New Year’s Eve 2022 – Reflections

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It’s expected that we look back at the end of the year and try to draw some conclusions about what happened during the Earth’s last revolution around the Sun.  And I guess I see the value in that.  Some of the observations may not be very profound but there is value in reflecting on the various events and how they have or have not impacted our lives.  And we can look at trends and extrapolate on how those things will play out over the next year and beyond.  So, let’s say there’s value.

Looking back on the year, what stands out is the depths of the Republicans’ defeat by the Democrats.  I would say that there is no comparable example of an incumbent party in such a disastrous economy surviving a mid-term with so little damage to their ranks.  We are in a different place.  Whether it’s the ballot harvesting or a new majority of Americans out there, is hard for me to say.  Maybe it’s both.  But the importance of this new reality is impossible to overstate.

At the same time, I think we’ve reached the end of the awakening of the American population as to how their country is actually run.  Nobody believes in the myths of election fairness or unbiased behavior by the bureaucrats who really run this country.  Everyone has seen how the FBI and the courts treat Democrats and Republicans differently.  And this is the positive flip-side of the Democrats’ victory.  Everyone on the Right knows we’re being cheated and there will be no reconciliation.  The best the Left can expect is sullen resignation.  And if the opportunity ever arises, they can expect pay back.

On the economic front Biden’s war on hydrocarbons is having the expected results.  Almost every facet of the economy is suffering from very significant cost increases.  Food, energy, transportation and anything that has to be manufactured and shipped is more expensive.  Inflation is running between 10% and 20% depending on how you compute it.

The higher fuel costs are permanent.  And the current inflation is predicted to throw the economy into recession in 2023.  The layoffs that have already begun will reduce the inflation to some extent.  People will have to tighten their belts and save money where they can.  Those who lose their jobs are in for a really bad time.

Another trend that looks to be continuing is the migration from blue states like California and New York to red states like Texas and Florida.  Some is just economic reality because of the realities of blue state life; high taxes and bad business policy.  But some of it is people escaping the craziness.  And you can’t blame them.  The Blue cities have descended into chaos and the woke laws in these blue states cancel the freedoms we’re supposed to have under the Constitution.

As far as the Ukraine War, it’s very hard to say how all of that will end.  If the Russians have the wherewithal to crush the Ukraine, and I think they do, we’re going to be looking at a new international order.  If the Russians form a durable bloc with the Chinese the United States and Europe will be in a different environment.  Having abandoned industrial capacity in the United States and transferred it to China and more generally Asia, we are liable to lose the financial hegemony that we have enjoyed since the end of World War II.  Even the primacy of the US dollar is not assured.  And the ramifications of America’s descent from a global hegemon to just another competitor state will have very serious consequences for all of us.  We’ve been able to underwrite a defense budget, the size of which almost staggers the imagination.  When that is no longer possible, areas of our economy will contract radically and that will have a knock-on effect for the rest of the economy.  The United States is about to experience what every superpower from Spain to Britain experienced when it was knocked from the top perch of the global hierarchy.

And based on what happened in Afghanistan the people we have in charge of war and foreign policy are not very skilled at what they do.  There is a very real chance that they may botch a crisis.  They may even decide to interfere in the Ukraine war to such an extent that they panic or anger the Russians into a full nuclear exchange.  It’s hard to imagine that happening, but honestly, many people feel we are in a much worse place than we were back at the height of the Cold War.  And if that happens, we can stop thinking about extrapolations.  No one should pretend that they have any idea what the survivors of an all-out nuclear war will face or how things will evolve for humanity from that point.  All that is certain is that life will be infinitely worse than it is now.

But let’s assume for now that we avoid nuclear annihilation in the coming year.  It looks like we have some bad times coming.  The takeaway for me is to avoid incurring debt and build up any capability to earn money through enterprise.  Socially it makes sense to continue to reach out to friends, family and like-minded people to network and help each other any way we can.  And make a point of avoiding any entanglements with the Left at all costs.

So, there’s my review and extrapolation for 2022.  Happy New Year to all those out there.  Be happy and be safe.

Kevin McCarthy Struggling to Find Enough Votes to Become Speaker of the House

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Kevin McCarthy has so far been unable to assemble the 218 votes he needs to become Speaker of the House in January.  The usual suspects in the GOP establishment are wringing their hands and warning that to resist McCarthy’s accession to the Speaker’s gavel would be madness.  Some representatives who despise McCarthy have floated Steve Scalise’s name.

Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) said, “Steve Scalise is a good friend of mine, but he himself and many others have said they’re supporting McCarthy and will continue to support McCarthy. Again, there is no Plan B here. The plan is to get him elected as speaker. At the end of the day — we could be there two, three days — it doesn’t really matter. The majority of the conference understands that without him, we wouldn’t even be having this debate.”

That may be, but apparently McCarthy is worried and so he is making concessions to his opponents.

“The embattled California Republican is offering a congressional rule change that would make it easier to remove a House speaker in exchange for his ascension to the post. McCarthy’s offer would lower the threshold required for a motion to vacate the chair — a parliamentary gambit that forces a vote on retaining the speaker.

“Currently, because of rules change pushed through by Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi, only a member of the House leadership can offer a motion to vacate. Conservative House Republicans are pushing for that standard to be repealed, allowing any one member to force a vote on the speaker at any time.”

Well, well, well.  Some of the new congressmen don’t want the establishment hack to sell out their constituents.  If you ask me that’s pretty damn good.  It may not accomplish a thing but it restores faith that not every last politician in Washington is a fink.

Look, McCarthy will end up the Speaker and he will cut the usual deals with the Democrats that sell us out and make him a zillionaire.  But the fact that some of the reps are even trying to get some leverage over their future boss is a minor miracle from my point of view.

It at least shows that there’s an awareness of what the voters think of McCarthy and so these reps are at least trying to show that they’ll do more than just stand by and let the Uniparty sell us out according to standard operating procedure.

This is hardly a stunning victory.  It’s not even a feel-good story.  Let’s call this a tiny first step in the right direction.  But it’s a nice sequel to the ejection of Liz Cheney and most of the other Never-Trump impeachment traitors.  Let’s just call it a little creative schadenfreude.

The Litmus Test Going Forward

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For the last seven years we have been witness to an attempt to break this country loose from the power structure that controls almost every facet of our lives and inexorably drags the world further and further to the left.  We elected Donald Trump to be our savior.  He was going to close the border, restore the economy and free us from the mind control that the woke forces of Media and Industry had imposed.  He gave it a good try.  He was basically completely alone.  Almost all the people he appointed from the GOP establishment to work in his administration were working against him 24/7/52.  He did succeed in revealing to us just how corrupt and powerful were the bureaucrats who run the FBI, CIA, IRS and the other alphabet agencies that really run our government instead of the president.  And for that I am grateful to him.

But we now know that the Left permanently controls the federal election system.  Through ballot harvesting or whatever you want to call the voter fraud system they’ve enacted they appear to have a monopoly on control of the White House and the Senate going forward.  That’s the situation.

To my mind the only meaningful news from this point forward is when someone figures a way to gain ground on the Left.  What do I mean by gaining ground?  Well let me give an example.  Suppose one of the states decides to do something about illegal immigration.  For instance, suppose Texas legislates that anyone in the state found to be an  illegal alien was subject to arrest and incarceration until they agreed to voluntarily return to their country of origin permanently.  I would consider that gaining ground.  But it would only be a victory if that state manages to successfully defend such legislation from the legal onslaught that the federal government would surely bring to bear against it.  It would only count if they successfully implement the program and make it work.

So, you see what I mean.  At this point I’m only interested in results.  It’s been said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and we’ve been going down that road for a very long time.  I’m only interested in something that gets us off that road.  That’s my criterion.  I’m too tired of trumpeting the advent of someone on the Right talking about doing something.  Talk, as has often been noted, is cheap.  Results are not.

So that’s my new policy.  If I read about something promising.  I’ll be interested but excitement will be reserved for results.  All of the talk about election fraud lawsuits have garnered not one reversal of an election loss.  All of the articles about lethal vaccine side-effects haven’t resulted in the FDA protecting the public from these experimental treatments.  We’ve read about how the FBI and CIA called the shots at Twitter but there hasn’t been anyone in the government fired because of it.  There’s been a lot of talk but nothing has happened so there’s really nothing to talk about.

From time to time, I’ll still comment on things in the news.  But when something really happens, I’ll say that someone has gained ground.  In fact, I’ll start a new web tag on the site called Real Progress Against the Left.  I’ll include this post under that tag because it provides my policy and its definition.  But I don’t expect to add any other posts any time soon.  But I can always hope.

Enough of Gloom and Doom for the Last Week of the Year

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So that post I had up for yesterday was certainly depressing.  Well, I had an antidote for that today.  After getting home from an errand this afternoon, I had all four grandsons over for a viewing of the extended version of the “Return of the King.”  This includes my personal favorite scene from the motion picture series, “The Ride of the Rohirrim.”

There’s nothing like hanging out with my young descendants to cheer me up.  This was the first viewing of this decisive completion to the trilogy for the two younger fellows.  And there was much excitement over the visually impressive Battle of Minas Tirth.  We cheered on the good guys and laughed when the various orcs and trolls were splatted by projectiles hurled from the battlements.

Camera Girl, always the gracious hostess, provided grilled cheeses sandwiches, mac and cheese and desserts.  There were several pies, various flavors of ice cream, cheesecake and cookies available.  And this being a vacation week we all ate way too much.

After the movie ended, we debated many important points of Tolkeiniana.  I expressed my opinion that regardless of the violence done to the plot Sam should have been allowed to liquidate Gollum.  In all honesty, in the movie version, I despise both Gollum and Frodo almost equally.  Frodo is such a hopeless basket case that it defies imagination that Sam was able to finally carry him over the finish line to Mount Doom at all.  If they had taken along a ten-year-old girl instead it couldn’t have been any more pathetic.  I think if Elrond had given the ring to Sam, he would have chucked it in Mount Doom a couple of months early and been back in the Shire in time for potato planting.

My younger relatives seemed to enjoy most the scenes where Gimli and Legolas compete to kill the most orcs.  I have to confess the liberties that the movie makers took with the dialog around Gimli borders on the farcical but I will admit that sometimes the lightheartedness is a welcome addition.  Although I do draw the line at the dwarf tossing and elf snowboarding scenes in “The Two Towers.”

Eventually some of the discussions spilled over into arguments about the actual text in Tolkien’s books.  I had to bring out my copy of the trilogy in order to provide authoritative answers to questions like which were older, the Oathbreakers on the Paths of the Dead or the dead soldiers in the Dead Marshes?  As it turned out they were both from the same time period, the Last Alliance of Men and Elves against Sauron at the end of the Second Age.

And so, we ended the get together and I brought them home in time to finish their chores and prepare for the next day of their Christmas vacation.  But if life in this confused world still includes time with such admirable characters as my grandsons, then it can’t be all bad.  We’ll have many good things to do in the days and weeks ahead.  And I’ll get to see them grow up to be fine young men.  As for problems, well, helping family with their problems is what family is all about.