The Peter Principle

Oh, you know what that is. Basically, the Peter Principle is what happens when someone appears to have done a great job, they get promoted up the line, and do a slightly less great job. It keeps going until they get promoted to a job they suck at. And that is exactly what we see happening in our federal government right now.

Think about it. With very few exceptions, most of the people in Congress (and in the White House) started out on the local level. Maybe they were on a School Board somewhere, or a City Council. And then they went to the State House, and then the State Senate. Some may even have graduated to Governor of their state. And then they decided to run for a federal office like a Representative or a Senator. And there they realized they didn’t have to do much else for the rest of their lives.

And, for the most part, they got less and less effective the higher they went. Take Joe Biden for example. He started out his political career running (and winning) for a seat on the New Castle (DE) County Council. He was there for about two years before running for the US Senate, and winning. That was back in 1972. He was in the Senate from January of 1973 until he became Bobo Obama’s Vice President in January of 2009! Let me do the math…that was 37 years in the US Senate. You would figure he would have done a lot in that time. Well, sort of. He was instrumental in passing the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, which to this day African Americans blame him for. Oh. And he was the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee that basically shot down Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court back in 1988. Three years later, he was still on that committee as the whole Clarance Thomas/Anita Hill thing took place. His questions were so convoluted that Thomas had a hard time keeping up with what he was asking.

As Vice President, Biden did one thing typically. He increased the wealth of his son, Hunter, and himself by taking Hunter with him to Ukraine and China so the kid could make millions. Of course, we know by the leaked emails now that “the big guy” got about 10% of the take. That has yet to be proven, but it shows Joe’s penchant for the “one set of rules for thee, and another set for me” theory. Biden also was the guy that former Obama Defense Secretary, Robert Gates said, had “been on the wrong side of every foreign policy decision for the past 50 years.”

If there was ever a Peter Principle come to life for real, it’s been Joe Biden. Of course, you can point to others in his administration who have followed the same path to “success”. Alejandro Mayorkas, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, and yes, even Karine Jean-Pierre have all used the Peter Principle to advance themselves in government.

Now, before the two or three liberals who read this explode, telling me that there were several Republicans out there doing the same thing, I would agree. The Peter Principle is certainly non-partisan! But for illustration’s sake, it’s a LOT easier to bring up the current Democrats’ foibles, as they are so obvious and so many.

The Peter Principle is alive and well at every level of business and government. We have it here in the desert, where I sat on a Board of Directors for almost seven years. We hired a guy to be GM that daily proves me right that he had no business being interviewed, much less hired. It’s plaguing our nation, and it needs to stop. We have to stop hiring people based on the fact that they currently work somewhere, or they have the right gender or color of their skin, or they are of a certain sexual orientation. Here’s a novel concept. Why don’t we hire the best person for the job regardless all of the other factors? That would seem to make sense to me. I don’t have a clue what Democrats are missing!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Trump Indictment?

It’s looking more and more that Donald Trump may indeed get indicted by the Department of Justice over the whole Mar-a-Lago raid thing. And while that doesn’t intimate that he’s going to be found guilty at all, it does throw a little bit of a monkey wrench into the 2024 presidential campaign, doesn’t it?

I mean, if Trump is indicted for any crime between now and November 2024, there is a good chance it will turn off a portion of the electorate. What does that mean? Well, I would suggest that a certain percentage, and I’m not going to speculate on what that is, would turn their nose up at him and go with someone else for their presidential choice. I’m NOT saying that person would be Joe Biden or any other Democrat by the way. There WILL be a primary prior to the general election!

But let’s look at this in a little greater detail.

If Trump were to get indicted one of two things will happen. First, the Republican Trumpers will rally around him. It will energize his base twenty times what the Mar-a-Lago raid did. Second, it will damper the enthusiasm of independents to vote for him. Will it be enough to bring him the nomination? Not sure. But there is a third option out there that people are indeed starting to talk about.

It’s Ron DeSantis.

With DeSantis being hit this past week with a class action lawsuit over flying 50 illegals to Martha’s Vineyard, as a “human trafficking” scheme, (which Biden did like 200 times as many), the public is overwhelmingly backing the Florida governor against the Democrats. 72% of the people surveyed in a Rasmussen poll said they were happy to see what DeSantis, Abbott, and Ducey were doing.

DeSantis is a rock-ribbed conservative that’s not afraid to rock the boat to get his message across. He’s inventive and creative when it comes to how he gets that message across. Does that sound like another possible Republican candidate? Put another way, if Trump were to face indictment, do you think that most Trump fans could find comfort in a Ron DeSantis candidacy? My thoughts would tend to sway to yes.

The question is, would DeSantis be able to beat a Democrat. Again, my thoughts are that he would, and rather handedly. DeSantis is currently running for reelection against former Florida governor and current US Representative, Charlie Crist (a former Republican who flipped parties). DeSantis is ahead handedly in every single poll that’s been taken. Floridians love him, even against one of their former governors! And I feel that he’s not quite as loud-mouthed as Trump is. He can act more presidential, which has been one of the biggest knocks on Trump all along.

Besides, who are the Democrats going to throw at him? K-baby Harris? Pete Buttigieg? Gavin Newsome? C’mon. There isn’t anyone on their bench strong enough. And Biden is making it more and more clear that he’s not going to be running for reelection. He all but said that in his 60 Minutes interview. Republicans don’t need to worry if Trump gets thrown under the bus. There is someone with all of his policies, all of his showmanship, and not nearly the baggage as Trump waiting in the wings. Should be a good time through 2028 and beyond!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Could This Be The Democrats’ Play?

Sitting here this morning looking at a long list of Democrats that have indicated at one time or another that they want to be President of the United States, and a list that’s growing of those that know they can’t back Joe Biden for reelection. None of the people on the “I Wish I Were President” list have the ability to excite the Democrats, much less the Independents and the Republicans to a point where they can win. We’ve seen most of them before. The Bernie Sanders, the Elizabeth Warrens, the Pete Buttigiegs, and the like. The list goes on and on.

From where I sit today, the Democrats don’t have an exciting player in the field other than Sanders, who is great at packing arenas with college kids, because of his desire to erase their college loan debt, and give them free tuition. But when you look at the Amy Klobuchars, the Hillary Clintons (yes, she’s still thinking about running), and the K-baby Harris’ of the world, you have to stop and wonder…the bench may be long, but there’s no one of quality sitting on it. Even a Gavin Newsome has problems should he decide to enter the fray.

But there is an interesting choice that is on the sidelines that few are talking about. Her name is Liz Cheyney.

I know, I know. She’s just got blown out in her primary in Wyoming a week ago. That’s never a good sign for someone that wants to run for the White House. Typically that nomination goes to winners, not someone that can’t even win a primary to keep their congressional seat! But what if Cheyney decided to switch parties in order to run against Donald Trump? She said she’d do anything in her power to make sure he doesn’t win, right? Would it include switching parties?

In the short view, I don’t think that would matter. Liz Cheyney doesn’t have a very good aptitude for things. Not even for the Democrats. She is a one-note-Samba. It’s “Defeat Trump at all costs”. The rest of her platform is basically non-existent. Cheyney is not a strong candidate, even if she isn’t running as the anti-Trump candidate. Yes, she won Wyoming by 20 points two years ago. That’s a far cry from 270 Electoral College votes!

And if you make 2024 solely about Donald Trump, he probably would win. Trump is great when people are talking about him. He’s great when HE is the message, and if Cheyney were the Dems choice for the nomination, she would have nothing else to say except, “Vote for me, I’m NOT Donald Trump!”

And then we are faced with the same question…if not Biden, who? And that’s a question no one on the left wants to answer just yet!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

WaPo’s “Power Rankings”

Assuming that Joe Biden doesn’t know what state he’s in come next year and decides that he probably is better off not running for reelection, who would be the top Democrat choices? Well, the Washington Post has a thing called their “power rankings” of Democrats that could vie for the position. It’s kind of like the power rankings that you see in college and professional sports, except this is involving people, not teams.

Here’s the lineup so far:

Leading the way is K-baby Harris. I’m really shocked that she is showing up at number one! WaPo admits, she’s gaffe prone, charmless, a cackling witch, and voters hate her. Why anyone would think that she would be ranking in any power rankings at all, much less have the top spot is beyond me.

Number two on the list is Pete Buttigieg. They cite his intelligence, his debating ability, and the fact he wasn’t alive during World War II as assets. But his negatives are just, if not more strong than his strengths. He has done a terrible job as Transportation Secretary, he’s totally inexperienced at executive management, and the electorate wasn’t impressed with him in 2020. What makes them think he’s going to be any better this time around?

At number three on the WaPo list is California Governor, Gavin Newsome. They list his willingness to embrace progressive legislation, and his ability to play to angered voters over the whole Roe v. Wade thing as his top assets. Of course, he has a lot of negatives too. People in Cali can’t wait to leave his state because of his politics, and he recently survived a recall election. Usually going through a recall election isn’t what one would consider a resume enhancement.

Fourth on the list is Michigan Governor, Gretchin Whitmer. There are some out there that feel that Whitmer may just be the strongest candidate the Democrats would be able to field this time around. She does indeed have executive leadership experience, but doesn’t have a household name.

After that, you’re down to a bunch of wannabes. Minnesota Senator, Amy Klobuchar, New York Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Georgia Senator, Raphael Warnock, New Jersey Senator, Cory Booker, and Ohio Senator, Sherrod Brown round out the list.

That tells me a few things. One thing that it speaks volumes of is that with the exception of maybe Whitmer, there aren’t any real new names on the list. And there really isn’t anyone that I would consider to be nationally a strong candidate. It’s one thing to win an election in a Congressional district, or maybe even a state-wide election. It’s quite another to put together a campaign to amass 270 electoral college votes.

The other thing that I find interesting is that nowhere on the WaPo list was former first lady, Michele Obama. She’s more popular than anyone on their list, and even though she hasn’t publicly said she would like to try for the job, she’s certainly seems to be hinting at it. And I think she’d probably be a much tougher opponent for anyone on the Republican side to beat. She would pull away just enough independent voters to make it a horserace.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

WAPO’s Picks For Dem’s In 2024

The Washington Post has been coming out with a list of who they think is the top pick for Democrats to run for president in 2024. Now, you can figure because it’s the Post, it’s going to be biased to the left, but it’s interesting to see. And there is a really interesting thing in the latest ranking.

Vice President K-baby Harris got dropped from second to third.

The Post cited her multitude of flubs and gaffes, and her cackles when asked tough questions as the reason for the demotion. They say that Harris hasn’t demonstrated leadership and has not taken advantage of her position as Vice President. That’s like saying kids sort of like candy on Halloween!

Topping the list was, of course, Joe Biden. That’s not a real surprise except for the fact that by the time he gets to 2024 and election day, I think he and Jill are going to be the only two people in the country voting for him. I’m wondering if he decides to run, whether Democrats will even nominate him.

Climbing from third to second was Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg. It wasn’t because of anything he did by the way. It was because of Harris’ monumental screwups every time she was given a task to do, her latest being her trip to Europe and her press conferences with the Polish president.

Harris came in third, and the rest of the list has Elizabeth Warren, Senator from Massachusetts listed fourth; Amy Klobuchar, Senator from Minnesota listed fifth; North Carolina Governor, Roy Cooper was sixth; Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown seventh; Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey was eighth; California Governor, Gavin Newsome was ninth, and New York Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was listed as tenth. What I find interesting is the fact that there are four Senators on that list (with no executive management experience), two Governors, and a Representatives with what? Three years of political experience? Yikes!

All I’ll say is with a field like that, I’m very enthused for the upcoming campaign. I think any of the readers of this blog could top any one in that field (and probably should!).

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Supply Chain Woes

Oh, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. The talking head snowflake mainstream media has moved on to other issues, like Voting Rights legislation that is now all but dead (if you listen to James Clyburn), but trust me…there are still ships by the hundreds sitting in the waters off of Long Beach, California filled to the brim with tractor trailers.

And why is it going to be getting worse?

Well, nothing has happened to change why it’s there in the first place. But there has been a change as to why it will get worse. First of all, the supply chain woes are there for two reasons, regardless what Joe Biden and the mainstream snowflake media is telling you. The mask-and vaccine mandates that are being implemented by the folks at the pier in Long Beach causes a lot of it’s workers to decide to stay home, or they’ve been fired. So you’ve got a labor issue on that front. The second big reason is the Biden administration’s love affair with high gasoline prices. Diesel in Cali is bumping heads with $5 per gallon. it’s $4.83 per gallon as this is written. Now the average gas tank on these over the road trucks is between 120 and 150 gallons. So, let’s split the difference and call it 135 gallons. That means to fill up with diesel in Cali is going to cost the average truck driver $652! And they get an average of 7 mpg. Lots of scratch.

But there is another wrinkle in this that Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg hasn’t figured on. China has shut down a lot of their manufacturing, which means goods are not being produced, which means there are ships waiting to be filled to come to America (and other places), but are sitting in their ports empty.

And that’s what happens when a country relies on one country to fill it’s supply chain. America brought this on itself by moving manufacturing to China, much like it did to Japan, Korea, Mexico and other areas of the world with cheap labor in the past 50 or 60 years.

What’s the solution to no goods on our shelves? Well, first of all, the port of Long Beach needs to lift their mandates. That could be helpful in getting some of the workers back on the docks to unload those ships. But that’s just a part of the problem.

The other part that is just as big is you’ve got to be able to give the truckers who are sitting at home watching Oprah as opposed to transporting goods to the stores a reason to get off the couch. Right now, they lose money when they are spending $650 to go a whopping 900 miles. No one in their right mind is going to take that job. Biden needs to get the price of diesel down, like in half. And to do that, he needs to open up exploration, open up pipelines, open up production, and get America back to being the world’s energy leader again. It’s just one more thing that Biden has failed at.

China will once again open it’s factories and goods will start flowing once the Omicron variant that is plaguing that country has subsided in a few weeks. But in the meantime, Biden and Buttigieg should be doing something besides complaining. That’s all we are hearing out of DC these days. And they need to stop bitching and get back to work.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Can Biden Survive?

Rasmussen came out with a rather interesting poll recently. They asked 1,000 registered voters if they thought Joe Biden would be reelected in 2024. The results followed what America feels. It certainly doesn’t follow the mainstream snowflake media!

Here’s what it says.

28% of the respondents think that Joe Biden will be reelected president in 2024. That’s just over a quarter of the respondents. 38% said that if Biden were to run again, he’d lose out to a Republican challenger (no challenger was named). 21% said it was more likely that Biden would resign the presidency prior to the 2024 elections, and 15% said they just weren’t sure.

That’s a pretty amazing survey if you think about it. More people think that Biden will lose in 2024 than think he’ll actually run by 10%. And almost as many people think that he’ll resign, which has only been done once in history, and that is an incredible development when you think about it.

So the question becomes, does Joe Biden risk it and try to run for reelection in 2024? Democrats have already floated the notion of getting others to run against him in a primary. If that were to happen, and say Pete Buttigieg were to go up against Biden, could Biden stand the heat? What if Bernie Sanders, who actually should have been the candidate in 2020, were to decide to run again? That brings the young vote back to the table, but Sanders is 80 years old now. I seriously doubt he is going to be up for a run for the White House in two years. Who else is there? I can’t see anyone with the experience standing in line, especially to oust Biden. Maybe an AOC who doesn’t like Biden in the first place, but I thought her eyes were on Chuck Schumer’s Senate seat.

In the end analysis, we have another poll saying that 52% of the American people like Donald Trump. In the same poll, it shows that Democrats think that Trump supporters are racists. Of course, Democrats think everything and everybody is racist. They’ve overused that phrase so much it’s basically lost all of it’s meaning. And the interesting thing on that account is, the people that are screaming racism, are typically the ones displaying signs of racism.

My, oh my, isn’t it fun to live in the declining age of a civilization?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

I Could Have Just Recycled An Old Blog For This One…

The jobs numbers came out on Friday. They were supposed to show that ol’ Joe Biden would “create” some half million new jobs. Alas, he was again, woefully short. Only 210,000 jobs were created. Though because of the 7.5 million unemployed people, only about 2.5 million of them were actually looking for work, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%.

That means there are now five million Americans content to sit on the couch and watch Oprah.

That’s a very frightening thought if you ask me. We have like 2,500 ships sitting off the coast of California, with all sorts of cargo waiting to be delivered to stores in time for Christmas shopping, and no truckers willing to take up the challenge. Why? Well, two reasons. First is the fact that they are part of the governmental mandate (which has been ruled illegal) that they need to get vaccinated before they can work, and a lot of them have chosen not to do that. Second, the price of fuel is through the roof.

How bad is it? Well, the DNC sent out a tweet congratulating Joe Biden on the fact that over the past week “he” lowered the gas prices by a whopping TWO CENTS! What they don’t say is that the average price of gas in this country was $2.17 a gallon a year ago under Donald Trump. Today, nationally, it’s $3.40. I’m not very good at math, but that seems like a 56.7% increase in just 12 months.

And just what was Joe Biden’s explanation? That the economy is STRONG! Yessiree Bob! We are well on our way back! Of course, inflation is now at 7%, looking to go to 10% next year, and more if we have a recession. Democrats aren’t wanting to have either Biden or Harris run in 2024, but instead are bringing up the name of another retread, Pete Buttigieg as their candidate. Now, most people in South Bend, Indiana, where he was mayor, don’t have many good things to say about him. And of course, he was one of the ones that had to back out of the 2020 race because otherwise Bernie Sanders would beat Biden, and go on to lose to Trump in the general election.

So, we amble along with the weakest jobs performance numbers in 11 months (last December we actually lost about 200,000 jobs). And Biden thinks he has something to celebrate. The Dow Jones Average dropped about 60 points on the news, bringing it down about 700 points for the week. That’s certainly reason to celebrate!

I think America has realized that unless Joe Biden pulls our of the steep nose dive he’s been in for 11 months, he’s in major trouble come next November, if he makes it that long. You can’t go one day without getting video of him stumbling and bumbling and trying to lie his way through questions with the press. And K-baby Harris isn’t much help. She can barely get herself dressed in the morning.

I guess we can all be thankful a presidential term is only four years, huh?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Making Sense Of The Supply Chain

I haven’t written about this yet, so let me jump in. The only reason I’m discussing Biden’s total lack of leadership in the whole supply chain debacle, yet the latest bite in the butt his administration has had to endure because of their total lack of intelligence, is because of Biden himself.

He recently addressed a group in Maryland and was talking about supply chains, and was rather condescending about it. Here’s his quote:

“You hear a lot about the supply chains in the news, but frankly, not a lot of people have a clear understanding, whether they have a Ph.D. or they didn’t go to school, about how a supply chain works. In simple terms, supply chain is just the journey that a product takes to get to your doorstep. As long as goods and materials are getting where they need to go on time, there’s usually no need to worry about the supply chains.” Then, as if that weren’t enough, he wanted to drive the point home: “If we were all going out and having lunch together and I said, ‘Let’s ask whoever’s in the next table, no matter what restaurant we’re in, have them explain the supply chain to us.’ Do you think they’d understand what we’re talking about?”

Personally, I think that most Americans understand what is going on with the supply chain mess. It’s a pretty easy scenario to understand, even if Biden thinks we Americans are too stupid to get it. Here is the real reason why the supply chains are all screwed up.

First of all, gas prices have shot through the roof. That means that over the road truckers (who deliver the stuff from the ports typically on the west coast), have to spend more of their razor thin margins on diesel. That doesn’t bode well. For a lot of them, that means they are going to have to lose money to make the trip, and frankly, I don’t know many people that want to lose money when they work. That’s just idiocy. You have to blame the Biden administration for the increase in gasoline and diesel prices. After all, inflation and the gas prices were low under Trump. Now, they are sky high. What’s the difference? Only the guy in the White House and his policies have changed.

Second, because you have a bunch of people sitting at home because they can’t make money, you’ve also got a president that insists that everyone in the country MUST take a vaccine for COVID. So, while he believes that a woman has a right to choose “what to do with her body”, he doesn’t want to afford the same liberty to the rest of America. That means that trucking companies that hire these OTR drivers have to enforce a vaccine mandate that is unpopular with the country. In fact, only 28% of the country thinks Biden is on the right track with these mandates. So, those that may still be making money after paying confiscatory gas prices, may not want to take the jab. And yes, I took the vaccine and don’t have a problem with it, but that was MY choice, not Biden’s. If someone doesn’t want to take the vaccine for whatever reason, I’m fine with that and I respect their decision!

So, because of those two reasons, there are hundreds (some say thousands) of ships sitting off the port of Long Beach, and Los Angeles. They stretch for miles, just sitting there, loaded with goods from Asia (mostly China). Don’t think for a minute that China isn’t pissed at Biden right now because they have made these goods and have no way to get paid if they don’t get delivered to the people that purchased them (the stores). In fact, I’m just wondering depending on how long this whole thing takes, if some of the more perishable items go bad, how big of a hit China will end up taking?

Bring in Transportation Secretary, and Nanny Daddy, Pete Buttigieg who decried that the fact of the matter is that the lack of free pre-school and low-cost child care is another reason why the supply chain is messed up. Of course, he will say pretty much anything to deflect from the fact he doesn’t have a clue how to do his job, and his kid could probably handle the situation better than he has done. I doubt many people would take a month off, especially in an adoption situation rather than a wife that had been pregnant and needed some time to get back to normal, in a national emergency, but that’s Democrats for you!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Biden’s Infrastructure Boondoggle

Joe Biden has made no bones about his desire to fundamentally improve the infrastructure in this country. And I think that if you asked most people in Congress, they’d probably agree that the infrastructure in the country needs to be severely upgraded. That’s not the bone of contention. There is one however.

It’s in the definition of “Infrastructure”.

If you were to look in the dictionary for a definition, this is what you’d find: 1 : the system of public works of a country, state, or region also : the resources (such as personnel, buildings, or equipment) required for an activity. 2 : the underlying foundation or basic framework (as of a system or organization).

If you were to ask Republicans what “Infrastructure” was, they’d probably say something closer to the first example. Democrats would expand that greatly.

In fact, Democrats would probably say that infrastructure includes anything in cities and states. It’s not only roads, and bridges, airports and train tracks…what most people would certainly consider infrastructure. It’s also things like internet access, study climate change, expand homebased care for the elderly, get ready for the “next” pandemic, and to expand “housing stock”. Of course in that is a lot of stuff from the Green New Deal.

There are basically two problems with this. The first is 90% of economists out there are cringing at the Democrats’ definition. They say it “does a bit of violence to the English language.” So, basically anything on the Democrats’ wish list is fair game to be called “infrastructure”. The second problem with this are the endless parade of lies that are being told about it.

You have to realize that most states Departments of Transportation fix the roads in their states. They maintain the bridges, and the airports. All of the “traditional” stuff that you could consider infrastructure. When you get right down to it, about 5% of this infrastructure bill actually goes to fix roads and bridges, airports, bus terminals, train depots and tracks, and on and on. That’s because the federal government doesn’t traditionally dabble in this. In fact, the last time the feds decided to do something like this involving infrastructure, it was back in 1956 when Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the bill that gave us the Interstate Highway system we currently use. Most of the time, the feds kick in about $100 billion a year toward infrastructure. States will pay about four times that much overall.

So, it’s basically a states issue, not a federal government issue. Second, and equally important is the lie that Pete Buttigieg, the current Transportation Secretary, told when he went on the various Sunday talking head shows and said that National Economic Council Director, Brian Deese had come out with the number of 19 million new jobs created over the next ten years. And Buttigieg dutifully reported that number. The problem was, that number is a lie. There are going to be 16 million new jobs created over the next ten years regardless if the infrastructure bill gets passed or not. The bill only adds about 2.7 million new jobs over ten years. That’s less jobs per year than Walmart added to their stores in 2020! And the cost per job created? About $830,000. I doubt any of those jobs will pay that.

Democrats need to stop lying about things like this. They need to realize that the truth always comes out, and when the American people (who are not as smart as you and I) realize that they’ve been lied to, there is going to be a massive revolt against them. But then again, you can’t fix stupid!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!