Category Archives: Politics

February 8, 2023 · 6:04 pm

Figuring out where we are

This post is going to be about how people view situations and where they get their information. In my blog post yesterday, which was about an American national security issue, I mentioned that I just recently moved from cable to streaming TV. My sister, who convinced me to try streaming, told me I would find news and other things to watch streaming that I don’t with my cable. I was thoroughly sick of the American news media and that includes liberal news media and FOX and right-wing news media. Along with the various big streaming services, she mentioned some free apps with news and other programming.

Last night I watched a Euro News broadcast. I found the coverage of the earthquake aftermath in Turkey and Syria very informative. I also watched an interview with the prime minister of Moldova, who explained the Russian efforts to destabilize her country. I hear a lot of Americans, who hold right-wing views, say things that sound like Russian propaganda and that worries me. I’ve heard this line about how “we shouldn’t poke the bear,” so many times that I automatically grit my teeth every time someone says that. While it’s true the West has expanded NATO and alliances close to Russia, at the same time Russia has been aggressively targeting its neighbors for years now, while America and our European allies paid mostly lip service to that aggression. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

While I don’t have a crystal ball, I feel we’re already on a path to a wider war, even though I still hope leaders can find ways to avoid that. I have believed for a few years now that China and Russia intend to challenge America’s global economic position and try to bump us to third place. I also, due to years of news reports on China and Russia, believe Russia wants to regain some of its territory from the Soviet era and that China is preparing for war. The news has reported on China’s activities in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan for years. What I wonder is how many Americans will just keep ranting about “don’t poke the bear” or “don’t mess with the dragon” and blame America for our adversaries aggression?

In WWII there were plenty of Americans who held this same attitude – until America was directly attacked. One thing I will say about aggression is appeasement and shows of weakness are actions. Every school yard bully knows how to read displays of weakness too and it does not deter a bully. In fact, usually it emboldens them.

I assume most Americans have no idea where Moldova is, but I won’t be surprised if Moldova is in the news more in the near future. Here’s a quote from that EuroNews interview with the prime minister of Moldova (the video is at the link):

“Russia is trying to destabilise Moldova by sponsoring protests and conducting cyber attacks, the country’s prime minister told Euronews on Tuesday.

“We are seeing elements of hybrid war. We are seeing, for example, pro-Russian forces trying to destabilise the country politically through paid protests which quickly subsided when the oligarchs that fled Moldova were put on the sanctions lists and their money flows were restricted,” Natalia Gavrilița said.

“We are seeing cyber attacks. We’ve had the biggest cyber attacks in 2022 in the history of our country, and we are seeing bomb threats.”https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/02/07/russia-conducting-hybrid-war-in-moldova-with-protests-and-cyber-attacks-prime-minister

Somewhere down the road, in years, I expect historians might look back at this time and instead of wondering about “poking the bear” or “messing with the dragon,” they might be wondering how devastatingly weak the US looked with that Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and an incident like failing to take down an unmanned Chinese spy balloon, as it floated over the American heartland and our most sensitive military sites for a week. They might ponder again, how provocative weakness really is to countries with territorial aspirations on their minds

Leave a comment

Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics

February 7, 2023 · 6:34 pm

Pie in the sky thoughts

I started a blog post on the Chinese spy balloon situation, delving into some other issues that might be involved with that Chinese provocation, but I got bogged down in reading old news articles today and want to take a bit more time to think about this. I like putting information into a timeline format and then trying to see if there’s a bigger picture the timeline reveals. When we’re bombarded with so much information and glaring headlines to grab our attention, it’s easy to get lost in the tides of media sensationalism and all the attendant social media drama that now flows from the daily media spin circus in America.

Like with the “Great Reset,” I realized that I didn’t really understand the timeline and what it was all about. The right-wing media ecosystem, where I used to turn for information when I lost trust in the liberal media, just churned up mass hysteria, so I ordered Klaus Schwab’s two books and read them. Then I started researching the timeline for when all this ESG and Agenda 2030 started. From that I learned that although I do follow the news, I had missed a whole lot of details over the years with the green agenda and the various tentacles of other issues that are attached to that.

I’m finding the same thing with just doing a small bit of research into articles from over the past few years about Huawei and Chinese espionage. I’m done with writing about the partisan angles related to the Biden spin effort with this Chinese spy balloon situation and want to do more information-gathering about the big picture – American national security.

I like maps too and I found an article with a map of the Chinese spy balloon flight path across the US, then I found a map of the military sites that balloon flew over/or near to. What’s missing for me is I want to find a map of all the American rural cell phone carriers still using Huawei equipment on their cell phone towers.

It might be nothing or it might be something and I’m probably the most technology-challenged person to even ponder any of this stuff, but hey, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. Truly, I just recently switched to streaming TV, after one of my sisters talked me through the process of getting either a Roku or fire stick for my older TV and she explained how these streaming services work. I finally ditched cable, but I am still clinging to my landline phone. I asked one of my sons to hook up this stick thing and set it up for me – that’s how clueless I truly am about technology.

That said, I do like gathering information, looking at maps and trying to understand systems. People always establish patterns in everything they do – it’s human nature – so timelines help me understand events and see patterns better.

One thing I did find out was that in 2019 Trump banned Huawei, but the FCC still has no timeframe for enforcing that ban and for rural cell-phone carriers to ditch their Huawei equipment. That kind of caught my attention in my reading old news articles (from July 2022):

“In 2020, Congress approved $1.9 billion to remove Chinese-made Huawei and ZTE cellular technology across wide swaths of rural America.       

But two years later, none of that equipment has been removed and rural telecom companies are still waiting for federal reimbursement money. The FCC received applications to remove some 24,000 pieces of Chinese-made communications equipment—but according to a July 15 update from the commission, it is more than $3 billion short of the money it needs to reimburse all eligible companies.

Absent more money from Congress, the FCC says it plans to begin reimbursing approved companies for about 40 percent of the costs of removing Huawei equipment. The FCC did not specify a timeframe on when the money will be disbursed.”

CNN Exclusive: FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications

I’ll write more, as I sort out more information.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Information War, Politics

February 6, 2023 · 8:01 pm

Biden WH spin balloon deflates

This post is going to be some news that shows a Biden spin narrative has gone down faster than the Chinese spy balloon:

Here’s another one:

Here are the responses from the head of NORAD:

And so it goes.

My belief is this effort to blame Trump for not responding to previous spy balloon incidents and deflect from Biden’s dithering response was totally fabricated.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Information War, Politics

February 6, 2023 · 11:16 am

Winners and losers

On Saturday, a US fighter plane shot down the Chinese spy balloon, after the balloon had been allowed to traverse the continental US for a week. The liberal media and Dems are in full narrative rewrite mode and polluting common sense thinking about national security. I’ve heard statements from Dems and liberal media that this was strategic brilliance to let that Chinese balloon float across the US for a week and statements about how much intel the US gathered by doing that. I also saw assertions that the US military had blocked the Chinese balloon from being able to transmit information. The narrative emerged that Biden had approved the shootdown last Wednesday, the day before this story became widely reported due to concerned citizens in Montana reporting it and taking photos of the balloon.

All of these revised narratives are likely complete fabrications to cover-up the glaring fact that the Biden administration failed to defend American airspace from an unmanned Chinese spy balloon for a week – that’s the truth.

Of course, the Dems and liberal media are spinning up a story that these sort of incursions are nothing new and that there were 3 incidents of Chinese balloon incursions during the Trump years. All of those stories thus far are attributed to unnamed defense officials. Using Trump as the piñata, incited the liberal media and Dems, plus it deflects attention away from Biden’s failure to act swiftly to defend American airspace. Trump officials say there was no event like what happened in the past week during their tenure. Here’s an example of the Dem narrative rewrite effort:

Somehow “briefly transited” does not sound like the 8 day Chinese spy balloon spectacle last week. The fall-out comes when clueless and incompetent government officials buy into their own false narratives rather than face mistakes and learn from them. It was not strategically sound to let a hostile country fly a spy balloon over the entire continental US and especially over some of our most sensitive military sites. It’s also dangerous to buy into the belief that eliminating all risk is required before acting. The Biden excuse about it was too risky to shoot the balloon down due to concerns about the debris field in sparsely populated Montana makes no sense at all. What would this administration do if it was a hostile manned aircraft entering US airspace over a populated metropolitan area? Would the president decide not to act?
This entire new backstory narrative the Biden WH has created sounds like complete fabrication and a face-saving effort to me.

The important takeaway isn’t whose narrative will win in the American spin information war waged in American media, it’s that the Chinese and America’s other enemies don’t care one iota about Democrat or Republican spin wins – they care about humiliating and defeating America. They witnessed an American administration stating the risk to take down an unmanned spy balloon was too great and a new fabricated backstory where President Biden said he ordered the balloon to be shot down “as soon as possible” on Wednesday and it took until Saturday for our military to accomplish that…

Beyond the optics and the obvious display of weakness by this WH and our Pentagon leaders, there’s a whole host of other serious concerns that come with even high-altitude balloons. Balloons can serve as a platform for other unconventional nefarious activities. That’s why swift actions should have been taken to take down this enemy spy balloon before it floated across the entire continental US.

I’ve said for years the only winners in our domestic spin information war are America’s enemies – they scored another win this past week, regardless how much hot air politicians and the media put into narratives. It wasn’t just the Biden WH and the Pentagon who looked weak – it was America.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Information War, Military, Politics

January 11, 2023 · 8:30 am

More political storms are cooking

Despite wanting to skip politics and culture war craziness, there was a bit of news yesterday, that brought home there’s no escaping any of this. So, now it’s gas stoves some government bureaucrats say are a safety threat. Here’s this from CNN, A US federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves

“A federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves, a source of indoor pollution linked to childhood asthma.

In an interview with Bloomberg, a US Consumer Product Safety commissioner said gas stove usage is a “hidden hazard.”

“Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” agency commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg. The report said the agency plans “to take action” to address the indoor pollution caused by stoves.”

I don’t believe for a second this is about childhood asthma, nor do I believe this was just some extremist bureaucrats acting alone. This is another orchestrated green energy push.

Everything we use that uses fossil fuel will likely become a target of the climate change/green energy zealots. For several years there have been efforts to try to ban wood-burning stoves too. Here’s a 2018 article: Pollutionwatch: Canada moves to limit wood burning. The most extreme green and culture war efforts often start in Europe or Canada before making their way here to America, it seems.

Assuredly, some big name foodie chefs, who are into liberal politics, will leap on board trying to sell the idea of banning gas stoves, but for many cooks, especially professional ones, gas stoves are a must. If such a ban happens, I expect a great deal of pushback from some foodie types, who love gas stoves, but a massive media virtue-signaling campaign would accompany a ban, trying to sell the American public that this ban is about saving children’s lives. “Saving the children” is always a popular Democrat talking point used to ram through legislation and regulations.

This gas stove ban that was floated won’t be the only move to force Americans to stop using fossil fuel, so rather than get angry, hopefully Republicans in Washington can start anticipating more crazy green energy regulations and legislation, instead of just ranting about this proposed ban, and figure out ways to block them.

Being angry isn’t a plan to defeat people who will use every power of the state to force their political agenda into laws and regulations. The right now just runs with outrage political theater and reacting – not playing offense. So much of the right-wing ecosystem is about getting pissed off, but very little is about looking ahead at anticipating and preparing to counter the most extreme green agenda that’s just around the corner.

We live in some very strange and troubling times. I don’t have a gas stove, but that really doesn’t matter, because these extreme green policies will escalate, so while this proposed ban doesn’t affect me directly, the next crazy green policies might.

I tried to explain this to one of my kids during the 2020 “Summer of Love” and all the tearing down statues. He told me that he thinks Confederate statues should be torn down and that US military bases shouldn’t be named after Confederate generals. I told him I oppose every aspect of what the lawbreakers were doing, destroying public property and I told him it won’t stop at Confederate statues, because the ultimate goal of the far-left is always to “destroy the patriarchy,” which is a euphemism for our American system of government and economic structure. The US Constitution and our capitalist system are the real targets with “destroying the patriarchy.” I believe that what happens with public property should be decided by local and state officials, if that public property falls under their jurisdiction and by federal government for federal property, but the process should be open to debate, not rammed through by ruthless political activism and a rampaging mob.

While many people believe the green agenda is about fossil fuel usage and the ozone layer/climate change, those are just part of the green agenda. The green agenda is about controlling every aspect of our “carbon footprint,” that means everything we do, from what we eat, to how we live, to how we get around – EVERYTHING, from cradle to grave. There’s even a faction of the extreme green movement that wants to control who can be born and when people die too. That isn’t dystopian science fiction anymore – the euthanasia crowd has made headway in some European countries and in Canada.

This floated gas stove ban will follow the same trajectory as the Confederate statues and US base renaming demands, assuredly more bans and demands will follow. I’ve seen articles for several years about the European and Canadian extreme green proposals, so this gas stove ban didn’t surprise me at all and more extreme green proposals are in the pipe, (sorry bad pun) while the right-wing politicians and media are poised to put all their energy into “investigations” that will go nowhere, due to the slim margin they have in controlling the House. Republicans won’t be able to get any legislation passed, nor can the House prosecute anyone – all they can do is investigate and then make criminal referrals to the Justice Department. Oh, and they can keep the right-wing media filled with endless investigation drama… just like Democrats spent the past year flooding liberal media with J-6 “insurrection” investigation drama.

Seems to me the people who are planning ahead to force their agenda into political reality have more momentum than the people jumping up and down screaming about, “Look what the crazy leftists are doing now!” or wanting to stay on the rehashing the past hamster wheel… Ashli Babbitt, blah, blah, blah, Hillary’s emails, blah, blah, blah, the dastardly FBI, blah, blah, blah.

More aggressive green energy policies are already in the works, so don’t be surprised when they get floated right before the green zealots in the Biden administration and Democrats are ready to implement them. Republicans will still be ranting about crap that happened years ago, while we’re left literally out in the cold, with no way to even cook our Hoover stew… Hoover stew was a Great Depression dish made with broth, hot dogs, macaroni, stewed tomatoes, and corn.

2 Comments

Filed under General Interest, Politics

January 7, 2023 · 1:11 pm

Power shifts among the MAGA crowd

After writing that politics blog post yesterday, I switched my attention to vacuum sealing some Mason jars of dried herbs and a few other dried things I had put into jars. That got me thinking about how my first container gardening effort went, what I want to change this year, problems to work on fixing, and looking through my pantry and doing some rearranging.

Of course, last night I watched the 14th vote for Speaker of the House and the 15th, final vote. I looked at the Twitter politics commentary and I had FOX News on my TV. The FOX primetime was a disingenuous spin show, as ridiculous as anything CNN and MSNBC churn out. There were efforts to recast this spectacle as some important political happening that’s going to usher in momentous change and “accountability” in Washington. There was political reputation rebuilding efforts for Chip Roy and Hannity even had on Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, two of the most ridiculous spin clowns ever to get elected to office, on his show. Hannity was working hard to offer them face-saving too.

McCarthy’s team believed a deal had been reached, hence the FOX primetime effort to plaster on a united front and paint this spectacle as some important change, before the 10 pm, 14th vote. Matt Gaetz set-up a surprise ambush at the end of that vote, leaving McCarthy one vote short.

It’s always been easier for me to see the corruption and moral bankruptcy of liberals and the far-left, because their politics and tactics are an affront to everything I believe. It’s been much harder for me to realize how corrupt and morally bankrupt so many Republican politicians and right-wing media are. And of course, the right’s embrace of Trump, exposed the hypocrisy of the moral preening, when Trump supporters would bend over backwards to make excuses for Trump’s appalling conduct – conduct they would never condone from anyone else. All the crap FOX News was selling last night was a pile of rotting garbage.

I seriously doubt the rule changes Chip Roy negotiated will change anything for the better in Washington, when Democrats control the Senate and the White House. What McCarthy did was sell all the power of the speakership to a handful of political arsonists. I have nothing against Chip Roy, but I will say that when you align yourself with spin clowns like Boebert and Gaetz, who are the GOP version of liberal activists who obstruct traffic or glue themselves to paintings in art museums (political arsonists), you shouldn’t be surprised when they pull a stunt like Gaetz did in that 14th vote. The GOP House is now set to be held hostage by these “burn it all down” fools.

A long time ago I wrote about The Last Refuge blog, which became a popular conservative blog back in the Obama years, then that blog became like Trump Polling Central with inside the campaign updates, when Trump ran for president in 2016. I came to being aware of that blog when it made a list of the most popular right-wing blogs in the Obama years. Well, last night on Twitter, I saw The Last Refuge account had moved from trying to trash Ron DeSantis to smearing Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG,) one of the Trumper darlings. MTG had voted for McCarthy all along, so The Last Refuge blog was spreading a story that MTG and McCarthy are having an affair. I was waiting for them to label MTG a RINO, because this is the mentality Trumpian politics has ushered in – you’re either with Trump or you’ll be destroyed and smeared. Eventually, I expect the most extreme Trump zealots to toss Trump to the wayside too.

This is an orchestrated spin smear campaign:

Last night, apparently Trump still had enough sway to get the Gaetz crowd to stand-down, but among the most rabid section of the Trump-right, there was a distinct power shift and Gaetz and Boebert increased their “toughness” cred, while Trump lost some. MTG has been discarded for the moment. That’s how “take no prisoners” politics, that Trump normalized among the right, works. The American political left has operated like this for decades. Trump will be perceived as blinking first. And when the next issue emerges that this extreme faction of Trumpworld gets behind and demands a “burn it all down,” approach, it won’t be Chip Roy they’ll be rallying behind – it will be Matt Gaetz or other political arsonists, who will hold out longer.

Plenty of the online social media right-wing crowd will buy into all the “burn it all down” politics and all the crazy conspiracy theories too, because reactionary behavior and embracing outrageous political sideshows has been normalized in right-wing media and by too many Republican politicians. Getting a Speaker selected should be basically a ceremonial function, when your party won the majority – not a fight to the death among your own side, while your political opponents are gleefully watching you burn your own credibility to the ground. They had since November to work all this out. The political arsonists are more energized at destroying “RINOs” and anyone else on the right who doesn’t march in lockstep with them, than they are about defeating Democrats and their policies. You can’t slash and burn your way to getting legislation passed; you have to build consensus and cut deals. That’s just how it works. More effort will go into in-fighting by the Gaetz crowd.

That’s how I see it and I’m done with the politics for a bit and want to work on things around my own home – that really matter in my life. Both sides in Washington are hopeless pits of corruption and truly amoral opportunists and zealots.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Politics

January 6, 2023 · 8:48 am

It’s another typical Jan. 6th for the GOP

This will be a short politics post – fair warning. In the US the House of Representatives, which Republicans won control of in this past November election. They’ve been trying to elect a Speaker of the House. This getting a Speaker voted in, so the rest of the Representatives can get sworn in and seated, is usually a formality. However, this year there are 20 Republican hold-outs obstructing the process and insisting Kevin McCarthy, the choice of 200 other Republicans, is unacceptable as Speaker and that we need a Speaker who will “drain the Swamp,” or various iterations of these 20 hold-outs are bravely fighting to restore accountability and standing up to the corrupt DC establishment.

What’s abundantly clear, is these 20 are disorganized, because they couldn’t even agree among themselves who their alternative choice for Speaker was going to be and even more telling that this is just a political spin stunt was these 20 hadn’t been working to gain a consensus with other House Republicans, because electing an alternative choice will require gaining the support of almost 200 of their Republican colleagues, who voted for McCarthy.

Among the right-wing media, many of the biggest Trump-aligned talking heads have been tirelessly championing these 20 hold-outs as if this disorganized band are heroically going to save our republic. If they couldn’t effectively organize and settle on an alternative choice or rally enough support for an alternative choice from their fellow Republican House members, then it’s highly unlikely they have some grand plan or the political skills to “save America,” “drain the swamp” or accomplish much else – other than grandstanding… oh and some of the loudest are already trying to fundraise off of this mayhem they have created.

When people turn what’s generally just a ceremonial procedure into a sideshow or mayhem (yes, I[‘m going to say it – like the Jan. 6th escapade of trying to hijack certifying the electoral college vote), the chances that they have the organization or skills to handle tasks that require more complex political objectives is highly unlikely.

Right out of the gate, this band of 20 flamethrowers have set the reputation of this Republican House leadership in flames, McCarthy looks incredibly weak, even if he does eventually win the speakership and these 20 hold-outs, after 11 rounds of voting, still haven’t agreed, even among themselves, on an alternative choice.

It’s way past time for Americans to start expecting competence over spin optics. I’m not a fan of Kevin McCarthy, but these 20 hold-outs creating a media circus, without having any plan or idea what to do besides try to force McCarthy to step aside demonstrates a total lack of looking beyond their own egos. Even former President Trump realizes this isn’t a good optic and has urged them to stand-down and move on, which will likely happen soon.

The only thing that will come out of their political stunt is it handed Democrats and the liberal media endless video of House Republicans looking inept, disorganized and not ready to lead – just like Jan. 6th a couple years ago damaged the GOP’s reputation severely. While the most strident part of the right buys into all these ridiculous and counterproductive public spectacles, there are plenty of Americans who are tired of the media clown shows. They were appalled by Jan. 6th, but also disgusted by the Dem-led Jan. 6th investigation sideshow too.

The election in November was not a resounding win for either party.

It’s just another typical Jan. 6th in America, it seems – the Republicans in total disarray, again. I can hardly take all this “winning.”

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Politics

December 3, 2022 · 4:09 pm

ESG ain’t going away

This is going to be a post about politics – specifically ESG and I want to connect a few dots. ESG has been talked about a lot and among the right it’s sort of become like a shorthand term for “evil corporations,” but that completely misses the point. Corporations didn’t just decide to adopt ESG, which stands for environmental, social, and corporate governance out of thin air.

ESG came about out of UN initiatives. In 2004 the UN formed the UN Global Compact, so this goes back to when George W. Bush was president and the US and major US banks, investment corporations and large corporations have been on board with all of this since the beginning. None of this ESG agenda would be happening in America without the full support and prodding of the US government. This is true around the world – the UN agenda from this 2004 UN Global Compact, where the term ESG was first used, to the 2015 UN Agenda 2030, which lays out an ambitious 2030 timeline to transform the world into an environmentally, sustainable utopia, where equitable governance is universal was signed onto by almost every country in the world.

In 2004 this Global Compact report came out: Who Cares Wins: Connecting Financial Markets to a Changing World. On the title page here’s the blurb at the bottom:

“Endorsed by:
ABN Amro • Aviva • AXA Group • Banco do Brasil • Bank Sarasin • BNP Paribas • Calvert Group • CNP Assurances
Credit Suisse Group • Deutsche Bank • Goldman Sachs • Henderson Global Investors • HSBC • IFC • Innovest
The Global
Compact
ISIS Asset Management • KLP Insurance • Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance • Morgan Stanley • RCM • UBS • Westpac • World Bank Group”

This ESG effort isn’t just about “woke companies” promoting American leftist policies; it’s a global effort, endorsed by almost every country in the world – including the United States. That’s why all these silly right-wing reactionary antics about “ESG” and “woke companies” is rather pointless, in my opinion. Every major US corporation has had to get on-board with the ESG agenda, because all of the big investment firms and banks have adopted this ESG agenda – since the early 2000s.

So, let’s fast forward a few years to 2015, the year the UN adopted Agenda 2030 – here’s the link to that: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda.

I don’t want to ramble on a lot about my personal feelings or thoughts about ESG or Agenda 2030 or the WEF & Klaus Schwab, because my intention with this post is to draw awareness to how ESG and “woke companies” aren’t acting alone – they embarked on this, because most governments around the world are 100% behind this effort, including the United States of America, and the ones that aren’t 100% are being pressured to pay lip service to it, or face having investment and development aid being cut off.

I came across this June 2020 Forbes article, Demystifying ESG: Its History & Current Status, which provides a lot of details on why we started hearing so much about ESG since 2020 – and that’s about the acceleration effort proposed by the World Economic Forum crowd, to use the global pandemic economic turmoil as an opportunity to speed up the global transformation goals in Agenda 2030. This is what Klaus Schwab, the founder of the WEF termed – The Great Reset.

Right-wing pundit media types started blabbing about The Great Reset and ESG a lot in the past two years, but they’re so far behind at really grasping that governments around the world, including the US, the UN and major financial and investment corporations, have been laying the groundwork and implementing these policies since the early 2000s and by the time the UN adopted Agenda 2030 – in 2015 – major corporations and banks around the world were already on board completely.

People on the right getting on their high horse saying they’re going to boycott this or that company, because of ESG or “woke policies” really completely shows a lack of reality – almost everyone lives within these systems and relies on goods and services from major corporations and/or the government, which are fully invested in advancing the ESG goals. There isn’t any easy opt-out option for any of us – that’s the bottom-line.

Anyone who thinks that getting angry about something and coming up with a quick reaction – like “I’m done shopping there or there or there!” is going to deter or stop a major global effort that’s been underway for almost 20 years and backed by almost every country and major corporation in the world is delusional. Everyone will have to decide for themselves how much they’re willing to go along to get along in this situation, just like during the pandemic. I resented some of those policies too, but I also need to see my doctor and have tests done sometimes that required me to comply with rules, I didn’t agree with. I’m not judging other people for the choices they make or what they believe about the pandemic, the environmental issues or any of the so-called “woke” agenda, because frankly, there’s so much bad information in the news and social media environment that it’s a total wasteland.

I have my own thoughts on how, if things spiral out of control with the Great Reset in too many places in the world, that could propel many rapid changes to occur, but like everyone else, I don’t have a crystal ball. ESG ain’t going away – that’s the reality.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Politics, The Great Reset

November 13, 2022 · 9:29 am

Following more money trails.

This past week’s election in America was a stunning victory if you’re a Democrat and a total disaster if you’re Republican – thus far. We still don’t know which party will control the US House of Representatives, but Democrats will keep control of the US Senate.

A few states had election drama with vote-counting again, especially AZ, NV, and CA is very slow too, I’ve seen some right-wing commentary about “stolen election” in AZ from the Trump camp again, but here’s the thing Republicans controlled the legislature and the governorship in AZ before this election. NV, though, was controlled by Democrats, and of course, CA is a Democrat stronghold. This post is going to be about politics and specifically about Trump and the MAGA movement, with a look back to the beginning of Trump’s political career and what I expect.

Former President Trump was floating the “stolen election” spin again, which isn’t surprising since he’s conned his followers into believing in “stolen elections” as a matter of faith – without ever producing any real proof. Then right-wing media starts spinning up Trump’s spin garbage and in the blink of an eye, Trump supporters are all-in on the next Trump spin lie. Due to the endless Trump Show, where Democrats and liberals have lost their minds trying to destroy Trump and Trump supporters have embraced Trump as the only path to “Making America Great Again,” America’s been locked in this same political drama since 2015. Many of his ardent supporters trust in him completely and while there’s been some backlash on the right against Trump for attacking FL governor, Ron DeSantis, after DeSantis scored a stunning victory in FL last week, I expect not much will change in Washington and not much will change with Trump right now.

I fully expect FOX News pundits will be back to being all-in for Trump quickly, despite a few days of criticism of Trump for attacking Ron DeSantis. FOX News has tried to break up with Trump before, but since most of their audience are Trump followers, they always reverse course quickly. And during these rocky periods Trump starts attacking FOX News for its negative coverage and hunting other right-wing news media to sell his Trump Show, without any criticisms. Trump supporters always point out that Trump is unfairly attacked by the left, especially liberal media and it’s certainly true, a whole lot of liberal media sounds like Trump Derangement Syndrome and now even attacking Trump supporters as “MAGA Republicans,” but they’re not the only ones stuck in derangement. Many Trump supporters completely buy into all of this labeling everyone on the right who dares criticize Trump as a RINO or supporting the GOP establishment and Swamp in DC.

During this latest little FOX News/Trump rocky patch, Trump was busy posting statements about it and on November 10th, here’s what he posted:

“If CNN were smart, they’d open up a Conservative network, only have me on, and it would be the most successful network in History. Fox only made it because of me, Twitter only made it because of me, and even Facebook is now in the tubes, having lost almost $90 billion in value since I was taken off, which was considered one of the biggest mistakes in business over the last two years, because with Trump go tens of millions of people who believe in MAGA, who want to Make America Great Again, and Put America First!”

Trump hates CNN and they’re evil, but there’s Trump floating a CNN conservative network that would only have him on. He’s that confident MAGA Republicans are so loyal to him and that he can keep lying to them and conning them forever. Sure harkens back to Trump’s comment way back when, about his followers being so loyal he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and they’d remain loyal. I suspect many of them have bought into Trump’s con game that much and would happily even follow Trump to enriching “Fake News CNN.”

Trump’s MAGA-selected candidates have been a total electoral disaster – he picked these people only because they were willing to spout his “stolen election” bs.

Tucker Carlson had on Blake Masters Friday night and Masters, a MAGA candidate, with no political experience, lost his senate race to Democrat incumbent, Mark Kelly in the AZ senate race. Masters was spouting the latest Trump spin, blaming Mitch McConnell for his loss, The failure of these MAGA candidates, that Trump promoted, is supposedly all Mitch McConnell’s fault for not pouring money into his campaign and it’s a Trumpworld talking point to rail against McConnell for putting money into Lisa Murkowski’s race against the Trump-backed candidate. That’s the thing – to win national races it’s much more successful to get incumbents re-elected than it is to get people with no political record elected. McConnell, despite Trump attacking him constantly and Dems pouring millions into Amy McGrath, won his reelection by 20 points. He knows a bit more about elections than Trump, that’s for sure, who won 2016 by a fluke, with Hillary being so bogged down by scandals and being a particularly awful candidate, added to which Trump had benefitted mightily from that billions of dollars of free media during the GOP primary. The mythical “GOP Insurgent” Dems and liberal media created in the GOP primary came back to haunt them in the general. And McConnell knows more about how the US Senate operates than Blake Masters. The truth is McConnell-aligned PACs poured way more money into Trump-backed candidates in the general election than Trump did:

“McConnell-aligned super PACs — including SLF, American Crossroads and Faith & Power PAC — have invested a whopping $238 million so far in seven key Senate races. How much has Donald Trump spent? He has raised an eye-watering $161 million this election cycle. But his super PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc., has spent a grand total of . . . $14.8 million on Senate races. To put that in perspective, MAGA Inc.’s total spending across the country is less than McConnell-aligned PACs have spent in any individual race in which they are engaged.”

https://www.news-journal.com/opinion/mcconnells-pacs-put-money-where-trumps-mouth-is/article_f81a8e4e-5e27-11ed-8053-5740bc1e4414.html

With Murkowski -it made sense to back an incumbent rather than engage in the reckless and stupid Trump purges of the GOP, trying to rid the GOP of anyone who doesn’t march in lock-step with Trump and kiss his butt. Blake Masters is another one of those Trump-backed candidates with no political experience and in fact, he has no experience of even being a Republican – just like Trump, yet, he’s demanding that McConnell must go. Love him or hate him, McConnell, has been very effective as Senate leader, and has gotten a whole lot of conservative judges confirmed AND has put decades into the GOP – even back when Trump was a NY liberal spending his time with his golfing buddy, Bill Clinton. Since 2015, I’ve believed that Trump entering that race was a Dem dirty trick, so there’s my conspiracy theory.

Why should a guy who lost his Senate race be the person demanding Mitch McConnell be replaced? I’m not even a McConnell fan, but I’m sick to death of the Trump’s lies and endless Trump war against the GOP. Trump has torn the GOP apart and besides his fluke win in 2016, he’s led the GOP to nothing but losses and constant battles against RINOs and the GOPe. Living in GA, I’m sick to death of Trump’s efforts to tear the GOP apart here and I am glad Brian Kemp won a huge victory over Stacy Abrams – DESPITE Trump trying to destroy Kemp. Where’s the anger among MAGA over Trump trying to tear down popular Republicans running for re-election, only because they wouldn’t kiss Trump’s butt? Nope, they’re being led to blame Mitch McConnell for the losses.

Trump’s already fundraising using the Hershel Walker run-off in GA:

Trump automatically gets 90% of those donations he’s raising for Hershel Walker, unless the donor clicks to change that – another Trump grift.

I fully expect Trump and his right-wing media echo-chamber to keep attacking Mitch McConnell, keep lying, and claim the defeat of Trump’s MAGA candidates, even with the terrible economy, was McConnell’s fault and at the same time con his supporters into believing the election wasn’t really that bad and many of them will keep sending Trump money.

I’m a “follow the money person,” because things become clearer when you take a close look at money trails.

A close family member pointed out to me that the Dems poured millions into promoting these extreme MAGA candidates in the primaries, trying to absolve Trump of blame and I reminded her that these candidates wouldn’t have even gotten any traction without Trump endorsing them in the first place. Trump put them in play. The ironic thing is this is exactly what the Democrats did in 2015 too – Bill Clinton ‘Encouraged’ Trump to Run. I still believe that the “GOP Insurgent” was a Democrat-concocted dirty trick that went awry. Trump wasn’t expected to win – just disrupt the 2016 GOP primary.

In 2019, Howard Stern, another Trump crony, who hung out at Trump’s home in FL: Howard Stern: Trump’s candidacy for president was a ‘publicity stunt’ I bring this up, because Dems pouring money on the worst possible candidates in this election is exactly what happened in 2015 too.

Here’s a Nov. 2016 piece: Donald Trump Rode $5 Billion in Free Media to the White House. A large chunk of that money was from liberal media – like CNN and MSNBC, where Trump friends, Joe and Mika had Trump calling in interviews on their show, while demanding other Republican primary candidates had to show up in the studio. CNN and MSNBC were also airing Trump rallies, in their entirety – live. They were conning right-wing America into buying into Trump – “the fighter,” “the great businessman,” “the GOP Insurgent,” while sitting on mountains of dirt about Trump – which they unleashed by late 2015, when Trump became a real threat to Hillary. It was all a Dem dirty trick in the beginning, I believe.

So many Trump-supporters believe in Trump as much as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s supporters believed in them. Those Bakker supporters sent them millions of dollars too. Until enough Trump supporters realize this has all been a huge grift, Trump will remain a powerful force in the GOP and American politics.

I expect Trump to announce his 2024 run this coming week, FOX News will be back to selling Trump as the only GOP hope in 2024, and I expect most of his followers will buy into blaming McConnell and RINOs and GOPe, rather then realize Trump and Democrats pushing these loser MAGA candidates in the GOP primaries is how the GOP got saddled with so many bad candidates and why they lost.

If you’re wondering why Biden and Schumer were hyping J-6 and the threat of MAGA Republicans for months, while downplaying the economic problems, well, wonder no more – it was part of this promote the worst MAGA candidates in the GOP primaries, then pivot and only talk about what a threat they are in the general election (same strategy they used in 2016). I think they probably felt confident that very few of these MAGA candidates could make it across the finish line and with Trump it was guaranteed the GOP would remain in turmoil constantly. He wants the GOP purged of every Republican who isn’t 100% loyal to him.

Trump still has great appeal among his base and so many of them will believe everything he says, plus, unlike these losing MAGA candidates this past week – Trump actually beat the Democrats at their own corrupt spin game once and because of that he remains a potent threat to Democrats and their liberal media mouthpieces – as long as he has some big media selling him.

More to come for sure. Btw, Jim and TammyFaye had little old ladies living on fixed incomes sending them money for years, until they were exposed as frauds and I expect that until people realize that Trump has conned them and is really the guy who loved hanging out with people like Howard Stern and golfing with Bill Clinton, not hanging around working class MAGA people, the era of Trump will continue.

I am totally done with Donald J. Trump.

Update: Well, I decided to add a bit more, because here’s the truth – Trump brought the Dem/liberal media brand of spin information war to the GOP and turned the GOP into an entrenched civil war zone of Trump vs The RINOs/GOPe and has made the party largely dysfunctional. However, while the Dems and liberal media are gloating and celebrating, the other part is they are totally committed to this destructive spin information war and this election will energize them to further escalate the balkanization of America and expand their culture war. Americans will become further radicalized in the process – on both sides. As a conservative, I had hoped for wins on the right in this election, but it’s way more than the outcome of this election that concerns me – it’s the lying and constant manipulation of Americans by this 24/7 media spin war.

While Dems and liberal media politicized how they define “disinformation” and used it as a bludgeon against Trump and Republicans – disinformation is a real problem. First I’m going to mention the problem with clueless media analysts given high profiles.

A lot of right-wing media attention focused on the US Senate race in PA, where Democrats fielded John Fetterman, a man seriously impaired from a stroke. Even questioning his fitness for office led to liberal media and Dem attacks about being “ableist” and discriminating against disabled people, when competency for public office is a completely valid concern. The left-wing media is filled with as many nincompoops as analysts as the right-wing media, truthfully. Katy Tur, a MSNBC host was so ecstatic about Fetterman winning that Senate race, that she suggested he could run for President… And, in the current Democratic Party, where Joe Biden is being managed by his wife, that’s entirely possible. It was the complete lack of awareness of how serious it is to have people holding high office, who are mentally unfit for the office, that surprised me and I can see millions of Democrats getting all in on supporting Fetterman, after watching how they pretend Joe Biden doesn’t have any cognitive problems. While many people on the right were stunned about Democrats being willing to push Fetterman, despite knowing he’s unfit for office, is nothing new though – it’s goes back in the Democratic Party all the way to Woodrow Wilson, who had a stroke as president and his wife took over the presidency basically, while the American people were left in the dark and the media covered it up.

Next, there was the problem with liberals embracing Twitter banning right-wing people willy-nilly and basically using that power as a partisan political tool – big tech giants colluding with a partisan faction to silence the other side, all in the name of “fighting disinformation.” A lot of people on the right expected Elon Musk to become the savior of free speech in America. Well, Musk bought Twitter and he initiated some verification process for people to get blue-checkmarks that was not really verifying accounts. Twitter has been flooded with accounts impersonating other people, companies, government officials and many were fake Elon Musk accounts. While it might seem humorous, this, in my view, could quickly turn into a national security problem. Yesterday, I saw a news report about a fake Twitter account for Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company, whose stock plunged after a fake Twitter account tweeted: Fake Eli Lilly Twitter Account Claims Insulin Is Free, Stock Falls 4.37%. That supposed verified accounts aren’t actually verified in any way could cause a lot of havoc, so Twitter halted their new verification program. That a fake account could crash major US companies or cause mass panic is not funny.

There isn’t going to be a one step solution to either the spin information war problem or the very real dangers with large social media platforms – both with how much power they have to control information or how risky it is to have no verification or security checks on official social media accounts for officials, companies, organizations, etc.

Corruption problems in politics and with the media are as old as politics and media, actually. What has alarmed me for decades now about this spin information war is how completely this merging of partisan politics and big media has been able to drive and control public opinion in America. However, the more concerning problem is how many people will share, retweet, and believe in information without doing an iota of research, trying to verify the information, or even being skeptical at all.

I’ve been concerned about this expanding spin information war and the divides it fuels for decades now. I opened Twitter this morning and some liberal lady was spewing invective at MAGA voters – not Trump or Republican candidates – she was spewing at Americans who exercised their right to vote however they wanted. That’s the problem – this spin war has radicalized not just our politics, it’s turned a whole lot of Americans into buying into this Us vs. Them way of thinking too. I bitch about how a lot of the Republican base, since Trump, has become addled conspiracy theorists, who buy into even the most wild conspiracy theories now, but this problem is also within the Democrat base too, where many buy into that “MAGA Republicans” are evil people and must be banished from the public square, monitored by the government, etc. – all for having different political views.

As a conservative, I get more riled up about what’s going on in the right-side of politics, but the same radicalization has happened among the left-side. None of it is good for America and as long as this scorched earth spin information war continues to be lucrative for politicians and media – they’re going to keep running with it and that’s the way bigger threat to America than who won or lost in this election. It’s like we’re on a dangerous road with no guardrails. And I’ll end with that.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Politics

November 9, 2022 · 11:31 am

America survived another election

This is a going to be a politics post about last’s night election results. Democrats had a very good night. There was no “red wave” and although I fully expect Trump and his supporters to blame other people for the loss of so many Trump-approved candidates (that Trump foisted on the GOP,) the truth is most of the Trump candidates were a circus of clowns, with no political experience and the only thing that got them Trump’s endorsement was that they were Trump sycophants and loudly sucked up to Trump. All the right-wing media hype about how spectacular these Trump candidates are was a lie. And days before the election at a campaign rally, Trump attacked the only shining star GOP candidate, Ron DeSantis, who pulled out a stunning victory in Florida.

Kari Lake, one of the Trumper candidates who got a lot of right-wing media praise for taking the fight to the media and being a rising star, decided in a tight race, where it was crucial to attract every Republican and undecided vote possible, that it was smart politics in AZ, to attack John McCain supporters at one of her last campaign rallies and she told them to go home…

I fully expect Trump and his supporters will come up with some conspiracy theories about stolen elections, blame Mitch McConnell or RINOs, and point the finger all around, but Trump will take none of the blame for this Republican disaster he created.

I grew up in PA and frankly trying to foist some Dr. Oz, a TV celebrity who lives in a mansion in NJ, on the PA GOP, was like the masterstroke of stupidity. The only thing a whole lot of people in PA dislike more than people from NJ is New Yorkers, although somehow the right-wing media noise about Trump being a “fighter” and “winner” sold many blue collar people in PA to buy into that Trump really wasn’t the NY liberal, whose golfing buddy was Bill Clinton and who had people like Joe and Mika and Howard Stern hanging out at his home in FL, but instead was one of them.

Fetterman, a far-left radical candidate, severely impaired from a stroke, won against Dr. Oz, by largely running on he’s a PA native and lives in PA – not NJ. For all the Trump crowd, who think the American people are stupid for voting for Dem candidates, who are far-left or a candidate like Fetterman, here’s the thing, many people, even Republicans, weren’t sold on most of these Trump-selected candidates. In PA, if Dr. Oz wasn’t bad enough, Trump endorsed Doug Mastriano, a far-right kook, for governor.

Then there’s the money situation in the GOP races and here again, I expect the Trump pundit circle to try to blame Mitch McConnell, even though Trump put very little of the money he raised into these candidates he endorsed – he’s sitting on that money, while McConnell’s PAC spent almost a quarter of a billion dollars to bail out Trump-backed candidates:

In his latest Washington Post column, Marc Thiessen presents some interesting facts on the efforts of super PACS affiliated with Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to shore up candidates endorsed by Donald Trump:

Through his super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), and other affiliated groups, [Senator Mitch McConnell] has led an extraordinary, quarter-of-a-billion-dollar effort to rescue struggling Trump-backed Senate candidates — while the former president sits on a $92 million war chest and spends almost none of it.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/mcconnells-pacs-spend-millions-to-bail-out-trumps-candidates/

While Trump was spending his time thinking up some derogatory nickname to smear Ron DeSantis, days before this election, DeSantis was showing up around the country trying to support other GOP candidates, including Trump-backed ones. He’s still running a state and managing one of the most impressive major hurricane recovery efforts in American history. And he hasn’t bad-mouthed Trump or clapped back at Trump labeling him Ron Desanctimonious. Yesterday, on the day of the election, probably expecting a massive red wave, Trump was sending veiled warnings to DeSantis:

CNN — 

On the day of the 2022 general election, Donald Trump sent a very clear 2024 message to Ron DeSantis: Stay out of the race or else.

“I would tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering – I know more about him than anybody – other than, perhaps, his wife,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/politics/trump-desantis-2024-warning-shot/index.html

I voted straight R down my ticket here in GA, even though I had to hold my nose to vote for Hershel Walker, who isn’t conservative and I think is not really US senator material. I doubt he’s ever read the US Constitution or has a clue what a US Senator’s job entails (that’s pretty common in both parties these days, btw.) I hate these binary choices, where I feel both candidates don’t support any of the things I think are important and/or lack character in glaring ways. I was more concerned about the GA governor’s race and thankfully, Brian Kemp, another Republican, whom Trump has trashed repeatedly and tried to unseat in the GA primary, won. Brian Kemp demonstrated he’s willing to defy Washington overreach during the pandemic, while the guy Trump was supporting, David Perdue, just flipped positions on issues to try to stay in Trump’s good graces.

The big takeaway from this election, I think, is that the GOP has some serious soul-searching to do if it wants to win in 2024 and the Democratic Party will likely get overconfident since this election went much better than they expected.

Life still goes on. The sky didn’t fall. American democracy and our constitutional republic still stand and I’m thinking about a tropical storm brewing in the Caribbean and heading toward the southern US. I’m also thinking about a blog post I want to get written about something other than politics.

Have a nice day!

One last thought: Today, after a stunning victory in FL, DeSantis isn’t wasting time thinking up stupid derogatory nicknames or ways to attack other Republicans or even basking in his win. He’s doing his job as governor:

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Politics