T-Minus 10 And Counting…And Who Is To Blame?

If you’re watching anything to do with the debt ceiling debate, you know as well as I do that the negotiations aren’t going very well. Of course, that depends on who you are listening to. But in case you’ve been busy getting ready for Memorial Day weekend coming up, there are 10 days left before the debt ceiling issue causes a default of the government.

And who is to blame?

Well, again, that is going to depend on where you get your information. The White House is still blaming the House Republicans for passing a debt ceiling increase that included going back to the 2022 budget, and cutting $4.5 trillion dollars from the overall spending over the next 10 years. It would raise the debt ceiling $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2023, whichever comes first. Democrats have poo-pooed that and said they want a “clean debt ceiling bill”, without any negotiations on cutting spending. That’s what Democrats do, after all.

So, as I sit here and look at this and figure out who’s to blame for this mess, there are three places to put the blame.

The first is squarely on Joe Biden. For a guy that said initially that he wouldn’t negotiate with Kevin McCarthy on anything that included a reduction in spending to go along with the debt ceiling increase, he once again, apparently has lied. Or changed his mind…or read the polls that said it would be his fault if we defaulted on the debt. Biden hasn’t come out publicly and said that he has negotiated anything, and neither necessarily has his team that’s meeting with the Republicans. We haven’t heard of him budging from his “clean bill” status. McCarthy has moved the needle some, saying that the GOP has come off of the 2022 budget and have increased spending somewhat more than that. He hasn’t said how much.

Most Americans blame the Democrats at this point because they don’t believe that Biden is negotiating in good faith. Usually, negotiations are a give and take. You aren’t going to get everything you want and neither is the other guy. And if Biden is sticking to his guns that there won’t be any spending reductions, he is at fault and there is no question there.

McCarthy is right that he isn’t going to be able to pass a clean bill through the House. And while most Americans will blame the Democrats on this one (until the media slams the GOP), you have to understand that the Republicans are also at fault here.

Yes, the debt ceiling and over-spending is traditionally a Democrat caused problem. After all, it was the Democrats that have increased the spending on the federal budget by 30% just through three programs, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That said, it was their programs that have put us in the position where all three of those programs are going to have to face draconian cuts up the road. But the Republicans have gone along with it. And if you look at who has raised the debt ceiling the most, it’s been the Republicans. Donald Trump raised it twice. George HW Bush raised it four times, George W. Bush raised it seven times for a total of 13 times. Bobo Obama raised it seven times, and Bill Clinton four for a total of 11 times.

The problem here isn’t which party raises it the most, or who wants the “clean bill” passed. It’s that neither party wants to do anything substantive about it. What they need to do is pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that would not allow Congress to spend a nickel more than they have taken in from taxes and fees. As it stands now, the American people don’t have a clue how much Congress is really spending. If they saw it in the form of tax increases every time Congress spent more than they took in (kind of like an assessment given to members of clubs at the end of the year), there would be all sorts of hell to pay. A balanced budget amendment is the only way to go. States must balance their budgets. So must cities and municipalities. Why can’t the federal government do the same thing?

And it’s both parties that have balked at this. Neither has issued a strong effort to pass a balanced budget, even though they controlled both Houses of Congress. It needs to be done, and the sooner the better!

T-Minus 10 and counting…

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Will Hunter’s Problems Make A Difference?

Hunter Biden appears to be in a world of hurt. He’s got investigations that have been going on for five years or so. And he’s got to be an embarrassment to his family…he just has to regardless what they say in public. You know when it comes to private discussions in some Wilmington, Delaware basement, Hunter gets called out on the carpet for the stupid stuff he’s done. Then again, Joe’s probably put him up to a lot of it, right?

But the over-riding question is, will it make a difference in the 2024 campaign?

I know the feeling that most of the conservatives out there have. There are two sets of rules…one for us, and one for them. You can go back to Hillary Clinton and see that anything and everything she and Bill did was gone unpunished. OK, so they lost their law license. That was such a big deal? They weren’t making squat with it anyway. It was only after they left the White House, and Hillary and Bill came up with the “pay to play” scam when she was Secretary of State that they really started making the big bucks. But they never got charged with anything. Will Hunter? Some talking heads are saying they are close to reaching a deal of a few misdemeanors and maybe one felony for tax evasion. But will Hunter spend any time in a jumpsuit because of it? I doubt it.

And the bigger question is, will it make a difference with Joe Biden running for president in 2024? Again, I doubt it. If you were to go back in time to the early 1970’s, you’d find an entirely different attitude toward politicians that broke the law. Look at what Richard Nixon did. Do you honestly think that covering up a Watergate break-in was more serious than the stuff we’ve been looking at over the past decade? Politicians that pay for phony dossiers to be written claiming that their opponent was a Russian agent? That’s not serious? Nixon lost the presidency because he covered up Watergate. I don’t think it’s ever been proven that he actually planned it or even knew about it before it happened. He did indeed help to cover it up. So, all of the crap the Clinton’s did…all of the crap the Obama’s did…all of the crap that Biden is supposed to have done don’t rise to that standard? Really?

Our nation needs to figure out what we are going to do. If we are going to become a “Northern Ireland” of sorts where it doesn’t matter what the debate is about, either you’re with one side or the other, then we are doomed to fail as a nation. We have always been a nation of laws. And we have pretty much followed those laws. When someone gets out of line, we prosecute them and if they were found guilty, we send their sorry butts to jail.

So, if indeed Joe Biden is guilty of taking bribes, as has been alleged by whistleblowers, when he was Vice President, is he going to wear an orange jumpsuit? If you go back to Spiro Agnew, he resigned as Vice President when he was charged with one count of tax evasion, and was sentenced to…are you ready for this? $10,000 in fines, and had been placed on three years unsupervised probation. Is that what is going to happen to Joe Biden? Back then Agnew resigned his office BEFORE he was ever found guilty and then disbarred, with the judge calling him, “morally obtuse”. Will Biden receive the same name calling? I doubt it.

And will it make a difference in the outcome of our presidential election next year? Again, I doubt it. We are so divided as a country right now, that what Donald Trump said in the run up to the 2016 election is actually very close to being true. Remember when he said, “I could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and not be charged!” I think he was probably right.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The Differences Between GOP and Dems

Oh, there is a HUGE difference between the way Republicans see the 2024 election, and the way Democrats see the same thing. And it’s that difference that is going to determine the outcome of the election next November. First of all, you have to understand a couple of things. When we talk about the Democrats, they are looking at things from a totally different perspective than you and I probably are. Second, when we talk about Republicans, the Democrats are going to be scratching their heads wondering what the heck is going through our minds.

So, let’s start off with the easy one…the Republicans

The GOP is more interested in electing candidates to Congress, and the White House than anything else. They see what Joe Biden has done as having been a step toward destroying the fabric of the nation. They see the increase in crime. They see a border that has been in total chaos with absolutely no concern for solving it. They see an economy in free fall. And we are looking at poll numbers that show that 60% of the people in the Republican party don’t want Donald Trump to run again, but want someone with similar policies to him to enter the race. I’m not quite sure that person has actually entered the race yet.

The Democrats take on quite a different tone. They are overly thankful for the job Joe Biden has done. They think his policies and programs are just the thing the country has needed. They see the infrastructure bill and the inflation reduction bill as steps to achieving what they feel is important. They actually LIKE Joe Biden. So, why do 70% of Americans, and half of the Democrats don’t want to see him run again? It’s his age. And while the Republicans are most concerned about electing candidates, Democrats are fearful of what the Republicans would do if they got the presidency back. That’s why 81% of Democrats say that while they think Biden is too old and should step aside and let someone younger continue the fight, they will vote for him if he’s the candidate.

So the question becomes, which is a stronger motivator. Is the fact the GOP is afraid of what would happen if they failed to win back the White House a strong enough motivating factor to get people out to vote? Or, is the fact that the Democrats are afraid of Donald Trump, or someone like him that would tear down what they see as Biden’s accomplishments, much like Trump did to Obama?

At this point in time, I’m personally not sure which is a bigger motivator. Usually fear is one of the biggest motivating factors for people doing something (or not doing something). If you look at Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, once you have food and breathable air, fear is the next largest motivating factor. So, is the fear of another four years of Joe Biden (or someone else should he die before his term is up), or is the fear of having Republicans get back into the White House and run the government the bigger fear? That becomes the overriding issue next year.

And it doesn’t matter which side of the fence you are one. You feel basically the same way toward the other side. Democrats look at the Supreme Court decision on abortion, and see that the conservatives in power would do more to take away the gains liberals have made in a lot of social areas. If you’re conservative, you see the power grab the left has made to limit your freedoms, how they want to take away your guns, and print money until there’s no tomorrow. The left believes the hoax of climate change, and the fact they are ready, willing at yes, as of today, able to spend trillions of dollars thinking that they will change the planet by cutting back on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What they don’t realize is that there is only 0.4% of CO2 out there. If it drops to 0.2%, plants begin to die out. And plants are the largest generator of oxygen that we need to survive. If the plants die out, so do we.

Who will win the battle? Well, can I take 18 months to figure it out?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is Biden To Blame For Border Crisis?

I have railed for years against Joe Biden and his administration. I’ve said numerous times that Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary was incompetent at his job and should either be fired or quit before the border situation gets worse. I’ve continually screamed about people like Katie Hobbs, who’s not the Governor of Arizona, and Mark Kelly, the junior Senator from AZ for their faux border policies. But are they the ones that are really to blame?

No. They are not.

Yes, I can complain about the Biden administration’s decisions to allow millions of illegal aliens into our country by basically throwing the door wide open. As for the feeling that once allowed into the country, most of these illegals fade into the fabric of the country and are never heard from again until they commit some horrible crime? Well, I’ve read on a couple of different sources that’s just not true. Somewhere between 83 and 88% of illegals actually MAKE their court appearances. 96% of those that have not been detained for various reasons (criminal record, terrorist watch list, etc) make ALL of their hearings.

OK, so who is to blame for the crisis at the border? And yes, it IS a crisis!

I blame Congress. Congress could have done something about this eons ago. But, as it typically the case, this group of folks tends not to do anything unless and until they are forced to, and it’s usually because they are up against deadlines. Congress loves to kick the can down the road.

If Democrats want an easier path for anyone to get into this country, they could have done so. They have had several opportunities in the past fifteeen years while they held both the House and the Senate. And they had a friendly president in the White House, be it with Joe Biden, or Bobo Obama. If the Republicans had wanted to tighten control over who gets in, they had their chance only twice, but they’ve had it (when they controlled both the Senate and the House). The Democrats controlled both sides of congress twice with friendly presidents. The GOP, once.

The facts here are clear. Unless and until there is something out there that makes Congress either come together and negotiate a bill that updates and fixes the immigration policy of this country, it will never get done. And unless there is a president that is willing to negotiate on this issue, it’s going to have to be a one-party bill. If we wait until one party holds both the House, and has 60 seats in the Senate to cut off cloture, AND they have a friendly president in the White House that would sign such a bill, I think we’re going to see Jesus return before that happens.

Simply put, it’s time for Congress to stop kicking the can down the road. It’s time they tackle the problems that are facing America and do so in a bi-partisan way. That means that the Democrats are going to have to come off their high horse that they are going to eliminate Republicans so they can rule 100% of the government, 100% of the time. And it means that the GOP is going to have to compromise on their shutting down the border to all illegals, unless and until they go through immigration the “right way”. Right now, there is no right way. And, the GOP probably going to have to realize, as they did back in Ronald Reagan’s day, that the illegals that are in this country now, are going to have to at some point be allowed to stay. To round up eleven million people and shuttle them back where they came probably isn’t going to happen.

So, yes, I’m always upset at Biden and Mayorkas for them doing absolutely nothing when it comes to border security. And their treatment of the Border Patrol officers who risk their lives is cruel and unusual punishment. I don’t know why anyone in their right mind would want to go into that line of work. But thank God that they do. But the real criminals in all of this mess, are the 535 people that are sitting in that big white building at the end of the Mall with the big dome on top. They once again, need to stop the petty investigations, and get back to work solving America’s many and serious problems!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is This Biden’s Watergate?

There’s an old saying in Washington. It’s not the crime that gets you into trouble, it’s the coverup. That’s what did in Richard Nixon. Had he been forthcoming right from the start when it came to the Watergate break-in, he would have survived and Colson, Ehrlichman Dean, and Liddy would have been disgraced to a point they would today become forgotten men of history. But that’s not the way it worked. We had the 18 minutes of silence, we had all sorts of crooked dealings, and we had our first presidential resignation when it became evident that impeachment and conviction were definitely on the table.

So, is the current mess Joe Biden is going through HIS Watergate?

Remember, it’s not the crime, but the coverup. Biden allegedly took money, and millions of dollars from Ukraine and China and spread the wealth to his family. The fact that he said he didn’t meet with any of Hunter Biden’s business associates, nor discuss any of Hunter’s business dealings at any time…that is the coverup. And it looks like it is going to be proven. Now add to that a White House that says they aren’t getting involved in what the “independent” Department of Justice is doing with it’s investigation into not only Hunter, but Joe himself, and an IRS whistleblower that is hell-bent on proving to the world with what he calls is undeniable proof that high officials are playing political favorites in high profile cases (Hunter hasn’t been named because it’s an ongoing investigation and it would be a violation of federal law if he did so) have been slow-walking the investigation and playing politics with it.

And then you’ve got Biden ready to enter the fray tomorrow by doing a soft-announce through an internet video that he’s running for reelection in 2024. What makes this so interesting is, you could have the situation where by the time we get there, not one, but two presidential candidates, and both party’s nominees could be under indictment for breaking the law. Of course, Trump has three other investigations to go, and will probably be indicted on at least one of them. Biden could have three or more indictments coming his way as well. Certainly Hunter could.

I think it’s very interesting that all of this is coming out now. Michael Morrell, a former deputy CIA director has admitted that he was the one that got the 51 intelligence people to sign a letter saying that the whole Hunter Biden story was a Russian disinformation hoax. All of that was a lie, as we are learning now, even though Biden himself lied about it during a debate with Donald Trump. It just goes to prove that the truth always does come out. It’s not always at the most opportune time for either of the party’s involved, but it will come out eventually.

In this case, I think the fact that the whole Hunter Biden story is looking dirtier than what we originally were led to believe, and that Joe and Hunter have seemingly put together this scheme, while Joe was Vice President is incredibly illegal. It’s also interesting to learn now that back in the day when Biden was VP under Bobo Obama, the Obama administration knew what he was doing and even warned him not to go forward with the shakedowns, but Joe didn’t listen.

The end analysis is a long ways from being totally played out. It’s like the Watergate situation before all of the hearings started. But in the end, the truth will be known. And if the accusations that are being floated are true, it could very easily result in a very similar situation where Biden is either impeached and convicted (I’m not holding my breath in the current environment), or he is forced into resigning. The whole question is, does it come before the election in 2024, or like Watergate, does it wait until after the election. And does that mean K-baby Harris takes over if Biden were to beat the Republican nominee?

So many questions at this point, so few really true answers. We’ll have to wait and see. But record all of it. The grandkids will never believe it!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Alvin Bragg Slow On The Uptake

I don’t know what kind of person Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg is, but I can tell you what he isn’t. He isn’t very intelligent. I know that because of the stupidity he is displaying in deciding to indict Donald Trump on charges we just aren’t aware of yet (or at least at the time I’m writing this). Either that, or he believes the narrative that this indictment will help get Trump the nomination, and he’s like a lot of Democrats that feel if Trump goes up against Biden again, it will give the same results.

Alvin Bragg isn’t a very smart man.

First of all, let’s take a look at the indictment, or at the very least what we believe the indictment to be. If he’s trying to tie Trump to paying off porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet as he ran for president back in 2016, he’s going to miss the boat. The statute of limitations on either a misdemeanor or a felony in the state of New York has run out. He can’t prosecute on those grounds. If, however, as I’ve heard, he wants to tie this to a federal charge, again, he’s out of luck because that needs to come from the feds. He has no standing in a New York court on a federal charge. That needs to go to federal courts. So, from the beginning, Alvin Bragg must have missed an awful lot of L-1 in Law School.

Secondly, let’s look at the situation that this indictment puts Trump in. Now, I can’t believe that Trump actually wants to go through with this, but let’s say he does. It will actually do what Trump has always loved, and that’s to stay in front of the camera, get all the newspaper coverage, or radio coverage or internet chatter that’s available. He’s a firm believer in the philosophy that “I don’t care what you say about me, spell my name right!”. Yes, that’s ego driven. But with Trump, it does make a difference.

Donald Trump has said over and over again, that he knew he’d be indicted, and he knew it would fail. So, he doesn’t really seem to care that it’s happening. But what he also knows that Bragg is obviously too stupid to understand is that it is going to help him get the GOP nomination in the long run. Republicans, Independents, and even moderate Democrats are going to see this as an overreach by an over-zealous George Soros backed prosecutor, who has this visceral hatred of the guy, and will do anything to bring him down, even if it’s politically motivated. I think Trump may be right on this one. This is Donald Trump’s strategy for winning the nomination and then he can use it to face Joe Biden in the general election. And don’t think for a minute that he won’t be tying Biden to Bragg in this.

Pundits have been saying for the past couple of weeks how this was the weakest of the four investigations going on regarding Donald Trump. The other three were the whole January 6th thing, the Georgia elections thing, and the Mar-A-Lago secret documents thing. Interestingly enough, Jonathon Turley, a well-thought of attorney in his own right, says that the Mar-A-Lago investigation should prove to be the most damning to Trump. Interestingly enough, it’s basically the same case that Joe Biden is going to be facing if they decide to indict Trump on that one! And now that precedent has been set to indict a former president, it’s a short hop to indict a sitting president.

Which leads me to my last point, and actually the strongest argument for leaving Trump alone during this whole investigation phase. Remember the “Harry Reid Rule”? That’s what Harry Reid did while Majority Leader in the Senate, to allow Bobo Obama’s federal judicial nominations to get passed with less than 60 votes. It bit him in the backside after he retired, when Mitch McConnell made the small leap to including Supreme Court Justices in the Reid Rule. And that allowed not one, not two, but three conservative Supreme Court Justices to be sworn in to the high court that wouldn’t have been had Reid kept his mouth shut. Bragg is facing the same situation. If you’re going to indict a former president for “crimes”, then it’s a short step to indict a sitting president for the same thing. The precedent has already been made. And Joe Biden needs to worry, especially if he’s successful with his reelection bid. Who’s to say, if Trump is taken down by this indictment, that a conservative DA somewhere in this great land of ours couldn’t do the same thing to Biden? He will have legal precedent on his side that Bragg just doesn’t have.

Alvin Bragg is not a smart man. It’s not a racist comment. It’s the truth. The truth sometimes hurts, and this is going to prove to be one of those times, mark my words!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Freebird!

With apologies to Lynyrd Skynyrd!

If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?
For I must be traveling on now
‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see

But, if I stay here with you, girl
Things just couldn’t be the same
‘Cause, I’m as free as a bird now
And this bird you cannot change, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
And the bird you cannot change
And this bird you cannot change
Lord knows I can’t change

While that 1973 classic was written about a girl that the singer was leaving, a lot of it can be applied to Donald Trump these days. He had predicted that he would become the very first former president indicted for crimes and arrested. And he predicted that arrest would have happened yesterday. It still may happen today, but for the moment, as this is being written, he is indeed a free bird.

Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, has a lot to explain one way or another on the whole Grand Jury thing with Trump. He’s been interviewing witnesses regarding Trump’s alleged payout to porn star, Stormy Daniels. If he goes through with the indictment and the arrest, Bragg, a Soros backed DA, will be under intense scrutiny personally and professionally. There are those in his own party that, even though they hate Donald Trump, don’t want to see him indicted. That’s for several reasons.

First of all, there are some very serious charges possibly pending up the road against Trump. There’s the whole January 6th thing that the special committee of the House put together and recommended to the Department of Justice that charges be filed against Donald Trump for enticing rioters to take over the Capitol Building. Then you’ve got the whole FBI Mar-A-Lago raid, though that is seeming less and less probable now that if you charge Trump, you’re going to have to charge Mike Pence (who supposedly didn’t even know he had the documents in the first place), and sitting President Joe Biden for the exact same crime of taking top secret documents.

Then let’s get into the whole statute of limitations things. The alleged payout to Daniels happened back in 2015 or 2016, when Trump was running for president the first time. New York’s Criminal Procedure Law says there is a two year statute of limitations on misdemeanors, and a five year statute of limitations on most felonies except for rape or murder. So, Bragg’s charges and this whole charade may be thrown out of court on day one if Trump is indeed indicted.

Next, you have the charge itself. It’s not illegal, even in New York, to pay hush money to someone. So, even if Trump did it, Bragg is going to have to prove that it’s against the law. He plans to say the money was paid out of campaign donations, not Trump’s personal account. That would also be an easy thing to prove. And apparently, Trump then-attorney, Michael Cohen was the one that paid Daniels, not Trump. Yes, Trump is said to have reimbursed Cohen for the payment, but does that mean he paid him out of campaign funds, or out of his own personal funds. It will make a difference.

Then there is the public’s reaction. Trump is betting on the fact that if he is charged, he can play the victim, and that will spark protests and increase his chances of getting the GOP nod for the presidency. Most pundits feel that he would be in a better position if he were indicted. It would bring out the voters that felt that he got railroaded and we need to do something to curtail the left’s multiple over-reaches since Biden took over as president.

Finally, and I think this is exactly why the Democrats that are not in favor of this one going forward, is it would be yet another chapter in what I refer to as the “Harry Reid Rule”. While Reid was Majority Leader in the Senate, he pulled a lot of strings to allow Bobo Obama’s nominations for federal judges to go through. He got it passed that it only took 51 votes to pass, not the normal 60. That came back to bite Democrats in the backside when Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, and Mitch McConnell, then Majority Leader got the Reid Rule extended to Supreme Court Justices. It’s also what allowed Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to get to the high court.

And that is exactly what could happen again. If Bragg goes through with this, what would stop someone else somewhere else from doing the same thing to say, Joe Biden when he leaves office? Or maybe Hillary Clinton? Or Bobo Obama? There is always a quid pro quo possibility in these things.

I think Trump is hopeful that he DOES get indicted and charged. He WANTS to go and have the perp walk, and have his mug shot taken and get finger printed. Nothing would make him happier. It would cause Republicans to rally around him, even as they have started to splinter their support of him. And it would strike fear in the hearts of Democrats who, let’s face it, would rather run against God Himself, then to go up against an angry and vengeful Donald Trump. Oops. Gotta go. My popcorn is done!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Poking A Hole In Haley’s Argument

I’ve said before that Nikki Haley is probably at this point, my number two choice as the Republican presidential nominee. I believe that still today, but as I thought about her “coming out party” last week, I realized that not all is going to be gold and silver with her agenda. There are some problems.

Let’s take the mental acuity test for instance.

Now, do I feel that Haley is right in that politicians should have some sort of mental test before taking office so we don’t run into the same situation as we’ve got with Joe Biden? Should we make sure that someone’s mental capacity is strong enough to deal with what’s been described as the “toughest job in the world”? Absolutely. But there is a flaw in her argument. I didn’t see it right away. But it crept up on my like a liberal wanting to take away someone’s guns.

It has to do with the test itself.

It’s one thing to say we’re going to make sure someone is mentally competent to run for office before they are actually elected to that office. But we’re missing the liberal picture. See, when someone on the right says that, we’re all thinking that would take someone like Joe Biden out of the picture. And you could probably make the argument that a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, or an Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, or most certainly an Ilhan Omar wouldn’t pass that test, right? Well, what if the shoe were on the other foot?

I refer to it as the “Reid Rule” after former Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Remember when he wanted to help Bobo Obama install a bunch of new liberal judges onto the federal bench? And he didn’t have the votes to do so. In typical liberal fashion, if you can’t win by following the rules, change the rules. So, rather than try and get 60 votes, he got a change in the rules to allow non-Supreme Court Justices and other appointees to get confirmation with only 51 votes. And he got that through Congress. The problem was that he wasn’t thinking long term. He knew he could help out Obama, but what about when Obama was out of office and someone else took over, say someone like Donald Trump? Well, then the Republicans put the shoe on the other foot and make it possible that you could confirm Supreme Court Justices with only 51 votes as well.

The same thing can happen here. Yes, it makes sense we could go after people who mentally are unfit for the job, but has anyone thought of what happens when WE don’t control the questions asked during such an examination? Who is to say that once liberals take over (as they always will), they don’t change the rule to make it that if you’re not a “democratic socialist”, you’re not mentally fit? Who’s to say that a question that reads, “Do you believe in a woman’s right to abortion on demand?” isn’t a qualifier for being mentally fit for office? You can go on and on.

This is one of those times when an idea that is proffered by a Republican candidate can be turned against them and used in a way that would be totally against what the person offering up the idea intended. And we have to be careful about that. Sorry Democrats, but you’ve lost my trust and I have started looking at things with a rather jaundiced eye.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. If we don’t start taking a much closer look at what could possibly happen with all of these ideas being floated, we’re going to find just how easily they can be manipulated into the Democrats barring the Republican party from ever getting elected. Think I’m wrong? Tell me why!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

It Keeps Coming Back To Bite Them

You’d think Democrats would learn their lesson. They love to push the boundaries. They love to test the limits of what’s acceptable. That’s what, in a word, makes them “progressive”. However, they usually find out that there are a lot of reasons why you don’t want to push the limits and they fail to learn those lessons…as varied, and many of those lessons have been shown to them.

And they are continuing to fail to learn their lessons.

You can go all the way back to FDR and the implementation of Social Security, and later, Lyndon Johnson with Medicare, and Medicaid. Anyone with half a brain could have told you that it was being set up wrong. And anyone with a quarter of brain could have told you that if you keep adding recipients to the mix, as in disabled folks, kids who lost a parent, and raiding the Social Security funds for other purposes, you’re going to run out of money. Did the Dems heed those warnings? Nope. Carry on! Surge ahead! Punt the ball down the road! And now you’re looking at about a 12 year period where Social Security will be bankrupt because of Democrat insistences that they help “everyone” in their big tent. It’s even worse in the case of Medicare. It’s slated to run out of money in just three years! And again, no one on the left wants to touch it. They’re afraid of losing votes.

Let’s take a look at something that happened in the Senate that really wasn’t monetary. Harry Reid (D-NV) when he was Majority Leader, decided that it needed to be easier for Bobo Obama to nominate liberal federal justices. So, he devised a plan to make sure that he could do it with only 51 votes. He got that passed with the assurances that it was only to be used for non-Supreme Court appointees, and could also be used for Executive branch appointees. That turned into allowing the Republicans to drop what was called the “nuclear option” and expand that to Supreme Court nominees back in 2017. They reminded the Democrats at the time that it was their doing with the “Reid Rule” that allowed just 51 votes to approve non-Supreme nominees in the first place.

Here’s another example. Democrat Robert Byrd came up with the “Byrd Rule”, which in turn led to the “Byrd Bath”. What that did was allow Democrats to pass budgetary items (there are six rules that have to be followed) in order to go to what’s known as “budget reconciliation”. It allowed Democrats to pass budgets that would avoid the US Government from being shut down, with just 51 votes. However, it wasn’t in place for normal bills, and for most of what the Senate does, the 60 vote filibuster rule still is in effect…though the Dems have tried to get non-budgetary items snuck through, they have been unsuccessful at this point.

And now, we come to the House. It wasn’t too long ago that Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA), and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) got into trouble because of things they said about various Democrats. Taylor-Greene came out and absolutely torched Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Gosar was guilty of passing along an anime showing Alexandria Ocasio Cortez getting killed. That upset the Dems, and so both Taylor-Greene and Gosar were removed from their committees because of their stunts. Fast forward to the January 6th Committee assignments. Kevin McCarthy had wanted Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN) on the committee. But Nancy Pelosi had other ideas, and didn’t seat them. Instead, she put two of her own choices for Republicans on board. She went with Adam Kinzinger (R-CA), and Liz Cheyney (R-WY). Both Kinzinger and Cheyney are no longer in the House. So, now you come to McCarthy deciding to pull Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) off of the Intelligence Committee, and is in the process of removing Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her committee assignments including the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

So, as you can see from the four examples given, each and every time that Democrats have cried about something not being done to their liking and that Republicans are playing games, it’s the Democrats that have actually started the whole thing. Republicans are doing nothing more than acting in-kind. Now, is it helpful or hurtful? Obviously, it’s not helpful. But fair is fair, and in politics, all seems to be fair. There is no out of bounds. It’s all a matter of who can scream the loudest.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

A VERY Early Look At 2024

I talk to a lot of people during the course of a week. I check with my contacts in Washington, I check with a lot of “average Joe’s” on the street around the country. Some I’ve known for a very long time, and can basically predict what they’re going to say. Some I have only recently met, and have no clue where they stand on most issues. But one thing seems to stand very clear as I talk to these people.

Very few want to see Joe Biden running for president in 2024.

And that was borne out recently in the CNBC All America Economic Survey. They talked to more people than I did, people from the Democrats side, the Republican side, and a ton of Independents. Here’s what they were told. 86% of Republicans, not surprisingly said they did not want Joe Biden to run for president in 2024. Among the Independent voters out there, it was 66%, and even among Democrats, 57% don’t want Biden to seek reelection. That averaged out to 70% of all Americans!

I haven’t seen a recent poll on whether Donald Trump should run again or not, but I don’t think it would be quite that bad. I think most Americans are ready for a change and don’t want either of these two guys running come 2024. And while I am fully aware that it’s way too early to start handicapping the winners and losers yet, I think the sentiment is very similar to one we had just a scant six years ago. Do you happen to remember the run up to the 2016 campaign? Jeb Bush was the early favorite in the GOP and Hillary Clinton was all but anointed to be queen of the Democrats.

I couldn’t believe the signs in my neighborhood that popped up. Now, granted, we are a rather conservative area here in the desert, and even though that’s been watered down some with the influx of unhappy California Democrats seeking a better life, it’s still probably a four or five to one tilt toward the GOP. It’s not that way in all of Arizona, but it is here. Let me put it this way, our Congressional Representative ran unopposed this year.

Most people that I talk to want to look forward, not backward, and want to do something different than what we are currently doing. They don’t mind overall if someone follows Trump’s policies, they just don’t want all of the baggage and antics that go with it. Maybe that’s one reason Ron DeSantis has vaulted his way to the number two position in early polls for the nomination?

I’m a firm believer that overall, America is somewhat moderately conservative. Forget what the talking head pundits say. They’re basically liberal, and even the conservatives on TV have a jaundiced view of politics that they try to throw to us each day. And I believe that Americans really want someone that will be respected around the world as a leader, won’t be made fun of, and will be able to have the guts to lead this country further down the road for the next eight years or so. Notice I didn’t say which party that person would come from. I don’t think most Americans actually care. Except for the fact that they don’t want retreads, they don’t want fringe candidates, and they don’t want idiots that embarrass us to the rest of the world. If you look at the last four presidents we’ve had, you’ve got George W. Bush, Bobo Obama, Donald Trump, and now, Joe Biden. Bush was mocked for his speech and apparent lack of intelligence. Obama was much smarter, but was also much farther to the left than most people were comfortable with. While that benefitted him in more socialist European countries, it didn’t sit well overall here at home. Donald Trump was also a smart guy that had a lot of really good policies. But his “America First” agenda turned off most of the rest of the world, and the name calling and tweets at all hours turned off a lot of people here at home. Then you’ve got Joe Biden who isn’t viewed anywhere in the world as a leader. He’s viewed as a doddering old fool.

America wants somebody different than what we’ve had over the past 22 years (yes…it’s been 22 years since the hanging chad incident in Florida!) I’m not sure who that will be yet, as the field has yet to solidify. I only hope it’s someone that isn’t old enough to qualify for Social Security!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!