Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 19MAY2026 – Politics

Hard to call for 2026. Right now the house is held by 5 republicans plus an independent who caucuses with them. with the California redistrict vs Florida and the lame one seat win in Louisiana (which could have been 2) AND Indiana going AWOL I think it’s going to be very tight, likely slightly Democrat (5-10 seats). The big question on the Senate side is Platner vs Collins. Collins is not the best candidate from a conservative view, But probably better for us than Platner most days. Platner is such a fricking mess and there’s likely far more dirt that Collins can use that the elderly and upstate folks probably will swamp Portland and Southern Maine. The thing that would be good to do is close out Iran but resolving that such that things recover before 11/3 will take some really lucky breaks that I just don’t see happening. We HAVE to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon they make North Korea look like a calm reasonable opponent.
One race to watch is the LA mayor. If LA unblues enough to elect Pratt all then things get really odd.

2028 is a totally different situation. Likely, the major issue (Iran) will be resolved at some level. That unblocks large parts of the economy. Although the last half of the Trump administration probably gets stalled due to a blue house (and tied or slightly blue senate) they really cant do much as they haven’t got a veto proof majority and are unlikely to get one. So we get 2 years of sitzkrieg unless a miracle occurs.
Problem is the Democrats have no one that can easily steal states from the electoral coalition that Trump used. Newsome is an idiot and anathema to middle America, AOC is worse. Spanberger might have been an option but her run at the gerrymandering and the gun nonsense makes it clear she is just a traditional far left Liberal cosplaying as middie of the road. Buttigieg? Please don’t make me laugh. Shapiro from PA? If they would take him he MIGHT have a chance. Except he is never getting by the primaries because of the massive antisemitism of the democrat far left base. Kamala? She couldn’t even hardly touch Trump who had massive negatives in her base. The blue Gerontacracy that was boosted by Obama backstabbing any up and coming Pols means their bench is essentially all folks politically based in deep blue one party states. They have no clue where the middle is and any attempt to go there will get you slammed in the primaries. And because these are such lame candidates they will have basically no coattails. I’d expect things in 2028 to swing back to a more 2024 like situation with likely small Republican margins. And that takes us to 2030 where the big prize is fixing the ersatz 2020 census. That census is going to be absolutely critical, not controlling it will mean you’re headed to the edges for up to 10 years. It will already slame the blue states even if the questionable practices of 2020 are not removed. If they are removed the house might lean 20+ seats red in the 2032 elections.

The one big worry is we have 2 fairly old Supreme Court members who are the bulwarks of originalist interpretation (Thomas at 77 and Alito at 76). Should we lose them and the Senate is blue or evenly divided replacing them with other than some squishball moderate gets REAL hard. Add Roberts at 71 who although not SUPER dependable tends more to the originalist side unless he is trying to curry favor or look wise.

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 07MAY2026 – Things to Come

Yeah 2026 is looking dicey to say the least. 2028 looks good for Presidential unless something goes wrong (or is made to go wrong A La 2020). The Democrat presidential slate is looking very weak in comparison to either Vance or Rubio. The 2028 Senate and House I would say LEAN republican, but it depends heavily on local status, especially the economy, and if the Dems get the House or Senate in 2026 they can play havoc with that.
2028 is critical as whoever holds the executive in 2029 on the lead-up to the census controls how that counting is done. It would help to have Congress just in case some Judge (I’m looking at YOU Boasberg ) gets feisty and throws a hissy fit (sorry, injunction) against counting methods. As it is several blue states are due to lose representation (CA, NY RI and a couple others) to several Red States (Especially FL and TX). The magnitude of those losses depends on how you count. The Constitution says (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3)

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

 

 

The Thirteenth Amendment and the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 essentially reduce it to “the whole Number of free Persons”. As it is free persons, the clear interpretation is any human beings you find (sadly) not Citizens or Voting age Citizens or similar that would make better sense. Changing that would likely take a constitutional amendment. However, two issues would require at most Congressional support (and possibly are within the realm of the Executive branch).

The first is that currently, many populations are estimated, especially in large cities, and those estimates include folks who may or may not exist. The constitutional language seems clear: “The actual Enumeration” estimation is NOT by any means enumeration/counting and certainly is NOT within what the writers likely envisioned with that language. Certainly, the aspect of recording names and addresses of each person is contrary to just estimating. Throw away the estimates, and large Cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and NYC, as well as likely some Red cities like DFW, Austin, Miami and Atlanta) lose large swaths of their populations.

The second is the last half of the census sentence “and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct”. This seems to give great latitude to Congress on how the Census should/must be run. It may be that Congress long ago delegated this power to the Executive.

So control of the 2030 Census could drive control of the House delegations through 2040. It will be interesting to see if the Democrat side understands/admits this quandary. If the Democrats find some Abigail Spanberger (run from the middle until elected) type candidate, they might be able to squeak things out in 2028. The problem is their base loves the Squad/Mamdani/Platner/etc and the base is who turns out for primaries. That is going to drive the Democrat candidates hard left, and Hard Left does NOT win the presidency. On top of that a Hard Left candidate will only have “coattails” in blue or bluish states, That means getting the House in opposition to a popular Republican candidate will be a challenge (or so I dearly hope).

Ancient European History – Part 3

In H. G. Wells’ “The Outline of History,” He writes a couple of paragraphs at the conclusion of his description of the Fall of the Roman Empire.   He discusses the phenomenon of “Caesarism.”

“But while the smashing of the Roman social and political structure was thus complete, while in the east it was thrown off by the older and stronger Hellenic tradition, and while in the west it was broken up into fragments that began to take on a new and separate life of their own, there was one thing that did not perish, but grew, and that was the tradition of the world empire of Rome and of the supremacy of the Cæsars. When the reality was destroyed, the legend had freedom to expand. Removed from the possibility of verification, the idea of a serene and splendid Roman world-supremacy grew up in the imagination of mankind, and still holds it to this day.

Ever since the time of Alexander, human thought has been haunted by the possible political unity of the race. All the sturdy chiefs and leaders and kings of the barbarians, who raided through the prostrate but vast disorder of the decayed empire, were capable of conceiving of some mighty king of kings greater than themselves and giving a real law for all men, and they were ready to believe that elsewhere in space and time and capable of returning presently to resume his supremacy, Cæsar had been such a king of kings. Far above their own titles, therefore, they esteemed and envied the title of Cæsar. The international history of Europe from this time henceforth is largely the story of kings and adventurers setting up to be Cæsar and Imperator (Emperor). We shall tell of some of them in their places. So universal did this “Cæsaring” become, that the Great War of 1914-18 mowed down no fewer than four Cæsars, the German Kaiser (= Cæsar), the Austrian Kaiser, the Tsar (= Cæsar) of Russia, and that fantastic figure, the Tsar of Bulgaria. The French “Imperator” (Napoleon III) had already fallen in 1871. There is now (1920) no one left in the world to carry on the Imperial title or the tradition of Divus Cæsar except the Turkish Sultan and the British monarch. The former commemorates his lordship over Constantinople as Kaisar-i-Roum[274]; the latter is called the Cæsar of India (a country no real Cæsar ever looked upon), Kaisar-i-Hind.”

 

Mr. Wells had his finger on something.  There is a fascination, not with the reality of the actual Roman Empire, but with the fantasy of it as this just, omnipotent, supremely competent and efficient ruler and government.  Now as any student of that era knows this was an almost polar opposite of what the empire actually was.  The oligarchs who reaped the lion’s share of the benefits from the empire’s permanence were heartless creatures who thought of the poor (slave or free) as nothing but animals to be harvested in every way imaginable.

And maybe this gives us a clue as to what kind of government we’re supposed to have.  We’re looking for a system where the humans aren’t treated like animals.  The first thing that comes to mind is the evolution of Socialism and Communism as secular stand-ins for the Christian church.  The “love your neighbor” part of it puts us in mind of the utopian brotherhood that Marx and the other socialists touted as their goal.  But of course, we all remember how those experiments end; death camps, oligarchs (commissars) and bread lines.

The opposite is capitalism with a capitol K.  And we’re currently living through that right now.  And once again we get oligarchs.  But this bunch just send our jobs to China and tell us to stop having children to “save the planet.”  So somehow, we’ve got to figure out a third way.

 

Different thinkers have tried to come up with different ways to allow representative government to more satisfyingly express the needs and will of the people.  Robert A. Heinlein thought that the vote should be restricted to veterans of the armed services.  Some have thought that only people with children should be able to vote.  And, of course, women think they’re the only ones qualified to vote.  There have been schemes whereby the number of votes you have should be based on things like how much you pay in taxes or receive in government benefits.  In other words, the more you pay into the system the more you get to decide.

There’s one guy named Curtis Yarvin who believes we need a monarch who should be chosen and overseen in the same way that a company selects and oversees a CEO (Chief Executive Officer).  In some ways this is an interesting idea.  The concept becomes a little fuzzy when he tries to describe what the equivalent is to the Chairman and other members of the Board of Directors.  But he’s right in the sense that the leader of this country needs much more authority in order to get things done.  It seems pretty clear that our system of checks and balances between the three branches of government have failed to produce good governance.  The bureaucracy has become bloated and arrogant and need to be pared back radically.  The judiciary is a hornet’s nest of special interests and influence peddling as are the Houses of Congress.  And the stalemate between the Left and Right is maddening to anyone who wants this country fixed.  We seem to be at a dead end.

What’s the answer?

Lesson Painfully Learned

So, what have we learned?  What have I learned?  After fifty years as an adult living in the United States I have learned one thing.

The only thing that counts from leaders is results.

In addition to that are all the other things you learn by living in the madhouse that was the last quarter of the twentieth century and the first quarter of the twenty first:

  • Talk, of all kinds, is cheap and almost meaningless.
  • Good intentions by themselves achieve nothing.
  • Action that is not informed by intelligence and purpose can sometimes be worse than inaction.
  • Most politicians are liars and crooks.
  • Those that aren’t, often are insane.
  • Everyone has ulterior motives. The trick is to align with those whose motives are compatible with yours.
  • There are no angels out there, only men. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
  • Allies can come from the most unexpected corners.
  • Stay far away from really stupid people. They’ll get you killed.
  • Lots of conspiracy theories have turned out to be true. Be careful whom you talk to.
  • Just because you’re the only one in a dozen people who think something is a bad idea doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It might mean they’re feds.
  • Someone can be really smart and have all the facts and still come to the wrong conclusions. Use common sense.
  • There are nuts on both sides of the political divide. Use common sense.
  • Don’t let political differences destroy your family. Tread gently here.
  • Keep a sense of humor. You’ll need it.
  • Don’t let hate eat you up. Most of the people on the other side aren’t monsters.  A few are but don’t transfer that status to everyone.  Unless you live in some kind of red bubble you will meet up with the Left.  Don’t become unhinged.
  • Don’t become manic or depressed. There will always be victories and defeats.  Learn how to live in the real world not a wonderland that will never be.
  • No one is God except God. Trump is a man.  He’s just as imperfect and prone to error as everyone else.  He will not save us and one day he won’t be in charge.  Remember the big picture.
  • Figure out your actual convictions. What do you truly believe in?  What is unimportant?
  • Figure out what you want to achieve in your life and decide if this is likely under the current political regime.
  • Align your goals with the world as it really is. For example, cable news anchorman may no longer be a reasonable career path.  Whereas news influencer has some currency.
  • Don’t waste too much time agonizing over things you have absolutely no control over.
  • Spend the time prioritizing the actions you can achieve according to how much they will benefit you.
  • Spend as much time as you possibly can with people you like.
  • Learn how to communicate with people who hold extremely differing views from you. For instance, learn how to disagree with someone in a conversation without insulting him.
  • Find some friends out there and laugh with them when you can.

There, that was fun.

Guest Contributor – Milo Mindbender – 15FEB2025 – Dirty Politics

Politics has always been an advance auction of the loots able to be transferred to the victor. Very few are willing to go through the process of getting selected/elected in order to actually serve the common good. More are driven by the actual greed and envy. This becomes more apparent election cycle after election cycle. We willingly as a nation abdicate our personal responsibility and authority to the same people to try and curry their favor. We can not afford them, or more honestly have been out of for them and their “services”. As a nation we need to be more cognizant of where our treasure is allocated, some aspects of government require a veil of secrecy, but for the most part let the disinfectant light of day shine. Our political overclass has demonstrated pure contempt for the very people it claims to represent. Mandating equal outcome regardless of personal input, blatant 2-tier justice for politically preferred actions, sponsorship of NGO actions that are if not outright illegal, just plain shady. Let the sun shine in, if we only save a fraction of what is wasted that is something. The very people who are outraged told us elections have consequences and we need to shut up and stay in our place.

Guest Contributor – TomD – 26OCT2024 – Fascism

Dims have been calling Republicans fascists and Hitler for most of my life. The really ironic part is they couldn’t define fascism if their little lives depended on it.

I’ve still got some of my Dad’s West Point Textbooks, mostly dating from the late 30’s to early 40’s. One, “The Governments of the Major Foreign Powers”, p 1941 looks to be what we would now call Political Science, a misnomer if there ever was one. The book spends about 50 pages per country with great detail. It should be required reading at Harvard, etc.

Few people know that Fascism is an offshoot or variation of socialism. It was originated by Benito Mussolini, who, up to that time was a functionary in the Italian Socialist Party. At the time of his takeover of Italy, he was widely applauded and acclaimed by the US left. He did, after all, make the trains run on time.

One of the biggest differences between socialism and fascism is that socialism wanted state ownership of industry whereas fascism was fine with private ownership but required state control. Does that remind you of anything?

 

It seems that it is common today to bandy about the  accusation of  “Fascist” without a clue as to what Facism is.

 

Attached are 3 pages from a 1941 West Point textbook titled, “The Governments of the Major Foreign Powers”. These 3 pages are excerpts from approx 40 pages on the Government of Italy. It should be noted that, since this book was published in 1941, the US had yet to have entered the war.

 

Frankly, after rereading the short chapter on Fascist Doctrine, I can see the origin of quite a bit of the DNA from today’s left.

 

Obviously, the book also covers Nazi Germany.

15OCT2024 – Same Old, Same Old

So, I don’t have so much to write about tonight.  I watched a bunch of political news.  It was sort of fun because Mark Halperin’s “2WAY” show was quoted in a bunch of secondary journals.  Halperin has a sort of Zoom call with several journalists and politicos along with just the random public.  His claim to fame is that he has a bipartisan approach and allows anyone to express their opinions as long as it doesn’t get heated.  Well, anyway a few days ago he did a piece where he stated that his sources inside both campaigns agreed that the campaign sponsored polls showed that the voters are trending steadily for Trump.  And in fact, it looked like Pennsylvania might be out of play for Harris.  Well, when this got out the Democrats started freaking out.  People like James Carville started screeching that Harris needs to get out there and tell everyone that Trump is Hitler and he is preparing the death camps right now.

So that was a lot of fun.  But who knows if these polls are all that important.  After all voter fraud is so much more definitive so I don’t want to get all excited about these reports.  But as I said it was fun watching the Democrats running around in circles with their hair on fire.

I saw that Elon Musk has gotten involved in the Trump campaign to some extent.  That’s good.  He has a lot to lose if the Deep State goes after him but it’s good to see that he respects the idea of freedom.  And after the recent feats of technical magic by his SpaceX team, I’m feeling especially friendly toward this particular African American.  People are kidding that Musk will be the power behind the throne if Trump gets back in the White House.  I kind of doubt that but he could be very helpful to Trump.  He might start by telling him which CIA and FBI contacts were the most important in trying to silence regime enemies on Twitter.  And he could lend a lot of technical assistance to whatever efforts Trump needs to employ to streamline the government.  After all, Musk fired 80% of the Twitter payroll and managed to run the company at least as well as it ran before.  And a lot closer to being a paying operation.

But of course, none of this will matter at all if Harris ends up in the White House.  It was reported that during an interview with Tucker Carlson, Elon asked (jokingly?) how long a prison sentence he would get if Trump loses.  Well, maybe not prison, but I could see them bankrupting him.  I’m sure they could do that.  And they probably will if it fits with their plans.

On the international fronts, the Ukraine conflict grinds on and the Middle East is slowly ramping up to a full-blown war between Israel and Iran.  Maybe it won’t involve us.  I hope it won’t.  I have too many grandsons that I need here and now.  But it’s a complete crap shoot.  Nobody knows anything and everybody is sick of war, except the neo-cons in the State Department and CIA.  They’re never tired of war.  Well, let’s hope we dodge this one.

So that’s my report.  More of the same.  I hope to have some horror movie reviews coming up soon.  That should put me in a better mood.

Must Supply Own Tall Top Hat, Riding Boots and Whip

“Conservative” is now a term of derision.  People in the dissident right use it as a swear word.  I guess the replacement term for the people who resist the progressives is now simply “the right.”

Well, whatever you call them and whatever they believe in, they are a mess.  Organizationally, their leadership is nominally the Republican party and that’s as laughably absurd as anything imaginable.  That would be like an organization of sheep electing a wolf pack as their police department.

Now, I guess you can say that Donald Trump has taken the first baby steps toward changing that situation.  His candidacy has driven certain absurdly obvious RINOs out of the party.  The best documented case is Liz Cheney being primaried out of her seat.  But only slightly less hilarious is the ejection of Mitt Romney from his senate seat.  Technically he refused to run for re-election.  But despite his claim that he was afraid of assassination by rogue Bugaloo Boys the truth was that he knew he was going to be primaried out of his seat.  And Trump’s presidential campaign has forced the likes of even Nikki Haley to kiss the ring in order to even remain in the party for the future.

But these truly are baby steps.  What is needed is an organization that reaches from the local grassroots all the way up to state and national leaders.  And it needs to be doing much more than politics.  Let’s face it, politics is just influence peddling and what needs to be enacted is a way for us to band together to buy influence from the crooks we hire as the face of the party.  Sure, we know they’re selling themselves to the contractors but at least let’s prevent them from being bought by the contractors who hate us.  Let’s make sure that GLAAD and the other left-wing NGOs are restricted to buying influence from the Democrats.

After all, a phony like Marco Rubio can be made to act in his own best interests and mimic right-wing talking points to keep himself on the gravy train.  He’s not a Liz Cheney or a Mitt Romney.  He doesn’t believe in the Left’s values.  In fact, he doesn’t believe in anything at all so he’s a blank slate that can be bought for the price of a pot of gold.  And he’ll stay bought as long as the gold keeps coming.  Mitt Romney on the other hand, belongs to the same clubs as George Bush, Bill Clinton and now Barack Obama.  He’s following his social set with respect to what behaviors need to be favored and which curtailed.    It’s as natural as breathing for him to hate us and force us to submit to their code of behavior.

So, what is needed is an old-fashioned political boss.  Someone who doesn’t run for office but controls the politicians and makes sure they do our bidding.  Maybe someone in Trump’s camp can be that boss.  Maybe Junior wants that job.  Maybe not.  But I think we need someone to do it.  The only way we make such a job attractive is by providing it with the power to get things done.  And the only source of power in Washington is money.  So, we’d each have to pony up cash to get a circus master that makes the carneys dance for us.  And that’s definitely doable.  If there are fifty million people on the right (more than that number voted for Trump) and they each donated one hundred dollars a year, that’s five billion dollars a year.  You can get a lot done for five billion.

Of course, for that much money I’d expect a lot of results.  At the very least I’d want the phonies from the National Review forced to act as dunk tank clowns at the CPAC closing ceremony.  And I’d want the Bushes burned in effigy at the Republican National Convention.  But beyond that I’d want some kind of accurate scorecard for each member of Congress and for any with a failing score I want to know the date of his upcoming primary election and who will replace him.

But seriously, what would be more important from a political boss is the backroom deals with private corporations to provide measurable progress on social issues that we favor.  So, if Disney wants some tax breaks or approval of an acquisition they’ll have to quit their LGBTQ activism.  And likewise, companies that take sides in the culture wars can be reined in with the correct use of a carrot or a stick.  None of this is rocket science.  Money talks and that’s what it would take to change the political system we live under.  Hopefully there’s someone who can do the math thinking about this.

Political Crowd Funding

What is the Republican Party?  It is a corporation that works for the welfare of the people who control it.  The people who control it are those who run it and those that fund it.  The paradox is that when individual voters donate to it, they are the least influential stakeholders.  Their small individual contributions are essentially ignored when it comes to setting policy and when it comes to choosing candidates.

So, if you’re George Bush or Mitt Romney and you want to run for office, you call up your friends on Wall Street and tell them you’re going to need to raise three hundred million dollars, or whatever it is, to run for president and they’ll get in touch with their friends and they’ll arrange a $100,000 a plate dinner for you and raise fifty million dollars by getting all your friends from Yale together.  And over a good steak dinner they’ll talk about who would be a good campaign manager and maybe they’ll even talk about what they think would be a good slogan for the campaign.  Maybe, “Compassionate Conservatism” or, “Jesus is my favorite philosopher.”  And it will be duly noted by the Republican National Committee chairman that according to the latest handicapping poll it’s your turn to be the candidate.

And during the strategy meeting about how the campaign is going to be run there is sure to be a lot of talk about what Democrat outrage should be singled out as the “get out the rubes” rallying cry.  Maybe it’ll be gay marriage or school prayer.  Today it would be Drag Queen Story Hour.  But whatever it is they’ll pick it because it viscerally angers the normal people and it’s something that will never be addressed by the candidate if he ever becomes president.

Really what he wants to get done while in the White House is invade various third world nations and make sure they have the requisite LGBTQ laws in place.  That and advance the precepts of the WEF.  That means eliminate fossil fuels, meat and masculinity.  So that is what the Republican Party is.

Okay, so the Republican Party is not something that’s there to help you.  But it does think that you are here to help it.  It sends out hundreds and hundreds of emails and letters every year to each person who registers as a Republican and tells you it’s your duty to send $20 or $50 or $1,000 to them to protect you from the Democrats.  It wants your money, but it doesn’t want your advice.  Period.

Well, it doesn’t take a genius to see that the only way the Republican Party can be of any help to the majority of normal Americans is if they can bundle their money in a way that makes them a major donor to the candidates that want to run.  And that means they have to form or find a corporation that can pool their money and help them focus their needs into an agenda that can then be presented to individual candidates that want to represent them.  These can be Republican candidates or independent candidates; hell, they can be Democrat candidates if they’re willing to be bought and stay bought.

Something like this sounds complicated and therefore expensive.  But there are a lot of conservatives.  Many millions of them.  And the power of computing makes it manageable.  And as far as motivating people, just look at what crowd-funding sites are able to raise for everything from a new novel by a favorite author (more than $60,000,000) to a family left homeless by a tornado ($500,000).  Imagine if you told people that they were donating to primary Mitt Romney out of office.  Even I would donate for that.

So maybe that’s the pitch.  Call it crowd-funding for better government.  The corporation identifies issues of interest to the members and matches it up with people to donate for and against.  And it keeps an enormous scorecard for all these officials and keeps track of votes coming up and offers them campaign donations if they vote the right way and promises to primary them if they vote the wrong way.

And for us it allows us to donate specifically to the cause or candidate that speaks to us viscerally.  And playing on the fear and greed of politicians sounds like fun!

Support Your Local Idiots

So, Halloween is done and we begin the sprint to Christmas.  We’ll try to forget the various horrors that surround us on every side and try to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This week is a nightmare of commitments that end probably a week from today.  That of course cuts into my writing time drastically but what can you do?

All the routine nonsense dominates the news.  The usual psychos are demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, escalation in Ukraine and more illegal aliens in Texas.  Joe Biden’s poll numbers keep edging down toward 30% but everyone assures us he’ll be the candidate.  The latest attacks on Trump are to remove him from the ballot.  This is supposedly by Democrats but you know that the Republicans are assisting them in any way they can.  And every media site trumpets the extraordinary popularity and remarkable wisdom of Nikki Haley, the new manlier version of Mitt Romney.  Well, it is the stupid party.  I’m sure there are plenty of useful idiots who will parrot this swill.

As you can see, the news is not worth a post.  I think I’ll talk a little bit about the present state of “leadership.”  Let’s review.  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the executive leadership of the United States government.  Antony Blinken is the Secretary of State.  The “Squad” including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are considered important legislative leaders.  Merrick Garland is the Attorney General.  Pete Buttigieg is the Transportation Secretary.  “Rachel” Levine and Sam Brinton were considered qualified to provide responsible government leadership despite being mentally disturbed.  Lloyd Austin is the Secretary of Defense.

None of these people is considered particularly impressive in their field of endeavor.  In some cases, like Joe Biden and Ilhan Omar, an honest mental health professional would probably recommend institutionalization as the safest option for the good of both the patient and society at large.

My point is that we are selecting “leaders” based on grievance group politics.  These people are representing the agenda of the various constituent groups of the Democrat party coalition.  But, otherwise, they are entirely unqualified for their jobs.  In fact, some of them are dangerously unqualified.  For instance, Antony Blinken has one of the most important jobs in the federal government.  He has an enormous amount of influence over the foreign policy of the most powerful military power on the planet.  He could literally trigger a nuclear war by some of his actions.  And yet he’s a blithering idiot and a delusional partisan.

And speaking of blithering idiots, no one can seriously claim that Kamala Harris isn’t a mental and emotional cripple.  Watching her performance in the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidates’ debate would convince any neutral observer that Harris was an emotionally unbalanced simpleton.

And yet all these people are allegedly running the United States federal government.  It seems to me this is proof that the idea that our elected representatives “run” the government is a charade.  The actual operation is handled by bureaucrats and by the government contractors who tell the Congress what bills to pass.

But regardless of how ancillary the office holders in the federal government may be, it still seems clear to me that having morons and the insane as our elected and appointed leaders will pretty quickly lead to chaos.  Already we have reached the point where hyperinflation is threatening.  Pretty soon the national debt will become impossible to service.  At that point very bad things can be expected to happen.  And yet, currently Americans keep voting these people into power.  It’s extremely hard to assume that the average American isn’t also a moron.

I guess I understand why many people have been investing in commodities.  After the crash these materials may be the only way to avoid complete bankruptcy.  But hopefully something will happen to stave off such a catastrophe.  Maybe nuclear Armageddon.