Category: Current Events

Bots Don’t Go for Spit

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What a crazy day.  We have a dog whose been sick for three days and hasn’t kept down a meal in over forty-eight hours.  I’ve discovered that our veterinary office is as useless as my dentist.  Other than routine shots during office hours everything else gets referred to either an urgent care practice or the local university animal hospital that performs procedures in a state-of-the-art facility for which you will be charged tens of thousands of dollars.  They even have a dog psychiatrist who became famous for prescribing Prozac to hyper-aggressive breeds.

After six hundred dollars’ worth of tests, it looks like a bad case of viral or bacterial enteritis.  She’s still wiped out but she’s holding stuff down even if it’s only water.  But it’s been a long week already and I’m kind of beat.  But let’s see what’s going on in my head.

I was interested to see how much traction Trump was making with the Europeans and Zelensky.  Here is a group of people who hate his guts but because of the skill he has working with groups of people who hate each other’s guts they realize he may be able to provide them with a solution to the nightmare that Biden and the globalists talked them into.  So, they’re gathered around him hoping for a miracle but fearing instead a kick to the groin.  But I don’t think I’ll tackle that story yet.  Putin and Zelensky are the oddest couple on planet Earth and I want to see how that plays out before putting in my two cents.

Instead let’s talk about bots.  I was reading an article that said that more than half the traffic on the internet is bots.  Now most of this isn’t malicious.  Some of it is search engines updating the contents of the internet.  But some of it is fake traffic for “influencers” and other sites.  And someone is paying for these clicks either directly as a service or an advertiser who thinks he’s getting eyes on his ad and instead has non-humans clicking on his ad with no chance of a sale possible.

So only fifty percent of the internet is real.  But some people think it’s much worse than that.  What if ninety percent is bots?  Now granted with the upgrades to “AI” these bots can make a very decent showing when they heckle you in the comments section or an X post.  But even the most dedicated keyboard warrior has to be at least slightly deflated to find out that nine out of his last ten owned libs are just some lines of code in the Matrix.

And thus, it seems to point to the need in the future for paywalls; not just to bring in some return on investment but just in order to know if it’s really someone with DNA and a pulse who’s talking to you or reading your stuff or even calling you a moron.  Because that’s the one thing that a bot won’t do.  It won’t pony up any cash whatsoever.  Bots don’t go for spit.  They never have and they never will.

When Will the Supreme Court Overturn Obergefell v. Hodges?

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Hillary Clinton thinks the Supreme Court will overturn Obergefell v. Hodges (the decision that discovered the right to gay marriage in the US Constitution) before the 2026 election.

I think she is drawing an analogy from the fact that the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June of 2022 in advance of the November 2022 mid-term elections.  Of course, there could be blowback from this decision that affects the midterms.  It might even cause the loss of the House of Representatives.  But you know, I kind of doubt it.  I think it’s a mistake to wait to make these decisions.  The future is uncertain and the opportunity that exists may be temporary.  What’s the expression?  “Strike while the iron is hot.”

Throwing abortion and gay marriage back under the jurisdiction of the states sort of takes the monolithic nature of the decisions away.  After all, the blue states will continue on without change and the red states will probably put it on the ballot and let their own people decide (well, except for very, very red states where it will be banned by their legislatures and governors).  I wonder if there might even be some states that allow gay marriage but forbid the adoption of children by these “families.”

Now I guess it’s possible that the Supreme Court might wait until after the midterms.  And it’s even possible that the court might uphold Obergefell v. Hodges.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see John Roberts vote to uphold it.  But I think the votes are there to overturn it.  And this brings up another case; Lawrence v. Texas.  This was the decision that made homosexuality a protected constitutional practice.  Is it probable that this decision would also be reconsidered?  Maybe it’s too much to hope for but since we’re seeing fifty-year precedents overturned why not this relatively recent ruling too?

You know, it’s not every day that I find myself in agreement with something Hillary Clinton says.  But in this particular case I think she’s correct.  I think the court will rule on Obergefell v. Hodges in 2026 and let the voters sort out how they want their states to stand on gay marriage.  And in the long run that is the healthiest way for these things to be handled.  We’re supposed to be living under a federal Constitution that allows most of the power to remain with the sovereign states.  Thinking that California and Mississippi would have the same opinions on abortion and gay marriage is ludicrous. But in the same way as many ludicrous actions have been taken by the federal government over the last half century and are now being adjusted it only makes sense that the Supreme Court is also going through a reevaluation of unjustified decisions that strayed well beyond the bounds of Constitutional authority and created laws that had no right being written.

My hope is that this trend continues and that President Trump has the chance to appoint several more justices to ensure that the conservative majority is protected and even increased over the next three and a half years.  And in fact, I hope he has the opportunity to replace many Democratic federal judges with conservatives, especially in the blue districts like Washington DC, the Northeast and the west coast.  But my thanks to Hillary for bringing this opinion to my attention.  It brought a smile to my face.  Now how often has she done that?  As far as I can remember not since 2016.

A Window into Death

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This morning when I woke up the house was noticeably cooler than it’s been in a month.  It was sixty degrees or thereabouts.  So, Fall is making its entrance felt.  Lots of leaves under the maple tree and the grass is drying out.  The raspberry canes are still producing tons of berries but the lower leaves are all turning yellow.  Well, the kids go back to school on Monday and so this is the end of summer by decree and by degree.  So be it.

Well, it was a terrific summer weatherwise and we did most of the things we wanted to.  And we had a big party at the end.  So now it’s time to anticipate the good stuff that comes with Fall.  Well?  I guess the only thing about Fall that’s good is the long evenings allow us to watch old movies and plan for the holidays.  Certainly, there’s more to do than that.  Fall is when you’re supposed to do the repairs and weatherproofing that prevents winter from doing a lot of damage.  And I do plan to do that stuff.  But let’s be honest here.  I hate that stuff.  I’ve been talking about getting some tarps to cover over the woodwork on the balconies and the outside staircase for about ten years and I haven’t gotten any closer to doing it yet.  I’m just an immensely lazy man whose strong suit is dithering, waffling, vacillating and procrastination.  Of course I blame Camera Girl.  If she were half as good at nagging as she is at cooking, I’d be a model husband.  But it’s the cross I bear.

So, a couple of nights ago TCM had “Psycho” on and Camera Girl was watching it.  Well, I was busy but I noted her choice in passing.  And while I was working in the dining room, I could hear snatches of music and dialog.  And I could tell it was getting toward Marion Crane’s (Janet Leigh’s) fateful arrival at the Bates Motel.  So, I dropped what I was doing and sat through Marion’s supper with Norman and all the way through her murder and subsequent deposition in the “swamp.”  By the way, how much of Southern California actually has any swampland?

Now I’ve seen Psycho dozens of times.  And the murder scene has always struck me as well done.  It’s well staged and well shot.  And having seen it so many times allowed me to watch it this time analytically.  And I thought that the critical snatch of film is when Marion is luxuriating in the shower and the camera shifts to the room through the shower curtain and you see the door open and a silhouette appear in the doorway.

That is the moment when death has entered the frame.  The actual killing with the blood and piercing, screaming “music” is almost an anticlimax.

And then I watched Marion Crane die from loss of blood.  And it was remarkably well acted and achingly sad.  Here was a young woman whose impatience to be with the man she loved had driven her to steal an enormous amount of money.  But just as she’s figured out what she needs to do to escape from the trap she’s gotten herself into, fate steps in and feeds her into a buzz saw of insanity.

The rest of the movie is a murder mystery and a psychological horror show.  But the end of the murder scene is a tiny window into an intensely poignant moment; the death of a human being and specifically the death of a beautiful young woman.  Janet Leigh’s face conveys the reality that Marion Crane’s brain is shutting down from lack of blood and her world has shrunk down to just trying to grasp the shower curtain with her hand.  And then she dies and her body lies crumpled on the floor and her unfocussed eye stares into space.  That’s the best acting in the movie.

So, despite the spectacle from then on, the interesting part of the movie is the first forty minutes that record Marion Crane’s date with destiny.  And I’ll include her conversation with Norman.  He does communicate his pathetic version of what he thinks the world is about.  And in some sense, he provides a sounding board to allow her to think about what to do about her own private trap.

Well, anyway, it’s Fall and old movies are the thing to do.

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 18AUG2025 – A Miracle?

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What we have is a miracle. To be honest after 2020’s lopsided “defeat” I figured the Democrats had a lock on things at least through 2028. The reality was that Biden was a REAL mess and the infighting within the White House made it look like there were three or four different factions fighting for control of the Presidential puppet. That and the choice of the clearly DEI VP candidate (Biden SAID he was going to choose a black female outright) who was not even competent in her previous tasks lead to a result that baffled the Democrat pundits come November 2024.

Trump and his team have been going gangbusters. Not that there haven’t been issues. Someone that understands engineer types needed to soothe Mr. Musk’s feathers in particular praising his team for what they did get done against incredible odds. Getting USAID under control has done much to starve the Democrat punditry and nomenaclatura. The Trump people also had less control of the Senate, the President Pro-tem is slow walking things. In addition, there seem to be lots of district and appellate court nominations going wanting and many deputy positions also unfilled. This is where the current troubles are. That said for 7-8 months into a 4 year term they’re not doing too badly given the headwinds they’re sailing against.

2026 is going to be a battle Royal. This is do or die for the Dems. If they can’t take back either the House or the Senate this just keeps rolling on for 2 more years and likely there would be strong restrictions on the remote voting the Democrats are so fond of. If the Democrats can get one arm they can tie things up and maybe even negotiate some minor wins as many Republicans try to play nice. This is like playing nice with a nest of Black Widow spiders but somehow some Republicans fail to perceive this.

Honestly, where the heck the Democrats go in 2028 baffles me. in the last decade or so there have been 3 wings to the Democrats, The Clinton wing, The Obama Wing, and the AOC/Bernie/Squad wing. The Clinton “middle of the road” (it ain’t middle by at least three rows of tall trees) wing seems to be heading to dormancy/decline. Newsome is sort of their kind of candidate charismatic, and he’s positioning towards the “middle” although like the Clintons before him his real positions are far to the left of what he’s staking out. The Obama wing really has no one. Mrs. Obama may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but she is smart enough to know she doesn’t want the job. Most of the Biden appointees are absolute messes (e.g. Pete Buttigieg, who couldn’t even manage to not run DOT into the ground). The Squad has some known names like Ocasio-Cortez, but none play well outside deep blue enclaves. I suspect if Mamdani wins the NYC Mayoral post, he’ll be so awful he’ll make Mayor Dinkins look like Mayors Koch or Giuliani. That will sour red and purple US districts to ANY of the Squad/Bernie type candidates. So I think we get at least 1 term of Vance. This crosses the 2030 barrier and may mean a more precise census.

No it’s not a golden era. To fix things we REALLY need huge advantages, 2/3 in both houses and 3/4 (38) of the state legislatures, so amendments could be moved through to pin down some things (e.g. Citizenship, Census taking, Supreme court judge numbers, etc.). But it is surely that worldline is far superior to what would have happened if Dems had remained in control. Down that path lay some variant of Mr. Schlicter’s Peoples Republic at best.

What If We’re Not Doomed

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How many times have pundits (including my humble self) declared that we are already irrevocably tobogganing down the slope toward the decline and fall of the American Empire?  Probably too many to count.  And it’s not as if there isn’t a lot of dysfunction everywhere you look.  I won’t go through the litany.  It’s almost endless but all we have to mention to provide an undeniable example of societal rot and insanity is the spectacle of the American Medical Association embracing “gender affirming” treatments for minors including hormone therapies, mastectomies, hysterectomies and castration.

But what if things are about to improve?  Suppose the Trump administration is followed by the Vance administration and during this reprieve from leftist lunacy the country gets its financial health back to a greater extent.  Let’s go with that scenario.  People have enough money to buy houses again and raise kids and plan for the future.  What would that look like?  Of course, I have no way of actually knowing but let’s play the game and throw out some ideas and see if it leads us somewhere.

First off, I think it’s important to say what it won’t look like.  It’s not going to look like America in the 1950s or even the 1980s or 1990s.  The adults and children today; the millennials and the zoomers are very different from my parents’ generation and mine.  They’ve been propagandized in school and through social media to despise the world from those olden times.  They’re ashamed of their parents and grandparents and want to conform to the norms they’ve been taught.

Some of this can be seen in the situation playing out in New York City’s mayoral race.  The last two mayors have been liberal Democrats and under their administrations all the improvements in quality of life and safety gained during Republican mayors have been lost and the city is on the verge of collapsing into chaos.  So, what do the people there want in the next mayor?  A communist!  Now this is just an example.  There are others.  A similar radical is running for mayor of Minneapolis.  So, there is no lack of evidence that the millennials believe insane things.  Now it is true that there is precedent for people who believe these things being gob-smacked by reality and changing their minds.  Maybe that’s what we’re going to see.  It happened to the baby boomers in the nineteen seventies and eighties.  Maybe it’ll happen again.

But regardless, things will be very different.  I believe there has been a breach between the older America and what will follow.  It will not be the monolithic culture.  It will be several, or possibly many separate cultures.  Identity groups have been spawned and they will not disappear.  Ethnic and locality identities will develop and they will complicate social cohesion.  Hollywood and other purveyors of cultural content won’t be able to put out one product that resonates with everyone.  We already see that.  The multicultural experiment with superhero movies and other content have fizzled because people recognize they’re being handed a narrative to cheer for someone else’s team.  How many teenage boys want a female superhero beating up on much larger men as the template for the movies they are being handed.  They just stay home and play video games that allow them to control the narrative.

So, America might recover and even thrive.  But it will take generations for it to coalesce into a common identity.  In the meantime, we and our descendants will have to look out for our own interests, forming alliances and voting blocks where advantage exists.  There may even be a shining city on a hill.  But on the next hill may be a hellhole.  And that’s just the way it’ll have to be.

Well, Maybe It Wasn’t Such a Small Part of the Funding

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Despite assurances that federal funds were a miniscule part of the budget for PBS and NPR, those media groups have already begun to feel the effects of the rescission:

PBS To Cut Budget By 21% Following Public Media’s Loss of Federal Funding

“PBS plans to cut its budget by 21% as public media faces the loss of $1.1 billion in federal funding over the next two fiscal years.

Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, informed station general managers Wednesday of the planned cuts. The overall pool of station dues will be reduced by $35 million, she said. Local outlets are grappling with their own budget holes given the loss of federal support.”

Very sad.

David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart are two “journalists” that appear on Fridays on the PBS NewsHour and I think that part of that $35 million could be offset by firing one of them.  Now how to do that is a question.  What occurs to me is a scene from the classic tv series Star Trek:

David and Jonathan could be dressed as Thralls and forced to battle in the arena while PBS viewers place wagers in quatloos that will pay the salary of whichever of them walks out of the arena alive.

Also, I read that NPR is forced to reduce its budget by $8 million for next year.  Also, very sad.

The article stressed that replacement funds from private corporations have not been forthcoming because the other Congressional budget cuts have impacted how corporations are allocating their charitable donations.  Apparently, everyone is scrambling after alternative funding sources and there just isn’t enough money to go around.  Also very, very sad.

So, what’s the takeaway here?  Well, I think it’s important to remember that when the Left tells you that government funding for something they like is miniscule and unimportant, that means it’s a lot of money and it’s critical to their operation.  And I think it goes without saying that the money is being used to make very comfortable existences for the people at the top.  There are homes in Northern Virginia and Ivy League tuitions and expensive wines at lunch that are being funded with that money.  Now that doesn’t mean that those things will go away because of these cuts.  No, that’s not how it works.  It probably means several lower echelon people will lose their jobs and several shows won’t get made.  Maybe the next Ken Burns series will be cut or Masterpiece will have to use American actors instead of British.  Or as I said Books and Capon; I mean Brooks and Capehart will have to get whittled down to Brooks or Capehart.

Now you might wonder if the heads of PBS and NPR might have an epiphany and try to sell Congress on the idea that they could truly produce non-partisan and unbiased content that appeals to both the Left and Right.  They could bring aboard conservatives on their boards and in management and put together a lineup of shows that even Donald Trump, Speaker Johnson and Senator Mike Lee would be willing to fund.  Now that would be something.  Of course, the chances of that happening are of the same order of magnitude as Nancy Pelosi going to heaven.

So, congratulations again to Donald Trump and his friends in Congress.  Their unprecedented action to defund PBS and NPR is already bearing fruit in ways we cannot yet appreciate.  Some show advocating for pediatric trans-surgery is probably not going to be funded because no corporate sponsor will want to touch it.  Very, very, very sad.

Bravo.

Swapping Territory

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Girl Boss Anchor – I’m here in Anchorage Alaska with my former colleague David Books.  Hello David.

David Books – Hello Girl Boss Anchor.

Girl Boss Anchor – David how were you able to get time off from Red Lobster for this remote assignment?

David Books – I’m supposed to be taste testing a large batch of King Crab legs that’s being shipped to us.

Girl Boss Anchor – How plebian.

David Books – Up yours, lady.

Girl Boss Anchor – Moving right along.  We’re here to provide commentary on the historic meeting between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin as they make a vain attempt to broker a peace in Ukraine.

David Books – Well, shouldn’t you at least pretend that you want this to succeed?

Girl Boss Anchor – If you insist David.  And look Trump and Putin are walking out of the conference room smiling and laughing.  Something must be up.  Let’s listen to their statement.

Donald Trump – As President of the United States; a very great country, I am happy to announce that we have negotiated a fair and equitable solution to the Ukraine war.  And just as I said it required some territory swapping.  Right Vladimir?

Vladimir Putin – You said it, Droog!

Donald Trump – I will be in contact with President Zelensky of Ukraine and let him know that Ukraine will not have to cede any land for peace.  But it will be necessary to allow any Russian or even Ukrainian citizens who want to leave Ukraine to report to a relocation center for processing.

Girl Boss Anchor – Mr. President, are you saying that Russian speaking Ukrainians will be migrated to Russia for resettlement?

Donald Trump – Well, technically yes.  But only because these new territories will become part of Russia.

Girl Boss Anchor – What does that mean?

Donald Trump – The Ukrainian thing has been folded into a larger land deal.  You know how I enjoy real estate deals.  Well, sometimes if you combine several deals together the combination is greater than the sum of its parts.

Girl Boss Anchor – But what other deals are there?

Donald Trump – Well, you’ve probably heard that Western Canada is getting ready to vote on seceding from Canada.  That’s British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  And you know how I’m interested in picking up Greenland.  And you know how miserable the West Coast; California, Oregon and Washington are.  And the Northeast is just as miserable living under my presidency.  So, I’ve brokered a tentative deal.  Russia gets Alaska, the West Coast and British Columbia.  We get Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Greenland and Canada get the Northeast.  As far as I can see it’s win/win/win.

Vladimir Putin – Da!  Santa Barbara much nicer than Crimea, bah!

Donald Trump – See everybody’s happy.

David Books – What are you talking about?  That’s insane.  That would require a constitutional amendment to allow the ceding of US territory.  The Canadians will never agree to it and the Russians are our existential foes that threaten us with nuclear annihilation at the drop of a hat.  And the West Coast will never stand for Russian autocracy.

Donald Trump – Yeah, well, I made a few calls and everybody’s on board.  We can dot the i’s and cross the t’s later but shouldn’t you be down on the dock tasting crab legs Booksie?

David Books – You’ll never get away with this.  Putin is a war criminal and no one will do business with him if he tries something like this.

Donald Trump – Well I wouldn’t get him mad at you if I were you.  After all you’ll be buying Russian King Crabs from him very soon.

Vladimir Putin – Da, Booksie.  Try to keep it friendly comrade.  You wouldn’t want to see a price hike, now, would you?

David Books – I really have to take up drinking.

Girl Boss Anchor – And there you have it viewers.  Donald Trump has used insane Solomonic horse trading to recast the world we live in and apparently my choice is move to flyover country or become a Canadian, bleh.

David Books – Hey shut up!  I’m Canadian!

Girl Boss Anchor – Well viewers, good night and have an anti-depressed tomorrow.

Thinking Outside the Box

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Girl Boss Anchor – And finally as we conclude the news of the week, I’d like to go out to our former colleague Jonathan Capon and find out how the President’s new DC policy of federalizing the police and adding National Guard troops is working out there on the mean streets.

Jonathan Capon – Oh, so now you want to talk to me.  Where were you last week when my PBS credit card stopped working and the ATM ate it?  Well anyway, this week the National Guard glued a poster to the outside of our refrigerator box that said, “This illegal domicile will be removed from the public space Thursday at 5am.”  Now, whoever heard of a government job that gets going before the sun comes up?

Girl Boss Anchor – That sounds very challenging Jonathan.  How have you coped with this threat of homelessness?

Jonathan Capon – Well I started crying uncontrollably and Big Bob comforted me by slapping me six or seven times in the face.  It was like that scene in the “Asphalt Jungle” when the crooked cop starts slapping the weak hoodlum to get him to rat on his friends.  By the way, it was quite effective.

Girl Boss Anchor – That sounds awful.

Jonathan Capon – Well everything is relative.

Girl Boss Anchor – But what do you intend to do tomorrow?

Jonathan Capon – I guess start looking for a new refrigerator box and a new corner to live on.

Girl Boss Anchor – But what if Trump does this everywhere in DC?

Jonathan Capon – Well then, guess what, he better have a plan for where to put us.  Because there are thousands and thousands of us.

Girl Boss Anchor – There has been talk about reopening mental hospitals and putting the homeless and the drug addicts there.  It sounds like Nazi Germany.

Jonathan Capon – You know, maybe that doesn’t sound so bad at this point.  I’d prefer to be back at PBS or even the Red Lobster but if someone has at least realized that people living on the streets is a symptom of a bigger problem then maybe Donald Trump isn’t as evil as I made him out to be for all these years.

Girl Boss Anchor – I’ll have to say Jonathan that this may just be some kind of Stockholm syndrome you’re experiencing.

Jonathan Capon – Yeah, well, listen “pantsuit,” living out here for the last few months has given me a fresh perspective on life.  And the nuances of intersectional ideology don’t provide guidance when a naked three-hundred-pound man starts getting overly friendly with you inside a refrigerator box in the dark.  Or when someone puts a knife to your throat because you fished a half-eaten pizza out of a dumpster and he wants it.

Girl Boss Anchor – Well Jonathan, that pantsuit comment was uncalled for and it seems that being laid off by PBS has turned you into a radical MAGA ideologue so I think I’ll cut this interview short.

Jonathan Capon – Yeah, fine.  I’ve got to get going too.  Wednesday is free baths at the carwash across town and I can’t afford to miss this week.  I want to make a good impression on the National Guard.  I hear they’re taking resumes for the new ICE jobs.

Girl Boss Anchor – Fascist!

The Trump Trajectory

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People talked about the “Reagan Revolution.”  I guess it was a conscious effort to leave the malaise of the 1970s behind.  It rejected the pessimism that grew out of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Oil Crisis and the general chaos that was spawned during the 1960s counterculture.  Reagan said that pessimism was unfounded and that America was ready to become “that shining city on a hill” that it was meant to be.

And to some extent, the booming 1980s sort of proved him right.  The hippies became yuppies and made a killing on Wall Street.  And away we went.  Of course that wasn’t all of it.  Reagan was followed by Bush senior and Clinton and Bush junior and all of them pushed agendas that didn’t include the long-range prosperity of the bulk of the American people.  They were intent on a “new world order” and getting their slice of the pie under the table.  So, the Reagan revolution didn’t end up with all of us living on that shining city on the hill.  Most of us ended up on the other side of the tracks and broke.

And that brings us to MAGA.  It’s sort of the Reagan Revolution 2.0 without the PG rating that 1940s Hollywood lent to Reagan.  We’ve got Donald Trump running this train and he’s got more of an R rating vibe to him.  But then again, in the age we’re in that doesn’t seem shocking or even surprising.  But what it does leave us to wonder about is where do we end up?  There were, are and probably always will be very powerful interest groups that are constantly lobbying for the federal government to do their bidding.  Arms dealers and hedge funds and pharmaceutical companies are constantly jockeying for Congress and the President to buy their weapons or approve their drug or pass a law to lock in their profits.  And all of these decisions could be detrimental to the future of you and yours.  Currently Donald Trump is calling the shots and he’s sticking it to the globalists and the Deep State and doing everything he can to make the job environment better for the middle and working classes of this country.  And I think this will re-ignite some of the optimism, opportunity and affluence that we saw and felt in the 1980s and 1990s.  And that’s wonderful.  So many of the young are hanging on by a thread and need some good times to help them catch up and live middle-class lives again.

But what comes after Trump?  Let’s be optimistic and say that by 2028 Trump has managed to hang onto his control and sparks a boom economy.  And because of that JD Vance gets catapulted into the White House.  Will he have the vision it takes to prevent the same kind of shenanigans that Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama and Biden allowed to happen?  I don’t know if he has the same kind of smarts that Trump has.  I’m not saying he’s dumb.  He seems eloquent and sharp.  But is he enough of a hustler to know when someone is trying to hustle him?  Because I think that’s what it comes down to.  Now the good thing is that Vance used to be a working class (at best) guy.  He may have a loyalty to the shlubs.  But can he out hustle all those crooks in DC?

And I think that is what it all comes down to.  Will JD Vance and Peter Thiel and Elon Musk throw in with us instead of Raytheon, Blackrock and Pfizer?  That’s the bottom line.  And can the majority of voters in this country throw in with them or will they instead vote for the next Mamdani or whatever communist flim-flam man comes down the pike next.  In other words, are Americans smart enough to vote for their own long-term interests.

That’s what I wonder.

What Have We Got to Lose?

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This week Donald Trump has a meeting in Alaska with Vladimir Putin.  I find this intriguing.  And not because I believe they are on the cusp of agreeing to the end of the Ukraine war.  Far from it.  Ukraine and Russia are killing each other there at an industrial scale and there does not seem to be an end in sight.  So that doesn’t seem to be on the agenda.

And maybe that’s the point.  I think both men are getting together despite knowing that no peace deal is currently possible.  So why are they getting together?  I’m not really sure of the answer but maybe it’s because they both know they are in a sort of unique position.  I think that maybe both of them want to find a way out of this nightmare and maybe they figure if they meet up without those in their orbits who want to keep the war going forever, that maybe they can figure something out that would satisfy both sides.

I know that Trump doesn’t want any part of this war but the neo-cons are very powerful in the Congress and even to some extent in his administration.  As for Putin, he’s in a million dead Russians so he can’t just walk away.  And even if he could there are a lot of Russians in Ukraine and he’s carving out a homeland for them.

But all and still, there may be a way to move this thing forward so that the killing stops.  And maybe that’s why both of them are there.  Trump’s whole persona is “the art of the deal.”  He probably figures it couldn’t hurt to talk to the other head honcho.  It’s not as if he’s afraid the other guy will talk him into a bad deal.  So how could it hurt?

Of course, if the two of them walk away accomplishing absolutely nothing and can’t even come up with some story about how these are the “first steps toward peace” then it will look like a loss for Trump.  And Trump must know this.  So, he must think there is something to be gained that outweighs that risk.  And that’s what intrigues me.  Could both of them be there for entirely the right reasons?  Could these two supremely egotistical and cynical men be getting together because they want to change the trajectory of the world?  Because if you think about it, they’re the only two men on this planet who have the authority and clout to actually do it.  Between the two of them, they control about 90% of the nuclear weapons on the planet and between the two of them they control some enormous amount of the resources (both natural and financial) of the planet.  Now certainly, both of them are constrained by the political systems they exist in.  Believe it or not Putin is considered a moderate in his regime structure and Trump has to deal with the military-industrial complex that is still insanely powerful.

But they still are the chief executive officers of two very, very powerful entities.  And imagine if the reason they are going to meet is to try and untangle the conflagration that Biden and the neo-cons has allowed to engulf us.  Maybe they can find a path.  Or maybe it’s hopeless.  But I give them both credit for trying.  What have we got to lose?