Tag: news

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Conservatives recent field day complaining about the Somalian daycare center corruption is difficult to take seriously when this is accompanied by silence about the obvious corruptive practices of Donald Trump — things like the Qatari prince giving him a jet, or Trump pardoning of social security frauds and drug traffickers, or Trump awarding defense contracts to companies associated with his son.

But, no, the corruption outrage is limited to Somali immigrants or, rather, to any group seen to have connections to the Democratic party. Any fraud that may be associated with Trump or any of his billionaire friends are to grift without consequence. The stench of hypocrisy is just far too overwhelming. What really matters is who is committing the fraud but I don’t believe for one minute that you truly care about ending corruption.

In order for me to believe that they care I would think an investigation into Trump’s dodgy pardons would be a nice start. Oh, and if your defense is but Biden did it too. It’s a child’s defense after getting her hand caught in the cookie jar based in the notion that everybody is doing it, why are you getting bent out of shape because you caught me. That argument holds little, if any, moral principle.

So, by all means, let’s investigate the Somalian day care centers for fraud but you can get off your fucking high horse because nobody believes your show of faux moral indignation.

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The ever changing explanations for Donald Trump’s release of a racist video regarding the Obamas is a bit mystifying, at least, in regards to it being helpful in understanding what actually happened. I don’t think they really matter anymore because none of them give a good impression of the Trump White House.

First the idea that someone in the White House, up to and including the President, didn’t understand that depicting the Obamas as apes was racist is just a bit more bull shit than even some of Trump’s fellow Republicans are willing to swallow. But, say I am going to let you off the hook for being racist, it doesn’t let you off the hook for being ignorant of a common racist portrayal.

Is this really how you want to frame your mistake? Trump was using the Lion King characters as a funny way to express an opinion and had no racist intentions whatsoever. Well, then, why didn’t you know this? Since this history is common knowledge, is it really a good idea to have you managing the very country that has this complicated history? What stupid mistake are you going to make next because of your ignorance? It is hardly a reassuring answer.

Oh, then Trump says he didn’t watch the whole video so he missed the part where the Obamas were depicted as apes. Well, again, why not? If something is going out with your name associated with, it might be a good idea to watch the whole video. The video wasn’t that long — a full viewing by the man in charge could have prevented this embarrassing mistake. So we have gone from ignorant of a long standing racial stereotype to my team made a mistake because I couldn’t be bothered watching the whole video but I gave my approval any way even though I didn’t really know what was on the video.

Then there is the lack of an apology. If this was genuinely an honest error, what is the problem with saying you are sorry. Trump now claims he didn’t make a mistake, someone else did because he didn’t know about the Obamas as ape section of the video. That isn’t an excuse and failing to watch the whole video is indeed a mistake. He signed off on something that he had not thoroughly vetted.

It is mistake and he needs to say he is sorry. Is it really that difficult. I am sorry and I will try to do better next time. If this was an honest error then put it behind you already. Even if you aren’t genuinely sorry. An insincere apology is better than no apology. But no, Trump refuses to apologize because he, apparently, doesn’t make mistakes. Which, I might add, is also a troubling Trump characteristic.

This leads me to believe Trump simply doesn’t care that people think he is racist. Or stupid. Or incompetent. He thinks he should be able to say whatever he wants and if people don’t like it, tough shit. Just a reminder, he is the president of the United States something he has failed to understand since taking office. Don on a barstool in the local tavern can say anything he wants. The president of the United States has to think carefully before he opens his trap and, understandably, any person who is under such public scrutiny is going to slip occasionally, when you do, all you have to do is have the grace to say I am sorry.

So, to recap, the best case scenario here, is that we have an idiot as president who is unaware of the history of the country he leads, says whatever ill-thought out words come to his mind and isn’t going to apologize even after his mistakes are pointed out to him. The worst case is we have a racist who enjoys displaying his racism even when it is unnecessary and counter-productive to what he is trying to do. The truth probably lies somewhere in between but none of them really encourage me that Trump is worthy or up to the job that he holds.

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Occasionally, after writing a post, I have this wait a minute moment. I realize that I didn’t quite write what I wanted to say. This happened to me last night after I posted regarding the Epstein Files. I realized I wanted to emphasize a point more strongly than I did.

What is bothering me here is that the Biden Justice Department sat on these files for 4 years. The pressure for releasing these files came from MAGA and Donald Trump. Trump is rarely held accountable by his supporters, latched on to the issue during the 2024 campaign because it was useful then, probably thinking that once he took office he could forget any he promises he made about the files. MAGA deserves a little credit for holding him to his promise because some MAGA members continued to campaign for their release even after Trump tried to bury them again. Democrats joined the bandwagon because Trump was president now and the files could be used as a cudgel to use against him. They were counting on maximum embarrassment to Trump and the Republicans.

Unfortunately the files uncovered a much more insidious problem — a lot of political and business elites think it is ok for themselves to enjoy sexual relations with trafficked women and girls and they expect other people in the elite club to look the other way and protect them if they get caught. Sadly, it looks like they might get away with it.

Given the heavily redacted documents which prevents further investigation from people outside of the Department of Justice and Todd Blanche’s opposition to further prosecution, it looks like the most these men will endure is a little embarrassment and perhaps a job loss here and there. Not much, I would say for participating in a global sex trafficking ring. But we can’t have VIP’s being embarrassed, now can we?

What has me roiled here is that Joe Biden could have released these documents while he was president. Prior to Trump’s second inauguration, I don’t recall many Democrats all that enthused about their release. Biden’s Justice Department could have redacted the documents instead of Trump’s. But, for some reason, nothing happened. Oh, right they were protecting the poor women who were abused by Epstein and Maxwell. I thought that was the purpose of redacting the documents — protecting the victims. So, that particular excuse simply doesn’t hold water. So why did they sit on these documents and do absolutely nothing for 4 years? Protecting rich powerful men from prosecution is the only thing I can com up with.

This leads me back to the conclusion — Trump is not the problem. He is a symptom of a greater problem — a system that clearly is broken and no plausible way to fix it. Sigh.

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Every so once in awhile I realize that Donald Trump is a diversion from the real problem. The latest release of Epstein File documents made me focus again on the bigger issue here — the rich and powerful are misbehaving and getting away with it and have absolutely no interest in changing things.

This is apparent because after 20 years of investigations into Epstein, only two people have been convicted of any crime — Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Pretty strange, don’t you think? If you have sexual trafficking going on, there are sellers (Epstein and Maxwell) of the girls and then there are buyers of the girls. The buyers have managed to skirt the justice system so far. Why?

The government is sitting on reams of evidence naming potential customers. None of them, except ex-Prince Andrew, who, poor thing has been stripped of his title, has had any reckoning with the law. It is more than a little telling and also disappointing that four different presidential administrations have gone by since Epstein’s first crimes were discovered, with more and more evidence accumulating with each year and the Department of Justice does nothing to pursue Epstein’s johns. This will change now that the evidence has been released, right?

Apparently no. Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General, says they don’t have any evidence that these gentlemen committed any crimes. Yes, they did socialize with known sex traffickers but that is not a crime. Blanche says this in such a way that suggests if he had some evidence to pursue these men he surely would. Right. They may not have admitted to anything but, Jesus Christ, he has names of people who might have information or, worse still, have committed crimes.

Dragging them into the police station for a few questions seems called for particularly from an administration that has no trouble blowing drug trafficking suspects out of the water without a trial. Hmm. Makes you think doesn’t it. What is the difference between a suspected Venezuelan drug dealer and a suspected Epstein party goer? Let me think.

But these rich powerful men, these best and brightest didn’t know what Epstein is up to. You can’t blame them for not seeing what was going on. They just came for a little R and R. It is possible these men coming to a secluded island with a bevy of adolescent girls didn’t know what was up. It is possible but highly unlikely. One of the more eyebrow raising effects of the released Epstein files is to witness these rich and powerful men squirming awkwardly about their culpability. They just didn’t know what old Jeff was up to.

Does anyone honestly believe that? Given that many of these men have teenage daughters of their own, the idea that they can’t eyeball a girl and gauge her age seems a bit, oh I don’t know, unbelievable. More importantly, if they are too god damn stupid to see what Epstein was doing, should they really be trusted with such important jobs. So to put in bluntly they are either liars and therefore unworthy of their position or stupid which makes them even more unworthy of their position.

The whole Epstein fiasco points to a much bigger problem than just Trump. Biden’s Justice department wasn’t doing anything with the information either and probably for the exact same reason that Trump initially didn’t want to release the files — they were protecting important men from, at the bare minimum, embarrassment and, at the worst, prosecution for sex with minors. This suggests that the system is rotten to the core. Trump going into retirement won’t change that.

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Hear me out on this one. This might take a minute.

I never got Ronald Reagan. His charm eluded me but a comfortable majority of the country disagreed. They loved him which allowed him to change the American political environment. The free market/small government ideas he espoused still dominate the political debate nearly 40 years after he left office. If you don’t believe me, try raising taxes anywhere in the United States and the overwhelming response will be no. Americans prefer potholes to good public services.

Reagan had a nice guy personality that connected easily with the public and is completely different from our current president. Criticism rolled right off Reagan’s back and he worked with his political opponents whenever possible while respectfully disagreeing with their ideas. This enabled him to incorporate much of his political agenda into American life.

This worries me because Trump is such an obvious asshole. I think a lot of his own supporters think he is an asshole. They support him any way because they agree with his politics. Nearly half the country for the last three elections has voted for him despite him being an asshole, an idiot, a misogynist pig, a racist, and a corrupt detestable human being.

Where would he, and more importantly, the country be if he was slightly less obnoxious? My fear is he would have even more support than he presently does which should put the fear of God into the Democratic Party, but doesn’t. I have been supporting the most left leaning candidate my whole life (voting since 1976) and have met with disappointment almost every single time. These candidates somehow fail to catch fire beyond the left leaning communities they come from and the Democratic nominee (see Carter and Clinton here) is generally more conservative than I prefer. Obama is the only successful exception that I can recall and keep in mind his best result in a general election was 52% of the vote.

So when leaders on the left try to say Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez are the answer, I seriously have my doubts. Don’t get me wrong, I would like them to be the answer, I just don’t think it will happen. If an obnoxious asshole like Trump can win elections, imagine how a less obnoxious asshole can do.

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The worst part of Donald Trump’s march through history is that he has gotten exactly what he wanted from us. He talks and we pay attention to him. He can call a press conference and it will be packed with reporters. The whole world is hanging on his every word.

He doesn’t care if people hate him. He doesn’t care if people point out his lies. The point is people are talking about him. HIM. Donald J. Trump. He is impossible to ignore. I tried. Honestly, I did but he is the fucking president of the United States. How do you ignore him? Particularly someone so adroit at enraging people.

The best thing we could have done would have been to ignore him. But no, we paid attention and now we are stuck talking about him. When people talk about this point in history, they will be talking about Donald Trump, the reaction to Trump, and the damage Trump did to global relations. Exactly what he wanted.

Hate him, impeach him, arrest him. It doesn’t matter that he has low poll ratings because we are talking about him. The press will ask him to respond to anything that happens because he knows how to sell papers. The press will relay any of his thoughts no matter how ludicrous and his opponents will respond and on and on we go.

This man with such meager talents won the most powerful position in the world. Voted in by his fellow citizens. Then he managed to use this lofty position, despite all of his stupidity and malice, to force people to pay attention to him. What more could a megalomaniac want? And we fell into his trap — hook, line and sinker.

Now we are stuck talking about him for the rest of history.

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I googled the percentage of voters in 2024 that thought they were voting for the lesser of two evils. I was astounded to learn that 47% of voters felt this way. This information should raise red flags for both parties but, since I vote Democratic, it should particularly alarm Democrats because, given this bad choice between a corrupt babbling idiot and a rather tame party hack, a lot of people choose the idiot.

More people distrust the Democratic Party than Trump. There is this assumption among liberals that Trump is somehow tricking good people into voting for him. I purpose an alternate vision that people know Trump is corrupt, a liar and an idiot but they are voting for him anyway because the Democrats scare them more. This means the problem isn’t Trump but the Democratic Party. The question, then, should be why are people choosing Trump as the lesser evil?

This is also why attacking the Trump voters is counterproductive. Notice I said Trump voter not Trump. The avid Trump voter is a lost cause but the lesser-of-two-evil Trump voter is not. When you call Trump voters racists, you are also potentially ceding the lesser-of-two-evil Trump voter. Yes some Trump voters are racists but some are not. if you are trying to change minds — calling someone names really is a lousy way to do it.

It reduces the Democrats strategy to making the Republican candidate so fucking unpopular that lesser-of-two-evil voters chose the Democrats as the lesser evil. This is hardly a ringing endorsement of a future Democratic Administration. It also explains why the Byzantine political processes that govern American processes so easily thwarts change. Nobody is exactly sold on the change. Paralysis is a better option than initiating drastic change that will take the country who knows where. People unhappily vote Democratic while also understanding that the filibuster will prevent any big changes from happening.

The Democrats need to win voters in a variety of states other than New York and California. Whenever I talk to Bernie Sanders fans I catch this disconnect with the rest of the country. If you say that words like Socialism don’t translate well in the American heartland, their answer is this isn’t a problem when they listen to Bernie and hear what he actually is saying, they will change their minds.

Well, Bernie ran for Democratic Party nomination twice among the most liberal voters in America. If he can’t win the nomination of the more liberal party what makes people think he can win with more conservative voters in November. This is the whole point of primary elections — testing for the strongest candidates for your party. Sanders has failed this test twice.

I wish people like Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez all the luck in the world. I truly want them to succeed but the idea that they are the answer for the Democrats has yet to be proven outside of New York City and, let’s face it, the typical New Yorker hardly represents middle America. Let’s do some more testing before we place our markers on the wrong bet.

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Greenland, not too long ago, was a hunk of ice that few people cared about. But then Greenland started to melt making it more feasible to exploit its natural resources and making the waterways surrounding the country more navigable. So now Trump wants it.

So even though Trump doesn’t believe in Global Warming, he wants to take advantage of the destruction Global Warming is causing. On one hand, nothing needs to be done to slow Global Warming because it isn’t happening and, even if it was, it has nothing to do with human activity. On the other hand, this vast hunk of ice that covers Greenland is disappearing, I guess for no particular reasoning, and Trump wants in on the action.

The contradictions here are mind boggling.

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I saw the following posts on Glen Reynolds Instapundit site where I learned that the capture of Maduro is not only a victory for the Trump Administration but also White men. Yes, White men are the only one’s capable of pulling off such competence needed for such a special military operation. No people of color or women involved at all so the only reason it came off without hitch was because White men were in charge of the project and White men performed all of the tasks.

This isn’t the least bit racist either because he is just pointing out the facts. There were only White men involved and the result was military success.

What a crock. There have been lots of successful military operations in the past 6,000 years. Some of them surely involved people of color.

And just in the spirit of balance, I would like to point out the many historical disasters initiated by White men — trench warfare and Viet Nam will suffice as gentle reminders that depending on White men sometimes leads to disaster.

This is, given the divisive nature of the Trump administration and criticism regarding their racial politics, oddly counter productive to what I would think is the goal of such an operation. This was a necessary action conducted for the nation and benefit all Americans. We are all in this together.

But if you are going out of your way to gloat about the performance of just White men than, yeah, great, go White men. The Venezuela Operation is all about White men.

On the other hand, if anything goes wrong later, and surely an undertaking of this size, something will go wrong. We can assign the blame for these mistakes on White men.

Sorry for the photographs. I couldn’t link to the post so I took pictures. If you want to go to Instapundit site and find these posts of January 4 around 5PM.

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I have been looking for an example of what is wrong with the present political system that isn’t about Donald Trump doing something outrageous. This has been a difficult task because Trump is consistently behaving outrageously. It is so frequent that I started writing the present blog minutes before I discovered Trump kidnapped the Venezuelan president and his wife. I had to stop this blog to write another blog because kidnapping a president and taking over another country is pretty big news.

I now feel comfortable to return to the less outrageous, but concerning, actions of a politician I happen to like — Nancy Pelosi. She believes there is something wrong with Donald Trump’s mental capacity related to his advanced age. I happen to agree with her. The problem I have is her diagnosis is tainted by her previous toleration of Joe Biden’s declining mental capacity while he was president. She was quite willing to foist a declining senior citizen who also happened to be a Democrat on us until it became obvious to the general public that Biden was no longer capable of doing the job.

So thanks but no thanks for this helpful information about Trump. Her words here are meaningless because she changes her tune depending on what party the declining senior citizen is a member. The same criticism goes for all the many Republican and conservative pundits who delighted in pointing out Biden’s decline while presently ignoring the deteriorating health of Trump. How can you take seriously people who complain about putting an old man into power while simultaneously nominating a 78 year old man for president. Huh?

But Trump isn’t the same as Biden. Maybe, maybe not. The issue, however, is putting an aging person in a position of power. The health of 78 year old can change and change rapidly. It isn’t a particularly wise move particularly if you say you are concerned about an aging person in power. What makes putting a 78 year old in power in 2024 different from putting a 79 year old in power in 2020?

So talk all you want about your concerns but it doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in your opinion when you selectively use arguments that are important when your party is out of power and not so important when your party is in power. It is, in fact, irritating to hear such hypocrisy roll of the tongues of leaders who expect, in return, that you take it as received wisdom. So blah blah blah right back at you.