fundamental change. Not everyone likes fundamental change; some prefer a federation of states with limited central government, the concepts of God-given rights, checks and balances, and individual liberty with freedom of speech and the right to self protection from evil-doers, criminal and political. But this is not in service of the greater cause. While masks and lock-downs have aided in population control, these are not enough. So open border policies need to be pursued with the assumption that a flood of needy new future voters that will support the purveyors of an expanded welfare state will keep the rulers in power. The incidental causalities resulting from an influx of new infection, criminals and terrorists, illegal arms, drugs, and human trafficking are regrettable, but they are in service of a just, greater cause. The citizens that are already here legally and illegally also need to be addressed, so the authorities are telling our children what to think, instilling race consciousness and white guilt, introducing them to a precocious and unbounded sex education, and giving them medical procedures against their parents’ wills. Those beyond the age of “educating” can be managed by limiting speech to the greater truth (i.e, the Great White Lie), and attempting to take guns from the law-abiding. Disagreement is not dissidence—it’s a reflection of moral bankruptcy racism, misogyny, and disregard for the callous murder of children. In other words, the definition of right-wing extremism. A member on “The View” recently proclaimed that the Left hasn’t changed a bit—rather, it’s the Right that has become progressively more extreme. While some of you may protest that this is akin to a person in an unmoored boat claiming that the continent is slowly drifting away, I assure you, that kind thinking is nothing more than extreme right-wing delusion. And, as our leaders have assured us, there’s no greater danger to democracy at this moment than right-wing extremism.

So as the year progresses on the road to Utopia, as food and heat become increasingly more unaffordable, famine strikes the most vulnerable, crime skyrockets, and millions suffer and die, be of good cheer. Remember the words of our Commander-in-Chief: it’s all for a just, greater cause.

WHEN COMES THE REMORSE?

The screams of the trapped Americans and Afghans and the images of bodies dropping from airplanes and women handing their babies to soldiers over barbed wire fences are now ever-present. They invade my thoughts on awakening, tug at my heart on and off throughout the day, abetted by incessant news reports, and linger as my head touches the pillow at night. And now, adding to the horror, 170 people have died, including 13 American armed services members. The angst is not diminished by the revelation that the Taliban have been given biometric devices to help them identify people we expect them to assist us in evacuating, as if these insurgents are a legitimate rather than a terrorist-supporting regime. In other words, they’ve been given a hit list. Despite this tragic and predictable turn of events, Biden is still adhering to the line that we’ll be pulling out at month’s end while continuing our efforts in some undisclosed manner, without the threat of military repercussions (bribes?), to evacuate the thousands left behind for the Taliban. It’s hard to know at this point how much of this behavior is attributable to immorality (let’s call it what it is, evil), and how much to cognitive decline. His past history favors the former. In any case, he’s crossed the line to the point that incompetence hardly defines what he’s done; it’s now murder. And he continues to heighten the threat against our homeland security with porous border policies. It only remains to be seen whether he’s mentally competent enough to understand the ramifications of his actions.

Except for the radical Left, which I estimate on the basis of no specific sociological data other than a “best guess” to represent 20 to 25% of the population, most people abhor the evil, tyrannical beliefs and actions of the Taliban. While radical Leftists will, as well, openly denounce them when it suits their agenda, their actions (or lack thereof) demonstrate that they have no compunction about accepting an increase in world tyranny as an unfortunate side-effect of their policies, as long as it nurtures and enhances their power. For them, the means is always justified by the ends. For the remainder of the citizens who installed this new administration while awash in the throes of a TDS-induced anti-Trump political delirium, the current turn of events in Afghanistan—regardless of personal views on whether or not we should have entered Afghanistan or remained—must instill a sense of remorse for putting such a weak, incompetent person in power. The absence of said remorse will define them as having entered the dark, hateful world of the far Left. It is a world that is difficult if not impossible to escape. Those who have resisted the siren call of the far Left will not necessarily be conservative converts but more akin to the true liberal (thinks JFK) of a few decades ago. While many may be reluctant to out publicly their Biden remorse, their impact will be felt in the midterm elections.

In the wake of the current fiasco, I find it difficult not to characterize those Biden supporters that remain bereft of regret as anything but accomplices. The characterization by the Left of me, and conservatives in general, as evil can plainly be seen as projection, a liberally (pun intended) employed defense mechanism in modern politics.

The images coming out of Afghanistan may continue to haunt my thoughts at night—but at least I know our president is sleeping well.

The Real Pandemic—TDS

There was a time, not too long ago, when healers thought illness was caused by “humors” that could be released by blood-letting. Off course, we now know that this is precisely the opposite of good care, but it seemed to make sense at the time. As people puzzle over how one president can be so incompetent, consistently doing the wrong thing in defiance of even the most basic of common sense, once you recognize that our confusion is all a simple case of not understanding the cause, or misdiagnosis as it were, then it all falls into place.

We are currently in the advanced stages of a political psychosis affecting half the country known as Trump Derangement Syndrome. Whether it is terminal at this stage is debatable, but we’re clearly in the advanced throes, the ICU, perhaps just shy of life support. TDS was resposible for the country electing (arguments about the validity of the election aside) a cognitively declining man who had been described as being wrong on every foreign policy issue for the 40 years before stumbling into the White House, who was documented as a plagiarist twice, who described his errant, corrupt son as “the smartest person he knows,” and who made overtly racist remarks such as “if you don’t vote for me, you’re not black.” He creepily sniffed young girls’ hair, was accused of sexually molesting a woman, routinely told stories of his life that were patently untrue, and accomplished almost nothing of note living off the government payroll for 40 years. A conservative talk show host recently said he was asked what he would do differently than Biden if he were trying to destroy the country, and he’d reached the conclusion, “nothing.” It’s a hard point to counter. In the short months he’s been in office, he’s managed to cripple our energy independence and risk our relations with our European allies by stopping construction of the Keystone pipeline and ceding control of oil to Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline, and in the wake of predictably rising gas prices having to ask OPEC to produce more oil. He’s instituted (and is doubling down on) spending policies that are driving inflation to levels we haven’t seen in decades. He’s interrupted supply chains and blunted the recovery from the imposed Pandemic-related recession by paying people not to return to work. He’s undermined the rule of law by allowing an unempowered agency (the CDC) to illegally prevent landlords from evicting non-paying tenants, even ignoring a Supreme Court decision, after admitting that doing such by an executive order would be illegal. He’s ignored US immigration law and opened the border to millions of illegal immigrants, vast numbers of whom will require welfare and medical assistance from an already overburdened and financially bankrupt system. He’s demonized those that don’t mask and vaccinate while allowing huge numbers of these illegal immigrants man that have tested positive for COVID-19 and many who haven’t been screened at all not only to enter, but has expedited their dispersion throughout the country. He’s favored reentering the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran. And now, he’s exercised his authority to summarily withdraw from Afghanistan the minimal troop presence, our only source of on-site anti-terrorist intelligence and the final impediment to complete Taliban take-over. And he chose to do this prior to withdrawing US civilians and Afghani allies and to the coming winter fighting hiatus, creating chaos and exposing millions to the tyrannical boot of Taliban rule. He’s done this without remorse. He’s exposed our county as weak and unreliable, seriously damaging our ability to forge alliances going forward, created a power vacuum for China, supplied the Taliban with billions of dollars in weaponry, and created a safe haven for terrorist attacks in the future. Tens of thousands of potential US hostages remain in the country.

There is an underlying etiology that unifies the insanity of all these policy decisions, and when you see it, it makes sense: TDS. The same intense, mind-numbing hatred of Donald Trump that led to Biden’s successful presidential bid guides his every policy decision. If it was instituted by Trump, abolish it, regardless of its success or the consequences of the policy reversal. With few exceptions this can explain Biden’s entire agenda. He claimed Trump initiated the Taliban deal, but in fact it was not consummated since the conditions for withdrawal were not met. For Biden, the idea that he could proclaim he was the one who withdrew from Afghanistan after twenty years was all that mattered, regardless of the situation on the ground. American hostages, Afghani women relegated once again to the status of second-class citizens and subject to violence and rape, allies murdered—all were not even deemed worthy of an orderly, planned evacuation. Only the artificial deadline mattered.

As you watch bodies falling from planes, mothers desperately relinquishing their babies over barbed wire fences, and terrified crowds begging for evacuation for fear of their lives, you can finally understand on a visceral level the malignant effects of a disease far more dangerous than COVID, with no vaccine on the horizon—TDS.

The prognosis is guarded.

FOOLS CAN’T FIGHT TYRANNY

It’s been harder and harder to turn on the news in any media venue with the decline of the republic, but this last move by the president would be the final straw, if it weren’t for the fact that surrender of all hope for our nation isn’t an option.

Trump talked about fully withdrawing from Afghanistan but didn’t complete the deal. Any sane person who has paid even the least bit of attention to the issue realized long ago that nation-building is a fool’s errand and it’s just further evidence that, for many administrations, we’ve had no shortage of fools at the helm in this regard. The arguments that “we’ve been there too long” and “the war’s unwinnable” are powerful and cogent. That being said, There’s also something to the adage, “You break it, you own it.”

Like others, I’ve been ambivalent about our continued presence in Afghanistan for some time. There are many sources available on the subject for a deeper dive, but briefly, as the aftermath of our abrupt departure from Vietnam gravely illustrated, withdrawal also has a price. I, like many others, were shocked by the rapidity with which the Taliban re-exerted its dominance following the withdrawal of our remaining troops. It highlighted several undeniable truths.

First, as we already knew, nation building and “winning” the war as conventionally defined was an abject failure. Second, the Taliban’s easy routing of the Afghan army despite billions of dollars spent in “training” raises question that our political and military leaders for several administrations have been either incompetent, mendacious, or both. Sources say that Biden made this disastrous rapid exit against the wishes of his military advisers, and this may be true. However, for many years the public face of the top brass, governed by politics, was a lie. Third, the foolishness of our foreign policy has soared to new levels of absurdity. We had a very small contingent of troops at Bagram Air Base. Out last casualties in the country were single-digit in early 2020. While any deaths are not trivial, we were not engaging in any wide-scale active combat. The argument that we couldn’t remain “forever” is a specious one, as we maintain troops and military bases around the world, throughout Europe and Asia. The recent expense and extent of our presence in Afghanistan has been trivial, especially when measured against the past investment and the extreme and wasteful spending now being promoted within the Beltway. Our continued presence in Afghanistan gave us the proximity for intelligence-gathering and allowed us to continue programs of advisement and air support. If the goal was to impede the Taliban and make it harder to organize an attack on American soil, one could argue we had measure of success.

On the other hand, we are seeing how our departure has provided the opportunity for the Taliban to aggressively move forward in its subjugation of the people, especially and the consequences for women and people of differing sexual preferences will fall especially hard, ironically the groups many of our relatively pampered American citizens falsely decry our country for so mistreating. At the same time, our withdrawal not only underscores our failed foreign and military policy, it once again labels us as an untrustworthy ally, providing the fodder for enemies such as Russia and China to increase their hegemony throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.

Over the last few days, for me the word “Afghanistan” causes pangs of anger and sadness. Biden’s defense was limited to his justification for leaving, ignoring the disastrous effects of his unplanned and uninformed implementation of the withdrawal, now playing out in real time before our eyes. It takes an effort of will to suppress tears for the people of the country, especially our allies fearing torture and execution in the wake of our departure. I can only imagine what the families of our brave military men and women who gave their sanity, limbs and lives feel.

We can do better. We have to get rid of the fools we’ve hired and restore wisdom. Without it we can only stumble drunkenly between chaos and tyranny.

THE EVIL WE FACE

Last year, I attended one of Andy Caldwell’s campaign events in his unsuccessful bid for California’s 24^th Congressional District in the US House held at a private home. I spoke briefly with the radio host and conservative political commentator and at the time I described the Republican Party as bad and the Democratic Party as an order of magnitude worse. He characterized the Democrat Party as “evil.” At the time it struck me as rather harsh. Clearly, in retrospect, his intimate involvement in politics gave him a clearer vantage point.

While it’s been evident that the perverse values of the Left, at odds with those of the Founding Fathers, were progressively holding sway over the Democrat Party, the recent and rapid rise and control of the Party has been nothing short of astonishing. An early clue that Biden was truly embracing these evil principles as the core of his political agenda came to me with his remarks about transgender children back in October. While some on the Right distorted the message to maximize outrage, a practice I denounce on either side (and left-wing sources rightly condemned this), Biden’s words in this time of concern regarding minors transitioning seemed at best neutral and more likely supportive. He actually couched his words in the doctrine of anti-discrimination, a term effectively used to disarm conservatives time and again on many issues. Because who favors discrimination? His current statements about the recently passed voting bill in Georgia have now (only figuratively, it seems) unmasked him.

When questioned about the Georgia law he stated that it disproportionately targeted black Americans and called it “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” and “a blatant attack on the Constitution.” This statement is problematic on multiple levels. First, it is a blatant lie on its surface, employing racism to denounce a law that applies equally to all individuals, irrespective of race. Second, if one were to use the Leftist tactic of unequal impact/outcome as a priori evidence of racism, then he’s going down the rabbit hole of the soft racism of low expectations: One of the provisions of the law is a requirement for voter ID, something that blacks and “vulnerable communities” have, like everyone else, managed to successfully negotiate for generations with respect to everything from driving a car to flying to purchasing an alcoholic beverage. All the provisions in the law are intended to minimize the risk of voter fraud and increase Americans’ trust in future elections. Spinning this as racism or voter suppression (at a time when black turnout in the Georgia elections was at historic highs) is mendacious, and, yes, evil. Third, it reprehensibly defines Georgians as racist. And this from a man who has already demonstrated his own racism by proclaiming during the campaign leading up to the presidential election that those black Americans that didn’t vote for him weren’t really black.

Although the phrase “turning to the dark side” has lost its gravitas and become something of a meme in the post-Star Wars era, I think it aptly applies to the trend in the Biden administration. And now even big corporate CEOs are signing on. Given that none of us can know the heart of an individual, it’s unfair to characterize people who engage in immoral behavior as “evil,” but it is possible to recognize its presence through lies and evil actions. When the facts are ignored or obfuscated to achieve an end, this is no longer a “difference in opinion.” While Biden’s remarks (calling Georgians racist for supporting voting procedure reform) fall clearly into the realm of the “hate speech” the Left so vigorously denounces, as a constitutional conservative I support the president’s right to say it. This does not, however, absolve me of the obligation to oppose it. Which brings me to the main issue: the silence of good people on both sides of the political aisle.

The old maxim “if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem” has never rung truer. We are well past the point of muttering about the blatant, hypocritical, and divisive evil that is coming at us from the newly empowered Leftist-controlled Democrat Party. When will we ring the Capitol not with a fence built on a foundation of political hyperbole, but bodies and voices crying, “Enough!”? When will we, too, finally take to the streets of our towns and cities en masse to truly peacefully protest? When will the millions find the strength to rise up and speak, even at the risk of unemployment, social banishment, or incarceration? Or will we allow this transition to a new, tyrannical nation to proceed unimpeded? Others have given their lives for the liberty most of us have taken for granted and have allowed, bit by bit, to be taken from us. Will we have the courage to risk even less to preserve it? If not, perhaps we no longer deserve it.

THE DEMONACRATS VERSUS THE REPROBACANS

In case you missed it, Illinois Senators Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii threatened to vote against any of President Biden’s Cabinet nominees that weren’t minorities, objecting to the absence of Asian Americans. They retrenched after the White House agreed to add a senior Asian American and Pacific Islander liaison.

After all we’ve seen over the past few years, it shouldn’t but still astounds me that two Democrat US Senators would publicly spout racist views expressly forbidden by US law. But what floors me even more is the lack of response from the Republican side. While we suffered 4 years of senseless investigations and impeachments at the hands of the Democrats over manufactured misbehavior, the Republicans can’t bring themselves to call for dismissal on ethical grounds of 2 senators for making overtly racist remarks? If we can’t replace wholesale the demons and reprobates currently holding the some of the highest legislative seats in the land, let’s at least rename the parties to reflect reality. They’ve surrounded their lair with fences, now we need to arm the cordon of National Guardsmen with wands and incantations sufficient to keep them away from us muggles, and perhaps a silencing spell to abort further legislation by the Demonacrats. I also favor distributing a spine-regenerating potion for the Reprobacans.

While we’re at it, we should rename Biden He-Whose-Name-Should-Not-Be-Spoken, as it tends to trigger bouts of nausea in those of us that have run out of anti-anti-racist potion (by the way, no longer covered by Medicare). Besides, if it’s not spoken, he’ll likely forget it and at least provide us with some comic relief from his persistently immoral process of populating his administration in as racist a manner as possible.

I know I’m being hard on He-Whose-Name-Should-Not-Be-Spoken, since no one is perfect. To be fair, he is achieving a kind of perfection I’ve never before seen in an administration: Everything he’s doing is immoral, harmful, and/or deceitful. I can’t think of a single policy being implemented by executive order or legislated with his support that will help the country going forward. That’s a consistency that few, if any of his predecessors can claim. And when the disastrous effects come to fruition, he and his minions will assign the fallout to Trump, just as they’ve accepted the recent COVID-19 successes implemented during Trump’s tenure as their own.

If you’ll forgive my mixing magical universes, I wish we had someone like Gandalf to come and make things right. But he’d never be allowed in this country. After all, he is the White Wizard.

THE DEVIL HAS MANY NAMES—SCHUMER IS ONE OF THEM

Over 2,000 years ago, the Bible tells us, the Messiah came. Now we have the coming of the anti-Christ, Senator Beelzebub (traveling under his mortal name, Chuck Schumer). He’s proclaiming that the president must invoke the spell of Climate Emergency, thus giving him the power to make an end run around the Congress and the checks and balances built into the Constitution. Climate Emergency endows Biden, who also has The Phone and The Pen, to legislate from the Oval Office and avoid the messy political process of debate and compromise. Those that oppose must be banished from Congress or impeached.

Beelzebub decrees he will await the findings of a Biden commission tasked with determining the best size for the Supreme Court—his preferences and the outcome a deep, dark mystery like the corridors of Hell (insert eye-rolling emoji here).

Some mortals will beseech the side of the Right for salvation, but it is unlikely their voices will be heard in the darkness. Beelzebub will not be asked to leave Congress for abdicating his oath to support the Constitution of the United States; for spineless Republican mortals are no match for the Devil. The mortals, unable to longer tolerate the bluster of the Trumpeter, made a Devil’s bargain, and now shall reap the spoils of their judgment.

It has begun with the first salvo, the end of the Keystone pipeline with the stroke of The Pen, and thousands of jobs are vanished. The price of oil shall rise and thousands of more shall be struck down. Then the Inflation of the Minimum Wage will smite yet thousands more, to the cackling glee of the all-knowing Beelzebub. The next wave will come via the Darkworld Council, known to mortals as the Paris Accord, from whence regulations will flow like lava, torching the flammable, oil-based industries with tongues of flame. It will not cool the earth, however, for Hell must burn.

Biden the Possessed will abdicate to the middle Earth demon known as K666 (The One Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken), who will continue to carry out Beelzebub’s will, and give power to the lesser demons, known to mortals as The Squad. The Corporate Demons will compete for power, and with the talisman of $, may prevail.

Mortals, clutch your guns and bibles, those that have them, before Beelzebub comes to claim the former and burn the latter. Because to hide is futile.

Don’t say you’ve not been warned.