Month: December 2023

Maxed Out

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When I think about all the absurdities of the present political situation, I think the most striking is the degree to which the Left blames Donald Trump with all the crimes and intentions that they themselves are already guilty of.  They say he will be a dictator, lawlessly striking out against innocent people.  And simultaneously they have imprisoned old women and harmless men for protesting on January 6th.  They claim insurrection against these people who wandered around the Capitol building without weapons.  And yet they incited and abetted the George Floyd riots that destroyed thousands of businesses and even killed a number of people.

They say that Trump will destroy democracy but they allowed election laws to be trampled on during the COVID panic they manufactured.  They say he will start World War III and yet during his presidency there were no wars.  But under the neo-cons we’re currently playing brinksmanship with both the Russians and the Chinese while simultaneously enraging both the Israelis and the Arabs by vacillating over the Gaza War.

I ask myself what is it that offends me the most?  Is it the hypocrisy or the fact that the American people don’t rise up and tar and feather these people for their mendacity.  Am I angrier with the American people than I am with the Left’s leadership?  So, it comes back to the Evil and the Stupid.  And since I’ve been a charter member of the Stupid, I guess I’m mad at myself.  I’m mad because we’ve always allowed ourselves to be shamed over supposed pieties.  We don’t want to seem selfish.  But we should.

So maybe the correct way to think about any political situation is by ignoring questions of morality and weighing its results according to how they affect me directly.  And that’s how we should talk about them too.  If Joe Biden tells me he wants to give Ukraine another hundred billion dollars, I should ask him what I get out of it.  And if he tells me, it will mean another victory for democracy, I’ll ask him who’s going to pay for the two hundred billion we spent on it and who is going to pay the interest on it too?  And if he doesn’t have an answer that means I’m paying for it and my answer, is I don’t want to give them anything.  And I don’t want to pay for any windmills or solar panels or upgrades to the grid to power electric cars for the same reason.  I don’t want to pay for them because they’re stupid and all the money they take from me to pay for these things is basically flushed down the drain (and simultaneously stolen by Obama cronies).

The same thing can be said about illegal aliens and legalized drugs and homeless encampments and defunding the police.  All of these things are harmful policies that cost me untold billions of dollars and make my life worse.  So, no matter how much they tell me these are the “moral and the smart” things to do, I weigh the cost and find them wanting.  So, it’s nothing personal.  I’m just applying the rules of identity politics and identifying as one of the people who get hurt by all of these policies.  My lived experience tells me that I will be the disadvantaged by all of these actions.  So why would I ever want to go against my own interests?

Now they’ll say all kinds of things about diversity, equity and inclusion.  And I’ll say fine, let the people who think these things are just and fair pay for them personally.  Let Barack Obama take in all the migrants from Haiti, Somalia and Guatemala that he cares to and let him cloth, feed, house, educate and employ all of them.  And let all of the other members of the Left who wants these policies pick up the tab.  But since they won’t, my answer is no.  And if all the Republican politicians were as forthright as this, it would cut through all the nonsense and eliminate the hypocrisy.

Why do we have to pretend we care about pieties that we don’t really believe in?  Why do I have to care if there are more boys in STEM fields than girls?  And why do I have to pay for forcing more girls in than currently want to be?  Because rigging employment fields costs me money too.  Quota hires like women in STEM cause all kinds of damage and inefficiency.  And that goes for quota hires of all sorts.  Affirmative action is one of the worst policies for efficiency and we all pay the cost.  If a company wants to hire more women engineers, let them.  But don’t force everyone else to have to employ them too.

So, I’ll say to Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama, “It’s nothing personal but I don’t want to pay for your problems.  Why don’t you find all your friends who believe what you do and pass the hat around.  Just don’t charge it on the government credit card.  It’s maxed out.”

14DEC2023 – Quote of the Day

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Too many French scholars were the principal authors of the Revolution, too many approved and gave their support so long as the Revolution, like Tarquinius’ sceptre, struck down only the tallest heads. Like so many others, they said, It is impossible to make a great revolution without incurring misfortunes. But when a philosopher justifies evil by the end in view, when he says in his heart, Let there be a hundred thousand murders, provided we are free, and Providence replies, I accept your offer, but you must be included in the number, where is the injustice?

Joseph de Maistre

Morning Shmoe vs. The Biden Boondoggle

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Dramatis Personae: Morning Shmoe Browfurrowed (MS), Lycra Spandexy (LS), Joe Biden (JB),

 

MS – It’s 19 minutes and ten to minus 23rd seconds past the quarter hour here on the Morning Shmoe Show.  I’m  Morning Shmoe Browfurrowed and I’m here with my lovely bride Lycra Spandexy-Browfurrowed and we’re talking about the mouth breathing lowlifes out there on the Right who dare to claim that Joe Biden isn’t way ahead in the polls.

LS – That’s right Shmoe, you tell’em.  Get up in their grill!

MS – I will dear, if you just let me finish my thought.

LS – Certainly darling.  I was just trying to add emphasis for emphasis.  Okay?

MS – Okay.

LS – Okay.

Shmoe gives an involuntary shudder.

MS – Where was I?  Oh yes.  Some fly by night polling outfit calling itself Gallup, and boy that sounds like a made up name to me, claims that jailbird Trump is ahead of President Joe Biden nationally by ten points and ahead of him by significant margins in almost all of the critical swing states.  This is obviously propaganda meant to undermine the confidence of the American people in advance of the upcoming 2024 election.

LS – Boo!  Boo!!  Hiss!! Hiss!!

MS – (Staring menacingly) Are you done?

LS – Oops, sorry.

MS – (under his breath) Give me strength.  Anyway we’ve got President Joe Biden on a video chat and we’d like to have him clear the air about these phony polls.

A monitor behind the hosts projects the enormous image of the octogenarian politician which they turn to face.

MS – Hello Mr. President.  How are you today sir?

JB – Hi Shmoe, I’m pretty good.  I ate a little too much ice cream this morning so I’m trying to stay close to the bathroom for the next couple of hours.  Purely as a precaution mind you.  But otherwise I’m doing swell.

LS – Hi Mr. President.  I hope you feel better!

JB – Thanks Lycra.  My you’re looking cute as a button.  I wish I could smell that shampoo I sent you.  Mango papaya coconut dream is my favorite.  Maybe you could come over later for a sniff.  Boy you look good enough to bite!  Grrrr.  You remind me of a girl I knew back when I was a lifeguard.  She was pretty as a button too.  Back then they didn’t have the fruit scented shampoos like they have today.  But she smelled good too.

LS – Oh Mr. President, how exciting that sounds.  Maybe some other time.

MS – Ahem!  As wonderful as that would be, we’re in New York and you’re in Washington so maybe we could just move along with our interview?

JB – C’mon man!  I was just being friendly.  Sure sure.  Let’s move on.  What can I tell you?

MS – Well, Mr. President, we wanted your thought about that erroneous report circulating this morning.

JB – Those are damned lies.  I never took any money from the Chinese or the Ukrainians.  No way.  Now the Russians, well maybe.  But why shouldn’t I take their money?  We don’t like them right?  That would be patriotic.  And anyway, they can never prove it.  I had the CIA scrub that stuff six ways to Sunday.  And I spent all of it on that weekend at Hunter’s place.  So, no way they’ve got anything on me.

MS – Uhhhh.  No, we don’t want to talk about that.  I’m talking about the polls.  The ones that say Donald Trump is in the lead.

JB – Who?  That dog-faced pony soldier?  No way, no how.  We fixed his wagon.  You see I spoke to my old buddy Hatrack Barabbas, that sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, and he told me that as long as Trump is only ahead by anything less than two million votes we can grind that out with fake absentee ballots over the course of a couple of days after election day.  So no problem.

MS – Mr. President, we’re live on the air right now.

JB – Why you stupid son of a …

Suddenly the feed disappeared from the monitor and was replaced by a stock photo of the White House with the word, “oops” across the screen.

MS – Obviously the President was just demonstrating his puckish sense of humor.  There is nothing “fake” about absentee ballots and anyone who claims that is obviously a stooge for Trump and Putin.  But what President Biden was implying was that reliable pollsters have assured him and us that 2024 will be another amazing election year for Joe Biden.

LS – Oh, Shmoe isn’t it exciting.  Joey, I mean President Biden, on election night smiling with his bright, bright teeth and his aviator shades, sniffing my hair and calling me cute as a button.  You never say I’m cute as a button anymore.

Shmoe removes his earpiece and hurls it at Lycra and walks off the set.

Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 12DEC2023 – The New Political Reality

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I have already a noticed a change in how I approach other people and politics in general. I no longer seek to argue my position to outsiders. I know I’ve debated with all of you but, shock!, I don’t consider you all to be outsiders. Convincing my neighbor of the righteousness of my position is irrelevant and a waste of my time.

I have begun to look for allies, people who I might not agree with on everything but can still trust. Coalitions can be built based on common interest. I am not interested in walking ten miles in someone else’s shoes. Who can I ally with to bring about desired change? I guess I have come around to the coalition building approach of the Democrat Party and Tammany Hall. It’s us against them; you’re either with us or against us. No more foolish open mindedness that lets me be manipulated.

Political Impressionism

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Today’s screed will be at least slightly incoherent.  Had a long day and so now it’s late in the evening and my brain cells are firing haphazardly like a failing neon sign.  I think I’ll just work with the vague impression that reading the editorial page gives me.  I’ll be like the Monet of Right-Wing Vitriol.  I like the word vitriol.  Sulfuric acid was called oil of vitriol in the olden days and it is a powerful substance for dissolving supposedly strong metals like iron.  And I always liked copper sulfate or blue vitriol because it’s a deep blue crystalline material.  Basically, I’m a fan of vitriol in all its manifestations.  So, let’s see what’s out there.

The striking thing about the headlines lately is that wisps of the truth are beginning to appear all over the place.  Not in just right-wing blogs but in mainline “conservative websites and even in cable news on Fox and CNN and, heaven help us, MSNBC.  Taboo things are leaking out.  And because they’ve leaked into the world, they’re causing panic.  When Hunter Biden’s legal troubles are talked about on PBS or MSNBC, we get a whole song and dance about how the evil House Republicans are trying to tie Joe Biden to Hunter’s legal problems.  I think the approved boilerplate that has to be prefaced to any discussion of Hunter is that the House allegations “haven’t got a single shred of evidence linking Joe Biden to anything illegal.”  I think I heard the same exact wording on several different platforms.

Another impression I got was that the “inflation is falling and the economy is booming” narrative has finally slammed into reality so hard that even some of the cheerleaders are discussing damage control.  One lefty pundit was saying that maybe, just maybe, the slightly higher cost of living might be impacting some undetermined proportion of the population in a negative way.  Now that was a brave thing to admit while riding on the Biden Express.  Of course, it was a data point that was being used to suggest ever so delicately that maybe Joe should step aside for some “younger.”

I take the rumblings that show up in the lefty press much more seriously than the stuff on the right.  Right-wing happy talk is background noise.  But when the Left starts foaming at the mouth, or even better when they start to sweat, I get interested.  And they seem to be sweating profusely.  Now it’s a long, long way to November.  And the sheer breadth of dirty tricks and lawfare that the Deep State has up its sleeves is impressive.  Hauling Donald Trump off to prison is the least shocking thing they might do in the next eleven months.  But I get the distinct impression that things are very “ungood” in lefty world.  Maybe a big part of it is Ukraine.  Even the Washington Post has publicly stated that the Ukrainians aren’t going to beat the Russians.  Now it looks like the Republicans have realized that just saying no to another sixty billion dollars in aid is the smart way to go.

Now, nobody ever got rich betting that the Stupid Party would stop acting stupid.  So sure, they can screw it up.  But it looks like things are not going well for Team Biden in every facet of their agenda.  And as an impressionist that makes my canvass resemble one of those crazy Van Gough sunflower paintings or maybe his starry night.  It’s an image that makes me smile.  Sure, it’s just an impression.  And tomorrow reality will be back in focus.  But right now, in the blur of my fuzzy brain it looks pretty good.

Apologies to Don McLean