Category Archives: 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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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:

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October 11, 2022 · 11:16 am

Signals, noise and mixed messages

This post is going to be about our modern news media ecosystem and the Ukraine war. First point I’d like to make is it’s very hard to discern the signals from the noise. The signals are the meaningful information, while the noise just makes it harder to detect the signals. Our partisan spin information war now fills the American news media space with so much noise that important signals often get drowned out or buried completely, regardless what news media format you’re consuming. Even print media often doesn’t provide the most basic information about images or events in their copy and lots of times the important details are buried way down in the story.

It’s become commonplace to see photos and videos circulate on the internet that don’t include any information about when and where it was shot, who took the photo or video, who the people are in the images and a clear explanation of what the image shows. Often images are selectively edited or altered, which leads to further confusion. Many people, without any hesitation, share images and videos they `they know nothing about and they buy into them completely.

Both Russia and Ukraine have waged massive propaganda efforts, since Russia invaded Ukraine. Unfortunately, so many American political leaders, former government officials, to include former intel and defense officials, and many, many “experts” on foreign policy from academia now live online. Our news media people live online too. They also leap to share information they have no idea where it came from or if it’s true. The human race wasn’t ready for social media, I think.

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but again Twitter is the main online social media space where they congregate and unfortunately that’s where most of them get their “information.” The problem with this rapid tweeting and retweeting behavior is the signals usually get missed, while the tweet noise floods the zone. The rest of America, who isn’t following the Twitter politics crowd ends up with the “news” that’s spun out from the partisan spin battles on Twitter to other news media in America.

Most Americans aren’t on Twitter and even if they went on Twitter it’s doubtful they’d see what I’m talking about. I didn’t understand Twitter’s role in the American spin information war at first either, but then I decided to follow hundreds of politicians, journalists and news organizations to see what would show up in my feed. Then I spent a lot of hours watching the Twitter interactions and learning how the partisan talking points generated and that opened my eyes to how the corrupt Dem spin information war, that I’d been trying to understand since the 90s, was operating in the Twitter age.

Trump learned how to fight spin battles on Twitter too and there’s now a dedicated Trumpian right-wing spin effort too, plus some assorted other right-wing media spin efforts. I can go on Twitter and sit for about 15 minutes scrolling my feed filled with journos and politicians and see spin cycles form in real time. It happened by accident, not by design, because I was just wondering why the cable news had begun mentioning Twitter and tweets so much.

One important point about the American spin information war is we don’t live in a vacuum, so foreign operatives are involved in trying to influence the American news too and the Russians have always been aggressive about those efforts, going back through most of the last century.

Russia was struggling to counter the Ukrainian propaganda war and the one place in America where Russian propaganda gains traction these days, bizarrely is within the right-wing media space, where due to the binary-thinking, many Americans will be for or against something based on if the “other side” is for it, they are automatically against it. Dems and Hollywood rushed to wrap themselves in Ukrainian flags and worship Zelensky, so many on the right automatically took the opposing view.

Anyway, back to the signals and noise in regards to the Ukraine war, both Ukraine and Russia are running massive propaganda wars, so getting accurate information about the facts on the ground is difficult. Added onto this is Hollywood and Democrats rushed to aid Zelensky’s propaganda war and Zelensky reminds me of Donald Trump in some ways. He’s a former actor and knows how to stage himself effectively, just like Trump’s a master of owning the stage. Trump could upstage any world event. Zelensky has been packaged and sold by Democrats and the vast liberal media space as the infallible hero and too many Americans are invested in Ukraine without any serious thought to American national interests.

There are important reasons for America and Europe to thwart Putin’s naked aggression, but at the same time it’s important to carefully keep sight of American national interests in how we do that.

The worst thing Biden and many European leaders have done is talk big, then drag their feet on aiding Ukraine, while mewling to Putin, trying to coax him to keep the oil and gas flowing. They imposed punishing sanctions on Russia, to include on buying Russian oil. Then they continued to buy Russian oil. What kind of message did that send Putin? If you want to be taken seriously, you need to put your money where your mouth is. Biden and many of the European leaders have talked out of both sides of their mouth.

And worst of all, if you truly feel stopping Putin’s aggression is a grave threat to stability in Europe and that weakness at this critical juncture would embolden, not just Putin, but China too, then it makes no sense to try to embark on some cockamamie green-energy transformation. The Ukraine-Russia conflict has led to a full-blown economic war, but the US and Europeans weren’t as serious as Putin has been. If you were serious about stopping Putin, you’d be ramping up American fossil fuel production and the Europeans would be postponing their Great Reset to fight the Ukraine War, which they blabber on is the greatest threat since WWII. They would not be buying a drop of Russian oil, and they’d be working overtime trying to carefully assess what arms to send to Ukraine, while trying to speed up resupply of their own military stockpiles. Instead, they were just trying to kick the can down the road, hoping Putin would back down, so they could focus on their Great Reset and green-energy transformation. Their priority wasn’t stopping Putin – it was the Great Reset.

The Biden administration is most concerned about all its liberal pet projects – green-energy, racial politics, gender politics and most of all defeating and crushing Republicans. I haven’t seen any real seriousness in how the Biden administration has gone about helping Ukraine or really wanting to stop Putin’s aggression. Now that things have spiraled into a huge mess, Biden isn’t out there giving any calm. clear articulation of what the goals are, what’s at stake, or why the US should care about the war in Ukraine. Instead, he was rambling on at a Dem fundraiser about Armageddon and Putin – just like he tried to blame his own war on American fossil fuel as being Putin’s fault. He was concerned about defeating Republicans – not about convincing Putin to withdraw from Ukraine.

The Biden administration has offered no clear and consistent statements on Ukraine, that it followed with actions that bolstered those words. It was all big talk, then still buying Russian oil, while the Germans and French kept going on bended knee to the Russians, begging them not to turn off the Russian oil and gas spigots. The US/European effort to aid Ukraine has been a hodgepodge, convoluted mess with a lot of foot-dragging and lack of coordination between Western leaders and a lack of coordination with Ukrainian leaders. I believe the Obama foreign policy people are running this sideshow, because it has all the earmarks of their incompetent and clueless stumbling and bumbling, followed by overreactions that were the Obama foreign adventures.

I have no idea how things will turn out, but I feel certain that if the US and West cave on Ukraine, China will be on the move very quickly. A lot of Americans, especially on the right, have become isolationist after all the military adventurism in the past two decades and they don’t want to hear about sending US troops anywhere. I understand that, but the reality is Reagan was right: “We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”

America is still a force for good. If we decide to pick up our toys and go home, saying it’s not our problem or we don’t want to be the world’s policeman, that won’t keep us safe. Russia, China and other malignant actors in the world would quickly move to fill the void left by a US retreat from the world.

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October 2, 2022 · 7:24 pm

A few Nord Stream facts

I keep hearing this Nord Stream talking point, “Why would Russia blow up their own pipeline?” This generated in the American right-wing media ecosystem very quickly, so let’s get some facts straight – Nord Stream 1 & 2 aren’t only “Russian” pipelines – they’re JOINT ventures with Russian Gazprom paying half the cost of construction and a group of western companies paying half:

“Gazprom paid half the cost of building Nord Stream 2, with the remainder of the $11 billion pipeline project financed by British oil and gas major Shell (SHEL.L), Austria’s OMV (OMVV.VI), France’s Engie and Germany’s Uniper (UN01.DE) and Wintershall DEA (WINT.UL).” Source: Reuters article from March 2022.

The Europeans have been trying to keep Russia pumping gas, because especially the Germans are very dependent on that Russian gas. First there were reports that Nord Stream 1 was shut down due to needing repairs back in July and Canada sent the repaired turbine to Germany for that repair.

By August Russia said they couldn’t do the repairs on Nord Stream 1

By September: Russia cuts off gas exports to Europe via Nord Stream indefinitely

Nord Stream 2 wasn’t even operational yet.

“The construction of the pipeline started in 2011, to expand the Nord Stream line and double annual capacity to 110 billion cubic metres (3.9 trillion cubic feet). It was completed in September 2021, but has not yet entered service.” Source: Wikipedia

Russia has a massive gas pipeline project with China, that when completed will reach all the way to Shanghai.

Russia has other lucrative gas and oil deals with numerous countries and is the largest oil exporter in the world and will surely find new markets, while the Europeans are scrambling to find oil and gas to get through this winter. Even the US was importing Russian oil.

So, let’s look at this idea of “Why would Russia blow up their own pipeline?” Well, Russia was putting the screws to the Europeans, especially the Germans, trying to pressure them to back down on supporting Ukraine. The Europeans and US and Canada held their alliance together with supporting Ukraine and escalated the sanctions against Russia. Russia refused to get Nord Stream 1 operational and stopped pumping gas, then issued more threats and even threatened nuclear war, while the Germans were still trying to get Russia to resume shipping gas and scrambling to try to find other sources around the world. Russia exerted its influence with OPEC, so when Biden went to Saudi Arabia, begging for more oil, he was rebuffed.

Russia expanded their market in India by offering huge discounts. Here’s a September 2022 article: Russia is now offering even more discounts to India on oil

Why would the US or Europeans blow up Nord Stream 1, which will devastate western companies, while Gazprom has expanding markets?

Russia had already cut its losses on Nord Stream and can survive without Nord Stream, while the Europeans and US are scrounging around for oil and gas. Of course, in the US the oil and gas shortages are completely due to the Biden administration’s decision to kill the American oil and gas industry with their crazy green energy plan, but still what would the US gain by blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, which Russia had already written off and was using to try to blackmail the Germans to abandon Ukraine? Russia would gain a lot by giving the Germans and Europeans the middle finger by blowing that up and threatening nuclear war. It would show the Western alliance that Russia won’t hesitate to use more force. At the same time the Nord Stream explosions occurred, Putin announced Russia was annexing parts of Ukraine.

I can’t say 100% who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines, but I can say there’s a lot of evidence that Russia had plenty of motivations to give a big middle finger to European leaders and to let them know that if they continue aiding Ukraine, Russia will retaliate forcefully.

So many right-wing Americans blame the US for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while absolving Putin of any blame. I disagreed with US policy decisions in Ukraine during the Obama administration and I disagree with a lot of decisions the Biden administration has made before and since Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year. However, Russia also has escalated this war and Russia is the one threatening nuclear war. Putin is not some victim in this war and Russia had no legitimate right to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Part of why so many Americans rushed to buy into blaming the US for the Nord Stream explosions I blame on the Democrats and their corrupt “Trump/Russia Collusion” smear campaign, which was total bs. That years-long Democrat smear effort led many Americans on the right to just discount Russian disinformation as being a real thing. I blame Trump too, because at times he talked like Putin was a great guy.

And here’s the beauty of the useful idiots in the US carrying water for Russian propaganda- they hate Biden so much that they will make excuses for Putin these days. Tucker Carlson rushed to carry that water a few days ago. Carlson also frequently casts Putin as a good guy. Lots of other ordinary people on social media have too. I watched a prepper video recently by a hard-working, decent American guy, who hates Biden and the left’s radical agenda a lot, which I understand completely. He was quoting RT – Russia Today as his source and I was wondering how Americans could be so willing to buy into Russian propaganda.

Here’s the thing about Putin – he hates America and the West (that includes right-wing Americans too) and he’s still very much the KGB agent. Despite the Democrats calling everything on the right in America “Russian disinformation,” the reality is actual Russian disinformation still exists and unfortunately now right-wingers in America, who used to understand the Russian threat, are walking around citing RT and talking about how Putin isn’t such a bad guy. Our own domestic spin war has led so many Americans to distrust our own government and each other more than they distrust Putin, who wants to destroy the West and rebuild the former Soviet Union. And, I suppose many Americans no longer remember the Cold War or understand that history.

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September 30, 2022 · 3:08 pm

Nord Stream pipeline leaks whodunit

Here’s a link to a CNBC report on the Nord Stream pipelines: Russian pipeline leaks spark climate fears as huge volumes of methane spew into the atmosphere

Here’s a link to a Wall Street Journal article about NATO formally blaming sabotage for the leaks: NATO Formally Blames Sabotage for Nord Stream Pipeline Damage

Here’s a Reuters piece: Putin accuses West of blowing up pipelines as Europe steps up vigilance

Here’s a Washington Examiner piece: Russian ships observed near area of explosions that caused Nord Stream pipeline leaks: Report

Tucker Carlson, the most watched primetime FOX pundit was quick to blame the US for the Nord Stream pipeline leak. He has been against the US and Europeans aiding Ukraine all along. Among right-wing media, this buzz gained traction with the line “Why would the Russians blow up their own pipeline when they could just shut off the gas? This seems like a stupid argument to me. Somehow, these right-wing hot takes that “only this argument makes sense” with no real information seems to be the default right-wing media ecosystem these days.

John Brennan, the former Obama CIA director, rushed to blame Putin.

Here’s the thing, I have no way of knowing for sure, but I will say the argument Tucker Carlson made, rushing to point the finger at the US seems reckless and designed to foment more divides in America and was intended to turn Americans on the right against the US government and against aiding Ukraine. To state that the US or Europeans sabotaging that pipeline is the only possible explanation, with no real evidence, is as reckless as Brennan rushing to blame Putin.

Russia is currently not shipping more gas via that pipeline, but Russia knew there was still gas in that pipeline that will now not be delivered to Europe with winter approaching, is my understanding at this point. I could be wrong. And at the same time Russia was trying to annex parts of Ukraine this week. Russia is not above trying to fuel divides in America over support for Ukraine and certainly not above staging elaborate false flag operations. Russia also is not against sending stronger messages to US and European leaders, that Russia will not hesitate to escalate the economic war.

The gas that was still in the pipeline should be gone by Sunday according to the Reuters article: “Gas will continue to pour out of Nord Stream 1 until Sunday, the Danish energy agency said on Friday, though the leak on Nord Stream 2 is expected to cease on Saturday.” Russia had already shut off the gas – that’s the key part and a short-lived leak, that sent a strong message to the Europeans that Russia won’t be sending more gas, while at the same time blaming the US and the West for the leaks doesn’t seem beyond Putin to me.

I distrust the Biden administration and I certainly distrust John Brennan, but at the same time, Putin has shown himself to be ruthless and there’s a long, long history of Russian false flag operations against the West.

At this point, I’m just waiting to see what happens next.

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September 15, 2022 · 8:04 pm

Beware of “zero”

The first far-left “zero” movement I was aware of was the zero population movement, which gained popularity in the 1970s. My youngest brother bought into that completely. so I heard all I ever want to hear about that topic. When people get on board these far-left movements it becomes like a religion to them and they invariably zealously try to convert the entire world to their cause. Failing that, they try to force cultural and political change to impose their views on everyone.

That zero population movement is still enmeshed in the far-left mishmash of ESG (equity, sustainability and governance) goals, although most people, who aren’t leftists, probably weren’t paying much attention to the far-left movements beyond hearing about the green-deal, laughing at AOC or they remember a bit further back that the Obama administration pushed the green dreams.

In 2013, there was another leftist movement that I remember writing a blog post about – the global zero movement, which set as its goal the elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2030. President Obama supported this movement. In 2015, the UN General Assembly passed the 2030 Agenda and all of these fringe far-left movements, from the green-energy to the other zero movements, to the gender movements became neatly packed into the ESG framework that’s going to build the highway to Net Zero utopia.

With the green-energy transformation, the green movement now has Net Zero. Here’s an explanation of the term net zero from the University of Oxford (https://netzeroclimate.org/what-is-net-zero/):

“Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere.” 

“The term net zero is important because – for CO2 at least – this is the state at which global warming stops. The Paris Agreement underlines the need for net zero. It requires states to ‘achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century’.” 

While the Biden administration flunkies keep yammering on about electric cars, the ESG goals include forcing people to completely change how they live – from what they eat, how much they eat, what temperature they keep their homes, how much they travel, how they travel, and it’s about forcing people to change what they think or be forced into compliance – to reach that magical Net Zero.

Where we’re headed is a Zero Freedom world, as the “experts” formulate what’s the perfect sustainable balance with their zero movements. If you think the zero population growth and the global zero movement to eliminate nuclear weapons by 2030 (that magical 2030 UN Agenda date again) disappeared, I think you’re wrong. With the war in Ukraine, back in July, Steven Pinker, a prominent Harvard scholar, was tweeting that Europe should unilaterally eliminate it’s nuclear arsenal. Here’s a quote from a Washington Examiner article:

“Those suggesting major changes to NATO nuclear deterrence might first want to consider Russian nuclear strategy.”

“Former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Jonathan Granoff of the anti-nuclear weapons Global Security Institute fail this test. Seeking a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine, Arias and Granoff call for NATO’s preparation to withdraw “all U.S. nuclear warheads from Europe and Turkey, preliminary to negotiations [over the war in Ukraine]. Withdrawal would be carried out once peace terms are agreed between Ukraine and Russia.” Chiming in on Monday, Harvard scholar Steven Pinker suggests that this is a “bold idea” because nuclear weapons are “militarily useless, ineffective deterrents … [and] recklessly dangerous.”

Back in July, you might also remember President Biden stating that there was zero inflation…

Zero holds some mystical power among the left. Even with that zero population growth movement, it wasn’t just about trying to control the number of births. There were people in that movement wanting to have some controls on death too, which opens up a whole other kettle of fish.

All of these leftist “zero” movements involve allowing a group of experts/central planners to drain the lifeblood out of personal choice. If I hear any liberals mentioning “zero,” I cringe and know they’re going to be proposing another radical program that makes absolutely zero sense. My ears perk up, though, because zero with them also means they want to nullify all of our personal liberty and leave us with zero power whatsoever.

Definitely, beware of “zero.”

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