Got 1,500 words done on the novel last night – now closing in on 32,000 words. My big problem, now, is that I’m liking the sidekick and his romantic interest best of all the characters.
Pakistan may extend naval facilities to China. Pakistan would do this because they don’t trust us (we don’t trust them, either – and why we’re still giving them foreign aid is really beyond me; but that’s for another time) and because both Pakistan and China wish to thwart Indian power. This is real world stuff, folks – and the Chinese navy having a base on the Indian ocean would complicate a lot of things for us and for India. And this is why I’ve never gone on the warpath against Putin’s Russia. First off, because it is absurd – Russia is no threat to the United States. Secondly, because we might find Russia a friend in time of need…like if we ever had to tangle with China. Right now, China is moving into the South China Sea; it is making friends with Russia, Pakistan and Iran; it is putting huge resources into eastern Africa; it is refusing to make any real effort to curb North Korea. In short, China is making the military, diplomatic and economic moves it would have to make to prepare for war with the United States. This doesn’t mean they’ll start one with us, but it does mean they are getting ready for one…and we’d better get ready, too. And that means strengthening our relations with India, Japan…and Russia.
Mueller needs to quit – and I agree. I just want an end to this whole Trump-Russia farce. There’s nothing there. Bring me some stand-up-in-court evidence, or let it go.
It is too late to save the day in Afghanistan? I might be. I’m not sure if I’m on board with a renewed US effort…but its either clear out right away, or go full blast. One or the other.
Turns out, even if there is such a thing as “hate speech” it is protected under the Constitution. This is a bit of amazingly good news – because, remember, to some on the left, merely not saying leftist things is “hate speech”.
Democrats are upset that the GOP isn’t letting them in on the ObamaCare replacement details. I’ll pause while all of you cry them a river.
Some bad news for the Global Warming alarmists. I think for most of us, this is getting to be a bore…and now that Trump doesn’t seem interested in providing massive government funding, it is becoming a bit of a non-issue. Warming or cooling or staying the same – we and the rest of life on Earth will adapt. If life can survive massive meteor strikes, it can survive SUVs.
Not too worried about those Russian threats about US planes in Syria – the Russian air force probably doesn’t want to tangle with the USAF.
Blogs For Victory 
Looks like the Russians must have hacked the George and N.Carolina special elections. Too funny.
So I just saw head clown Chuck U. Schumer on the Senate floor (mute of course due to the fact that his voice and opinions bring out a homicidal rage in me) speaking to the health care legislation and standing in front of a placard with big letters that spell out “MEAN”. Evidently that is the depth of his critique leveled against the proposed legislation and a good example of the depths to which our national discourse has sunk. No objective analysis needed, no specific critique of any particular clauses or process. All the progressive base needs to know is that the GOP is mean and hateful, and Schumer is intellectually suited to lead that charge. Well done Chuck.
Chuck U. is not the only clown in this car.
Remember back a few months ago when Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s name was touted as a possible VP pick for Hillary? Clearly The Looper is excited about getting so close to the top of that oh-so-impressive Dem field of hopefuls, as he seems to be angling for more recognition from his peers. It seemed at the time that what disqualified him was that he was not mean enough and had not made enough stupid public comments, clearing the way for Tim Kaine, who was so admirably qualified in those areas.
So now The Looper is chiming in. This short excerpt from a short article has several elements. There is the “See how I have learned what buzzwords I need to be taken seriously by the Left”, there is the “YCMTSU” aspect of complaining about one party doing the work on a health care bill, and there is the telegraphing of intent to become a bigger name in the Dem party, obviously with enough support from the party to get him onscreen with Anderson Cooper.
Hickenlooper Becomes Leading Voice Against GOP Health Care Bill
DENVER (CBS4)– Gov. John Hickenlooper is calling the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act “cold hearted and disrespectful,” and on Monday he blasted Senate Republicans for crafting a new health care bill in secrecy.
“To think that one party can make this work is crazy,” Hickenlooper told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/06/19/hickenlooper-gop-health-care-bill/
Clearly the Looper must have been hiding under a rock back in 2010 when the Dems were engaged in back room deals on ObamaCare and told Republicans, “we don’t want your input, and we don’t need your votes.”
Hey, the Looper has his Lefty cred, which means he shamelessly rewrites history as he goes along.
His rise to prominence in the DNC would be a gift to the Right. He is an idiot. He is mumbler, swallows half his words though I think he has had therapy because is a little better now, and when he was running for reelection he didn’t even try to run on a single thing he could claim he had done. He ran as Howdy Doody. Literally, or as close to it as doesn’t matter. He ran an ad showing him jumping out of an airplane, strapped to a professional skydiver. He ran an ad showing him wearing a tiny straw hat, riding a grocery store coin-operated pony. No message, just him acting goofy. His entire campaign, such as it was, was “Aww, ain’t I cute?”
While he was doing this, his Republican opponent ran a typically, predictably, lousy campaign and the Dem machine slimed him and smeared him, but the Looper stayed above the fray, merely being darling and non-threatening.
I think that Trump and the GOP have the upper hand, here – Democrats, of course, did their bill in secret and with no GOP input, but also Trump is pointing out that if they crafted the perfect health care bill, they’d still get no Democrat votes because Democrats are wedded to ObamaCare…they don’t dare abandon it because the far left insists they stick with it…just like the far left will insist they stick to #Resist even as it drives them over the electoral cliff.
Democrats were all-in for GA06…they threw everything they had at it, and Trump got himself involved in the race. Everyone knows it was a referendum on Trump, and Trump won it…now, GOPers who are squishy are going to have to re-think things and I believe they’ll come around to enacting Trump’s agenda. Democrats would like to go a different route, but their base is insisting that the reason they lost is that they didn’t go shriekingly left enough…
From the twitter feed of Sally Kohn:
Sally Kohn ✔ @sallykohn
Best thing that could come out of the #GA06 results is for Democratic Party to finally give up its self-destructive obsession with centrism
7:19 PM – 20 Jun 2017
Absolutely, time to give up on compromise, common sense, and all those bigoted people who live in “fly over” country. Time for the Democrats to take off the moderate mask and reveal their true fascist selves. Good thinking Sally
As long as it is “Trump vs Them”, Trump is going to win. Democrats can beat him – but they’d have to come up with some sort of policy on border security and economic policy which appeals to voters who once were (until very recently) Democrat voters.
Think about this – while our Democrats are talking up Russia and global warming, Trump is talking about jobs, income, schools, health care…maybe he’s talking nonsense about them, but he’s talking about them. This is what people want to hear about…as long as Trump has the field to himself on issues that the people care about, there’s no way that he’ll be defeated.
I see the Left’s passion for redefinition of terms has not abated with time. Why should it—it has served them so well, given the gullibility of their base.
So, having done pretty well with calling one of the most illiberal political systems imaginable “Liberal” and following that with some success in calling this regressive system “PROgressive” they have decided to try to convince people that their highly divisive radically close to the farthest reaches of the Leftist spectrum politics are really “centric”.
I suppose if your “center” is based on Marx, you can technically call your system “centrism” but in the real world? Not hardly.
WOW
MSNBC Gives Conservative Radio Host Hugh Hewitt a Show
I have always liked Hugh
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/msnbc-gives-conservative-radio-host-hugh-hewitt-a-show-1015923
8 A.M. on Saturday, ET, is not exactly prime time viewing, but it’s a start, and if he picks up some viewers across the country where he comes on at a decent hour it might send the message that people would rather hear sanity than lunacy, decency rather than vile toxic spewing, and some ideas that are actually ideas and not just blindly regurgitated radical talking points.
There have been some times I thought Hugh to be a little squishy, and a time or two when he was just obdurately locked into something and would not allow even a hint of something that MIGHT have been disagreement creep in. Example: Me being a linear thinker and obdurate in my own way, I thought it important back in 2008 to discuss the fact that a Hawaiian Certificate of Live Birth is not a birth certificate, was in fact invented to provide proof of Hawaiian residency for people BORN OUT OF THE STATE, and has very different criteria for issuance than those for a real birth certificate. This was just something I found important and also interesting, and when I called his show to suggest talking about it he rudely cut me off and snapped “Obama was born in Hawaii and that’s all there is to it!” and hung up on me. I was not questioning the claim of being born in Hawaii and didn’t even get close to that, I just thought it fascinating that a document designed for one purpose was being used to prove something diametrically opposite from its original intent. I still think it’s interesting. The whole subject of when and why the decision was made to issue a completely new document which by its creation could mean one of two completely opposite things, instead of merely certifying an actual copy of an original birth certificate, has always seemed to me to be worth looking at, and I’ve never heard of anyone thinking so, except me. I thought the default snapping to a conclusion that I was challenging Obama’s birthplace to be beneath Hugh but this was evidently a hot button for him.
But overall I like Hewitt and think he is a clear thinker. He has a tendency to make dogmatic pronouncements (“this is constitutional”) without explaining why he thinks so, and maybe a different format will allow him to go into detail about some of his opinions. He’s smart and can be very funny, and I think he is a great addition to MSNBC if they are suddenly trying to be seen as a serious news station.
I think what I like most about Trump is his ability to cause the left to lose their collective minds.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but a visual image I have is of Trump pretending to throw a ball and then watching the frantic Left go howling off after this nonexistent ball, baying like hounds on a hot scent and spurring each other’s hysteria with “clues” about what the “ball” is and where to look for it. (And how finding it will magically make Hillary president!)
And while they are occupying themselves with this silliness, and posting breathless accounts of their efforts on their various media, Trump is quietly going about the business of being the CEO of the United States.